Veterans’ Day observance at the American Legion Hall in South Lake Tahoe on Nov. 11 at 11am.

Lake Valley Fire Protection District is looking to appoint a board member at its Nov. 10 7pm meeting to fill the director-at-large vacancy.

All applications should include a statement of interest and a resume. The applicant must be a resident and a qualified elector within the district. All applications (including mailed applications) must be received by 5pm Nov. 4.

Board meetings are monthly.

For more information, call (530) 577.3737.

The Douglas County Sheriff’s Office will be participating in several high-visibility traffic enforcement details over the Nevada Day/pre-Halloween weekend.

During the late evening and early morning hours of Oct. 28-30, deputies working in conjunction with deputies of the Lyon County Sheriff’s Office will conduct increased DUI enforcement patrols on the highways and roadways within Douglas County.

National traffic studies have shown that increased targeted patrols provide an increased risk of detection and apprehension, thereby reducing the number of impaired drivers willing to risk driving while impaired.

This stepped-up enforcement will continue into the following weekend as well; Nov. 4-5.

This enforcement detail is partially paid for by a grant from the Nevada Department of Public Safety, Office of Traffic Safety.

By Joyia Emard, Loomis News

Loomis’ new town manager considers Loomis a “gem.”

“People are down to Earth here. Loomis is like a gem in the middle of metropolis,” said

Rick Angelocci, who began as the Loomis town manager on Oct. 13. He replaced Perry Beck who retired on Sept. 30.

Angelocci, formerly the assistant city manager and community development director for the City of South Lake Tahoe, will be paid $110,000 per year, plus a $300 per month car allowance. Beck’s pay after 11 years on the job was $116,000.

According to a report written by Beck, the council began the search process in May and received 127 applications. The search was narrowed down to seven interview candidates and then four finalists.

“He’s a good fit for Loomis. He has lots of experience and can help with planning issues. He’s very friendly. You feel like you’ve been talking to an old friend,” said Mayor Rhonda Morillas.

Councilmember Gary Liss said he is very supportive of Angelocci, as are other council members.

“It was pretty clear by the time we got to the final candidates – Rick stood out in my mind,” Liss said.

Read the whole story

State Sen. Ted Gaines, R-Roseville, scored 100 percent on the California Taxpayers Association’s 2011 Voting Record. Gaines was one of 30 state legislators out of the 120 Assembly and Senate members to receive the top score.

“I am honored to stand with taxpayers in the fight against the overspending crisis that plagues Sacramento,” Gaines said in a statement. “As a small business owner, I am familiar with the hurdles and burdens hardworking taxpayers face every day. California should be creating opportunities for individuals and businesses to thrive, not stifling their growth with excessive taxes and onerous regulations.”

Ted Gaines

CalTax’s legislative report card is designed to hold lawmakers accountable for their actions and to inform taxpayers how their lawmakers represent them on key issues. Founded in 1926, CalTax is a non-partisan, nonprofit organization whose mission is to protect taxpayers from unnecessary taxes and to promote government efficiency.

The 2011 Voting Record is based on a compilation of the highest priority bills on which CalTax took a position. Most bills used to evaluate and grade voting records dealt with tax increases or those that threatened taxpayer protections.

Gaines represents the 1st Senate District, which includes all or parts of Alpine, Amador, Calaveras, El Dorado, Lassen, Modoc, Mono, Nevada, Placer, Plumas, Sacramento and Sierra counties.

Community educators are joining forces to bring another 21st Century Education Speakers Series to the Lake Tahoe Basin. This year’s series kicks-off with author Bernie Trilling on Nov. 8 from 6:30-9pm at Sierra Nevada College in the Tahoe Center for Environmental Sciences.

Trilling is a key organizer of the nationwide Partnership for 21st Century Skills initiative – 33 organizations advocating education readiness by building collaborative partnerships among education, business, community and government leaders. Trilling will talk about the profound gap between the knowledge and skills most students learn in school and what is needed for a thriving 21st century community and workplace.

Trilling is a 21st century learning expert, advisor, author, and the former global director of the Oracle Education Foundation, where he directed the development of education strategies, partnerships, and services for the Foundation and its ThinkQuest programs. He has served as board member of the Partnership for 21st Century Skills and co-chaired the committee that developed the highly regarded “rainbow” learning framework.

Trilling co-authored the seminal book on the subject, “21st Century Skills; Learning for Life in our Times”. Through a multi-media and interactive presentation he will help participants both envision and experience the skills and capacities that children need to be successful adults in our rapidly changing society.

This event is free and open to all community members. On Nov. 9, Trilling will facilitate a teacher development day for all local educators to focus more deeply on means and methodologies for implementation of these new ideas. The teacher workshops are free to local educators and will take place from 3–5pm at the Parasol Foundation, 948 Incline Way, Incline Village.

For more information about the sessions and to reserve a seat, go online.

By Delen Goldberg, Las Vegas Sun

Online gambling was the fastest growing category of web activity during the month of September. Analysts at comScore Media Metrix, an Internet audience measurement service, attributed the spike to the kickoff of the NFL season and sports fans placing football bets.

Online gambling sites received 9.7 million visitors, comScore analysts reported. That’s far fewer than the 82 million who logged onto education sites or the 35 million who browsed news sites, but it accounts for a 13 percent increase from the previous month, a bigger jump than in any other category.

PokerStars ranked first among the pack with 1.1 million visitors (an 11 percent increase), followed by UPickEm.net with 993,000 visitors (a 36 percent increase), FullTiltPoker with 753,000 visitors, SimSlots Inc. with 655,000 visitors (a 5 percent increase) and Wooga.com with 520,000 visitors (an 85 percent increase).

Read the whole story

California Tahoe Conservancy and Squaw Valley Ski Holdings Inc. are expected to enter a 40-year lease on Friday so the resort can continue to operate on 402 acres of CTC owned property.

The ski entity – formed last month to run Alpine Meadows and Squaw – is getting all of its contracts aligned so they are for the same length of time.

When the CTC bought the Ward Peak area more than 20 years ago Alpine was using it as a ski resort. So the use is not changing. (CTC bought it from Southern Pacific.)

The CTC board is having a special meeting for this one item on Oct. 28 at 8:30am at its offices on Third Street in South Lake Tahoe.

— Kathryn Reed

By David Carr, New York Times

Almost two weeks ago, USA Today put its finger on why the Occupy Wall Street protests continued to gain traction.

“The bonus system has gone beyond a means of rewarding talent and is now Wall Street’s primary business,” the newspaper editorial stated, adding: “Institutions take huge gambles because the short-term returns are a rationale for their rich payouts. But even when the consequences of their risky behavior come back to haunt them, they still pay huge bonuses.”

Well thought and well put, but for one thing: If you were looking for bonus excess despite miserable operations, the best recent example I can think of is Gannett, which owns USA Today.

The week before the editorial ran, Craig A. Dubow resigned as Gannett’s chief executive. His short six-year tenure was, by most accounts, a disaster. Gannett’s stock price declined to about $10 a share from a high of $75 the day after he took over; the number of employees at Gannett plummeted to 32,000 from about 52,000, resulting in a remarkable diminution in journalistic boots on the ground at the 82 newspapers the company owns.

Never a standout in journalism performance, the company strip-mined its newspapers in search of earnings, leaving many communities with far less original, serious reporting.

Given that legacy, it was about time Mr. Dubow was shown the door, right? Not in the current world we live in. Not only did Mr. Dubow retire under his own power because of health reasons, he got a mash note from Marjorie Magner, a member of Gannett’s board, who said without irony that “Craig championed our consumers and their ever-changing needs for news and information.”

But the board gave him far more than undeserved plaudits. Mr. Dubow walked out the door with just under $37.1 million in retirement, health and disability benefits. That comes on top of a combined $16 million in salary and bonuses in the last two years.

And in case you thought they were paying up just to get rid of a certain way of doing business — slicing and dicing their way to quarterly profits — Mr. Dubow was replaced by Gracia C. Martore, the company’s president and chief operating officer. She was Mr. Dubow’s steady accomplice in working the cost side of the business, without finding much in the way of new revenue. She has already pocketed millions in bonuses and will now be in line for even more.

Forget about occupying Wall Street; maybe it’s time to start occupying Main Street, a place Gannett has bled dry by offering less and less news while dumping and furloughing journalists in seemingly every quarter.

Read the whole story

The U.S. Forest Service Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit will begin the sale of holiday tree permits Nov. 7. Permits cost $10 each (cash or check only, no credit cards) with a limit of two permits per family, valid for cutting on or before Dec. 25.

Permit holders may choose from a variety of pine, fir or cedar in designated cutting areas and must abide by specific permit conditions for proper and responsible collection.

Permits will be available in two locations:

· On the South Shore, permits will be sold at the LTBMU Forest Supervisor’s office, 35 College Drive, South Lake Tahoe. This office is open Monday through Friday from 8am-4:30pm. For more information, call (530) 543.2694.

· On the North Shore, permits will be sold at the Incline Village Forest Service office, 855 Alder Ave., Incline Village, beginning Nov. 9. This office is open Wednesday through Friday from 8am-4:30pm. For more information, call (775) 831.0914. During winter weather driving conditions, call the Incline office to make sure it’s open.

The last day to purchase a permit at either office is Dec. 16.

Individuals purchasing permits will receive information to help them make the best selection, as well as maps designating the tree cutting areas. Permit holders should respect private property by not trespassing when entering or leaving designated National Forest cutting areas. Harvesting smaller diameter trees offers residents and visitors a traditional holiday experience while helping to thin the forest.