Inyo and Mono counties
Commissioner David E. Knowles serves an area larger than Maryland. But Inyo and Mono counties, where he hears traffic and child custody cases, have just 32,000 people between them.
On some days, he’ll wake up in his home near Crowley Lake, a few miles from Mammoth, and drive about 75 miles to Independence, population 670. Knowles will hear cases all day in a courthouse built in 1921 that’s listed on the National Registe... (continued)