Y'all come back now, y'heah

Federal law requires that anyone with a commercial driver's license speak English well enough to communicate with police officers. Last year, authorities issued 25,230 tickets nationwide for violations.

Recently, Manuel Castillo, of Fowler, CA, who was hauling onions in Alabama, was stopped and fined $500 for being a "non-English speaking driver." When interviewed by AP, he said, "It just doesn't seem fair to be ticketed if I wasn't doing anything dangerous on the road." Does that sound like he doesn't speak English?

I've been to Alabama, and some of the locals don't speak English that well. Manuel is a permanent U.S. resident who has been driving for 20 years. He has an accent, but then, so does Ricardo Montalban. I guess it's lucky Ricardo is too old to haul his onions.

The law is reasonable, but the enforcement is too subjective, so the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has proposed rules requiring anyone applying for a commercial driver's license speak English during the road test and vehicle inspection. Better.