Report: Costco Now Biggest Organic Grocer, Not Whole Foods

If you were taking odds on which grocer sold the most organic goods, Whole Foods would seem like the smart money bet. You would also lose your money. According to financial analysts cited in a Seattle Times article, Costco's organic sales are outpacing "Whole Paycheck's." The story behind the news shows up deep in the article: "The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) says that demand for organic foodstuffs is growing at double-digit rates."

Les Paul's "Black Beauty" Guitar on Auction Block

Les Paul's "Black Beauty"
(Image: Tina Feinberg/The New York Times)

The world of guitar players and instrument makers has its own legacy, understandings, and concepts of value. From that perspective, the guitar community offers a refreshing change of pace from algorithm proselytizers' relentless triumphalism.

The upcoming auction of Les Paul's "Black Beauty" guitar is a case in point. You don't have to know the nuances of musical instruments to appreciate this as an important moment in our shared musical journey. Paul's invention irrevocably, and positively, changed the course of popular music.

The auction and the background of "Black Beauty's" creation is wonderful to read. I won't spoil it here;  just enjoy the linked article. The original report comes from The New York Times; the Seattle Times picked it up and that's where I found the story.

Fumiko Hayashida, Face of WWII Japanese-American Internment -- RIP

Nearly sixty-three years ago, President Franklin D Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066. That document condemned over 100,000 Japanese-American citizens to internment camps during World War II. The shameful episode remains a dark moment in our nation's history, and one the "rule of law" crowd rarely trots out in defense of its perspective.

Fumiko Hayashima, Dec. 1941
Enroute to Internment Camp
(Image: idahoptv.org,
Original from Seattle Post-Intelliegcer)

The literal and figurative face of the internment period was Fumiko Hayashida. The Washington state resident and her young child were photographed on their way to their incarceration odyssey, which included terms in Washington State, California, and Idaho. More than a half-century later, she testified before Congress about her experiences. Ms. Haysahida recently passed away in Seattle at age 103, according to a story in the Los Angeles Times and reprinted in the Seattle Times.

"I realized," she said during her House testimony, "that I now had the face of the enemy." That ironic observation continues to resonate today, as the country faces a combination of nativist sentiment and suspicion that Arab-American citizens might harbor hostile intent toward the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave.

FBI Reluctant to Run Background Checks on Prospective Washington State Pot Employees

Pot
(Image: dea.gov)

Do you wonder who the people are who own and operate legit marijuana stores? Where does one find these fine citizens? I don't suppose GE's once-vaunted management program is one's first stop here. The top MBA programs? Wall Street? (Well, maybe there.)

I don't have the answer. However, in Colorado and in Washington State, prospective pot store employees and management wannabes are literally lining up for the opportunity to sell legal Mary Jane. One issue that quickly emerges is a background check.

According to a story in today's Seattle Times, the FBI ran such checks during Colorado's inaugural run for the weeds. However, the Feds are apparently reluctant to repeat the procedure in Washington State. While no official reason or confirmation has been issued from the J. Edgar Hoover Building, some have speculated the Feebies are in a legal bind.

You see, pot remains illegal in most states. That may be a complication for a federal law enforcement agency lacking legal or congressional mandate on the issue. For the time being, a propos of the law, the FBI appears to taking the "high" road.

Washington State Swamped With Pot Growing License Applications

Image: justice.gov

While Wall Street analysts and ambitious politicians grasp at nearly any job creation straw, there's one industry that can't keep up with demand. Pot growing entrepreneurs have inundated Washington State with applications to grow weed. The Pacific Northwest state recently legalized the regulated cultivation and sale of pot. According to an article in today's Seattle Times, Washington's Liquor Control Board (LCB) had initially assumed a cap of two million square feet would be sufficient for the state's marijuana planters. The LCB misjudged demand by approximately thirty-three million square feet. Oops.

In fairness, the Seattle Times story noted that the Obama Administration influenced Washington State's planning. Essentially, the Feds didn't want extensive fields of pot plants, as DC bureaucrats didn't want Washington State to export its product to adjacent states where weed remains illegal.

Amazon, USPS Sign Sunday Delivery Deal

The Amazon-friendly Obama Administration has just concluded another Amazon-friendly deal with the secretive tech company. According to a story in today's Seattle Times, the PO and Jeff Bezos' firm will begin Sunday deliveries in time for the Christmas shopping season. The arrangement is currently limited to the New York and Los Angeles metropolitan areas, the two leading retail markets in the United States.

The deal gives Amazon a significant commercial advantage, in that it can use the USPS infrastructure and staff to deliver goods. The extra available delivery day is also another arrow in Amazon's competitive quiver.

How taxpayers benefit from this agreement was not exactly spelled out, although Amazon will pay for the privilege of going postal. It's public knowledge that the USPS is desperate for money. Amazon has the cash, and the clout with the Obama Administration, to make a deal. According to the Seattle Times story, any firm could have negotiated with the Postal Service for a Sunday gig. However, USPS officials acknowledged only Amazon pursued a deal. One wonders why.

Amazon's Chattanooga, TN facility,
cited by President Obama as an example of
"middle-class" job creation

Of course, as with all things Amazon, the contract is under seal. Inquiring minds would like to know why a federal contract not connected to national security should be a closely guarded secret.

This is Amazon's second federal contract coup this year. Earlier in 2013, the Seattle-based enterprise signed a contract to provide the CIA with cloud-based data systems and management.

Amazon v. IBM: The Redacted Lawsuit Over CIA Contract Publicly Available

When IBM recently persuaded the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office (GAO) to review the CIA's award of a $600 million cloud computing contract to Amazon, the corporate steam from Jeff Bezos' world headquarters could be felt even in insular Washington, D.C. Amazon did not take the GAO's review of the contract lying down. Amazon legal counsel filed suit against the United States government, of which the GAO is a part, protesting the contract review.

The court papers Amazon filed were released today; a story about Amazon's month-old, hush-hush legal snit appeared in today's Seattle Times.

The most delicious part of the story involved Amazon's assertion that IBM was essentially unworthy of winning any crumb from the CIA data management pie. Why? The sore losers from Seattle claimed that Big Blue should not be permitted to enjoy "the undeserved windfall opportunity to make its otherwise uncompetitive, materially deficient proposal competitive now that it has AWS' price and ratings in hand."

It is ironic that Amazon, which is notoriously secretive and leverages tremendous competitive advantages from its data mining and collection efforts, should complain about another firm's "early information" and ability to undercut its competitor. Mr. Bezos does not apparently like that feeling at all. Don't be surprised if there's some quiet outreach from Seattle to sympathetic ears in the Amazon-friendly Obama Administration.

Santa: The Sweetness and the Business

I have a card from my childhood called "Santa and Me." The inside includes a faded photo of yours truly sitting with a very convincing looking Santa Claus. I was young enough in those days to believe in Santa, and to enjoy all the trimmings that came with such innocence. I didn't give a thought to what Santa did outside of Christmas season.

Santa Claus stamps
(photo: USPS)

Kids still like Santa, if trips to the local shopping malls and my town's local Santa parade are any indication. Still, I had imagined that making a living as a man in a red suit and white whiskers was a challenging proposition.

I'm reconsidering that notion, as a consequence of an article about the Santa business originally published in the Long Beach (CA) Press-Telegram and picked up in The Seattle Times' online edition. According to the piece, there's money in the Santa schtick. Some rack up to $30,000 for seven weeks of essentially non-stop work. Many of them are retirees looking for something more satisfying and more lucrative that being box store Ho-Ho-Hos.

Some professional Santas make it into something called the International Santa Claus Hall of Fame. There's even an International University of Santa Claus, run by someone called "Santa Tim". (Full disclosure: I am not Santa Tim.) Somehow, I don't think the Santa of my youth went for a baccaulaureate degree in Santa studies. He was probably an older, portly man trying to make a few bucks in a small town, and he enjoyed making children smile. It worked for me, and I have the photo to prove it. And I still cherish the card, and the memory of a sweet, unassuming time.

Boeing Delivers First New Jet to Iraq Since Ronald Reagan's First Term

Remember Iraq? The country that once dominated American news broadcasts has slowly receded into a less prominent place in our media-addled awareness. One of President Obama's singular achievements -- and one that has gone virtually unnoticed -- has been his successful extrication of American and allied forces from the Middle Eastern country.

Boeing 777-200LR
(photo: cnet.com)

However, the march of American commerce into the country of the late Saddam Hussein continues. According to an Associated Press story published in the Seattle Times, Boeing has recently delivered a new 777-200LR to Iraqi Airlines, possibly in response to the Baghdad firm's purchase of two Airbus planes. The story notes that the Boeing plane had been earmarked for another, unstated buyer. Alas, there were "complications" that led to the sudden availability of the equipment to the eager Iraqis.

The sale is the first aviation transaction since 1982. American interests have salivated over the prospects of Iraqi business before, during, and since that time. Apparently, much of today's commercial activity is taking place in the relatively safe Kurdish zone. Oil, which supposedly was going to pay for the American invasion, did not really materialize until well after David Petraeus' troop "surge" was successfully conducted. Sounds as if Iraq is open for business again, even to its former occupiers.

City of Stairs

View of Lake Washington, Seattle
from the top of a public stairway
(photo: Seattle Times)

My two recent visits to Seattle wisened me to one of the Emerald City's enduring truths: it's hilly. If you're not in Seattle-game shape, an unprepared tourist can quickly get tired and sore. It's best to be prepared for a fair amount of climbing.

If you're going to indulge in this form of soft, urban exercise, a guidebook can be your best friend. In that case, consider obtaining Seattle Stairway Walks: An Up-and-Down Guide to City Neighborhoods. The writers, refugees from LA, provide interesting perspectives on one of America's loveliest cities. What I like best in the book's approach is its use of stairways as a metaphor for the soul of a city.

If you're curious, the Seattle Times ran a feature piece on the authors and their valentine to Seattle's stairways.

Strong Drink Recipes for Election Day

If the presidential campaign has driven you to drink, consider having a speciality cocktail created with Election Day in mind.

John Lee Hooker cocktail
(photo from The Seattle Times)

The Seattle Times interviewed a number of local mixologists and got the goods on strong adult beverages suitable for "Decision Day," as TV likes to call the first Tuesday in November. My favorite is the "John Lee Hooker cocktail," mostly because I like his music. "The drink is tinted red," according to the article.

If you're a political animal -- donkey or elephant -- tonight's results are likely to go down easier with a drink. If you're not, you might want something strong and adult to get through the parade of congrats, concessions, and recounts.

Jennifer 8. Lee vs Full Disclosure

Earlier this week, digital publishing evangelist Jennifer 8. Lee had an opinion piece published in The Seattle Times. The article appeared just prior to the Frankfurt Book Fair, an event where small, medium, and big-league international publishing insiders buy, sell, or trade assets as well as gain (hopefully) useful information. Lee's piece doesn't say anything new or illuminating about the publishing biz. However, the article's appearance, and what it does not say, are curious. Let me elaborate.

Seattle is home base for Amazon, far and away the most disruptive force in publishing's often insular world. What goes uncited in Lee's piece is her enterprise's connection to Amazon, even though the Seattle-based firm is mentioned twice in the story.

Lee co-founded and runs a self-defined "literary studio" called Plympton. Its vision, according to Plympton's website, is to reinvent "how people experience literature by combining serialized fiction and digital platforms." A little over a month ago, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos launched a line of serialized fiction books that would appear on -- drumroll, please -- Kindle gadgets. Three of the ten titles were from Plympton's stable of assets. Supposedly, according to a Boston Globe story, Plympton and Amazon inked the deal 24 hours before Bezos announced it before a very high-profile audience in Santa Monica. Some have strongly doubted the public version of this story, specifically noting that Amazon's profound lust for secrecy and control would have ruled out any initiative that hadn't been thoroughly calculated for intention and impact.

Lee's Seattle Times opinion piece doesn't mention the Amazon-Plympton dots, never mind bother to connect them. This disingenuous stance, from a former New York Times technology writer, makes me wary of the writer's intention. Just what was the point of this piece? Who was its target? (C'mon, you know in your heart it wasn't the subscribers of The Seattle Times.) According to the thumbnail bio at the end of the piece, she "splits her time between Boston, San Francisco and New York." Hmmm.....no second home in The Emerald City.

There are many unanswered questions in the publishing world. These are just a few of them.

Fraud Rap Nails WaMu Mortgage Banker

When I visited Seattle earlier this year, I walked past Washington Mutual's former headquarters. If I had stopped ten people on the street that day, and asked them about WaMu, they might have suspected I was inquiring about an exotic pharmaceutical substance.

WaMu's ad campaign slogan, circa 2008

Ah, how quickly we forget the good old days of mortgage fraud, of which Washington Mutual was a major player. Just to refresh your memory, it was a half-decade ago when the housing market was characterized as "frothy," when the Liars Club known as the National Association of Realtors described annual housing price increases as "inevitable," and when wink-and-nod mortgage applications were disturbingly routine. As we now know, the housing market of cards collapsed under the weight of its own corruption. The WaMu bank failure was arguably the greatest single bank failure in American history.We also know very, very few people -- and no principal perpetrators of the disaster -- were brought to justice.

Recently, a WaMu sales executive, working at the bank's subprime lending unit Long Beach Mortgage,  took the fall for fraud. According to the Seattle Times, this was not an easy prosecutorial feat. "It took," the paper reported, "four years, two trials, and one unsuccessful prosecutorial appeal to a higher court" to finally nail the crooked suit.

The corruption, of course, went far further than one fallen angel. As the Seattle Times story noted, "In one WaMu email cited by U.S. Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., an internal 2005 audit found that 83 percent of loans approved by the bank's Montebello, Calif. office were fraudulent." WaMu's senior management remains free to this day. They had no idea there was gambling going on in the casino. Sure.

The MOOC Movement's Big Splash

Daphne Koller
(photo from Stanford University)

The Massive Open Online Courses movement, often called by the acronym MOOC, has recently taken a strong step forward into a brave new higher educational world. An online startup called Coursera is offering courses in selected tech subjects and math suitable for higher education. The firm is the brainchild of two Stanford University professors, one of whom is a MacArthur grant winner. Their goal is to transform "the face of higher education," noted Daphne Koller, one of the Stanford pair.

Coursera, and its MOOC relatives, essentially provide courses taught by star professors. Participants don't earn university credit, but then again, the courses are free. The story, which has received wide, big-league media coverage, hints at MOOC's tremendous implications without really stating them. (The Seattle Times version, which has a hometown interest, as the University of Washington signed a deal with Coursera, is linked here.)

The rather obvious implication in the MOOC movement is turning higher education into a monopoly of star professors. Why would anyone want to study chemistry or poetry from some also-ran doc? Those who has endured the American university system knows first hand how many courses are occupied by researchers who can't teach or communicate. For lower-tier colleges, MOOC is an existential threat, unless they turn their faculty into glorified MOOC teaching assistants. Of course, that strategy would lower salaries and, voila, make college cheaper to operate. The star profs, meanwhile, would be worth millions.

Coursera and others in the MOOC movement have considered the profit motive in their enterprises' calculations. The Seattle Times story quoted a University of Washington provost's estimate of $30,000 required for "one online course, and 'you have to monetize this in some fashion.' Coursera has outlined two models for making money....Under terms of the contract with the UW, the organization would get a 7 to 15 percent return of gross revenue under either scenario...But Coursera's courses still would be free."

Image from Jeremy Knox,
a co-instructor for a Coursera course.

The most interesting part of the story is how Coursera would use "data-mining software" to grasp how students were learning. I'm doubtful any system based on data analytics can foster true intellectual growth. Instead of the Socratic method and dialogue, we're left with a data-driven nightmare principally designed for the benefit of top-down management and financial efficiency. While Coursera and MOOC programs may very well be splendid, they lack the intimate human touch genuine education needs.

Amazon Cold Shoulders Seattle Charities

(photo from gizmodo.co.uk)

While many have sung Amazon's praises as a prototype of the "new normal" retail business model, the Seattle-based firm is coming under fire for its uncharitable charity practices. As a recent Seattle Times article noted, Amazon is often invisible in the Pacific Northwest's non-profit and charity scenes. Not only are Amazon big shots notably absent from the Seattle charity circuit, Amazon's charitable contributions are often either negligible or completely nonexistent.

Those who have attempted to communicate or do business with Amazon knows the company is breathtakingly difficult to deal with. It some ways, Amazon's arrogance and monolithic behavior is reminiscent of life behind the former Iron Curtain. The direction for Amazon's aloofness unquestionably starts at the top with its boss, Jeff Bezos. Similar to some other tech zillionaires (notably the late Steve Jobs), Bezos believes in total control, treats shareholders with complete indifference, and simply does not talk to the media (except for his pet projects). Amazon's new Seattle headquarters buildings do not even display the company's name. Uniquely for a Fortune 500 firm, Amazon's employees are rarely involved in charitable community work and, if the Seattle Times story is accurate, are discouraged from doing so by Amazon's spooky corporate culture. (The article does note that Amazon's frosty perspective on charities is slightly thawing.)

One explanation was offered by venture capital manager and early Amazon investor Nick Hanauer. "When you have 50 or 100 percent annualized growth rates," Hanauer noted, "there's just an infinite amount of work to do to keep the thing from exploding...It requires a lot of intensity and commitment that doesn't permit a lot of other things."

How much time does it take to write and sign a check for a worthy cause?