Opinion

Oct. 12, 2010 — The paper gets nearly hourly updates as to what Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is up to. We know when he leaves the state, the country and when he returns. We also get a list of signed legislation and vetoed law. Because it is coming down to the last few weeks to Election Day, a slew of new legislation is crossing the governor’s desk for signing. Much of the legislation does not affect Lassen County even in the slightest but affects large southern counties such as Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Sept. 28, 2010 — The way people consume information is changing rapidly, and we hear frequently the death of newspapers is imminent. Maybe people feel this way because they aren’t regular newspaper readers — our is published once a week — or they just don’t think that other people read newspapers as much as they did 10 years ago. If they’re referring to the printed newspaper, they are usually correct.

Sept. 21, 2010 — Is it politics because Lassen County has no state senator because of the death of Dave Cox this summer, and the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation decided after Tehama and Modoc counties said they didn’t want convicted killer Loren Herzog paroled in their counties, we got the lucky draw with no notice?

Is it ignorance of who, what and where we are located that led to this decision. One state official actually laughed at one of the reporter’s when he was told that we have a city. Another newspaper report referred to Lassen County as a remote northeastern county isolated from the rest of the state. We suppose that may be accurate in the sense a mountain range separates us from Sacramento and we are not part of the urban sprawl, but people do live here. We also are home to three prisons.

Sept. 14, 2010 — Last week’s Lassen Education Symposium at Lassen High School was a highlight of positive, progressive thinking that showed our community that our educational and business leaders are ready to come together to address an issue that is affecting all of California.

It showed that through intelligent, focused discussions, the people who make decisions, guide and influence the students in our community are so fed up with the state’s educational system they realize its time to start working together locally to ensure the future of our students.