Ronald Butterbaugh

Former South Lake Tahoe teacher Ronald Robert Butterbaugh died Feb. 3, 2018. He was 82.

The Grants Pass, Ore., resident passed away eight days shy of his 83rd birthday.

Ron was a twin born in Covina on Feb. 11, 1935, to Merle and Harriet Butterbaugh. Ron and brother Harry were the first set of twins born at Inter-Community Hospital that survived.

Ron attended Bonita High School and La Verne College, both in Southern California.

He taught wood shop and mechanical drawing for many years at South Tahoe Intermediate School. He was a resident of South Lake Tahoe for more than 30 years.

In 1997, Ron married Joan Christians. They built a home in Sedona, Ariz.

Ron was preceded in death by his wife, and his twin brother Harry.

In 2014, Ron moved to Southern Oregon to be near his children and grandchildren.

Ron is survived by his older sister, Lois Godfrey of La Verne; children Sue Raycraft (Steve), Tom Butterbaugh (Kim) and Cindy Egli (Dennis), of Grants Pass; 11 grandchildren and 16 great-grandchilden.

No services are planned.

By Wayne Parry, AP

One of the world’s largest casino companies will check its guests’ hotel rooms every 24 hours, even if they have a “Do Not Disturb” sign hanging on the doorknob.

Caesars Entertainment told the Associated Press it also is considering giving panic buttons to its employees to enable them to quickly summon help if they are in danger or feel threatened. The company will implement the new policy soon at all its properties worldwide, spokeswoman Noel Stevenson said.

The company, which owns 47 casinos in five countries — including Harrah’s Lake Tahoe and Harveys — becomes the latest hospitality firm to adopt new room check policies after a gunman broke windows in his Las Vegas hotel room and rained bullets down on an outdoor concert in October, killing 58 people and injuring hundreds before killing himself.

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With snowpack in the Lake Tahoe Basin at low levels and in anticipation of a busy holiday weekend, the U.S. Forest Service Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit is warning snowmobilers they will be fined if they operate their sleds in areas with inadequate snow.

“Snowmobile operators should avoid bare dirt and patchy snow and should not ride across streams or over small trees or brush. Operating snowmobiles on too little snow creates ruts in the soil and crushes vegetation,” the USFS said.

Causing resource damage can result in a citation punishable by a fine of $5,000 or more and/or six months in jail.

Information on areas where snowmobiles are allowed is available in the online Snowmobile Guide.

By Associated Press

Jurors found a Utah woman guilty of murder Thursday for aiding her husband as he killed two Northern California sheriff’s deputies in 2014.

The Sacramento County jury convicted Janelle Monroy of 10 charges including murder, attempted murder and carjacking, attempted carjacking and possessing an assault rifle. They rejected her argument that she feared Luis Bracamontes would have killed her if she didn’t help him.

She faces a possible life sentence when she is sentenced March 23.

Prosecutors said she willingly moved his assault-style rifle from vehicle to stolen vehicle after he killed Sacramento County Deputy Danny Oliver and before he killed Placer County Detective Michael Davis Jr. hours later.

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·      The Incline Village General Improvement District board of trustees will be hosting an open house Feb. 28, 6-7:30pm at the Chateau.

·      North Lake Tahoe Resort Association/chamber of commerce annual awards dinner will be April 26 at Granlibakken in Tahoe City.

·      Here are the El Dorado-Tahoe and Sierra roadwork schedules from Caltrans for the coming week.

·      Carson’s Got Talent, an evening extravaganza of regional talent, is having a second audition for the April 14 show at Forever Dance, 1851 S. Roop St. in Carson City on Feb. 20. Check in is at 5pm. Auditions begin at 6pm. All ages and genres are invited to audition.

·      In partnership with the Nevada Department of Veterans Services, Reno, and Las Vegas, Mt. Rose Ski Tahoe will host an adaptive ski camp for veterans with disabilities Feb.28 through March 2. Veterans may sign up online.

By Amy Graff, San Francisco Chronicle

Amid a winter marked by more sun than storms, California is desperate for rain and snow.

An end-of-winter burst of wet potent California storms, aka a Miracle March, is the only hope to bolster the Sierra Nevada snowpack and boost the rainfall totals, but meteorologists say the odds of this happening are almost none.

Even if a few wet weather systems sweep across the state in March, they’re unlikely to bump the state up to normal precipitation totals for the season.

“Once we get into late February, we’ll begin to have a better look at how the global patterns are setting up for March and then we’ll be able to talk a little more clearly about probability,” says Brian Garcia, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Monterey.

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Artist, poet and naturalist Obi Kaufmann has had to cancel his Feb. 17 talk at South Lake Tahoe Library for personal reasons.

It is possible the author of “California Field Atlas” will reschedule.

His book was highly acclaimed by Lake Tahoe News in this review.

Buffalo wing sauce is the secret ingredient at The Alpine Club’s tomato soup. Photo/LTN

By Kathryn Reed

With the temperatures about to plummet in the Lake Tahoe Basin, it means soup is a good option for staying warm.

There are wonderful  choices in the area. Here is a sampling:

It’s a rarity to find chili on a menu – especially without meat. At Freshies in South Lake vegan tofu chili is a regular item. A bowl ($4.75) is an outstanding bargain. It’s super hearty. It has a good kick, but isn’t too spicy. It could be a meal unto itself.

Azul in Heavenly Village also has veggie chili on the menu — $4.50/cup, $8.50 for a bowl. Sue called it an excellent bowl of chili with added texture from mini tortilla strips on the side. Spices were good without setting her mouth on fire. She tried to detect the sweet flavor, thinking it may have been nutmeg. 

Blue Angel Café in South Lake Tahoe regularly has more than one soup as a special. I’ve never been there when there was not a vegetarian option. On this particular night I had the cream of cauliflower and Sue had the Southwest black bean. Each cup was $5.50. I had never had cauliflower soup. This was a tasty surprise. I’m not sure of the secret ingredient, but something that made it a little sweet. It could have been in the cream. Lots of chunks of the vegetable made it more substantive. The black bean was a little milder than expected, but Sue liked all the beans. My go-to soup that is often on the menu here is the tomato-basil. This is my favorite place for soup – year round.

The spicy lentil soup ($7) at Artemis in South Lake Tahoe is another one of my favorites; it’s on the menu year round. The consistent quality is outstanding – lots of lentils, and wonderful Mediterranean spices – and it is vegan. It can be a meal or a side.

Another lentil soup ($8) worth trying is the one served at The Pub at the base lodge at Sierra-at-Tahoe. It is so thick, much more like chili than soup. Cilantro comes through as a distinct spice. Lots of chickpeas in it, too.

The only disappointment in the soup at Primo’s was that I got a cup instead of a bowl. I had the soup/salad combo, which comes with a cup of the soup of the day. On this particular day it was vegetable pasta, which seemed so appropriate at an Italian restaurant. More veggies than pasta fill the cup – fine by me. They are perfectly cooked – not mushy, as can be the case with some veggie soups. Oregano and basil dominated the flavors. A cup is $6, a bowl is $8 at this South Lake Tahoe restaurant.

At the Loft at Heavenly Village two soups are always on the menu — tortellini in brodo ($7/cup, $10/bowl) and tomato bisque ($6/cup, $9/bowl). Sue had the one with meat, noting the mini meatballs aren’t so mini. “It was a bigger bite than I wanted, but I wasn’t motivated to cut them in the cup. I could tell the meatballs were soaked in the light chicken broth that I would hardly call rich as the menu states.” It was good, but could have had more flavor. The tomato bisque had a nice thickness, but didn’t taste like the tomatoes were roasted as the menu states. It was also a bit on the sweet side for my taste.

A classic is tomato soup and grilled cheese. The Alpine Club at Northstar Village nailed it on both. This is a private restaurant for members of Tahoe Mountain Cub. (I was a guest.) A common problem with tomato soup is that it’s too sweet. This is because sugar is often added to cut down on the acidity, but that’s really not necessary. But this was not a problem with this ski lunch. However, there was an ingredient in the soup I couldn’t put my taste buds on. Come to find out it was buffalo wing sauce. Find a member – this $10 combo is a bargain.

By Tay Wiles, High Country News

One morning in January, I accompanied a group of environmental advocates to the northern tip of the Desert National Wildlife Refuge, 100 miles north of Las Vegas. A short hike brought us to a boulder with a petroglyph of bighorn sheep, eroded after thousands of years of exposure. A more recent traveler left a mark nearby as well, etching the letters “U” and “S.”  “I wonder who did the ‘US,’” said Christian Gerlach, the Sierra Club’s Nevada organizer. “Was it the Air Force or one of the cavalrymen?” By cavalrymen, he meant federal troops encountering bands of Paiute in this region in the 19th century. By Air Force, he meant the entity trying to gain control of this land today.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt first protected the area in 1936, as a game range for bighorn sheep. But just four years later, the U.S. War Department began using part of it as a bombing and gunnery range. Since then, the Air Force has gained a total of 2.9 million acres for its Nevada Test and Training Range.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service co-manages 846,000 of those acres as part of the Desert National Wildlife Refuge — the largest federal wildlife refuge in the Lower 48. Now, the Air Force hopes to gain sole jurisdiction and expand its range to include another 300,000 federal acres, most of it refuge land, leaving the refuge with less than 500,000 acres.

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The brine application in El Dorado County on Feb. 16. Photo/John Adamski

To the community,

Today, Feb. 16, the El Dorado County road maintenance department decided to do a horrific soaking of brine solution on North Upper Truckee Road and many other side streets for safety or tourists over the weekend.

There is the possibility of a light dusting of snow coming late Sunday, maybe.

The county has absolutely no conscience or consideration of local resident having to drive through this absurd over-application of brine solution for two days as sacrifice to allow tourists to never have to exercise winter driving conditions or slow down on our side streets.

This is typical El Do road maintenance arrogant bone-headed, way over-application days before a tiny possible snow event purely to allow tourists to drive down our side streets 60 mph with their phone app in one hand. They endanger locals and tourists walking the streets with their kids and dogs, ruin locals private property, and allow tourists privilege over locals to never be concerned to slow down for winter conditions.

The brine corrosion causes millions to locals expensive vehicles when they’re rusted to pieces after four years.

This county doesn’t give a crap for locals’ personal property and they need to be sued for damages for this purposeful neglect and carelessness.

John Adamski, 44-year resident