UC Davis Tahoe Environmental Research Center is hosting a family science day on Dec. 29 from 2-5pm.

Families are invited to explore the mysteries of snow and ice. Conduct scientific experiments, discover what snowflakes look like under microscopes. Learn about wind chill and why some animals hibernate, among many other activities.

It will be in rooms 139 and 141 Tahoe Center for Environmental Sciences, 291 Country Club Drive, Incline Village.

For details, call (775) 881.7560, ext. 7483.

The is for ages 8 and older.

It is free.

Debbie Dutton, who works at the Barton and Stateline labs, has a son who was recently in a serious car accident in Mexico.

Because of the accident Jerel Dutton lost one leg from the knee down, has a fractured skull and multiple spinal fractures. He is a graduate of Whittell High School.

Debbie and Lance Dutton are now with their son at Scripps Memorial Hospital La Jolla in San Diego.

An account has been set up to assist with expenses at Wells Fargo Bank; Jerel Dutton Benefit Fund, Account No. 9195345310.

Squaw Valley Ski Patrol is hosting the 19th annual Snow Gods Ball on Dec. 18. Proceeds from the Snow Gods Ball allow Squaw Valley Ski Patrol to grant full scholarships to community members for Avalanche Level 1 education courses.

Open to the public, the Snow Gods Ball is set to take place at the all new Bar One in Squaw Valley’s Olympic House. The doors open at 8pm and the music starts at 9pm. All party goers must be 21 or older.

This year’s ball features live music by Truckee Tribe and a host of great raffle prizes. The Snow Gods Ball raffle prizes include a Squaw Valley USA Bronze Season Pass, lift tickets, avalanche gear, Helly Hansen Stoneham Jacket and Pants, Armada skis, Louie Vito Monster Energy custom snowboard, Dragon Goggles, Hestra Gloves, UNR basketball tickets and more.

Tickets to the Snow Gods Ball are $15 in advance and $20 at the door. Tickets may be purchased in advance by calling Squaw Valley Ski Patrol at (530) 581.7260 or at Porters in Tahoe City and Truckee. More information about this year’s celebration is also available by calling (530) 581.7260.

“Race to Nowhere” will be shown at Lake Tahoe Community College on Jan. 7 at 6:30pm.

The film focuses on the saturation point many students, teachers, and parents have reached in the high-stakes, high pressure culture of the current educational system. It highlights the mounting pressures and stresses children experience — from elementary school through high school — in an effort to gain admission to top colleges.

The film is rated PG-13 and runs 1 hour, 25 minutes.

While the event is free, those who wish to attend must register online for tickets.

It’s a powder day — what more do you need to know?

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

By Elizabeth Karam, U.S. Snowboarding

COPPER MOUNTAIN, Colo. – Spencer Shaw of Winhall, Vt., and Allyson Carroll of Truckee landed the top steps of the podium at the U.S. Revolution Tour’s halfpipe snowboarding contest at Copper.

In a contest stacked with international and national riders, including Olympians, X Games and World Cup medalists, the United States swept the top spots. In addition to the challenging field of riders, athletes were faced with a long day attributed to the huge field forcing finals well into the late afternoon.

“(Tuesday)morning it was really nice. It was bluebird skies and warm. All the girls were happy and ready to go,” explained Carroll, who clinched the win with her first run. “But the day kind of slowed down and we had to wait because things were running late. Finally, finals came and everyone got pumped up again. We took our last run when the moon was coming up. It was pretty cool – a really long day. But it was worth it.”

Carroll, who landed both runs claimed the “W” with a frontside straight air to a backside straight air into a frontside straight air followed by a back 5 to a frontside straight air into a back 7, ending her run with a switchback 5. Sitting in second and third behind Carroll were Kirby Kelly of Algonquin, Ill., and Jenna Dramise of Henderson, Nev.

“My runs went really well. I was just happy to land them because visibility was so tough,” Carroll said. “Landing back-to-back runs is such an awesome feeling.”

In the men’s contest, Shaw came back from a fall in his first run to throw down his second run for the win – although it didn’t go exactly how he planned.

The U.S. Revolution Tour at Copper continues todday with the men’s and women’s slopestyle snowboarding contest.

Official results, U.S. Revolution Tour, Copper Mountain, Halfpipe

Men

1. Spencer Shaw, Winhall, VT

2. Kazuumi Fujita, Japan

3. Ryo Aono, Japan

Women

1. Allyson Carroll, Truckee, CA

2. Kirby Kelly, Algonquin, IL

3. Jenna Dramise, Henderson, NV

Tahoe Mountain Soap Company has locally made, handcrafted natural soaps, lotions, dead sea salts, natural sea sponges and more all for less than $20.

These are high quality, South Lake Tahoe made, affordable gifts.

More info is available online.

By Susan Wood

The Reno-Tahoe Winter Games Coalition has a deadline to drum up support for its quest to bring the 2022 Winter Games back to the region 62 years after Squaw Valley hosted them in 1960.

Based on the past, the U.S. Olympic Committee is expected to court bids from interested cities in early 2012, Chief Executive Officer Jon Killoran told Lake Tahoe News Tuesday when asked what was new since the last report.

“But they could ask us about it tomorrow,” he said. This is why Killoran and others are out courting potential backers who would be part of the Reno-Tahoe Games.

If the USOC wants the Tahoe-Reno region to host the Games in 2022, the organization will take its national bid to the International Olympic Committee for consideration in 2013, Killoran speculated.

In the meantime, the coalition has made the rounds to meet with various recreation venue managers and tourism advocates. Killoran met with Chris Hawken, interim director of the South Lake Tahoe Parks and Recreation Departmenet, about the ice arena in September. The visit wasn’t designed to check out the arena as a venue, but Killoran didn’t rule it out either.

Hawken said it most likely would be used as a training site, not for competition. The rink size if National Hockey League compatible, but not Olympic-size, Hawken told LTN.

Truckee Mayor Carolyn Dee, who is also Squaw’s director of Business Administration, said she thought it would be smart to look at the South Tahoe rink.

Reno Sparks Convention and Visitors Bureau spokesman Ben McDonald said his agency, which serves on the Winter Games Committee, has pledged support in the planning process — but nothing specific thus far.

The group has stayed afloat during this planning stage with the help of agencies such as the Nevada Commission on Tourism with a $10,000 grant. The coalition hopes to cultivate private donors as its membership expands and it undergoes a reorganization.

Tahoe-Reno’s dream of hosting the Winter Games again has been bumped from 2014 to 2018 before 2022 appeared to be closer to reality once Chicago lost its bid for the 2016 Summer Games.

Speculation lingers that Denver is interested in hosting 2022 as well as Salt Lake City. The Utah city operated on a $3 billion budget that brought in a $76 million profit in 2002.

Lake Placid, N.Y., hosted the Games for the United States twice — but those years were 48 years apart from its first 1932 Games.

By Martha Bellisle, Reno Gazette-Journal

The Nevada Attorney General’s office was asked to investigate whether some state workers were illegally paid as contractors while collecting their regular salaries after an audit revealed possible abuse by some employees.

One state worker was paid $250 per hour for work done while on sick leave; another collected contract money for work done during normal business hours; another left his $65-per-hour state job and now gets $350-per-hour as a contractor, a recent audit by the Legislative Counsel Bureau found. (Read full PDF document on top right of this page)

Assemblywoman Shiela Leslie, a Reno Democrat who chairs an audit subcommittee, said her panel voted this week to send the material to the attorney general’s office to determine whether any criminal activities were involved.

Assemblywoman Debbie Smith, a Sparks Democrat who sponsored a bill during the 2009 legislative session to strengthen controls over the way the state uses contractors, said she knew there were problems, but not this bad.

Read the whole story

By Ryan Sabalow, Record Searchlight

There may not be American gray wolves in California yet, but U.S. Rep. Wally Herger has joined a group of Republican lawmakers urging the animals’ removal from the Endangered Species Act — just in case.

The Chico Republican says he co-sponsored a bill last week with seven other House Republicans pushing for the removal of the wolves’ protected status because he’s worried that environmental groups may someday try to introduce them in his district as they have in other states.

At least one environmentalist group says wolves should be brought back to the north state, though there are no immediate plans to do so.

“I think restoring wolves to a larger portion (of their original habitat) is a necessity before removing protection for them,” said Noah Greenwald, the director of the Center for Biological Diversity’s endangered species program in Portland, Ore.

The center’s biologists believe that wolves could survive in some north state forests, including parts of Trinity, Siskiyou and Modoc counties.

Read the whole story