Opinion

March 19, 2013 — From reporting about civic events, murder trials and everything in between, the role of newspapers — including the one you are reading now — is as important as it has ever been and maybe even more so these days.

We live in an age of advanced technology and information sharing. This information age has seen the birth of the Internet and the growth of blogging, Twitter and Facebook. Instant news and information is available just moments after it happens if you know where to look.

But there is a major difference between the news you read in the newspaper, and the “news” you get from Twitter, Facebook or a blogger. All too often, the person who witnessed the event doesn’t deliver the Tweets and blogs. More often than not, it’s third-, fourth- or even fifth-hand information. At that point, it is frequently little more than a rumor. If the information is indeed credible, it’s more than likely it originated from — you’re right — a newspaper.

March 19, 2013 — The first day of spring is March 20 this year. This is good news for many who live in the mountains. Each day, as I look into my backyard from the window in my home office, I note the height of the snow against the fence. It is shrinking.

The days are getting warmer so I no longer need to keep the fire in the woodstove lit the entire day or grab my coat on a sunny afternoon. When I drive into the valley the grass is green and the flowers are beginning to bloom.

Traditional signs of spring, depending on the area in which you live, include birds building nests, budding trees, butterfly sightings and daffodils pushing up through the soil.

March 12, 2013 — A few weeks ago the newspaper opined about the lengthy delay in getting a ruling on a request for a writ of mandate filed in Lassen County Superior Court regarding the effort to recall Lassen County District 5 Supervisor Jack Hanson. Tom Hammond, one of the South County recall proponents who said he would seek Hanson’s seat if the recall effort qualified, filed the request for a writ Aug. 10, 2012 — more than seven months ago this week.

Hammond seeks a judge’s ruling to force the Lassen County Clerk to accept recall petitions she rejected. Without a judge’s ruling in his favor, the recall effort, the second launched against Hanson since Tom Stone, the county’s former administrative officer who was fired in 2011, failed to collect enough signatures and is finished.

March 12, 2013 — I really start hating life each spring when the government appropriates the last delightful hour of my peaceful morning slumber through Daylight Saving Time (often mistakenly referred to as Daylight Savings Time). Some people love that extra hour of daylight in the evening, and I guess that’s OK, but I don’t like losing an hour of sublime rest every morning between now and November. It’s all because good old Ben Franklin came up with the idea of saving some daylight hours in the first place.

Now, I have many issues with the education I received, even though I started school in the good old days of the 1950s when America’s public schools were supposed to be the very best in the world. Hey, they didn’t reveal Ben Franklin’s true character when we studied him in school, and I’m still mad about it.