Caltrans is alerting motorists that delays are expected on Highway 28 due to paving operations.

Operations will take place as follows:

• Sept. 17 from 7am-8pm: Motorists can expect eastbound lane closures from National Avenue to the junction of highway 267 and 28.

• Sept. 18 from 7am-8pm: Motorists can expect westbound lane closures at the same location.

Lane restrictions will be in affect during the paving operation. Motorists are advised to expect delays up to 10 minutes.

Event organizers have added a host of shops, galleries and restaurants to the line up for this year’s Downtown Truckee Wine, Walk & Shop, set for Oct. 1 from noon to 4pm.

The Downtown Truckee Wine, Walk & Shop showcases some of the region’s finest restaurants and wineries, offering attendees the opportunity to wander the wonderful shops and galleries of historic downtown Truckee while sampling creations by area chefs, paired with wines from throughout California (with one Nevada winery).

A pre-event activity is the Stomp Out Hunger Grape Stomp on Sept. 30 at the Truckee River Winery Tasting Room, 11467 Brockway Road in Truckee. Doors open and music starts at 4pm. Stomping begins at 5pm. Each four-member team will vie to produce the most juice in two minutes. A fundraiser for Sierra Senior Services, the cost is $150 for each four-member team and there are 16 team slots available. Spectator tickets, which include wine tastings and appetizers, are $15 per person. For more information, call Sierra Senior Services at (530) 550.7600

Tickets for the eighth annual Downtown Truckee Wine, Walk and Shop are $30 in advance and $40 the day of the event and are available online or at the Truckee Donner Chamber of Commerce Visitors Center, The Pour House and Avec Wine + Food and in Reno at the West Street Wine Bar. A portion of the proceeds will benefit the Girls on the Run – Sierras.

For more information, call (530) 550.2252.

The Tahoe Mountain Sports 5th Annual Pro/Am Disc Golf Tournament at the North Tahoe Regional Park 18-hole disc golf is Oct. 8-9.

The tournament, a PDGA Sanctioned “B” Pro/Am event, brings golfers from all over the Western United States to the Tahoe Vista course,

All levels are welcome – or stop by to cheer on the professional and amateur golfers and learn about the sport. Pros are competing for cash prizes, and amateur winners will receive Tahoe Mountain Sports gift certificates.

On Oct. 8, registration and check-in begins at 7:30am, rounds begin at 9 am, with lunch provided.

On Oct. 9, also at the North Tahoe Regional Park Pavilion, a player meeting is at 9am, Round 3 begins at 9:30am, with an awards ceremony one hour after the last group has finished. Grills will provided; bring your own barbecue items.

For more information, contact Dave Polivy at (530) 546.7001 or dave@tahoemountainsports.com.

As part of its Chamber EDucation program, the North Lake Tahoe Chamber of Commerce in partnership with the Sierra Economic Development Corporation is hosting a Business Identity Theft Compliance Workshop on Sept. 22 from noon to 1:30pm at Granlibakken Lodge, 725 Granlibakken Road in Tahoe City.

Deadline to register is Sept. 19.

Attendees will learn about identity theft laws and how they affect businesses, business liability when there is a breach, the types of identity theft and behavior awareness, as well as tools for creating a policy to protect their business.

The cost is $55/person and participants need to bring their lunch. To register, call the Sierra Economic Development Corporation at (530) 823.4703 or email info@sedcorp.biz.

This class will also be repeated Oct. 26 in Kings Beach at the North Tahoe Event Center.

El Dorado County departments of Human Services and Probation and the El Dorado County Child Abuse Prevention Council are engaging in a system-wide county self-assessment process as part of an ongoing effort to ensure every child in El Dorado County lives in a safe, stable, permanent home, nurtured by healthy families and strong communities.

The CSA requires each county examine its strengths and needs, from prevention through the continuum of care, including reviews of the current levels of performance, procedural and systemic practices, and available resources. The county seeks assistance with this assessment from community and prevention partners.

Residents can provide input at one of the following meetings:

* Oct. 10 in South Lake Tahoe from 1-2:30pm at the Lake Tahoe Collaborative Meeting (location still to be determined);

* Oct. 13 in Placerville from 10am-noon in the EDCOE Conference Room B-2.

Heart disease is treatable and preventable. It is the leading cause of death in the United States for men and women. Heart disease includes such conditions as congestive heart failure, congenital heart disease, heart attack, coronary heart disease and peripheral artery disease.

September is Peripheral Artery Disease Month. According to the American Heart Association, PAD affects about 8 million Americans and becomes more common as people get older.

Steven Brooks

Steven Brooks a doctor with Barton Family Practice will discuss Prevention & Treatment of Heart Disease on Sept. 21 from 6-7pm at Kahle Community Center, 236 Kingsbury Grade, Stateline.

Each type of heart disease has different symptoms, although many heart problems have similar warning signs. The symptoms people experience may depend on the type and severity of the heart condition.

This free lecture is part of the 2011 Barton Health & Wellness Lecture Series.

For more information, call (530) 543.5656.

According to a U.S. Census Bureau study, education levels had more effect on earnings during a 40-year span in the workforce than any other demographic factor, such as gender, race and Hispanic origin. For example, a worker with a professional degree is expected to make more than a worker with a eighth grade education or lower.

Some groups, such as non-Hispanic white males, Asian males and Asian females, benefit more from higher levels of education than other groups over a 40-year career for those with a professional degree. White males with a professional degree make more than double (about $2.4 million more) than that of Hispanic females with the same level of education.

Many factors, such as race and Hispanic origin, gender, citizenship, English-speaking ability and geographic location do influence work-life earnings but none had as much impact as education. The estimated impact on annual earnings between a professional degree and an eighth grade education was about $72,000 a year, roughly five times the impact of gender, which was $13,000.

These findings come from the report Education and Synthetic Work-Life Earnings, which looks at the economic value of educational attainment by estimating the amount of money that people might earn over the course of a 40-year work-life given their level of education. The report also looks at the effect of other factors, such as race and gender groups and other characteristics with regard to this relationship.

Other highlights:

Overall, white males had higher earnings than any other group at every education level, with the exception of those with a master’s degree, which was topped by Asian males, and those with a professional degree, where Asian males were not significantly different from white males.

In general, women in the most economically advantaged race groups usually earn less than men in the most disadvantaged race groups. For example, a white female with master’s degree is expected to earn $2.4 million over a 40-year work-life. In comparison, a Hispanic male with a master’s degree is expected to earn $2.8 million.

For Asian, black and Hispanic groups whose highest education completed is high school, the difference between each group’s work-life earnings was not large compared with the differences between these groups when they had higher levels of education.

Asian men and women with a bachelor’s degree or higher had greater returns on higher education than blacks or Hispanics of either gender. For example, an Asian female with a professional degree made $3.7 million in work-life earnings compared with $2.3 million for a Hispanic female with a professional degree.

Geography impacted earnings, showing higher earnings in the Pacific states and in New England and lowest earnings in East South Central states.

Data for this research comes from the 2006-08 American Community Survey.

• El Dorado County supervisors were surprised to learn the sheriff’s department has a helicopter. Check out this report by KCRA-TV.

• The Kids Fishing Derby at Tahoe Paradise Park’s Lake Baron is Sept. 18 starting at 7am.

• Bay to Bliss trail race is Sept. 18. The 7.5-mile race starts at Emerald Bay’s Eagle Point and ends at D.L. Bliss State Park. Cost is $40 per person. Go online for more info.

• The Congressional Field Hearing in Sacramento by the Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands is Sept. 19 at 10am. The purpose of this hearing is to address U.S. Forest Service policies.

• Tahoe Truckee Unified School District is one of seven districts in California selected by Stanford University to participate in an English Language Learner Leadership Network funded by the Cowell Foundation.

• A bear hunt protest is scheduled today from 5:30-7pm in Incline Village. For more information, click on bear rally.

Certification of the environmental impact report that will alter Lake Tahoe Golf Course and Washoe Meadow State Park in Meyers is scheduled for Oct. 21 at 9am.

The public meeting is at the golf course at 2500 Emerald Bay Road.

The main issue is restoration of the Upper Truckee River. In order to do the work desired by landowners and environmentalists, some of the land from the state park and Lake Valley State Recreation Area (where the golf course sits) needs to be swapped. The theory is restoring each section of the river to its natural meander will reduce fine sediment from reaching Lake Tahoe.

The Upper Truckee River is the main tributary into Lake Tahoe.

The public will have a chance to comment at the meeting.

The EIR is available for review at the Sugar Pine Point State Park in Tahoma, the State Parks office in Sacrament and at the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency office in Stateline. It is also online.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report

By Kathryn Reed

Telling your boss how you feel, what you believe and how to do things differently is never easy.

I know. I’ve been fired for having a contrary opinion and refusing to change my ideology.

I know what it’s like to wonder how the mortgage is going to get paid. I know what it’s like to wonder how to get a job in a profession that just keeps cutting positions.

I admire the people who spoke at Thursday night’s special City Council meeting about the 2011-12 budget. It’s never easy to talk in public, and even harder to do so in such a contentious atmosphere and before people who can eliminate your job.

But shame on them for waiting until now to voice their concerns. And it’s even more shameful the council did not insist a session on the budget be conducted more than 16 days before the document is supposed to be the law of the land.

Yes, budgets are fluid and can be changed. But fundamentally they speak to the desires of the council.

No one still really knows what those five stands for or wants in this document. We know they don’t like making cuts. It would be a bit scary if they did get pleasure out of doing so. After all, we are talking about nearly two dozen people who could be without a job in a month.

No one wants our city’s 16.4 percent unemployment rate to grow.

But something or someone has to give.

Listening to the nearly 30 who spoke Sept. 15 I heard conflicting thoughts. On the one hand, employees-retirees expressed an overwhelming sentiment to preserve that sense of community they feel. And on the other hand, they seemed to expect others to preserve it; that by adopting the proposed budget, it would be lost.

Where is their sense of responsibility to the community beyond showing up to work every day? They are not talking at council meetings – I’m there to know. They are not writing letters or guest columns to/for Lake Tahoe News to share with others what is going on, their thoughts, desires and vision. They may be writing comments on LTN, but without using their name, is anyone really paying attention or caring?

Employees sounded a bit like victims last night. That’s too bad.

I’m a firm believer the person on the front line knows best what needs to change in an organization. Speak up. If management doesn’t listen, go to the council. If council doesn’t listen, go to the media to reach taxpayers. You may not get your way, but everyone deserves to be heard.

But as the cliche goes, if you are not part of the solution, then you are part of the problem. It will be interesting to see what solutions, if any, are forthcoming by the staff in the next week.

The council on Thursday sounded like any other elected body about to level the ax – we’re sorry, we have to do this.

Come on you five – we expected change, we expected leadership. Stop being so disappointing. Stop looking like you are led by staff and instead be the leaders. Remember, you are the boss of the city manager – not the other way around.

Nothing on Thursday indicated this is the budget you want. If it had been, you would have adopted it and ideally said why.

Management has done its job. Whether you agree with it, well, that’s another story. But they were tasked with closing the budget gap and did so. Kudos to them.

The council will likely adopt the budget Sept. 27 at the 6pm special meeting. Between now and then is when people better start coming up with solutions for the financial problems as well as speak up. And not just employees. That budget is for the whole city — every resident of this town. Whining taxpayers who don’t speak out are even worse than employees who don’t speak.