Camp Richardson’s annual Oktoberfest is a two-day event at the South Shore lodge. The Oct. 1-2 fun includes beer, arts-crafts for sale, German dancing, pumpkin patch and more.

CASA El Dorado is hosting two FBI agents to talk about human trafficking.

The talk by Special Agent Minerva Shelton and Victim Specialist Janice Dean is Sept. 22 from noon to 1:30pm at Department 3 of the El Dorado County Superior Court in South Lake Tahoe.

RSVP by Sept. 20 to Amanda@casaeldorado.org or call (530) 573.3072.

Walk in the footsteps of John C. Fremont as he travels over the mountain to Lake Tahoe in 1844.

On Sept. 20 at 7pm in the lodge of Camp Richardson, Peter Lathrop will show photographs and tell of his following the trail from Highway 395 to Round Top, along the western flank of Lover’s Leap and down to Sciots Camp. Bob Graham, author of “The Crossing” will give some of the details used.

The event is free and refreshments will be served.

Camp Rich Lodge is on the South Shore on Highway 89.

July is often a good month for the Stateline casinos because of the American Century Celebrity Golf Tournament.

This year was no different – just better. The South Shore casinos won $30 million; a 25 percent increase from July 2010.

July has also become the busiest summer month on the South Shore, and throughout Lake Tahoe, because more schools start in August. It also helped that the weather was near perfect, which is a huge draw for people living within driving distance of the basin.

All of Nevada did well in July, with the state winning $860 million for a 3.7 percent gain compared to 2010. All of the data was released today from the Nevada Gaming Control Board.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report

Thunderstorm activity hit the Tahoe National Forest all weekend, with more in the forecast.

The graphic to the left shows the lightning activity.

A fire was detected in the Boca Springs area, northeast of Truckee, Sunday evening. This brings the total number of fires to four — all small — for the Tahoe National Forest. The Mears, French, and Disney fires are all contained.

Marble-size hail hit the Meadow Lake area Sunday.

Expect thunderstorms through the Lake Tahoe Basin today, as well as into the Reno-Carson City areas.

The storms could cause flash flooding, especially near streams that have not receded to their normal level for this time of year. Recent burn areas could also see problems from the heavy rainfall.

The National Weather Service in Reno has issued a flash flood watch for the basin, and much of Western Nevada.

The brunt of the storms are expected in the late afternoon, early evening.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report

By Denny Walsh, Sacramento Bee

A Sacramento federal judge has quashed a joint federal-state plan to improve conditions for a rare High Sierra fish, ruling that an auger driven by a gasoline-powered generator cannot be used in designated wilderness areas.

For more than 25 years, government agencies have sought by various means to increase the population of the Paiute cutthroat trout and restore this rare creature to its historical range.

Six years ago, U.S. District Judge Frank C. Damrell Jr. ordered a halt to the state’s plan to poison one stretch of a High Sierra creek and a lake as part of the recovery project.

It was Damrell again stepping in to block the latest plan with a permanent injunction based on the federal Wilderness Act.

Spokespersons for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the U.S. Forest Service and the California Department of Fish and Game vowed Friday that the agencies will continue to work together to find a way to accomplish the recovery and restoration of the Paiute cutthroat trout.

“Our team of lawyers are currently reviewing the order to see what we can do to move forward,” said Fish and Game spokesman Kevin Thomas.

Read the whole story

By Kathryn Reed

Instead of creating the potential for another marathon council day, South Lake Tahoe’s 2011-12 budget will be discussed at a special meeting Sept. 15 at 7pm.

The regular meeting is Sept. 13 at 9am. Both are at Lake Tahoe Airport.

Public input will be taken at the budget meeting, but it’s possible the council could approve it that night. This has been an unusual budget season in that Thursday will be the first time the document will have been seen by the public and discussed by the council in public.

The next fiscal year begins Oct. 1.

It’s projected the council will be asked to eliminate close to 30 positions. Some involve not filling positions vacated by retirements or other changes, while about 22 are actual people who will lose their jobs.

Because of union-city agreement the people being added to the 16.7 percent unemployment rate in the city must be given 30-days notice before being terminated.

While the city is still looking at eliminating the three division chief positions in the fire department, technically negotiations are in mediation after having gone to impasse. But because the three are at-will employees in an association – not a union – the city can eliminate their positions with a stroke of the pen.

The three have hired an attorney to represent them, but negotiations are not getting far, according to both sides.

The only union to date to make concessions in terms of health care and pension contributions is the firefighters whose ranks are captain and below. In the budget is a 2 percent raise for this group as a reward for working with the city.

City employees have told Lake Tahoe News off the record they don’t believe their unions are representing them as a group, but instead favoring certain people. These individuals, who would not allow their names to be printed for fear of retribution, plan to go to the council soon to express their desire to take the cuts necessary to balance the budget while keeping their job.

The city has a $5.2 million budget gap it needs to close by the end of the month.

Even if employees were to agree to the proposals by the city that would save $1.5 million through pension and health care changes, layoffs would be necessary because of the ever-increasing budget deficit.

It has been known since early spring that if the employee groups don’t help defray costs – $1 million a year in savings if they pay their PERS and $500,000 with health care changes – jobs will be lost.

The main issues on the regular Tuesday council agenda pertain to the ever divisive and unenforced sign ordinance.

• A team of accreditation officials will be roaming around Lake Tahoe Community College in October. The college first had to do a self-study. This is something the college goes through every six years.

• Professor Katie Zanto of Sierra Nevada College in Incline Village won the 2011 Outdoor Hero award for her work founding the Adventure Risk Challenge Program.

• Walk the Block is a program by Barton Health with the two K-12 South Shore school districts encouraging fitness. This is part of the larger We Can! Program.

• James Pirtle, 1975 Douglas High grad, is an attorney in Seattle who has set up a blog to help with the defense of a war criminal in Uganda.

• Sierra is the name of long-grain basmati rice that is trying to challenge the markets of India and Pakistan. However, the name does not reflect where it’s grown. It’s from Beaumont, Texas.

Ray Lacey, deputy director of California Tahoe Conservancy, and Hilary Hodges, director of Development Services for South Lake Tahoe, will be at the South Lake Tahoe Branch Library on Sept. 28 at 6:30pm to discuss Lakeview Commons, the community and civic development currently under construction at El Dorado Beach.

They will talk about the origins of the project, its current progress, and how the final result is expected to look.

For additional information about the free program, call (530) 573.3185.

The library is at 1000 Rufus Allen Blvd.

To the community,

I was taught that citizens can be governed by one, or by the few, or by many. A monarchy, an aristocracy, or a democracy. When the forms are legitimate, the governor acknowledges that they have a social contract with the governed. That they will not be capricious or arbitrary. That there is a moral base to politics.

All forms are subject to becoming corrupt. When corrupt, the one becomes a tyrant. The few become an oligarchy. The many become a mob. When corrupt the government loses its legitimacy and governs de facto, by illegitimate force.

Bill Crawford

In our community, we have a mix of the three forms. It is reasonable to compare the city manager to a monarch. He is contracted to execute the law legitimately. But is appears that he in reorganizing city government has been capricious and arbitrary in firing and hiring and re-assignments. Morally he has lost legitimacy. He has breached the social contract with city employees and citizens.

In the Tahoe basin, the TRPA can be compared to government by the few, a select group that is corrupt because they have not made the rules and law clear. Thus, they are capricious and arbitrary. Things are in a muddle. And it seems the TRPA plays favorites. Fairness is a lost cause. The law is what the TRPA says it is on a daily basis; whatever the whim of the day is is the law.

In the city, we have a City Council that in supposition represents the democracy, the people. But the council is the pawn of the city manager. There is no check, there is no balance on the executive by the council. Thus, there is not even the shadow of a democracy.

When all is said and done, the form of government doesn’t matter as long as the social contract is alive and well in good hands.

Bill Crawford, South Lake Tahoe