By Zlati Meyer, USA Today

Following the news that Amazon.com’s acquisition of Whole Foods Market received FTC approval, Amazon announced that it is striving to make Whole Foods more affordable for the average consumer.

Amazon, which is acquiring the organic-heavy supermarket chain for $13.7 billion, announced that starting Monday, the day the deal closes, it will cut prices on a range of various staples.

They will include Whole Trade bananas; organic large brown eggs, avocados, baby kale, baby lettuce and Gala and Fuji apples; “animal-welfare-rated” 85 percent lean ground beef; organic “responsibly-farmed” salmon and tilapia; creamy and crunchy almond butter; organic rotisserie chicken and its generic organic butter.

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By Siobhan McAndrew, Reno Gazette-Journal

UNR President Marc Johnson told the class of 2021 that the university is not an institution defined by the actions of just one student.

It was a message delivered at a welcome event for 3,800 freshmen ahead of the Monday start of the fall semester. It follows the national spotlight the university has found itself in after a UNR student was photographed at a white nationalist rally.

The photo of the 20-year-old history and political science student Peter Cytanovic — who was first identified as Cvjetanovic, the name he uses on social media accounts — went viral.

While the university defended Cytanovic’s right to remain a student in a press conference, student leaders say the response from UNR hasn’t been enough.

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By Richard N. Velotta, Las Vegas Review-Journal

To the parents and grandparents who took the time to share the science of last week’s Great American Eclipse to children and grandchildren, I salute you.

You might have planted a seed of curiosity that one day might play an important role in our tourism economy.

The youngsters of today will be in their 30s and 40s in 2045, the year Great American Eclipse III darkens the skies over Northern Nevada in what could be one of the greatest tourism events in our state’s history.

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By Moonshine Ink

Alice Waters is a pioneer — in the truest sense of the word — for the local, organic food movement. Most passionately, Waters has been an advocate for free, locally-sourced meals in our school systems.

She got her start in Berkeley when she opened Chez Panisse, one of the first restaurants in the country to consciously source its ingredients. Since then she has been a chef, restaurateur, activist, and author.

We talked to Waters about eating locally in Tahoe, suggestions for combating the Tahoe housing crisis, specifically in regard to housing kitchen staff, and her opinion on fad eating trends.

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The Truckee-Tahoe watercraft inspection station’s last day will be Sept. 4.

After that date, all watercraft launching on Donner Lake must go to the Alpine Meadows station for inspections. Alpine Meadows will remain open until Sept. 30.

Beginning Oct. 1 watercraft inspections will be available at the Lake Forest launch ramp in Tahoe City.

During the 2017 boating season, Tahoe Resource Conservation District watercraft inspectors performed more than 1,400 inspections for Donner Lake vessels.

·      Tahoe Transportation District is having a public workshop Aug. 30 from 3:30-6pm at the South Lake Tahoe Library on Rufus Allen Boulevard. The district’s short-range transit plan is the topic.

·      Grand Funk Railroad will be at MontBleu in Stateline on Oct. 21 at 8pm. Doors open at 7pm. Tickets are $45, plus taxes and fees.

·      A fictitious dilapidated hotel called El Royale at Lake Tahoe is the setting for the movie “Bad Times at the El Royale.” Reports are Chris Hemsworth and Jeff Bridges will star in it, with Drew Goddard directing. It is set in the 1960s.

·      American Legion Post 795 in South Lake Tahoe is hosting a Patriot Day ceremony on Sept. 11 at 11am at the Post at 2748 Lake Tahoe Blvd.

By Olga R. Rodriguez and Jonathan J. Cooper, AP

There was no rain, no rumbling, no sign of danger before the blinding flash and deafening bang of a lightning bolt threw Mathias Steinhuber to the ground, tore off his clothes and burned a gaping hole in his shoe.

The 31-year-old Austrian teacher, an avid hiker, had just reached the 9,000-foot summit of a Sierra mountain range ahead of his companions when he raised his arms for a picture and was struck in the back of the head. The electricity shot through his body and exited through his foot, and he was too stunned to know what had happened.

“It was like in a dream,” Steinhuber told the Associated Press Thursday. “I woke up. I had blood everywhere. My clothes were ripped apart. At some distance I heard my girlfriend scream my name. My first conclusion was that I probably fell down the mountain.”

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The Alpine Watershed Group will be hosting the 18th annual Markleeville Creek Day on Sept. 9. 

Each year this event allows for the completion of important watershed restoration work. 

Volunteers are needed to help complete projects throughout the East and West Carson Watersheds including plantings, stream bank stabilization, invasive weed removal, protective tree wrapping, and storm drain stenciling. No experience is necessary.

Meet at the Markleeville Library Park (270 Laramie St.) at 9am for registration and introductions. Groups then carpool to their restoration project locations. 

The Alpine Watershed Group is a non-profit organization whose mission is to protect and enhance Alpine County watersheds. 

For more information on this event and to sign up, contact Sarah Muskin at awg.snap.ed@gmail.com or 530.694.2327.

Sierra Nevada College’s Tahoe’s Writers in the Woods kicks off with author Sunil Yapa on Sept. 15.

Yapa’s first novel, “Your Heart is a Muscle the Size of a Fist,” set during the Seattle World Trade Organization protests of November 1999, is this year’s Common Read and a 2016 Time magazine Best Books of the Year, an Amazon 2016 Best Books of the year, a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Pick, and an Indies Next Pick.

Yapa will give a free reading at the campus library from 7-9pm. He will conduct a workshop on Sept. 16 at 10am. To register, go online.

The Writers in the Woods Literary Speaker Series brings well-known poets and writers from all over the country to the campus for intimate readings and workshops, where audience members can meet and exchange ideas with the guest writers.

The 39th annual Freakers Ball will be Oct. 28 at MontBleu at Stateline.

Tickets, which are $30 if purchased in advance, $35 if purchased the week of, and $40 if purchased the day of the ball, give guests access to three spook-tacular parties.   

Fun-seekers can experience Halloween celebrations at Opal Ultra Lounge, Blu Nightclub, and the MontBleu Ballroom. It all starts at 8pm. Must be 21 to attend.

There will be go-go dancers, a live band, disc jockeys, and drink specials. Come in costume for a chance to win a share of $10,000 in cash and prizes.

Tickets go on sale Aug. 29 at the casino or via Ticketmaster.