Due to increased costs of doing business, fees at campgrounds operated by California Land Management on National Forest System lands in the Lake Tahoe Basin will rise by $2 this season.

Camping fees will increase at Fallen Leaf (now $30), Meeks Bay (now $25), William Kent (now $25), Kaspian (now $17) and Nevada Beach (now $30 for regular sites, $34 for premium sites) campgrounds.

The fees at Bayview Campground, beaches and day-use areas remain the same.

Seasonal beach passes are $70 and may be purchased at the Fallen Leaf Campground store, as well as William Kent and Nevada Beach campgrounds. Beach passes are good during the Fourth of July weekend. Dog owners are reminded that dogs and other pets are not allowed on designated swim beaches including Nevada, Pope, Baldwin, Meeks Bay, William Kent and Kaspian beaches.

As a reminder, until recreation facilities officially open, there is no parking, trash removal, or restroom facilities available.

Barton Memorial Hospital is showing off its newest toy — da Vinci Si Surgical System — on May 31 from 4:30-6:30pm in the Snowflake Lobby.

The device allows physicians to perform complex surgical procedures using minimally invasive techniques with less scarring, less pain and faster recovery times for most patients.

The hospital joined 114 medical facilities in California and more than 1,500 healthcare facilities in the United States by purchasing the da Vinci Si Surgical System to meet the surgical needs of its region and surrounding areas.

For more information, call (530) 543.5615.

To the community,

The Bread & Broth program honored more than 100 loyal volunteers with a meal of their own at Lake Tahoe Golf Course last weekend.

The Rev. John Grace of St. Theresa Church, who started the program 23 years ago, was recognized along with Pauline and Bud Salvato, Wendy David, Susan Baker and Susan Newbre for their faithful service since the program’s inception in 1989.

Diane Weidinger, director, expressed gratitude for their devotion and thanked the many who volunteer their time and talent each week. A cumulative total of 4,100 volunteer hours were provided last year.

“It’s only through the kindness of our volunteers that we can help feed those who need a meal,” Weidinger said. “Week in and week out, wonderful people throughout the community step in and help out.”

The non-denominational, all-volunteer program has been serving nearly 150 people every Monday at St. Theresa Catholic Church and every Friday at Lake Tahoe Community Presbyterian Church, all at no charge and without question or judgment.

Bread & Broth also recognized the following businesses for their food and beverage donations that day as well as their continued support throughout the year: Bert’s Café, Cakes by Grace, Capisce, Don’s Cakes by the Lake, Ernie’s Coffee Shop, Fresh Ketch Restaurant, Freshies, Harrah’s/Harveys, Heart Rock Herb & Spice Co., Lake Tahoe Community Presbyterian Church, Lake Tahoe Golf Course, MontBleu, Mott Canyon, Murphy’s Rockwater Grill, Nepheles, Orchid’s Thai Cuisine, Passaretti’s Italian Restaurant, Port of Subs, Primo’s Bistro, St. Theresa Catholic Church, Scusa Restaurant, Sugar Pine Bakery, TEP’s Villa Roma, Thran’s Flower Shop, Weidinger Public Relations, and Yellow Sub.

Anyone interested in providing financial support for Bread & Broth or who is interested in volunteering, positions are available in communications, deep cleaning and volunteer/data base committees. Contact Diane Weidinger at (775) 588.3993 or dianeweidinger@yahoo.com.

Bread & Broth

By Carlos Alcalá, Sacramento Bee

Kevin Cairns, the Highway 50 restaurateur convicted of assaulting people who stopped in his parking lot, will face no additional jail time, an El Dorado Superior Court judge said Friday.

Judge Daniel B. Proud sentenced Cairns to a year in jail, minus the days he served before his trial, but stayed the sentence. If Cairns completes three years’ probation and mandated anger-management class, he will not go to jail.

Nevertheless, Proud strongly criticized Cairns for saying he’d done nothing wrong, even after conviction on five misdemeanor counts of assault, vandalism, brandishing a weapon and disturbing the peace.

The incidents took place at Dante’s on the River, his restaurant east of Pollock Pines, on a windy and somewhat isolated stretch of the highway.

“He obviously feels he was entitled to do what he did in his parking lot,” Cairns’ lawyer, Stephen Tapson, told the court during the sentencing hearing. “We can’t come to you in good faith and say he’s sorry.”

As soon as Cairns had been sentenced, Tapson submitted a notice of appeal.

Proud declined to sentence Cairns to jail, noting that he’d been punished by having to shut his business, and that further jail time would probably only hurt his family. But those consequences, Proud told him, were his own fault.

Read the whole story

By Christine Muhlke, Bon Appetit

For those who travel to eat, visits to farmers’ markets, butchers, and cheese stores are part of the grand tour. But at a certain point, it’s masochistic: You can look, but you can only snack. So after years of envying the residents of San Francisco, Paris, Venice, and even Madison, Wisconsin, who get to actually make things with all that gorgeous stuff I could never put in my carry-on, I was ready to travel to cook.

Rent-to-eat vacations are possible around the world. The right destination offers access not only to great produce, bread, wine, and staples but to terrific restaurants, too. (After all, who wants to cook every meal, every day?) There should be enough daytime activities to entertain friends and family–hiking and antiquing a plus. And, of course, a beautiful house or apartment with a well-equipped kitchen.

Thinking about where you want to cook is easy–Sicily! Provence! Mexico? Finding the right house with a great kitchen requires sleuthing. My mother-in-law once rented a breathtaking place in Big Sur. But when it came time to make her birthday dinner, there were two eager cooks, but just one dull knife and not much else. To make garlic-scape pesto, I had to improvise a mortar and pestle using a mug and a bowl.

The food tasted better for our MacGyver teamwork, but when my husband, Oliver, and I were looking for a place to stay with friends last spring, I scoured the photos on rental sites for signs of cooks’ kitchens (a dozen wineglasses is a nice decorating touch, but I’d prefer a dozen stainless-steel bowls) and made a list of essential tools to pack just in case.

The ideal spot and the ideal house came together by chance. Oliver and I love the area around Tomales Bay in Marin County, an hour or so north of San Francisco. After several unforgettable stays (and meals) at Manka’s Inverness Lodge, we decided we wanted to grill the meat of the cows that graze on the surrounding hills, and try making our own version of the Marshall Store’s oysters Rockefeller using the just-harvested bivalves from Hog Island Oyster Company. Then one day, Quince chef Michael Tusk was in the Bon Appetit Test Kitchen, talking about a weekend he’d spent cooking in a rental house on the bay in Marshall, right next to Hog Island. The phrase “most perfect house in the world” was used. Sold.

Read the whole story

On June 6 at 6:30pm at the South Lake Tahoe branch library there will be a free Trail Talk with the Tahoe Rim Trail Association.

Meet other trail enthusiasts and learn about what the TRTA does from trail building, hiking and youth programs as well as numerous educational opportunities.

The library is at 1000 Rufus Allen Blvd.

Roger Rosenberger, noted local wildflower enthusiast, will share his photos of wildflowers found in Sierra and provide tips for identification while motivating people to enjoy nature’s little jewels.

The free talk is June 20 at 6:30pm at the South Lake Tahoe branch library, 1000 Rufus Allen Blvd.

For more information, call (530) 573.3185.

The grand opening of the 16-mile Genoa Trail System is May 12 from 10-11am.

This free event is at the Eagle Ridge Trailhead, located near the green water tank, about 1.8 miles north of Genoa off of Jacks Valley Road on Eagle Ridge Road.

Carson Valley Trails Association member Jeremy Vlcan will brief guests about the new trails.

Informational displays and maps will be available. After the briefing, guests are invited to participate in a 4-mile guided hike from Eagle Ridge to Sierra Canyon.

The Genoa Trail System was funded by a Nevada Division of State Lands Question 1 grant.

For more information, go online.

Roadside stations for inspections and decontaminization of motorized boats and watercraft are open for the boating season at five locations entering the Lake Tahoe Basin.

Locations and hours are:

· Meyers, at the junction of highways 50 and 89, 8am-8pm;

· Spooner Summit, at the junction of highways 50 and 28; open 8am-8pm;

Boat inspections are designed to keep AIS out of Lake Tahoe. Photo/LTN file

· Highway 267, at Northstar Drive south of Truckee, open 8am-6pm;

· Highway 89, at Alpine Meadows Road north of Tahoe City, open 8am-8pm;

· Highway 89, at Homewood Resort, open 8am-6pm.

All motorized boats and watercraft require inspection for aquatic invasive species prior to launching into Lake Tahoe. Quagga and zebra mussels are especially problematic, as they are known to multiply quickly and colonize underwater surfaces, including docks and piers, water supply and filtration systems, buoys, moored boats and even the beautiful rocky shoreline.

Boats and other watercraft are the largest transporters of AIS. Knowingly transporting AIS into Lake Tahoe is against the law, and violators may be subject to fines.

A reminder of the need for watercraft inspections occurred on April 18, when inspectors at the Meyers roadside inspection station detected more than 40 zebra mussels on a boat. A Lake Tahoe resident, who had offered the boat for inspection training purposes, had recently purchased it from the Great Lakes. The boat was immediately quarantined by the California Department of Fish and Game and decontaminated by Tahoe RCD staff multiple times using 140-degree hot water and until it was completely cleared of all signs of invasive species.

Annual watercraft inspection fees range from $35 for personal watercraft and vessels under 17 feet up to $121 for vessels over 39 feet. The annual “Tahoe Only” sticker fee remains unchanged from 2011. An additional fee of $25 is being charged for any boat requiring decontamination.

What do editors want? And once you’ve caught their eye with your proposal, what happens then?

Former Random House senior editor and co-author of “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Getting Published”, Jennifer Basye Sander pulls back the curtain to reveal what happens inside the publishing house.

Writers will get an up close understanding of what make publishers tick, how they make their decisions, and how they create ideas in house.

This event at Bona Fide HQ on May 17 from 6-8pm is free and open to the public.

Bona Fide is behind the Getaway Cafe in Meyere at 1069 Magua St., No. 4.