Opinion

Nov. 8, 2011 — Gov. Jerry Brown has delivered on his campaign promise to tackle pension reform.

The plan he put forward is bold and comprehensive. It is also politically risky.

Public employee unions, longtime allies of the governor, will strongly oppose key portions of it, as will many of Brown's fellow Democrats in the Legislature.

Even Republicans may balk when it comes to rollbacks for police officers and firefighters, the most politically powerful public employees who enjoy the most robust pensions.

Now don’t get me wrong — I’m not a bomb-throwing, flag-burning, born-again liberal or an easy champion of causes.

Don’t expect to see me sleeping on the grass along the banks of Piute Creek at Memorial Park as part of the Occupy Susanville effort because, frankly, I’ve got better things to do. Still, despite what you’ve heard, one need not be a rocket scientist to understand the protesters’ beef — our economic system is skewed to benefit the rich, and our country is in trouble because of it, in case you haven’t noticed.

Nov. 8, 2011 — In less than 30 days my youngest has to apply for college.

We have been talking about this deadline since she was a freshman, but there was not much we could do about it until now.

She had to take the SAT test, wait until her junior year was complete to get a good look at her grade point average and narrow down where she wants to attend.

Nov. 1, 2011 — For several weeks now, the paper has been writing a story on a horrifying situation brewing at the horse stable, Whispering Pines, located of Highway 36, outside of Susanville.

Rumors abounded that the owner Dwight Bennett was not feeding dozens of horses and worse yet left two dozen to die.

Unfortunately, gathering information for the story and wading through the facts and fiction of the alleged animal cruelty took time.