Opinion

Just a few days short of a year ago, Lassen County residents recoiled in horror as the details of the New Year’s Day murder of Robert McElrath, a well-respected Susanville Police officer, who allegedly was killed by his wife, Joanna McElrath, and her boyfriend, Robert Glen James, spread like wildfire through the community.

Dec. 20, 2011 — In just a few days most of us will rub the sleep out of our eyes as the first light of day creeps quietly across the Great Basin Desert into our cozy bedrooms, kick off the warm covers and discover the joys of celebrating another Christmas morning — that is if the herd of little stinkers in the house don’t first jar us wide awake with their cries of, “Santa Claus has been here! Santa Claus has been here!” while jumping up and down on the middle of our chests with their pajama-covered tootsies.

She told me her plans when I stopped by to pick up some information for a newspaper article.

This is an annual event the children enjoy, she said.

Dec. 20, 2011 — Last week a Sacramento judge tentatively ruled that member-by-member budgets are public documents that must be disclosed.

The assembly, which was named in the lawsuit, has decided not to contest the decision, so the tentative ruling becomes final. Judge Timothy M. Frawley ruled that “the strong public interest in disclosure outweighs any reason for keeping the records secret.”