North Lake Tahoe Fire Protection District is hosting a Community Blood Drive on Feb. 3 from 8am to 3pm at the main fire station located at 875 Tanager St., Incline Village.
To make an appointment, call (775) 831.0351, ext. zero.
Tahoe Cross Country Ski Area and Alpenglow Sports present Viva The Backcountry Film Festival benefiting the Tahoe Cross Country Ski Education Association.
The Winter Wildlands Alliance Backcountry Film Festival made its world premiere 11-11-11. This is a celebration of the winter experience.
The seventh annual world tour of the Winter Wildlands Alliance Backcountry Film Festival highlights the beauty and fun of the winter backcountry experience. Submissions come from renowned filmmakers who travel every corner of the globe to submit their best backcountry work, and from grassroots filmmakers who take a video camera out on their weekend excursions and submit their best film short. The films are juried by a select panel of judges and the top films are assembled into a 90 minute program.
The festival was created to highlight Winter Wildlands Alliance’s efforts to preserve and conserve winter landscapes for quiet users.
This year’s program includes nine films including festival award winners “Solitaire” (festival cut) from Sweetgrass Productions, voted Best of Festival.
The films will be shown Feb. 10 at the Sawtooth Ridge Café, Tahoe City. Film starts at 7pm. Admission is $10 and tickets can be purchased at the door. Sawtooth Ridge Café will serve dinner and drink specials starting at 5:30pm.
California State Park interpretive specialist Lindsay Harbison will be leading a snowshoe through history hike along Lake Tahoe’s West Shore at Ed Z’Berg Sugar Pine Point State Park on Jan. 28.
This easy tour explores the parks’ lakefront and the grounds of the historic Hellman-Ehrman estate. Learn about the natural environment that attracted Tahoe’s earliest settlers and explore the history of this Tahoe landmark.
The snowshoe starts at 11am and begins near the restrooms in the day use side of the park (lake side entrance off Highway 89). The program lasts approximately 1½ hours.
The program is free. There is a parking fee of $8 per vehicle.
Bring water, snacks and snowshoes.
California State Park rangers will be leading a full moon snowshoe hike along the West Shore at Ed Z’berg Sugar Pine Point State Park on Feb. 4.
The tour begins on the day use (lake side) of the park and explores the natural and cultural history around the Hellman-Ehrman estate.
For those new to snowshoeing, there will be a beginner’s clinic at 6:30pm sponsored by West Shore Sports. The full moon hike starts promptly at 7pm in the day use side of the park.
The programs last approximately 1½ hours and costs $20 for adults and $5 for children under 12. The cost includes event parking and snowshoe rentals, if needed. All proceeds from the tours support the Sierra State Parks Foundation.
Wear warm, layered clothing, waterproof shoes and bring a flashlight.
Space is limited and reservations are required through West Shore Sports at (530) 525.9920.
The 18th annual St. Theresa School Crab Dinner is Feb. 3.
Doors open at 6pm for this adults-only event. Childcare is available with advance reservations. Dinner starts at 7pm.
Tickets are $50 per person. A table for 10 can be reserved for an additional $100. Tickets available at 1081 Lyons Ave., South Lake Tahoe, or call (530) 544.8944 or email sttheresacrabdinner@yahoo.com.
By Sean Whaley, Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY — Nevada voters can now be better informed with the Wednesday launch of Aurora, a user-friendly, searchable database for all campaign and public officer finance disclosures, Secretary of State Ross Miller said.
Aurora, which can be accessed directly through the Secretary of State’s homepage, provides a new level of insight into who is funding campaigns, and how those funds are being spent, he said.
“We named it Aurora because it provides illumination as to how campaigns and our elected representatives are funded,” Miller said. “A healthy, vital democracy requires well-informed voters, and Aurora offers voters the opportunity to get more information more quickly, and consequently make better informed decisions at the polls.
“Aurora is a logical extension to the new campaign filing laws that went into effect Jan. 1 of this year,” he said. “As a result of Assembly Bill 452, passed in the last Legislature, candidates are now required to report their campaign contribution and expense reports, and financial disclosure statements electronically with my office. So it makes sense to have that information as accessible as possible to Nevada voters.”
Aurora includes many features not previously available to Nevada. It will allow users to search and sort all filed Contributions & Expense (C&E) Reports and Financial Disclosure Statements (FDS), and also has the ability to export search results into Excel, CSV and PDF formats for additional sorting and usage.
The Contribution Search and Expenditure Search functions will allow users to search results by the following criteria:
– individual candidates
– political races
– groups
– contributions, including by amount, date range and similar addresses
– contributors
– expenditure recipients.
Aurora will also include future expanded services offered by other divisions of the Secretary of State’s office.
“We’re maximizing the potential of our (Information Technology) capacity,” Miller said. “In all the divisions in my office, digital services are our best opportunity to serve the most Nevadans effectively and efficiently.”
Additional enhancements planned for later phases of Aurora include:
– more user-friendly filing features
– resident agent searches
– penalties searches
– hotlinks to the corporate details pages for corporate contributors and recipients
– reports comparing original vs. amended reports
– online group registrations (e.g. Political Action Committees)
Aurora is and will continue to be a technological build completed solely by the Secretary of State’s information technology staff at no additional cost to taxpayers.
As the state’s chief elections officer, Miller said he supports fair and transparent campaigns in an effort to restore the public’s faith in the electoral process.
Douglas County Public Library at Zephyr Cove is presenting Saturday Stories on Jan. 28 at 1pm.
Celebrate the Year of the Dragon at the library. Miss Carol will read Chinese New Year stories.
Children ages 3 and up will listen to stories, make crafts, and get a fortune cookie treat.
Sign up by Jan. 27.
Young children should be accompanied by an adult.
The library is located at 233 Warrior Way in Zephyr Cove. For more information, call (775) 588.6411.
Lake Tahoe South Shore Chamber of Commerce’s Business Expo is March 30 from 4-8pm at Harrah’s Convention Center in Stateline.
The 58th annual North Lake Tahoe Community Awards Dinner is Feb. 16, 6-9:30pm at the Ritz-Carlton, Lake Tahoe in Truckee.
The annual event produced by the North Lake Tahoe Chamber of Commerce recognizes Small Business of the Year, Large Business of the Year, Citizen of the Year, Public Servant of the Year, Regional Marketing Award, Nonprofit Organization of the Year and Hospitality Award for a business or organization. The chamber is also accepting nominations for Volunteer and Employee of the Year for individual businesses and organizations, with a $25 award fee per nominee due with application.
Kym Fabel at (530) 581.8764 or kym@puretahoenorth.com has more information and nomination forms.
Tickets to the dinner are $85.
By Kathryn Reed
South Lake Tahoe essentially won its case in which the League to Save Lake Tahoe sued to try to stop the General Plan from being a legal working document.
U.S. District Court Judge Garland Burrell on Thursday dismissed the case that was filed last year after the City Council voted to approve the General Plan.
Carl Young, who is still acting director of the League, told Lake Tahoe News, “We are currently weighing our options.” He did not elaborate, only to say, “It could mean anything.”
South Lake Tahoe City Manager Tony O’Rourke told Lake Tahoe News, “I think it’s a sign of progress that the city can challenge these legal intrusions and continue to do the right thing. It’s not just declaring victory, but I hope it creates a constructive relationship with the League. We need to create partnerships and common ground.”
The League in its challenge had contended the General Plan did not match the Regional Plan of the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency. While that was true and known at the time of adoption, the city never intended to apply components of the General Plan that did not match TRPA’s rules. It is still anticipated when the Regional Plan is adopted (which could be in December) that then the two planning documents will mirror each other in ways that they don’t today.
“The League has failed to demonstrate that it is reasonably probable that [the city’s failure to submit the General Plan update to TRPA for approval] will threaten the League’s and its members’ concrete interests,” Burrell said.
O’Rourke went on to say the city is as interested in maintaining Lake Tahoe’s clarity as the League is, but economic vitality needs to be part of the discussion. He also said economics and the environment can go hand-in-hand and that it’s time everyone gets on the same page to make that a reality.