The Truckee Duckee Derbee rubber duck race on the Truckee River at River Ranch Lodge raises funds for the Humane Society of Truckee Tahoe, and includes music, barbecue, raffle, dog costume contest and more.

The 13th annual event is June 12 from 1-4pm.

A new event, called Chuck a Duck, challenges participants to throw a rubber duck into a floating target. The raffle winner will ride away with a Tahoe cruiser bike, and silent auction bidders will have a chance at winning a signed baseball from San Francisco Giants pitcher Sergio Romo, a Burton snowboard and a Squaw Alpine getaway package, among other items.

The pre-race party and registration starts at 1pm; Dogz in Dudz and Cool Catz in Hatz at 2pm, the Chuck a Duck at 3pm and the Derbee commences immediately after. Cost to sponsor a duck is $10 and the top three ducks win cash. There is no cost to enter the K-9 costume or hat contest.

Ducks may be purchased online prior to the event and Derbee winners need not be present to collect cash prizes.

By Benjamin Spillman, Reno Gazette-Journal

The idea of nabbing a good spot on a Lake Tahoe beach at the height of summer can seem a little daunting for people who have to drive from Reno.

They’re competing for parking and beach space with thousands of Tahoe residents and tourists who can roll out of bed and down to the shore without taking 30 to 45 minutes to drive to the lake.

The result? A frustrating day of anxious beachgoers spending as much time looking for parking and beach space than they do having fun at the lake.

It’s a situation promoters of the recently updated Tahoe Beaches app want to help people avoid.

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By Scott Sonner, AP

Renown Regional Medical Center has taken a number of steps to enhance security since a deadly shooting on the Reno medical campus in 2013, including arming private security guards, hospital officials said Thursday.

Renown officials said they spent a year reviewing security protocols and consulting outside experts before adopting new policies based on “national best practices” after a gunman fatally shot a doctor, critically injured two others and killed himself in December 2013.

“Armed officers are part of a tiered approach to many security enhancements that we’ve implemented in recent years,” hospital spokeswoman Stacey Sunday said in an email.

The Reno-Gazette Journal first reported on its website Wednesday that the hospital added armed security guards for the first time last year.

Alan Frazier, a California man who blamed his doctor for a botched vasectomy, walked past patients in a medical office waiting room on the Renown campus with a 12-gauge shotgun before he opened fire on Dec. 17, 2013, police said.

Sunday said the hospital cannot provide details about all the security changes since then, including the number of armed guards who first began work in February 2015 under a contract with G4S, a private, Florida-based security company.

Renown Health Security Director Ryan Clarke said in a statement that one security officer staffs the emergency room around the clock and others man the main entrances, as well as roam the facility and its exterior.

“The decision to hire armed officers was not an easy one or one we took lightly,” said Clarke. He explained that they worked with law enforcement, employees and the medical community “to evaluate and enhance our security practices.”

Security guards are not armed at Saint Mary’s Regional Medical Center in Reno, Northern Nevada Medical Center in Sparks or Carson Tahoe Regional Medical Center in Carson City. But some do carry guns in Las Vegas at the University Medical Center of Southern Nevada and Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center, officials at those facilities said Thursday.

“Because of the nature of being Nevada’s only Level I Trauma Center, treating patients who have been injured in violent crimes, we do have armed public safety officers here at UMC, to provide an abundance of caution in keeping our patients, families and clinical staff safe,” said Danita Cohen, University Medical Center’s executive director for strategic development and marketing.

Sunrise, the closest hospital to the Las Vegas Strip, has armed its security guards for the past 18 months, hospital spokeswoman Marissa Mussi said.

“We see a large volume of individuals through our facility on a daily basis and our main concern is for the safety of our patients, visitors and employees,” she said.

Clarke said Renown, just east of downtown Reno, strives “to be a welcoming campus.”

“Our ultimate decision weighed the impact that armed officers would have on this perception against the need to provide ourselves with the ability to immediately address any security situation,” he said. “The addition of armed officers to support our general safety officers provides us with a controllable response time and the ability to address any security situation in cooperation with local law enforcement.”

Reno-based handbell ensemble Tintabulations is headed to perform in the 17th annual International Handbell Symposium to be held in Vancouver, British Columbia in July.

Selected at the national level, the nonprofit group Tintab will be co-representing the U.S. at this worldwide event.

Before heading to the International Handbell Symposium Tintabulations will be presenting a free concert series called In Times and Places.  They will be in Incline Village on June 11 at Saint Patrick’s Episcopal Church, 341 Village Boulevard at 1pm and in South Lake Tahoe at Hope Lutheran Church (930 Julie Lane) on June 26 at 7pm.

Under the creative baton of artistic director Barb Walsh, the group has been performing since 1996.

By Carolyn Lochhead, San Francisco Chronicle

WASHINGTON – The 20th century dams and canals that gave birth to modern California – to San Francisco, to Los Angeles, to the San Joaquin Valley farms that feed the nation – are near the end of their engineered lives. The rivers and aquifers they tap are, simply, tapped out.

The state’s record drought, only dented by last winter’s rains, comes amid a 16-year dry spell in the Colorado River basin, which provides 16 percent of California’s water. The basin’s giant reservoirs are dwindling and may never fill again, even as the nation’s population continues to shift relentlessly into the arid West.

So far, the three people running for president have hardly noticed these problems as they barnstorm the state heading into the June 7 primary.

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·       Animal Coalition of Tahoe is having a fundraiser June 9 from 5-9pm at Chevy’s in South Lake Tahoe. Bring this coupon so Chevy’s will donate 20 percent of the bill to ACT.

·       Truckee Thursdays runs June 9-Aug.18, 5:30-8:30pm. The street fair includes food, music, beer garden and kids activities.

·       The 11th annual Truckee Brew Fest is June 11 from 1-5pm at the Truckee Regional Park. For more info, go online.

·       The DeCelle Memorial Lake Tahoe Relay is June 11.

·       The space formerly occupied by DiMaggio’s Pizza in the Village Ski Loft building in Incline Village will soon to be home to two restaurants — Brewforia Beer Market and Vinifera Wine-Tapas.

The Park Creek Waterfall near Jenkinson Lake is raging. Photo/Kathryn Reed

By Kathryn Reed

POLLOCK PINES – A gentle roar could be heard in the distance. There is no mistaking the sound of a waterfall.

With California finally having a relatively normal winter in terms of snow and rain, waterfalls everywhere are raging and will continue to as the white stuff melts.

Park Creek Waterfall brought out the masses last Sunday. Of course it was also a three-day weekend.

This 5.6-mile round trip hike isn’t for those who want seclusion and the silence of nature. It is for anyone who wants to be surrounded by people having fun, enjoying the outdoors. It’s bound to be a popular destination every summer weekend.

Most of the Bumpy Meadows trail is shaded. Photo/Kathryn Reed

Most of the trail is alongside Jenkinson Lake in the Sly Park Recreation Area. The cackles of people being pulled on an inner tube drifted across the water. Fishermen were anchored, waiting patiently for a nibble from a trout.

On the other side of the 5 mph zone was where most of the kayakers were.

The dirt trail is covered in pine needles. Conifers and oak dominate the landscape, with the latter’s scent distinct at times. Shrubs are growing closer to the ground. A few ferns were spotted as well as some wildflowers.

On such a warm day it was a relief to have 95 percent of the trail shaded.

Being right next to the lake made it convenient for AJ to cool off whenever she wanted to. I was a bit jealous; at times wishing I had my swim suit along.

People are swimming in the pool of water at the bottom of the falls. Others are wading in the icy waters.

Jenkinson Lake provides the opportunity for various recreation activities. Photo/Kathryn Reed

Much of the trail is flat. The few uphill/downhill sections are steep, but short. Side trails in these areas allow for mountain bikers and equestrians to go around the hikers to avoid user conflicts.

Most people walked to the falls from the campground – a much shorter trek, albeit more crowded. A bridge built in 1994 links the two sides.

It’s possible to climb to the top of the falls. It’s a short, steep, slick scamper.

(The trail all the way around the lake is 8½ miles.)

In the mid-1950s, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation built the dam that impounds Sly Park Creek, which is a tributary of the middle fork of the Cosumnes River. Today El Dorado Irrigation District operates the lake.

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Getting there:

From South Lake Tahoe take Highway 50 west. Take the Sly Park exit. Go left off the exit.

Go left on Mormon Emigrant Trail. Pass two dams. The trailhead (Bumpy Meadows) is on the left.

Parking is $5.

To the community,

On behalf of the Meyers Community Foundation, we would like to sincerely thank a number of people and organizations for their assistance in making this year’s inaugural OMG Fun Run a huge success.

This event would not have been possible without the support of our main sponsor, Tahoe Center for Orthopedics/Barton Health. We’d also like to thank Alpen Sierra Coffee for their sponsorship and hot beverages, and Sierra-at-Tahoe Resort, Crossfit 9650, Jeff Chamberlain DDS, Affordable Construction Services, New Visions Construction, Got It! Real Estate & Development Corp, Century 21 Tahoe Paradise, Novasel & Schwarte Investments Inc., Safe Haven Chiropractic, Divided Sky, Bona Fide Books, Rise Design, Lira’s Supermarket, El Dorado County Supervisor Sue Novasel, Getaway Café, The Studio at Lake Tahoe, Tahoe Trail Bar and Fast Prints.

Kudos also go to the California Conservation Corp, Lake Valley Fire District, Caltrans, the county Department of Transportation, Grant Stewart and Garrett Froelich.

Thanks too to all those who came out and conquered Old Meyers Grade. We look forward to seeing you next year.

Rene Brejc, Meyers Community Foundation

Two firefighters sustained minor injuries while fighting the fire in El Dorado County’s wine country.

The fire that began June 3 near Mount Aukum and Grizzly Flat roads about 5 miles south of Placerville is fully contained. It burned 25 acres.

The cause is still under investigation.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report

By Bob Egelko, San Francisco Chronicle

Opponents of teacher tenure and seniority laws in California asked the state Supreme Court to take up their case last week, arguing that an appellate court disregarded evidence that the laws shield incompetent teachers and harm low-income and minority students.

The April 14 appellate ruling upholding the laws “abdicated the long-standing duty of California courts to serve as the guardian of educational opportunity for all,” lawyers for the plaintiffs — nine students backed by a Silicon Valley entrepreneur — said in a filing to the state’s high court.

The court will decide this summer whether to leave the lower-court ruling intact or grant review of the plaintiffs’ claims that the tenure and seniority laws violate students’ right to an equal education. The case has drawn national attention, including praise from President Obama’s then-secretary of education, Arne Duncan, for a trial judge’s June 2014 ruling — the first of its kind in any state — declaring the laws unconstitutional.

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