Lake Tahoe just received $4.5 million for two bike projects.

Tahoe Transportation District secured the money through the Nevada Department of Transportation and the U.S. Department of Transportation. Development of a 3.2 mile segment between Stateline and Round Hill is part of the eventual 43-mile route along Highway 50; and the other is for a route connecting East Shore Drive National Scenic Byway from Incline Village to Sand Harbor State Park.

Nevada received $11.5 million for projects, with $4.5 million for the two Tahoe Transportation District initiatives.

North Tahoe Regional Park in Tahoe Vista opened earlier this summer. The playground includes a play structure for children 5–12, swings for tots and older children, and new “spring rider” toys for the younger children. The new play structure has many elements to keep the kids entertained; three slides, two small climbing walls, and platforms connected by walkways, to name just a few.

The $120,000 playground was constructed with funding from North Tahoe Public Utility District Recreation and Parks reserves, and major donations from the North Lake Tahoe Resort Association, Lahontan Community Foundation, Tahoe Mountain Resorts Foundation, Tahoe City Rotary Club, Tahoe City Rotary Foundation, the Melanie Jackson Fund at the Tahoe Truckee Community Foundation, Mourelatos Lakeshore Resort, Thomas Fitzgerald and a donation of pavers by Sierra Summit Pavers.

However, it was truly a community effort with many community members donating in smaller amounts directly to the Friends of the Park Fund through the Tahoe Truckee Community Foundations, at one of the fundraisers that was held or by putting money into donation buckets in the community.

By Carlos Alcalá, Sacramento Bee

Officials are vowing to execute plans to replace racist gravestones at the Mormon Island Relocation Cemetery, even though the activist who pushed hardest for their replacement now appears to want to stall it.

“I don’t want to wait any longer,” El Dorado County Supervisor John Knight said Friday. His district includes the El Dorado Hills cemetery.

The offensive headstones have had a convoluted history ever since the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers oversaw their installation in 1954.

The graves were moved from the community of Negro Hill to make way for Folsom Lake. When the graves were moved, new concrete markers bore a racist version of the town’s name, using the so-called N-word.

The epithet was just used for the town, not the deceased, as those buried there are unnamed and of unknown races.

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Funtime Theater, a nonprofit organization, in conjunction with the Comstock Cemetery Foundation is putting on “Voices of the Past,” an interactive look into life on the Comstock.

Widow of the Silver Terrace will take people on a walk through the Virginia City cemetery. Visitors will have a chance to see ghosts of people who are actually buried there come to life.

Dates are Sept. 24, Sept. 25, Oct. 1, Oct. 2, Oct. 8 and Oct. 9, from 10am-1pm.

The cost is $15 and this is a fundraiser for the Comstock Cemetery Foundation.

Wear comfortable walking shoes.

For more information and reservations, call (775) 240.5762.

The inaugural Rose to Toads Mountain Bike Ride is Sept. 4 starting at 7:30am.

TAMBA is calling this self-supported event an epic ride from the North Shore to the South Shore.

There are spots to shorten the 60-plus mile ride.

Meet at the Mt. Rose Tahoe Rim Trail trailhead.

This ride encompasses the Tahoe Rim Trail, Flume, Freel Peak, Star Lake and Toads.

RSVP to info@mountainbiketahoe.org.

By Geralda Miller, Reno Gazette-Journal

Several hours after the sunrise start of Nevada’s first black bear hunt, a small group gathered near Tahoe Meadows to pray for the hunter and the hunted.

The Blessing of the Bears began with organizer Kat Simmons beating a drum 41 times with a prayer for the 41 hunters that received tags to hunt.

“We pray that hearts and minds can be opened to the sanctity of life instead of the thrill of death,” Simmons told the group standing among the trees. “I don’t want to come from the spirit of anger. I’m not about hating the hunters or being malicious toward them.”

Only six hunters turned out on the opening day of the season, and no bears were killed, state Department of Wildlife spokesman Chris Healy said. He said the low turnout wasn’t surprising because of hot weather, and wildlife officials expect activity to pick up in the fall when temperatures cool down.

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• Tahoe Youth & Family Services is starting an alcohol treatment program in Incline Village and is likely to be located in the Parasol Building.

• Fire Fest 2011 is Sept. 24 from 10am to 3pm at Lake Tahoe Airport.

• The North American Wildlife Enforcement Officers Association has named Randy Lusetti, game warden for the Nevada Department of Wildlife, National Wildlife Officer of the Year.

• Tahoe City-based Heslin Construction has launched a new website.

• Barton Health offers Tahoe’s Medical Marketplace, an online medical product retail store, for people needing specialty medical products.

By Kathryn Reed

Monster zucchinis have three purposes in my book – compost material, used for stuffing, or turned into bread.

I haven’t composted since moving to Tahoe, so my choice is turn the green things into something edible. Bread is the choice this week.

With the recipe calling for 2 to 3 cups of the squash, I find it better to buy one big one at the farmers’ market instead of several little ones.

For people who grow zucchini (something I did in a former lifetime), it’s easy to have a few get bigger than intended. They just hide so well under their big leaves. Bread and stuffing them – really, it’s the best use for the biggies.

A former massage colleague created the recipe below.

I think zucchini bread is a great breakfast food, good for school lunches, perfect for an afternoon snack, and a good thank you for people sitting at your table talking up your business at the Tuesday farmers’ market in South Lake Tahoe.

A bonus is the loaves can be frozen.

Marla uses Splenda for the white sugar. I always use sugar for baking. This sugar substitute measures up equally – as in 1 cup of sugar = 1 cup of Splenda. Other sugar alternatives are not one-for-one.

Applesauce helps reduce the need for oil. Pay attention to the sugar content on the jar – you don’t want too much.

Marla’s Zucchini Bread

Wet ingredients:

3 eggs

1 C brown sugar

¼ C oil

1/3 C currants, soaked or raisins (optional)

¾ C applesauce

2-3 C zucchini, grated

1 T vanilla extract

Dry ingredients:

1 C white sugar or Splenda

1½ C unbleached flour

1½ C whole wheat flour

1 tsp baking soda

¼ tsp salt

¼ tsp baking powder

1 T cinnamon

½ tsp ground cloves

½ tsp nutmeg

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Grease and flour two loaf pans.

Mix wet ingredients together. Sift dry ingredients together. Fold wet mixture into dry mixture. Do not over mix. Pour batter into prepared pans. Bake 1 hour or until toothpick comes out clean.

Makes 2 loaves.

By Deborah Netburn, Los Angeles Times

The weather is costing America a lot of money.

A new report from the National Climatic Data Center shows that in 2011 alone, there have been nine U.S. weather-related disasters that have each caused more than $1 billion in damages. The report estimates these disasters have cost the U.S. $35 billion so far this year.

And we’ve still got four months left to go.

The most expensive of the 2011 disasters detailed in the report is the series of tornadoes that hit the central and southern states from April 25-30. States affected include Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Georgia, Tennessee, Virginia, Kentucky, Illinois, Missouri, Ohio, Texas and Oklahoma. A total of 305 tornadoes swept through those states, causing total losses greater than $9 billion.

It was also the deadliest disaster. The tornadoes killed 327 people.

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Publisher’s note: This editorial is from the Aug. 11, 2011, Reno Gazette-Journal.

By all means, Nevada should join the states requesting waivers from the flawed No Child Left Behind Act.

That must not be an excuse to lower Nevadans’ expectations for their schools, however. Rather, it should raise their expectations.

Ever since No Child Left Behind was approved during the administration of President George W. Bush, it has been a distraction — an easy scapegoat to be blamed by schools around the nation for their failures.

Too much time must be given over to testing, it’s said. Too much money is spent meeting requirements that do nothing to improve education in the classroom. Schools and students suffer when they’re labeled according to test scores. Even a cheating scandal in Georgia was blamed by some on the pressures of No Child Left Behind.

School officials in Nevada say they could do better without the law hanging over their heads.

Fair enough. Now, show us.

This week, Education Secretary Arne Duncan called the law an “impediment that’s getting in the way as a disincentive for the great work states are doing” and promised to develop a plan for waiving provisions of NCLB soon.

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