To the community,

Normally the Camp Richardson Resort staff is busy seeing to the needs of their many visitors and guests, but during the month of December they shift their focus to helping the members of our community who are struggling with hunger. Through their Adopt A Day of Nourishment sponsorship, Camp Richardson hosted Bread & Broth’s Monday dinner at St. Theresa Grace Hall on Dec. 18 and provided meals for the 100 dinner guests that evening.

Bringing the same level of service and helpfulness they bring to their work, the Camp Richardson sponsor crew was a treat to have helping the B&B volunteers. Led by Vanessa Santora, Camp Richardson’s operations manager and the coordinator for their AAD sponsorships, she was joined by fellow team members Darren Foerschler, Beacon general manager; Travis Lauinger, assistant resort and sports center manager; James Roberts, lodging operations manager, and Doug Sheehan, purchasing manager.       

“We’re so thankful to be a part of the Adopt A Day program,” commented Santora.  “It’s always a heartwarming experience. From the incredible B&B staff to the wonderful people we have the pleasure to serve; Bread & Broth is a must anytime of the year.” 

B&B’s partnership with Camp Richardson Resort is a wonderful example of how empathy and compassion for the most vulnerable bring people together to positively impact the lives of others all year long.

Carol Gerard, Bread & Broth

By Kathryn Reed

If you don’t like spicy, stop reading.

This is so good I just wanted to keep eating, albeit with a sip of wine and water in between bites.

I couldn’t find adobo sauce on its own in a local grocery store, but I didn’t try any of the Hispanic stores. I used the sauce from a can with chipotles. Cut back the amount and the heat will be reduced, or add more for a super kick.

The intensity of the dish did not increase the next day. It was better, though, or maybe I was getting used to the spiciness.

I also couldn’t find the cheese in a crumbled format, but it crumbles easily.

Spicy Veggie Hash

2 T olive oil

3 C sweet potato, peeled and diced

2 T oregano, chopped

¾ tsp kosher salt, divided

½ tsp ground cumin

½ tsp cinnamon

¼ tsp ground red pepper

7 garlic cloves, minced

1¼ C water, divided

1 C green beans, cut into 1-inch pieces

1 T adobo sauce

1 15.5 ounce can black beans, drained

½ C queso fresco, crumbled

1 plum tomato, diced

Add oil to large skillet over medium-high heat. Add potato, oregano, and half teaspoon salt. Add cumin, cinnamon, red pepper, and garlic. Add half cup water; cover and cook over reduced heat until potato is soft.

In separate pan bring three-quarters cup water to a boil in a saucepan. Add remaining salt and green beans; cook for about 7 minutes. Stir in adobo sauce and black beans.

Place half cup potato mixture in four bowls; top each with equal amount of bean mixture, cheese, and tomato.

California State Park interpreters will be leading full moon snowshoe tours on Jan. 27 and March 3 on the West Shore.

Participants will be exploring the natural and cultural history around the Hellman-Ehrman estate at Sugar Pine Point State Park.

For those new to snowshoeing, there will be a beginner’s clinic at 6:30pm.

The hike is from 7-9pm, and costs $30 per adult and $20 per child 12 and younger. The cost includes snowshoe rentals, park entrance and guided hike. Tickets are available online.

Sophia

Sophia is a 4-year-old Chihuahua who weighs about 3 pounds.

She likes other dogs. Sophia will greet you with a big tail wag and will eagerly go for a walk with you, but she is so tiny that she would easily fit in a cute purse so you could take her everywhere.

Sophia will be spayed on Tuesday, and is microchipped, tested for heart worm, and vaccinated. She is at the El Dorado County Animal Services shelter in Meyers, along with 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

Disrupter. That’s what Airbnb has been to the lodging industry and communities where it operates.

Airbnb is part tech company, part lodging company, part tourism company. It is anything but ordinary. And that’s what those who like it love about it.

Author Leigh Gallagher captures the entrepreneurial spirit of the three men (Brian Chesky, Joe Gebbia, and Nathan Blecharczyk) who founded the company in 2008 in San Francisco by delving into their world. The concept of the business is simple – strangers renting rooms from strangers.

“The Airbnb story: How three ordinary guys disrupted an industry, made billions and created plenty of controversy” (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2017) is a look at this start-up, the fragile beginnings, the meteoric rise, the controversies, the struggles, the future.

It’s in part a book about business – the Silicon Valley in particular. It’s venture capitalists, it’s finding a niche and filling it, it’s fulfilling dreams, learning to adapt, flying by the seat of their pants, and being anything but conventional.

It’s part biography – three men found a way to launch a concept multiple times until it finally took hold, how they struggled financially, but now are part of the Bill Gates-Warren Buffett club that promises to give away the bulk of their wealth. The vulnerabilities and naïveté of the founders are revealed.

Gallagher, who is an assistant managing editor at Fortune magazine, does not shy away from delving into the controversies Airbnb and similar businesses have brought to the communities where they operate. Nor were some of the horror stories of guests glossed over.

It’s not a book championing Airbnb. Instead it sheds light on how it came to be, the struggles and where it plans to go from here. It talks about how the hotel industry has changed how it does business because of the shared rental market, and even highlights how chain hotels themselves were once disrupters.

It’s $30 billion valuation (it is still a private company, though predictions are an IPO is in its future) is larger than Hilton and rivals Marriott.

There is one mention of Lake Tahoe in the book, which showed the author’s unfamiliarity with the location – suggesting the region is one municipality and not realizing these short term rentals in the basin are governed by one city and five counties. The reference is to how Tahoe is logical to have property management companies operate listings. In the same breath was an inference that the area doesn’t have a housing problem.

“In cities where there is a real housing issue, however, like New York, (Chesky) says the policy should very clearly be one listing per host,” Gallagher said. If she knew the Tahoe-Truckee market, she would have pressed him more or not used the Tahoe area in this context.

That was the only disappointment in the book.

Agree or disagree with the concept of short term rentals, this book is a fascinating look at three people who had the gumption to take an idea and turn it into a billion-dollar business. While their success is phenomenal, the process to get to where they are and to not rest on their laurels is inspirational.

—–

·      Please join in the discussion via commenting. Feel free to pose questions. Please keep the discussion to the book and questions.

·      Questions: What did you learn that surprised you the most from reading this book? Would you use a company like Airbnb – why, why not? What are your opinions about the sharing economy? How have companies like Airbnb changed how you travel? If you had the money to invest in Airbnb in the early days, would you have backed these men – why or why not?

·      The next book will be “What Unites Us” by Dan Rather and Elliot Kirschner. From the jacket cover, “With a fundamental sense of hope, ‘What Unites Us’ is the book to inspire conversation and listening, and to remind us all how we are, finally, one. Rather brings to bear his decades of experience on the frontlines of the world’s biggest stories. As a living witness to historical change, he offers up an intimate view of history, tracing where we have been in order to help us chart a way forward and heal our bitter divisions.” The review will be posted on Lake Tahoe News on Feb. 1.

By Kathryn Reed

Just because the headlines of 2017 are in the past does not mean the issues are gone.

#MeToo or as Time magazine called the movement – The Silence Breakers in naming them the person of the year – is bound to be a significant carryover into 2018.

While the high profile cases of the upper echelon garner the bulk of the headlines, the magazine pointed out sexual abuse is at all levels. For hotel workers, some are treated like an amenity – a toy of sorts – for high paying clients. How often has this happened in Lake Tahoe?

Some of the women whose names are part of these stories are powerful in their own right. And, yet, look how long it took them to stand up for themselves and all women? If they were afraid, imagine how terrifying it is for the “average” woman to come forward.

The truth is powerful. It can also be scary. And it always has consequences.

At the last South Lake Tahoe City Council meeting one of the electeds said how he was surprised to learn that unwanted hugs are a form of harassment. Incredulously, one of his colleagues pointed out that it was unwanted. He said he is a hugger, as though his desire to hug someone is more important than the recipient’s. He asked how he was supposed to know the person didn’t want a hug. His colleague said just don’t hug.

Really, that is the bottom line. Just don’t do it. Whatever it is.

It’s hard to find a woman who can’t use the MeToo hashtag. That’s so incredibly sad. We all have a story, some horrifying and life altering, others just an annoyance like a cat call.

Another headline apt to carry over into this new year is the growing chasm between the haves and have nots. The divide in the Lake Tahoe Basin is growing every day. The economy is great – for some. It is tanking for others. Wages are not keeping up with the cost of living. Every basic bill is going up – food, gas, utilities (garbage, electric, water, phone). Rents are going up, as well as insurance (medical, homeowners, business), and of course taxes. It doesn’t end.

More people on the edge are going to fall off. Then what?

People want things for cheap or free. They don’t want to pay fair market. My prediction is that some of the things we take for granted that are free today will not exist or will be completely different a year from today, maybe even Lake Tahoe News. Businesses can’t keep giving things away without compensation. Life is an evolution – personally and professionally.

Housing will continue to be in the news. It will be in the form of affordable housing, homelessness, and vacation rentals. People want government to solve their problems, but are all of these issues really the job of government? That in itself is a discussion that is warranted because it will help lead to the answers. Compromise is going to be needed, and that is going to be hard for a lot of people. We all want to get our way, but sometimes doing things for the greater good is better. Selflessness is required, and that is always difficult.

As we forge a path in this new year, let’s remember to do so with respect. Let’s listen. Let’s not talk over others. Let’s not dismiss people because we disagree with them. Let’s start figuring out what we want and then chip away at the hurdles to accomplish those goals.

We have a strong, passionate, engaged group of residents, second homeowners and visitors who love Lake Tahoe. We are all stewards with a stake in the region’s future. Let’s find that common ground where in a year from now there are fewer people wondering how their bills will get paid, where their next meal will come from, if they will be assaulted.

Let’s be better than the headlines.

Kathryn Reed is publisher of Lake Tahoe News.

By Michael R. Blood, AP

ADELANTO — Drive by the High Desert Truck Stop, turn down a rutted road by the bail bond signs, slip behind a steel fence edged with barbed wire, and you can glimpse the future of California’s emerging legal pot industry.

In a boxy warehouse marked only by a street number, an $8 million marijuana production plant — a farm, laboratory and factory all in one — is rising inside cavernous rooms crisscrossed by electrical cables.

Not far off, a retail shop is planned to sell edible, thin strips infused with cannabis extract and powerful concentrates known as resins that also will be shipped to stores around the state.

California has long been known for its boutique pot market, producing world-famous buds on small plots in the so-called Emerald Triangle, north of San Francisco. Broad legalization starts Jan. 1, and this will be a test of whether bigger is better.

Read the whole story

By Alexei Koseff, Sacramento Bee

Every year, the California Legislature passes hundreds of bills, ranging from technical clarifications to funding proposals that keep the state running. How have they changed your world this time? Here are some of the new laws – the useful, the controversial, and the downright quirky – taking effect on Jan. 1, 2018.

Hiring

A prospective employer will no longer be able to decide how much money to offer you by asking what you made at your last job.

Elections

Get ready for a new era of voting in California: Senate Bill 450, which passed in 2016, does away with neighborhood polling places and replaces them with elections conducted primarily by mail.

Read the whole story

A 2009 South Tahoe High School graduate is in ICU following a horrific car accident that killed his girlfriend on Dec. 28.

Chris Cocores, 26, who now lives in La Mesa, was the passenger in the vehicle. His girlfriend, Ceci Casares, 21, of La Mesa was driving on Highway 395 near Kramer Junction about 11:20pm when the crash occurred.

According to the California Highway Patrol, Casares’ was trying to pass a vehicle when her vehicle collided with two cars coming from the other direction. She was pronounced dead at the scene.

Officers said people in the other vehicles sustained minor to major injuries.

A GoFundMe account has been set up to assist Casares’ family and to help pay for Cocores medical bills.

Also killed in the crash was Cocores’ dog.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report

Brynn Kennedy

A Truckee woman was arrested early New Year’s Eve on felony driving under the influence charges.

Four people were injured in the head-on collision on Donner Pass Road and Northwoods Boulevard on Dec. 31 at 12:05am.

Truckee police officers said witnesses and evidence show Brynn Kennedy, 30, was driving south on Northwoods and turned west onto Donner Pass where she crossed into an opposing traffic lane and struck the victims’ vehicle.

The driver and two juveniles from the victims’ vehicle were taken to Tahoe Forest Hospital. All have since been released.
 
Kennedy was arrested after being treated for minor injuries.

Truckee officers will be conducting extra patrols this holiday weekend.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report