I’ve got last night’s fishing report just waiting to be written, it’s raining softly outside, and we’ve two pieces of breaking news (maybe three) that simply can’t wait.

Mt. Shasta Brewing Wins!

We’ve chronicled the first amendment struggles of Mt. Shasta Brewing (and the tastiness of their Shastafarian Porter) against the ATF (or whatever they’re calling themselves today).

Basically, the feds objected to the brewery’s “Try Legal Weed” bottlecap, and most of the civilized (and by “civilized” we mean “beer-drinking”) world erupted in disgust.

Be disgusted no longer, Undergrounders – this just in from Mt. Shasta Brewing owner Vaune Dillmann:

Yesterday afternoon we got a registered/certified letter – return signature required from our “buds” at the U.S. Treasury/TTB – stating that they will now accept our bottle caps and slogan/logo as is!

TTB agreed we are in fact proper in our Bottle Cap appeal; that we are not inferring a drug reference, nor are we confusing the public as to what is in our beer bottles!

Far be it from us to claim responsibility for something we had nothing everything to do with, but we can only draw one completely and wholly erroneous legal conclusion from this whole thing: Drinking Beer is Protected Under the First Amendment.

Dillmann’s now calling this caper the “Bottlecap heard ’round the world” episode, and we’ve been drinking too much beer to disagree.

Nestle Officially & Formally Capitulates

While they’d been making the right noises, Nestle finally agreed to begin a whole new contract negotiation with the McCloud Services District over their proposed McCloud water bottling plant, including such niceties as the gathering of real scientific data about water impacts.

In other words, after years of wrangling, intimidating legal efforts, community organizing and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots (see what I did there?) of bad/awful/embarrassing PR, Nestle’s finally doing the right thing.

Here’s a thought for Nestle: Consider doing the right thing from the start next time (silly us; that’s not their business model…)

It also means the McCloud Services District has a chance to Get It Right This Time. Let’s hope they do.

Good News Trifecta: Solar Power Discovery Promises to Revolutionize Stuff

This breaking energy news in from the Underground’s Egghead Patrol:

Until now, solar power has been a daytime-only energy source, because storing extra solar energy for later use is prohibitively expensive and grossly inefficient. With today’s announcement, MIT researchers have hit upon a simple, inexpensive, highly efficient process for storing solar energy.

Requiring nothing but abundant, non-toxic natural materials, this discovery could unlock the most potent, carbon-free energy source of all: the sun. “This is the nirvana of what we’ve been talking about for years,” said MIT’s Daniel Nocera, the Henry Dreyfus Professor of Energy at MIT and senior author of a paper describing the work in the July 31 issue of Science. “Solar power has always been a limited, far-off solution. Now we can seriously think about solar power as unlimited and soon.”

Woo-hoo! We’re all for saving the world, but the Underground’s Crack Team of Big Thinkers sees the deeper implications: abundant, sustainable, and largely free energy means the Undergrounders will throw off the burden of their Energy Oppressors, leaving more time to fly fish.

Sure, other news outlets will focus on the fact this discovery has the potential to save the world as we know it, but the Trout Underground sees beyond the hype.

No need to thank us with great big wads of cash. It’s just what we do.

See you at the news desk, Tom Chandler.

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