It’s not every day that something as simple as coffee and espresso causes legal trouble, but two interesting news items have found several people in hot water this week.

It’s a sure bet that the parties involved in the next two stories won’t be meeting at their local Starbucks to hash out their differences over mochas anytime soon. For the Chicago Public Schools and the coffee growers of Columbia, this week has seen lawsuits and questions over excess spending, all involving our beloved beverage. Have a look at two things sure to keep people talking around the water cooler, (or coffeemaker, if you will) this week.

Coffee farmers suing comic strip artist

The Federation of Colombian Coffee Growers has filed a $20 million-dollar lawsuit against cartoonist Mike Peters, who sketches the syndicated “Mother Goose and Grimm” comic strip. In a January 2 cartoon, the Federation alleges Peters insulted Colombian coffee farmers by saying they’re linked to a national crime syndicate.

In the cartoon, a character named Ralph, who is a cat, watches Mother Goose sip a cup of Colombian coffee and tells her, “Y’know, there’s a big crime syndicate in Colombia. So when they say there’s a little bit of Juan Valdez in every can, maybe they’re not kidding.” By the final panel of the strip, Mother Goose has started drinking tea instead of coffee.

The growers say Peters’ strip insults the dignity of their profession and that the lawsuit is moral compensation. Peters apologized for the strip in a letter to a Colombian newspaper, El Tiempo.

“I had no more thought to insult Colombia and Juan Valdez than I did Pringles, Betty Crocker, Col. Sanders, Dr. Pepper and Bartles & Jaymes,” he said in a statement. “The cartoon is meant to be read along with the rest of the week as a series of which the theme is based on the fact that the inventor of the Pringles can had his ashes buried in one. I thought this was a humorous subject and all of my Mother Goose & Grimm cartoons are meant to make people laugh. I truly intended no insult.”

Chicago fired up over school system espresso spending

A school district inspector found this week that the Chicago Public Schools system spent $67,000 on 30 espresso machines and that school system employees broke board rules to get them.

The school system claims the machines were to be used by their culinary arts program, but months after they were purchased 22 haven’t yet been opened and one is missing. Three are currently in use, but not by the culinary arts program.

Inspector Jim Sullivan says employees separated the purchases so that the machines would stay under the district’s $10,000 limit. Any amount more than that would have required a competitive bid process by multiple espresso machine retailers and approval from the Chicago Public Schools board. Reportedly, one employee has been fired and another is under disciplinary action for the scheme.

Chicago Public Schools is the nation’s third largest school district. The news item has caused disgust and outrage on Internet blogs over such a gratuitous waste of taxpayer money and has called some to question why a public school system whose students are unable to pass basic courses would have a culinary arts program.

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