Opinion

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.

March 5, 2013 — It was Friday night. I had just finished work and was heading over to my friend’s house on the periphery of the county with my dogs in tow. As I turned onto Richmond Road, two things happened simultaneously. A light began flashing on my dash indicating a transmission problem, and my dog, Loki, pooped.

Loki has many issues, and pooping in the car is just one of them. I don’t know why he has it in his head to do this or how to fix it. I’ve walked him for up to an hour first and have consulted just about every known source of dog advice at Margie’s and on the Internet. He still poops when he goes for a ride. So now he rides in a crate, and I keep cleaning supplies in the car.

I turned around and headed to NAPA where the two kind clerks, one of them named Rocky, sold me some transmission fluid to hold me over until I could get to a shop.

March 5, 2013 — The issue of transparency in financial disclosures took up much of last week’s Lassen County Board of Supervisors meeting. The public has a right to know the who, what, where, when, why and how its money is being spent by governmental agencies and other groups who use the public’s money. And those governmental agencies and entities that spend taxpayer money have an obligation to completely report on their activities.

The supervisors received a report from Carmen Wilson, a partner with the Marcum accounting firm for the county’s books for the year ending June 30, 2012. The audit firm issued a “clean” audit report and told the board the county’s books were in order.

Lassen County District 2 Supervisor Jim Chapman commented on the auditor’s findings and on a frequent assertion by some county residents and local dissidents that county government is rife with corruption. Chapman quipped — at least for the year covered by the audit report — the county is transparently corrupt.

Feb. 26, 2013 — There are many things I enjoy about my job reporting news here at the paper. The variety of stories and the people I get to interview always makes things interesting.

I value the working relationships I've built up over the years with news sources and contacts, but some stick out more than others, probably due to the length of time I’ve worked with a person.

For six years I've reported on the happenings at Lassen High School from homecoming to graduation and a lot in between. The second Tuesday of every month I have a standing reservation at the Lassen Union High School District (LUHSD) board meetings where items are discussed from test scores to budgets.