North Lake Tahoe will capitalize on its famed natural terrain by hosting the 2nd annual Adventure Sports Week Tahoe June 15-24.

According to event director Todd Jackson, in addition to the sporting events, designed for the beginner to the professional, the 10-day festivities will also include clinics hosted by world-class athletes and Lake Tahoe locals who know area trails firsthand. Each night of Adventure Sports Week Tahoe will wrap up with a variety of activities, including live concerts, outdoor movies and dinner on the lake. There’s even a kid-friendly component with fun and games geared for little ones.

For more information about Adventure Sports Week Tahoe, a complete calendar of events, photos, videos and volunteer opportunities, as well as to register and get connected via social media channels, go online.

Placer County sheriff’s detectives need help finding two people of interest in a Tahoe City jewelry store burglary.

The Blue Stone Jewelry Store at 495 N. Lake Blvd. was burglarized April 17 at 9:23pm. Detectives believe there were at least two people responsible.

Law enforcement is looking for these two men.

The two men who in the photograph were in the jewelry store earlier that day. Deputies are trying to locate these individuals.

Anyone with information is asked to call Detective Sage Bourassa at (530) 581.6322 or Detective Rick Wroobel at (530) 581.6324.

Anyone wishing to remain anonymous and be eligible for a cash reward of up to $1,000 may call Placer County Crime Stoppers at 800.923.8191.

By Denny Walsh, Sacramento Bee

An El Dorado County man was sentenced Monday to three months in federal prison for diverting to his own address mail meant for the Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians.

The band is a tribe made up of Miwok, Maidu and Nisenan Indians that governs the Shingle Springs Rancheria, a 160-acre reservation in El Dorado County, and owns and operates the Red Hawk Casino.

Cesar Caballero, 42, contests the tribe’s use of the name, claiming a tribe with which he is affiliated is the real Shingle Springs Band of Miwoks. In August 2010 he submitted three change-of-address orders at the Shingle Springs post office routing mail addressed to the Shingle Springs Rancheria to Caballero’s address in the community of El Dorado.

On Aug. 30, after a 2 1/2-hour non-jury trial, U.S. Magistrate Judge Edmund F. Brennan found Caballero guilty on three misdemeanor counts of obstructing the mail.

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By Denise Grady, New York Times

Obesity and the form of diabetes linked to it are taking an even worse toll on America’s youths than medical experts had realized. As obesity rates in children have climbed, so has the incidence of Type 2 diabetes, and a new study adds another worry: the disease progresses more rapidly in children than in adults and is harder to treat.

“It’s frightening how severe this metabolic disease is in children,” said Dr. David M. Nathan, an author of the study and director of the diabetes center at Massachusetts General Hospital. “It’s really got a hold on them, and it’s hard to turn around.”

Before the 1990s, this form of diabetes was hardly ever seen in children. It is still uncommon, but experts say any increase in such a serious disease is troubling. There were about 3,600 new cases a year from 2002 to 2005, the latest years for which data is available.

The research is the first large study of Type 2 diabetes in children, “because this didn’t used to exist,” said Dr. Robin Goland, a member of the research team and co-director of the Naomi Berrie Diabetes Center at Columbia University Medical Center in New York. She added, “These are people who are struggling with something that shouldn’t happen in kids who are this young.”

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Local historian Dave Borges will be talking about Al Tahoe at the next Lake Tahoe Historical Society lecture.

The May 9 7pm event in the Lodge of Camp Richardson on the South Shore will focus on the history of this South Lake Tahoe neighborhood, stories of place and the people.

Borges will also talk about the walking tour of Al Tahoe.

The event is free.

By Kathryn Reed

Apparently Christopher Wadstein has a penchant for driving fast and trying to avoid the police.

Again, he was caught.

This time the 23-year-old South Lake Tahoe resident was booked into jail May 2 about 7pm.

Officers said they tried to stop Wadstein about 5:40pm on Glenwood Way. The suspect allegedly took off at a high-rate of speed. Officers said speeds hit 70 mph at times.

The Jeep Cherokee that Wadstein was seen driving was located about 30 minutes later near Pine Hill and Timber Lane. The suspect was found in a storage shed on Timber Lane.

Officers said they also confiscated two handguns.

Wadstein faces charges of felony evading a police officer and a felon in possession of firearms.

In June 2010, Wadstein was arrested after a chase that reached 80 mph through town and resulted in his Ford Mustang GT going airborne into the Upper Truckee Marsh at the end of Creekwood Drive.

A couple months later he pleaded guilty in the case and faced prison time. It is not known how long Wadstein has been back in town.

By Eric Spitznagel, Bloomberg

When Toronto financial planner Shannon Simmons offered her expertise to a professional clown, it wasn’t exactly business as usual.

Simmons advised her new client to switch from a “couch fund” to a high-interest-bearing account with limited market risk. In exchange for her advice, Simmons received trapeze lessons.

Surprisingly, it isn’t the weirdest way that Simmons has been paid in the last year. Since leaving a full-time job at investment management firm Phillips, Hager & North in 2010 and embarking on a yearlong experiment as a barter-only financial consultant, she’s been compensated with a tutorial in butter churning, a large bag of toiletries and a chance to perform with the University of Toronto cheerleaders.

“I had a guy come up to me once and say, ‘I’m a fire-breather and I’d like to barter with you,’ ” Simmons says. “I was like, ‘I don’t think I can say no to that.'”

She ended her experiment in November, and not a moment too soon. She’s broke, she says, and not sure if she could survive much longer with a barter-only business model.

“It’s a great idea in theory,” she says. “But there are things you don’t think about. … You can’t barter with your landlord. Trust me, I tried.”

Bartering may sound like a style of commerce more fitting to a backwater marketplace than a modern capitalist environment. According to the International Reciprocal Trade Association – an organization created to promote “just and equitable standards” in modern bartering – the U.S. barter market is a staggering $12 billion annually. In other words, $12 billion worth of goods and services are traded every year without any currency changing hands.

Scott Whitmer, founder of trade exchange company Florida Barter, says that while 2011 saw positive signs of an economic recovery, many small and medium-size companies are still struggling.

“Bartering has continued to help many companies grow and conserve cash,” he says.

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By Dale Kasler, Sacramento Bee

Raley’s unionized workforce today began preparing for a possible strike against the West Sacramento supermarket chain.

The United Food and Commercial Workers announced early today that Raley’s refused to extend its contracts and was preparing to give workers its “last, best and final offer.”

The presidents of UFCW Locals 8 and 5, representing thousands of workers in greater Sacramento and across Northern California, said they would schedule meetings with membership to decide whether to authorize a strike.

It would be the first strike in Raley’s history. The company wasn’t immediately available for comment.

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By Hudson Sangree and Phillip Reese, Sacramento Bee

Like a lot of vacationers, Rick and Kristie Santos would return from trips to Lake Tahoe during the housing boom wondering what it would take to own a second home there.

They were always disappointed when they looked at the listings. “You’d jump online and never could afford it,” Kristie Santos said. “It was out of reach.”

Lately, however, with interest rates dipping below 4 percent and home prices seeking bottom, the Fair Oaks couple started thinking differently. The Santoses recently joined a growing number of would-be buyers scouting the Tahoe area for second homes.

On Saturday, the couple went on their first trip with a real estate agent to look at vacation properties in the sprawling, wooded Tahoe Donner subdivision near Truckee. Most were listed in the $300,000 to $400,000 range, a big drop from the peak.

The outdoor enthusiasts came away feeling their long-held dream of owning a mountain getaway might be attainable.

“It’s a compelling time to buy for families that a few years back thought, ‘There’s no way we can do this,’ ” said Alison Elder, a top agent in the Truckee area who showed the couple a half dozen homes.

In fact, the real estate market around Lake Tahoe has been hopping lately, with buyers scooping up relative bargains.

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By Shannon Browniee, Newsweek

Four years ago a 38-year-old adjunct professor at American University named Fred Holliday began suffering from a variety of ailments: he was losing weight, his blood pressure went up. Then he cracked a rib. And he started suffering from debilitating back pain. Each time a new problem arose, the Washington, D.C., resident visited his doctor, who dealt with his symptoms piecemeal. First she prescribed blood-pressure medication. At another visit, she chalked up his fractured rib to violent coughing from a cold he had. Then she prescribed narcotics for his back. When his pain grew worse, she simply increased the dose of painkillers.

After months of this, Fred’s wife, Regina, looked up his symptoms on the Web. Together, they pointed to kidney cancer. When the worried couple went back to the doctor, Regina recalls, she walked into the exam room, reading Fred’s chart, and without looking up, asked, “Mr. Holliday, do you think you’re depressed?” It was a routine question, based on the number of his complaints. Regina started laughing in disbelief. “Of course he was depressed,” she says. “She wasn’t taking care of him.” At Regina’s insistence, the doctor ordered an MRI, which showed that Fred had kidney cancer. He died about three months later.

These days, stories like the Hollidays’ are cropping up all over, and while most don’t have such tragic endings, they are signs that something in the world of medicine is seriously amiss. Unhappy patients gripe about their doctors’ brusque manner and give them bad marks on surveys and consumer websites like HealthGrades and Angie’s List. They tell tales of being rushed out of the office by harried doctors who miss crucial diagnoses, never look up from their computers during an exam, make errors in prescriptions, and just plain don’t listen to their patients. Studies show a steep decline over the last three decades in patients’ sense of satisfaction and the feeling their doctors are providing high-quality care. And things don’t seem much better from the other side of the stethoscope. In a recent survey by Consumer Reports, 70 percent of doctors reported that since they began practicing medicine, the bond with their patients has eroded.

At the heart of the problem, say many doctors and policy experts, is the fraying of the doctor-patient relationship. And this is not just a question of touchy-feely good vibes: a growing body of research now points to the critical importance of having a connection to a trusted physician. “There is something in the human body that says we are hardwired to get better when we have a certain relationship,” explains Howard Brody, a primary-care physician and director of the Institute for the Medical Humanities at the University of Texas Medical Branch, in Galveston. The good news is that doctoring may have hit rock bottom—and policymakers and physicians who have begun efforts to rebuild it realize that the only way out is up.

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