Archive for February, 2007

Has Starbucks lost its ’soul’?

| 26/02/2007 | 0 Comments
Has Starbucks lost its ’soul’?

Automatic espresso machines and streamlined store designs are symptoms of the furious growth to 13,000 stores at Starbucks Corp. – and, it seems, the loss of some cafe magic. Or so considers Chairman Howard Schultz in a memo to executives posted on starbucksgossip.com last week.

The company has confirmed the authenticity of the memo, Nichola Groom reports, with some suggestion from a spokeswoman that it’s not being viewed as idle musings internally.

Schultz writes that the streamlined stores “no longer have the soul of the past and reflect a chain of stores vs. the warm feeling of a neighborhood store… In fact, I am not sure people today even know we are roasting coffee.”

What do you think? Has Starbucks lost its ’soul’?

More tapes in Libby trial

| 12/02/2007 | 0 Comments
More tapes in Libby trial
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More tapes were played Monday in the perjury case against former vice presidential aide Lewis “Scooter” Libby.

Jurors heard Washington Post Bob Woodward’s interview with former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, who told him CIA analyst Valerie Plame was married to Joseph Wilson, the former ambassador who accused the White House of inflating fears of Iraq’s nuclear ambitions. (Read more from Woodward, columnist Robert Novak testimony)

Last week, NBC’s Tim Russert said he did not discuss the CIA operative with Libby in July 2003, offering an account sharply at odds with Libby’s recorded testimony heard earlier by the jury. (Read more from Russert testimony here)

Libby maintains that he first heard about Plame from Russert on July 10, 2003. Listen to Libby describe his conversation with Russert

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