Jail Time for a Vegetable Garden?

Earlier this month, an Oak Park, Mich., woman came face to face with the prospect of hard time for the crime she'd committed: nurturing tiny baby pea pods, little baby zucchinis, and sweet, juicy tomatoes in her front yard.

I know! Young people these days. I'm shaking my head, too. Ninety-three days in the slammer is barely just desserts for such a terrible act.

When a judge dismissed the charges recently, the mild-mannered Julie Bass was in the middle of a four-day migraine. Still, she got no relief: The city followed up by pursuing two misdemeanor charges against her for the two dogs she had initially failed to license. While the lawbreaker had procured licenses for the dogs in June after receiving a warning from the city, Oak Park, evidently not pleased with being known as the "veggie-haters" around the world, weren't about to let her get away with so much as a stray dandelion bloom.

Bass -- the scofflaw who professes to enjoy "laundry folding by moonlight" on her blog -- is about to reap the rewards of defying the Oak Park city planner with her cabbages: It's dangerous to make a point in one's own front yard.