120 years ago
One Eades, who was found guilty of battery, was fined $80 and sentenced to imprisonment until the fine was paid. He was released on Habeaus Corpeus due to the fact the judgment did not specify where he should be confined.

65 years ago
A rattlesnake bite at a ranch near Doyle caused the death of an 8-year-old girl last week.

The girl, Judith L. Gould, died 11 hours after she was bitten while visiting her grandmother, Diane Gould, on the Gould ranch near Ft. Sage.

Given first aid, she was rushed to Reno, Nev., where a doctor was summoned. She died at her parent’s home.

45 years ago
More than a quarter century of service to the Lassen County Free Library ended on Aug. 1, with the closing of the County’s Riverside Branch, which had been located for most of its years in the home of Mrs. George Raker at the Meadowview Dairy.

The changing patterns of modern life, which makes it easy for people within a few miles of town to use the headquarters library, made a rural branch so close to town unnecessary.

20 years ago
The Board of Trustees at its Aug. 13, regular meeting unanimously approved a policy restricting behavior at graduation in the Lassen Union High School District. Prohibition of aerosol cans, cap and gown decorations or “any device or object whose use might tend to disturb, mar or spoil the ceremony.”

10 years ago
After five long days of testimony from 26 witnesses, it took a Lassen County Special Grand Jury only 25 minutes Friday morning to unanimously decide there was no reason to file criminal charges against law enforcement officials involved in a Jan. 14 raid on a Main Street residence in Susanville.

Five years ago
Because Fetal Alcohol Spectrum is the leading cause of learning disabilities in the United States, Friday, Sept. 9, is FAS awareness day in Lassen County.

The Lassen County Board of Supervisors unanimously proclaimed the awareness day at its Tuesday, Aug. 23 meeting. Sept. 6 is the sixth annual international FAS Day.

FAS activists urge doctors to counsel women not to drink or use drugs during pregnancy. Kathryn Page, of Fetal Alcohol Services, said prenatal exposure to drugs and alcohol in Lassen County ranks at 150 percent of the state average.

Last year
The former superintendent of the Westwood Unified School District and Westwood Charter School pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor conflict of interest charge in Lassen Superior Court on Wednesday, Aug. 25.

Raymond Giordano, a visiting retired judge from Sonoma County, ordered Henry Warner Bietz, the former superintendent, to pay a $110 restitution fund fine, and serve 20 days in the Lassen County Jail and two years probation. Bietz also was ordered to pay a second $120 restitution fund fine that will be refunded once he satisfactorily completes probation.

Giordano also stayed the jail sentence until 7 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 23 to allow time for the Lassen County Probation Department to prepare a report and for the matter to be referred to the Lassen County Sheriff Department’s Sheriff’s Alternative Work Program so Bietz can complete his sentence through community service rather than time behind bars.

Bietz had faced felony conflict of interest and perjury charges arising from his work as superintendent of WUSD and WCS between Oct. 1, 2004 and Oct. 31, 2005.