How to End a Coffee Drought
- posted by Jim Leitzel @ 6:55 PM

On Tuesday I had no coffee, but survived. On Wednesday, I broke my 24-hour coffee drought -- and thanks to living in Chicago, I could easily do so with Intelligentsia coffee. It is really terrific stuff.

I mention it today because of a pointer from the Alcohol and Drugs History Society to a local news story/video concerning Intelligentsia. Did you know that one bad coffee bean can spoil the brew? Here's how Intelligentsia samples its coffees:

After the coffee is roasted and ground, cups are laid out for each bean on a rotating table, 12 grams of ground coffee are placed directly into the cups, which are topped with water just below boiling. Since a single bad bean can change the flavor profile of a cup, 3 separate samples of each coffee are cupped simultaneously; this also allows tasters to get a feel for the consistency of the beans. Some coffee grounds float to the top of the steaming cups, and after 3 minutes, the taster takes a spoon and gives the brew a gentle stir while getting his nose as close as possible and inhaling deeply. This is called “breaking the crust”. After each cup, spoons are rinsed, notes are jotted down and the table is turned. Any remaining grounds are then skimmed off, and the tasting begins.

Cuppers slurp coffee quickly from the edge of a spoon, allowing some air to combine with the brew, coating the entire mouth and giving an intense impression of the coffee’s flavor. The tasters may also “chew” the coffee, evaluating the body or perceived weight of the liquid in the mouth. Indonesian beans typically have low acidity and very heavy body, where a wet-processed Central American will be lighter bodied and bright with higher acidity. Sometimes a cupper will linger for a while comparing the different samples of the same bean, or return to an interesting coffee, experiencing it at different stages as it cools down.

Coffee prices are near a ten-year high.

Labels: Chicago, coffee

 
Nicotini
- posted by Jim Leitzel @ 11:24 PM

From Alcohol and Drugs History Society comes word of a Chicago Tribune article about a nicotine-infused alcoholic beverage -- the "nicotini" -- that one Chicago bartender has unveiled in response to the smoking ban. Vice Squad had noted a nicotini in Florida as early as November, 2004.

I mention Vice Squad's ahead-of-the-curviness on the nicotini to deflect justified criticism for recent blog neglect -- other duties, alas, have taken precedence. To further maintain the goodwill of the loyal Vice Squad reader, however, let me mention that a little while ago Vice Squad completed a long term project. Around the beginning of 2007 the Blogger software offered the possibility of applying "labels" to individual posts, and Vice Squad has been duly labelling subsequent "contributions". The problem was the stock of some 1100 prior Vice Squad posts that were unlabelled. After fourteen months of painstaking toil, I am happy to report that the backlog has been eliminated, and except for a possible handful of posts that were overlooked, the entire Vice Squad oeuvre has been catalogued. Time and date of the parade will be announced.

[Update: What labels are most popular? (1) alcohol; (2) drugs; (3) prostitution; (4) gambling; (5) Britain; (6) Prohibition; (7) policing; (8) teens; (9) tobacco; and (10) obscenity. What sort of blog is this, anyway?]

Labels: alcohol, Chicago, smoking ban, solipsism

 
Taxing Live Erotic Shows [Updated]
- posted by Jim Leitzel @ 11:06 PM

Vice Squad was out of town in late December when (links in this post are not safe for work) an Illinois appeals court ruled that Chicago could not exempt small live entertainment venues, except for strip clubs, from a tax on ticket sales. Such a provision discriminates against erotic businesses based on the content of their expression, the court ruled, and that sort of discrimination has to jump through high and multiple hoops to be constitutional. On New Year's day, a $5 per customer tax went into effect for Texas strip clubs. The first constitutional challenge to the tax was brushed aside in mid-December, before the Chicago ruling. The Texas law looks for Constitutional cover from the "secondary effects" doctrine, which did not seem to come into play in the Chicago tax.

Update: This week's Economist also has an article on Texas's "pole tax". The article mentions the recent popularity of earmarking the proceeds for new taxes. (Part of the controversy surrounding the Texas strip club tax is that the proceeds are directed to programs aiding sexual violence victims, despite there being little in the way of hard evidence that strip clubs increase sexual violence.) Beyond the Texas case, all of the earmarked taxes that are mentioned are vice-related: (non-diet) sodas, tobacco, and video games have all recently been singled out for taxes with earmarked revenues -- an approach frequently used for gambling taxes, too. Meanwhile, a Pennsylvania state senator is looking at an earmarked tax on adult businesses (link not safe for work).

Labels: Chicago, dancing, Illinois, tax, Texas

 
Ringing In Another Set of Smoking Bans
- posted by Jim Leitzel @ 9:52 AM

Chicago and Paris join the public smoking ban club today; in Paris, the city authorities are distributing "pocket ashtrays" so smokers won't throw their butts on the ground. (Another new law further reduces the Paris-Chicago cultural divide: dogs are now welcome to the outdoor sections of Chicago restaurants.) The Illinois smoking ban does not exempt casinos, so some fiscal authorities are already budgeting for reduced tax revenues from existing casinos -- though the plans to expand gaming in Illinois continue to develop. Fort Worth's new smoking ban does not extend to bars -- and in a last-minute alteration, bingo parlors (a Vice Squad obsession) are exempt, too. Speaking of bingo, in New York, as of January 1, you can organize a fun bingo game in a senior center without fear of imprisonment -- just don't let the players smoke.

Labels: bingo, Chicago, France, gambling, Illinois, smoking ban

 
Anti-Prostitution Policing in Practice
- posted by Jim Leitzel @ 10:07 AM

What should you do if you see a woman waving her arms on a street corner at 8AM? Try to offer assistance, perhaps? This is not recommended in the South Side of Chicago, not far from Vice Squad's own base. When a married couple, waiting for their daughter to return with a hot chocolate, found themselves in this situation, they soon realized that the woman was not in peril, but rather, was (seemingly) selling some physical companionship. They found the situation amusing. But only for a brief moment, until police officers arrested the male driver for soliciting their undercover officer. It was eight hours before he was released, while his wife and daughter were abandoned at the corner because the police impounded their car -- aren't civil asset forfeiture rules special? The charge against the driver was dropped, but the car has not been returned: "The city wants more than $4,700 in towing and storage fees if he wants the car back." Read all about this sterling piece of anti-vice police work here.

Labels: asset forfeiture, Chicago, policing, Prohibition, prostitution

 
Two From Wednesday's Trib
- posted by Jim Leitzel @ 12:28 AM

It's now Thursday, so you will probably have to sign up for the free registration if you want to read online the two vice articles that appeared in the Metro section of Wednesday's Chicago Tribune. The first concerns a 'racy' billboard outside suburban Glenview:

The 10-foot-by-36-foot sign along Willow Road near Patriot Boulevard depicts a model lying on the beach with lines pointing to "problem" areas on her body, such as facial lines and wrinkles, and corresponding "solutions," including Botox.

By Tuesday, more than 300 people had signed petitions asking the owners of the salon and medical spa to replace the billboard, Thibeau said.

The owner of the salon is a native Parisian -- which seems to be part of his defense -- and the billboard does bring back memories to me of my six-month Paris sojourn last year. (Not much else in the Glenview area has the same effect.) He isn't backing down to the pressure -- either out of principle, I suppose, or because the previously mailed ad featuring the same photo proved to be great for business.

Trib vice article number two was on the very next page in the print edition, in a boon to vice-interested readers throughout the Chicagoland area. This story concerns how librarians are standing up for free speech by opposing proposed Illinois state legislation that would, you guessed it, require internet filters to annoy vice researchers (oh, and for the children). Librarians continue to be my anti-authoritarian heroes, despite that unfortunate reputation for shussing you. And while they may be anti-authoritarian, they can be pretty authoritative themselves. How would a librarian handle some n'er do well using an internet connection inappropriately? With a federal or state law? Noooooo. From the end of the Trib story:

Jane Schulten, director of the Crete Public Library, said filters are labor intensive. She said her small staff might not be able to closely monitor each computer or turn software on and off each time a patron makes such a request.

She said she's only had two incidents in eight years in which a patron looked at something deemed inappropriate. In both cases, a "tap-on-the-shoulder" approach seemed to work, Schulten said.

Labels: Chicago, internet, obscenity

 
Vice Governor
- posted by Jim Leitzel @ 5:23 PM

Sam's Wine and Spirits is a very large seller of alcoholic beverages with two locations in the Chicago area, and it comes highly recommended from Crescateer Will Baude. In recent months it has been facing a slew of allegations about illegal practices from the Illinois Liquor Control Commission. Don't be too worried, Sam's has a lawyer, and just hired a second one: former Illinois governor James R. Thompson. Where is the case against Sam's being argued? At the James R. Thompson Center in downtown Chicago, of course.

It is amazing that the former Governor could spare some time for Sam's, given his involvement with tobacco manufacturer Philip Morris. His name even comes up when casinos are mentioned.

Labels: alcohol, Chicago, Crescat, Illinois, tobacco

 
US Prostitution Arrest Statistics
- posted by Jim Leitzel @ 7:57 PM

Scripps Howard News Service released a report today concerning anti-prostitution enforcement in the US. The report notes the extreme variability across jurisdictions in the effort devoted to policing prostitution, and in the gender of those arrested. Further, street prostitution is more likely to be targeted than call girl operations. Perhaps surprisingly, "[f]ew arrests were reported in so-called Bible Belt states like Alabama, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Virginia. But less conservative places like Illinois, Nevada and New Jersey lead the nation in the rate of prostitution arrests." Here's another brief excerpt from an article, linked above, that draws on the report:

The Scripps Howard study examined prostitution arrest rates for 269 police departments, comparing the number of arrests in 2002 to the size of the population under each police jurisdiction. Nationally, there was an average of 46 prostitution-related arrests for every 100,000 people.

That rate varied from as high as 609 arrests per 100,000 in one of New Jersey's gritty suburbs south of New York to less than one arrest per 100,000 in San Diego County.

In absolute numbers, Vice Squad's base of Chicago leads the way, with more than 5,500 prostitution-related arrests in 2002.

The study further reveals the unreliability of FBI arrest stats on prostitution and commercialized vice. In Fairfax County, Virginia, of the 94 arrests claimed by local police in 2002, the FBI recorded but....four. "FBI crime statistics are based on voluntary cooperation by local law-enforcement groups. As a result, information is frequently incomplete since many local departments choose not to cooperate." So what is one to make of the FBI claim that the number of prostitution and commercial vice arrests in the US in 2003 was a bit over 75,000?

Labels: arrests, Chicago, prostitution

 
Lazy Link-Based Post
- posted by Jim Leitzel @ 2:04 PM

(1) Hallucinogen hoasca legal (for now) in US when taken for approved religious ceremonial use. From Mark Kleiman.

(2) The New York Times looks into "dirty driving," where DVD-equipped motor vehicles play porn movies that are clearly visible to pedestrians or those in other cars. Will Baude at Crescat Sententia provides the pointer and the legal analysis. Concerned Women for America have a legal analysis, too -- in which the fact that possession of (adult) porn cannot constitutionally be criminalized in the US is lamented.

(3) While at Crescat, keep up with Will (here and here) on Chicago liquor regulators and a major Chicago wine store.

(4) More bad news for moi: even one cup of coffee per day can harm you. From a blog by Edward Staines entitled "One More Cup of Coffee"

(5) Vice Squad hasn't had too much to say about the recent vice Supreme Court cases, medical marijuana and interstate wine. I think that the "liberalizers" are going to have a hard time in both cases, but especially in the cannabis case. But if my pessimism proves to be warranted, I hope that the losing sides nevertheless use the resulting publicity to make the case that the laws in question -- the federal demonizing of marijuana as a Schedule 1 drug, and the protectionist wine shipment bans -- should themselves be repealed. (Of course they make these cases all the time, but I hope they will "redouble their efforts.") Bad laws that are Constitutional are still bad laws.

Labels: alcohol, caffeine, Chicago, coffee, hallucinogen, Kleiman, pornography, Supreme Court

 
Public Safety or Protectionism?
- posted by Jim Leitzel @ 4:03 PM

The Chicago Tribune (registration required) brings brief word today of the nearby city of Chicago Heights. The city banned alcohol sales from locations where gasoline is sold. The city claimed that it is for safety reasons. The city also noted that there have been no problems that have arisen so far from having both types of sales at one location. And the kicker: "One [gas] station, however, at 201 E. Lincoln Highway, which has been selling alcohol, will be allowed to continue to do so."

Labels: alcohol, Chicago, Prohibition

 
Prohibition-Era Chicago
- posted by Jim Leitzel @ 10:33 AM

And no, I don't mean the 1920s. Nor am I referring to the currently illegal drugs, as that would be more accurately phrased as "Prohibition-Era Globe". What I am referring to is the system in Chicago where an electoral precinct can vote itself dry -- or even vote dry a specific address -- thereby banning legal alcohol sales. On Tuesday, fourteen precincts faced a decision on whether to go dry or not -- and all fourteen voted to do so. Four more ballots looking for bans on alcohol sales at specific addresses also passed. For instance, Ward 11, Precinct 35 faced this question: "Shall the sale at retail of alcoholic liquor be prohibited at the following address: 4220 South Halsted Street, Chicago, Illinois?" Voters decided to cut off the alcohol sales at that address by a 178-88 vote.

These sorts of ballots almost always win, unless they happen to be threatening a restaurant with a particularly loyal neighborhood following. But places that are frequented primarily by out-of-precinct patrons don't stand much of a chance.

I understand the frustration that people can have with some local liquor store that is a persistent hotbed of public nuisance. But nevertheless, I am not a fan of these precinct-level or address-specific votes. Consumers of alcohol have to be permitted to make their purchases somewhere, but to each individual precinct, it might look like somewhere else is the best option. So a creeping prohibition is quite possible -- though currently unlikely to spread too far, in the case of alcohol in Chicago. Some of these dry precincts will lose their only late-night convenience store, for instance, and such outcomes will take some of the luster off of precinct-wide prohibitions.

The Dry Chicago story provides a warning about direct democracy, no? Can you imagine what would happen if constitutional rights were routinely submitted to a vote? I suspect that running a blog would be prohibited in my precinct.

Voting results on the dry referenda can be found here (scroll to near the bottom, or search on "local option").

Labels: alcohol, Chicago, Prohibition

 
Decrim Watch
- posted by Jim Leitzel @ 7:00 PM

You may have already heard about it from D'Alliance or elsewhere, but there's a new blog, decrimwatch, which is "Keeping an eye on cannabis decriminalization news, particularly in Chicago."

The D'Alliance has also been tracking news concerning quite a variety of psychoactive substances lately, including alcohol, caffeine, and chocolate.

Labels: Chicago, marijuana

 
Vicewire, 9/22/2004
- posted by Ryan @ 1:01 AM

1) Guess who's controversial again: Joe Camel. The article deals with a case related to the broader problem of using the first amendment to market cigarettes to children.

2) Here's an interesting story about challenges to DWI arrests in North Carolina, including an officer's negligence in asking the driver to remove his false teeth and a woman's inability to perform the "line test" effectively due to wearing stiletto heels. Defense attorney Bill Thomas had this to say: "I know that DWI is a hot political issue. But the public has to understand one important thing: The constitutional protections that follow us in our daily lives also apply to DWI cases. These protections are part of the fabric of our country. They are constitutional guarantees that ensure justice and freedom."

3) Unsurprisingly to regular Vice Squad readers, a new wave of Colombian drug lords is emerging. More surprising, perhaps, is a news story proclaiming this.

4) From the "other" Chicago paper is Mayor Daley's controversial new plan to ticket people caught with small amounts of marijuana, rather than court dates. The article is chock full of interesting data and statements...for brevity's sake I list two things that caught my eye.
- If a Chicago cop makes a bust for less than 30 grams of marijuana -- a misdemeanor under state law -- the case is usually prosecuted by an assistant state's attorney. ..Most of the cases are dismissed because an officer does not appear in court to testify about the arrest or a lab technician fails to show up to verify that the seized grassy substance was, in fact, marijuana, sources say.

Federal prosecutors rarely take such cases to court in Chicago...But prosecutors rarely take a case involving less than 100 kilograms -- 100,000 grams -- of marijuana.

- Donegan estimated Chicago could have collected at least $5 million in fines last year under his proposal...
"Most misdemeanor assistant state's attorneys have a difficult time justifying requiring a police officer and a lab tech to appear in court for the better part of an afternoon for $12 worth of weed. It just doesn't make sense," said one former misdemeanor prosecutor.

Labels: alcohol, Chicago, driving, drugs, marijuana, marketing, teens, tobacco, Vicewire

 
Lazy Link-Based Post
- posted by Jim Leitzel @ 7:21 PM

(1) Baylen Linnekin at D'Alliance provides an update on the suggestion from a police sergeant that Chicago decriminalize possession of small quantities of pot. Seems that Mayor Daley supports the notion, arguing (as did the police officer) that the courts have effectively decriminalized anyway. But as all Chicagoans know, Mayor Daley's is just one voice in this debate, and he rarely is in a position to influence policy. Baylen also took kind notice of Vice Squad's b-day.

(2) Walter Olson at Overlawyered notes today's beginning of the federal trial seeking, oh, $280 billion from Big Tobacco. Walter and his co-blogger Ted Frank were inexplicably left out of Vice Squad's (admittedly partial) anniversary list of blogger buddies, but that oversight has been corrected.

(3) Radley Balko at The Agitator is on a vice policy roll. Here's Radley's synopsis of the remarks of one speaker at last week's pain treatment forum. (The comments section includes an offering from Drug WarRant's impresario Pete Guither.)

Labels: Chicago, Drug WarRant, litigation, marijuana, pain, tobacco

 
Return to a Changed Chicago?
- posted by Jim Leitzel @ 4:26 PM

Apologies to the loyal Vice Squad reader for my absence since Wednesday. I was in London for the changing of the Batman. (I think I read that somewhere but forget the source -- apologies to the unnamed lender.) But now I am back in Chicago, to find that a police sergeant, Tom Donegan, has publicly raised the possibility of no longer arresting people for possession of small quantities of marijuana. (Chicago Tribune article here, registration required.) This was the very change that much of the UK adopted when marijuana was reclassified last January. This suggestion is really a judge-led reform, in that the Sergeant has noted that judges routinely dismiss charges stemming from small pot possession arrests. And while it is usually legalizers who point to potential government revenues as a reason to end drug prohibition, in this case, Sergeant Donegan is noting that decriminalization could serve a similar end: "Donegan said assessing fines of $250 for possession of 10 grams or less would have raised $5 million for the city's coffers in 2003."

Labels: Chicago, marijuana

 
Thanks But No Thanks
- posted by Jim Leitzel @ 7:47 PM

The Chicago Tribune has a confusing story today about arresting prostitutes, many of them transgendered, in Chicago's Lakeview neighborhood. The Trib seems to want to make us believe that these arrests are almost a favor to the alleged prostitutes, because they are given a card with information about available social services. But if that is the point, why bother with the arrests? Can't you just hand out the cards to passers-by? And what they really need, following the arrests, are legal services. This is almost a classic "I am from the government and I am here to help" story. The article also reports the relief of the police officer when the early morning rains didn't keep away the arrestees.

Labels: arrests, Chicago, prostitution

 
The Prohibition Party
- posted by Jim Leitzel @ 5:10 PM

In 1892, the Prohibition Party's US presidential candidate received 270,710 votes. In 2000, the Prohibition Party's presidential candidate received just 208 votes. The recent poor performance of the party has contributed to a schism, with two nominees emerging from PP "conventions" this year: the August 23 New Yorker tells the story of the old, but let's face it, decrepit, party. (The article is in the "Talk of the Town" section, so it is brief.)

It might be thought that the Prohibition Party was a major force leading up to national alcohol Prohibition in 1920, but by and large that was not the case. The Woman's Christian Temperance Union and (especially) the Anti-Saloon League (ASL) proved to be much more politically influential. Rather than promote its agenda through a third party, the ASL supported candidates from either major party who were most sympathetic to its dry stance. Will Baude has suggested a similar approach for libertarians today (see question 9 in the link).

Alcohol prohibition is not a thing of the past in the US, of course: many counties and municipalities remain dry. Chicago has a system that may be unique -- at least I haven't heard of its use elsewhere. An electoral precinct can vote itself, or a portion of itself, dry. Many have done so. Currently the electoral option is being considered in a dispute involving a loud, popular nightclub and some neighbors who moved into a newly-constructed nearby building. The club has reportedly spent more than $200,000 to muffle its noise, but with little effect. But one neighbor's comment, as reported in this Chicago Tribune article, has not done much to elicit Vice Squad's sympathy: 'Our granite counter tops are shaking.'

Labels: alcohol, Chicago, Prohibition

 
The Chicago Tribune's Hemp Farm
- posted by Jim Leitzel @ 3:59 PM

Stephen Young, author of Maximizing Harm, tells the tale of an experimental farm run by the Chicago Tribune in the 1930s that grew hemp. His article, "The Colonel's Weed," appeared in the July 30th edition of the Chicago Reader. (The Colonel in the title refers to Robert McCormick, long-time editor and publisher of the Trib.) The idea behind the farm, the progress of which was tracked in a regular Trib column, was to promote innovation among farmers during the dark days of the Depression. Instead, the farm captured the attention of the feds, whose pressure put an end to the hemp experiment -- and for that matter, all US hemp farming -- following the 1937 passage of the Marijuana Tax Act. My synopsis doesn't do justice to the article, however, and the details are quite interesting.

Vice Squad member Mike and Libby at Last One Speaks recently have talked about the efforts at destroying wild hemp, which generally has a THC content much too low to attract smokers. The concluding sentences of "The Colonel's Weed" mention this phenomenon, and the amazing hardiness of the hemp plant:

Hemp still grows in Illinois. The Tribune reported in 1998 that $450,000 had been spent by state police the previous year to destroy roughly ten million uncultivated hemp plants, many descended from the Hemp for Victory effort in World War II. If ingested, none of those plants would have given anyone a buzz. In 2002 another 633,000 wild hemp plants were obliterated.

The numbers vary from year to year, but the battle continues. It may be possible to willfully ignore hemp's virtues, but its essential nature makes it difficult to eradicate. It is, after all, a weed. Only months after it's slashed and burned, hemp sprouts again, pushing its head to the sun.

Labels: Chicago, hemp

 
Drunks on Planes
- posted by Jim Leitzel @ 3:22 PM

Usually it's the customers that you have to worry about. Not always, though, at least in Russia. (Thanks to Marginal Revolution for the pointer.)

When I was boarding my flight across the Atlantic on July 4, there were a couple of loud (though seemingly harmless) guys in the boarding area who seemed to be rather drunk. They boarded the plane (everyone else hoping, "oh no, I hope I am not seated next to them") without incident, but just before we were getting ready to leave the gate, Chicago Police Officers boarded and watched while flight attendants informed the gentlemen that they would have to deplane -- which they did, again without incident. But I wonder why they allowed the obviously drunk people to board in the first place? Police were all over the boarding area.

Incidentally, to round out my deplaning experiences, for the flight back to the states, a gentleman was removed even after the door was originally closed. In this case, however, he was anxious to leave the plane -- so anxious, in fact, that he was shouting/crying "Please let me off the plane, please let me off." (It was even hard to watch, though impossible not to.) Turned out he had a pathological fear of flying. So I guess that, for him, even boarding in the first place was a bit of a triumph.

Labels: alcohol, Chicago, Russia, solipsism

 
Fake Prostitution Sting
- posted by Jim Leitzel @ 3:06 PM

When I started to teach vice policy six years ago, I wasn't sure where I stood on the criminalization of prostitution. But week after week of reading about the fruits of prostitution policing in the US have convinced me that some form of legalization would offer a significant improvement. This recent story out of Chicago has shored up my conviction by presenting a new way that the current prostitution laws victimize people.

It seems as if a criminal team works as follows. The woman solicits men for prostitution. They head to a secluded place, where her partner shows up, flashes a badge, and (falsely) announces that the man has been caught in a police anti-prostitution sting. Then he handcuffs and robs the victim. Part of the reason to go to this trouble, it seems, is that the victims will be unlikely to report the robbery (even if they suspect that the man is not really a police officer) given that the circumstances involve them engaging in the illegal activity of hiring a prostitute.

Labels: Chicago, Prohibition, prostitution