By Bill O’Reilly

Growing up in Levittown out on Long Island, I remember my father buying pants through the mail. This seemed strange to me. There was a Robert Hall clothing store nearby, and it had pants all over the place. But my dad said he could buy two pair for the price of one from some guy in South Dakota. One problem: The pants never fit.

My father didn’t much care. He saved some money, which he put in the bank, affording me an opportunity to go to private schools.

Bill O'Reilly

My parents never wanted to be rich and did not resent those who were, although my dad did not like Joseph Kennedy. He called JFK’s father a bootlegger. The truth is, we O’Reillys did not even know any rich people. They lived in Garden City, about five miles away.

Today, I am a rich guy, a 1 percenter. I can buy all the pants I want. My late father could not even fathom how much money I make. I have trouble processing it, as well.

But I never worked for cash. I always wanted to do something interesting and actually walked away from a high-paying TV job back in the 1990s to attend Harvard, where I secured a master’s degree in public administration. There were tons of rich folks at Harvard. I did not resent them.

Today, the Occupy Wall Street crew and many progressive Americans believe that I am a greed head, even though they have no idea what I do with my money. Just the fact that I have it gives them license to brand me a dreadful “1 percenter.”

The reason that I have prospered monetarily is that I put freedom to good use. I worked hard, got a great education, paid my dues in journalism and, finally, hit it big. America gave me the freedom to do all those things. In the past, my achievements might have been celebrated. Not today. Now, more than a few folks say I am not paying my fair share to ensure the security of my fellow citizens.

According to the IRS, the 1.4 million households that comprise the 1 percent (that is taking in about $350,000 a year) pay 37 percent of the nation’s income tax. That’s a big number, is it not? And the New York Times reports that the 1 percenters contributed about 30 percent of all charitable donations in 2007. Another big number.

So I’ve decided that those demanding more of my money for “social justice” are really attacking freedom. In this country, it is not wrong to prosper. You should not be demeaned for “having.”

President Obama will be doing the nation a huge disservice if he bases his upcoming campaign on class warfare, because that’s really an assault on individual freedom. Yes, we are all Americans, and we should all be in it together. But that doesn’t mean the government can guarantee individual outcomes. In a free society, it can’t.

Bill O’Reilly is host of the Fox News show “The O’Reilly Factor” and author of “Who’s Looking Out For You?” and “Pinheads and Patriots”.

Prestigious snow carvers from around the world will call North Lake Tahoe home Feb. 8-12 for the region’s first- Carve Tahoe competition, with the judging take place Feb. 13.

The weeklong international snow sculpture contest is specifically geared for spectators who will view firsthand 20-ton blocks of pure snow shaped and carved into breathtaking masterpieces. The competing teams are the best of the best – selected from the event’s top applicants and representing more than 20 countries.

Lawrence Nobel, the lead judge of Carve Tahoe, is an award-winning sculptor and illustrator who previously designed a gold medal for the 1984 Olympics and created George Lucas’ Yoda Sculpture in the Presidio in San Francisco.

Northstar’s village will host Carve Tahoe.

While the highlight of Carve Tahoe is the talent and skill of the carvers from Finland, Germany, Japan, Russia, Canada and the United States, charitable donations also play a key role. According to event organizers, every dollar donated per spectator per vote will go directly to a local nonprofit.

By Devon O’Neil, XGames.com

ASPEN — Ten years removed from her first Winter X Games gold medal, Kelly Clark reminded everyone Friday night why she will go down as the greatest snowboard halfpipe rider in history.

Clark, wearing a “Celebrate Sarah” sticker on her helmet in memory of late halfpipe skier Sarah Burke, posted both of the night’s highest scores (90.00 and 93.66) to defend her snowboard superpipe gold medal by another wide margin. She finished 10 points ahead of silver medalist Elena Hight of South Lake Tahoe and 17.66 points ahead of bronze medalist (and birthday girl) Hannah Teter of South Lake Tahoe. Just like last year, Clark’s ability to stick massive frontside 1080s separated her from the rest of the field and delivered her fourth career Winter X gold and ninth pipe medal in 13 appearances.

Clark, a three-time Olympian from Vermont, has now won 13 contests in a row. The last one she entered and failed to win was the December 2010 Winter Dew Tour at Breckenridge.

“I approach every contest, every run, every trick in that moment, one run at a time,” Clark, 28, said. “I’m coming out here to achieve my goals, not to win the contest, that’s just a byproduct. In my third run tonight, having the contest won, I still stepped up my run because that’s what’s motivating me. It’s incredible. I came off the best season I’ve ever had last year. Honestly, I didn’t expect it to keep going. I’m kind of in awe of my streak right now. But at the same time, I’m having fun and I think that’s the biggest component to my success.”

Read the whole story

By Colin Bane, XGames.com

ASPEN — Jamie Anderson of South Lake Tahoe is now 6-for-6 in podium finishes in women’s snowboard slopestyle at the Winter X Games.

Her gold medal Friday is her third. She dominated the competition, posting a Run 1 score of 94.00, then improving to 95.33 in Run 3 — the highest score in a women’s Snowboard Slopestyle final at Winter X Games — to hold her lead over Kjersti Oestgaard Buaas and defending champion Enni Rukajärvi.

A dumping of fresh snow overnight at Buttermilk made for challenging conditions, and the four close-together jumps left little room for error.

Added to the difficulty factor was the light, which disappeared into afternoon shadows on the landings. Of the entire women’s field, only three finished complete runs.

“The toughest thing on the course was definitely the jumps,” Buaas said after the contest. “Jamie, you’re a gangster.”

Read the whole story

By Colin Bane, XGames.com

ASPEN — Shaun White’s planned return to the podium in men’s snowboard slopestyle at the Winter X Games will have to wait.

After taking practice runs Friday morning before the elimination round, White deemed his sprained left ankle too much of a liability, and left the Winter X Games 2012 venue at Buttermilk as the competition started.

White, who signed this season to train at Northstar, was treated by X Games medical staff Thursday after aggravating a sprained ankle, but had been cleared to ride.

“I’m disappointed. My priority this year was to ride in slopestyle, and unfortunately I hit my ankle again riding the course in today’s practice,” White told ESPN Friday. “I’m going to rest up and get ready to ride pipe on Sunday.”

Read the whole story

By USSA

ST. MORITZ, Switzerland — Olympic downhill champion Lindsey Vonn of Vail torched the St. Moritz speed track for a 1.42 second margin of victory and her career 49th Audi FIS Alpine World Cup win.

Julia Mancuso of Squaw Valley was fifth and Leanne Smith of North Conway, N.H., seventh as three Americans crowded the top 10.

It was Vonn’s eighth win of the season, second in two days, and extended her World Cup overall lead to 352 points over Slovenia’s Tina Maze. The win ties Vonn with Austrian Renate Goetschl for second on all-time DH wins list.

It was Smith’s career best World Cup finish and moved her inside the downhill top 20 standings.

Aaron Katz, the Lake Tahoe attorney who has sued the Incline Village General Improvement District and repeatedly criticized the district, will be the guest at the next Fireside Chat on Feb. 2 in Sierra Nevada College’s Tahoe Center for Environmental Sciences room 139/141.

The chat — hosted by Incline Village resident Andy Whyman — is from 7-9pm.

Katz and his wife have lived in Incline Village since 2007 when he began his research on the history of the Incline Village General Improvement District. It is not his first public lawsuit. Katz has sued a number of public agencies over the past five years, including the Foothill-De Anza Community College District, Mountain View-Whisman School District, El Camino Hospital District, West Valley-Mission Community College District and Campbell Union High School.

Katz alleges the Incline Village General Improvement District has violated state law for years by offering free and discounted services to non-residents and private parties, and it further demands limits be set against the facilities, services and activities the district should be allowed to provide.

For more information on the event, contact Shelia Leijon at (775) 832.1310 or Debi Noonan at (775) 831.1314.

By Sean Whaley, Nevada News Bureau

CARSON CITY — Nevada state Republican Party officials expect all the major GOP candidates to visit the state ahead of the Feb. 4 first in the West caucus.

The Nevada GOP is also introducing social media into the process, using Google and Twitter to report the caucus results beginning about 5pm that day from 16 of the state’s 17 counties.

Final results won’t be known until sometime after 7pm because of the Clark County GOP decision to have one at-large caucus to accommodate religious concerns by some in the Jewish and Seventh-Day Adventist faiths who cannot participate until after sundown.

Clark County results won’t be complete until that late caucus concludes.

“I’m so excited about Feb. 4,” said Nevada GOP Chairwoman Amy Tarkanian in a telephone conference announcing details of the event. “We are first in the West, which is vital, and as we’re watching everything take off across the country it looks like we may be the tipping point.”

The Republican presidential contest is expected to remain undecided through the Florida primary on Tuesday. Nevada is the next state in the process with its caucus. As many as 60,000 Republicans could participate.

Tarkanian said Mitt Romney, Ron Paul, Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum are all expected to campaign in Nevada in coming days. Romney won the caucus in 2008.

The caucus events for most participants will occur in each county between 9am and 3pm. Clark County is the only county to have the evening at-large caucus.

Jim Anderson with CAP Public Affairs, hired by the Nevada GOP to help win Nevada for Republicans in November, said the use of Twitter and Google is a new wrinkle in presidential politics.

“One of the really cool things that we’re doing with this caucus that I believe has never been done before is utilizing both Twitter and Google to get the results out in what we think is the most efficient way to date,” he said.

The Nevada GOP Titter account, NVGOP, will be used to Tweet the results, Anderson said. The Google election results map will be used as well and be available on the state GOP website, he said.

It should be the fastest results coming out of a caucus in history, Anderson said.

Lake Tahoe Historical Society will present the film “In Pursuit Of A Dream” on Feb. 7 at 6:30pm at the Lodge at Camp Richardson.

The film shows 24 students and three teachers from across the United States in a cross country wagon trek as the “emigrate” from Wyoming to Oregon one recent summer. They dressed in period 1800’s attire, carried no modern devices, trudged alongside the wagons in sunshine and rain and experienced unbelievable challenges.

The event is free.

Ellen Booker  isn’t a superhero, but her actions this week came close. And Paula Peterson is around to write about the ordeal.

Ellen is Lake Tahoe News’ latest Random Acts of Kindness winner  for helping her neighbor Paula out when her car got stuck on an icy South Shore road. Read all about it on yesterday’s RAOK story. All the stories posted this month for the promotion are under the Random Acts of Kindness category at the top of the page.

Ellen will be receiving an one-hour business consultation session with Knox & Associates as well as the new book about Steve Jobs.

Random Acts of Kindness is Lake Tahoe News’ way to promote kindness. Small, medium, big — it doesn’t matter the size of the kindness, or even what it is. All that matters is that kindness is beginning to spread throughout the community and beyond.

Write about a RAOK you have witnessed, you have received or you have given at the bottom of this story. Then you will be in the running for one of the many kind gifts local businesses have donated.