The public is invited to provide policy recommendations to state and federal elected officials attending the Environmental Summit on Aug. 16 in Homewood.

The roundtable discussions Aug. 3 and Aug. 4 are an opportunity for the public to give their input as to policy recommendations to officials who will be at the summit. (The 9-11:30am summit is open to the public, too.)

The workshops are:

Aug. 3 3-5pm and 6-8pm at Inn by the Lake, South Lake Tahoe;

Aug. 4 10am-noon at Granlibakken Resort, Tahoe City and 3-5pm, North Tahoe Events Center, Kings Beach.

Divers out for a fun day under Lake Tahoe found a body that is believed to have been there since the late 1990s.

The divers discovered the corpse last weekend, with sheriff’s deputies able to recover it Wednesday. It was along a rock wall about 265 feet down near Rubicon.

“Previous attempts to locate the victim when the accident occurred were unsuccessful due to depth and exact location challenges,” El Dorado County sheriff’s Lt. Les Lovell told Lake Tahoe News.

Lovell said at this point nothing indicates the man’s death as being anything but an accident.

“Positive identity of the victim will take some time due condition,” Lovell said. “The body is believed to be from a deep water dive accident dating back to the late ’90s.”

— Kathryn Reed

By Kathryn Reed

It will take years for Eneliko “Sean” Smith to pay back the hundreds of thousands of dollars he owes South Lake Tahoe in back hotel taxes, but the payment plan has been increased.

The issue is whether he’s learned his lesson that he actually has to pay the money. This month is the second time a judge has told him to do so.

Eneliko Smith

“His restitution payments have been increased to about $1,000 a month, but the court has also told him that he can ask for reconsideration once he had his statement of financial affairs on file with probation,” El Dorado County Assistant District Attorney Hans Uthe told Lake Tahoe News.

Smith operated The Block and Cedar Lodge hotels near Stateline. Both are now bordered up blighted facilities. The Block is owned by BMR Funding LLC and the Cedar Lodge is owned by First Credit Bank. The city has liens on both properties for delinquent TOT.

Smith was picked up in Las Vegas in June on a DUI charge, held there about a week before being extradited to South Lake Tahoe. He spent more than a month in the local jail before leaving town.

“The court gave him very firm and clear orders about future conduct, and most especially about not neglecting, as he had, his reporting responsibilities to the court and probation department,” Uthe said. “We have indicated that we will probably recommend state prison if he blows off probation and court a second time.”

• Sugar Pine Bakery has opened a second location on Emerald Bay Road in South Tahoe.

• Parking at Push Fitness in South Lake is about to get better as the gym expands the slab of asphalt to the vacant lot next door.

• The eighth annual Downtown Truckee Wine, Walk & Shop set for Oct. 1 is seeking merchant participation and event sponsors. For more information, call (530) 550.2252.

• The Pony Express re-enactment is expected to ride through the South Shore Aug. 26, stopping at Harrah’s Lake Tahoe about 11:30am.

• Jonathan T. Finnoff is the newest doctor at Tahoe Orthopedics and Sports Medicine on the South Shore.

By Kathryn Reed

Our relationship with food seems to always be evolving. Tastes change. New foods are incorporated into our repertoire. Friends and eating are woven together.

All of these concepts and so much more are melded into the pages of “The Butcher and the Vegetarian” by Tara Austen Weaver.

The 228-page hardcover from 2010 is one woman’s struggles to figure out what diet is best for her to be healthy.

She grew up as a vegetarian, with her mother still not putting meat products past her lips. But then doctors tell Weaver eating meat will make her healthy.

Weaver is reluctant to embrace her doctor’s theory. But finally she gives in. Her description of trying to figure out what meat to buy, let alone how to cook it is comical – and yet so believable.

She calls bacon “the gateway drug.”

Her quest takes her beyond the butcher shop and to the land where her meat is coming from.

She doesn’t let cookbooks alone teach her how to prepare meat, but instead gets lessons from a barbecue master.

It’s the honesty in her words that comes through – the struggles of her childhood, ethical choices about meat and eating locally, and deciding to listen to her body above all else.

It’s one of those books that is not geared to a specific category of food eater. Meat and non-meat eaters who have given an ounce of thought about what they eat and where it comes from will be able to relate to most aspects of the book.

Weaver does not lecture. It’s her reality she is writing about. Mostly she does so in a light-hearted, captivating manner that keeps the pages turning.

By Jeff Delong, Reno Gazette-Journal

Juvenile quagga mussels are present in Lahontan Reservoir and might also exist in Rye Patch Reservoir, a new round of tests indicates.

There is no evidence adult mussels are thriving or reproducing in either of the popular reservoirs, but the danger of that possibility must be taken into account as boating activity is managed across the region, officials said Tuesday.

Experts from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Nevada Department of Wildlife and other agencies held a press conference to discuss the latest tests at Lahontan and Rye Patch.

Preliminary tests in April suggested microscopic mussel “veligers” were in both reservoirs. Subsequent tests, including DNA analysis, came back with mixed results, but Lahontan is now considered positive and Rye Patch “suspect” for mussels, said Andrea Minor, a specialist with the Bureau of Reclamation.

Read the whole story

By Jesse B. Gill, San Bernardino Sun

Sheriff’s deputies have arrested a 51-year-old man in Douglas County they suspect killed a 62-year-old Yucaipa man in 1982.

On Oct. 2 that year, deputies arrived at an apartment complex in the 31400 block of Yucaipa Boulevard after a neighbor saw blood on the sidewalk and heard moaning in an apartment.

A deputy found Ralph Knappenberger severely beaten in a bedroom, according to a sheriff’s news release.

Paramedics rushed Knappenberger to Loma Linda University Medical Center. He died on Feb. 4, 1983, while in the hospital’s Intensive Care Unit, authorities said.

The cause of Knappenberger’s death was blunt force trauma, sheriff’s officials said.

Knappenberger’s powder blue, 1979 Ford Fairmont was missing from the apartment complex. Riverside police found the car on Oct. 5, 1982, in Riverside.

Sheriff’s detectives identified Bernhard Hahm – now 51, but 22 at the time of Knappenberger’s death – as a man seen in the Ford Fairmont a few days before the beating, sheriff’s officials said.

Detectives alleged that Knappenberger gave Hahm a ride to the apartment. But investigators never found Hahm to interview him.

The case went cold after detectives were unable to find Hahm.

Read the whole story

By Garry Bowen

Interesting that TRPA hired themselves a part-time COO with a PhD in psychology and management consultant as his shingle. Hopefully, he has some organizational development skills somewhere in the mix, as “streamlining” the various internal methods will take a lot of organizational skill, especially if part time.

A reasonable assumption could be made that this is a good move for [Executive Director] Joanne [Marchetta] to deal with the “externals”, as she put it, as the contemporary function of a CEO (which rightfully she is) is to look to the future, strategizing where the entity is going in the distant future, leaving the daily delegations to others.

Interesting timing, though, as “streamlining the administrative process for residential permitting” comes at a time when they are diminishing the residential in favor of the development process of planning. It would appear that this is also at a time when they are several years behind in completing Pathway 2007 (P7 is now late P12). This diminishes the potential convergence of the TRPA emphasis on the near shore urban TMDL pollution issues of blighted areas with one fast-growing national green building trend: EB (in LEED EB is existing buildings) as an ongoing source for improving air, energy, and water quality simultaneously.

Encouraging either larger-scale commercial or more individual residential development will be better served through the establishment of building standards more immediately in concert with the overall goals of lake clarity, which is itself in tune with what the citizenry says they want: a greener community.

So, it’s OK to reorganize from a “No & Slow” emphasis to one of “Fast to Last” by establishing sustainable standards high enough to obviate the TRPA premise of eliminating unnecessary legal dilemmas. That premise was stated by Mr. [John] Singlaub at the outset of their “new” era, as the costs to TRPA in terms of staff time and/or legal costs were too high in squandering funds that could be used for other things.

In order to offer Mr. [Ed] Gurowitz some insight, I have my own story to tell: a number of months ago I was engaged by one of the areas prominent architect/engineers, who was asked by staff within the agency what green building programs they should be looking at, presumably to include in the Regional Plan we have not yet seen. It was decided that I would be an asset in helping them figure it out, being much more familiar with what’s out there.

My colleague called TRPA as a next step and was never called back; knowing this as not unusual, I went ahead and contacted the CEO of the best global green building entity that I currently know of, and he graciously agreed to make a presentation here when needed – and then left the following day to make a series of presentations in Mexico City to several building consortiums. Well, unfortunately, too many of us know the outcome already – I never got a call back, so they never got the presentation so graciously offered, and it might have helped them, and Tahoe.

Presumably, this is at least part of the problem that Mt. Gurowitz was taken on for – and I wish him luck.

The renowned Hunter Lovins of Rocky Mountain Institute, author of the 13-million copy book, “Natural Capitalism,” and her own prodigious sustainability career, was recently quoted as saying, “Even if you’re a profit-maximizing capitalist who believes climate change is a hoax, you’ll do exactly what you’d do if you were scared to death about climate change, because we know how to solve it at a profit.”

She concluded, “You don’t have to believe in the problem to believe in the solution. There are opportunities to make more money while solving the problem.”

In short, the citizens are right to want a green community, and there is now no reason not to have one – any new direction should be guided by the idea that they will be “leaving money on the table” not to pay attention to the very prodigious advantages to “going green”. Even the CEO of Turner Construction, which built the basin’s only LEED platinum building routinely uses the figure 0.8 (less than 1 percent) as the “premium” paid for going green, after $20 billion of green-built projects.

This would be streamlining at its finest, while satisfying all parties with a win-win for the treasure we know as Lake Tahoe, while satisfying my own craving for “policies equal to the scenery”.

And rebuild Tahoe’s image as a benefit – to all.

Garry Bowen has a 50-year connection to the South Shore, with an immediate past devoted to global sustainability, on most of its current fronts: green building, energy and water efficiencies, and public health. He may be reached at tahoefuture@gmail.com or (775) 690.6900.

To the community,

I am proud to announce the top winner in the state of California of the prestigious “Golden Bear Award”, my neighbor Windwalker Winery.

Of the 2,800 wineries in the state of California, the owners of Windwalker Winery in Fairplay, Jim and Alanna Taff, and winemaker Dominic Mantei, took top honors for the Best Red Wine in the entire state at the California State Fair for their Shady Lady 2008 Primitivo.

In addition, they were ranked Third Winery Overall in the State.

I just wanted to share the good news and ask you to join me in recognizing their wonderful accomplishment.

Ray Nutting, chairman El Dorado County Board of Supervisors

By Kathryn Reed

Cycling is so much more than pedaling. To do so efficiently and without injury takes a bit of understanding about how ones body relates to her bike.

That was the message Jason Collin, physical therapist with Tahoe Center for Orthopedics, dispersed Wednesday night.

Besides being a PT, Collin has been a professional bike fitter for the past eight years. While the average rider may not go through all the testing Lance Armstrong did that resulted in changing the seam on his outfit for better aerodynamics, there are things people can do to reduce injuries from occurring and to improve performance.

Physical therapist Jason Collin demonstrates flexibility tests for cyclists. Photo/Kathryn Reed

“I don’t fit people without cleats,” Collin said. “You can’t get it dialed in.”

With 30 percent of the power, on average, from cycling being from the pulling motion, that is lost without cleats.

“In the relationship between bike and rider, the flexible one has to be you,” he told the group of nearly 40 at Lake Tahoe Community College. “That is why you need to make sure your bike fits.”

Coming from Southern California a few years ago, he thought working in South Lake Tahoe would mean dealing with a lot of mountain bikers. He doesn’t know why, but this mountain biking community isn’t big into getting their bikes fitted.

While he didn’t go through the whole process of an actual bike fitting session, which can last two hours and costs $100 or $199 depending on the level of detail, he did explain what it’s like.

Colleague Chris Kozlowski was his model of sorts as she allowed Collin to manipulate her leg to test her flexibility in her hip and leg muscles, as well as to see if both legs are the same length.

Posture, biomechanics, flexibility and strength of the rider are assessed before the bike is even considered.

A tight hip might be detected. While this is common in most cyclists, it’s even more predominant in woman. It’s also linked to women’s increased ACL problems. When it comes to cycling, if the knee tends to go out, this is an indicator of a tight hip.

Collin is a proponent of exercises and stretches that are relevant to the motion of the sport the person participates in. During individualized assessments the therapists suggest strengthening activities and stretches applicable to cycling.

With all the power in cycling coming from how the body transfers movement to the tiny pedal, it’s important the ball of the foot is on the pedal and the rest of the leg properly lined up. Knee issues are the common injury when from foot to hip the alignment is out of whack.

While being in alignment is ideal, that may not be possible at the get-go based on how the rider’s natural alignment is. Forcing a straight alignment by altering the bike could lead to injury.

That is why the process is so individualized. And getting fitted for a road bike will not mean the same measurements will work on your mountain bike. The same goes for triathletes. They are all different sports.

When it comes to adjusting the seat the most common situation is to find people riding with it too low, Collin said. And sometimes it’s too far forward because people want to sit up straighter.

But creating a stable platform, as he calls it, will create power.

The place where more subjectivity comes in is with the handlebars, or cockpit of the bike. People complaining of neck, wrist and low back pain when cycling may need this part of the bike adjusted.

Much of this adjustment is about comfort.

For more information about a fitting, call (530) 543.5896 or click bike program.

This is one of a series of free lectures Barton Health has put on throughout this year. There are three more scheduled to date in the Wellness Lecture Series.