Jef Bauer is MontBleu casino’s new general manager.

Before taking the job at the Stateline casino, Bauer was vice president and general manager of Golden Casino Group in Black Hawk, Colo., where he was responsible for overseeing all three of Golden’s casinos – Golden Mardi Gras, Golden Gates and Golden Gulch. The combined enterprise operated 1,200 slot machines, 25 table games, a 20-table poker room, three restaurants, six bars and 450 employees.

Prior to joining Golden Casino Group, Bauer worked for Majestic Star Casinos, LLC and as executive director of marketing for Hyatt Regency Lake Tahoe Casino. Bauer began his career at Harrah’s Reno in 1987 and worked his way from operations positions into corporate leadership roles for Harrah’s Entertainment, working as the company’s marketing communications director and opening several riverboat and tribal gaming casinos throughout the 1990s.

Publisher’s note: This is from the July 1973 Lake Tahoe Historical Society newsletter.

By Mike Magliari, Lake Tahoe Historical Society

Until recently, little research was done concerning the Washoe Indians. Aside from the Washoe Indian Trail on Taylor Creek and Dat-so-la-lee basket collections, there wasn’t much one could see pertaining to Lake Tahoe’s earlier inhabitants. Most local historical literature we have is devoted to events dating back only as far Fremont’s discovery of the Lake in 1844.

But now, a major investigation of the Washoe’s is being carried out by a team from the University of Nevada, working under a $6,000 grant, that is making an archaeological survey of the Taylor Creek area. This survey will cover the Fallen Leaf region from the creek to Glen Alpine. The purpose of the investigation is to determine the extent of the Washoe inhabitation of the area, which was once their summer home before they were place on reservation in the Carson Valley.

Mr. Elliot Graham of the Forest Service stated that the Forest Service is interested in the investigation because they want to be sure that the future construction of campsites near Fallen Leaf will not destroy the remains of the Indian culture.

The team in its first week, has already discovered four living sites along with grinding stones. Some of these remains are 3,000 years old. The general result of the survey will be made public, however specific location of sites will not be, in order to prevent destruction of the sites by rock-hounds and collectors.

The Washoe Indian tribe, located in Woodfords and the Carson Valley, is also interested in the survey. The Wahoe’s wish to build an Indian cultural center and Indian campground on land leased form the Forest Service. Their center will probably be located near the Visitors Center near Taylor Creek. The Washoes have already taken out an application for the land. They will use the center to tell the history of their tribe and to sell Indian crafts.

The idea of an Indian cultural center is a good one and will provide a much needed addition to the historical development of the Lake Tahoe region.

The El Dorado County Mental Health Division of the Health Services Department is having two public meetings Oct. 22.

The first is from 1-2:30pm at 1900 Lake Tahoe Blvd., South Lake Tahoe and then from 3-4:30pm at 670 Placerville Drive, 2nd Floor, Placerville.

The public meetings will be hosted by the El Dorado County Health Services Department, Mental Health Division to provide the community with information on the MHSA Housing component, including:

1. Background information on MHSA-supported housing

2. Local issues, suggestions and feedback

3. Next steps: The process for developing a housing plan in El Dorado County.

By Tom Knudson, Sacramento Bee

With button-brown eyes, striped cheeks and a bushy orange-black tail, the Inyo chipmunk has darted among the gnarled pines of the Sierra Nevada for centuries.

But it has apparently vanished.

“We have not been able to find it anywhere,” said James Patton, a retired UC Berkeley professor of zoology who has scoured parts of the high Sierra over the past two years in search of the elusive species.

No one knows why – or when – the species vanished. There is talk about air pollution and competition from other chipmunk species. But most of the speculation centers on climate change, which has brought warming temperatures, earlier snowmelt and changing forest conditions to the region over the past century.

Read the whole story

Nevada Day, a four-day celebration of the Silver State’s admission to the Union in 1864, will recognize “100 Years of Aviation in Nevada.” The centennial marks the history-making flight of daredevil pilot Ivy Baldwin just west of Carson City – at elevation 4,675 feet the highest at that time.

Lt. Col. (Ret.) Dick Rutan of the U.S. Air Force will serve as grand marshal for the 2010 celebration. A modern day aviation pioneer, Rutan is known for piloting the first nonstop unrefueled flight around the world in 1986 and was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame in 2002. He flew 325 missions in Vietnam and was awarded the Silver Star, five Distinguished Flying Crosses, 16 Air Medals and a Purple Heart.

Currently, he is flying a Berkut, a homebuilt, experimental airplane with hopes to establish additional world records, while breaking some of his own.

Nevada Day festivities will include family activities with history, live music, contests, dining events, parades and carnivals.

Details:

Oct. 28

· RSVP Carnival will provide carnival rides for adults and children at Mills Park in Carson City. The RSVP Carnival will open at 4pm Thursday and noon Oct. 29–31. Admission is free, with a fee for rides.

Oct. 29

· The Carson Nugget hosts the Grand Marshal Dinner beginning at 6pm with a social and cocktail hour followed by a buffet dinner at 7pm. After dinner the grand marshal, Dick Rutan, treats guests to a presentation highlighting his many accomplishments. Tickets are $30. (775) 882.2600

Oct. 30

· A Pancake Breakfast will be hosted by the Carson City Republican Women’s Club at the Governor’s Mansion from 7-9:30am gives residents a chance to meet political representatives prior to the parade. Adults are $6 and children under 10 are $3. Proceeds benefit Carson City High School and Dayton High School. (775) 884.3011

· An Air Show will include all types of aircraft, including an 8am hot-air balloon launch (weather permitting), followed by a flyover of F-18 Hornets and an F-16 Falcon from Fallon Naval Air Station and a Lockheed C-130 Hercules transport plane from the Nevada Air Guard. The flyover will signal the start of the Nevada Day Parade at 10am. Parade festivities feature marching bands, floats, equestrian groups and historical displays. The parade starts at William St. and Carson St. and ends at the intersection of Stewart and Carson streets. (775) 882.2600

By Stephen Ward

In 1983, Dr. Donald Trunkey, an innovative physician with a dream to help injured patients regardless of their financial constraints, formed the California Shock/Trauma Air Rescue service.

Since then, CalStar has helped the Tahoe area provide quick transportation to nearby hospitals, with more than 3,000 transports since Tahoe’s CalStar-6 base opened in 2001.

Bryan Pond, a 47-year-old Meyers resident, has been with CalStar for more than 10 years. He works with a 5,500-pound, 28-foot long Eurocopter B0 105, capable of going 149mph, with a rotor span of more than 32 feet.

Landing on highways is normal for Calstar so patients are taken to hospitals faster. Photo/Kathryn Reed

The nonprofit medical flight service’s purpose is to get people with traumatic injuries to the nearest hospital as soon as possible.

Pond said the numbers haven’t fluctuated much within the last few years, with this years 247-patient transports being considered average.

“The most common accident we deal with are car wrecks,” Pond said. “In the winters, we have skiers we need to help, and in the summer there are boating accidents. I’d say that car wrecks are the types of accidents we deal with most, though.”

Something that sets the organization apart is that it flies two critical air nurses rather than the normal regime of one nurse and one paramedic.

CalStar doesn’t just transport people to and from hospitals. The organization also helps agencies such as Lake Valley Fire Department with wildfires and during inclement weather, and is featured at Barton Health’s annual skills lab to help inform medics and nurses about the latest technology within their field.

Carson Tahoe Regional Medical Center partnered with CalStar in 2008 to install rescue vehicles with portable EKG devices. With the device, the EKG technology can determine the precise location of the abnormal blood flow to the heart by transmitting a 12-lead electrocardiogram image, which is instantly transmitted to the staff at CTRMC to prepare for the patient’s arrival. The technology has been incredibly helpful and the relationship between CTRMC and CalStar continues to be a strong one, according to CTRMC spokesman Jon Tyler.

Medical centers such as Barton Health uses CalStar not only to receive patients, but also to transport them to other hospitals if their conditions require extensive help.

Karla Peterson, the base hospital coordinator who has been working for Barton for more than 18 years, considers CalStar to be an integral part of the hospital.

“As a small hospital, we need to be able to take anyone in,” Peterson said. “However, we are aware of our limited resources and need to have a way to transport patients that need more help. If we didn’t have them, we’d be in trouble.”

Nicole Shearer, public relations business partner at Renown Medical Center in Reno, also considers the air ambulance service a commodity.

“Renown Health has a good partnership with CalStar,” Shearer said. “As the only Level II Trauma Center between Sacramento and Salt Lake City, services like those offered by CalStar help Renown’s rural patients get the care they need.”

Today, the company has more than eight full-time bases and has an abundance of helicopters and planes in its fleet, including four MD 902 Explorer helicopters and a Cessna 421.

CalStar is continuing to assist the Northern California region, with the South Lake Tahoe outfit striving to maintain close relations with the hospitals it partners with.

CalStar has a membership program that will cut the cost if their service is ever needed. Information is on CalStar’s website.

By Kathryn Reed

A 60-year-old South Lake Tahoe woman who lives in her van had the windows shot out with bean bags by police after she nearly ran over a sergeant, led officers on a chase and held them at bay for 30 minutes.

South Lake Tahoe police officers responded to a call of gunshots being fired on Oct. 15 at 7:10pm near Regan Beach. They found Jill Shelly in a full size 1988 Ford E350. She was reportedly confrontational and wanted to talk to a supervisor.

Sgt. Shannon Laney said when he arrived on the scene Shelly tried to run him over. As she spun the vehicle toward Laney, Officer Travis Cabral broke the driver side window. He’s off work for a few weeks after needing stitches in his hand from cutting it on the glass.

Shelly sped off, leading officers on a two-mile chase. In front of Rojo’s Bar and Grill at Los Angeles and Harrison avenues, Laney said the suspect swerved toward customers standing out front.

The chase ended in front of the police department on Johnson Boulevard.

“After a 30-minute standoff, Shelly finally complied with officers only after the officers shot out all of the windows in her van with bean bags and threatened to send the police K-9 in after her,” Laney said in a statement.

Earlier this fall officers had a run-in with Shelly near the El Dorado County library when there was a report of shots fired. Nothing tied her to the shots fired that day.

On Friday, Shelly was arrested on charges of attempted homicide, felony evading an officer and resisting an officer. No firearms were found in the van she lives out of.

“I’ve never seen two big pursuits like that in one day, let along one month,” Laney said of this and the chase that ended with three arrests in Kings Beach earlier Friday. He said it was lucky no one was seriously injured considering the speeds of the first chase and the number of officers involved between the two events.

Anyone who knows Shelly or witnessed the altercation is asked to contact Detective Jeff Roberson at (530) 542.6100.

By Tracy Correa, McClatchy Newspapers

Monica Hoenig could have enrolled her 4-year-old son Ryan in kindergarten this year, but she was concerned that his lack of maturity would cause him to lag academically – not only now, but in years to come.

So she signed him up for a pilot transitional kindergarten program at Washington School, a charter school in Kingsburg, Calif.

The transitional program gives Ryan an extra year to learn some of what’s taught in kindergarten. But Ryan also can learn at a slower pace – and with far less pressure to master skills such as writing.

The new program in Kingsburg, one of a growing number of transitional kindergarten classes statewide, would be mandated under proposed legislation that would hike the age of kindergartners and give younger children the chance to be better prepared when they enroll.

Parents and some education activists have tried for years to raise California’s age requirement for kindergarten, but past bills failed to win legislative support.

Read the whole story

The Dakota Organization will present “Talking With…,” a study of love, loneliness and obsession where laughter mingles with perpetual sadness.

The play is Oct. 21-23 at 7:30pm and Oct. 24 at 2pm at the CVIC Hall, 1602 Esmeralda in Minden. Tickets are $15 for general admission and $10 for students and seniors.

This play consists of 10 monologues by women who speak in depth and with humor of the things that they have encountered in the lives. The characters of a snake handler, daughter, baton twirler, washed-up rodeo cowgirl, tattooed woman, older woman in the twilight of her years, belabored (literally) immigrant, a McDonald’s devotee and ex-rodeo queen talk with us about the lessons that they learned. In this study of women’s lives, Jane Martin’s characters address the value of quirky behavior and society’s indifference toward it.

Barton Memorial Hospital Auxiliary’s annual Holiday Faire at St. Theresa Catholic Church is Nov. 7 from 9am-3pm.

The church is at the corner of Lyons Avenue and Highway 50 in South Lake Tahoe.

The auxiliary’s famous cheese balls will be for sale.