Letter: Heavenly serves Bread & Broth dinner

To the community,

Partnering with Bread & Broth at their June 6 dinner, Heavenly Mountain Resort was the Adopt A Day sponsor for the evening’s meal.

Thanks to Heavenly’s $250 donation and the help of the outstanding sponsor crew from Heavenly’s marketing team, B&B prepared and served a much needed meal to folks who struggle with hunger and are very grateful for the nourishment and kindness they receive at every meal.

“We are so thankful to give back to our neighbors,” wrote Michelle Beall, Heavenly’s hospitality/marketing member and the sponsor crew team leader.  “Tahoe has given us so much and we are grateful for the opportunity to give back and meet so many wonderful people.”

Joining Bealle in helping at Heavenly’s sponsorship dinner were Julie Requarth, senior marketing coordinator; Don Evan, marketing manager; and Chris Brune, online marketing specialist.

B&B has been easing hunger in our community for over 26 years with the support of generous donor and volunteers who are committed to helping others. B&B would like to thank and acknowledge Heavenly Mountain Resort for their continuing partnership and the tremendous number of hours that Heavenly team members have donated to helping at B&B’s Monday evening meals. B&B couldn’t have had better neighbors to work side by side with to help their fellow community members.

Carol Gerard, Bread & Broth




Extreme climber to give talk in Incline

Ed Viesturs, the only American to have summited all of the world’s 14 8,000-meter peaks without supplemental oxygen, will be giving a talk June 20 in Incline Village.

He is now a best-selling author, having written four books. Viesturs was the key figure in the IMAX “Everest Expedition” documentary. He’s summited Everest seven times and was named National Geographic’s 2005 Adventurer of the Year.

Viesturs will share stories about his expeditions at the Chateau in Incline at 6pm. Cost is $35.

For tickets or more info, contact 775.832.5454 or travel@mythsandmountains.com.




Calstar to merge with rival air medical firm

By Mark Glover, Sacramento Bee

Calstar, the regional air ambulance service, and Santa Rosa’s Reach Air Medical Services announced Thursday that they are entering into a merger agreement that will create the largest network of air ambulance bases in California.

Officials said the agreement will position Calstar within the same holding company as Reach.

In a joint announcement, Sean Russell, Reach president, and Calstar CEO Lynn Malmstrom, said Calstar will become a limited liability company and operate under the current Calstar brand as Calstar Air Medical Services LLC.

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Raley’s to open first store in Truckee

By Mark Glover, Sacramento Bee

West Sacramento-based Raley’s is continuing its growth spurt.

The grocer, which had not announced a new store in six years at this time last year, on Friday announced its fifth new project in the past 10 months.

Raley’s said it will build a 35,000-square-foot supermarket at the corner of Highway 267 and Soaring Way, adjacent to the Truckee Tahoe Airport. Raley’s does not currently have a store in Truckee.

In partnership with JMA Ventures LLC – which has offices in Sacramento, San Francisco and Tahoe City – Raley’s said it also plans to develop a new retail center at the site. JMA owns Homewood Ski Resort.

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Free backcountry tours of Comstock sites

Nevada State Parks is putting on two ranger-led tours in the backcountry of Lake Tahoe Nevada State Park.

Participants will follow the remnants of the old Virginia Gold Hill Water Company flumes and inverted siphon. Originally built in 1873, the VGHWC brought much needed water from the Sierra to the Comstock.

The tour will start at the west end of Hobart Road where the pavement ends and the dirt begins, in the Lakeview Estates at 8:45am and will end at Spooner Lake in the afternoon on June 24 and Sept. 18. Four-wheel drive is necessary.

There may also be some moderate hiking. Children 8 years and older are welcome. The tour is free, but any donations to the park will be accepted.

Reservations are necessary by calling 775.831.0494.




Lakeside Inn ready to reincarnate itself

Lakeside Inn wants to become a bigger player on the South Shore. Photo/Kathryn Reed

Lakeside Inn wants to become a bigger player on the South Shore. Photo/Kathryn Reed

By Kathryn Reed

Driving into Stateline from the east there isn’t anything to go “wow” about – at least not in a positive sense. Lakeside Inn wants to change that.

“We are the gateway from the Nevada side to South Lake Tahoe. Right now the welcome to South Lake Tahoe is not a pretty sight,” Stacy Noyes, quality insurance and inn manager for the Stateline hotel-casino, said. “We have an opportunity to capitalize on Kahle Drive and Highway 50.”

Lakeside has ideas about what it would like to do on the 7.5 acre parcel, but isn’t ready to release renderings until a developer has been lined up.

It’s likely the Kahle-50 corner will become a focal point, with the hotel moving there. Today the sales center for the Tahoe Beach Club occupies that land. Lakeside owns the first block of Kahle drive, which has three buildings on it.

“Our hotel is clearly past its useful life,” Noyes said. Owners are doing the minimum in upgrades right now – like replacing mattresses.

The new hotel will be about a 3.5 star level property that will have bike and ski rentals, and valet. Higher end lodging is in the works with Zalanta, Edgewood and Tahoe Beach Club, so that is why Lakeside wants to focus on the mid-level market.

In the future Lakeside expects to downplay the casino aspect of the property. Photo/Kathryn Reed

In the future Lakeside expects to downplay the casino aspect of the property. Photo/Kathryn Reed

Today there are 124 hotel rooms. The market study to determine the best use for Lakeside said 150 rooms would be ideal. Zoning allows for 200. More tourist accommodation units would have to be acquired to add any rooms. (TAUs are a commodity Tahoe Regional Planning Agency created as a way to curb development.)

The casino has long been a favorite of locals. Going forward higher ups want it to remain so, but they do not intend for gaming to be Lakeside’s main draw. An all-inclusive resort – minus a spa – is more the thinking.

It is walking distance to Nevada Beach via Rabe Meadow, is a short shuttle ride to multiple access points for Heavenly Mountain Resort, has Edgewood Tahoe Golf Course practically as a neighbor, ties into the Stateline-to-Stateline bike trail, and is not too far from Heavenly Village.

“What we recognized and everyone recognized is the South Shore is not viable as a gaming market,” Noyes told Lake Tahoe News. “It’s transforming into a world class outdoor recreation area. We saw this eons ago.”

The casino is likely to stay where it is, but with a face-lift. Everything else, though, could be demolished or gutted.

The goal is for the entire property to become more upscale and capture a greater portion of the tourists.

In addition to the study, the hotel-casino has been putting focus groups together to gauge how people would like Lakeside to evolve.

Latin Soul's relocation would mean a smoke-free dining experience. Photo/Kathryn Reed

Latin Soul’s relocation would mean a smoke-free dining experience. Photo/Kathryn Reed

There will also be a separate retail portion. The study said 10,000- to 20,000-square-feet would be do-able.

It’s anticipated that the popular Latin Soul restaurant would move to the hotel or retail area. Relocating it out of the casino could mean more business because right now it’s hard to avoid the smoke drifting into the eatery. Today it takes up 2,000 square feet.

Also new would be an outdoor special events space where weddings could be performed.

Zoning allows for a four-story structure (56 feet). Rooftop dining is a possibility, which would provide views of Lake Tahoe and Mount Tallac.

“We are just waiting to find the right development partner to do it with,” Noyes said of the entire overhaul of Lakeside.




Opinion: Attacks on LGBT community common

By Melissa Batchelor Warnke, Los Angeles Times

Three years ago, Mark Carson was walking with a friend in Greenwich Village, the Manhattan neighborhood that birthed the contemporary LGBT movement. It was a Friday night in early spring; they wore cut-off shorts and cowboy boots. When they turned a corner onto West 8th Street, a group of men appeared behind them.

“What are you, gay wrestlers?” one taunted. “F—-t!” another yelled. “Queer.” Finally, one asked the question Carson would never get to answer: “Do you want to die here?” He shot Carson in the face with a .38-caliber revolver. Carson, who died from his injuries, was the fifth openly gay man to be violently attacked in Manhattan in a span of just three weeks. In court, his killer, Elliot Morales, claimed to have acted in self-defense. The defense characterized Morales as “self-loathing,” highlighting his fraught romantic relationship with a transgender woman.

A year later, Ali Muhammad Brown used the gay and bisexual dating app Grindr to lure two men to meet him outside of R Place, a popular gay bar in Seattle. Less than 17 minutes after picking them up, he had killed both execution-style in his car.  Brown said his mission was “vengeance” for the U.S. killings in Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan. He described himself as a jihadi.

In the wake of the horrific attack on the Pulse club in Orlando, the motivations of gunman Omar Mateen will be dissected ad nauseum. The information we have right now points to an increasingly complex case, with myriad potential social and political motivations. International terrorism, however, is on the lips of politicians and pundits after it was revealed that Mateen pledged his fealty to ISIS. Whatever the particularities of this case, however, the reality is that the threat and realization of violence against the LGBT community are not isolated to a lone Florida club. The scope of the Orlando attack was shocking, but acts of violence against the LGBT community are disturbingly common.

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Study: Future of work — multiple jobs

By Marissa Lang, San Francisco Chronicle

Long hours at multiple jobs may soon become the norm for American workers, but they may be happier that way.

In a survey aimed at identifying trends shaping the “future of work,” Adobe asked more than 2,000 office workers from the U.S., Britain and India a series of questions about their work habits, motivations and sense of fulfillment. The responses painted a picture of employees who, in spite of feeling overwhelmed by their jobs, reported greater happiness and sense of opportunity when working at more than one job, for longer hours and with “state-of-the-art technology.”

About a third of all U.S. workers, or 53 million Americans, are working a second job, or “moonlighting,” outside of their primary profession, according to Adobe research.

In the future, the poll found, that number will likely increase to more than half of all workers.

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Family: UNR football player died a hero

By Associated Press

The parents of a UNR football player from Honolulu who is presumed to have drowned in Lake Tahoe say their son died trying to save others.

Rescue crews called off their search for Marc Ma on Monday, but officials say efforts to recover his body will continue.

Ma, 20, had been on a paddleboard trip with several football players on Friday when the group encountered strong winds on the West Shore. Ma’s board was found adrift.

“The kids got into trouble,” Ma’s father, Michael, told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. “They were kind of far out. That’s what we’re getting from the kids and the people on shore.”

Michael Ma said his son had been worried about the safety of his fellow teammates and had gone in the water in search of them. He suspects hypothermia was a factor in his death.

“Marc was the closest to shore and decided to go and find somebody to help,” he said. “He ended up trying to swim in to get help. I don’t think he realized how cold the water was.”

Marc Ma had attended Iolani School before heading to Nevada to play as a defensive end for UNR’s football team.

“Our entire Iolani community is deeply heartbroken and saddened over the news of Marc’s accident,” the Honolulu school said in a statement. “He was a tremendously talented student athlete who inspired his classmates, teachers, and coaches. He never stopped chasing his dream of playing Division I football.”

Marc Ma’s brother, Matthew, who is a golfer, said he was inspired to play in the 108th Manoa Cup on Monday by learning just how much his young brother was loved and appreciated. He initially withdrew from the event after Marc went missing.

“I’ve gotten calls and texts and messages from kids who are still playing high school football at Iolani. I don’t know who these kids are, but they’re all reaching out and I didn’t realize that his reach was so far and so broad. Actually, I’m not surprised,” Matthew Ma told Honolulu TV station KHON.

Michael Ma said he and his wife, Michele, plan to stay at Lake Tahoe until their son’s body is found.

“Since we’ve gotten here, we didn’t realize how close to God he got, how many lives he’s touched,” Michael Ma said.

 

 




Officials: Concerns about pro sports, casinos ‘widely overblown’

By J.D. Morris, Las Vegas Sun

The casino industry’s chief lobbying voice in Washington, D.C., sees an opportunity in reports this week that the NHL is ready to grant an expansion team to Las Vegas.

For Geoff Freeman, president of the American Gaming Association, a major league hockey franchise in Las Vegas will offer further proof of two things: broad acceptance of gambling and another reason to eliminate the federal ban on sports betting in most states.

Both causes are of great importance to his organization.

Freeman told reporters on a conference call today that the apparently impending arrival of Las Vegas’ first major league sports franchise “reflects a rapidly evolving view of gaming as an important, mainstream segment of the broader economy.”

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