Technology has begun to show its ugly side in Lassen County as two accidents on the front page of the Lassen Weekly Mail attests. A county resident was killed in Westwood when he came in contact with “live wire” while another barely escaped death when his car rolled over four times on Shaffly Grade.

65 years ago

The U.S. commissioner of conciliation was in Susanville to mediate a strike of 800 members of the local 370 International Woodworkers of America, working at Fruit Growers Supply Company. Four hundred citizens filled Memorial Hall to follow the open negotiation meeting.

45 years ago

Lassen Memorial Hospital staff asked for a 20 percent salary increase from the hospital administrator and threatened collective resignation if the Lassen County Board of Supervisors failed to approve the increase.

15 years ago

Senator Tim Leslie has signed on as a co-author of a massive utility restructuring plan approved by the Senate that would lower residential utility rates by 20 percent by 2002.

10 years ago

The Agency For Toxic Substances and Disease Registry will conduct a public health assessment to determine if the public’s health is threatened by the blasts at Sierra Army Depot near Herlong. Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said the depot burns between 48 and 56 million pounds of munitions in open pits each year, more than all the other depots in the country combined.

Five years ago

Record gas prices and subsequent cost overruns drove the owner of the Termo Store to discontinue sales a few weeks ago. Locals tell stories of drivers left stranded somewhere in Ravendale or Termo and having to walk door to door in search of a kind soul with a few gallons to sell. Others pull into the Likely General Store thankful to have made it there without walking.

Last year

Requests from victims and witnesses were considered and once-convicted killer Loren Herzog will be released on parole in Lassen County rather than San Joaquin County. According to Luis Patino,public information officer for the California Department of Corrections, by law, a parolee should be released to the county of last legal residence.

However, Patino said, victims, victims’ next-of-kin and witnesses have the right to file for special consideration as to the location of the parole releases of their offenders. All requests are evaluated on a case-by-case basis.

Patino said, “Based on those requests and the confines of the law, Loren Herzog will not be released in San Joaquin County. Herzog will be released in mid-September in Lassen County.”

Recordnet.com, a news source serving the Stockton and the San Joaquin Countyareas, reported“Herzog had been sentenced to 78 years for three murders as conspirator to Wesley Shermantinte, who remains on death row for four murders.”

According to a press release from the California State Department of Corrections, it says Herzog was convicted in Santa Clara County, a change of venue from San Joaquin County, in December 2001.

In2004, a state appellate court threw out Herzog’s three murder convictions and much of the evidence against him.

That led to a plea bargain and Herzog pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter.

Lassen County District 2 Supervisor Jim Chapman added the discussion of Herzog’s release to the agenda for the Sept. 14 Board of Supervisors meeting.

“I asked that the late item be placed on the agenda for Tuesday so that the board can discuss the matter with the sheriff and be in a position on Tuesday to take any actions that would be appropriate,” Chapman wrote in an e-mail to those on the board of supervisors’ contact list. “The sheriff and sheriff-elect are aware of the matter and have been invited to discuss the issue with the board on Tuesday as well.”

A loud, public outcry might be the best way to thwart the CDCR plan to release Herzog in Lassen County, Chapman said. As the news of Herzog’s parole spreads, Chapman said no one in the community wants the convicted killer released here.

“The bottom line,” Chapman said, “is the law can do what it has to do, but public opinion can make a difference.”