Hi everyone. I'm looking for people who have served on a federal jury in Fresno.

I'd like to do a feature story about the experience. I don't care about the case you served on; only what it was like to drive up to Fresno or stay there, and what it was like to be on jury duty for a month. How did it compare with local jury service.

Please e-mail me at sswenson@bakersfield.com or call at 395-7367.

So I was having a very pleasant Saturday evening. And then all of a sudden I found myself at a DUI checkpoint. It turns out I had been drinking that night.

I was hosting an event at the Four Points Sheraton for newspaper union leaders in the western United States. We decided to go to Wool Growers for dinner.

My wife joined us, so after the dinner I decided to take her home before I went back to Four Points. I turned south on Union Avenue and noticed that a car just behind me braked suddenly and turned left.

I then look down the road and saw a DUI checkpoint. I drove straight into it.

Chances are they direct you through without having to stop. Well, it was my turn to stop.

An officer asked for my driver's license, which I gave him and noted that the picture was ugly cuz I was in cancer treatment at the time.

He then asked if I had anything alcoholic to drink that night. I knew enough not to lie because it's easy for them to smell anyway.

I said I had two glasses of wine at the restaurant and a beer much earlier in the evening.

That wasn't exactly true. I only had one glass of wine at the restaurant. But I did have a glass of wine and a beer in the union hospitality room before dinner. So the numbers came out the same.

I'm glad my wife didn't pipe up and say, "But honey you had only one glass at the restaurant." That would have made it seem I didn't know what I was talking about.

Having that much to drink qualified me to go through an initial screening. The officer asked me to hold my head still and follow his finger, which me moved across my face, with my eyes.

I apparently did okay on that because he sent me on my merry way. But I will tell you I used all of my powers of concentration to do what he asked. And I realized if I blew this, it would be a big problem.

 First thing is my wife can't drive at night and she can't drive my stick shift car at all. Second is it would be embarassing for a crime reporter to be commiting crimes. Third, there might be some rejoicing at the police department about catching a reporter.

But I did have some confidence going into this. I started drinking at 5 p.m. and it was 9:30 p.m. when I stopped. I figured the highest my blood-alcohol level would be is .03 but more likely .02 or less.

Each drink for a person my size is .02, but you burn off .01 per hour.

So I did go off on my merry way. The police had other fish to fry — that checkpoint that night resulted in eight dui arrests, 22 citations for driving on a suspended or revoked license, 87 citations for various vehicle code violations, and 112 vehicles were impounded.

The only statistic I made that night was being one of 1,321 vehicles that were screened. That's not such a bad statistic to be in.