Whenever the world trade talks begin to seem like a coma-inducing bore-a-thon, I am jolted back to consciousness by the throat-stripping smell of rubbish; miles of rotting rubbish. A few years ago I found Adelina - a skinny little scrap of an eight-year-old - living in a rubbish dump, where this stench made her eyes water all the time. It is this smell - and her sore, salty eyes - that hung over the corpse of the Doha trade talks this week.
Just outside the Peruvian capital of Lima, there is a groaning valley of trash, and, inside it, hordes of children try to stay alive. Adelina
Read moreMaria Isabel Vasquez Jimenez died in May after suffering a heat stroke while pruning grape vines at the San Joaquin County vineyard in California. Jimenez was a seventeen-year-old undocumented worker who had migrated from Oaxaca, Mexico to work in the United States. She was working in the fields with her fiancé and was pregnant at the time of her death. As an undocumented worker, Jimenez's death points to the often severe realities faced by non-status agricultural workers in the US.
Since the signing of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), migration from Mexico to the
Read moreDean Cycon says he received the E-mail early last spring.
It was from the committee coordinating the commencement- Read more
NEW YORK (Reuters) - One coffee drinker's bad news is another coffee drinker's good news, it seems.
Financial woes at Starbucks Corp., which is planning to close 600 underperforming U.S. stores, is evoking glee and little sympathy from aficionados who say they resent the coffee shop giant and favor small independent cafes.
"I'm so happy. I'm so not a Starbucks person," said Melinda Vigliotti, sipping iced coffee at the Irving Farm Coffee House in New York. "I believe in supporting small businesses. Starbucks, bye-bye."
"Amen," chimed in Keith DiLauro, a local
Read moreReach out!
Hey there! Here we are with our second edition of the Coop Coffees newsletter. Thank you so much for all the warm responses we got about the first issue. Here's hoping we keep the ball rolling! If Read more
That means any of the 10 Starbucks locations in Salinas could be on the chopping block.
"I didn't like hearing it at all," said Bobby Burnett, a patron of the Seattle-based coffee giant for seven years. "There is a difference between most locations."
Burnett favors the Starbucks on South Main Street, where the former motion picture set painter has developed a rapport with the Read more
This week the Seattle-based coffee kahuna announced it is closing 600 of its 6,800 US stores and laying off more than 12,000 employees, or "partners" in the company's New Age-y jargon. The bad news is the culmination of a long, downward spiral. During the past year, the stock has dropped nearly 50 percent, as the allure of high beverage prices and Italianate jargon - what does "venti" mean, anyway? - fades away, along with Americans' discretionary income.
Starbucks had a unique selling Read more
Joseph Hooks and Dorothy Baker, in a lawsuit filed June 13, say that they were harassed by the company's director of compliance and equal opportunity, Craig Sawyer.
Starbucks denies the claims.
Hooks reported to Sawyer from January 2007 until May 2007. According to court documents, Sawyer made anti-gay remarks and references to Hooks during this time and repeatedly pressured him to apply for positions elsewhere in the company.
In April of that year, Sawyer Read more
And so I did last week, and tho' it was refreshing and delicious, I had the same nagging thought I have every time I go there--"Why oh why are there no recycling bins at Starbucks???"
Wistfully I looked at the display of Ethos Water bottles and realized if I bought and drank Read more
How will Mang Gimo, a struggling, small producer of organically grown rice and other native products, survive with the above factors conniving against him? Why should Aling Nena and her women's group continue making sweetened kaong and nata de coco when they have no access Read more
for Protest Starbucks