A progressive dinner along Ski Run Boulevard in South Lake Tahoe will combine local storytellers with local cuisine.

The April 28 event is a collaboration of Lake Tahoe Leadership and Lake Tahoe Historical Society to raise funds for the Friends of the El Dorado County Library. Dinner guests will start at Black Bear Inn for hors d’ oeuvres, stroll to Nepheles for a salad course, then to Blue Angel Café Loft for the entrée and finally shuttle or walk — depending on weather — to the Riva Grill for dessert.

Although the public library normally hosts children’s storytelling, this event is adults-only and dinner guests should be prepared for possibly bawdy tales and bring their drinking and walking shoes.

Tickets are $65. The first seating will begin at 5:30pm at the Black Bear Inn and is expected to wind up at the Riva Grill in time for sunset at 7:45pm. A parking shuttle will depart Ski Run Marina 10 minutes before each seating.

For bookings and more information, call (415) 992.2433 or email supperstroll@gmail.com.

A Reno resident is the second person arrested in connection with a burglary ring that involved Incline Village and Truckee.

Washoe County sheriff’s detectives said Jason Greene, 30, pawned three guns. Green is an ex-felon and under state and federal law he is prohibited from possessing firearms. Greene was convicted in 2006 by a Washoe County court for felony possession of narcotics.

Detectives identified items allegedly pawned by Greene as being stolen from a residence in Incline Village in January.

Greene was arrested April 4 in Reno. A subsequent search of his residence revealed two handguns and a shotgun, belonging to Greene, detectives said.

Greene was arrested on 12 counts.

Detectives are continuing the investigation and are attempting to identify the legitimate owners of the six firearms.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report

Sugar Bowl Resort will host its annual Golden Egg Hunt on Easter Sunday.

Colored eggs will be hidden throughout the resort and on the mountain; each containing festive Easter candies and clues to the location of the coveted Golden Egg.

The Easter Bunny will be skiing around the mountain, handing out candy, taking photos with guests and will have additional clues to the location of the Golden Egg. The guest who claims the Golden Egg wins a 2012-13 mid-week season pass.

In Nevada, every eight hours, six minutes someone is raped.

Throughout the month of April, Washoe County Sheriff’s Office will be supporting the Nevada Coalition Against Sexual Violence campaign that promotes Sexual Assault Awareness in Northern Nevada.

Sexual assaults can happen to anyone: children, students, wives, mothers, grandmothers, the rich and poor, boys and men. The assailants can be anyone: classmates, co-workers, or a total stranger although often a friend or a family member.

The most predominant form of sexual assault in Washoe County is alcohol or drug related.

The sheriff’s office offers the following recommendations on ways to reduce risk of a sexual assault:

1. Avoid Dangerous Situations

Don’t let alcohol or other drugs cloud your judgment. Most law enforcement calls on sexual assaults occur at parties involving drugs and alcohol.

Trust your instincts — if a situation or place makes you feel uncomfortable or uneasy, leave.

Be aware of your surroundings. Knowing where you are and who is around you may help you to find a way to get out of a bad situation.

Try to avoid isolated areas or being alone. It is more difficult to get help if no one is around.

Walk with purpose. Even if you don’t know where you are going, act like you do.

2. Safety Planning

Make sure your cell phone is with you and charged and that you have money.

Don’t leave your drink unattended. If you leave your drink alone, get a new one. Don’t accept drinks from people you don’t know or trust.

Have a code word with friends or family so that if you don’t feel comfortable, you can call them and communicate your discomfort without the person you are with knowing. Your friends or family can then come to get you or make up an excuse for you to leave.

Be conscious of exits or other escape routes.

Think about options for transportation (cab, car, bus, train, etc.)

Avoid putting music headphones in both ears so that you can be more aware of your surroundings, especially if you are walking alone.

3. Your Home

Make sure all doors (don’t forget sliding glass doors) and windows have sturdy, well-installed locks, and use them. Install a wide-angle peephole in the door. Keep entrances well-lit.

Never open your door to strangers. Offer to make an emergency call while someone waits outside. Check the identification of sales or service people before letting them in. Don’t be embarrassed to phone for verification.

Be wary of isolated spots — apartment laundry rooms, underground garages, parking lots, offices after business hours. Walk with a friend, co-worker, or security guard, particularly at night.

Know your neighbors, so you have someone to call or go to if you’re uncomfortable or frightened.

If you come home and see a door or window open, or broken, don’t go in. Call the police from a cell phone, public phone or a neighbor’s phone.

4. Outdoors

Avoid walking or jogging alone, especially at night. Stay in well-traveled, well-lighted areas.

Wear clothes and shoes that give you freedom of movement.

Be careful if anyone in a car asks you for directions; if you answer, keep your distance from the car.

Have your key ready before you reach the door-home, car, or office.

If you think you’re being followed, change direction and head for open stores, restaurants, theaters, or a house with its lights on.

5. Your Car

Look around and under your car and in the back seat before you get in.

If your car breaks down, lift the hood, lock the doors, and turn on your flashers. Call police on a cell phone, or use a Call Police banner or flares.

If someone stops, roll the window down slightly and ask the person to call the police or a tow service.

Don’t hitchhike, ever. And don’t ever pick up a hitchhiker.

6. If the Unthinkable Happens — Your Goal is to Survive

Scream and make a scene. Be rude, Make noise to discourage your attacker from following.

Alert those around you if you are threatened.

If you become a victim of a crime and you should call the police. The sooner you tell, the greater the chances the rapist will be caught. But if you are uncomfortable about calling the police, contact a rape crisis center.

To the community,

The party primaries that select candidates for the presidency of the USA are harmful and destructive because they destroy party discipline. Ideally political parties cut and debate important national issues. It’s the job of parties by discussion and debate to educate citizens by defining the terms on a given subject. Without clear definitions, there cannot be meaningful discourse.

Presently no major party provides clear, concise language on important issues such as national health care, war, national security, etc. The parties drift into meaningless verbal chaos. They throw around words such as liberal and conservative, words that the political culture is lost for definitions. The country doesn’t have parties that teach the discourse. We have factions that divide the nation. There is no agreement on what is the national purpose.

Bill Crawford

Also, party primaries damage the political process because candidates must raise and spend fortunes to compete. The money is spent on a process that produces nothing but empty advertising that reduces the language to slogans and ripe baloney. Wealth is wasted, language is destroyed.

Before there were political party primaries, H.L. Mencken covered many party conventions that selected candidates for the presidency. He reported for the Baltimore Sun. His articles were collected in a book, “A Carnival of Buncombe”. Mencken was a severe critic of the idiocy that he witnessed in American politics. We have changed the method of selecting candidates, but the idiocy is intact. But because big money talks there is no chance there’ll be meaningful reform today or tomorrow.

Bill Crawford, South Lake Tahoe

PS: We can’t solve problems at home. So phony wars’ diversion controls the throne.

By Kathryn Reed

The Baumanns might be getting out of the restaurant business.

Kurt Baumann opened the Swiss Chalet restaurant in South Lake Tahoe in 1957. In 1959, he met his future bride who started working as a waitress.

Baumann brothers looking for a buyer for Swiss Chalet. Photo/LTN

The two were married for 44 years before Kurt died in 2004. Ruth died last year.

Since that time their sons, Peter and Ralph, have been running the restaurant. Besides the restaurant, they own the Swiss Chalet Village at the corner of Highway 50 and Sierra Boulevard.

Last month they put the whole center, including the restaurant, on the market for $2.8 million.

“We are not selling. We are just inquiring,” Peter Baumann told Lake Tahoe News. He would not elaborate other than to say they are taking inquiries about the center as a whole as well as just the restaurant.

Ralph Baumann essentially said the same thing: “We are only exploring our options.”

Listing agent Craig Robinson with Von Kaenel Real Estate in the South Bay would not speak without his clients’ permission.

Soroptimist International South Lake Tahoe wrote two $10,000 checks on Wednesday to local organizations.

Tahoe Youth & Family Services received a grant for its Tahoe Collaborative Mentoring Project with Lake Tahoe Boys and Girls Club, a project that will offer site-based, academic focused mentoring services in a variety of areas to all Lake Tahoe youth.

Live Violence Free (formerly South Lake Tahoe Women’s Center) received a grant for the Girls Empowerment Retreat, a two-day all-inclusive program designed to provide confidence and skills to girls in transition from elementary to middle school, and middle to high school.

Much of Soroptimist’s annual Community Grants Program is possible because of the money generated from the annual wine tasting in November.

Lake Tahoe Historical Society will present “An evening with the Washo” on April 10 at 6pm.

This free program will be at Camp Richardson Resort in the Great Room.

Speakers will include Darrell Cruz, tribal historic preservation officer; Jo Ann Nevers, author of “Wa She Shu: A Washo Tribal History”; and Melba Rakow. Both women sit on the Tribal Advisory Council.

The presentation will feature the history of the Washo at Lake Tahoe and in the Carson Valley. During the evening they will discuss ongoing Washo events. Opportunities for questions will follow the presentation.

Tahoe Rim Trail Association’s 7th annual Trail Construction and Crew Leader Workshop is at Washoe County’s Galena Creek Regional Park May 18-20.

Participants may choose from the following courses:

Trail Design and Layout (Friday)

Fundamentals of Trail Construction (Saturday and Sunday) Crew Leadership (Saturday and Sunday)

Advanced Trail Theory (Saturday and Sunday).

The weekend is a way to network with local trail volunteers and professionals and learn how to plan, construct and maintain trails.

This training is partially grant funded by the Nevada Recreational Trails Program and the Humboldt Toiyabe National Forest and supported by Washoe County Regional Parks and Open Space.

Participants pay a fee of $150 (Friday-Sunday), $100 (weekend) or $50 (Friday) to cover instruction, park lodging, food, training materials and transportation to class sites. Discounts are available for TRTA members and volunteers.

For more information and registration materials, go online or contact Teresa Crimmens at (775) 298.0232 or teresac@tahoerimtrail.org.

By Duane D. Stanford, Bloomberg

At a beer industry summit last month, Ed McBrien, distribution chief for MillerCoors, compared himself to a typewriter salesman in an iPad age.

McBrien was sketching out plans to resurrect light beer, a $50 billion market battling to stay relevant as makers of craft beer, wine and spirits increasingly steal customers from Molson Coors Brewing Co., SABMiller Plc and Anheuser-Busch Inbev NV.

Light beer is ceding ground as cabernet-loving Baby Boomers and Millennials weened on exotic cocktails seek more complex flavors in their brews. High unemployment among light beer drinkers also has prompted some to drink less or switch to cheaper brews. In a bid to return the froth to light beer, the U.S. joint venture between Molson Coors and SABMiller last week unveiled new advertising for a key brand, Miller Lite.

If the companies can’t revive the brand, “we’ve got big trouble ahead of us,” said Bump Williams, whose BWC Co. advises more than 100 beer retailers and distributors. “Light beer has become a commodity.”

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