By Kathryn Reed

Sometimes it’s the simplest of suggestions – like a different green salad – that can change a whole meal.

My friend Sheri knew I was having some friends over and lasagna was on the menu. She suggested the salad below. It’s good to try new things. Seldom am I adventuresome with salads – I do the same old, same old.

Considering all that was being served was the lasagna, salad and bread (and wine of course) – changing the salad from my usual really did seem to change the whole meal.

With mandarins and tangerines such a good price because it’s their season, now is the time to make this salad.

Sheri uses roasted almonds in her salad. I had walnuts on hand, so I chopped those up. Obviously, this is a different flavor, but the point is a nut in a green salad can be yummy. It’s similar to the sunflower seed concept so many salad bars offer – a little salt and crunch.

The night friends were coming I used a spring mix of greens. Later I used fresh spinach. Both are tasty.

One thing to remember when using a dressing, pour it on at the last minute. And start off with less than you think you’ll need. A little goes a long ways. You don’t want soggy greens to be left on the plate.

The quantity for each ingredient will depend on how many people you are serving. I think of a handful of lettuce as a serving. And don’t use iceberg – there is no nutritional value in it and it has no flavor.

Sheri’s Green Salad

Lettuce

Almond slices, roasted

Mandarins, peeled and pulled into individual pieces

Red onion, thinly sliced

Vinaigrette dressing

Put bite-size pieces of lettuce into large bowl. Add roasted almonds, onions and mandarins. Toss with dressing.

By Kathryn Reed

It was a night of laughter. It was a night of tears. It was a night of reflection. It was a night of contemplation. It was a night of healing.

It was a night about vaginas.

Eve Ensler’s play “The Vagina Monologues” came to life Saturday night at the Loft at Blue Angel Café in South Lake Tahoe before a crowd of well more than 100 people.

Jen Gurecki brought "Vagina Monologues" to South Lake Tahoe eight years ago and continues to be an integral player. Photo/Kathryn Reed

This collection of stories about women touches on lives young and old, straight and lesbian, married and single, all colors, races and religions.

Their stories are about their relationships with their vaginas and how this has made them the women they are today.

A little Lake Tahoe was added to the segment about what women call their vaginas. For those on the North Shore it’s “sugar bowl” and on the South Shore it’s called “heavenly”.

V-Day is a global activist movement to stop violence against women and girls.

This is the eighth year South Lake Tahoe women have come together to present a benefit production. Money raised goes to CASA, South Lake Tahoe Women’s Center, Tahoe Youth & Family Service, and South Lake Tahoe Family Resource Center.

Each year a Vagina Warrior is honored for her dedication to the cause of making the lives of women better. Wendy David was the recipient March 5.

By Howard Johnson

Time is running out on cheap petroleum fuels. Recent research states that we have little more than 40 years of steadily decreasing supplies of that type of energy while concurrently its price grows prohibitively high. Then it’s no more cheap oil. Then what?

We are running out of oil, period. That being said, it’s time to get down to the business of seriously developing alternatives. It is paramount that we develop realistic solutions to the energy crisis from among the multitude of products and systems that are in use, under development, or even latent ideas in the minds of America’s creative genius. We must collect and examine descriptions of fuels and energy systems — past, present, and future — and the many possible and practical ways to replace fossil fuels with renewable fuels or energy systems.

New combinations of old and emerging technologies promise amazing new ways to generate, distribute, and use energy of many kinds. The large variety of proven technologies and systems is astounding. There is no single right answer. The astonishing thing is the variety. In the long run, some will flourish while others will fall by the wayside.

I believe the greatest strength of the energy alternatives available to the U.S. is in the variety of solutions, and that there is no single right answer. He thinks the U.S. should select new energy solutions based on some or all of the following criteria:

* They should be comparatively inexpensive to use.

* They should be developed using environmentally sound, sensitive principles.

* They should be far easier, simpler and less expensive to implement than systems like the hydrogen fuel cell system.

* They should be adaptable to our existing infrastructure with minor changes.

* They should use raw materials we already have or that can be developed here, locally.

* They should be applicable to existing vehicles with upgrades or conversions.

* New fuels should be useable with existing IC (Internal Combustion) engines of all types.

* They should be developed using existing, evolving technology able to be essentially complete within ten years.

* They should create a system that is a net zero contributor of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere.

* They should use evolutionary as opposed to revolutionary changes — a good start to becoming constantly improvable, adaptable systems that drive numerous growing and improving technologies.

* They should be developed by America-based industry with the many resulting substantial benefits to our nation—social, political, and economic.

It matters not to a driver what powers his vehicle when he presses down on the accelerator pedal. Any power system that provides adequate mobile power economically when that pedal is pressed will satisfy his needs. All of the new systems could replace fossil fuels as the prime energy source for our nation and even the world. We need to develop an entirely new and more efficient means of generating, transporting, storing, and using energy that will generate profitable domestic business, good jobs, and stop the hemorrhaging of billions of American dollars to nations that hate us.

Howard Johnson is an engineer and author of “Energy, Convenient Solutions: How Americans Can Solve the Energy Crisis in Just Ten Years.”

Alpine County is trying to improve radio communication in the Hope Valley area by installing infrastructure on Hawkins Peak.

In order to power the remote communications facility on the peak, the solar panel modules, power storage and electrical equipment will be put in about 1,800 feet away down slope.

Power is sent from the solar generation site to the communications site via two partially underground power cables.

Alpine County is accepting bids on the project until March 25.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report

By Kathryn Reed

Cascade Lake looks like it needs a Zamboni machine to clear off the snow to make it a perfect skating rink. Emerald Bay is eerily black, as though perhaps some creature of the lake lurks below.

Tahoe Tessie?

It’s one of those rare winter opportunities when Highway 89 is closed to vehicles and open to foot traffic.

Sun peaks through on a frozen Cascade Lake. Photos/Kathryn Reed

Parking at the gate near the entrance to Eagle Point Campground, we strap on snowshoes to make the trek to appropriately named Inspiration Point.

Fortunately, someone beat us there last weekend so we didn’t have to break trail. Only one path heads up the road – wide enough for snowshoes, but a definite single file approach.

Meandering up the hairpin turns, going slower than the 10mph limit, we come to one of the most scenic areas in the Lake Tahoe Basin. The private Cascade Lake is to our left, Emerald Bay on our right and behind us Lake Tahoe.

Cascade looks frozen – like a hockey game or figure skating competition should be under way.

As the M.S. Dixie II churns into Emerald Bay, the normal blue waters look foreboding. Ice lingers on the edge near Vikingsholm castle, signaling just how cold the water is. Fannette Island is dusted in snow from the recent storm, making the teahouse almost look like a gingerbread house sprinkled with powder sugar.

The snow is light, but the air is cool. Traipsing up we are warmed by the sun. But as soon as we pause at the lookout area, we are chilled in the shade. We don’t linger long – having many times before read the informative interpretive signs explaining what we are looking at and how glaciers formed these bodies of water.

We turn around.

Heading back it’s as though we are surrounded by water now that Lake Tahoe is in front of us. I smile.

Meeting people along the way from Seattle and Southern California it makes me pause to appreciate I get to see this oasis every day.

Highway 89 opens and closes throughout the winter, so it’s hit or miss when this snowshoe route is an option.

ngg_shortcode_0_placeholder (Click on photos to enlarge.)

On March 5 at approximately 7:45pm the South Lake Tahoe police officers responded to a call of a strong-arm robbery at Lake Tahoe Souvenirs at 3477 Lake Tahoe Blvd.

The clerk, Keshia Molina of South Lake Tahoe, reported that a male walked into the store, pushed her against a cabinet, and took $826 from the register. The driver was waiting in the parking lot in a white SUV.

The suspect is described as a white male adult, between the ages of 40 and 50, approximately 6-feet tall, average build ,wearing a dark grey zip up hoodie sweatshirt, a black beanie cap and was unshaven.

Anyone with information regarding this case, is asked to contact Officer Ray Poole (530) 542.6100.

By Reno Gazette-Journal

For the first time, revenue has fallen at American Indian gambling casinos nationwide as the recession forces consumers to curtail spending on entertainment.

The Indian Gaming Industry Report this week showed total tribal casino revenue was down 1 percent in 2009 from 2008, and in California, where tribal casinos compete with Northern Nevada resorts, revenues fell 5 percent.

The declines from 2008 to 2009, the latest year available, were part of a larger trend influenced by recession, said Alan Meister, the economist who wrote the report.

Nevada gaming experts agreed.

“They live in the same economy as the rest of us. They’re riding the same horse we are,” said Reno gaming analyst Ken Adams.

“It reflects the continuing issue of recession, and California has been hit pretty dramatically,” said Bill Eadington, director of the Institute of Study of Gambling and Commercial Gaming at the University of Nevada, Reno.

That includes two tribal casinos in California’s Sierra foothills on direct routes to Reno-Tahoe: Thunder Valley off of Interstate 80 and Red Hawk along U.S. Highway 50.

The latest annual figures for Nevada gaming revenues show flat growth statewide in 2010 from 2009, with a 4.3 percent decline in Washoe County and a 6.3 percent drop at Stateline on Lake Tahoe’s south shore.

Eadington said the key factor driving down gaming revenue, including tribal casinos, is a continuing decline in home equity values.

Read the whole story

The National Weather Service has issued a winter weather advisory for the Lake Tahoe Basin from 10pm Saturday to 10am Sunday above 6,500.

The brunt of the storm is expected between 4-10am.

More snow on its way to cover the pier at Tahoe Keys. Photo/Kathryn Reed

Snow will be as low as 6,000 feet Saturday night.

Poor visibility is expected over the mountain passes.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report

By Bill Lindelof, Sacramento Bee

Northern California avoided a bad wildland fire season last year in part due to a cool, wet spring and fairly mild summer, according to an analysis by the National Weather Service.

A total of 35,674 acres burned in Northern California in 2010 — the smallest amount in the last 12 years, according to the report.

Storms marched through the region almost every week in April and May, according to the Sacramento Fire Weather Annual Summary. Temperatures were 3.4 degrees below normal in April and 4 degrees below normal in May.

Some spots in the mountains and foothills got about 5 inches more precipitation than normal in May. And May rains caused a second crop of green grass to sprout below the 2,000-feet elevation level.

Read the whole story

By Jeff Delong, Reno Gazette-Journal

Nevada’s waters urgently need protection from invading mollusks, fish and plants, but funding a program to do so could be politically touchy.

That fact became clear Thursday during a hearing before a panel of state lawmakers discussing proposed legislation to inspect boats statewide to prevent the spread of quagga and zebra mussels, voracious Northern pike and other aquatic invasive species.

“Our state is in a battle, and we need your help in protecting our waters,” Assemblywoman Irene Bustamante Adams, D-Las Vegas, told the Assembly Committee on Natural Resources, Agriculture and Mining.

Bustamante Adams spoke in support of Assembly Bill 167, which would establish a boat inspection program similar to one already in place at Lake Tahoe and prohibit launching of boats contaminated with invasive species into any of Nevada’s lakes, streams and reservoirs. It also would make deliberate introduction of invasive species — such as what occurred at eastern Nevada’s Comins Lake, where northern pike have destroyed a trophy trout fishery — a felony with fines of up to $250,000.

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