Embassy Suites in South Lake Tahoe is the place to donate blood Feb. 6 from noon-6pm.

For more information, contact Dan Kerr at (775) 781.5343.

In honor of National Heart Month and Barton cardiologist David Young’s strong belief in preventative care, he is scheduled to speak at Kahle Community Center on Feb. 1 from 6-7pm.

Young will address cardiovascular risk factors and heart health.

Kahle is located at 236 Kingsbury Grade, Stateline.

For more information on this free lecture, go online.

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.

By David McGrath Schwartz and Michael Squires, Las Vegas Sun

Labor is preparing a business-tax ballot initiative.

A conservative businessman is threatening initiatives to raise taxes on mining and gaming.

A maverick attorney is proposing an initiative calling for sweeping changes to the state tax structure, creating what would be, in effect, a parallel government to that run by lawmakers and the governor.

These initiatives, pushed by groups and individuals of varying ideologies, from very liberal to very conservative, suggest a state that has lost faith in the ability of its political leaders and institutions to get things done, or at least big things.

Nevada is a wounded state, with a busted housing market and highest-in-the-nation unemployment. One pillar of its economy, construction, is gone and won’t be back anytime soon. Another, gambling, has come back, but is seeing competition spread across the country and world.

Who will do something about it?

Read the whole story

By Kathryn Reed

Something about a sleigh ride creates lasting memories.

Stories about those memories are retold throughout “Sleigh Rides in Lake Tahoe: Memoirs of Sam Borges”. But the book is so much more than the history of this iconic South Shore business. It’s about Tahoe, and it is in large part about Sam Borges – the man who started the business.

Borges died two years ago this month, not long after the book was published in 2009. The book is his stories as told to daughter-in-law Dianna Maria De Borges.

While there are a greater number of typos than any book should have, overlooking them is worth the read of this 127-page paperback.

I never met Sam – but wish I had. In some ways he sounds like my Grandpa Albert. Maybe it’s because my grandpa helped create my earliest sleigh ride memory of when he had the reins in South Dakota.

Then there’s the story of how the Borges’ used to have dinner excursions. This reminded me of when I was in high school and my parents, with my best friend and her parents, took a sleigh to dinner while we were in Sun Valley, Idaho, to ski.

I think part of the reason I’ve never gone on a Borges sleigh ride is not wanting to erase the wonderful memories I have. Why I can’t create new ones, well, I just don’t have a good answer.

Reading this book, the stories of their customers and the stories of the Borges family, made me appreciate how special Lake Tahoe is, the unique businesses, the tenacity required to make it here.

And finishing the book the weekend of the first winter storm seemed so appropriate. Maybe it’s time to take a sleigh ride in Lake Tahoe.

By Linda Asato

On Jan. 6, 2012, Gov. Brown released his 2012-13 budget proposing severe changes and devastating budget cuts to the systems that support low-income children and families. These proposed cuts destroy the pathway to success for children and families and dismantles decades of investment in California’s long-established system of child-care services that support the dual goals of helping parents earn and children learn.

Child care is a critical support ensuring parents can participate in the paid workforce. High quality and reliable child care is the only way a parent can go to work and offers multiple benefits for employers. Quality early care also offers substantial benefits to children during their earliest years which narrows the achievement gap, increases high school graduation rates, and reduces crime and delinquency.

We are outraged that the governor’s proposed $516.8 million budget cut to child care, which he wants adopted by March, would eliminate 62,000 child care slots. This is on top of $883 million child-care reductions, equivalent to 114,762 child-care spaces, lost since 2008.

This level of assault delivers a damaging blow to families that are struggling to improve their lives. The proposed March 2012 adoption/implementation date is unreasonable, unnecessarily forcing families into crisis, without adequate transition time. His proposed changes significantly limit parental choice for low-income parents and their ability to choose quality care for their children.

Long term, his proposal begins to dismantle the backbone of our stable child-care system by eliminating contracts for our highest quality child development centers and reducing the reimbursement rates to an unrealistic level of operation. These small businesses and nonprofit centers will close their doors, stalling economic recovery especially in low-income communities.

The governor’s proposal to move the administration of child care (except part-day preschool) out of the Department of Education’s Child Development Division and transfer it to the Department of Social Services doesn’t acknowledge the critical role education plays in the child-care setting.

While we value the important role the California Department of Social Services plays in licensing child-care facilities and conducting background checks for all categories of child-care providers, we highly value the California Department of Education’s mission to educate all students from early childhood to adulthood.

The Network strongly believes child care is a dual investment that supports children and low-income parents. In order to maintain this dual investment in California’s families, administration of child care must remain with the California Department of Education.

CDE was recently awarded a $52.6 million federal Early Learning Challenge Fund grant to develop a quality rating system to inform parents and policymakers of program ratings. Destroying the child-care supply and dislodging it from the CDE goes counter to the purpose of this federal investment.

Overall, these cuts destroy the dreams of thousands of low-income families who yearn for economic self-sufficiency. These cause irreparable damage to the quality of care that is currently available to all families.

The Network will work with our partners to inform legislative leaders and the governor of the harm this budget and corresponding policy changes will inflict on families, providers, and our fragile economy. California cannot afford the devastating impact that will be caused by the proposed budget cuts and administrative changes to our recovering economy and to our long-term economic prosperity.

Please contact Choices for Children to share your voice and join local advocacy efforts at (530) 541.5848 or online.

Linda Asato is executive director of California Child Care Resource and Referral Network.

The Lake Tahoe Federal Advisory Committee will meet Feb. 9 from 9am-noon at the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, 128 Market St., Stateline.

LTFAC will address issues related to federal activities at Lake Tahoe. Items on the agenda include reviewing and confirming the LTFAC Vision and Strategic Planning Session outcomes, and public comment.

LTFAC consists of 20 members representing an array of constituencies.

All Lake Tahoe Federal Advisory Committee meetings are open to the public.

For more information on the Lake Tahoe Federal Advisory Committee, visit the Forest Service website.

By Jenn Garbee, Los Angeles Times

It’s ironic, in a rosemary-infused sort of way, that in today’s farm-to-table restaurant era few chef-and-farmer relationships have evolved into the true collaborations those farm-specific menus often suggest. Their lives tend to exist in parallel worlds, firmly rooted together but never quite merging.

Like many farmers, Bill and Barbara Spencer of Windrose Farm have long focused their energy on the growing needs of their produce, such as Ashmead’s Kernel and Hudson Golden Gem apples, on their 70-acre farm just outside Paso Robles. Their chef customers, including David Sundeen Jr., 36, and his wife, Susan Dumeyer, 40, have made all of the apple-inspired culinary decisions.

But what if, for an entire year, those chefs were farmers? Not as pickers, though Sundeen and Dumeyer did plenty of apple hauling during those 12-hour workdays on Windrose Farm. Nor as chefs-in-residence, even if the couple’s cooking leans toward apple cobbler-type fare. But as the farm’s new managers.

“Bill and Barbara were at a point they needed help tightening their focus,” recalls Dumeyer of their somewhat fortuitous arrival at the farm last January. “There are so many parallels, business-wise, between a farm and restaurant operations that often people on both sides don’t see.”

The chefs knew the Spencers from their former restaurant days when Dumeyer worked the pastry line at Grace and Sundeen was sous-chef at Govind Armstrong’s former West Hollywood restaurant Table 8 (and later executive chef at Bouchon in Santa Barbara).

When Barbara Spencer bumped into the couple at the farmers market, she invited them up for a dinner. “We got to talking about the farm, but things really evolved over several months … we called it dating,” jokes Barbara.

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It’s amazing how the simplest of gestures are such Random Acts of Kindness. Joel Dameral getting up to get others a chair from the stack in the back of the room at the Lake Tahoe Unified School District meeting last night didn’t go unnoticed. A fellow district employee nominated him to be a Lake Tahoe News Random Acts of Kindness winner while at the meeting.

Joel will be receiving a gift certificate to Sprouts for his kindness.

Random Acts of Kindness has been going on all month. It’s Lake Tahoe News’ way to get people to slow down, look at the kindness that is going on and acknowledge it. If you witness an act of kindness, are the recipient of kindness or are the giver of kindness, let everyone know about it by writing a comment below.

Each day someone is picked as the “winner” and then receives a gift from one of the many kind businesses in Lake Tahoe that have graciously donated a reward.

Random Acts of Kindness has a week left. What is your kindness?

There are a few rules associated with Random Acts of Kindness. If you want to read them, check out this story.