Tahoe Games Bike Night series returns in June for the third year.

This family-friendly bike event features an illuminated cross country course at Lake Tahoe Golf Course in Meyers that
spans across fairways, into  the rough, through sand traps and over bridges with the occasional cart path.

The dates are June 16 and Sept. 29. Registration is from 7-8pm, with the race at 9pm.

Races will be conducted in three heats broken down by classes. Awards and an after party will follow the race. Helmets, bike lights, headlamps, glow sticks, bike decor and costumes are strongly encouraged. The course will be designed for ages 10 and up on any non-motorized bicycle.

A bill signed by Gov. Brian Sandoval on May 15 is designed to protect Nevada Department of Transportation workers.

It takes effect July 1.

Motorists must move into the far lane when passing NDOT workers. Look for the agency vehicles’ flashing amber lights as a warning. California has a similar law.

This law already pertains to law enforcement. It is a misdemeanor to violate the law.

There have been 24 NDOT employees who have been killed in the line of duty since 1948. The most recent NDOT employee to die was Ron Raiche Jr., who was struck and killed by an inattentive driver on March 30, 2015, while repairing roadway cracking on Interstate 80 near Battle Mountain.

UC Davis plans to train docents to work at its education centers in Incline Village and Tahoe City.

The four-part training program is designed to develop participants’ local Lake Tahoe presentation skills. Training includes general Lake Tahoe information, environmental issues, geology, history of research, state of the lake, ecology and food web.

Training includes all Docent Training program materials, guest speakers from UC Davis, UNR, research vessel time on the lake, and a social happy hour. Training will be June 15, 19, 20 and 24.

More information about the docent program or to register, go online. To receive the Docent Training agenda, contact Heather Segale at hmsegale@ucdavis.edu or call 775.881.7562.

By Las Vegas Sun

A giant step backward. A declaration of war. The worst legislation for women’s health in a generation.

These were among reactions to the May 4 passage of the American Health Care Act through the U.S. House of Representatives, from the American Civil Liberties Union, advocacy group UltraViolet and health care provider Planned Parenthood, which will lose all federal grants and reimbursements for a year if the bill were to clear the Senate.

“This disastrous legislation once again makes being a woman a pre-existing condition,” Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards said in a news release, referring to the Republican bill’s callback to an era when insurers could treat pregnancy, C-sections, postpartum depression, domestic violence and sexual assault as pre-existing conditions, charging affected women more or denying coverage. The AHCA would allow states to opt out of the Affordable Care Act’s provision for pre-existing conditions, and it would block private plans from covering abortion and limit options for low-income women on Medicaid.

The GOP’s website asserts that “praise has poured in” for the party’s plan, rounding up op-eds from Forbes, Fortune, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post and some smaller outlets, as well as statements from the National Federation of Independent Business and other trade groups, mostly lauding fiscal aspects such as cutting industry taxes and lifting regulations imposed by the Affordable Care Act. Polls show some support for its intended replacement, though a majority stands in opposition. Quinnipiac University Polling revealed that out of more than 1,000 Americans surveyed, only 22 percent of men and 13 percent of women were in favor of “Trumpcare.” Nearly a quarter of respondents who identified as Republicans were not among them.

The Status of Women in the States is an ongoing national data project of the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, a think tank launched in 1987 to analyze public policy through the lens of gender. “Women in Nevada have made considerable advances in recent years but still face inequities that often prevent them from reaching their full potential,” IWPR reported in 2015.

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·      Register online for the second annual OMG Fun Run that will be June 4, 10 am-noon at the Old Meyers Grade.

·      South Lake Tahoe is looking for three people to be on the Building & Housing Board of Appeals. Applicants must reside within the Tahoe basin portion of EI Dorado County. For more info, call 530.542.6004.

·      Zephyr Cove Library is having a book sale May 24-27 from 11am-5pm.

·      Robie Wilson Litchfield, principal and owner of Litchfield Design + Consulting, is credentialed as a SITES professional by Green Building Certification Inc. for environmentally friendly landscape design.

·      Truckee is having a solid waste workshop on May 19 from 2:30-4pm at the airport.

By Benjamin Spillman, Reno Gazette-Journal

A proposal for the federal government to unload millions of acres of land in Nevada probably won’t return to Congress.

That’s according to Rep. Mark Amodei, R-Carson City, who introduced a massive lands bill last session and had considered reviving it.

“Transferring millions of acres of public lands … is not something I think the majority of people think is a good idea,” Amodei said during an interview with the Reno Gazette-Journal editorial board.

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By Kathryn Reed

Color matters – even today. The reality behind the headlines tells us as much.

So it should come as no surprise that the world of fiction is also filled with stories about racism. Sara Picoult in her novel “Small Great Things” (2016 Random House) does not shy away from what some would call delicate subject matters.

This was my book club’s May book, which most everyone liked and would recommend.

Instead of weaving the story of the various characters into one narrative, each is separated by his/her own chapters. This is a clever way to ensure their voices, thoughts and feelings are not lost.

A dead baby, a black nurse, a white supremacist dad, and a white public defender who thinks she’s color blind. Their worlds collide across more than 400 pages.

For the most part the story rings true. At times I was angry – at the characters and for representing them.

The legal aspect – more than medical – is most captivating. Predictably it was the trial where the fireworks come.

There were times when the story dragged, and then the end seemed rushed and not well developed. In some ways the twists at the end took away from what had been a good look at complexities of human relations. It almost became contrite.

At the end, Picoult could have skipped the multi-page explanation of why a white woman could write such a book. Authors write fiction every day from perspectives they aren’t intimately involved in. That’s what good writers do — and without calling attention to themselves. She should have let the book speak for itself.

By Kathryn Reed

STATELINE – Residential building allocations and vacation home rentals may one day be linked, but it won’t be this year if the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency’s Governing Board listens to its Local Government Committee.

The committee is made up of representatives from South Lake Tahoe, El Dorado County, Placer County, Douglas County, Washoe County and Carson City. They all agreed last week that it is imperative the allocations, which are released every two years, go forward as scheduled. The Governing Board at its May 24 meeting is expected to release the allocations.

The bi-state regulatory agency doles out these allocations based on whether the jurisdictions meet certain environmental criteria.

“You can’t change the rules in the middle of the process,” Shelley Aldean, who represents Carson City, said.

Some on the 15-member Governing Board – the ones who don’t live here and don’t have to deal with the impacts of their decisions – are advocating for regulations that would prohibit a residential allocation to end up being used as a vacation rental and not for a full-time resident.

Residential allocations:
South Lake Tahoe, 33 for 2017, 33 for 2018
El Dorado County, 30 for 2017, 30 for 2018
Placer County, 37 for 2017, 37 for 2018
Douglas County, 10 for 2017, 10 for 2018
Washoe County, 10 for 2017, 10 for 2018
                                                                                      Source: TRPA

There are 46,962 residential units in the Lake Tahoe Basin today. The Regional Plan allows for up to 130 residential allocations per year. The total residential units will be 50,637.

Some of the discussion on May 11 centered on whether people intending to build a house to be used exclusively as a VHR should be denied an allocation. TRPA code already says a residence used exclusively as a VHR must have a tourist accommodation unit assigned to it.

Committee members questioned why this was being discussed. The answer – because other board members want TRPA to be in the driver’s seat on the VHR issue. Allowing local control on any issue has always be an issue for the Governing Board as a whole.

Austin Sass, who represents South Lake Tahoe, said for a science-based organization he is not seeing any science behind making changes to allocation distributions and VHRs.

Enforcement is another issue that really wasn’t touched upon. And exclusively can be slippery; an owner can stay there or have friends be there for free for a couple nights. Then it’s no longer exclusively rented to tourists. And what happens when the dwelling is sold?

The committee members all recognize housing – or the lack of it – is an issue in the basin. They acknowledge vacation rentals may be impacting availability. However, those in the industry say owners won’t turn their property into a long-term rental if VHR rules change. That’s the conundrum.

Exploring how many VHRs can be in a neighborhood was brought up.

Douglas County has a VHR policy for the lake, and is now looking to expand it to the valley. A special use permit might also be required.

Local TRPA members are all in favor of discussing the matter further. First, though, they’d like to see the outcome of South Lake Tahoe’s VHR economic study that is expected to be released in June. Current VHR numbers supplied by South Lake Tahoe for just the city 1,287 single-family VHRs, 58 multiple family VHRs and 376 tourist accommodations for a total of 1,721.

By Brian Greenspun, Las Vegas Sun

Asked how to explain one of President Trump’s latest incredulisms — I think I just made that word up — a CNN commentator said she was at a loss. The issue was Trump’s belief that, had he been around at the time, President Andrew Jackson could have staved off the Civil War, a war that didn’t have to happen and a war for which our president wasn’t quite sure how and why it happened. Or so he said.

After a few pundits took a stab at trying to tell us what Trump might have really meant to say — to little or no avail — the last commenter said the issue wasn’t about what the president was trying to say. It was really about what he wasn’t trying to know. The solution, she declared, was an immediate need for Trump to “crack open a book.”

She implied willful ignorance, and I am pretty sure it was a negative comment.

But I am not here trying to be negative, I am merely picking up on the concept of reading a book.

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By David Bauder, AP

A battered news industry can find some flickers of hope in a survey that gauges public willingness to pay for journalism, as long as its leaders plan judiciously.

A little more than half of American adults regularly pay for news, through newspaper and magazine subscriptions, apps on electronic devices or contributions to public media, according to the Media Insight Project, a collaboration between the American Press Institute and the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

It’s not only greybeards, either. Although they’re less likely than their parents’ generation to subscribe, close to 4 in 10 people under age 35 also pay. Younger people are also more likely to express a desire to support a news organization’s mission as a reason for subscribing, the project’s study found.

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