“A little bit country and a little bit rock n’ roll” — that’s the idea behind the theme for the 2011 El Dorado County Fair coming to the fairgrounds in Placerville for four days over Fathers Day weekend, June 16-19.

El Dorado County marks its 152nd year of celebrating the people, agriculture, art, music, natural resources and industries that make the county unique and special. From the rockin’ sounds of Ricky & the Redstreaks to a Hollywood Stunt Show, from homemade jams to hand-crafted quilts, from pigs in pens to wild monkeys, the El Dorado County Fair brings livestock, live music, arts and crafts, family fun, and more to center stage.

Fairgoers can expect all their favorite and traditional activities, such as cooking demonstrations, Clifton & Warren’s Kids Corral games and shows, wine tasting, wheel-barrel racing, and team penning, plus a full schedule of music ranging from classic rock to blues, country to soul, and ’70s rock to the music of the 1950s Rat Pack. Featured on Friday evening are The Train and Ricky & the Redstreaks. The Train got its start at the El Dorado County Fair in the late 1960s and is reuniting to play the fair this summer.

Plus, on Saturday evening, fairgoers can enjoy a full 5 1/2 hours of music featuring the Eagles, Lynyrd Skynyrd and Led Zeppelin tribute bands—all included with the price of admission.

Featured special events at the Grandstands this year include the Sacramento Wrestling Federation’s Hangtown Showdown and the Monster Truck Pull and Moto X Spectacular. These events carry an additional charge, which includes admission to the fair. Fairgoers who plan to attend the 2pm Monster Truck Pull on Saturday are invited to arrive early for free rides on the Monster Truck from 1-2pm. Truck rides are also available after the 2pm show and before and after the 7pm show for $5.

Of course, no fair would be complete without animals. Traditional livestock competitions and exhibits, including the Mother Lode Fair Circuit Ranch Horse Show and the Junior Livestock Auction, take place throughout the fair’s four-day run. Or, if you have something more exotic in mind, check out Wild About Monkeys—the only traveling animal exhibition featuring trained baboons.

Humpz and Hornz Bull Riding, Mutton Bustin’, train rides on the Rawhide Express and Susan Rosen Mistress of Mesmerism, plus contests galore from photography to wine making and the Battle of the Bands to a Father-Child Look Alike contest, all help to round out a full schedule of  family fun.

Go online for guidelines on how to enter the many contests and other events at the fair, as well as to view a full schedule of activities.

The 49th annual Lake Valley Firefighters Ball is June 18 at 8pm at MontBleu in Stateline.

Pop Fiction is the band for the night.

Tickets are $25 in advance, $30 at the door. They are available from a firefighter or at stations 6 or 7.

Proceeds go to the volunteer association to be spent on a scholarship for a local person going to the LTCC fire academy, training volunteers, equipment needs not budgeted through the district, the Christmas fire engine and other things.

South Lake Tahoe Police K9 Trials are Sept. 23-24 at South Tahoe Middle School.

Go online for more information.

By Carlos Alcalá, Sacramento Bee

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers released documents Tuesday acknowledging it was responsible for using a racially inflammatory version of the name Negro Hill when that town’s cemetery was moved to El Dorado Hills to make way for Folsom Lake in 1954.

Negro Hill’s old cemetery – on the land between forks of the American River – was one of several moved when Folsom Dam was built.

Instead of saying Negro Hill, though, markers in the new Mormon Island Cemetery, to which bodies were taken, instead use a word too raw to use in the newspaper.

They say the bodies were moved from (N-word) Hill.

The markers don’t refer to those buried there – who were most likely of various races – but only to the town’s name.

“We don’t know why, when in so many other instances the cemetery was called Negro Hill, the new gravestones and our records use the more offensive word,” wrote Corps Lt. Col. Andrew B. Kiger, in an apologetic memo accompanying the released documents.

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By Bill Plaschke, Los Angeles Times

Her son is Bryan Stow, the San Francisco Giants fan who was attacked in a Dodger Stadium parking lot. As he lies in a coma, his chance of survival ‘slim,’ she wants him to know she’ll be his mother forever.

Every day, she talks to her son.

Doctors give him little chance, the public no longer pays much attention, but nearly every day for more than a month, the mother arrives at the cramped ICU room at County-USC Medical Center to talk to her comatose son.

He is Bryan Stow, the San Francisco Giants fan who suffered a serious brain injury when he was attacked in the Dodger Stadium parking lot on opening day.

She is Ann Stow, and she wants him to know that she will be his mother forever.

“We’re here, little man!” she says when she walks into the room.

Bryan is 42, and other family members chuckle, but Mom is insistent.

“He will always be my little man,” she says.

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Updated: May 8 at 9:24am: It’s sunny now in South Lake Tahoe.

For those who have forgotten what falling snow looks like can just look outside their windows in South Lake Tahoe.

A deep area of low pressure is sitting over the Lake Tahoe Basin. It will be here through Monday.

Good thing flowers in Tahoe are resilient. Photo/LTN

The National Weather Service in Reno has some revealing figures about area temperatures:

High temps                  May 6                      May 8              May 9

South Lake Tahoe                  69                                46                       42

Truckee                                    68                                48                       42

Reno                                         81                                60                       53

Carson City                             75                                57                       50.

Snow is possible into Monday, with the sun coming out Tuesday – just in time for Caltrans to close Echo Summit on Wednesday.

The long-term forecast is that it will be raining in the basin while the cyclists on May 15 pedal around the lake 1.5 times in the Tour de California.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report

• Kirkwood’s Mountain Bike Park opens for weekends starting July 2.

• Jeannie Conner is bringing her 20 years of nonprofit leadership from the Silicon Valley to be executive director of the Squaw Valley Institute.

• For information about Placer County’s redistricting plans, go online.

• The North Shore’s reliable, consistent and non-bankrupt bus service showed an 18 percent increase in ridership for the winter season. Tahoe Area Regional Transit is also on the West Shore and Truckee.

• Lake of the Sky Outfitters opened this month on the backside of the Y Factory Stores in South Tahoe.

• Kennedy Wilson sold 15 luxury condominiums for more than $6 million at the Resort at Squaw Creek. More than 100 bidders, with 40 of them online, bid on the condos April 30.

The driving force behind Mother’s Day was Anna Jarvis, who organized observances in Grafton, W.Va., and Philadelphia on May 10, 1908. As the annual celebration became popular around the country, Jarvis asked members of Congress to set aside a day to honor mothers. She finally succeeded in 1914, when Congress designated the second Sunday in May as Mother’s Day.

In 2008, figures showed an estimated 85.4 million mothers in the United States.

In 2004, 94 percent of the 37.8 million mothers living with children younger than 18 were living with their biological children only. In addition, 3 percent lived with stepchildren, 2 percent with any adopted children and less than 1 percent with foster children.

There were 4.13 million births registered in the United States in 2009. Of this number, 409,840 were to teens 15 to 19 and 7,934 to mothers 45 to 54.

The average age of women in 2008 when they gave birth for the first time was 25.1, up from 25 years in 2006 and 2007.

Number of births in 2008 that were the mother’s eighth or more was 18,986.

July is the month with the highest number of births, with 375,384 in 2008.

Jacob and Isabella were the most popular baby names in 2009.

Lukins Brothers Water Company users are about to see higher bills as the company secures a $2 million loan to begin a multi-year improvement plan.

Lukins is the water provider for the Mikasa center at the Y in South Lake Tahoe and then for people living on the east side of Emerald Bay Road.

The company was unable to get grants and government money for the project. The interest rate on the loan is anticipated to be 6.5 percent for 20 years.

They money will be used to improve water flow in the event of a fire, install new pipes and valves, install fire hydrants, and other improvements.

Residential customer with a 1-inch connection can expect a surcharge of $21.69 per month for the first 10 years, with it dropping to $19.72 for the second decade. Those with a three-quarter-inch connection would pay an additional $13.01 per month for 10 years, then $11.83 for the remainder of the loan.

People wanting to protest Lukins’ ability to secure the loan and therefore stop the rate increases may email the California Public Utilities Commission at water_division@cpuc.ca.gov.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report

By Kara LaPoint, Reno Gazette-Journal

When the Washoe Regional Transportation Commission and Nevada Department of Transportation have questions about efficiencies for roadway maintenance, they don’t have far to go for advice.

A top-notch resource is right at their fingertips: the University of Nevada, Reno’s Pavements/Materials Engineering program.

While Pavements/Materials Engineering at UNR is a nationally recognized teaching, research and training program, the program — as a partner of NDOT and RTC — has had a hand in local, regional and statewide projects that affect Northern Nevada drivers every day.

RTC and NDOT representatives say their collaboration with the program has brought about changes, advancements and solutions that may not have otherwise been implemented.

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