Follow Northwest splitboard mountaineer Kyle Miller deep into the Cascades on his epic hunt for good snow in the short documentary “FreeRider”.

The film chronicles Miller’s passion for his sport, his ski bum lifestyle, his love of the mountains, his triumphs and disappointments, his pain and his joys, and his unyielding dedication toward fulfilling his riding dreams. Each season Miller sets a high bar for himself. In 2010, he became the first documented splitboarder to climb and ride all 25 volcanoes in the Western United States. Last year he completed Washington’s 10 highest peaks.

He has made numerous first descents on splits and covered hundreds of miles and thousands of vertical feet on multiday haute route traverses throughout the Cascade Range.

Miller will be attending the screening and also presenting a slideshow covering some of his most challenging backcountry trips, as well as sharing some insight on setting and accomplishing goals, overcoming adversity, and just riding for the pure adventure of it.

The presentation is being hosted at the Back Country on March 3 at 8pm, 11400 Donner Pass Road, Truckee.

For more information, call (530) 582.0909.

Clean Tahoe will be the beneficiary of the March 1 all-you-can-eat chili for $1 fundraiser at Coyote Grill in the Round Hill shopping center.

Clean Tahoe will also receive 20 percent of sales from the menu from between 5-10pm.

South Lake Tahoe cycling enthusiasts are going after the world record for the largest bicycle parade.

Slow Rollers bike club is sponsoring the May 17 event at 4pm. Riders will go from the Y in South Lake Tahoe to MontBleu in Stateline.

Preregister at Sports Ltd. in the Village Center or call (530) 544.3979.

Come in custom for a chance be named Best of Show.

A party after the ride will be at Mo’s Place on Highway 50.

Join registered dietitian Jen Trew to learn about the basics of healthy eating and diabetic diet planning on March 8 from 6:30-7:30pm.

Discover the important role of macronutrients and blood sugar control. Lab glucose goals, A1C, lipids and blood pressure also will be discussed.

The first class is free.

Other lecture topics include:

● Target glucose levels

● Recommended daily protein

● Healthy and unhealthy dietary fats

Register by contacting Lynn Norton at (530) 543.5824 or email lnorton@bartonhealth.org.

The class is at Barton University, 1113 Emerald Bay Road, No. 1, South Lake Tahoe.

By Michael Martinez, Reno Gazette-Journal

The state of Nevada is putting the finishing touches on its application for a federal No Child Left Behind waiver, which would allow state educators more flexibility to measure student growth in addition to meeting specific proficiency targets, according to state and local educators.

The application also must demonstrate how teacher evaluations will be tied to student achievement and how the performance gap of student subgroups, such as limited English proficiency and at-risk students, will be narrowed.

The waiver would allow the states and school districts in Nevada to shape an accountability model that addresses the strategy of better measuring student growth and tracking students’ path to college and career readiness.

The waiver is meant to help move away from the one-size-fits-all model of the current NCLB law and allow states to sculpt policy based on their unique culture and capacity issues, said Rorie Fitzpatrick, interim deputy superintendent for the state Department of Education, who is overseeing the waiver application.

Paul LaMarca, chief accountability officer for Washoe County schools, said the waiver has to demonstrate that a state is aiming for college and career readiness.

The state must outline how it plans to revise the current adequate yearly progress benchmarks, LaMarca said.

The application must be submitted to the U.S. Department of Education on or before Feb. 28. Educators, community leaders, parents and others who have served on a diverse committee that helped shape this redesign of the NCLB accountability model meet today during a webinar to ask final questions and make final tweaks to the proposal.

The Nevada NCLB waiver application has to meet the requirements of three principles to obtain the waiver:

The adoption and implementation of college and career ready standards, which involves looking at what will be taught, how it will be taught and how what students learn will be assessed.

How school performance is classified, based on a formula of student growth and proficiency, among other factors.

Read the whole story

Dragonfly’s Beer & Food Festival is March 7 from 6 to 8:30pm in Truckee.

Attendees can stop in anytime during the evening and roam the food and beer stations. Each of the six food items are not only paired with a specialty beer from Firestone Brewing Co., but created using the beer as an ingredient. Fireside is based in Paso Robles

Tickets are $35 per person. Tickets are available at Dragonfly or by calling (530) 587.0557.

Dragonfly is located upstairs at 10118 Donner Pass Road in Truckee.

By Kevin Yamamura, Sacramento Bee

As education groups battle over which California tax initiative would give the biggest boost to schools, advocates for low-income residents fear safety-net programs remain vulnerable no matter what happens on the ballot in November.

Proponents for three competing tax measures are focusing heavily on schools because voters prioritize education funding most. But it remains an open question how other programs will fare.

Gov. Jerry Brown’s proposal raises several billion dollars for the state’s general fund that he says would help protect schools from severe reductions. But he has proposed deep cuts in welfare-to-work and child care in the first year even if his taxes pass.

Two rival plans largely bypass the state to send money directly to schools and counties. They leave unanswered how the state would close an estimated $9.2 billion deficit through June 2013.

“If tax revenues aren’t available to help balance the budget … it puts pressure on higher education, on health and social service programs, on parks,” said Jean Ross, executive director of the California Budget Project, which advocates for low-income residents. “It puts pressure on everything that isn’t constitutionally protected.”

Read the whole story

Experience the exhilaration of gliding through the forest on cross country ski trails working up a hearty appetite, and then enjoying gourmet grazing right on the trail.

Outdoor enthusiasts and foodies can ski or snowshoe from one food station to the next during the 11th annual Gourmet Ski Tour, a fundraiser for the Tahoe Cross Country Ski Education Association at the Tahoe Cross Country Center on March 11 starting at 1pm.

Dress in your favorite dance costume: this year’s theme is “snow dance” with such costume suggestions as disco, hip hop, or ballet. Winner of the costume contest wins a Tahoe XC ski season pass.

Beginners may rent skis or snowshoes at the Tahoe Cross Country Center and move around at their leisure tasting everything from soup to nuts. The afternoon ends with margaritas and live music by The Drunken Neighbors from 2:30-5pm.

Tickets are $32 for adults (includes a half-day trail pass), $27 for juniors ages 13-17, children 12 and under can feast on complimentary hot dogs. A limited number of tickets are available. Call (530) 583.5475 or go online for tickets.

Get your tickets for a fun-filled night of all-you-can-eat Dungeness crab, live auction action and Truckee camaraderie. The 2012 Rotary Crab & Pasta Feed will be at the new Truckee Community Recreation Center on March 24.

All proceeds benefit Sierra Expeditionary Learning School, a public charter school in the Tahoe Truckee Unified School District. SELS board member Erica Stein said the school plans to use the money raised from the auction to start a capital campaign fund to pay for needed additional classroom space.

For the past 18 years, the Rotary Club of Truckee has organized the Crab & Pasta Feed to benefit one worthy local nonprofit. While Rotary provides the venue, the auctioneer and the bidding audience, the selected organization must organize and run the event’s live auction in order to receive its proceeds. In previous years, groups have earned up to $14,000 for their causes.

The bar opens at 5pm, dinner is served at 7pm and the auction will begin at 8pm. Tickets are $40 for adults and $20 for children 16 and under. Tickets can be purchased through any Truckee Rotarian or by calling Steve Randall at (530) 582.7720.

Scholar, teacher, and artist Joanna Frueh will conduct a workshop at Sierra Nevada College (999 Tahoe Blvd., David Hall, 3rd floor, Incline Village) on March 2 from 1-3:30pm.

The workshop is limited to 25 people. There is a $10 fee that includes a copy of the book “The Glamour of Being Real”. The book and workshops focus participants on being true to themselves through practices of self-transformation and conscious self-creation.

“The Glamour of Being Real” evolved from Frueh’s work and performances to celebrate beauty and the body and is one of several books authored by the artist. Frueh’s multifaceted focus on those subjects includes research and experience, such as her study of emotions and sensations and of the female body in art and culture and engagement with yoga as a continuing education of soul-and-mind-inseparable-from-body. The book is a sutra, a series of concise, related statements, each one also being a sutra, whose aphoristic nature is intended to make possible memorization by a student.

To register for the workshop, go online. For questions about the workshop or program, contact Logan Lape at llape@sierranevada.edu.