By Janet Goodall

Your skin has many important jobs, such as protecting your body, helping to maintain your temperature, and generating vitamin D. Yet sometimes your skin doesn’t get the care and protection it needs.  

Janet Goodall

While some sun exposure helps the body make vitamin D and improve your mood, more than a small amount can damage skin cells and lead to skin cancer. Consider these lesser known facts about skin cancer:

• It can happen at any age. Skin cancer rates have increased by 250 percent among American children and young adults in the last 40 years. Young adults, particularly young women, are more likely to get skin cancer than any other cancer.
• You may notice symptoms. Monitor your skin for large, uneven, discolored sores that grow rapidly or do not heal. Watch for swelling, spreading color, and a change in the surface texture.
• Your health history matters. Research shows a history of skin cancer, a weak immune system, radiation therapy, and HPV can increase your risk. Precancerous lesions, sunburns, and delicate skin are also risk factors.
• Any tanning is dangerous. Both artificial tanning and recreational suntanning deliver UVA and UVB radiation, which can damage cell DNA and lead to cancer. Living at high elevation and spending a lot of time outside also increase your risk.
• You can still enjoy the sun. Go outside early in the morning or in the evening, when the sun’s ray are less intensive. Any time of day, wear protective clothing, a hat, sunglasses, and a “broad spectrum” sunscreen, SPF 30 or higher, that protect against both UVA and UVB rays.

Janet Goodall is a family nurse practitioner who sees patients at Barton Health.

The night of June 18 was a busy one for the North Tahoe Public Utility District as contractor RDC installed bypass valves for the sewer system.e 

Installation of these 24-inches valves at the Carnelian Bay Sewer Pump Station will allow for full rehabilitation of the pump station as well as providing additional and easier bypass operations in an emergency. This force main carries all the sewer east of Carnelian Bay.

Crews work on the NTPUD sewer line on June 18. Photo/Provided

Taking it off line, even in the middle of the night, required an army of 10 tanker trucks ranging in size from 3,400-5,000 gallons to manually truck the sewage past this force main system. 

This $2.7 million project will complete the rehabilitation of three of the district’s four main sewer pump stations. The rehabilitation includes replacement of all major mechanical components (pump, motors, controls) as well as rehabilitation of the wet and dry wells.

These pump stations were initially constructed in 1969.  At that time, the population for Kings Beach and Tahoe Vista was expected to reach more than 42,000 people and the sewer system was designed to accommodate all those residents. In addition to updating our system, these rehabilitation projects also allow the district “right size” the pumps and motors so they are more efficient and use less power. 

This project is expected to be completed in November 2017.

By Mick Akers, Las Vegas Sun

Nevada displayed its dedication to refining autonomous vehicles, with the passage of and signing of Assembly Bill 69, industry officials said.

AB69 strengthens the state’s efforts in policy, as well as the research and development of fully autonomous vehicles. Gov. Brian Sandoval signed the bill into law on Friday, after it passed the Legislature with industry support from various automotive groups including General Motors, the Self-Driving Coalition — including Waymo, Uber, Lyft, Ford and Volvo — and the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers.

The legislation allows for testing and operations of fully autonomous vehicles; simplifies and clarifies the legal authority for entities testing or operating autonomous vehicles in Nevada; authorizes commercial use of fully autonomous vehicles; authorizes testing and operations of driver-assistive platooning technologies.

Read the whole story

More than 200 competitors are expected at the four-day Tahoe Tennis Classic in July.

Now in its 34th year, the July 27-30 all-doubles tournament is introducing a 6.0 category for men and women. The 14 divisions are mostly are based on ability level, with two related to the combined age of players. The tournament consists of women’s, men’s and mixed doubles.

At the 2016 tournament there were 184 competitors ranging in age from 12 to 81 who came from nine states.

While Douglas County owns the courts, it is the nonprofit Zephyr Cove Tennis Club Foundation that maintains them and the entire tennis facility.

Entry fee for the various divisions is $80, with the second event $30. Every player is guaranteed at least two matches. The deadline to signup is July 20. More information, as well as the registration form, is available on ZCTC’s website.

CHP Sgt. Randy Fisher places the rescued fawn into a patrol car. Photo/CHP

By Bill Lindelof, Sacramento Bee

A California Highway Patrol officer came to the aid of a fawn who was trapped in the rushing water in the Sierra.

Sgt. Randy Fisher was on duty Monday morning when he saw a fawn along westbound Interstate 80 near Truckee. The deer was in a drainage ditch, a leg stuck in a drain.

The animal was in danger of being overwhelmed by rushing water from a morning thunderstorm. With water running over the fawn, Fisher entered the ditch and gently extricated the fawn from her chilly predicament.

Read the whole story

·      The Bicycle Advisory Committee of the South Lake Tahoe Recreation Facilities Joint Powers Authority will meet July 12 from 9-11am at City Hall.

·      Coffee with a Cop is June 30 form 9-11am at Alps Haus Cafe in Markleeville.

·      The longest annual charity bicycle ride in the world, the Texas 4000 team, will be rolling through South Lake Tahoe on June 26. They are raising money for cancer research.

·      Carson High School Career and Technology Education Health Occupation Student Association Future Health Professionals, a career and technical student organization, is sending 29 students to the HOSA International Leadership Conference in Orlando June 20-25. The students will represent CHS, as well as the Carson City community and the state of Nevada in various medical competitions.

·      Tahoe City is looking for volunteers to help clean Commons Beach on July 5 from 8:30-11am. Go online to RSVP.

By Peter Fimrite, San Francisco Chronicle

Winter is horning in on summer in the California mountains, where a stubborn blanket of snow is preventing several high-country camps from opening just as swarms of seasonal sojourners are itching to head for the hills.

Summer officially begins Wednesday, but the historic storms that rolled through this winter deposited so much snow in the Sierra, Cascade and Siskiyou ranges that roads are still being plowed, tent sites are still being dug out and damage is still being assessed.

The lingering ice has been a particular problem in Yosemite National Park, where officials last week announced the shutdown of the famed High Sierra camps — only the third time in a century that the scenic back-country sites have been declared off-limits for the entire summer because of thick snow.

In many places, camp operators are hustling to dig out and restore access. At the city of Berkeley’s Echo Lake Camp, in South Lake Tahoe, winter and spring storms damaged 37 of the 45 cabins while burying the site in 15 feet of snow. Workers could not get in to fix anything until early June, when the road leading to the camp was finally cleared.

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LUMA: Art in Darkness will be at MontBleu from July 13-Aug. 13.

This is a three-dimensional illuminated illusions telling the story of people’s fixation with light and fear of the dark.

LUMA was the first show of its kind; taking place in a darkened theater and using cutting edge technologies to create kinetic tapestries of light by unseen performers.

The production tells a story of the Lumen Being who fears the darkness and travels through the night in search of an escape, encountering the light of the moon, the stars, a night highway, a midnight carnival and finally arriving to the brightest place on the planet, the big city, where he learns about the darker side of light.

For more info, go online.

At the annual Barton Auxiliary lunch this month 13 students from South Tahoe and Carson Valley were awarded $19,000 in scholarships and Barton Family Birthing Center received $57,500.

Scholarship recipients were selected based on their academic excellence and interest in pursuing a career in medicine or science.

The following students received scholarships: Wesley Alexander (Douglas High School), Kendra Conrad (South Tahoe High School), Samantha Forvilly (Whittell High School), Caitlin Hannah (STHS), Aspen Kidd (WHS), Farrah Kuenzi (Lake Tahoe Community College), Hunter Langford (DHS), Jocelyn Lopez (STHS), America Mata (Mt. Tallac High School), Kelsey McGillivray (DHS), Lars Ponsness (DHS), Jorge Reyes (Mt. Tallac), and Lek Wei Seow (STHS).

The annual Art, Wine and Music Festival returns to Squaw Valley on July 8-9.

The festival shows of the talents of artists, crafts makers, performers and musicians, and features wine tasting from California wineries, live musical performances across three stages and walkways lined with more than 30 local and regional fine artisans.

All proceeds from the Art, Wine and Music Festival benefit Achieve Tahoe, whose mission is to provide affordable inclusive physical and recreational activities that build health and confidence. Last year the festival raised $10,700 for the nonprofit.

The festival will take place from 11am to 5pm, with wine tastings beginning at 2pm. The tasting costs $25.