Lake Tahoe News has tickets to the July 12-17 annual American Century Celebrity Golf Tournament at Edgewood Tahoe in Stateline.

All Lake Tahoe News subscribers are eligible to win. If you aren’t a subscriber, it’s free. Just enter your email address at the bottom right of the home page.

The winner of the pair of tickets must answer the following question correctly and then the winner will be picked randomly from that group:

Of the five players who have played in the tournament every year, who is not playing this year?

On July 9, law enforcement motorcycle riders will depart from four locations in the Bay Area and Central California on a fundraising ride to benefit the Northern California Special Olympics. The endpoint of the ride is the South Lake Tahoe Moose Lodge where the riders will celebrate with a dinner and party.

Riders are expected to start arriving at the lake about 5pm. These normally “tough cops” will be wearing bright tutus rather than service revolvers to “complement” their leathers.

The local Moose Lodge is a co-sponsor of the event, and all proceeds support the training and competition that is provided free to the 14,000 athletes who compete in the Northern California Special Olympics.

The Law Enforcement Torch Run is the largest global grass-roots fundraiser and public awareness campaign for Special Olympics. In 2010 the worldwide law enforcement fundraising efforts raised more than $38 million for the benefit of Special Olympics athletes.

In Northern California more than 3,500 Law Enforcement personnel participated in the Law Enforcement Fundraising efforts and raised more than $1 million in 2010 for Special Olympics Northern California.

South Lake Tahoe Moose Lodge 1632 is located at 961 Eloise Ave., South Lake Tahoe.

For more information, contact Barry Keil at (530) 545.1087, or call the Lodge between noon and 8 pm at (530) 541.1632.

A memorial service and dedication for Steve Blocher will be July 10 at 2pm at the Zephyr Point Presbyterian Conference Center.

Blocher was minister of the Presbyterian Church in South Lake Tahoe from 1996 until his death last fall.

By John Scheibe, Ventura County Star

“We love you,” one woman yelled as Lauren Ellen DeLaTorre recounted her two nights lost in the woods high above much of California in the Eldorado National Forest over the long July Fourth weekend.

The 53-year-old Camarillo woman had gone for a hike Saturday with a group of friends and got separated from them after deciding to go back to her cabin.

“It was really something,” DeLaTorre said Tuesday night as she stood in front of Tierra Linda Elementary School in Camarillo, where she teaches kindergartners. She recounted what it was like to get separated from her friends and then realize she was lost and alone in a big forest.

Her leg and arms were badly scratched from her nearly 40-hour ordeal.

After realizing she was lost, DeLaTorre’s instinct was to climb to higher ground, even though this would mean leaving the area where she first got separated from her friends.

In trying to find higher ground, DeLaTorre got farther away from where searchers would eventually look for her.

Fortunately, DeLaTorre once worked for the U.S. Forest Service. She is well-versed on what someone who is lost should do, including making sure they have as warm a place as possible to sleep at night and drink plenty of water.

Read the whole story

Three contributors, one night: Janet Smith, Joseph Flannery and Ruth Rhodes will read passages from their essays in “Permanent Vacation” at the El Dorado Arts Council in Placerville on July 29 at 7pm.

• Join UC Davis, the Tahoe Resource Conservation District and Master Gardeners for a free Green Thumb Gardening class on July 10 from 2 to 5pm at the Tahoe City Field Station (Historic Hatchery) for backyard composting, vegetable gardening Tahoe style and free native plant drawing. Here is the Green Thumb schedule.

• Sample the Sierra needs restaurants to participate in the South Lake Tahoe event Labor Day weekend. Contact Emily@TahoeChamber.org or call (775) 588.1728, ext. 303 for info.

• Christina Erny is Reno-Sparks Convention and Visitors Authority’s PR/social media coordinator, which means she is responsible for social media planning and managing media relations to increase awareness of the Reno, Sparks and North Lake Tahoe areas.

• The parole hearing for Steve Wasserman has been moved to July 26.

• The Nevada Arts Council is honoring veteran cowboy poet Waddie Mitchell with the 2012 Nevada Heritage Award, which honors Nevada folk and traditional artists who embody the highest level of artistic achievement in their work.

Publisher’s note: This editorial is from the July 3, 2011, Sacramento Bee.

The upcoming annual Lake Tahoe Summit, to be hosted this year by U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California on Aug. 16, promises to be a doozy. The challenges to the lake’s legendary clarity and to cooperation between California and Nevada are greater than ever.

• Water quality. Lake Tahoe remains one of the clearest large lakes in the world. But its famed clarity has been declining since the post-World War II building boom. Homes, casinos and golf courses brought sedimentation, pollution, and algae growth. University of California, Davis, scientists measured the lake’s clarity at 102 feet in 1968, reaching a low of 64 feet in 1997. In 2009, it was 68 feet. Aggressive measures to attack pollution and sedimentation remain necessary.

• Governance. In a serious threat to two-state cooperation, the Nevada Legislature in June passed and the governor signed a bill to withdraw from the two-state compact governing Lake Tahoe by 2015 – unless California and the U.S. Congress adopt amendments to the compact to give Nevada greater voting power. Currently, the two states have equal representation, with seven members each on the governing board.

To approve changes to the regional plan, currently a majority of members (four) from each state must vote “aye,” a fair process. Nevada wants to change that – to nine of 14 votes without regard to state. It also wants to change the voting requirements for particular projects.

Read the whole story

By Anne Knowles

MINDEN — Michael Brown, Douglas County manager since 2008, has turned  in his resignation letter. He is going to become city manager of Hillsboro, Ore., a city of 94,000 near Portland. His last day with the county is July 8.

The Douglas County Commission will discuss at its July 7 meeting whether to conduct a search to fill the job or offer the current assistant county manager the position under a two-year contract. Steve Mokrohisky has been the assistant county manager since 2009.

“My thinking is the board will come to some decision on Thursday since Michael’s last day is the next day,” said Nancy McDermid, vice chair of the commission.

Michael Brown

Brown is cashing out his vacation time, so he’s technically on the payroll into August.

Brown worked for Douglas County for 14 years, starting in 1997 as an administrative analyst. He grew up in Oregon, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Oregon. He later obtained a master’s degree in public administration from the University of Kansas.

“It’s a progressive move career-wise,” Brown told Lake Tahoe News. “Like here, we have a very strong collaboration with business. And I’ve had a long-standing goal of working for a city. On the personal side, my best friends and family are there. And it’s a beautiful area … 25 minutes from Portland and one hour, 15 minutes to the coast.”

Hillsboro is well-known for its many high-tech companies, including Intel Corp.’s largest site and the biotech firm Genentech, as well as customer service center for Yahoo and Netflix.

Brown said the staff in Hillsobro is twice the size of the staff in Douglas County. Hillsboro’s adopted 2010-11 budget is about $312 million; Douglas County’s tentative 2011-12 budget is $120 million.

Brown said his salary here is just less than $136,000 and will be $146,000 in Hillsboro. In its adopted biennium budget, Douglas County has allocated $351,444 for county manager, which includes county manager, assistant county manager and staff.

Brown said the highlights of his 14 years with the county include being instrumental in the regional water line, expansions of the jail and library, technology upgrades at the sheriff’s and comptroller’s offices, and a move to private management of the airport as well helping to shepherd a voter-approved change in the airport ordinance that enables the airport now to seek Federal Aviation Administration funds.

“I made strategic staffing decisions, restructuring to create a leaner, more responsive staff,” Brown said.

Brown has nothing but praise for his possible successor.

“I’m very impressed with Steve. He has high integrity, and is very talented, very smart and committed to public service in Douglas County,” Brown said.

Before coming to Douglas County, Mokrohisky worked for Milwaukee for 11 years.

The commissioners’ meeting is 1pm July 7 in the Douglas County Historic Courthouse in Minden.

South Lake Tahoe is beginning to schedule neighborhood meetings. The city wants to partner with local citizens to help increase communication with neighbors and businesses to help facilitate improvements in their neighborhoods.

The July 20 meeting is from 6:30-8pm for the neighborhoods of Al Tahoe, Bijou Pines and Pioneer Village at the Senior Center (3050 Lake Tahoe Blvd.)

The Aug. 23 meeting is from 6:30-8pm at Bijou Elementary School multipurpose room (3501 Spruce Ave.) The neighborhoods are Rancho Bijou and Bijou Acres.

More information is online.

This map shows how city the city has divided South Tahoe neighborhoods.