Unpacking Life’s Chaos: Simple Ways to Create a Life that Energizes Instead of Exhausts You will be the topic of a May 5 workshop on the South Shore.

Karin Finkler, a Lake Tahoe native, will lead a half-day workshop to help people create an individual life rhythm. Her training in business and life coaching, as well as her experience in the foreign policy and international human rights arenas, has given her a deep desire to help women around the world create an inspiring and energizing life of contribution stemming from their innate value.

Each year, the Lake Tahoe Community Presbyterian Church hosts a workshop or seminar to support the Tahoe community. 

Finding the space and time to breathe a bit and figure out what will work best to refresh and re-boot our lives often can seem impossible, so LTCPC is creating that space and time.

Every woman in the Lake Tahoe region is invited to attend. Child care will be provided.

The event is May 5, 9am-12:30pm at Lake Tahoe Community Presbyterian Church, 2733 Lake Tahoe Blvd., South Lake Tahoe.

Register online for $10. All proceeds will go to the Tahoe Women’s Community Fund.

For questions, email TahoePresChurchEvents@gmail.com or call 775.392.1715.

By Richard N. Velotta, Las Vegas Review-Journal

Gaming regulators are used to tweaking rules to keep up with changes in the industry. Last week the Nevada Gaming Commission took a step toward keeping up with societal change.

Under an amendment unanimously approved by the five-member commission, casinos will be subject to the same disciplinary standards for letting people gamble while impaired by drugs as they are for letting them play while intoxicated by alcohol.

The new rules may result in additional workforce training for floor staff to be aware of potentially impaired patrons.

Read the whole story

By Johnathan L. Wright, Reno Gazette-Journal

It all began with a box gone astray.

The shipment hailed from Blue Apron, one of the meal kit purveyors emerging in recent years to harness millennials’ inclination for good food and online commerce to their disinclination to shop for and make nightly dinners from scratch.

Christie Casey-Braun opened the box on auto-pilot, thinking it was a giveaway or promotion or sample, not noticing the box should have been delivered to her neighbor.

“I thought, ‘This is a cool concept, but I wonder if there’s a local option,’ Casey-Braun said. ‘I wonder if there’s a way to do this local and better.’ ”

Read the whole story

In conjunction with the National Peace Officer’s Memorial Week, the South Lake Tahoe Police Department will have its annual award ceremony on May 17 at 4pm.

Everyone is invited to attend. The presentations will be made in front of the police department located at 1352 Johnson Blvd.

The employee’s and volunteers receiving recognition at this year’s award ceremony are as follows:

• Officer Cory Wilson – Bravery
• Officer Joseph Acker – Bravery
• Officer Chris Webber – Bravery
• Officer Anton Kushlan – Bravery
• Officer Timothy Peterson – Bravery
• Detective Justin Brock – Bravery
• Sgt. Jason Cheney – Bravery
• Detective Jake Herminghaus – Distinguished Service
• Maureen Stuhlman – Community Service Award
• Marshall Johnson – Citizen Award of Merit.

Each week Unity at the Lake offers a youth empowerment program concurrent with their regular Sunday service.

This is because the South Lake Tahoe church believes every child is special, that they make a difference and that they have infinite resources within them.

In keeping with this, all children in the community are invited to a special musical program facilitated by Jodene Hurt, a local child educator, on April 29 at 10am.  

This musical program is intended to be a fun, positive, universal and non-denominational, and will offer group participation. Suitable for ages 4 and up.

UATL is located at 870 Emerald Bay Road. For more information, email unityatthelake@sbcglobal.net.

Ron Buck talks beer with Larry Armstrong and Joan Bigelow at Mountain Brews. Photo/Kathryn Reed

By Kathryn Reed

Subtle, powerful, full bodied, visually appealing – and, well, delicious. And that, after all, is what really matters – the taste.

Lake Tahoe Mountain Brews, better known just as Mountain Brews, is the latest brewery to open in South Lake Tahoe.

“We can’t do quantity, so we are focusing on quality,” brewmaster Ron Buck told Lake Tahoe News.

Five incredibly different beers fill the tray. And much like a wine tasting, there is an order they are to be consumed.

A flight of beers is worth sharing. Photo/Kathryn Reed

“These recipes are so full bodied that the alcohol is masked,” Buck explains.

That could by why after finishing the Imperial Rye (12 percent alcohol) it was necessary to slow down a bit. Note taking got sketchy with my three favorites having the most alcohol – Belgian Festival (9.3 percent) and Porter (9.8 percent) being the other two.

This flight of five 4-ounce beers ($15) is too much for this taster to finish, but it would be great to share. My least favorites are left behind – Evolution Ale and Herbal IPA. Even so, it’s not that there is anything wrong with them, it’s just a preference thing.

Taylor Flynn designed the cold storage facility in what used to be a closet. Photo/Kathryn Reed

Taylor Flynn, owner of the monthly Mountain News, has transformed the bottom floor of the newspaper office into a brewery. Upstairs is still home to the paper.

It looks nothing like it once did, when a desk greeted those who entered the office and a couch was near the fire place. It was dark and uninviting – which could have been done on purpose.

Today it’s a combination of woodsy mountain meets industrial décor. The bar is a 12-foot slab of redwood. Wood floors have lightened the room up. Vapor lights and the corrugated metal at the bar, along with the metal pipes that hide the wires balance the wood. The varied metal chairs and wine barrel tables, along with the brick at the fireplace and behind the bar tie it all together.

Above the fireplace is a screen showing pictures of Tahoe taken by Buck. With Flynn being an accomplished photographer, it’s likely his photos will be part of the rotation at some point. Music comes on when the doors open to the public. It’s possible some sporting event will be on that will be muted, but this isn’t a sports bar.

This is a place for beer aficionados.

“There will be new recipes each season,” Buck said. The beers being served now were made in January.

Stainless steel vats fill one of the back rooms of Mountain Brews. Photo/Kathryn Reed

For now, there are no plans to extend the hours or days of week. It’s Buck and Flynn who are behind the bar pouring the beers. They are able to explain to patrons exactly what’s in them, the process and what’s to come.

Buck honed his skills at the former Mt. Tallac Brewery and Cold Water Brewery, as well as being a home brewer.

His binder of recipes looks more like a chemistry manual. Software can help make subtle changes. Then there is the ability to age or condition the beer on oak, vanilla bean, lemon grass, sage, and various hops.

“More ingredients are available to brews because of the process. You can layer in the flavors,” Buck said.

The three-barrel system is the equivalent of six kegs per batch.

Flynn had the idea of opening the brewery about five years ago. Originally he bought the building with the idea of hiring a staff to make the paper a weekly. Personal issues put the kibosh on those plans, so Plan B was concocted. He’s happy the nano-brewery is what came to fruition.

Food might be offered in the future, but that will take some doing with government agencies. For now, crackers and pretzels are available.

Bottling and growlers would be the more immediate additions.

Ron Buck and Taylor Flynn in January put some muscle into beer making. Photo/Kathryn Reed

—–

Notes:

·      Address – 963 Third St., South Lake Tahoe.

·      Hours – Friday and Saturday, 4-10pm.

·      Prices — $6 to $8 per glass

·      Alcohol content – 6.3 to 12 percent

·      Current selection – Evolution Ale, Herbal IPA, Imperial Rye, Porter, Belgian Festival.

By Don Ashton and Michael Ciccozzi

The El Dorado County Board of Supervisors has closely followed the issues surrounding Senate Bill 54, which is known as The California Value Act. SB54 made numerous amendments to state law and has been criticized for infringing local law enforcement’s ability to collaborate with federal immigration officials. While the key conflict surrounding SB54 remains between the federal and state governments, the county remains concerned with how SB54 may affect its ability to carry out its law enforcement responsibilities in the most effective means possible.

The Board of Supervisors also understands that the alleged conflicts between state and federal law involves complex issues that cannot be meaningfully assessed by the county without the expenditure of significant staff time and resources to analyze the intricacies of SB54 and federal immigration law. Objective analysis of the complex legal issues is expected in the near future.

Specifically, the United States has sued the state of California in federal court claiming that SB54 violates the Supremacy Clause of the United States Constitution. The United States moved to enjoin California from enforcing SB54, and this motion will be heard by the federal District Court on June 20. The decision on the United States’ motion for preliminary injunction will require the court to evaluate the merits of the United States’ challenge to SB54 and other state “sanctuary” laws (AB450 and AB103).

The Board of Supervisors also understands that Orange County recently sought to intervene in the federal lawsuit, and Orange County’s motion to intervene is set to be heard June 5. As Orange County’s motion to intervene demonstrates, intervention is a complicated legal issue and seeking intervention would require the expenditure of significant county resources. Instead of expending limited resources at this time and taking away from other pressing county projects, the Board of Supervisors believes the more prudent avenue is to await the upcoming guidance from the court on whether a county is a proper party to the federal lawsuit.

Another more limited option to present the county’s perspective in the federal lawsuit would be to file a “friend of the court” brief. At this time, five such amicus briefs have been filed, and the federal court indicated that any additional “duplicative or cumulative arguments will not be considered.” Because the motion for preliminary injunction will be heard in less than two months, any such brief would also be untimely. The county will continue to watch the federal lawsuit and evaluate whether such a brief in support of a future motion or appeal would be a prudent expenditure of county resources.

Don Ashton is chief administrative officer for El Dorado County and Michael Ciccozzi is county counsel.

By Robert Beelman, The Conversation

Mushrooms are often considered only for their culinary use because they are packed with flavor-enhancers and have gourmet appeal. That is probably why they are the second most popular pizza topping next to pepperoni.

In the past, food scientists like me often praised mushrooms as healthy because of what they don’t contribute to the diet; they contain no cholesterol and gluten and are low in fat, sugars, sodium and calories. But that was selling mushrooms short. They are very healthy foods and could have medicinal properties, because they are good sources of protein, B-vitamins, fiber, immune-enhancing sugars found in the cell walls called beta-glucans, and other bioactive compounds.

Mushrooms have been used as food and sometimes as medicine for centuries. In the past, most of the medicinal use of mushrooms was in Asian cultures, while most Americans have been skeptical of this concept. However, due to changing consumer attitudes rejecting the pharmaceutical approach as the only answer to healing, that seems to be changing.

I study the nutritional value of fungi and mushrooms, and my laboratory has conducted a great deal of research on the lowly mushroom. We have discovered that mushrooms may be even better for health than previously known. They can be excellent sources of four key dietary micronutrients that are all known to be important to healthy aging. We are even looking into whether some of these could be important in preventing Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease.

Four key nutrients

Important nutrients in mushrooms include selenium, vitamin D, glutathione and ergothioneine. All are known to function as antioxidants that can mitigate oxidative stress and all are known to decline during aging. Oxidative stress is considered the main culprit in causing the diseases of aging such as cancer, heart disease and dementia.

Ergothioneine, or ergo, is actually an antioxidant amino acid that was initially discovered in 1909 in ergot fungi. Amino acids are the building blocks of proteins.

Ergo is produced in nature primarily by fungi, including mushrooms. Humans cannot make it, so it must be obtained from dietary sources. There was little scientific interest in ergo until 2005, when pharmacology Professor Dirk Grundemann discovered that all mammals make a genetically coded transporter that rapidly pulls ergo into the red blood cells. They then distribute ergo around the body, where it accumulates in tissues that are under the most oxidative stress. That discovery led to a significant increase in scientific inquiry about possible role of ergo in human health. One study led to a leading American scientist, Dr. Solomon Snyder, recommending that ergo be considered as a new vitamin.

In 2006, a graduate student of mine, Joy Dubost, and I discovered that edible cultivated mushrooms were extremely rich sources of ergo and contained at least 10 times the level in any other food source. Through collaboration with John Ritchie and post-doctoral scientist Michael Kalaras at the Hershey Medical Center at Penn State, we showed that mushrooms are also a leading dietary source of the master antioxidant in all living organisms, glutathione. No other food even comes close to mushrooms as a source of both of these antioxidants.

Our current research is centered on evaluating the potential of ergo in mushrooms to prevent or treat neurodegenerative diseases of aging, such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s. We based this focus on several intriguing studies conducted with aging Asian populations. One study conducted in Singapore showed that as people aged the ergo content in their blood declined significantly, which correlated with increasing cognitive impairment.

The authors suggested that a dietary deficiency of ergo might predispose individuals to neurological diseases. A recent epidemiological study conducted with over 13,000 elderly people in Japan showed that those who ate more mushrooms had less incidence of dementia. The role of ergo consumed with the mushrooms was not evaluated but the Japanese are known to be avid consumers of mushrooms that contain high amounts of ergo.

More ergo, better health?

One important question that has always begged an answer is how much ergo is consumed in the diet by humans. A 2016 study was conducted that attempted to estimate the average ergo consumption in five different countries. I used their data to calculate the estimated amount of ergo consumed per day by an average 150-pound person and found that it ranged from 1.1 in the U.S. to 4.6 milligrams per day in Italy.

We were then able to compare estimated ergo consumption against mortality rate data from each country caused by the common neurological diseases, including Alzheimer’s, dementia, Parkinson’s disease and multiple sclerosis. We found, in each case, a decline in the death rates with increasing estimated ergo consumption. Of course, one cannot assume a cause and effect relationship from such an exercise, but it does support our hypothesis that it may be possible to decrease the incidence of neurological diseases by increasing mushroom consumption.

If you don’t eat mushrooms, how do you get your ergo? Apparently, ergo gets into the food chain other than by mushroom consumption via fungi in the soil. The fungi pass ergo on to plants grown in the soil and then on to animals that consume the plants. So that depends on healthy fungal populations in agricultural soils.

This led us to consider whether ergo levels in the American diet may be harmed by modern agricultural practices that might reduce fungal populations in soils. We began a collaboration with scientists at the Rodale Institute, who are leaders in the study of regenerative organic agricultural methods, to examine this. Preliminary experiments with oats have shown that farming practices that do not require tilling resulted in significantly higher ergo levels in the oats than with conventional practices, where tillage of the soil disrupts fungal populations.

In 1928 Alexander Fleming accidentally discovered penicillin produced from a fungal contaminant in a petri dish. This discovery was pivotal to the start of a revolution in medicine that saved countless lives from bacterial infections. Perhaps fungi will be key to a more subtle, but no less important, revolution through ergo produced by mushrooms. Perhaps then we can fulfill the admonition of Hippocrates to “let food be thy medicine.”

Robert Beelman is a professor of food science at Pennsylvania State University.

·      South Lake Tahoe Democratic Club is hosting a forum for the four candidates from for the El Dorado County Board of Supervisors District 5 seat. It will be April 26, 6-8pm at the CCC in Meyers.

·      The Truckee EAA offers a pancake breakfast and free airplane rides for youth 8-17 on the second Saturday of every month. Donations requested for breakfasts, flights are free. The next event is May 12, 8-10am at the Truckee airport. RSVP to yecoord1073@outlook.com.

·      Tahoe Vista boat launch opening day is tentatively set for May 18.

·      The Mountain Housing Council of Tahoe Truckee annual housing meeting will be in Kings Beach on April 28 starting at 9am at North Tahoe Event Center in Kings Beach. Topics will include impact fees and new housing options. For info and to RSVP, go online.

·      Valhalla is hosting Afro-Brazilian movement and rhythm workshops with SambaDa on July 17 and July 18. Go online to register.

By Adam Ashton, Sacramento Bee
 
Future state workers, your pension cost-of-living adjustments are safe, and you won’t get to choose between a CalPERS pension and a 401(k) plan anytime soon.

Both proposals were shot down on Monday by a Senate committee that rejected a pack of bills aimed at reducing the risk taxpayers face if an economic crisis cripples the state’s public pension funds.

Most of the bills came from Republican Sen. John Moorlach of Costa Mesa and Democratic Sen. Steve Glazer of Orinda, who argue that the rising cost of public pensions could drive local governments into bankruptcy when the next recession hits.

Read the whole story