·      Runner’s World lists the Tahoe Rim Trail as one of the top 20 trails in the United States.

·      The California Tahoe Conservancy has entered an agreement with the California Highway Patrol for officers to monitor the Upper Truckee Marsh for people (and dogs) violating the law.

·      TJ’s Corral at the Carson Valley Inn is hosting a mixed martial arts event on July 1. For more info and tickets, go online.

·      Zephyr Cove Tennis Club member Susan Cowan won the bronze medal in the National Senior Games in Alabama for women’s singles, 60-64.

·      Zagster bike share program is coming to Truckee. Ten bikes will be available at the airport or downtown.

By Kathryn Reed

It might be time to buy sunscreen in bulk.

South Lake Tahoe has set three records this week. On June 19 it was 90 degrees, breaking the record set in 1988 of 85 degrees; on June 20 it was 90, the old record set in 1981 was 85; and on June 21 it was 87 degrees, the old record was 85 set in 1988. On June 17 the city tied the 1985 record of 85 degrees.

During this time Tahoe City has not broken any records.

A warm air mass and high pressure is causing what the National Weather Service in Reno calls a “typical summer heat wave.”

It should cool down a bit on Friday, but still be above normal. Normal would be temps in the upper 70s in the Lake Tahoe Basin.

The weekend, though, is expected to back in the mid- to upper 80s at the lake, with a cool down starting on Tuesday.

“We have a system moving in; the winds will pick up and the clouds,” meteorologist Brian O’Hara told Lake Tahoe News.

The heat wave in Tahoe is breaking 30-year-old records. Photo/Kathryn Reed

The mercury will be in the upper 70s next week.

Some parts of the lake saw rain in the early evening of June 21 to start summer. There is a slight chance of moisture on Sunday night.

With this unseasonably hot weather, people are reminded not to leave pets or children in vehicles, to drink plenty of water and try to do physical activity in the morning. At the same time, remember the lake and tributaries are super cold. Just jumping in could be a bad idea because the surface temp and about 8 inches below are drastically different; that sudden cold can be debilitating.

By Jane Braxton, Scientific American

The record piles of snow across California’s Sierra Nevada are melting away, exposing once again its breathtaking alpine meadows. As temperatures warm the moist soil, the meadows quicken, cycling carbon from the ground into the atmosphere and back again in a pattern essential to the planet’s health. Scientists and land managers are heading into the mountains to measure the greenhouse gas activity at 16 hand-picked meadows—some recently restored, others degraded from a century of grazing and logging.

The four-year study is part of California’s pioneering effort to reduce carbon emissions. The project is designed to determine whether restored meadows hold more carbon than those that have been degraded. The outcome could prove pivotal for California and the planet. Worldwide, soils store three times more carbon than vegetation and the atmosphere combined. If the research shows restored meadows improve carbon storage, it could stimulate meadow restoration around the world.

The $4.8-million project has an unusual twist, too. It is funded by the California Air Resources Board, which wants to know if restored meadows can hold enough tonnage of carbon dioxide equivalents, per acre per year, to qualify as carbon credits in California’s cap-and-trade market. “It’s kind of geeky but we’re poised to do something that’s never been done with alpine meadows,” says Mark Drew, Sierra Headwaters director at California Trout, who is coordinating the work.

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“People who United the States” will be the Chautauqua performance at the Dangberg Ranch in Minden on June 28 at 6:30pm.

The Douglas County Historical Society’s Young Chautauqua Program presenters are Jahmila Santiago, 15, as Sarah Winnemucca, 15-year-old Sandia Johnson as Abigail Fillmore, 6-year-old Sam Johnson as John Muir, 10-year-old Micaiah Maulis as Thomas Edison, and 9-year-old Mamre Maulis as John Glen.

The event is free.

The park is located at 1450 Highway88. This is an outdoor event, and visitors should bring their own seating. Dogs are not permitted.

Alex Zuong competes this past spring in the state finals in Las Vegas. Photo/Provided

Alex Zuong set four state weight lifting records in the 82.5kg class while he was a senior at Incline Village High School this year.

He bench pressed 125 kilograms, dead-lifted 202.5kg and did a squat with 172.5kg. He set the total weight record at 485kg – that is more than a half a ton.

Zuong has only been in Tahoe since December, though his mom grew up in the area.

He is interested in competing in future powerlifting and arm wrestling events.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report

By Kathryn Reed

KINGS BEACH – Despite an ongoing lawsuit that could upend the Tahoe City Lodge project, more pieces of the development were secured last week at the California Tahoe Conservancy meeting.

The state board on June 15 agreed to sell 16 residential and tourist accommodation units that would equate to 61 usable units based on a bonus formula. The TRPA still needs to certify the transaction.

The Tahoe Regional Planning Agency has created commodities out of these units as well as commercial floor area, so know they have a monetary value. The initial goal was to limit development. The policy now restricts redevelopment and adds significantly to the cost of a project. It puts a cog in the wheel of the free market.

The bi-state regulatory agency subsequently came up with “bonus units” if the commodities came from a stream environmental zone. So, the overall amount of potential development is somewhat arbitrary.

Placer County was the one doing the purchasing at the CTC meeting.

The hotel is 118 units. It will be 78 condos and 40 traditional hotel rooms. The four-story structure will front Highway 28 and replace a dilapidated structure. The condos can be put into the rental pool as hotel rooms.

Some, though, questions how tourist accommodation units are being used for the condos.

Ann Nichols with the North Tahoe Preservation Alliance is worried the CTC is becoming a development agency and told the board as much. (Board member Larry Sevison was absent.)

The mission of the CTC “is to lead California’s efforts to restore and enhance the extraordinary natural and recreational resources of the Lake Tahoe Basin.”

Having the bank of commodities helps ensure the CTC’s solvency, especially as state bond money dwindles.

CTC and Placer had been negotiating a price of $12,000 per unit. When the state got wind the city of South Lake Tahoe was selling TAUs to Placer at $12,500, they inflated their price last month. That 64-unit transaction, though, with the city and Placer is not complete and is not expected to be until the Knights Inn in the city is demolished this summer. The $12,500 figure was agreed to about three years ago.

Jennifer Merchant, deputy CEO for Placer, told the board that changing the price at the last minute was not fair. Ultimately the board agreed to a per unit price of $12,250, for a total of $747,250.

By John Kingsbury, Union Democrat

The president of the United States wants to “drain the swamp.” Of course he is using this saying as a metaphor for mismanagement and government waste. It seems to me that California, however, is hell bent to drain the Sierra Nevada – in the literal sense – as if this action was without consequence.

While I support “draining the swamp” of excess bureaucracy, I am opposed to California’s “draining the Sierra” or taking water from one ecological region to meet the environmental needs of another.

The Delta depends on the Sierra as the largest reservoir of banked water in all of California. Draining the Sierra will defeat the Delta Stewardship Council’s objective to coequally achieve water supply reliability and restore the Delta’s ecosystem.

Read the whole story

By Carol Pogash, New York Times

When Dan Goldwater first attached kaleidoscopic LED lights to the spokes of his bicycle wheels and rode through the Burning Man festival at night, the crowd was wowed.

And the “burners” — people who flock to the giant late-summer counterculture festival in the Nevada desert — were not the only ones. Back home in Berkeley, “Everywhere that I took it, people would run down the street after me and ask, where could they get this thing?” Mr. Goldwater said.

Bicycle equipment companies come and go; mostly they go. Goldwater’s company, Monkeylectric, has been in business for 10 years, convincing night cyclists that front and back lights are inadequate and that they need bright side lighting, too.

Monkeylectric — no one remembers how it got the name — sits at the intersection of safety and art, with an overlay of whimsy. Cyclists pay $25 to $60 for a set of lights to attach to their bicycle wheels. When the wheels spin, they produce rotating light shows with various designs: rainbows, hearts, a skull-and-crossbones or geometrics.

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The fatalities over the weekend of an 11-year-old girl in New Jersey and 19-year-old young man in Ohio are bringing scrutiny to an age-old summer ritual that’s common on waterfronts across America: swimming near boat docks.

Initial reports say the youngster died when touching a dock’s electrified boatlift, and the Ohio teen died as a result of dangerous electrical current in the water while trying to save his father and family dog that also appeared to be stricken by the electrical current.

The BoatUS Foundation, the boating-safety arm of the nations’ largest recreational boat owners group, has some tips to prevent an electrocution tragedy:

• Never swim around boat docks that use electricity.
• Post “no swimming” signs.
• Have a qualified electrician with experience in dock electrical service inspect your private dock annually.
• Install ground-fault protection on your boat and private dock.
• Ask your marina if they have installed ground-fault protection, and if the electrical system is inspected and tested annually-just in case someone falls overboard. No one should ever swim in a marina.
• Periodically test your boat for electrical leakage into the water.

What do you do if you see a distressed person in the water near a boat dock? A drowning victim often looks “playful,” while an electric shock drowning victim looks “distressed.” It may be difficult, however, to immediately determine either, so play it safe by not jumping in. The first task is to shut off power to the dock at the breaker panel, and if equipped, disconnect any power cable to the vessel. If power cannot be shut down, follow the “reach, throw, row, but don’t go” mantra by using an oar, boat hook or throw a floatation device to reach the stricken person.

By Scott Sonner, AP

Recreational sales of marijuana in Nevada may not begin next month after all.

A judge added to the uncertainty Tuesday when he extended a temporary order barring the state from issuing pot distribution licenses to existing medical marijuana dispensaries so they can begin recreational sales July 1.

Carson City District Judge James Wilson said in a 11-page ruling that the ballot measure voters approved in November dictates that licensed alcohol wholesalers have the exclusive rights to pot distribution licenses for 18 months.

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