A high pressure is making the Lake Tahoe Basin unseasonably warm. Photo/Toogee Sielsch

Record high temperatures were set this weekend and the same may happen next weekend.

“We are going to have a high pressure over the area. There will be clear skies, sunny skies and just a lot of sunshine over the area,” Brian O’Hara, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Reno told Lake Tahoe News.

On June 13, South Lake Tahoe hit a record high of 85. The old record from 1974 was 82 degrees. The high of 84 on June 14 broke the 1975 record of 82 degrees.

O’Hara said more of the same is in store for next weekend. The best date for another record setting high is June 21. The current record of 85 degrees was set in 1988. The forecast high is for 87 degrees.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report

Mashona

Mashona is a white Chihuahua who is about 5 years old. She walks nicely on her leash and she loves to cuddle. She does well with other dogs and loves to play.

Mashona is spayed, microchipped, tested for heart worm, and vaccinated. She is at the El Dorado County Animal Services shelter in Meyers, along with many other dogs and cats who are waiting for their new homes. Go to the Tahoe animal shelter’s Facebook page to see photos and descriptions of all pets at the shelter.

Call 530.573.7925 for directions, hours, and other information on adopting a pet.

For spay-neuter assistance for South Tahoe residents, go online.

— Karen Kuentz

By Kathryn Reed

STATELINE —  Placer County is putting a twist on its area plan that other jurisdictions have not done. That is to tie an actual project to environmental documents.

“An additional benefit is we will see what regulations do on the ground,” Arlo Stockholm, consultant for the county, last week told the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency’s Advisory Planning Commission.

The Tahoe City Lodge is a 120-unit hotel on 3.1 acres that is being proposed to be built across from Commons Beach on Highway 28.

Comments are being taken until Aug. 3 regarding the notice of preparation for scoping the environmental impact documents.

A rendering by Design Workshop of what Tahoe City could look like.

The county wants to change how commodities are traded in the Lake Tahoe Basin so commercial floor area could be converted to tourist accommodation units. The Regional Plan does not currently allow for that. This is one reason why Placer has bought a hotel in South Lake Tahoe and desires to do so again – it needs to acquire TAUs so people can build lodging establishments.

Samir Tuma with Kila Properties in Palo Alto is the developer of the Tahoe City Lodge. He said they are in talks with the Tahoe City Golf Course to try to integrate their businesses.

Ellie Waller, who lives on the North Shore, isn’t against a good project. However, at the meeting she questioned why taxpayer dollars were being used to pay for the environmental documents of a private developer.

Jennifer Quashnick with Friends of the West Shore is concerned the lodge will preclude other projects from being considered. She also hopes the cumulative impacts of growth in the region will be looked at, in particular the proposed expansion at the Squaw Valley Village.

Stockholm said the recently approved Fanny Bridge project will be taken into consideration with the area plan docs.

Waller also questioned why Placer is doing one area plan that encompasses the entire Lake Tahoe portion of the county instead of breaking it up into smaller chunks like what South Lake Tahoe and Douglas County have done.

The county should save a considerable amount of money with the consolidated format even though there are four designated geographic segments in the area plan. The Tahoe Basin Area Plan encompasses about 72 square miles.

“There will be separate design standards for the four plan areas,” Stockholm told the commission.

—–

Notes:

·      Future meetings:

1.     Placer County – June 16, 12:30pm, North Lake Tahoe Event Center, Kings Beach.

2.     Placer County – June 16, 5:30pm, Tahoe City Public Utility District board room.

3.     Placer County – workshop, June 22, 5:30pm, North Tahoe Event Center, Kings Beach.

4.     TRPA Regional Plan Implementation Committee, June 24, 8:30am, Stateline office.

5.     TRPA Governing Board, June 24, 9:30am, Stateline.

6.     Placer County – workshop, June 29, 5:30pm, Tahoe City Public Utility District board room.

·      More information is available online.

By Alex Abella, Los Angeles Times

One hundred and sixty nine years ago in a frontier town, a band of thieves, drunks and murderers hoisted a home-made flag and declared themselves in revolt from a government that had welcomed them. Instigated by an expansionist neighboring power, the rebels aimed to take over completely and impose their language, culture and mores on the land. The revolt succeeded beyond anyone’s expectations.

That frontier town was Sonoma, the land was California, and the rebels, American settlers spurred on by promises of help from U.S. Army Captain John Fremont. The rebel standard, the flag of the so-called California Republic, became the California State Flag. It’s time California dump that flag, a symbol of blatant illegality and racial prejudice. Like the Confederate cross of St. Andrew, the Bear Flag is a symbol whose time has come and gone.

When the Legislature voted to adopt the rebel standard as the state flag in 1911, California was in the grip of a racist, jingoistic fever.

Read the whole story

By Henry Alford, New York Times

Let’s call it the aspirational R.S.V.P. — when someone replies yes to an invitation, even though he knows, or is fairly certain, that he can’t or won’t attend.

“Aspirational R.S.V.P.s have become rampant, thanks to Facebook,” said the painter and translator Daisy Rockwell. “Very often when I post an event there, people will choose ‘Join’ simply as a show of solidarity. If you ask them if they really plan to come to your Massachusetts event all the way from California, they are affronted, as though you are criticizing their noble sentiment.”

Reservations-making without commitment is the apotheosis of digital glibness; it’s a vote of confidence built on rickety scaffolding.

Read the whole story

A motorcyclist was killed in Zephyr Cove on June 13. Photo/Provided

A motorcyclist was killed Friday night in Zephyr Cove.

The June 13 accident occurred about 9pm on Highway 50 at Martin Drive.

A passer-by told Lake Tahoe News that parts of the motorcycle littered the highway.

The other vehicle that was involved had its front end smashed, with air bags going off in the front and back.

Nevada Highway Patrol is not releasing more details until Monday.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report

By Michael Beck, Outside

You’re in a slump, reading these words hunched over a keyboard or your smartphone. It’s habit that’s throwing your body out of whack and resulting in a musculoskeletal system that’s about as architecturally sound as that 1950s-era Springbar tent gramps left you.

“Our bodies adapt to the positions we put them in the most,” says James Wilson, owner of MTB Strength Training Systems. “When you sit hunched over a desk all day a lot of areas become tight, off kilter, and weak.”

If you’re the kind of athlete who supplements outdoor sports with strength work in the gym, performing some of the most popular and oft-prescribed exercises—like barbell back squats, conventional deadlifts, and military presses—can set you up for injury. “Classic barbell exercises are great if you can do them right,” says Ben Bruno, C.S.C.S., a Los Angeles-based trainer. “But they’re the most commonly butchered because they’re highly technical and require a lot of mobility.”

Read the whole story

By Sean Whaley, Las Vegas Review-Journal

CARSON CITY — Gov. Brian Sandoval signed the final bills of the 2015 legislative session into law Friday, including a measure creating the “Breakfast After the Bell” program for schoolchildren and another providing $14 million for the construction of a Northern Nevada Veterans Home.

In all, Sandoval signed 549 bills and issued six vetoes from the session that ended June 1.

The bills signed into law Friday, the deadline for Sandoval to sign or veto measures, include those that are part of a comprehensive effort to create and expand resources for Nevada veterans and their families through enhanced educational, employment and health care services.

Read the whole story

El Dorado County’s Probation Department has made strides to be a better place to work compared the previous year year, according to the grand jury.

A year ago, the department was one of several that contributed to the county being called “dysfunctional” by the investigating body. The bulk of the problems were in the South Lake Tahoe office.

This year’s report says, “Even the most negatively impacted officers acknowledged that positive changes have come about in the South Lake Tahoe Probation Office, although they report that some problems linger with reduced impact.”

Credit is given to Brian Richart, who took over last year as chief of the department, for helping right the ship.

The grand jury recommended the positive changes continue so more improvement may be achieved.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report

·  The Rolling Chrome and Tahoe Thunder Car and MC Show will be at Heavenly Village in South Lake Tahoe on July 3-5.

·  The $42 million four-mile freeway extension between Fairview Drive and the Highway 50 in south Carson City is set to break ground June 15. The road is expected to open in 2017.

·  Douglas County Public Library Teen Advisory board is putting on a Mario Kart tournament on June 19 from 5-7pm at the Minden Library. Board games will also be available. This free program includes pizza, popcorn and drinks. The Minden Library is located at 1625 Library Lane. For more info, call at 775.782.9841.

· Michael Teel, the grandson of the founder of Raley’s grocery stores, has been the major shareholder since May.

· Race the Lake of the Sky stand up paddleboard race is June 27-28 at El Dorado Beach in South Lake Tahoe. For more info, go online.