The North Lake Tahoe Chamber of Commerce is hosting a computer demonstration as part of their Chamber EDucation series titled “Learn How to Modernize Your Business PCs” Sept. 21 from 8:30-10am at Granlibakken Resort, 725 Granlibakken Road, in Tahoe City.

The demonstration is a firsthand look, along with a live demonstration, of Microsoft Office 2010 and Windows 7 and will focus on how these programs can assist a business.

Ron Baker of JFG Systems, who is a Microsoft-certified gold partner and a SonicWall certified gold partner, will provide the demonstration.

All attendees will receive certificates that allow them to register for complimentary online software training when they purchase Office 2010 and/or Windows 7.

Registration is $20 for North Lake Tahoe Chamber of Commerce members and $30 for non-members and includes Granlibakken’s buffet breakfast. Seating is limited.

To register and for more information about the workshop, call North Lake Tahoe Chamber of Commerce Manger Kym Fabel at (530) 581.8764 or download a registration form at www.NorthLakeTahoeChamber.com, click on Programs and Documents.

Liz Broscoe’s DURGA — a journey on the drum from ancient times to modern day — is Oct. 8 at 7pm at MontBleu in Stateline.

It is sponsored by Tahoe Arts Project.

Cost is $10 for adults; $5 for children and seniors.

For more information, call (530) 542.3632.

The Nevada Sheriffs’ and Chiefs’ Association annual Nevada Carry Concealed Weapon Permit Holders Forum is Sept. 30 from 9am-noon in Carson City.

Douglas County Undersheriff Paul Howell, Julie Butler of the Division of Records and Technology, and Frank Adams, executive director of the Nevada Sheriffs’ and Chiefs’ Association, will moderate the panel.

The meeting will also be broadcast on the Nevada Legislature’s website.

The event is at the Nevada Legislature Building (401 S Carson St.), Room 1214.

By Dale Kasler, Sacramento Bee

California’s barely visible economic recovery should crawl along for another year or longer, putting off any meaningful gains until sometime in 2012, according to the latest projections from UCLA.

The quarterly UCLA Anderson Forecast, to be released today, says statewide unemployment won’t fall below 10 percent until the last three months of 2012.

Despite the bleak outlook, UCLA senior economist Jerry Nickelsburg dismissed speculation that the economy is heading into a double-dip recession.

“California’s growing, but it’s growing slowly,” he said in an interview. “It doesn’t follow that slow growth means you turn in a different direction.”

Read the whole story

Soroptimist International of Tahoe Sierra will host Tony O’Rourke, South Lake Tahoe city manager, on Sept. 16 at 7:30am at the Lake Tahoe Senior Center in South Lake Tahoe.

On Sept. 30 Kathy Strain, an instructor at Lake Tahoe Community College and a consultant with the California State Parks, will speak about the issue concerning the Upper Truckee River, its effect on Lake Tahoe Golf Course and what the proposals are to address this issue.

Everyone is welcome.

By Kathryn Reed

Hellen Barclay could be the poster woman for Soroptimist and the American Dream.

She survived being born in Kenya in the 1970s when daughters were the less desired gender – and in many ways still are. She survived an abusive marriage – which many women are still trapped in. She survived the humiliation of being a single mom in a culture much less accepting of those circumstances than the United States is. She overcame moving to a foreign country 10 years ago and feeling like an outsider.

Hellen Barclay

Barclay, who is a member of Soroptimist International Tahoe Sierra, spoke to the group last week about her life, her struggles, her triumphs and her dreams.

“My father said he wanted to empower his daughters. (For them) to be a voice in the village,” Barclay said.

Her father ignored the village leaders who brought women to their home for him to marry, saying his wife – her mother – was bad luck for giving birth to so many daughters. Men could have multiple wives. Daughters were and are still seen as a burden.

It was unusual for girls to get an education. But all the boys did. It was even more rare to go to college. But that’s just what Barclay did. She went to India, earning a master’s in business administration.

Today is she is manager of the Wells Fargo branch in Round Hill.

“I don’t know how I could have lived in Kenya. You are supposed to be seen and not heard,” Barclay laughs.

Though her accent is still strong, her English is impeccable. Her self-deprecating nature is combined with a self-assuredness that makes one believe she could make her native continent be full of women to be reckoned with.

Each year she goes home to visit her family. She talks to groups about standing up for themselves, against girls being used as instruments of income, against rape and for equality.

“Men do things they can’t do here,” Barclay said. “There are so many organizations here to help you.”

When she was growing up it was a right of passage from girlhood to womanhood to have the lower six teeth removed. It happened to her mother. Her father would not allow it for his daughters.

“I want to advocate and educate girls. I want to tell them not to take the abuse – that you can’t just be raped,” Barclay said.

At the meeting last week, a basket was passed around to collect money for the Dolphin organization that helps fight rape and to control AIDS in Africa. It’s a group this Soroptimist club is giving $1,000 to. It’s also been a beneficiary of the local Vagina Monologues troupe.

Barclay hopes to visit the non-governmental organization later this fall when she visits her family in Nairobi.

Though life has improved in her homeland, it was just last year that her parents got electricity. The village doesn’t have it. Her parents have a pump for water in the house. She grew up having to haul water on her head.

Today, when Barclay returns to her village she said she is a role model for girls. On this day, she was clearly a role model for the women listening to her.

By Kathryn Reed

“This is a greater danger to us than the Angora Fire.”

Those were South Lake Tahoe City Councilman Bruce Grego’s words as he passionately pleaded for his fellow councilmembers on Tuesday to close down the three medicinal marijuana facilities by the end of October.

Bruce Grego at the Sept. 14 South Tahoe council meeting received zero support. Photo/Kathryn Reed

“How far we going to let this go?” he asked.

His four colleagues looked dumbfounded and essentially sat on their hands. Without two others thinking it would be a good idea to schedule a special meeting to consider invoking emergency powers to shut the pot clubs down, Grego was left spewing hot air.

Grego never explained how the pot clubs are worse than the June 2007 fire that destroyed 254 homes, caused $150 million in damage and cost $23 million to fight. Then there are those 3,100 acres that burned and the ongoing restoration costs. Throw in the lost tourism dollars, the money other entities and businesses lost, and it’s hard to know how Grego could invoke pot clubs and Angora Fire in the same sentence.

Grego mentioned Steve Kubby by name. Kubby is one of 10 people running for three council seats and is a strong advocate for medicinal marijuana. It’s unusual for a sitting councilmember to inject himself so blatantly in a race and take sides.

South Lake Tahoe leaders have said they want a second economy beyond tourism. Clearly, with the number of clients the three collectives in town have, it’s not just locals getting medicine. Kubby wants South Tahoe to be known for world-class pot dispensaries.

Oakland has embraced this type of business and is taxing the heck out of them to generate revenue. Other cities are saying they want nothing to do with pot clubs.

South Lake Tahoe has a habit of issuing a business license and then deciding it doesn’t like that type of business – think Broc’s Puppies. The collectives have business licenses now, so clearly someone in the city said this is allowable.

Grego let out his rant during council member comments on Sept. 14. He said he was surprised to learn pot is being grown in the commercial areas of town and that some of the dispensaries are growing pot. But all of this has been said at council meetings he has been at, so he should not have been surprised to learn it at the committee meeting.

Grego and Councilman Bill Crawford are part of a committee working on medicinal marijuana issues. The first meeting was last week. The next is today at 3pm in council chambers and the following is Sept. 23.

The committee meetings are open to the public.

No one on that committee is a doctor, no one is an expert in pain management, no one is an expert in the whole issue of medical marijuana.

At the start of the council meeting during public comment, 12 people spoke, with one letter read into the record. Most said how they are against the clubs, but want people to have the medicinal pot if they really need it. They didn’t propose a way for that to happen, though.

The overwhelming concern is this is not the type of town they want – to be known for a medicinal drug that otherwise is still illegal. (That may change on Nov. 2 depending on how Californians vote.)

They seem to forget it’s hard to legislate morality.

By Daniel Lowenstein

Charles Munger Jr., son of Wall Street player and billionaire Charles Munger Sr., donated $1 million in 2008 to the campaign supporting Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s bizarre legislative redistricting initiative scheme, Proposition 11.

Now, Munger Jr. is the major sponsor and so far only contributor (well, others have given $100,000; Munger Jr. has given $3.7 million as of Aug. 31) to what he calls the Voters First Act for Congress – Proposition 20.

Prop. 20 would give power over redistricting of California’s congressional districts to a panel of 14 randomly selected volunteers – who must, by law, have no experience in government or real-life redistricting. Those volunteers would be chosen by a process that only a tax accountant could love. In fact, anonymous tax accountants play a big role in the selection but what is most puzzling about Munger’s Prop. 20 is that it mandates that all California’s political districts be segregated by income level – each district to include only people of the same income. That’s right, Munger’s initiative orders that all districts be segregated according to income – “similar living standards … similar work opportunities” – these are the exact words he put into Prop. 20.

Read the whole story

Greetings from the Food Service Department!

Just a quick note to let all of you know that I have purchased some pesticide free and wax free Gala apples and pesticide free petite red seedless grapes from Mt. Moriah Farms in Lodi. The grapes were just picked Sept. 13 at this family run farm.

Farm to school … pretty great.

The items were being delivered to the cafeteria sites Tuesday morning. This fruit will be offered over the next several days with cafeteria lunches.

Please encourage your students to try this delicious fruit.

Thanks for your continued support of our department.

Shelley Giannotta, Lake Tahoe Unified School District

Sierra-at-Tahoe is gearing up for the 2010-11 winter season by hosting two hiring fairs to fill a variety of seasonal positions. Nearly every operational department will be hiring at the two on-site job fairs including patrol, lift operations, retail, food and beverage, ski and snowboard school, and more.

The first job fair will be at Sierra Resort Oct. 9 from 9am-noon. This fair is for applicants interested in working in ski and snowboard school, daycare, and competition services. Skiing and non-skiing positions will include full-time, part-time, and on-call shifts for weekends and holidays.

A non-mandatory, dry-land, pre-season training for ski and snowboard instructors will be offered six weekends from Oct. 16–Nov. 21 from 10am-3pm. This training includes aerobic and anaerobic conditioning, functional movement screen analysis and corrective exercise, and PSIA and AASI pre-certification prep and clinics. The cost is $99 per participant, and lunch is not included.

A second hiring fair is also at Sierra. It is Oct. 23 from 9am-2pm. Nearly every operational department will be interviewing and hiring seasonal workers. Bartenders will not be interviewed at the job fair, but are asked to submit a resume to hrstaffing.st@boothcreek.com.

All prospective employees are asked to fill out an application online prior to arriving at the job fair.

Ability to ski or snowboard is not required for all jobs.

Sierra Resort is also looking for real estate professionals and private homeowners to join its Rental Rewards Program, which awards season passes and lift ticket vouchers in exchange for offering winter housing to Sierra Resort employees. Anyone interested may direct questions to Human Resources at (530) 543.3107.

For more information, click here or call (530) 659.7453.