110 years ago   

The more things change, the more they stay the same. A hundred years ago a Lassen County newspaper editor complained, “the vagaries of California legislation are remarkable. They might be said to be laughable if they did not cost the people so much hard cash.”   

The editor railed about expensive highway laws which could not be enforced, a countywide ordinance prohibiting the shipment of game out of the county — despite the fact such laws had been declared unconstitutional by the state supreme court — and a new voter registration law set to go into effect on Jan. 1, 1900. The editor referred to this legislation as “bungling.”

Jimmy Morrison, known around Susanville as SP Jimmy, was shot by an unknown Native American who demanded his money.   

Morrison encountered the Native American in his yard, but he said he didn’t understand what the man wanted. As Morrison stooped to pick up some blocks laying in front of his house so he could build a fire before he retired, the Native American fired a handgun. The bullet grazed Morrison’s head, but he was able to return home after receiving medical treatment. Morrison was either “unable or too scared” to identify his attacker from two or three suspects rounded up by Sheriff Parker.

60 years ago   

A 50-foot Christmas tree adorned with colored lights was erected by a volunteer crew of city firemen at the corner of Main and Lassen streets. The firefighters added extra limbs to the tree, after some boughs were broken when a fire truck slipped in the mud as the tree was being raised, damaging it and leaving “a rather scraggly appearance.”

35 years ago   

A timber company executive told California legislators, “we have the necessary laws and sufficient knowledge to increase greatly the contribution of the commercial forest lands of the National Forests to the nation’s welfare.”   

George Craig, executive vice president of the Western Timber Association, also told the legislators although the opportunity is there, “much of the effort is being stifled by the actions of preservationists” — whom he called those who want to prevent “the optimum use of timber resources.”

20 years ago   

California Highway Patrol Commander Maury Hanningan said the state’s new drunk driving law declared an all-out war on drunk drivers.   

He said the state’s new lower threshold of .08 percent blood alcohol content which went into effect Jan. 1, 1990, was a more accurate indicator than the current threshold of .10 percent. Hanningan said medical research shows drivers are a menace when they reach .08 percent. The commander said under the old regulation a 160-pound person could probably consume four drinks in a two-hour period, but under the new regulation, consumption would drop to three drinks in a four-hour period.

10 years ago   

Does the California Department of Corrections’ new use of force policy leave the state’s correctional officers in harm’s way?   

The question is one of increasing concern here in Susanville in the aftermath of a bloody brawl at the High Desert State Prison Facility D Yard on Nov. 22, that resulted in the injury of nearly two dozen inmates and correctional officers.   

According to Terry Thornton, a spokeswoman from the California Department of Corrections’ Sacramento headquarters, about 150 inmates were on the HDSP Facility D Yard when officers responded to an assault incident involving three white inmates. A prisoner-made weapon was found and a weapons search of all inmates on the yard was ordered.

A year ago   

A local resident wants to know who is messing up the bright blue skies above Lassen County and why no one is doing anything about it.    

“I’m a nobody,” said Greg Smith, “but I’m also a truth seeker. I moved here 20 years ago for the blue skies and the beautiful weather. It really angers me that somebody is turning our blue skies a creamy white.”   

Smith acknowledges he doesn’t know who is responsible for the emissions from jets that frequently seem to morph into clouds above Lassen County.    

To the conspiracy theorists and the guests on late night radio talk shows, they’re called chemtrails. Nobody knows for sure, but the conspiracy buffs say the chemtrails could be anything or everything from cloud seeding to weather modification to mind control to some advanced star wars weapons system to radar jamming to government black operations and more.