Entries are open for the third annual Lake Tahoe WordWave One-Act Play Competition.

Three winners will each receive a $500 cash prize and a two-night stay to see their work directed and produced as a staged reading at the historic Valhalla Boathouse Theatre at the Tallac Historic Site on the South Shore on Oct. 21.

The deadline to enter is June 9. Plays may be submitted online. Writers may enter multiple works.

Winners of the competition will also receive a welcome dinner and the opportunity for a pre- or post-show discussion with the audience. Tickets to the Oct. 21 event are available online.

Submission requirements:
• Submit one-acts of no longer than 60 minutes by June 6 at midnight
• There is a $20 submission fee for each entry paid via PayPal
• 100-200 word synopsis
• Cast list that indicates the number of female roles, the number of male roles and the number of roles that can be performed by either gender.
• Set design(s). Feel free to provide diagrams and/or pictures.
• Estimated running time
• Plays must be written within the last five years.

For more information, email tahoewordwave@gmail.com or call 530.545.1373.

By Kathryn Reed

A new neighborhood is about to be erected on the South Shore.

With a severe housing shortage in Lake Tahoe, inane rules governing development and tourist accommodations usually what anyone wants to build, this is almost revolutionary.

Ten units will be four bedrooms and the remaining 34 will have three bedrooms. Fourteen will be standalone residences, the others will be townhomes. They will range in square footage from about 2,200 to 2,800.

This housing project has gone through several incarnations – because of a lawsuit brought by the League to Save Lake Tahoe, market conditions, and a desire to have more open space. Twelve years after purchasing the 18-acre parcel in Stateline, Steve Kenninger and Gail Jaquish are starting to build what is known as Sierra Colina.

“Our big focus is we are trying to create a community or neighborhood that provides that feeling of being more like a local neighborhood. We expect a large portion of our owners to be full-time residents of the Tahoe basin,” Brian Helm, managing partner of Sierra Colina, told Lake Tahoe News.

This is the eastern entrance to Sierra Colina off Lake Village Drive. There will be a second entrance/exit down the hill to the west, closer to the office building. Photo/Kathryn Reed

Sierra Colina will be accessed off Lake Village Drive from Highway 50 in Stateline. A loop will connect the neighborhood.

The bulk of the work this building season will be putting in what will be private roads – not county owned – utilities, and other infrastructure. Final details on Highway 50 improvements are being ironed out.

This season 10 units will have their foundations laid, with anticipation people could be moving in in 2018. Seventeen units will be built in each of the following two years.

The exact price for the dwellings will be released this summer. That’s when sales will begin as well.

The original project called for nine moderate-income deed restricted single-family residences. Those fell by the wayside post-lawsuit, which the League won.

“The way we look at it market rate and affordable housing are part of a connected chain. As we add market rate housing, it frees up rentals,” Helm said.

It’s not expected that people will be able to see much of the neighborhood when they drive by on Highway 50 because everything will be set back at least 200 feet.

For the new residents, some will have partial views of Lake Tahoe, Rabe Meadow, Mount Tallac and Heavenly.

The goal is to leave as many of the large trees and boulders as possible so there is a sense of being in the mountains while being immersed in the neighborhood. Only 4 of the 18 acres will be touched. The rest will remain natural.

“We will be providing a little bit of an updated look with mountain architecture; something that feels very warm and relates to Lake Tahoe from an aesthetic and maintenance perspective,” Helm said. “It’s important to us to have timeless mountain architecture.”

Wood and rock will be used extensively.

Also being constructed this year is the commons building that will be a gathering spot for residents. A homeowners’ association will govern the property after build out.

By Tom Mooers, Denver Post

Dear Colorado:

Welcome to Lake Tahoe!

We’ve been reading in our local California papers, as well as the Denver Post, about the new relationship between Aspen Skiing Co. and KSL Capital Partners. And of their subsequent purchases of IntraWest and Mammoth ski resorts — quite a dowry!

You likely share in the stoke for the new couple’s community property — an incredible list of mountains that reads like a bucket list for American skiers: Colorado’s Aspen and Steamboat resorts and California’s Mammoth and Squaw — with more rumored soon.

We have one request in return: don’t mess with our mountains. We hold our Sierra Nevada and its incredible places — Yosemite, Lake Tahoe, etc. — in high regard. And we defend them with great ferocity.

Read the whole story

By Thomas Moore, Las Vegas Sun

Michael Shackleford is a gambling aficionado and a mathematician. As the owner of the The Wizard of Odds website, the former actuary and adjunct professor of casino math at the UNLV has spent countless hours calculating the odds and figuring out strategies for most of the games in casinos.

Shackleford says the biggest misconception people have about blackjack occurs when every player at a table loses. More often than not, they’ll blame the player on third base — the last person to make a decision at the table — for their loss.

“The fact of it is, no matter how the last player to act plays their hand, it is just as likely to help as to hurt the table,” Shackleford said. “People have a selective memory and only remember the things that fit the paradigm that they believe in. If the dealer pulls a 21, they like to point at someone to blame for it and I think that’s the psychology of why this myth exists.”

Read the whole story

Inversion Gym volunteers fill bags of garbage on May 6. Photo/Amy Thompson

The record-breaking winter revealed record-breaking amounts of litter as the snow melted. 

On May 6, 118 volunteers scoured South Tahoe neighborhoods to help clean it up and kick off the summer with a litter-free town.  The groups covered 15 locations, and gathered 1,484 pounds of trash and debris.  

Volunteers took to the streets around Stateline, Bijou, Al Tahoe, Lakeview Commons, Sierra Tract, Tahoe Island, Gardner Mountain, the Y, and Meyers. Some neighborhoods had multiple groups fanning out to cover more ground.  

The overwhelming majority of the litter was single-use plastics, packaging, and cigarette butts. Volunteers reported finding a variety of other items as well: broken and discarded bicycles, clothing, diapers, dog poop bags, car parts, and drug paraphernalia.

The event was coordinated by the Clean Tahoe Program, with the help of sponsors Harrah’s/Harveys Lake Tahoe and South Tahoe Refuse. In addition, a number of local businesses and organizations participated by coordinating volunteers, including: Harrah’s HEROs program, Hard Rock casino, Hard Rock Café, Inversion Gym, and Tahoe Coalition for the Homeless.

The right lane of eastbound Interstate 80 east of Kingvale in Nevada County will be closed for an extended period as emergency crews investigate and repair drainage damage.

Winter storms increased water flows in established drainage areas resulting in erosion around culvert pipes adjacent to the freeway.

During periods of increased traffic, such as weekends and holidays, the restriction to one freeway lane through the work zone will increase the likelihood of traffic congestion.

By Daniel Rothberg, Las Vegas Sun

At a Lake Tahoe fundraiser in August, Elko County Commissioner Demar Dahl — a leader in the movement to transfer federal land to the states — met privately with then-candidate Donald Trump. According to a story Dahl has told many times since then, he asked Trump how he would feel operating a 10-floor hotel in which eight floors were owned by a bureaucracy 2,500 miles away.

“He caught right on,” Dahl said.

This is how Dahl sees Nevada’s position relative to the federal government, which owns more than 85 percent of the state. “So many of the rules and regulations we have to live by are made so far away in Washington by people who are not really familiar with our problems out here,” he said.

In late April, Dahl flew to Washington, D.C., to discuss the future of public lands with President Trump’s staff, after the administration invited him to a signing ceremony for an executive order on education. The political landscape around the land issue had changed since August. Trump’s administration had veered away from the pro-transfer position included in the Republican Party’s platform.

Read the whole story

Monitor Pass is open, but there is still mounds of snow along the sides of this section of Highway 89.

The two other key Sierra passes — Tioga and Sonora — remain covered in snow. Crews are working to clear them.

Tioga Pass (Highway 120) is the east entrance to Yosemite National Park. Caltrans says the snow is 15-feet deep in places.

The same goes for Sonora Pass (Highway 108).

With the storm system that passed through last weekend, even more white stuff covers these highways. There is no estimated date when either pass will open.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report

The 6th annual Kindred Art and Folk Institute Inspired Adventure Spring Festival celebrates art, nature and music while raising money for at risk-youth scholarships, public art and art education programs.

This year’s festival is May 20 at the Truckee Community Art Center. It will feature live music, fire dancing, an interactive urban art wall, artisan market, bounce house, snow tube costume contest and more.

Suggested donations are $10 per person/$15 per family. The event is from 11am-6pm.

New this year will be a large collaborate art project – the building of a double-sided urban art wall, 8-feet wide and 6-feet tall, allowing festival attendees to express themselves with a brush, roller and spray paints along with large Sharpie pens.

·      South Lake Tahoe Wedding & Honeymoon Association is hosting a dog costume contest and barbecue to benefit Lake Tahoe Wildlife Care. It is May 21, 1-4pm at Pine Cone Resort, 601 Highway 50, Zephyr Cove. Cost is $15. Tickets are online.

·      Local wildflower guru and TRTA guide Roger Rosenberger, and Lake Tahoe Community College wildflower instructor Lisa Berry are joining forces to talk about Tahoe’s wildflowers. The free talk is June 6 from 6-8pm at LTCC. Register online.

·      The Loft in South Lake Tahoe is having a wine pairing dinner with Franciscan Estate on June 7 at 6:30pm. For tickets and info, go online.

·      Through traffic on Kingsbury Grade will be held at 12:30pm May 12 for the Amgen bike race. Highway 28 to Incline Village will be closed from 12:30-1:30pm on May 11. Through traffic will be held at Spooner Summit at 1pm.

·      Selwyn Lee is now Barton Health’s chief medical officer.