By Guy Clifton, Reno Gazette-Journal

None of Washoe County’s legislative delegation considered U.S. Sen. Harry Reid’s call to end legalized prostitution in Nevada much of a priority, in a session where the budget shortfall dominates all other topics.

But they did find other parts of Reid’s address to a joint session of the Legislature on Tuesday more agreeable.

Harry Reid

“Maybe someone who was listening will introduce a bill (to outlaw legalized prostitution). I don’t know,” said Sen. Greg Brower, R-Reno. “But we have so many challenges that we’re working on every day in an effort to get this state back on track economically through job creation and education reform and getting the budget balanced. Those are really the priorities of this session.”

What most Washoe County legislators did like was Reid’s call to reform education, properly fund it and to focus on making the state the renewable energy capital of the nation.

“He makes the point that it’s hard to diversify the economy and attract new businesses to the state when you are in a cutting mode with education,” said Assemblywoman Debbie Smith, D-Sparks.

Reid, the U.S. Senate Majority Leader and a former state assemblyman, said the state cannot keep asking for cuts in education.

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Better get out there ahead of the storm.

Here is the ski report from Curtis Fong, the Guy from Tahoe.

The San Francisco Giants World Series trophy will be in Lake Tahoe in March.

While the men in orange and black workout in Scottsdale in preparation for a repeat of last season, the trophy will be on display at the Alpine Meadows Lodge, 2600 Alpine Meadows Road, Tahoe City, on March 9 from 12:30-2:30pm.

Fill up the gas tank on the snowblower because the white stuff is coming back.

The National Weather Service in Reno has issued a winter storm watch for the Lake Tahoe Basin from Thursday afternoon through late Friday night. Forecasters are calling for moderate to heavy snow Thursday evening through late Friday night, with the heaviest snowfall likely Friday morning.

More snow is coming to Lake Tahoe this week. Photo/Kathryn Reed

Expect 1 to 2 feet at lake level, with 2 to 4 feet above 7,000 feet.

Winds will be out of the southwest, with gusts up to 40 mph and ridge gusts up to 70 mph.

Today the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency will recognize recipients of the 2010 Best in the Basin Awards at its Governing Board meeting at the North Tahoe Event Center in Kings Beach.

This is the 21st  Best in the Basin awards program, recognizing projects demonstrating exceptional planning, design, and compatibility with the Lake Tahoe environment.

Local professionals in the fields of landscaping, planning, engineering, water quality and resource management judged each category.

Pasadena Avenue in South Lake Tahoe is an award winner. Photo/LTN file

The 2010 Best in the Basin project winners are:

Sustainable Maintenance

Nevada Department of Transportation and Washoe County Decant Basins, Spooner Summit and Washoe County Incline Village Maintenance Yard

Erosion Control

City of South Lake Tahoe Al Tahoe Project 1, Pasadena and Lakeview avenues

Restoration

Homewood Mountain Resort Road Restoration, Homewood

BMP Retrofit

Village Shopping Center, Incline Village

BMP Retrofit Honorable Mention

Hagy Residence, 690 David Drive, Incline Village

Commercial Modification

The DIY Center, 1875 Lake Tahoe Blvd., South Lake Tahoe

Residential Modification/Shorezone

Houghton-Berry Residence, Rubicon Bay.

By Matt Weiser, Sacramento Bee

Buried in the Obama administration’s $3.7 trillion federal budget proposal is a gem for the Sacramento region. It would provide $2.7 million for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to continue managing lands in the footprint of the long-dormant Auburn dam project.

The money is more than double this year’s funding.

In the 1960s, the bureau purchased about 40,000 acres in the north and middle forks of the American River to build an Auburn dam – later scuttled by cost and earthquake concerns.

For decades, the bureau has paid the California Department of Parks and Recreation to operate the Auburn State Recreation Area on those lands as an interim public benefit.

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Adaptive Action Sports hosting disabled military personnel and veterans at a three-day “Pipeline Learn to Ride and Race” Feb. 24-26 at Sierra-at-Tahoe.

The goal is to develop their snowboarding skills.

The camp, built on the framework of past successful AAS camps, is intended as the first in a series of AAS snowboard camps to be in South Lake Tahoe on an annual basis for Wounded Warriors.

One of AAS’s goals is to expand the series to include non-military disabled individuals, eventually resulting in development of a permanent home base for Adaptive Action Sports and adaptive snowboarding in the South Tahoe community.

With the expectation that Adaptive Snowboarding will soon be accepted as a Paralympic event, AAS hopes to provide adaptive veteran and other adaptive athletes a training pipeline with a potential end-goal of inclusion on a future US Paralympic Snowboard Team.

Seven disabled veterans from the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts will be attending the weekend camp.

To learn more about the AAS mission and our upcoming program at Sierra-at-Tahoe, go online.

Publisher’s note: This editorial is from the Feb. 14, 2011, Sacramento Bee.

People living in the Assembly district that stretches from Roseville to Lake Tahoe have an opportunity to trade up. They should seize the moment by electing John Allard.

Allard is one of seven Republicans and a Democrat running in a March 8 special election to fill the seat left vacant when Ted Gaines won the Senate seat that opened when Dave Cox died.

Allard would arrive with a firm grasp of how the Capitol works. He is a Roseville city councilman and operates a house cleaning service with his wife.

Importantly, Allard worked for 11 years as chief of staff to Tim Leslie, a former assemblyman and senator who represented the area ably. Leslie understood the virtue of treating people with civility despite policy disagreements. Allard’s demeanor is similarly old school.

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By Bill O’Driscoll, Reno Gazette-Journal

As Reno-Tahoe International Airport officials see it, those departing the airport have been accommodated with the latest upgrades.

Now, it’s the arriving passengers’ turn.

The airport is preparing plans for a $5 million face-lift of the baggage claim area which, officials said, will mean improvements designed to continue the rock-woodsy-outdoors themes that adorn the renovated ticket counter area.

Improvements coming to Reno-Tahoe airport's baggage claim. Photo/LTN file

“We want to move that look, that Tahoe feel, down to baggage claim,” said Marily Mora, executive vice president/chief operating officer at the Reno-Tahoe Airport Authority. “When people leave Reno, they get to see it. So now, when they come in, we’ll try to showcase what the community’s about.”

That means upgrades that will include rock and wood facing on columns and beams, an all-tile floor, improved signage and, with a nod to locals, the elimination of the chrome in the ceilings.

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Lake Tahoe Unified School District was in session Monday – Presidents’ Day.

This came as a surprise to some people because it is a federal holiday. The only holiday the district must observe is Veterans Day, according to spokeswoman Angie Keil. She said the district has been in session previous Presidents’ Days.

The school calendar was adopted three years ago, so it was not something the board or administrators thought of doing at the last-minute.

On Tuesday, Keil did not have the attendance stats to know if students decided to take an extra day.

School was not in session all last week. It has become known as ski week. Had there been school, it’s likely three snow days would have been taken.

Keil said she heard of some traffic issues on Monday morning, but from bus drivers she heard it was easy to get around the still snow-covered streets on the South Shore.

— Kathryn Reed