Corporations in the carpool lane and dreadlocks as weapons

Most awesome story of the week from the San Francisco Bay Guardian:

A Marin activist named Jonathan Frieman, who runs a small nonprofit corporation (the JoMiJo Foundation) was driving in the carpool lane on highway 101 in Marin when he was stopped by a cop and given a $478 ticket. Ah, but Frieman insists he wasn’t driving alone; beside him in the car were the articles of incorporation and other relevant corporate paperwork for his foundation — and in the United States, corporations are considered people. In fact, the California Vehicle Code refers to “natural persons or corporations.”

So Frieman is challening his ticket in traffic court, and is willing to spend his own money to appeal the case as far as he can. He wants to force the courts to decide: If a corporation is a person, then it gets to ride with a driver in the carpool lane, and his ticket has to be dismissed. If it’s not a person, then maybe it can’t make political contributions.In fact, if a corporation isn’t a person, a whole lot of evil stuff might come to an end.

The story says Friedman’s traffic court hearing was today.

And then there’s domestic violence, Portlandia style from KOIN in Portland:

A man is facing assault charges, accused of choking his girlfriend using his dreadlocks in Southeast Portland.

Domestic violence is awful and never funny; I hope the woman is OK. And I have to wonder: How did this not happen in Eugene?