The U.S. Forest Service may conduct prescribed fire operations around Lake Tahoe beginning March 24, weather permitting.

Operations may take place in Blackwood Canyon between Tahoe City and Tahoma, on the south side of Meeks Bay, on Gardner Mountain near South Tahoe High School and off Gardner Street, on Luther Pass near Grass Lake, at Ski Run Boulevard near Heavenly and on the East Shore near Logan Creek Drive. Operations may last through the next several weeks as conditions allow.

Smoke from prescribed fire operations is normal and may continue for several days after an ignition depending on the project size. Agencies coordinate with state and local county air pollution control districts and monitors weather conditions closely prior to prescribed fire ignition.

Before conducting prescribed fire operations, agencies may post road signs around affected areas and make email or phone notifications. The Forest Service updates the local fire information line at 530.543.2600, ext. 6.

• South Tahoe High School student Alexandra Cody won first place in the National Scholastics Art competition. She will be honored in New York at Carnage Hall on June 11, where her work will be displayed and given a scholarship between $10,000 and $30,000. Many of her photographs are on display in the TADA building at STHS.

• Working with the Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit and Sierra Buttes Trail Stewardship, TAMBA submitted a California OHV grant to complete the Corral Trail Enhancement Project and also fund maintenance on Sidewinder and Cedar trails. The application is available for review online and comments of support are accepted until April 6.

• Barton Hospice encourages people who have experienced the loss of a loved one or have endured a significant, life-altering event to attend this ongoing bereavement group. The next meeting is April 2 from 5-6:30pm. For questions or more information, call Tina Bruess at 530.543.5592 or Barton Hospice at 530.543.5581.

• Lake Tahoe Unified School District ranks No. 3 for best food for school districts in the Sacramento metro area.

• Here is the El Dorado-Tahoe roadwork schedule for next week from Caltrans.

Ronald Randolph-Wall will reveal his entrepreneurial secrets March 25 in a talk entitled “How, without any cost of goods sold, I earned over $100 million while working in Incline Village.”

Randolph-Wall’s career includes founding Quantum Loyalty Systems, creating the first universally accepted movie certificate, developing the world’s first professional sports affinity cards for the NFL and NBA, and other successful products in the promotions industry since 1967. He also created major successful marketing campaigns for companies such as Walt Disney Co., Warner Bros., Procter & Gamble, American Express, and Visa. Most of this work was done in Incline Village.

He went on to open offices in 16 countries and did so without any debt. He also avoided selling any interest in his company to get a capital infusion, a step which many entrepreneurs must do. About 18 months ago, Randolph-Wall sold his company to Comcast/Fandango.

The free talk is from 11:30am-1pm in room 139/141 at Sierra Nevada College, Incline Village. RSVP to Kristine Young at kyoung@sierranevada.edu.

By Chris Dolce, Weather

The winter of 2014-15 was the warmest on record worldwide, according to the state of the climate report released by the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration on Wednesday.

NOAA says that December through February – for meteorological record-keeping purposes, winter is defined as those three months in the Northern Hemisphere – was 1.42 degrees Fahrenheit above the 20th-century average for all land and ocean areas.

This tops the previous warmest winter of 2007 by 0.05 degrees Fahrenheit. Global temperature records are available for the period 1880-2015.

Read the whole story

Sesame Street Fire Safety Workshop, Teaching Fire & Life Safety Behaviors is an opportunity for professionals dedicated to day care, pre-school and early childhood development to learn fire and life safety skills.

The workshop will focus on safety awareness and fire prevention themes such as Get Out & Stay Out, Practice Fire Drills, Kitchen Safety, Using a fire extinguisher, Active Shooter, and Handling the Hostile Parent.

Registration for the March 28 event closes March 26.

East Fork Fire and Paramedic Districts, Tahoe Douglas Fire and Douglas County Sheriff’s Office have partnered with Fire Prevention Association of Nevada to put on the training.

Go online to register. Cost is $25. For questions, contact Sylvia Lee at 775.782.9040 or slee@co.douglas.nv.us.

Update Mach 21, 8pm: UAB lost to UCLA.

By Alec Lewis, News96.5

Wearing Cinderella’s slipper on their left foot, the Blazers knocked off 3-seed Iowa State and Fred Hoiberg, and have found their way into the round of 32.

Gene Bartow succeededJohn Wooden 40 years ago at UCLA, and 40 years ago, Jerod Haase was born in South Lake Tahoe.

It’s part coincidence, part irony, even somewhat me simply creating a storyline. But UAB, led by Jerod Haase — whose opportunity was established by Bartow — will play UCLA today for a chance to return to the Sweet 16 and that’s somewhat remarkable.

On Nov. 15, 2014, UAB opened its season against Louisiana Monroe. To shortcut the details, UAB lost. The Blazers then lost eight of their next 12 basketball games and oh, the football program was demolished.

The third year of the team’s existence under Bartow, the UAB legend took them to the Sweet 16. Saturday UAB will have a chance to repeat that feat in Haase’s third year. Go figure.

Read the whole story

Sierra Nevada College international studies Professor Ted Morse will speak March 31 at 7pm about the origins, power, and objectives of ISIS/ISIL, the violent terrorist group that has captured world attention.

Morse, a highly-decorated retired U.S. Foreign Service senior officer, is a frequent speaker on militant Islam. During his talk, Morse will cover the rise of ISIS/ISIL: who leads it; how it is attracting fanatics from around the world; the sources of its funding and expansion; as well as current efforts to counter its power and reach.

Over the course of his 50 year career, Morse has worked in long-term economic, political, security, and social development in Africa, Asia, Central America, the Caribbean, the Balkans, and Iraq and has been an international consultant for the U.S. and British governments, the United Nations, and the World Bank among others. He has received two Presidential Distinguished and Meritorious Service Awards and multiple Secretary of State Awards, including one for valor, as well as numerous other awards from USAID, the Defense Department, and several foreign governments.

The free event begins at 7pm on the campus of SNC in Incline Village.

By Kathryn Reed

A to-do list filled a large swath of one wall inside the South Lake Tahoe City Council chambers. These were the marching orders delivered to staff by council for the next 18 or so months.

Upon completing a multi-day strategic planning session, the electeds a week ago today reconfirmed projects on the list as well as added new things for staff to accomplish. The time period coincides with how long this council will be together until the next election.

While not everyone was in agreement that everything should be done, at least three people said each item is a priority.

A fee study is going to be conducted. This will show what the actual cost of a service is. It will also reveal what is being subsidized by the general fund or some other pot of cash.

Instead of continuing to take a hodgepodge approach to improvements at Bijou Community Park, a master plan for the facility will be created.

Lake Tahoe Airport’s lobby doubles as the entrance to South Lake Tahoe’s city offices. Photo/Kathryn Reed

Mayor Hal Cole lobbied hard for the airport lobby to be overhauled at an expense of about $200,000 so it is reinvented into a true city hall.

Councilman Tom Davis sees this as a complete waste of money. Councilman Austin Sass advocated for not only renovating the lobby, but expanding the offerings so Lake Tahoe Visitors Authority has a presence and possibly the U.S. Forest Service. The latter could issue wilderness permits from there.

Those in support of the upgrade believe this will give locals something to be proud of – a city hall for the first time in the city’s 50-year history. Plus, it could be a destination of sorts for tourists.

A sampling of other items in the work plan include:

• Capturing more revenue through vacation home rentals, business licenses and transient occupancy tax;

• Complete Tahoe Valley Plan;

• Improve how the town looks;

• Increase hotel occupancy;

• Analyze return on invest;

• Better retention of employees, especially in the fire department;

• Expand recreation;

• Tackle single room occupancy hotel problem;

• Create events center;

• Decrease the cost of Cal-Tahoe JPA;

• Citywide area plan;

• High quality housing for all income levels;

• Improve stormwater system;

• Broaden public outreach;

• Create better, stronger partnerships.

A piece that has been missing from previous powwows like this is a discussion about how the council would measure success.

The work was placed under one of six categories, with some overlap:

• Fiscal sustainability

• Improve built environment

• Economic development

• Public trust and accountability

• Quality core services

• Partnership development.

City Manager Nancy Kerry wanted the council to look at why they wanted something to be done. It’s up to staff to figure out how they get done. The items will be added to the business plan and brought back to the council for adoption in May.

By Jay Famiglietti, Los Angeles Times

Given the historic low temperatures and snowfalls that pummeled the eastern U.S. this winter, it might be easy to overlook how devastating California’s winter was as well.

As our “wet” season draws to a close, it is clear that the paltry rain and snowfall have done almost nothing to alleviate epic drought conditions. January was the driest in California since record-keeping began in 1895. Groundwater and snowpack levels are at all-time lows. We’re not just up a creek without a paddle in California, we’re losing the creek too.

Data from NASA satellites show that the total amount of water stored in the Sacramento and San Joaquin river basins — that is, all of the snow, river and reservoir water, water in soils and groundwater combined — was 34 million acre-feet below normal in 2014. That loss is nearly 1.5 times the capacity of Lake Mead, America’s largest reservoir.

Read the whole story

• Tahoe Paradise Resort Improvement District is looking for a board member. This person is likely to be appointed at the March 26 meeting. The term expires Dec. 7. Directors must own property or be a registered voter within the boundaries of the district. If interested or for more information, contact district secretary Peter Nelligan at 209.985.8776 or panelligan@gmail.com

• Truckee is seeking an artist or artist team to design and install a site-specific outdoor art installation for the Brickelltown streetscape project area. The purpose of this project is to create a flush, surface-mounted art piece to recognize the region’s premier athletes. For more info email jprice@townoftruckee.com or go online.

• NV Energy Foundation awarded a $25,000 grant to support Sierra Nevada College’s environmental science programs.

• Based on concerns raised through public comment, the planning team for the King Fire Restoration Project on the Eldorado National Forest has developed several alternatives to the original proposed action. There will be a meeting March 25 from 6-8pm at the Best Western Plus Placerville Inn, 6850 Greenleaf Drive, Placerville to discuss ideas.

• The next free type 1 diabetes support group put on by Barton Health is April 7 at 5:30pm, 2170 South Ave, South Lake Tahoe.