By Ariana Eunjung Cha, Washington Post

First it was blueberries. Then the tart, deep red seeds of pomegranates. Now it’s avocado’s turn in the spotlight.

Long revered as a superfood with good vitamin and fat content, the fleshy green fruit is being used in the development of a drug that researchers hope will one day be able to fight blood cancer.

In a study published in the journal Cancer Research, Paul Spagnuolo, a professor at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada, writes of a fat in avocados that combats acute myeloid leukemia (AML), a rare and deadly form of cancer, by targeting leukemia stem cells while leaving healthy cells unharmed.

Read the whole story

By Renee Lewis, Aljazeera America

In over half of the world’s largest aquifers, water is being drawn faster than it is being replenished, while some of those wellsprings may be much smaller than previously assumed, according to two studies released on Tuesday.

As climate change and population growth increasingly stress the world’s water supplies, understanding how much groundwater exists and at what rates it can be sustainably drawn is critical, said scientists behind the studies.

“Until improved storage estimates exist to determine a system’s full capacity to buffer against renewable ground water stress, continued pressure on aquifer systems could lead to irreversible depletion that seriously threaten the sustainability of groundwater dependent regions,” said a UC Irvine report titled “Uncertainty in Global Groundwater Storage.”

Read the whole story

Nevada has been a leader in foreclosures for years. Photo/Brendel

By Jennifer Robison, Las Vegas Review-Journal

If your mortgage is mired in a years-long default process, the bank may be finally coming for you.

A report from a national real estate research firm shows Nevada lenders stepped up foreclosure activity in May, including big jumps in bank-owned foreclosure sales, or completions.

Banks sold 775 repossessed homes in May, up 41.4 percent from April and up 106.7 percent compared with May 2014, California-based RealtyTrac said.

Read the whole story

Thinning of trees for fuels reduction and forest health has resumed on approximately 340 acres of National Forest System lands on the east side of Highway 267 north of Speckled Avenue above Kings Beach.

The Forest Service will close the area from 7am-6pm daily through Oct. 15 for public safety due to heavy equipment operations and falling trees. The closure notice and map will be posted in the project area along with signs to indicate the location of thinning operations. Hazards may be present even when operations have ended for the day and the closure is not in effect. Individuals disregarding the closure order may be cited, with subsequent fines and jail time.

The forest thinning is part of the Carnelian Hazardous Fuels Reduction and Healthy Forest Restoration Project, which will treat approximately 3,300 acres on North Shore of Lake Tahoe to reduce the risk of severe wildfire, improve forest health, and provide defensible space to neighboring communities.

By Michael Doyle, McClatchy Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON — California water bills continue to fill the Capitol Hill hopper, and now one comes with a new twist.

It’s crowd-sourcing drought solutions, in a long-shot bid to break a congressional stalemate.

On Wednesday, House Democrats from Northern California who have complained about being shut out of drought negotiations took matters into their own hands. They unveiled a sprawling proposal and, in a pointed gesture, opened it for public suggestions before it’s formally introduced.

“This is what a good serious congressional response to the drought looks like,” Rep. Jared Huffman, D-Calif., said in an interview, stressing a need to “do no harm” and to avoid reigniting “the water wars.”

Read the whole story

To the community,

To anyone in attendance at the City Council meeting regarding vacation rentals, I want to sincerely apologize for my losing control of my emotions and inappropriate behavior at the public meeting.

Jim Morris, Lake Tahoe Accommodations

·  The fourth season of Live at Lakeview begins June 25 at 4:30pm and goes to 8:30pm. Making their Lake Tahoe debuts are the Raymond Victor Band and Jonny Gold Trio.

·  The Free Little Library on Sacramento and San Francisco avenues in South Lake Tahoe keeps getting robbed. It was cleaned out twice.

·  Christian DeLeon, previous women’s soccer head coach at Lake Tahoe Community College and South Tahoe High School, is now the women’s soccer coach at Sierra Nevada College.

·  SNC’s Head Ski Coach and Athletic Director Branko Zagar was named the 2015 USCSA coach of the year by the U.S. Collegiate Ski and Snowboard Association.

·  Douglas County Public Library in Zephyr Cove will be closed July 4. The library will reopen July 8 at 11am.

·

Racers prepare for the 2014 Waterman’s Challenge. Photo/Provided

The second annual International Lake Tahoe Outrigger Challenge is July 18-19. The races will start and end at El Dorado Beach in South Lake Tahoe.

That Saturday will feature the keiki (juniors) 4-mile race, the novice 6-mile race and the women’s, coed and men’s 10-mile races.

It is considered a spectator-friendly venue.

The Waterman’s Challenge is Sunday. It is a test of strategy and skills in a three-leg relay with six-person teams competing on stand up paddleboards and OC-6 canoes. This event will take place entirely in front of El Dorado Beach.

Kawai’ulu ‘O Tahoe Outrigger Canoe Club is a nonprofit promoting Polynesian culture, physical fitness and community service through outrigger canoe paddling.

For a complete race event schedule, race course maps, or more information about the club, go online.

By Aimee Picci, MoneyWatch

School meals are designed to be both nutritious for students and easy on their families’ pocketbooks. Yet while some school lunches might get an “A” on providing essential nutrients, they appear to be receiving a flunking grade for affordability.

The issue of school meal prices came to the forefront when a school kitchen manager in a Denver suburb said she lost her job after giving lunches to students who didn’t have the money to pay. While the school district later said the employee was let go for other reasons, the incident raised questions about how children from families earning at least $31,000 per year — the threshold for a family of four to receive free lunches — could fail to afford the seemingly modest cost of school breakfasts and lunches. Reduced-price lunches are available for families earning 185 percent above the poverty rate, or about $44,000 for a family of four.

At the heart of the issue is a tough economic squeeze for families considered the “working poor,” or those who are scraping by just above the poverty threshold. The average price of an elementary school lunch has surged 52 percent in just 11 years, according to a study from the Food Research and Action Center, a nonprofit that focuses on anti-hunger initiatives. During the same period, the median income of U.S. households has declined 5.4 percent.

Read the whole story

By Ann Harmon

Drought? Never mind, the Tahoe basin hasn’t a problem. People who live here, people who visit, they’ll have plenty of water with Lake Tahoe nearby. But doesn’t a drought mean its forests are drying out, that many trees will die? Well, sure, but fire fighters and equipment are great these days. Tahoe will be fine.

Have we forgotten the 2007 Angora Fire? Dismissed the $160 million it cost, the 254 homes burned? Do we remember last year’s 97,000-acre King Fire fought for more than a month, costing $5 million per day? That came close to Tahoe, too close.

If Tahoe burns, a national treasure will be gone. Maybe we should pay attention after all. We have not been this dry for 1,200 years.

Left: Pilot program cameras; right: build out. Images/UNR

The UNR Seismological Laboratory, under Director Graham Kent, recognizes exactly what the drought means: possible basin fires. When the Lab learned of Forest Guard, an international 2009 award winning project of young students in Meadow Vista, it worked with them and with Sony Europe to develop a Tahoe plan. The ALERT Tahoe project is now under way to place 15 cameras around Tahoe to film any basin fire within seconds of its start using on-demand time lapse imagery. Four units are now in place.

The first aha was last August when Mac Heller with the U.S. Forest Service on a fire near Fresno logged onto the camera at Snow Valley Peak. He spotted a small lightning strike fire north of Spooner Summit. Firefighters put it out at less than half an acre.

The USFS-CalFire interagency joint command center in Camino now watches cameras 24/7. Pictures also go to the USFS, CalFire, BLM and local fire districts around the basin.

Axis HD cameras with 32x pan-tilt-zoom capability provide panoramic views from towers built on solid rock, also carrying early warning earthquake detectors. Notably, the BLM has funded these same cameras for Central and Northeast Nevada to catch sagebrush and forest fires. At $3,500 each, cameras have a three-year guarantee. Each station’s complete system of independent microwave communications, power systems, and other expenses is a $15,000 to $30,000 investment.

Towers withstand snow, high winds and earthquakes, so durable that inspections can be limited to two visits a year. This is a good thing. Access can be very difficult. Cameras, when funded, will ultimately provide coverage from Peavine to McClellan Peaks and possibly from Sierra-at-Tahoe and the western slope of the Sierra.

The ALERT Tahoe program is being funded by public grants and private donations. New donations are critical to roll the system out as rapidly as possible. Tahoe can’t wait. This summer, if $50,000 is raised quickly through private donations, installations will be placed above Zephyr Cove and, hopefully, on Martis Peak. If additional donations and site approvals are secured early this summer, possibly two other stations would be built, one on Diamond Peak, one above Cal Neva.

Two million dollars would provide the system and operating funds for a decade. Remarkably, that is only 1.25 percent of the cost of the Angora Fire. Kent notes that, were $2 million immediately available, camera eyes could be placed within two years on 15 towers. Delayed funding would take three to four years more.

System maps, cameras and donation information are on ALERT Tahoe’s website.

Also under way, with financing by the National Science Foundation and the Nevada Governor’s Knowledge Fund, is UNR lab’s research into using drones for quickly communicating real-time imagery during fires. Plans are to team with UC San Diego to share ideas and save possible costs, including crowd sourcing fire watching.

Ann Harmon is a retired research chemist who lives in Stateline.