South Tahoe High graduate Garrett McIntyre has signed with the New York Jets.

Here is what his NFL bio says:

(LB/6-3/270/Fresno State/South Lake Tahoe, CA) spent the 2009 and 2010 seasons playing for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats of the Canadian Football League where he posted 51 tackles and nine sacks. Prior to that, he played two years with the San Jose SaberCats of the Arena Football League. McIntyre was originally signed as an undrafted free agent by the Seattle Seahawks in 2006 and also spent portions of the 2006 preseason with the Arizona Cardinals and Tennessee Titans. As a senior in 2005, he recorded 29 tackles, seven sacks, a forced fumble and a blocked kick, earning recognition as the WAC Defensive Player of the Year.

By Freddy Perryman, U.S. Ski Team

BLUE MOUNTAIN, Ontario -– X Games champion John Teller of Mammoth Lakes finished 11th in Friday’s World Cup skicross race at Blue Mountain Resort.

Skiers found a new venue as Blue Mountain completely revamped its skicross course for 2011. The resort increased the technicality of the course by adding quick jump sequences.

In the first round of finals, Teller got off to a good start and won his heat, beating 2011 World Champion and Friday’s eventual winner, Chris Del Bosco of Canada, to advance to the quarterfinals.

In the quarterfinals, Teller was in the backseat as he went off a jump, sending him into a near back flip and landing hard. The crash broke one of his bindings and bent his skis. Fortunately, he was uninjured.

“I did about half a back flip and landed on my head and bent a ski,” Teller said. “That was the end of the day for me.”

Since his fifth place finish last week at the World Championships, Teller has been busy. He went back to Mammoth Mountain Ski Resort to help coach and train 200 kids on its junior team.

Official results, FIS World Cup, Blue Mountain, Canada, Skicross

Men

1. Chris Del Bosco, Canada

2. Andreas Matt, Austria

3. Tomas Kraus, Czech Republic

–

11. John Teller, Mammoth Lakes, CA

39. Ethan Fortney, Tenino, WA

40. Randy Detrick, Saylorsburg, PA

Women

1. Anna Woerner, Germany

2. Fanny Smith, Switzerland

3. Jenny Owens, Australia

By Cathy Locke, Sacramento Bee

El Dorado County District Attorney Vern Pierson has announced plans to offer a suspended driver’s license diversion program.

The District Attorney’s Office has formed a partnership with Pacific Educational Services Inc. to educate people who drive without a valid driver’s license or on a driver’s license that has been suspended for specified reasons.

Many of these offenders end up with criminal records, large fines, jail sentences and longer suspensions because they are uninformed about driving laws and basic options available to them, according to a news release.

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By U.S. Ski Racing

GARMISCH-PARTENKIRCHEN, Germany — The Alpine World Championships turned into a battle between Austrians today as Anna Fenninger cruised down the slalom course to take the win from Austrian teammate and first run downhill leader Elizabeth Goergl.

Fenninger, a three-time World Juniors gold medalist, was in fourth, 0.40 seconds behind Goergl after the morning downhill run then put down the fourth-fastest slalom run to secure a winning time of two minutes, 43.23 seconds to claim her first top-level victory. Fenninger, 21, has three World Cup podiums (all in the last two years) in speed events but no previous elite victories.

Slovenia’s Tina Maze was only nine hundredths of a second behind to grab the silver medal with the second-fastest slalom time (52.94) after standing tenth in the downhill (1.11 seconds back). Sweden’s Anja Paerson stayed consistent, earning the bronze medal after standing third in the downhill.

Goergl, who won the super G gold medal three days ago, landed fourth after losing the majority of her lead on the bottom of the Gudiberg slalom course.

The win comes at a great time for Fenninger, who, after a disappointing 2010 season was pondering calling it a career.

Squaw Valley’s Julia Mancuso, Tuesday’s super G silver medalist, was the top North American in seventh after moving up from ninth in the downhill.

“I definitely needed to charge harder in the slalom and was a little conservative. I think I was a little nervous at the start because the course set was really turny,” said Mancuso who called the conditions on the slalom hill soft and spring like. “I’m looking forward to the downhill, but I’m not sure I’ll do another training run. Every race is a challenge and I definitely want to do well. So far the speed track has been pretty good to me, so we’ll see.”

American Laurenne Ross led her team into the afternoon slalom with the sixth-fastest downhill time (1:50.70). In the slalom, she straddled a gate early but stuck with it, hiking for several seconds to pull in the 28th finish.

Lindsey Vonn, who in December won this season’s only World Cup super combined, ran the morning downhill leg (12th), but opted not to compete in the afternoon slalom to continue recovering from a concussion she sustained last week. Her participation upcoming races and training is being evaluated on a daily basis. She finished seventh in the super G.

Despite a roar of support from the thousands of local fans in attendance at both venues, German Maria Riesch was hampered with the continued flu symptoms that kept her out of yesterday’s second downhill training. She finished 11th overall today after collapsing with exhaustion in the downhill finish area.

Ready to carve some turns?

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

By Christina Mendonsa, News 10

SACRAMENTO — Jaycee Dugard spent last summer camping with family, the fall taking daytrips with her daughters, and this winter, writing her unique and painful memoirs.

The woman held captive for 18 years is now living the life she dreamed of in childhood dairies kept during her years in the Garrido’s Antioch backyard. Dugard, her daughters and mother are renting a four-bedroom house on a tree-lined street in a Northern California neighborhood. Others living on the same street know who they are and are very protective of them.

As the case against Dugard’s alleged kidnappers, Phillip and Nancy Garrido, drags on, Jaycee is putting the finishing touches on a book due out later this year. Simon & Schuster has no date for the release but the company’s head of publishing has read excerpts.

“I was moved and inspired by the raw power of Jaycee Dugard’s voice, her strength and her resilience,” said Jonathan Karp.

Jonathan Glatt wrote the first book about the Dugard kidnapping titled, “Lost And Found.” Glatt digs deeply into the events surrounding Dugard’s kidnapping in 1991 and Phillip Garrido’s early life as a bass player in a Lake Tahoe-based band called Rock Creek.

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The Rotary Club of Truckee continues its tradition of helping local high school juniors maximize their success beyond high school with its Rotary Resource & Career Day.

This year the club has partnered with Tahoe City Rotary and the North Tahoe Public Utility District, which has graciously donated the use of the North Tahoe Event Center in Kings Beach for the event. All 300 juniors in the Tahoe Truckee Unified School District – including students from the three local high schools, Forest Charter School and the three local private schools – are invited to attend the Resource & Career Day at the North Tahoe Event Center on March 25 from 9:30a-2pm. The format features 10 topics essential to juniors and their families as they transition into their senior year and begin focusing on life after high school.

“Fifty-two community volunteers, including Masons, Soroptomists, and Optimists, are working together to help make the event a success for the students,” event organizer Greg McDougall said in a statement. “This is an exciting step toward an essential collaboration between local schools, businesses, and service organizations, not to mention a rewarding event for the students.”

Topics such as “What’s Hot (in the Job Market),” “Show Me the Money” (college funding and scholarships), “Other Options with a Purpose” (Peace Corps, Job Corps, etc.), vocational programs, and dual credit enrollment and personal development programs with be featured. Sierra College and Sierra Nevada College representatives will also be present to answer questions about career training and educational degree options.

The day will involve a scavenger hunt with prizes and food donated by local businesses, including a lunch barbecue.

Call (530) 587.5625 for information.

North Lake Tahoe and Truckee Donner chambers of commerce in partnership with the Sierra Human Resources Association are offering “The Manager as Coach” Feb. 17 from 8:30-11:30am at Cedar House Sport Hotel, 10918 Brockway Road in Truckee.

This workshop is designed to bolster leadership effectiveness, including how best to deliver feedback, correct behavior and how to conduct an effective performance review. Attendees will learn the tools and take away the confidence to take appropriate action.

Registration is $59 for North Lake Tahoe Chamber of Commerce and SHRA members and $69 for non-members. Seating is limited.

To register and for more information about the workshop, call Laura Moriarty at (530) 573.0224 or North Lake Tahoe Chamber of Commerce Manager Kym Fabel at (530) 581.8764.

By Bobby Caina Calvan, Sacramento Bee

Thousands of California parents leaped at the chance to provide health coverage to their grown and uninsured children when a provision in the federal health care law took effect last fall.

Now some of those parents, such as Barry Demant of Folsom, are finding a hidden cost to the new benefit: a bigger tax bill.

A loophole in California’s tax law requires the state to levy income taxes on the premiums employers pay to provide health insurance to the non-dependent children of their workers.

Last fall, Demant added his unemployed 25-year-old daughter to his company’s group health plan. That meant he no longer had to pay $180 a month to insure her through a separate individual health policy.

As part of the federal health care law, insurers are required to allow parents to enroll children up to age 26 on their health plans.

“I wanted to give the health care law a chance, and I thought it would be a great opportunity, even if only selfishly, to reduce the amount I pay for her premiums,” Demant said.

He found out about the tax when his human resources department told him that a bump in income – and taxes – would soon appear in his paycheck.

In the end, he said, some of the money he thought he was saving could evaporate in the form of increased state tax payments. Demant would not say exactly how much more he’ll be paying in taxes.

As Californians begin preparing personal income tax returns, some lawmakers are pushing to pass a law that would exempt those contributions from being subject to state personal income taxes, as was done on the federal level.

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By Paul Krugman, New York Times

We’re in the midst of a global food crisis — the second in three years. World food prices hit a record in January, driven by huge increases in the prices of wheat, corn, sugar and oils. These soaring prices have had only a modest effect on U.S. inflation, which is still low by historical standards, but they’re having a brutal impact on the world’s poor, who spend much if not most of their income on basic foodstuffs.

The consequences of this food crisis go far beyond economics. After all, the big question about uprisings against corrupt and oppressive regimes in the Middle East isn’t so much why they’re happening as why they’re happening now. And there’s little question that sky-high food prices have been an important trigger for popular rage.

So what’s behind the price spike? American right-wingers (and the Chinese) blame easy-money policies at the Federal Reserve, with at least one commentator declaring that there is “blood on Bernanke’s hands.” Meanwhile, President Nicolas Sarkozy of France blames speculators, accusing them of “extortion and pillaging.”

But the evidence tells a different, much more ominous story. While several factors have contributed to soaring food prices, what really stands out is the extent to which severe weather events have disrupted agricultural production. And these severe weather events are exactly the kind of thing we’d expect to see as rising concentrations of greenhouse gases change our climate — which means that the current food price surge may be just the beginning.

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