The 15th annual Valhalla Holiday Faire is Nov. 20-21 from 10am-5pm.

The Valhalla Grand Hall is off Highway 89 on the South Shore.

By USSA

Two-time Olympian Stacey Cook (Mammoth Mountain) congratulated Mackenzie Bachmeier, Danielle Brownell-Patty, Johanna Gur and Forrest Ferguson this week on winning the 2011 Stacey Cook/Sun Valley Ski Tools Scholarship (SVST). The four young racers will receive $500 worth of ski tools and $500 worth of ski wax to use throughout the entire alpine season.

Now in its fourth year, the scholarship recognizes four J2 (ages 15-16) or J3 (ages 13-14) level athletes who exemplify talent, a good attitude, community involvement and a commitment to alpine skiing

“I had 81 applicants this year and all of them put incredible effort into their applications,” said Cook, who was supported by SVST as a junior. “Truly, there could have been 81 winners, but Dani, Johanna, Forrest and Mackenzie put a ton of time into their applications. In reading them, I could easily see their incredible personalities and their passion for skiing.”

Bachmeier stood out in the application process because of her love of skiing through all seasons. As a nationally ranked water skier in jump, trick and slalom, she turns her focus to the snow in winter and races with Crystal Mountain in Washington, home of U.S. Ski Team alum Scott Macartney.

Originally from Aspen, Brownell-Patty recently packed up her ski bag for the highly acclaimed U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association club program at Burke Mountain Academy in Vermont. Cook says the move proves her passion for skiing, but also said she was impressed with her desire to help kids both on and off the snow.

As the lone male in this year’s scholarship class, Ferguson is a second year J2 with the Squaw Valley Ski Team, where World Cup winner Marco Sullivan (Squaw Valley) got his start. And, like Sullivan, Ferguson plays high school football, which he says helps him get into shape for the ski racing season.

Gur is a fellow Squaw Valley Ski Team racer and second year J3, She had the inside scoop on the scholarship thanks to U.S. Ski Team member and cousin Will Gregorak (Longmont, Colo.), who started his first World Cup race last weekend in Soelden, Austria.

On Nov. 7 at 11am First Baptist Church South Lake Tahoe is having a Patriotic Service honoring veterans and those in the Armed Forces.

There will be patriotic music and various video presentations. Pastor Alan Morse is a Vietnam War veteran.

The church is at 1053 Wildwood Ave., South Lake Tahoe.

For more information, call (530) 544.2743.

On Nov. 7 at 11am First Baptist Church South Lake Tahoe is having a Patriotic Service honoring veterans and those in the Armed Forces.

There will be patriotic music and various video presentations. Pastor Alan Morse is a Vietnam War veteran.

The church is at 1053 Wildwood Ave., South Lake Tahoe.

For more information, call (530) 544.2743.

Tahoe Arts Project presents the Missoula Children’s Theater “Treasure Island”.

Auditions are Nov. 15 from 4-6pm at the South Tahoe Middle School multipurpose room. There are roles for approximately 60 children in grades K-12 (must be 5 and in kindergarten to audition). Rehearsals will be Tuesday-Friday from 4-8:30pm depending on the role.

Performances will be Nov. 20 at 2 and 6pm.

Auditions are free. If cast, there is a charge of $35 per child to participate in this weeklong theater experience. For more information, call (530) 542.3632 or visit www.tahoeartsproject.org

By Kathryn Reed

Disturbing is the word that resonated with me as I kept flipping the pages of “Out of Mao’s Shadow: The struggle for the soul of a new China.”

I have read plenty of news accounts about China and it’s repressive government as well as stories about it being more progressive. But the 337-page account by Philip P. Pan brought to life incidents from that huge nation that I was not familiar with.

Pan was in China from 2000-07 as a journalist for the Washington Post. His book was published in 2008.

As China continues to be a major player in the world – politically and economically – it is imperative we better understand this country that clearly has a seat at the world table.

I understand now China is more complex than I had realized. Saying it’s repressed is oversimplifying things. Saying it is a Communist country is true, but the political-economic structure is not purely traditional communism.

Most people know about the June 1989 massacre of democracy protesters at Tiananmen Square. And, though, that was a pivotal moment in China internally and for how the world views the country, it’s one of many significant moments.

Like all countries, the past is not a bed of rose pedals – many sharp thorns that can still cause pain are buried in what we call history. Pan does a tremendous job of exposing those thorns.

The incidents depicted in the book are disturbing in themselves. But even more so for me was the realization of how the citizenry of China seems to know so little about its past. Such are the hazards of a sprawling country where most of the residents live in rural areas without many modern conveniences.

A media without much of a voice is also part of the problem.

Although the Internet is allowing more diverse commentary to seep into society, the Chinese government sensors what is published and what residents have access to.

“Out of Mao’s Shadow” is a great trip through various segments of China’s past, though some is rather recent. It’s not a history book in the sense of being dry and boring. It is the story of people affected by the historical moment, the people making history, and the outcome of their actions and those of the government.

By Tony Bizjak, Sacramento Bee

Up in the El Dorado Hills area, commuters complain that one Highway 50 reconstruction effort seems to have become the region’s official never-ending project.

It’s been two years since work started on the combination car-pool lane and freeway interchange upgrade project – yet workers are still out there, shifting lanes for construction.

A sign next to the freeway says the project will be finished in 2010. Oops on that. The original finish date was two weeks ago. El Dorado officials now say July is the new due date. Meanwhile, the budget’s bumped from $29 million to $34 million.

What happened? If you want to lay blame, start at the Capitol, where the governor and Legislature did their best to get this and dozens of other projects off to a really bad launch.

Read the whole story

Three generations of women explore the far reaching ripples of the Holocaust in Diane Samuels’ play “Kindertransport,” opening at Lake Tahoe Community College’s Duke Theatre Nov. 13.

Kindertransport was the name of a rescue effort that brought thousands of Jewish children to Great Britain from Nazi Germany between 1938 and the outbreak of war in 1939. Almost 10,000 children were sent by their parents to safety.

Performances are Nov.13 at 8pm, Nov. 18-20 at 8pm and Nov. 14 and Nov. 21 at 2pm.

Juliette Hill as Eva (on floor) and Pam Taylor as Lil in "Kindertransport" at LTCC.

In the play “Kindertransport” 9-year-old Eva ends up in Manchester, England. When Eva’s parents fail to escape Germany, her attachment to her foster mother increases, and a new identity starts to form. The child changes her name to Evelyn and begins the process of denial of her German and Jewish roots. More than 30 years later, when her daughter discovers some old letters in the attic, Evelyn is forced to confront the truth about her past. Combining theatricalism and naturalism, past and present are intertwined throughout the play as themes of mother-daughter relationships, survivor guilt, and loss of identity are explored.

A special commemoration of Kristallnacht will be held at the opening night performance, Nov. 13, prior to the show. Rabbi Jonathan Freirich from Temple Bat Yam in South Lake Tahoe will preside. Kristallnacht, or the Night of Broken Glass, was a series of attacks against Jews throughout Nazi Germany and parts of Austria on Nov. 9–10, 1938.

“Kindertransport” opens the week of the 72 anniversary of Kristallnacht.

Tickets for “Kindertransport” are $10 general admission, $7 for seniors, $5 for children under 13 and students with a current student body card.

The first Kindertransport arrived in Harwich, Great Britain, on Dec. 2, 1938, bringing about 200 children from a Jewish orphanage in Berlin that had been destroyed during Kristallnacht. In all, the rescue operation brought about 10,000 children, approximately 7,500 of them Jewish, from Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia, and Poland to Great Britain.

It was assumed at the time that when the crisis was over, the children would return to their families, or parents would eventually join their children in their new country. Most of these children would never see their parents again because they were murdered during the Holocaust.

After the war, many children became citizens of Great Britain, or emigrated to Israel, the United States, Canada, and Australia.

South Lake Tahoe entrepreneurs and small businesses will host the first Massage for the Masses Nov. 12-13, with 100 percent of the proceeds going to support Dolphin Anti-Rape and AIDS Control Outreach, a Kenya-based rape-prevention organization.

Elevate Wellness and Biospirit are donating their studio and spa space to host the event, and a dozen local massage therapists are giving their time to provide 25- and 55-minute massages.

Jennifer Gurecki and Julie Lowe are organizing the event. Gurecki has worked with Dolphin for five years and travels to Kenya regularly to provide technical assistance to the organization.

BioSpirit (530.541.5511, 1116 Ski Run Blvd.) will provide massages Nov. 12 and Elevate Wellness (530.541.9355, 1113 Emerald Bay Road) Nov. 13. Call one of the numbers to make an appointment.

Massage therapists include: Jennifer Webb, Rosemary Manning, Crystal Honeck, Ali Warren, Heidi Meiser, Nancy Gayner, Teresa Bertrand, Coco Maliya, Jennifer Ross, and Vickey Waldo.

The suggested minimum donation is $30 for a 25-minute mini-massage and $60 for a 55-minute massage.

Dolphin is a nationally-registered Kenyan nongovernmental organization that has delivered life-saving sexual violence prevention and self-defense education since 1998. For less than $1 per child, it provides Nairobi’s youth with innovative and life-changing strategies that can save their lives. Dolphin has empowered and educated more than 1 million schoolchildren and teachers. More than 250 children and adults have reportedly used the skills to stop sexual violence in their lives.

The HIV rate among women in Kenya is four times higher than that of men, and 25 percent of women and girls aged 12-14 report having lost their virginity by force, according to UNAIDS. In Nairobi, the capitol of Kenya, the women’s hospital receives an average of 18 cases of rape and incest each day.

California Food Bank Executive Directors,

I need your help. El Dorado County is currently going through some painful budget cuts and senior nutrition sites are in danger of elimination. In the past I have talked to Food Bank Representatives that partner with their county to provide service through the Senior Nutrition Program. I am trying to provide some options and models of nonprofits throughout the state to Human Services and the Board of Supervisors to try and save these important outreach programs.

I need your help, if any of you work with your local area agency on aging or you know another nonprofit in your service area that provides this service please contact me or send me some information on who I can contact. These seniors need our help, please join me together we may be able to help El Dorado County save a crucial program that many seniors rely on.

Mike Sproull, founder Food Bank of El Dorado Count7 (530) 621.9950, mikes@foodbankedc.org