Nathan Standing Bear

Richard Joseph Nathaniel Rouse, better known as Nathan Standing Bear, died Feb. 24, 2017. He was 67.

Born July 2, 1949, to Warren C. Rouse and Dorothea Joy (Kennedy) Rouse, in Lafayette, Ind., he died at Chi Saint Alexius Hospital in Bismarck, N.D.

Raised in a military family, Nathan grew up in Chapel Hill, N.C., where he expressed his dissatisfaction in the college prep-school culture of corduroy and cardigan uniforms. His nature and soul soared in the next environment he experienced when his father was transferred to the Kwajalein Marshall Islands . It was there he became acquainted with indigenous island natives and tribal culture. He would often reminisce about fishing in the reefs, boating to nearby islands, surfing coral reef waves, and cooking fish in open fires pits on pristine beaches with kind, indigenous natives who embraced and enjoyed his presence.

In his late teens he headed for the West Coast on his own. At one point in his journey, he became snowbound high in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, where he persevered through heavy blizzard conditions for four months, heating his cabin with wood chopped with an axe after the chain saw failed after the first week.

Nathan arrived in South Lake Tahoe in 1970, where he resided for a time in a teepee on the Amacker Ranch. Becoming a skilled carpenter specializing in log work, he made Tahoe his home for the remainder of his life.

He became an accomplished pen and ink/watercolor artist. He also managed several properties throughout the 190’s and early 2000,s on Jameson Beach where he resided on the shore of Lake Tahoe for about 18 years.

Nathan was the founder, creator, and organizer of a group known as One Earth Family. He drew together hundreds of people from all over the globe.

Nathan was an Earth and nature lover with an intense appreciation of birds and all living creatures. He respected Mother Earth as the source of life and rallied against those who view the Earth as a trove of resources to be exploited for profit at the expense of planetary well-being. He spent the last five months of his life on the front lines of Standing Rock, N.D.

Nathan is survived by his, mother, Joy Rouse and his sister Robin Rouse Caviness.

Services will be at later time.

Brine leaves streaks on the road at the end of North Upper Truckee Road toward Highway 50. Photo/John Adamski

By Jason Daley, Sierra

Over the course of millions of years, environmental pressures push species to adapt, leading to a new tail shape, a striped color scheme, or a taste for eucalyptus leaves. But in the last couple decades, researchers have found that evolution isn’t just a slow invisible hand molding dinosaurs into birds.

“Contemporary evolution” is also happening at a scale that is easily observable in a human lifetime, and some of those changes are actually driven by humans. In fact, a new study explores how one of humanity’s biggest footprints, the massive system of roads that crisscross earth, are driving evolution in the plants and animals that live near them. 

That’s not to say roads are creating new species in front of our eyes. Instead, they are driving localized adaptations that take place in relatively isolated populations.

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The 12th WinterFest of Tahoe Symphony Orchestra & Chorus (TOCCATA) continues with Bach: The Passion according to St. Matthew.

Performances will be:

April 9 – 3:30pm, St. Rose of Lima Church in south Reno

​​​​​​​April 11 – 7pm, St. Theresa Church in South Lake Tahoe

April 14 – 7pm St. Patrick’s Church in Incline Village.

Tickets are available online.

By Kathryn Reed

Water meters not being used at South Lake Tahoe fire stations are costing the city about $30,000 a year, according to South Tahoe Public Utility District.

The 4-inch meters were put in when the stations were built; before the city was incorporated. The idea was the fire engines would be filled with water while in the bay at the station. That doesn’t happen. Firefighters tap hydrants for water.

The larger the meter, the higher the price. If the city were to downsize to 1-inch meters, that is where the savings could come from. According to STPUD, this is a relatively easy procedure that any plumber in town should be able to do.

City Manager Nancy Kerry was not aware of the meter issue until Lake Tahoe News called.

“They have never told us there was a potential for saving money on any kind of metering,” Kerry told Lake Tahoe News.

The city and STPUD have had a less than friendly relationship for a couple years. In part it has to do with the city’s thinking it should be operating the water-sewer district. It also has to do with the city’s now paying about $100,000 a year for water, which for most of its existence it never had to do.

In 2015, the city and South Tahoe PUD ended a multi-decade agreement that included the city’s getting water for free and the district’s not having to pay encroachment fees within the city right-of-way.

It was at that time when the district was researching how to go forward that it was discovered the fire stations have larger meters than what are needed based on use. But apparently no one told the city about the potential savings.

It’s even a bigger waste of money at station 2 because no fire trucks are even kept there.

By Kaleb Roedel, KRNV-TV

An injured hiker was rescued this morning near Bonsai Rock at on the North Shore, according to the Washoe County Sheriff’s Office.

Bob Harmon with WCSO says at about 1:3am March 20 the sheriff’s office received a report of a hiker at Bonsai Rock in Sand Harbor in need of medical attention.

Harmon says a couple, a male and a female, had parked along Highway 28 and were attempting to “walk down to the water’s edge” of Lake Tahoe when the man, in his 50s, started experiencing health problems.

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Rainy

Rainy is a beautiful calico Snowshoe mix kitty who is 4 years old. She is the perfect companion for someone who has no other pets, as she is scared of other cats and dogs. She is also frightened of children.

Rainy needs a special home to help her feel comfortable and has been at the shelter since December.

Rainy is spayed, microchipped, tested for FIV, and vaccinated. She is at the El Dorado County Animal Services shelter in Meyers, along with many other dogs and cats who are waiting for their new homes. Go to the Tahoe animal shelter’s Facebook page to see photos and descriptions of all pets at the shelter.

Call 530.573.7925 for directions, hours, and other information on adopting a pet.

For spay-neuter assistance for South Tahoe residents, go online.

— Karen Kuentz

By Kathryn Reed

Flip a switch and the lights go on. In the 21st century in the United States we expect that same outcome every time.

But the reality is there are circumstances beyond the supplier’s control that cause the power to go out.

Weather is the No. 1 reason Liberty Utilities customers find themselves in the dark. Equipment failures, traffic accidents, animals on the lines and loss of power from NV Energy are other factors.

Liberty supplies electricity to the California side of the basin, Truckee and just north of there, and Alpine and Mono counties. The 1,476-square-mile service area encompasses 50,000 customers. The bulk of its power comes from Las Vegas-based NV Energy.

New for this year the California Public Utilities Commission is mandating companies under its purview host reliability reporting workshops in its service area. Liberty did so last week in South Lake Tahoe and Kings Beach.

A broken pole this winter in the Ward Creek area took out power to Alpine Meadows ski resort and area residents. Photo/Liberty Utilities

The goal is for customers to not experience more than 160 minutes’ worth of outages in a year. In 2014, Liberty customers were in the dark on average 352 minutes and for 2015 it was 357 minutes.

Customers should expect 1 to 1.2 outages a year. In 2014, the average was 2.4 outages and 2015 it was 2.01.

“We are trying to push to have better restoration time,” Travis Johnson, vice president for Liberty, said.

The delay is often in finding the problem, not actually fixing it. There isn’t some magic board at headquarters that pinpoints where the broken pole is, or what line is down, or which wires slapped together. Linemen need to find the problem and then assess how to remedy the situation.

Still, the company recognizes it needs to better communicate with customers what is going on. Instead of its website just listing the counties affected, the plan is to make it more detailed. Better estimated times for restoration are also being talked about.

Living in snow country and having equipment in remote areas only compound the potential for problems in the winter.

A large swath of the West Shore was in the dark for days earlier this year. Plows won’t clear roads with wires on the ground. Unplowed roads make it difficult to reach the problem. Helicopters were used to lower workers to sites; this, after the weather cleared. At times crews were trudging through waist-high snow, at 3am, with temperature at zero degrees, all while carrying heavy cables and other equipment.

Some lines had snow accumulations the diameter of a basketball.

Utility companies operate with redundancies so when one transmission line goes down the system can still function. This winter two lines were down from Emerald Bay to Portola. Then a tree took out the third line.

“We are in uncharted territory of what our system has seen before,” Johnson said. He pointed to a diagram showing the Tahoe-Truckee area trending toward precipitation levels well ahead of 1982-83.

Exacerbating the problem is that customers from Emerald Bay to parts of Tahoe City are on one circuit.

Jeremy Vanyi with Liberty said the plan this summer is to modernize some of the equipment and to put in devices that would mean fewer customers being affected by the same outage.

Bright spots in the reliability spectrum include Liberty’s praise for phase one of the 650 electric line on the North Shore. Steel poles instead of wood means they can standup to the wicked winds that blow through the area. Plus, trees were adequately thinned to ensure they didn’t fall on the new line.

Liberty is also experiencing fewer short-term outages, which it attributes to having done more work to remove potentially problematic trees or limbs.

The two worst circuits for Liberty are in the Woodfords-Markleeville and Coleville-Walker areas. This summer the company will work on both areas to improve reliability.

Work this summer in South Lake Tahoe will involve the continuation of undergrounding cables along Pioneer Trail.

By Marcos Breton, Sacramento Bee

Barbara Smith never set to become anyone’s definition of an “anarchist.”

How subversive can one be when living in the bucolic community of Auburn? The county seat of Placer isn’t where one goes to bring the down the government. Auburn is where one goes to retire, which is what Smith did with her husband, Roy.

Smith, 61, is a former Elk Grove school teacher. Roy is a retired military man who also wore a badge in the California Highway Patrol. She is in four – count ’em, four – book clubs. She only joined Twitter in January, and the photo she picked for her profile highlights her sweet smile and “mom” glasses.

But an “anarchist” is what Smith has become, at least in the eyes of Rep. Tom McClintock. During the past six weeks, she has been one of the hundreds of vocal people attending McClintock’s town hall meetings to express concerns about the policies of President  Trump and McClintock’s support of them.

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By Caitlin Dewey, New York Times

The majority of Americans have no clear idea what “sell by” labels are trying to tell them. But after 40 years of letting us guess, the grocery industry has made moves to clear up the confusion.

Last week the Food Marketing Institute and the Grocery Manufacturers Association, the two largest trade groups for the grocery industry, announced that they’ve adopted standardized, voluntary regulations to clear up what product date labels mean.

Where manufacturers now use any of 10 separate label phrases, ranging from “expires on” to “better if used by,” they’ll now be encouraged to use only two: “Use By” and “Best if Used By.”

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The annual Kings Beach Snowfest Parade on March 11 featured 28 creative and entertaining entries from community nonprofits, governmental agencies, service groups and local businesses.

This year’s parade was attended by more than 1,000 spectators. It featured live music, fire trucks, candy, and more.

The 2017 parade winners are:

• Best Tahoe spirit award: Karen’s Playskool
• Best children’s entry: Boys & Girls Club of North Lake Tahoe
• Most entertaining entry: Burner Bike Brigade
• Best new entry: Brian Gonsalves, attorney
• Best overall entry: The Grid Bar & Grill
• Honorable mentions: Rotary Club of Tahoe City and the Incline High School Jazz Band.