Opinion

Barbara France

Managing Editor

bfrance@lassennews.com

Nov. 9, 2010 — I love reading. Every night I read no matter how tired I am. My daughter has often turned off my bedside lamp and taken my glasses from my face and laid my book or Kindle aside. I tend to enjoy light reading late at night because after a day at work, helping with homework and reading several newspapers, I want to escape into a world that suspends reality. My favorite reading material is mystery/suspense without a lot of blood and gore.

However, this fall and winter, I plan to explore the autobiography genre, again. In high school I read a lot of biographies and autobiographies. I became fascinated with the lives of celebrities. I am not fascinated with celebrities any longer. I rarely watch TV, and movie stars bore me. But, I do want to read the recently released “Autobiography of Mark Twain.” I loved his novels when I was growing up, and Hannibal, Mo. isn’t very far from my hometown of Moline, Ill., that sets on the Mississippi River.

Barbara France

Managing Editor

bfrance@lassennews.com

Nov. 2, 2010 — I received an e-mail from my parents a few weeks ago reminding me to vote today, Nov. 2. It wasn’t the typical e-mail on whom I should vote for or how it was a privilege to vote. It was a summary on what some of the women of the suffrage movement endured to get the Congress to pass the 19th Amendment.

I was surprised at what I was reading and decided to do more research. Many of the women who were called the Silent Sentinels endured the Nov.

15, 1917 Night of Terror at the Occoquan Workhouse in Virginia. I still am trying to figure out why I never learned about these women in high school or college.

Oct. 26, 2010 — Everyday for months Managing Editor Barbara France has looked through countless e-mails waiting to see if outgoing California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger had selected Judge Stephen Bradbury’s successor on Lassen County’s Superior Court bench. Bradbury retired in January leaving the bench open only to be filled by government appointment.

Oct. 19, 2010 — The recent signing of Senate Bill 1440 and Assembly Bill 2302 have theoretically made it easier for community college students to transfer to a higher education institution within the state, but the implications are farther reaching than that.

Basically, both bills are designed to make the process for a student with an associate’s degree to transfer more seamlessly from a community college into either the California State University or University of California system. SB 1440 is giving priority admission to any student with an associate degree for transfer, while AB 2302 is looking to make it easier to understand how to transfer to a UC school by giving students and faculty all the necessary information necessary.