In the March/April 2026 issue of Imprimis (Volume 55, Issue 3/4), Edward J. Erler—professor emeritus of political science at California State University, San Bernardino and author of The United States in Crisis: Citizenship, Immigration, and the Nation State—publishes an updated version of his influential 2008 essay titled “Are We Subjects or Citizens? Birthright Citizenship and the Constitution.”

Picture a stormy Philadelphia night in June 1752. A middle-aged man in a plain coat stands in an open field beside his young son, William. A silk kite rises into the black clouds, twine dancing in the wind, a brass key dangling from the string. Thunder cracks. A spark jumps from the key to Benjamin Franklin’s knuckle. In that single, electrifying moment, he tamed the heavens and proved lightning was electricity. The world would never be the same.

As we reported back on February 23 in “Shasta County Attorney Convicted in DUI Scooter Crash That Severely Injured Elderly Pedestrian,” local criminal defense attorney Lisa Marie Jensen (State Bar #284968) was found guilty by a Shasta County jury of felony DUI causing injury and reckless driving causing injury, plus a great bodily injury enhancement. The charges stemmed from the November 17, 2023, incident on Placer Street in which Jensen, riding an electric scooter downhill on a sidewalk where such use is prohibited, slammed into elderly pedestrian Calvin Johanessen from behind while under the influence of alcohol.

Shasta Unfiltered did a deep dive into the facts surrounding the Susan Wilson Investigation of embezzlement and financial mismanagement during her tenure as Executive Director of Youth Options Shasta, a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing kids safe recreation options. While some news outlets trumpet that she was exonerated, the facts are that a decision by the Shasta County District Attorney not to prosecute is far from an exoneration. Read the article and study the details for yourselves.