Soroptimist International Tahoe Sierra’s Elegant Evening is April 2 from 6-11pm at Harrah’s.

Tickets are $50 each.

Click here for more info.

By Jason Hildago, Reno Gazette-Journal

The Nevada Chapter of the Associated General Contractors recognized the area’s best work Friday at its 12th Annual PINNACLE Awards.

Q&D Construction, Inc. garnered the most awards overall among general contractors. Martin Iron Works swept both awards in the specialty contractors category.

Established in 1999, the PINNACLE Awards recognize construction leadership, excellence and community leadership. The awards were held at the Harrah’s Convention Center in downtown Reno.

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Publisher’s note: This is from John Packer, entertainment director for Harrah’s Northern Nevada, “Breck Wall was a show producer and comedy performer who brought his show ‘Bottoms Up’ to Harrah’s Lake Tahoe and Reno beginning in the 1960s. It returned numerous times in several incarnations during the ’70s, ’80s and into the ’90s. Breck and his partner Patrick Maes also produced adult revues that played Harrah’s, Harveys, the High Sierra [now Horizon] and elsewhere, the most successful of which was ‘Passion.’ ‘Bottoms Up’ was his signature show in which he starred for many decades. Very funny, silly at times, and risque to say the least.”

By Mark Anthony, Las Vegas Tourist

It was a simple passing in the news on Monday that Breck Wall had died at the age of 75. If the name rings a bell, then you are really a Vegas fanatic.

Breck Wall is best known around Las Vegas for his 40 years of the comic revue “Bottoms Up.” I first caught the act when we moved here in 2001. The campy, vaudeville style burlesque show was playing at the Flamingo. The last incarnation of it was at the Harmon in 2007.

Breck Wall

The show was cute and corny in its own weird. Vaudeville done Vegas style. Breck was the ringmaster of a group of aged actors trying to be sexy, funny and shocking. There was nothing really shocking or sexy by today’s standards, and that’s what gave it its new humor. But they gave it their best shot every afternoon. One could only imagine the real shock value of the show some 20 years ago. Maybe half the fun of the show was watching senior citizens trying to be shocking, sexy and funny. Either way, it was a Vegas institution.

Between that first show and the the last incarnation, I had gotten to know Breck from a distance. It seemed like he knew anyone who was anybody in the entertainment business. If there was any entertainment news or tid-bit somebody needed to know, it was Breck who could probably fill in the details.

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By Matt Kawahara, Sacramento Bee

Stephanie Lake has seen the effects at UC Davis – students hospitalized after consuming high-octane alcoholic drinks that contain caffeine that masks how drunk they’re getting.

Lake, who coordinates the university’s alcohol intervention services, has been warning students that so-called “blackout in a can” drinks like Four Loko are too dangerous to drink.

“They need to take it off the market,” she said.

That will start happening.

The federal Food and Drug Administration said Wednesday that adding caffeine to alcohol is “unsafe” and gave the four manufacturers of the beverages 15 days to either stop using caffeine in their products or stop selling them entirely.

Caffeine, health officials say, hides the effects of the alcohol and prevents people from realizing how intoxicated they really are.

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By Rob Hotakainen, Sacramento Bee

WASHINGTON – Since joining Congress two years ago, Republican Rep. Tom McClintock has taken heat from Placer County officials for resisting earmarks, money that’s used to pay for pet projects back home.

“There are a number of local officials who became addicted to earmarks,” said McClintock, of Elk Grove, who represents California’s 4th Congressional District.

“But if local officials of the community aren’t willing to use local dollars for a local project, why should the taxpayers of some other community cough up the money?”

As he prepares to join the House majority when the new Congress convenes in January, McClintock now has an unlikely ally: President Barack Obama.

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The wind has subsided and Heavenly has made the decision — it’s opening today. Squaw Valley is also calling this the first day of the season, too.

About a foot of snow fell at lake level on the South Shore overnight.

Rene Smania of South Lake Tahoe plows his driveway Nov. 20 so he can get to work. Photo/Kathryn Reed

Heavenly is reporting 18 inches of freshies. Squaw is reporting 10-12 inches of new snow.

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

Expect a break in the weather today — just enough time to shovel and schuss. More white stuff is expected to blanket the greater Lake Tahoe area all weekend. A winter storm warning remains in effect through Nov. 21 at 4pm. Expect overnight lows in the teens. Blizzard conditions are likely when the snow starts falling again.

Right now, though, it’s time to get the fat boys out for a powder day.

• South Tahoe Police Chief Brian Uhler has issued a press release warning people his department will be ticketing and towing people if vehicles are in the way of snow removal equipment.

• Sample the Sierra 2011 is Aug. 20 on Ski Run Boulevard in South Tahoe. Call (775) 588.1728 to be involved.

• The El Dorado County clerk’s office will not issue or accept passport applications as of Jan. 1.

• Truckee’s Elijah Bleu’s House of Coffee & Good Eats is celebrating its one-year anniversary Nov. 30 with $1 coffee and espresso drinks all day.

• Lanza’s in Kings Beach is expanding to have a restaurant in Stateline in the Nugget Building. Orchid’s Thai of South Lake, which has changed owners, is opening a second location later this month in the same building.

• Harrah’s Entertainment canceled its IPO on Friday, citing market conditions not being optimal. The casino giant has been privately held for the last three years since it bought Caesars Entertainment.

By The Economist

America’s most sordid government scandal of the year was probably one that took place inside one of its tiniest governments: that of the city of Bell. Bell is really more of a blue-collar neighbourhood within the vast conurbation of Los Angeles than anything recognisable as a city. But the city elders, eight of whom are now awaiting trial, nonetheless paid themselves outrageous pensions and salaries—almost $800,000 a year in one case, about twice what Barack Obama makes—while fleecing residents in countless innovative ways.

Bell is a reminder that local government can cause big problems. There are roughly 90,000 local governments in America, mainly cities, counties and school and utilities districts. Together with the 50 state governments, they account for 15% of total employment. But whereas the private sector did most of its job-shedding early in the recession and is now slowly hiring again, state and local governments began lay-offs later and still have far to go. The National League of Cities thinks nearly 500,000 workers in local government will lose their jobs in the current and coming fiscal years.

The main revenue sources of local governments are sales and property taxes. Sales taxes dropped along with consumer spending and remain depressed. Property taxes only began falling some time after the housing bust, because the houses first had to be reassessed at their lower values. But now they are down for the foreseeable future. So are other local revenues, such as hotel fees, which depend on travel.

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Publisher’s note: This editorial is from the Nov. 13, 2010, New York Times.

November is National Novel Writing Month. Perhaps you know that already. Perhaps you’re trying to reach word 23,338 by night’s end. If you don’t know NaNoWriMo, think of it as a literary marathon with nearly 200,000 mostly amateur writers. The goal? To write a 50,000-word “novel” in 30 days.

“Novel,” in NaNoWriMo-speak, means “laughably awful yet lengthy prose.” What began in 1999 with 21 friends has grown into a nonprofit called the Office of Letters and Light, whose purpose is to get people to throw their literary inhibitions aside, work within a communal deadline, and have fun.

This enormous coterie of writers had produced nearly a billion words as of a couple of days ago. (In 2009, the total was nearly 2.5 billion.) At the end of the month, writers upload their work for a word count. Last year, slightly more than 19 percent of NaNoWriMo writers won, which proves just how hard it is to keep up a pace of 1,667 words a day, even if they’re laughably awful.

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Beginning Nov. 22, the North Tahoe Regional Park and its facilities will be open from 7am-5pm. All vehicles must be removed from the park before 5pm.

Grooming of the trails and opening of the sled hill will begin when conditions allow. More information can be found on the District’s Park Facilities website and then navigating to the North Tahoe Regional Park page.

All other facilities that are owned, operated or managed by the district have been closed for the winter. Two heated restrooms are open daily from 9am-5pm at Kings Beach State Recreation Area.