Owner plans to close Grand View Topless Coffee Shop: Donald Crabtree sees citation as final straw | The (Waterville, Maine) Morning Sentinel

Owner plans to close Grand View Topless Coffee Shop: Donald Crabtree sees citation as final straw | The (Waterville, Maine) Morning Sentinel

VASSALBORO, Maine – Donald Crabtree says he opened the Grand View Topless Coffee Shop in 2009 so that he, his staff and his customers could smile.

Crabtree isn’t smiling anymore.

Following a recent notice from the town’s code officer that the shop was violating zoning rules by displaying new signs – one advertised a benefit topless car wash – Crabtree said this week that he plans to close the controversial business on Route 3 when his inventory is sold in the coming months.

“I wanted to have some fun; I wanted to see people smile,” Crabtree said. “I started the topless coffee shop to do that, and it did. But now my smile's gone. I’ve fought that fight for more than two years now and no matter how hard I try to make this work, somebody sabotages me.”

The shop, which has featured topless waitresses serving coffee, garnered national media attention when it first opened in this rural community, provoking outrage among many residents. It has prompted Vassalboro and many other communities to adopt ordinances regulating where and when sexually oriented businesses can operate

Click for the rest of the story by Scott Monroe in The Morning Sentinel.

 Go to Coffeehouse Observer for more coffeehouse observations.

 

Space, The Final Frontier: Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic Offers a Day Trip That Is Out of This World, DAVID, May 2011

Cover page for the Virgin Galactic story in DAVID magazine.

Space, The Final Frontier: Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic Offers a Day Trip That Is Out of This World, DAVID, May 2011

Here’s a story I wrote for the May 2011 issue of DAVID magazine in Las Vegas. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. By the way, the spread was designed by Adam Bucci, a former co-worker at The Reporter in Vacaville, Calif., who until recently was the art director at DAVID. I thank Adam for his fine work to best display the story.

 

Brief look at my coffeehouse

Well, it’s not exactly MY coffeehouse, but I do frequent it on a very regular basis. Here’s a brief look at the place. Enjoy! … Oh, yeah! It was shot by a guy named Allen Lin. Good job!

Huge surge in offshore wind expected | SustainableBusiness.com

Huge surge in offshore wind expected | SustainableBusiness.com

Nothing to cheer about in windpower setback: Maine should do a better job indicating where there is room for wind | Portland Press Herald

[Wind energy is going to be a very vital component to an overall energy plan for the future. I see wind turbines all over California and each time I do I think about just how much foreign oil is NOT being burned because of those towers. Mainers really need to look deep within and realize that we cannot drill, drill, drill our way out of the current energy situation. The planet won’t survive that kind of thoughtlessness. – KM]

Nothing to cheer about in wind power setback: Maine should do a better job indicating where there is room for wind | Portland Press Herald

Bill Nemitz: Ringmaster over his head under Big Top

“Governor Announces Staff Changes,” proclaimed the headline over the news release from what’s left of Gov. Paul LePage’s communications office.

It should have read, “Welcome to The Greatest Show on Earth.”

Wednesday’s sudden departures of commissioners Darryl Brown from the Department of Environmental Protection and Philip Congdon from the Department of Economic and Community Development confirm what many have long feared since Team LePage rode into Augusta promising to transform Maine state government into something . . . well, different.

They’ve done it: After just under four months, the executive branch is now officially a three-ring circus.

In one ring we have Brown, who was forced to step down after Attorney General William Schneider informed him that those pesky environmentalists were right all along: Conflict-of-interest laws prohibit Brown, who owns a development consulting firm, from presiding over the DEP.

For weeks, Brown insisted that he was not in violation of identical federal and state statutes -- which made him ineligible to serve if 10 percent or more of his income in the last two years came from applicants for and holders of federal clean water permits.

He was, as he conceded Wednesday, “obviously” wrong.

Still, that didn’t stop Brown from taking a parting swipe at the Maine statute, which, like the federal law, is intended to create a little space between the regulators and the regulated. He called it “silliness.”

That’s not respect for the law, folks. That’s clown talk.

Click for the rest of the column by Bill Nemitz in the Portland Press Herald.

Coffeehouse observation No. 303 – The smell of victory

I love the smell of coffee in the morning. ... It smells like ... victory!

Go to Coffeehouse Observer for more coffeehouse observations.

World Acadian Congress in Maine garners support of French consul general | Bangor Daily News

World Acadian Congress in Maine garners support of French consul general | Bangor Daily News

Coffeehouse observation No. 302 – Cigarettes to make breath minty fresh … or mints to make breath ashtray unfresh

A woman is sitting outside the coffeehouse and she just pulled a cigarette from an Altoid’s tin. Sort of like mints to make your breath smell like an ashtray rather than minty fresh.

Go to Coffeehouse Observer for more coffeehouse observations.

Coffeehouse observation No. 301 – Sweet, sweet … sweet … coffee

I just watched a guy put about six sugars in his coffee. Why bother with the coffee? ... What an amateur!

Go to Coffeehouse Observer for more coffeehouse observations.

Coffeehouse observation No. 300 – Some things are better left unknown

A woman on the coffeehouse patio has a “tramp stamp” that reads “Houdini.” I don’t even want to know the backstory on that!

Go to Coffeehouse Observer for more coffeehouse observations.

Maine’s Acadia National Park celebrates park week | Bangor Daily News

Maine’s Acadia National Park celebrates park week | Bangor Daily News

Here comes the sun: Cost, rebates making solar an option in Maine | Bangor Daily News

Here comes the sun: Cost, rebates making solar an option in Maine | Bangor Daily News

UMFK gets money for biomass energy research; fliers my bring back county airport

UMFK gets $345,000 grant to study future of biomass production in St. John Valley | Bangor Daily News

Fliers hope to lift old county airport back to life | Bangor Daily News