By Steve Timko, Reno Gazette-Journal

About one out of every four children born in Nevada recently were to mothers who were not U.S. citizens, the second-highest rate in the nation, according to a U.S. Census Bureau report released Thursday.

The data, collected as part of the Census Bureau’s ongoing American Community Survey, did not distinguish between noncitizen mothers who were here legally or illegally.

The American Community Survey sends questionnaires to households in every state every year to get a demographic snapshot. This data was from the 2008 ACS and asks participants if they had children in the prior 12 months. The estimates said 26.3 percent of the children born in Nevada were to mothers who were not U.S. citizens. California ranked first at 29.1 percent.

The figures did not surprise Mary Ann Robinson, coordinator of the Washoe County School District’s English Language Learner department.

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Bread & Broth’s 22nd annual Thanksgiving feast is Nov. 22 from 4-6pm at St. Theresa Church, located at 1041 Lyons Ave. in South Lake Tahoe.

Roast Turkey is on the menu, as well as all the traditional side dishes including homemade dressing and cranberry sauce.

In previous years, volunteers have served as many as 400 people at this special Thanksgiving meal. For many members of the community, this dinner will be the only Thanksgiving meal they’ll have this year. Serving hours on this day have been extended to 6pm to accommodate the expected increase in attendance.

Donations for the meal are needed, especially fresh cranberries, oranges, onions, celery, carrots, sweet and sage sausage, canned yams, marshmallows, and canned fried onions. Food donations will be accepted at the side door of Grace Hall on Nov. 19 from 9am-4pm and Nov. 20 from 1-4pm.

To find out how you can help Bread & Broth as a sponsor, donor or volunteer, contact Diane Weidinger at (775) 588.3993 or dianeweidinger@yahoo.com or Dave Carneggie at (530) 577. 7762 or dcarneggie@gmail.com.

The U.S. Forest Service Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit will host a meeting to update the community on the Meyers Landfill site on Nov. 18 at 6pm at the Forest Supervisor’s office, 35 College Drive, South Lake Tahoe.

The meeting will include an update on the status of construction of the landfill cap, details on the continued forest closure at the site, and information regarding continued investigations into the extent of the contaminated groundwater plume originating at the site, as well as time for questions.

Contractors are working to winterize the construction site, and work will resume next season. In the meantime, the Forest Service anticipates extending the closure of Garbage Dump Road and the site through the winter due to ongoing safety hazards. this winter, for their own safety.”

For more information on the Meyers Landfill site, visit here.

If you have questions, contact Cheva Heck at (530) 543.2608 or check@fs.fed.us.

By Rob Sabo, Northern Nevada Business Weekly

An increase in early-season bookings for winter ski vacations has hoteliers and property managers in the Lake Tahoe region — who have struggled the past few years to fill rooms at profitable rates — optimistic about the upcoming ski season.

And a rise in bookings from international clients gives even further hope that tourism may be returning to the region.

Snow started falling early Nov. 7 at Kirkwood. Photo/Provided

Don Cauley, general manager of Vacation Station at Incline Village, says bookings are tracking up 10 to 15 percent this year compared to 2009. Reservations for the company’s 100 cabins, condominiums and rental homes at Incline Village dipped between 35 and 40 percent beginning in 2008. Occupancy is running higher, Cauley notes, but profits still are down because of lower room rates.

“We are giving up revenues in order to get people to come back,” Cauley says. “We are recovering somewhat, but we are nowhere near where we were two or three years ago.”

Reservations for ski vacations also are on the rise at Resort at Squaw Creek. Les Pederson, director of sales and marketing, says December bookings are up 23 percent over 2009, while first quarter 2011 bookings are up 40 percent.

“That is encouraging,” Pederson says. “Eventually snow will really get into the equation — this time of year we start to do the snow dance. But so far, so good.”

Bill Cottrill, director of sales and marketing for Embassy Suites Lake Tahoe, located a stone’s throw from the Heavenly Mountain Resort gondola, says bookings spiked with the arrival of snow in mid-October. Snowstorms typically result in a flurry of reservations, he says, and bookings tapered off with last week’s warm weather.

“The pickup we got for the first quarter was amazing,” Cottrill says. “There is a certain level of calls we handle, and when you throw a snow or rainstorm in there that will impact the wintertime. It brings a spike in phone calls. But as soon as it gets back to sunny weather, calls dip back down to a typical pace.”

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Publisher’s note: This editorial is from the Nov. 7, 2010, Sacramento Bee.

What next for California’s struggling state parks system?

Fifty-eight percent of California voters Tuesday roundly rejected an initiative asking residents to pay an $18 surcharge on their cars each year in exchange for free access to state parks.

Incoming Gov. Jerry Brown and lawmakers should not take Tuesday’s vote as a statement on the value Californians place on their state parks. From redwoods to sea coast to mountains to historic sites, state parks draw 80 million visitors each year.

Yet state budget problems remain and Californians still feeling the bite of the economic downturn have signaled that they don’t want new fees. What’s needed now is bold vision by Brown and the Legislature, and a variety of old and new strategies. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s repeated threat to eliminate all general fund support for state parks is a non-starter.

Some have suggested raising park entrance fees to offset general fund cuts. This was tried four times in the past decade, and attendance declined. Caution should prevail. We don’t want to price people out of their state parks.

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The 3rd annual North Face Junior Freeskiing Tour, a platform to develop young professional big mountain athletes by providing opportunities for them to compete and show the direction big mountain skiing is headed, stops in Kirkwood March 25-27..

The North American Junior Freeskiing Championships are in Kirkwood.

Each JFT event is sanctioned by the International Free Skiers Association (IFSA) creating consistent judging and accumulative points standings throughout the competitive season.

Billabong Flaunt it Finals at Sierra-at-Tahoe is April 9.

The finals of this North American women-only snowboard series is a Swatch Ticket To Ride World Tour rated event, so expect high-level femme riding from some of the best snowboarders in the industry.

Sierra Resort’s Jamie Anderson, currently ranked one of the top female snowboarders in the world, will be throwing down on the custom Slopestyle and Rail Jam course.

This event always brings tons of great female energy to Sierra Resort.

For more information, go online or call (530) 659.7453.

Red Bull Butter Cup is April 2 at Sierra Resort.

This South Shore vs. North Shore contest is multi-leveled with Sierra Resort’s Park Crew pulling out all the tricks to build the more creative Rail Jam course while snowboarders will compete to execute perfect butters and presses.

The spectator-friendly course will be built on Broadway.

For more information, go online or call (530) 659.7453.

Sierra-at-Tahoe’s 8th annual Telegrass Festival is March 26 and 27.

This homegrown event brings out teleskiers from all over Northern California for a weekend celebration of the freeheel life.

Morning and afternoon clinics for teleskiers of every ability level, equipment demos from top manufacturers, fun relays and races, live music from regional bluegrass bands, beer tasting, and endless raffle prizes all combine for a festival that lets you free your heel so your mind can follow.

For more information, go online or call (530) 659.7453.

By Pat Wingert, Newsweek

A new principal with no experience seems an odd choice to turn around a long-failing school. But that’s exactly whom most superintendents around the country end up hiring—largely because no one else applies for what seems like a thankless job. It’s no surprise that most don’t succeed. The obvious solution, concluded Peter Gorman, the school superintendent in Charlotte, N.C., was to persuade skilled educators to take on these rescue missions. But how could he get the district’s most effective principals, already ensconced in successful schools, to agree to transfers to the worst-performing ones? And what about the inevitable howl of protest from the communities they’d have to leave behind?

The answer is an ingenious school-turnaround strategy that is garnering praise from education-reform advocates like U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and the Aspen Institute. It’s also giving the Charlotte-Mecklenburg school district a serious shot at winning the coveted $2 million Broad Prize for Urban Education later this month.

Since the passage of George W. Bush’s No Child Left Behind legislation in 2001, school districts have been under intense pressure to identify and overhaul failing schools. This year the Obama administration raised the stakes by giving states a record $3.5 billion—about seven times the previous amount—to transform the nation’s 5,000 worst schools. In addition, winners of the administration’s Race to the Top school-reform competition—including North Carolina—need to overhaul their bottom 5 percent to secure their full share of the $4.3 billion in prize money. (North Carolina should get $400 million.)

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