Story of The Day
Breaking News–The Sign man, Jumpin’ Jeff Northrup, was freed from onerous charges at Judge Sanchez’s Muni Court yesterday after a testy three-hour hearing. Apparently, contradictions in the the Town’s code and confusion on the part of enforcers, who charged the nervy picket under the wrong regs, led to the decision. We urge restraint on the part of Mr. Northrup and the Town in the future. We don’t need to waste more time and money on the issue. Let’s keep the personal out of politics for a while. More on that later.
This morning I read the following story in the Albuquerque Journal. It’s just about the most interesting thing to come this way in years. I’m only surprised it didn’t happen in Taos.
Girl, 9, Was Dads Designated Driver
By Rene Lynch Los Angeles Times
Kids say the darnedest things. Take the 9-year-old who was sitting in a booster seat behind the wheel of a van when she was pulled over by police outside Detroit. What did you stop me for she reportedly told an officer. I was driving good.
Maybe so. But Brownstown Township police say they nonetheless arrested her father, Shawn Weimer, 39, for allegedly employing the girl as his chauffeur after he had too much to drink.
Surveillance video from a gas station convenience store shows the man bragging that his daughter was only 9 years old and “drove all the way here … and parked! He refers to her as his “designated driver. The video also shows the man dancing in the parking lot while the girl walks back to their van.
Someone who overheard Weimer in the gas station alerted police. Weimer was arrested about 3 a.m. Oct. 8 when police pulled over his van and indeed found the girl in the booster seat behind the wheel. Brownstown Township Detective Lt. Robert Grant said the girl acted surprised when the officer appeared at her window.
She said: “What did you stop me for? I was driving good,†Grant told the Detroit Free Press.
The girl told police her father had allowed her to drive before when he had been drinking whiskey all night. The father now faces child abuse charges and up to 15 years in prison because of previous convictions, including a 2007 DUI.