Free public firewood gathering will again be available at the Wrights Lake Recreation Area on the Eldorado National Forest to this weekend.

The area was hit by a severe wind storm almost a year ago, causing more than 200 trees to fall. As part of the clean-up effort, the Forest Service has scheduled a series of woodcutting events which allow people to cut and gather firewood in an area normally closed to fuel wood cutting. The gate will be open Nov. 8-9 rom 9am-4pm. Free non-commercial use permits will be issued on site.

The following rules will be in effect during the event:

• Permit is for personal use only. No commercial wood gathering for resale will be allowed.
• No early entry will be allowed.
• Public not involved in the wood gathering will need to park outside the gate in the overflow parking area.
• Wood cutters must remain on existing paved roads, pull-outs and spurs, and must not block roads, gates or closure barriers.
• Only newly wind downed logs will be permitted for cutting. Older weathered logs must be left on site.
• Woodcutters must check out and exit the gate prior to 4pm each day.
• Members of the public not honoring these rules will be asked to leave.

By Peter Hecht, Sacramento Bee

El Dorado County has long roiled with bitter political battles over new housing developments and perceived threats to the rustic Sierra foothills environment.

But Tuesday night, voters overwhelmingly rejected initiatives that proponents argued would protect rural community boundaries and ban new subdivisions that threaten to gridlock Highway 50 with traffic. They also elected two new county supervisors, Michael Ranalli and Sue Novasel, who both campaigned against the initiatives and “land use planning through the ballot box.”

Measures M, N and O went down to ignominious defeat in the face of more than $1 million in campaign spending by real estate and development groups, including building interests proposing thousands of new homes for western El Dorado County. The political media blizzard – costing more than $20 per vote based on Tuesday’s turnout – broadcast a message that the county’s pastoral landscape was imperiled by the growth-control measures themselves.

“It means that even a good ballot argument and proposition is hard to win against $1 million,” said Bill Center, a former county supervisor and co-sponsor of Measure M. “It was basically an electoral carpet bombing with signs and mailings and robocalls and World Series ads. They ran the best campaign that money could buy.”

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As more absentee ballots were counted since election night, South Lake Tahoe City Council candidate Austin Sass is now one vote behind third place finisher Angela Swanson.

Three positions are up on the five-member board.

More ballots are outstanding and these numbers will change.

The numbers as of Nov. 6:

• Wendy David — 1,271 votes
• Tom Davis — 1,094
• Angela Swanson — 989
• Austin Sass — 988
• Brooke Laine — 939
• Matt Palacio — 907
• Bruce Grego — 864.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report

Now that the autumn months are upon us, it’s a good time to locate and label, or visually indicate where your water and gas shut-off valves are.

Do this inside and outside of your home.

Then, when the snow flies again, and the possibility of frozen and buried pipes occur, we will be able to quickly minimize any damage to your property.

Thanks for helping us serve you better.

— Sallie Ross-Filgo, South Lake Tahoe Fire Department

By Bob Parks, Outside

It’s not a stretch to call Truckee’s Jeremy Jones the greatest snowboarder of all time.

The pro rider has made a career of bringing backcountry snowboarding to the mainstream. His expeditions and innovations —including the designs he helped create for his company, Jeremy Jones Snowboards — stem from his drive to explore winter in meaningful and often insanely demanding ways.

In 2007, Jones founded Protect Our Winters, a nonprofit that works to reduce the effects of climate change and draw attention to the snowy places we’re in danger of losing.

The newest film of his human-powered snowboard trilogy, “Higher”, dropped in October.

The day we caught up with him to talk about his favorite places to ride and his favorite gear, gusts of wind bludgeoned his phone. We pictured him hanging from a cliff with one hand while calmly giving an interview with the other.

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By Maura Judkis, Washington Post

All that was left of Julia Washington’s seared-scallop entree were the baby artichokes. The 10-year-old speared one with a fork, eyeing it with curiosity and contempt.

“I don’t know about new things. I don’t know how they taste,” the fifth-grader from Upper Marlboro said at the restaurant Equinox. “It looks like a mushroom. I don’t like mushrooms.”

Julia is a typical child. She loves mac and cheese, fried shrimp, ice cream. But she couldn’t order from the kids’ menu that night, because Equinox has no kids’ menu. The restaurant’s chef, Todd Gray, does not believe in kid food.

“With the right encouragement, kids will eat anything,” Gray said.

Most restaurants don’t give children many choices: chicken fingers. Tater tots. Or bland, cheese-laden pizza, accompanied by a cup of limp fruit salad. And some parents are getting tired of it.

“The idea that there is different food for children drives me nuts,” said Lynn Fredericks, founder of Family Cook Productions, an organization that teaches healthful family eating. She recently launched the Kids Food Reboot, a campaign to get restaurants to adapt their kids’ menus to rely less on frozen french fries and other beige fried foods and more on healthful, fresh and — most important — interesting choices for young diners. Given the chance to eat, say, spaghetti squash or broccoli rabe, children will rise to the occasion, Fredericks says.

“Children will eat other foods. They will,” she said. “It’s just about how you present it.”

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With the United Kingdom being a huge market for Lake Tahoe ski resorts, a goal has long been to have a direct flight into the Reno-Tahoe International Airport.

It was announced Tuesday that a deal has been struck with Thomas Cook Airlines to provide nonstop service between London and Reno starting Dec. 19, 2015. The service will run between December and April.

Ski Lake Tahoe helped bring this to fruition.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report

South Lake Tahoe Family Resource Center’s annual tamale fundraiser is under way. Orders being taken through Nov. 12 at 5pm.

Pork, chicken and cheese tamales are $20 a dozen. People may mix-and-match orders.

Orders will be taken Monday-Friday from 8:30am-5pm by calling 530.542.0740, or email dhooper@tahoefrc.org or fax 530.542.0397. Pickup will be Nov. 17 from noon-5pm. at the center.

Hard Rock Cafe inside Harveys at Stateline is hosting a paint and sip event to benefit WhyHunger.

Between Nov. 10 and Dec. 1 at 6pm an artist will guide people through each step of the featured painting. All the materials you will need will be provided, including a 16 x 20 canvas, paint, brushes, and apron.

Cost is $40. The ticket and select beer-wine sales will benefit WhyHunger. WhyHunger is a leader in building the movement to end hunger and poverty by connecting people to nutrition, affordable food and by supporting grassroots solutions that inspire self-reliance and community empowerment.

To purchase tickets, contact Jenny Meazell or Kimberly Templeton at 775.588.6200.

By Dale Kasler, Sacramento Bee

The Lake Tahoe casino resort once owned by Frank Sinatra will likely stay closed for another year as financing for a major renovation has taken longer than expected.

The Cal Neva Resort & Casino, which has been closed since September 2013, just finished lining up $49 million in financing for its makeover, the property’s lender said this week.

“It took more time than they had expected,” said Mike Jaynes, president of Hall Structured Finance, a Texas investment company that approved a loan for the Cal Neva renovation.

Criswell Radovan, a St. Helena investment firm, bought the old north shore property in April 2013 and closed it for renovations five months later. The firm’s principal, Robert Radovan, has said he wanted to reopen the Cal Neva in December 2014, in time for what would have been Sinatra’s 99th birthday. Sinatra died in 1999.

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