Perky Cups Bikini Ad Protected By First Amendment

Officials said a bikini and the First Amendment provide enough coverage for a model advertising a suburban Denver coffee shop called Perky Cups.

Aurora City Council member Molly Markert called the picture on the 10-by-20-foot banner “degrading to women,” but she says it’s legal. Markert said she had city employees measure the banner, and it conforms with city size restrictions.

Robert Rogers, a city attorney, said the content is protected by the First Amendment.

Perky Cups owner Jason Bernal said people have come into the shop to complain, but one stayed to buy a burrito and coffee.

He said the sign has been great for business but he’s not sure how long he’ll leave it because of the complaints.

He said he wants to be a good neighbor.

Woman Charged In Meter Maid Coffee Attack

A Rhode Island woman pleaded not guilty in Massachusetts to charges she threw a hot cup of coffee on a parking enforcement officer.

Krystle Charley was arraigned Wednesday in Brookline District Court on charges including assault and battery with a dangerous weapon.

Police said the 23-year-old resident of North Smithfield, R.I., tossed her coffee at 64-year-old Claire MacPherson in Brookline as MacPherson was writing out a $25 ticket for an expired meter on Tuesday. MacPherson was not hurt.

Charley’s friend, Vicky Curry, who witnessed the tossing, said it was MacPherson who was yelling at Charley.

Charley was released on personal recognizance and ordered to return to court in April.

It was unclear if she had hired an attorney.

Police Nab Naked Dog Killer

 A man allegedly killed a dog, ran naked through a tennis club and poured hot coffee on his head before he was finally arrested, Orange County, California sheriff’s deputies said.

Bayron Reyes Lopez, 26, of San Clemente, was hospitalized after being captured at the tennis club where he worked as a maintenance man, sheriff’s spokesman Jim Amormino said.

Deputies got the first call about the man at 4:30 a.m. Wednesday when there were reports of a loud radio at his apartment. Amormino said deputies believe he jumped from a third-story window to get away, and was unhurt.

Just after 6 a.m. Judy Donnelley reportedly called to say a “strange” man had approached her, and when her 5-year-old mini schnauzer named Coco intervened, the man allegedly killed the dog, hitting, choking and “repeatedly beating her on asphalt in front of me.”

“She saved my life,” Donnelley told KCAL-TV. “I don’t know how to thank her.” She put flowers on the street where her dog died.

Minutes later, other callers reported a naked man running through the Rancho San Clemente Tennis Club and pouring hot coffee on his head. That’s where deputies caught up with him, Amormino said.

He was initially hospitalized but “will be, at the least, booked for cruelty to animals,” Amormino said.

He was being tested to determine if he was under the influence of any drugs or narcotics, Amormino added, so other charges were also possible.

Stabbed Man Calmly Orders Coffee

A 52-year-old man complained only about the cold weather before walking into a diner with a five-inch knife sticking out of his chest.

The unnamed man called a Warren, Michigan 911 operator on Sunday night to ask that an ambulance be sent to Bray’s, an eatery in neighboring Hazel Park. He said he had been stabbed during a robbery attempt half a mile away, then walked to the restaurant and called 911 from a pay phone.

On a recording of the call, the man gives a vague description of his attacker before saying, “I’m gonna sit down at Bray’s ’cause they got a chair and it’s cold out here.”

Restaurant employee George Mirdita told The Detroit News the man calmly ordered coffee.

Police said Tuesday that the man is recovering.

Brazilian Coffee Police Fight Coffee Fraud

Brazil’s coffee industry is engaged in a tireless battle against rogue roasters who cut corners and costs by bulking up their products with corn, soy or even wood, the ABIC industry association says.

The tainted products have not been known to cause health problems in the consumers who drink them, usually unknowingly, but the industry takes a hard line against the fraudulent practice to protect the beverage’s image.

The joint initiative known as the Seal of Purity is run by the Brazilian Coffee Industry Association (ABIC) and involves laboratory testing of coffee picked at random from supermarket shelves. The seal was launched 20 years ago.

“The most common thing is to find wood from the (coffee) tree and shells from the beans but you can also find corn or caramel, which is much cheaper than coffee,” said Almir Jose da Silva, ABIC’s chairman.

Most of Brazil’s exported coffee is shipped as raw beans, confining this problem to products sold at home. Silva said the problem was still small given the huge amount of coffee sold in Brazil, the world’s No. 1 coffee grower and No. 2 consumer.

Brazilian law prohibits the sale of coffee with more than 1 percent impurities, and ABIC has taken upon itself to weed out producers who flout the rules. It reports sub-standard products to the public prosecutor and health authorities.

“Our forecast for 2010 is to carry out more than 3,000 collections” to test, Silva said. ABIC members whose coffee is consistently free of impurities are allowed to use the Seal of Purity label on their packaging.

Do Your Coffee Grounds Look Into Your Future?

Coffee drinkers at a popular Israeli chain can have their fortunes told for free if they buy a cup of the brew that leaves grounds at the bottom.

“A surprise is waiting for you when you finish your coffee,” say waitresses at branches of Ilan’s Coffee House in Tel Aviv, where marketing manager Michal Steg has hired a “gypsy” soothsayer to teach staff how to interpret the residue.

The free service is meant to boost sales in Israel’s highly competitive coffee market.

Naked Cooking Leads To Indency Charge

A Springfield, Virginia man is facing an indecent exposure charge after a passerby spotted the man naked in his kitchen and reported it to police.

Eric Williamson, 29, is a commercial diver who grew up in Hawaii and rents home with several co-workers. Williamson said his roommates were not home and he walked into the kitchen to make coffee about 5:30 a.m.

“Yes, I wasn’t wearing any clothes but I was alone, in my own home and just got out of bed. It was dark and I had no idea anyone was outside looking in at me,” Williamson said.

The complaint came from an unidentified woman who was walking with a 7-year-old boy. A Fairfax County Police spokesman said officers arrested Williamson for indecent exposure because they believe he wanted to be seen naked by the public.

Officer Bud Walker said officers also consulted the Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office and they were given the green light to proceed with the charge.

Williamson, who is father of a 5-year old girl, said he feels like the victim.

“I am a loving dad. Any of my friends and anyone knows that and there is not a chance on this planet I would ever, ever, ever do anything like that to a kid,” he said.

Williamson is meeting with a lawyer to fight the charge and may attempt to seek damages from Fairfax County Police. If convicted on the misdemeanor charge, he would face up to one year in jail and a $2,000 fine.

Starbucks Rolls Out Via Instant Coffee Nationwide

The company that added “venti” and “frappuccino” to American vocabularies is making a push throughout North America to convince connoisseurs to sample what many see as a down-market drink — instant coffee.

Nearly eight months after Starbucks Corp. began selling its Via instant coffee in Seattle and Chicago, the company will begin offering the dissolvable drink to the rest of the country and in its Canadian stores.

Backed by the company’s first-ever television ads, along with large-scale distribution to about 1,500 sites outside its stores, the Via launch shows just how determined Starbucks is to own a stake in the $21 billion worldwide instant coffee market.

“Based on the success we’ve had, we feel strongly that we’re sitting on a very big opportunity,” said Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz said during a conference call with journalists. “What’s going to sell Via at the end of the day is that (it) delivers in the cup. Most people will not be able to tell the difference.”

While instant coffee is pervasive throughout Europe — accounting for as much as 80 percent of coffee sales in the U.K. — the insta-brews haven’t won over American taste buds, in large part because of their image as an inferior knock-off of drip-brewed beverages.

But it’s that perception that Starbucks executives are trying to change. They hope the skinny cylindrical 3-packs ($2.95) and 12-packs ($9.95) of coffee that dissolve in water will eventually be as prevalent on store shelves as its packaged coffee is now.

The coffee is available in Colombia and Italian Roast flavors, and more varieties are expected to be introduced in the future.

St. Louis Coffee Spill Costs Campus $200,000

St. Louis is perking up with jokes about the $200,000 cup of coffee. But officials at a college and its insurance company aren’t laughing.

St. Louis Community College at Forest Park must foot the bill after a coffee maker rigged to a faucet and left on in a photo lab led to a ruptured water line in July. About 10,000 gallons of water spilled down four floors, damaging ceilings, walls, computers and files.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports the college’s Board of Trustees will be asked to approve cleanup costs this week, including a $143,494 contract with a disaster-recovery company.

School officials hope the campus will be out only the $25,000 insurance deductible plus another $54,000 for miscellaneous expenses, including overtime costs.

Southwest Flight Grounded By Coffee Maker

The electrical smell that caused a Southwest Airlines Co flight to make an unexpected landing was caused by a coffee maker in the back of the aircraft, a company spokesman said.

The coffee maker was in the back galley of the Boeing 737 plane. The aircraft was examined and put back into service, said Southwest spokesman Chris Mainz.

“Anything that might have touched the burner might have caused the electrical smell,” Mainz said. He added that the problem was “fairly unusual,” although it was not the first time it has happened.

Flight 693 bound for Orlando, Florida, departed from Bradley International Airport in Connecticut at 7:21 a.m. EDT Sunday (12:21 p.m. British time). The plane, which held 131 passengers and 5 crew members, landed at Long Island Islip MacArthur Airport shortly before 8 a.m.