NEWS TEAM: GOOD MORNING SOUTH SOUND >>>

The Adventures of Gov. Chris Gregoire and the Council on Aerospace

Checking in on the State Legislature

Pirate reinforcements, warships, escape attempt: you can't make this stuff up

Mexico tourism bureau can lay off the booze now.

Yeah, right: CIA says it’s stopped operating secret jails.

When will the economy recover? Let’s look at doughnuts.

Here’s a comeback story: CompUSA.

PETA has asked Pet Shop Boys to change its name to Rescue Shelter Boys.

Editor's note: I had to kill the following Go Trek Yourself toy. I wanted to kill myself every time I logged on.

Go Trek Yourself

Yup, we Trekked Steph DeRosa.

NEWS TEAM: WANKERS OF THE DAY

So not going to be on a calendar.

Counterfeit Merchandise

Bob "Not So" Quick

Oops, she did it again...

JESSICA COREY-BUTLER: SEEMS LIKE A KILLER DEAL TO ME >>>

You love Tacoma. You really love Tacoma. You want to keep local Tacoma alive.

Wanna put your money where your love is? In a proven-to-please place?

Dwell is up for sale, unofficially-ish, but officially. Turns out owner one â€" Shelly â€" has a hubby who’s been accepted to a doctorate program â€" in Chicago! â€" and owner two â€" April Donato â€" also has relocation plans in her future.

So for less than 100K, you can buy a business in the black, with rising income level and stable customer base, in a good part of North Tacoma. For less than 100K, you get a 1,000-person plus customer base, current inventory and vendor contacts, and all fixtures (and current, rad! location.)

Inquire within, or tell your friends to inquire within, or become a collective of friends and inquire within. Because the last thing Tacoma needs is another vacant-spaced “for lease” sign.

[Dwell, 2716 N. 21st St., Tacoma, 253.761.1889]

LINK: Previously on the Weekly Volcano Web site

NEWS TEAM: GOOD MORNING SOUTH SOUND >>>

Ruston may go away.

Pierce County home sales up.

Italian earthquake’s death toll continues to climb.

WTF? Bank of America pays U.S. $713M in dividends

A.P.: Just the facts, Mam

Somehow the recession is good news for the huge percentage of American teachers all set to retire around the same time.

Dudley Do-Rights win right to form union.

Flutter: The New Twitter

NEWS TEAM: AT LEAST WE CAN PRE-FUNC THERE BEFORE JONAS BROS. SHOW >>>

We just received this release from the Washington State Liquor Control Board. McCabe's American Music Cafe is back in the news.

McCabe’s was cited for three counts of allowing an apparently intoxicated person to possess/consume alcohol. The 30-day suspension is considered an aggravated penalty. McCabe’s also received a written warning for disorderly conduct by an employee of the liquor licensed establishment.

Tacoma businesses that did not receive violations March 21:
    Latitude 84, 8401 S. Hosmer St.
    Station 56, 5602 S. Washington St.
    54th Sports Bar, 5415 S. Tacoma Way
    Dawson's Again, 5443 S. Tacoma Way
    Friendly Duck, 5026 S. Tacoma Way
    Harvester Restaurant, 29 Tacoma Ave. N.
    Doyle's Public House, 208 St Helens
    Red Bulls Bar & Grill, 1214 Puyallup Ave.
    Valley Pub, 1206 Puyallup Ave.

PAUL SCHRAG: GO LOCAL ASKS FOR $100,000 >>>

As city officials ruminate on how much money to give upstart business advocacy organization Go Local, some might argue with the notion that Tacoma needs another business advocacy group. I mean, let’s be real. We already have 14 neighborhood business district associations, a Cross-District Association, the Tacoma-Pierce County Chamber, the Business Improvement Area, various localized Chamber affiliates, the city’s Community and Economic Development Department, Downtown Merchants Group, a small business incubator, several college-affiliated programs, several Small Business Administration programs, an independently-owned newspaper dedicated to small businesses, and a couple dozen networking groups. I probably missed a few.

But this Go Local thing is different. Read why on the Weekly Volcano Web site.

MATT DRISCOLL: KEN GRASSI BECOMES PRESIDENT OF THE DMG >>>

Despite far less hype than other “presidential elections,” the Tacoma Downtown Merchants Group cast a few ballots of their own earlier this month electing Ken Grassi of Grassi’s Flowers and Gifts to lead the group as the new president. Grassi replaces former Downtown Merchants Group president Patricia Lecy-Davis â€" the driving force behind Embellish Multispace Salon among other notable, Tacoma-centric ventures.

For those that don’t follow the ins and outs of Tacoma’s business world or rub elbows at Tacoma-Pierce County Chamber of Commerce luncheons, the main gist of the Tacoma Downtown Merchants Group is simple â€" to promote and foster downtown Tacoma businesses and back business issues through advocacy and community building â€" while promoting economic opportunities for businesses in T-town.

While Tacoma has needed an organization like the Downtown Merchants Group for what seems like forever, in economic times like these the role of such a collective becomes especially important. Wednesday news broke that Sea Grill and the UPS store at the Convention Center in downtown Tacoma will both be closing â€" just a couple of signs of how the current economic meltdown is wreaking havoc on local businesses.

For his part, Grassi is ready to take charge.

“With everything that’s going on, we have to make sure our merchants survive,” says Grassi from his store on South 17th and Pacific Avenue.

Among the strategies the Downtown Merchants Group will employ to help do that, according to Grassi, is embracing the Go Local Tacoma movement, planning a yearly event, as well as marketing Tacoma’s charm to folks both near and far.

“We want to give people the reason to go local, stay local, shop local and sleep local,” explains Grassi. “We want people to rediscover downtown Tacoma a different way.”

“Personally, being Tacoma born and raised, I have really fond memories,” says Grassi of the days before strip malls ruled the world. “I have a real big heart for downtown Tacoma.”

Considering the circumstances, that’s just one of many things Grassi’s new role is going to require.

ERIK EMERY HANBERG: TECH  AND THE ENVIRONMENT >>>

Predicting the future is hazardous business. But let me venture a guess anyway: the two biggest forces that will shape the future of Tacoma and Pierce County are the environment and technology.

The first force, the environment, is easier to grasp how it will shape our community. The state of our air, water, and land â€" not to mention the sea level of the Sound â€" will affect our quality of life in very visceral, tangible ways. It affects our health, the willingness of businesses to relocate or start here, the number of tourists we get, and our own enjoyment of our home.

The technological forces that shape our region are much harder to figure out. How will Twitter change our interactions? How would cheap solar power transform our way of life? Could new rail technology radically alter our port? What are the chances the next Intel or Amazon or Apple is based out of Tacoma? (Hint: not very likely.) These are all big questions, questions I’ll be looking at in future columns.

But I needed some place to start in order to tackle this mammoth topic. That place was Austin, Texas, host to SXSWi (short for South By Southwest Interactive), a conference dedicated to “emerging technology.” If there’s any single place where you can start to get some idea about what’s coming down the pike, Austin in March is that place.

At their core, the panels all seem to ask the same question: “Where is all this going?” I heard a lot of answers. But the most startling came from experts in mobile gaming and moviemaking. They proposed that the mouse and keyboard will no longer be the dominant method of interacting with computers.

For as radical as that suggestion sounds, we’re already far into the process. Think of the iPhone, with its pinching and brushing navigation. Think of a Wii remote, which can act as a tennis racket, a steering wheel, or a maraca depending on the game. Think of voice dialing on cell phones. Even think of the “Good-to-Go” microchip that collects a toll when you cross the Narrows Bridge.

These technologies get data from body heat, motion, voice, and radio tags. For as new as they are, they are commonly used in everyday devices. As these technologies improve and get combined together in new ways, our daily experience with computers has the potential to be radically transformed.

Is it too far of a leap to imagine Apple adding a small radio scanner to iPhones, allowing people to pull information from chips implanted in products? What if you could just hold your phone up to a pair of shoes and find out whether it’s a “green product,” where it was made, and what the average rating is on Amazon? I can already find all that information on my phone standing in a store â€" but the inclusion of a small scanner would totally change the likelihood that I’d do it. If it sounds far fetched, consider that an iPhone barcode scanner is already for sale. A radio tag scanner can’t be far behind. ...

Of course, shopping is one small part of the transformations we might see. But I think it’s a good illustration of how current technologies have the potential to radically transform our behaviors with just minor changes and upgrades.

I’ll be jumping into the world of tech and the environment when I’m back from Austin. I have lots of questions about “what’s next.” Let’s start looking for people in Tacoma who might have some of the answers.

PAUL SCHRAG: CHANGES COMING, SMALLER VENUE A POSSIBILITY >>>

Club owners, bar owners and other entertainment jockies, listen up. A change is gonna come. Maybe a whole slew of ‘em. OK, probably not a slew.

Whatever happens, it could begin as early as this summer.

A City of Tacoma-led team comprising city employees, police officials and community members hopes that changes such as increasing security requirements for new bars and clubs will benefit owners as well as neighbors. Club Juno on Market Street is the latest victim of Tacoma’s club woes, with owners vacating the space. It’s safe to speculate that the City of Tacoma’s call to revoke Juno’s business license, combined with the ending of its lease, led to the club’s demise. Juno is scheduled to close its doors for good this week, says Tacoma Police Lt. Sean Gustason, with the building’s owner eyeing the space for a smaller-scale venue of some sort. Tacoma Police Department attorney John Walker says an appeal of the city’s attempts to revoke Juno’s business license is still scheduled for April 16, but may very well change.

Meanwhile, a recent shooting at McCabes, which left one man in critical condition with several gunshot wounds, serves as a reminder of the continued dire need for a plan of action, says Gustason.

Gustason is among several dozen people that gathered last month to brainstorm ideas aimed at cleaning up crime and other nuisances associated with clubs in Tacoma. The city-led Safe & Clean team, known as P.R.O.A.C.T.I.V.E., hopes that a, well, proactive approach to dealing with security and safety at clubs and bars will make it possible for clubs to thrive without profoundly annoying neighbors.

“There are a lot of great ideas out there,” says Jodie Trueblood, manager of the city’s Tax and Licensing Division and member of the P.R.O.A.C.T.I.V.E. posse.

Among those ideas are requirements for increased security measures at existing clubs, such as ID scanners that track patrons; information-sharing networks between bars and clubs that would allow owners to keep troublemakers out of their spot; requiring the creation of an approved security plan in order to receive a city business license; increasing transportation options such as taxi service, or extending operating hours for Link Light Rail; and focused enforcement of crowd capacity and over-serving laws to manage crowds and crowd behavior.

But the door is still wide open for bar and club owners to have their say, says Trueblood, who encourages owners, managers and anyone else who cares about entertainment in Tacoma to get involved. For now, new security standards, as well as placing management of security plans in the hands of the Tax and Licensing Department, are the only plans near certainty. City fire officials are in charge of it now, says Trueblood. The goal of the group is to have recommendations and a plan of action ready by summertime, as well as a review of the city’s chronic nuisance ordinance, which was invoked to close down Club Juno earlier this year. Once official recommendations are available and a plan crafted, changes will likely be phased in. City officials are keenly aware of the impacts that new requirements are likely to have on business owners, says Trueblood. The best way for club owners to be sure that new policies and practices don’t take a bite out of Tacoma’s nightlife is to get involved.

The P.R.O.A.C.T.I.V.E. team meets regularly, and welcomes any members of the community, and their ideas. For more information, contact Jodie Trueblood at 253.591.5251 or jtrueblo@cityoftacoma.org.

Photo: The party is over at Juno.

STEPH DEROSA: CELEBRATES AT MASA SUNDAY, EMBELLISH IN APRIL >>>

How do you review a coffee bar? Or rather, why would you? Although the level of coffee connoisseurship in Tacoma is on the rise, even the most exacting bean fiend might find the process futile. A barista either knows what he’s doing or he doesn’t. The beans are either sustainably grown, fair trade, and freshly roasted or they’re not. Beyond that â€" and the presumptive niceties, like free wi-fi, a solid refill policy, and blueberry-muffins â€" what else is there?

Well, as of Feb. 19, there’s Satellite Coffee Co. inside Masa. And my review is in â€" superb! Now I can shake my ass in front of Handful of Luvin’ in Masa’s main room, grab a jolt of jitters, then go shake my ass again. Satellite’s satellite â€" a 24 seat café located in Masa’s former front-room kitchenette â€" serves Stumptown Coffee via a sturdy LaMarzocco espresso machine. Best of all, Masa’s late-night food window is now Satellite’s walk-up/bike-up/stumble-out-of-Masa-happy-hour-and-lean-up-against window.

Over the past couple of weeks Masa and Satellite have solidified their relationship. They can work together in steam and harmony. It’s time to celebrate. The duo will exchange “best friend” necklace halves while they prick their fingers to become blood brothers â€" and it’s all happening this Sunday, March 15, at an open house inside Masa beginning at 11 a.m. There will be coffee tastings at 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. Stumptown Coffee will have a
presentation at 1 p.m. And the best part â€" Satellite will be offering free French press coffee all day.

But that’s not all. Two Satellite Coffees is good, but three is even better.

I was finally able to pin down Zachary Marvick of Satellite the other day and begged him to give me the skinny on their much anticipated third Satellite Coffee location, to be located inside Embellish Multispace Salon. (Now don’t go getting all weirded out about the fact that Embellish is primarily a salon â€" they have the word “multispace” in their name, so it’s totally OK to put in a Satellite Coffee. Trust me, I’m a columnist.)

Zach stroked my nosiness during my inquisitive conversation with him. I learned that the Market Street side of the Embellish building is where Satellite patrons will enter, and the coffee purveyors will split the space with a juice bar appropriately named “Smooth & Juicy.” Together they hope to establish a great downtown clientele â€" catering to suits and YMCA gym members-types. With this new juice bar serving power shakes, and Satellite coffee simply being in existence â€" I really don’t see the need to go anywhere else for a boost of energy before or after a little gym workout.

While it’s a ways off, on Wednesday April 1, Satellite Coffee will be hosting an open house upstairs inside Embellish Salon for Tacoma locals to come and see what all the new coffee hub-bub is about. Visitors will be able to catch a glimpse of Satellite’s third location and learn more about the pre-purchased coffee memberships this java empire will soon be offering.

Say what? Pre-purchased coffee memberships? Please, allow me to explain.

Zach tells me that this downtown Satellite Coffee expansion will offer coffee lovers the ability to buy membership-type cards that include “lattés for a year” or, even better, a “lifetime of lattés” â€" though only three “lifetime of lattes” cards will be sold. Even more exciting than the incredible feeling of nature’s legal stimulant running through your veins until your eventual nursing home death at the ripe age of 89 â€" every person that purchases a “lifetime of lattes card” will have their beautiful face depicted by a local artist on Satellite’s future wall mural inside their Embellish Multispace location.

I’ll see you on April 1, Satellite!

Wait, I’ll see you Sunday, Satellite!

[Satellite Coffee at Masa, 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday-Friday, 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday-Sunday, 2811 Sixth Ave., Tacoma, 253.254.0560]

Photo: Travis Pelligrini serves coffee from Satellite Coffee'swalk-up window at Masa