U.S. Forest Service fuels management crews are scheduled to resume prescribed fire operations on the south side of the intersection of Pioneer Trail and Highway 50 in Meyers Nov. 30, weather permitting.

Operations consist of approximately 1 to 2 acres and may continue through the week.

Residents and visitors can expect to see smoke from this prescribed fire project area. Smoke may be visible near the intersection of Pioneer Trail and Highway 50. The Forest Service strives to minimize the impacts of smoke on local communities. Smoke-sensitive residents should consider staying indoors and keeping doors, windows and outside vents closed.

To directly receive prescribed fire updates, send an email to pa_ltbmu@fs.fed.us. Forest Service staff will post road signs around areas affected by prescribed fire, and update the local fire information line at (530) 543-2600, ext. 6.

To the community,

The Washoe Meadows Community condemns the act of vandalism within Washoe Meadows State Park that was reported Nov. 29 by State Parks personnel. The described mutilation of trees is an abhorrence to those of us who are devoted to Washoe Meadows and who are dedicated to the defense of its natural gifts.

Our commitment to saving the park includes distress over the 1,600 trees slated to come down if the golf course is extended into Washoe Meadows, so the reported defacement is a terrible offense to our cause.

Since 2006 our community members have been praised for our courtesy and respect during the technical and bureaucratic procedures to select the Upper Truckee River restoration design. While we advocate for Alternative 3 – to restore the river and keep the golf course — we remain steadfastly committed to civil processes and communication.

We disagree with State Parks’ choice of Alternative 2, but certainly we are in accord with the state and other agencies in condemning any sabotage, dishonesty or misbehavior that undermine the aim to restore

the Upper Truckee River in the most environmentally ideal manner.

Lynne Paulson, Washoe Meadows Community

Markleeville will come alive with all the lights and decorations of Christmas on Dec. 4 from 11am-4pm.

There will be handcrafted gift items, jewelry, pottery, wreaths, pillows, coloring books, and much more, available all over town, in businesses, event on a porch or two.

There will be carolers gathering around the Christmas Tree at the Court House at 1pm for a performance before they stroll around town.

Santa and Mrs. Santa will be in the Wolf Creek Restaurant by the fireplace at 11am.

The General Store has tree cutting permits for $10. There will be cobbler prepared by Little Antelope Pack Station in front of Intero Real Estate.

The Markleeville Art Gallery will have glass ornaments, wool hats, soaps, and jewelry.

The museum will be open and free for the day.

If there is enough snow, there will be a snowshoe tour and people may make a snowman in the park.

At 2pm the library will have story time, cookie decorating and Santa promises to visit.

For more information, go online.

Caltrans announced today it has completed a project on Highway 89 in El Dorado County that is designed to safeguard water quality in and around the Lake Tahoe Basin. The $17 million project received $11 million in funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

The project on Luther Pass will direct roadway water runoff to treatment collection facilities. The project also widened highway shoulders, constructed curbs and gutters, and repaired and constructed drainage facilities between the Alpine County line and Highway 50 in Meyers.

For the second year in a row, Alpine Smith Inc. of South Lake Tahoe joins the SnowCare for Troops Program, a community based program to provide free snow removal services for military families with a spouse or family member serving in the armed forces.

Alpine Smith is offering free snow removal to three active military families and is urging other interested military families to register for participation in the SnowCare for Troops program by calling (530) 541.0250.

By Bob Ivry, Bradley Keoun and Phil Kuntz, Bloomberg News

The Federal Reserve and the big banks fought for more than two years to keep details of the largest bailout in U.S. history a secret. Now, the rest of the world can see what it was missing.

The Fed didn’t tell anyone which banks were in trouble so deep they required emergency loans of a combined $1.2 trillion on Dec. 5, 2008, their single neediest day.

Bankers didn’t mention that they took tens of billions of dollars at the same time they were assuring investors their firms were healthy. And no one calculated until now that banks reaped an estimated $13 billion of income by taking advantage of the Fed’s below-market interest rates, Bloomberg Markets magazine reports in its January issue.

Saved by the 2007-2010 bailout, bankers lobbied against government regulations, a job made easier by the Fed, which never disclosed the details of the rescue to lawmakers even as Congress doled out more money and debated new rules aimed at preventing the next collapse.

While Fed officials say that almost all the loans were repaid without losses, details that emerge from 29,000 pages of Fed documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act and central bank records of more than 21,000 transactions suggest taxpayers paid a price beyond dollars as the secret funding helped preserve a broken status quo and enabled the biggest banks to grow even bigger.

The size of the bailout came to light after Bloomberg LP, the parent of Bloomberg News, won a court battle against the Fed and a group of the biggest banks called Clearing House Association LLC. The amount of money the central bank parceled out dwarfed the Treasury Department’s better-known $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP.

Few people were aware of this, partly because bankers didn’t disclose the extent of their borrowing.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon told shareholders in March 2010 that his bank used the Fed’s Term Auction Facility “at the request of the Federal Reserve to help motivate others to use the system.”

He didn’t say that the bank’s total TAF borrowings were almost twice its cash holdings or that its peak borrowing of $48 billion came more than a year after the program’s creation.

On Nov. 26, 2008, Bank of America’s then-CEO Kenneth Lewis wrote to shareholders that he headed “one of the strongest and most stable major banks in the world.” He didn’t say that Bank of America owed the Fed $86 billion that day. Bank of America’s borrowing peaked at $91.4 billion in February 2009.

Spokesmen for JPMorgan and Bank of America declined to comment.

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• The Sierra Nevada Chapter of the Public Relations Society of recently handed out a slew of awards. Weidinger Public Relations in Stateline received the Award of Excellence in special events with a budget of more than $25,000 for Golf the High Sierra Media Tour, Award of Excellence in ongoing programs with budget of more than $25,000 for American Century Championship — Tahoe Celebrity Golf, and Award of Excellence in overall campaigns with a budget of more than $25,000 for Amgen Tour of California.

• Of the 104 RCDs in California, Placer County Resource Conservation District is in the top four, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service.

• If you don’t know an F-stop from a stop sign, a six-week class starting Dec. 1 in South Lake Tahoe may be the answer. For more information, call (530) 544.9336.

• The Las Vegas Ski & Snowboard Resort is giving away helmets to kids every Saturday in January.

• Tioga Road in Yosemite National Park has reopened. But another storm could close it again.

• Occupy South Lake Tahoe is meeting at the Raley’s at the Y on Dec. 1 at noon.

The Incline Firefighters Association along with the Northern Nevada Children’s Cancer Foundation is having a charity blackjack tournament Dec. 8 at 8pm at the Hyatt in Incline Village.

The tournament is in conjunction with the 16th annual Paramedic Refresher.

A limited number of spots are available on a first come, first serve basis, with all the proceeds directly benefiting the Northern Nevada Children’s Cancer Foundation.

Cash and other prizes are available for the top finishers.

The Hyatt has donated the space for the tournament and drinks will be provided during playing.

The cost is $40 for conference attendees and $50 for non-conference attendees.

To sign up, go online and click on “Sign up here.”

Help create magic for families in need by attending the Coyote Grill in the Round Hill Plaza on Dec. 1between 5 and 10pm.

Coyote Grill will be serving its famous $1 bowl of chili, with 20 percent of the profits that evening going back to Tahoe Magic.

Since 1992, Tahoe Magic has been helping families in crisis all year long, working with agencies in our community that identify and recommend families with children that need help. The need is always greater as the holiday season nears. Join us at the Coyote Grill and we can bring magic to families that could really us it this year.

By Frank X. Mullen Jr., Reno Gazette-Journal

“Cooney’s Law,” which went into effect a month ago and makes torturing or killing animals a serious crime, might have backfired by keeping those cases secret from the public.

“There was a late amendment to the law that was supposed to keep the identity of the reporting party confidential, to protect the person who comes forward to report abuse,” said Gina Greisen of Nevada Voters for Animals, who lobbied for the law.

“A blanket prohibition on talking about a case was not what was intended … If this law was in effect last year, Cooney’s case would never have come to light.”

The law is named for Cooney, a mixed-breed dog who died after her owner sliced open her belly with a box cutter at a Reno motel. Police initially let Cooney’s owner go free because such animal abuse was then a misdemeanor offense, so advocates this year lobbied the Legislature to make severe abuse a felony crime.

As the deadline for bills neared this year, an amendment was added to the measure that makes such cases confidential and provides penalties for officials who discuss the cases or release reports.

“Not being able to talk about these cases makes it difficult for us as animal welfare advocates,” Greisen said. “The whole point was to protect the reporting party, not the alleged offender.”

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