Lassen County’s apple farmers declared war on the insects that had been ravaging their orchards. Twenty-thousand boxes of apples were ruined, almost crippling the industry.

The newspaper called on readers to help assist the farmers in order to get the county’s apple industry back on track.

65 years ago

Crewmembers of a Growers Supply Company train barely escaped injury when one of two locomotives derailed and tumbled off a mountainside near Feather Lake Summit, 28 miles from Susanville.

Heavy snowfall during the winter was believed to have caused the railroad tracks beneath the train to collapse.

30 years ago

Diamond View teacher Donna Dandois was threatened by a student who pulled a gun. The Susanville Police Department said they believed the 11-year-old boy’s semi-automatic handgun was loaded and that he attempted to fire the gun at the teacher, but it malfunctioned during the incident. The boy in question was referred to the probation department.

25 years ago

Assemblyman Stan Statham met with top Susanville officials March 23 to discuss the city’s need for an approved water system. Mayor David Foster, City Administrator Duane Cole, andCity Engineer David Cosper traveled to Sacramento to detail existing water system problems to the legislator, including new demands on the system from the recent expansion of the California Correctional Center in Lassen County.

20 years ago

After the fighting off of some opposition and potential lawsuit-forced delays in the traveled process for Lassen Gold Mining Inc.’s (LGMI) Hayden Hill Project, the Lassen County Air Pollution Control Board decided to give the mining operation a break and some extra time.

With these delays in meeting the requirements for their ATC permit, LGMI was faced with terminating their construction operations if the conditional order for abatement was approved. The board unanimously approved such an action.

10 years ago

The Lassen County Mental Health Department “does indeed have a significant number of areas in which to improve,” according to Grand Jury Foreman Sophia Wages.

That assessment was included in the cover letter Wages submitted with an interim Grand Jury Report. Health and Human Services Director Tom Keefer presented the interim report to the Lassen County Mental Health Advisory Board on Wednesday, March 21.

Five years ago

Dr. Ira Chasnoff stressed the need to prevent prenatal exposure to drugs and alcohol and fetal alcohol syndrome at Lassen Community College Saturday, March 25. Chasnoff is one of the leading researchers in the field of maternal drug use during pregnancy and the effects it has on the newborn infant and child. The all-day workshop addressed the impact drug and alcohol use has on parenting, infants who are born to drug-using women, fetal alcohol syndrome and the effects of prenatal exposure to alcohol and other drugs.

Last year

Heads up work by an observant correctional officer at the California Correctional Center in Susanville led to a four-month multi-agency investigation that resulted in the eventual arrest of five alleged Central Valley white supremacist gang members on charges of suspicion of engaging in a conspiracy to distribute heroin in a prison and other charges.

According to a press release from the California Attorney General’s Office, the investigation, named Operation Forseti for the Norse god of justice, began in November 2010 when a correctional officer at CCC noticed “a suspicious envelope sent to inmate Robin Conley Briggs, (allegedly) a member of the New Order gang.”

A department of justice laboratory confirmed the glue in the envelope contained heroin, and investigators suspect “many more heroin-laden envelopes may have been shipped into the prison.”