Ear to the ground

“I thought it was some kind of police training exercise. I was going to brew up a pot of coffee and sell them some cups.”

– Local man commenting on the number of officers responding to a neighborhood fender-bender

The buzz on A-LP

The legal fight against the Animas-La Plata Project got a little tipsy earlier this month. Citizens Progressive Alliance, the long-time opponent of the ambitious water project just south of Durango, has picked up some unusual press.

On March 8, the legal online tabloid, Above the Law, carried a story entitled, “This Is WAY Better Than ‘The Dog Ate My Pleading.’”

The article was in response to CPA’s attorney requesting a one-day extension to March 5 to respond to the applicant’s bill of costs. Her reason? Too much revelry.

Her requests reads, “The undersigned states that she had almost completed this response on the due date, which was Friday, March 2, but suspended her work to take a friend out to dinner for his birthday. When she came back she was unable to finish it due to the wine.”

The attorney admitted she was in the wrong, but requested a little leniency from the judge. The filing goes on to ask, “Wherefore, inebriation constitutes excusable neglect … the court should grant the present extension, as it is in the interest of justice.”

Believe it or not, the story has a happy outcome for CPA. “Amazingly, the Judge granted the motion,” wrote the story’s author.

Closed container

There is some bad news from Wyoming for CPA’s attorney and the rest of us. Wyoming state legislators have finally passed a law that makes it illegal to have an open container in a car on state roads. Wyoming, reported the Jackson Hole News&Guide, was one of the last states to crack down on drinking and driving in accordance with federal wishes.

“When I came to Wyoming 17 years ago, a person could be drinking a beer and have a loaded gun and wave to a cop at a stoplight, and it was legal,” Capt. Jim Whalen of the Teton County Sheriff’s Department told the newspaper.

Like many parts of the West, distances have jokingly been defined by consumption of six-packs. One anonymous attorney testified that after winning a case at the state capitol in Cheyenne, he submitted his costs: a six-pack of Budweiser.

“Given our sparse population and vast geographic distances, Wyoming courts have long recognized the legitimacy of road beer in moderate amounts (one beer for each 160 miles in this case) as a taxable ‘cost,’” said the attorney.