Up-and-coming national recording artist Zach Heckendorf will play at Busby Cellars in Somerset on June 29.

The 19-year old singer-songwriter-guitar player from Denver is in the process of completing the recording of his second album in Los Angeles.

His style is completely original, yet seemingly familiar, according to winery owners Elliot and Sherrie Graham. “If you enjoy the music of Dave Matthews, John Mayer, Jack Johnson, and Jason Mraz, you are sure to love the music of Zach Heckendorf.”

The free concert begins at 7pm.

An optional gourmet, catered, barbecue meal is available for $15 from 5-6:45pm.

An RSVP is required by June 22 — (530) 344.9119.

By Kathryn Reed

A warning came with the food – have a glass of water nearby. The warning was not heeded. Next time Sue will know I’m serious.

And to think she only tasted one green bean.

I’m the one in the household who likes hot and spicy and this dish had my nose running. But for whatever reason the next day it was not as hot. Good thing for everyone.

One way to lessen the fire would be to use a mix of chili oil and some other oil.

I used veggies from Tuesday’s farmers’ market in South Lake Tahoe. Eating what’s in season is the healthiest way to eat. It means the product has not been trucked or shipped in from some foreign country. Even our bodies work better when we eat foods in season.

The carrots are so sweet I’m lucky any ended up in the stir fry. They are almost like candy. I did manage to save a couple to add to a green salad. (The greens were also bought at the market and the cherry tomatoes for the salad came from my friend’s CSA box.)

The veggies I used were carrots, green beans and red onion. But use what you have. Garlic is also available at the farmers’ market.

Super Hot Stir Fry

3 T hot chili oil

4 garlic cloves, minced

¼ tsp kosher salt

1 T sesame seeds

2 T soy sauce

Coat wok or other appropriate pan that is on high heat with oil. Add vegetables. Stir. Add next four ingredients in order. Keep stirring. Sample a veggie or two to know it’s done.

Serve with rice (and water).

By Cheryl Millham

Believe it or not, Tahoe people care about their wildlife.

A good friend of ours has a lot of seasonal neighbors. One of the families leaves in the fall and does not come back until late spring or early summer, so the house is empty and quiet all winter.

Every year, a family of coyotes makes their den under the house. It is a perfect, quiet neighborhood to raise their family. However, on Memorial Day, the humans who own the house came up to Tahoe to start their summer vacation. When they realized the coyotes are living under their house, they panicked. They want them killed.

Our friend (who is also a trained volunteer with LTWC) took it upon herself to harass the coyote mom to move her family out from under the house over to the meadow. People come up to their second home in Tahoe never realizing they share their home with a coyote family who have been there all winter and spring.

Then, we have a few people that just don’t seem to care about the life of little birds. I received a call from a lady who panicked because she had a nest with three live Steller’s Jays, which were all crying for food with one dead.

As the story goes, two boys decided to have “pet” birds. They took down the nest (I am assuming that their mother either knew nothing about it or did nothing about it). After two days of feeding them the wrong diet, one of the jays died. (Obviously, the boys were tired of their new toy.) It was at this point that a neighbor decided to take it upon herself to intervene. She took the nest of jays and called LTWC.

I am happy to say the three remaining jays are doing well.

Then, I received a call from a man who found out – the hard way – that there was a mother raccoon living in his chimney on top of the flu. (He thought the raccoon had fallen in.)

His friend got up on the roof and looked down the chimney. Not only was there a one large raccoon, but there were babies also. LTWC gets at least two calls per week with raccoons down chimneys. I think he was a little disappointed. He thought he was the only person with a raccoon down his chimney. I went over with him how to get the mom to take her babies out of his chimney and then how to cap off his stovepipe so this wouldn’t happen again.

He said he would do what I told him, but that he didn’t think it would work. His friend told him that, “No way would a raccoon be able to climb up and down inside of a chimney, let alone carry the babies out.”

After a few more calls – to answer more of his questions – I reassured him it would work and he said he would try.

Well, I got a call the next day. It was the man with the raccoon family in his chimney. He told me it worked. He woke up at 2am to a lot of noise coming from his fireplace. The next morning, they looked down the chimney. No more raccoons.

A happy ending for that family — the raccoons and the humans.

Cheryl Millham is executive director of Lake Tahoe Wildlife Care on the outskirts of South Lake Tahoe.

By Lincoln Brown

A study from the University of Tennessee which was cited in Reuters indicates that despite what New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg may think, limiting people’s options on food, even junk food, does not help them to lose weight.

So if the Great Twinkie Prohibition of 2012 is not going to be successful at controlling the national waistline, what will it control? My guess is free agency and the free market. After all, if our dear leaders are so intent on managing our sugar and carbs, a la Mayor Bloomberg., shouldn’t they be concerned with the dietary choices of those people on assistance programs? How long will it be until someone decides that those the same stringent regulations that are being applied to those in the free market can be applied to those on SNAP?

Lincoln Brown

And you on the Left, don’t tell me that people buying junk food on SNAP cards doesn’t happen. Once on a Sunday evening I had to run up to the radio station to handle a technical issue. It being summer, ice cream seemed seasonally apropos. So on the way back I stopped at a convenience store for a gallon of Rocky Road. The woman in line ahead of me had a stack of frozen pizzas and a six pack of Pepsi. She paid for it with food stamps. I thought to myself that what those items were probably not what the food stamp folks had in mind when they devised the program. But it was after all, food. (The woman also pulled a roll of twenty dollar bills out of her pocket and bought several cartons of cigarettes. But that is another story for another time.)

Will the time come when one cannot purchase “all that and a bag of chips” with a SNAP card?

Probably not. Feast your eyes, if not your stomach on this from the SNAP to Health website:

“For several years now, cities and states across the country have expressed interest in limiting the purchase of certain foods and beverages with SNAP benefits. However, because the criteria for SNAP purchases are federally-regulated policies, any states that wish to place their own restrictions must apply to the USDA for a waiver. To date, the USDA has rejected all applications for waivers. In 2010, the debate over restrictions of SNAP purchases was revived when New York City applied for a waiver to permit restrictions of sodas with SNAP benefits. The waiver was also rejected, but it raises the question of how to weigh the issue of the regulation of SNAP purchases and the rights of SNAP clients against the emerging obesity epidemic in the United States.”

Funny how when it comes to the government freebies, the government has to “weigh the issue” of the junk food versus and the obesity epidemic over which we should all be panicking. However, when it comes to cash on the barrelhead, or on the soda cup, Democrats are more than willing to clamp down on the exchange of goods and services. I guess it just doesn’t pay to take a Slim Jim out of the same hands you hope will pull the metaphorical lever for you in November.

In the end it boils down to the same old issue that has driven the left for years-government control versus personal responsibility. Congressman Rob Bishop once commented that conservatism is about allowing people to make choice for themselves but it is also about those same people taking responsibility for their choices- be it homeownership, personal spending, healthcare insurance or even what they choose to toss down their throats. It’s their decision, but it is also that person’s responsibility to manage and pay for the outcome.

If someone wants a Big Gulp, or a Super Big Gulp, or for that matter wants to drag a 55 gallon drum into the store, or even intubate themselves with a tube running from the fountain and into their gullet that is fine with me as long as their drink and subsequent heart bypass are on their nickel and not mine. But that would mean less government regulations and lower taxes, something that is heresy among Democrats.

Lincoln Brown is the program director at KVEL radio in Vernal, Utah. He hosts “The Lincoln Brown Show” Mondays through Fridays from 8-9am.

Beginning June 14, the Boys & Girls Club will be providing breakfast and lunch to those 18 and younger.

The free program is offered at the club’s main site located at 1100 Lyons Ave. The Boys & Girls Club of Lake Tahoe is a sponsor of the Summer Food Service program. The program will continue through Aug. 24.

Breakfast is served from 8-9am. Lunch is served from noon–1pm.

Through this sponsorship, the Boys & Girls Club is able to provide nutritious meals and snacks to thousands of young people in South Lake Tahoe.

For more information, contact the Boys & Girls Club at (530) 542.0838.

By Scott Canon, Kansas City Star

This is the year you’re going to shut out the shouting and the charges and the ominously cheesy voice-overs of campaign commercials. Right?

You’ll hit the fast-forward button on your DVR when the spots commence. Or you’ll look away from the commercials while you fiddle with your smartphone or explore what’s on that handy iPad.

Sorry. There’s no escape.

Squads of campaign commandos hired by pols looking for your vote will chase you down.

With increasing sophistication, political organizations are fast adopting the tricks of retailers who’ve learned how to learn more about you. They’re tracking your digital footprints to better wave ads that will push your buttons, getting you outraged and out to the polls. They’re going online with talking points increasingly targeted to win elections niche by niche.

Been shopping online for a new gun? When you go to a news website, that could trigger an ad about a candidate’s fealty to the 2nd Amendment. Use the Web to identify that bird building a nest in your cottonwood tree? Don’t be surprised to see an electronic banner on HuffingtonPost.com trumpeting the same politician’s endorsement from the Sierra Club.

Electronic “cookies” usually invisible to you pile up in your Web browser, surmising your interests and announcing them to political campaigns. In turn, campaign managers use those clues to microtarget messages aimed to persuade or motivate you.

Read the whole story

By Kathryn Reed

Say “Lake Tahoe” and people will have a story to tell. It’s just that captivating. But it’s not always the lake that is the story.

A sampling of what the lake means to people came to life Friday night during the launch of “Tahoe Blues” – a collection of 60 short essays about this spot on a map that divides California and Nevada. But what rang out from the nine authors who read June 8 is that the lake is a unifier.

With essay titles like “Powder Day”, “A Hike to Scott’s Lake”, and “Chain Monkey”, these stories will resonate with the people who call Lake Tahoe home or come here to sample what others devour year-round.

But it’s not all about the outdoors. It’s about life. The good, the bad, the sad, the real – sometimes all of the above.

Bona Fide Books Publisher Kim Wyatt on June 8 launches the company's latest book -- "Tahoe Blues" -- at Lake Tahoe Community College. Photo/Kathryn Reed

“So Close to Home” by Sherry Sellars encompasses so many emotions. It’s about a woman working with babies all day who is having a hard time conceiving her own child and how she is unconsciously transformed from despair to joy just by looking around at the place she calls home.

“Tahoe Blues” is the third book published by Bona Fide Books in Meyers. Kim Wyatt, owner of the publishing house, received more than 200 submissions for this “short lit on life at the lake” and picked 60 to print.

“I expected skiing and bears, but I did not expect such depth. But if we are talking in metaphors, the lake is deep,” Wyatt told Lake Tahoe News before the June 8 event at Lake Tahoe Community College.

The writers chosen to read Friday night had a connection to Lake Tahoe Community College – either by being a student (current or past) or an instructor. The event was the final one of the school year for the Writers Series that is run by Suzanne Roberts.

Most of the writers who complete the collection live in the greater Lake Tahoe area or have some connection to the region.

Wyatt came up with the idea of “Tahoe Blues” from a colleague in Alaska who published a book of flash fiction, micro essays.

“I thought, Tahoe needs one,” Wyatt said.

The range of writers and stories comes through in the selection that was read on this opening night. What also came through so clearly is the quality of writers Tahoe has.

The subject of Krista Lukas’ essay perhaps captured it best – “You Don’t Seem Like You’re From Tahoe”. She delves into how people can’t believe she was born and raised here. She knows it’s a backhanded compliment.

“Reading and writing may be what turned me into someone who surprises people by being from Tahoe,” she writes.

Wyatt  liked the idea of providing the opportunity to expose readers to a slew of writers instead of just one, as is the case with most books.

“The biggest challenge to this book was the organization, creating a table of contents,” Wyatt said. “The obvious way to organize it was by shades of blue.” That is reflected in the nine title chapters – all shades of blue.

The only thing that disappoints Wyatt is not receiving one submission about mountain biking. But maybe that will be for the second edition.

“I would love to do another collection. I have to see if people like this one,” Wyatt said.

——

Notes:

• “Tahoe Blues” may be purchased online, or at Gaia-Licious in South Lake Tahoe, Angora Lakes Resort, and Bespoke in Truckee. Books are $15.

Future readings:

• June 20, 6:30pm: Sundance Books, Reno

• July 2, 3pm: Explore Tahoe, South Lake Tahoe

• July 28, 7pm: EDAC ArtSpace, Placerville

• Sept. 7, 7pm: Sierra Nevada College Literary Lollapalooza, Incline Village

• Sept. 14, 7pm: Celebration of Writers, Valhalla, South Shore.

Barton Memorial Hospital’s Auxiliary blood drive is June 11 from noon-6pm.

One donation can help save up to three lives.

Embassy Suites will host this event in the first floor ballroom.

Any questions, call Dan Kerr at (775) 781.5343.

• The Bicycle Advisory Committee required by the passage of Measure R continued its June 8 meeting to June 12 at 9am. The committee members will meet at the parking lot at Lakeview Commons to bicycle along some of the city bicycle routes. The public is invited.

• South Lake Tahoe Planning Commission is having a workshop on the Tahoe Valley Community Plan June 14 at 3pm at Lake Tahoe Airport.

• Jim Larmore is leaving his jobs as snow surfaces director at Heavenly Mountain Resort to be director of mountain operations at Northstar.

• Here are the Caltrans roadwork schedules for the coming week for El Dorado-Tahoe and Sierra.

• While South Lake Tahoe Mayor Claire Fortier won’t say what her plans are, this is what her partner Maria Pielaet posted on Facebook in regards to her moving to Seattle this month, “… putting the house for sale. Claire is committed to city council for awhile.” Fortier has yet to tell her constituents, the people she works for, what “awhile” means.

As part of continuing public outreach efforts, Placer County will host its second community workshop for the Tahoe Basin Community Plan update on June 13.

There are four county working groups representing four plan areas which will encompass the Tahoe Basin Community Plan boundary within Placer County’s portion of the basin. The plan areas are:

West Shore Plan Area, which includes Homewood, Sunnyside and Tahoma;

Greater Tahoe City Plan Area, which includes Tahoe City, Lake Forest, Dollar Hill and the Tahoe City Gateway;

North Tahoe West Plan Area, which includes Carnelian Bay and Tahoe Vista; and

North Tahoe East Plan Area, which includes Kings Beach and Stateline.

The June 13 meeting is from 6-9pm at the North Tahoe North Tahoe Event Center, 8318 North Lake Blvd., Kings Beach.