The Great Tahoe Flume Race is sanctioned by USA Cycling and is the final race in the Nevada Cup State Championship Series, a four-race points series that will determine the Nevada State Mountain Bike Champion, which carries a $1,000 prize.

The Reno Wheelman are putting on the Sept. 12 9am event.

The race is 18 miles, with a 3,100-foot elevation gain.

Proceeds go toward the volunteer backcountry patrol in the Lake Tahoe Nevada State Park.

To register, visit bikereg.com.

A basic life support CPR/AED class is being offered Oct. 11 from 5:30–9pm.

Cost is $50 for this one evening class. Fee includes manual.

This course is geared for the general public and covers 30:2 CPR for adults, children and infants AED use resuscitation masks.

How to help someone choking. Upon successful completion, receive a two-year certificate.

The instructor is Duane DeClerck. Call him at (530) 906.8171 for more details or set up a class geared for dental & health professionals.

Sign up early to guarantee that the class will run.

Register at the South Lake Tahoe Parks & Recreation Complex, 1180 Rufus Allen Blvd., South Lake Tahoe.

For more info, call (530) 542.6056 or check www.recreationintahoe.com.

Determine your fitness level on a 23-mile challenge hike with the TRTA. Join experienced volunteer guides for a day of hiking on the longest segment of the Tahoe Rim Trail.

The trail from Kingsbury Grade south to Big Meadow maintains a 10 percent or less grade, however there are some steep rocky sections around Monument Pass. Much of this route is exposed and above 9,000 feet.

Meet at Big Meadow trailhead at 6am Aug. 27, where the appropriate number of cars will be selected to shuttle the Kingsbury South trailhead. After the hike, a couple volunteers will be needed to bring shuttle drivers back to their cars.

Meeting Place: Big Meadow Trailhead

Time: 6am

Distance: 23.1 Miles

Expected Length: 10 hours

Difficulty: Strenuous

Bring: Lunch, snacks, and at least two liters of water. Water is available to filter at Star Lake. If you have a filter, bring it on this hike. Bring raincoat, sun protection (hat, sunglasses, and lotion).

Fitness Level/Special Skills: Please note that this hike is designed for experienced hikers who are in good physical condition. This is a long hike. Hikers should be comfortable hiking all day. Although there will be periodic breaks, a steady pace needs to be maintained in order to finish the hike at a reasonable time of day.

Pre-registration is required for all hikes. For more information or to sign-up for these hikes call the TRTA office at (775) 298.0012 or email jaimes@tahoerimtrail.org

Toast the end of the summer season during the 22nd Annual Alpen Wine Festival at The Village at Squaw Valley on Sept. 5. Wine aficionados will sip fine vintages while taking in the mountain scenery and listening to live music, all to help raise money for Can Do Multiple Sclerosis.

The Village at Squaw teams up with Uncorked Wine Bar to host an event where the aroma of the wines is accompanied by the perfume of the pines. For a $40 donation to Can Do Multiple Sclerosis, guests will sip vintages served in a crystal souvenir wine glass from 2 to 5pm.

Event attendees can enjoy a variety of flavors from more than 40 wineries such as Napa Valley winemaking pioneers Venge Vineyards, Canihan Family Cellars, known for their award-winning Pinot Noir, Syrah, and Cabernet Franc crafted on their certified organic estate vineyards in the heart of the Sonoma Valley, and Flowers, which grows and produces cool-climate wines that authentically express the unique character of the coolest areas of the rugged Sonoma Coast. The Alpen Wine Festival also will feature wines from Hall, Three Families, Vinum Cellars, Pine Ridge, Dierberg, Twisted Rivers, Merriam Winery, Praxis Cellars and many more.

Tickets will be available starting at 1pm on Sunday in The Village. The majority of wines served at the event also can be purchased at Uncorked.

The Alpen Wine Festival also will feature a silent auction room and raffle, which will help provide additional support for Can Do Multiple Sclerosis, formerly known as The Heuga Center. Festival attendees can bid on more than 50 items, including artwork, dinners at restaurants, magnums signed by winemakers, mixed cases of wine and more.

Can Do MS, formerly The Heuga Center for Multiple Sclerosis, is an innovative provider of lifestyle empowerment programs for people with MS and their support partners. A national nonprofit organization, they empower people to move beyond their MS by giving them the knowledge, skills, tools and confidence to adopt healthy lifestyle behaviors, actively co-manage their disease and live their best lives.

For more information, visit www.Squaw.com or call (530) 584.6266.

The South Lake Tahoe Ice Arena is offering more curling events to prepare people for our upcoming leagues this fall.

These clinics are offered this Saturday and select Saturdays in September and October.

Curling is a sport similar to shuffleboard played on ice. Although it is often played with significant strategy and skill, it can be enjoyed by all ages after a short lesson.

Prepare yourself by logging on to www.curlingbasics.com to learn the fundamentals of the game. Cost is $12 and enrollment is limited so sign up soon by stopping by the Arena at 1176 Rufus Allen Blvd., or calling (530) 542.6262.

By P.J. Huffstutter and Shan Li, Los Angeles Times

In May, days after a group of high school students in the Bay Area nibbled on custard-filled pastries at a catered prom dinner, several of them started to complain about aching stomachs. Around the same time, some college students celebrating their graduation used the same catering company — and also fell ill.

Soon after, more than 350 miles to the south, diners at seven restaurants in Los Angeles, Orange and San Diego counties headed into their doctor’s offices with bad bouts of diarrhea.

On June 18, nearly 2,000 miles to the east, in Kenosha, Wis., Tanja Dzinovic finished up a Cobb salad at her favorite restaurant — and less than two days later, she was running a high fever and severely dehydrated from diarrhea. At least 20 other people who ate there also grew ill with salmonella enteritidis.

Local, state and federal epidemiologists tracing back each of these cases — from the fork to the farm — saw one name pop up: Wright County Egg of Galt, Iowa.

Read the whole story

By Kathryn Reed

A throng of citizens demonstrated Thursday that getting involved in the government process can bring change.

It took most of the morning session and until 3 that afternoon, but in the end the South Lake Tahoe City Council unanimously agreed to form a committee to help create an ordinance regarding marijuana cultivation for medicinal purposes.

More than two dozen people, mostly against the ordinance that was before the council, gave a range of reasons why the legislation as written was bad. Most called for it to be pulled from the agenda.

It was standing room only, with people listening to the pot discussion on the TV in the lobby on Aug. 19. Photo/Kathryn Reed

Representatives of the three medicinal marijuana collectives in town will be on the committee, along with Councilmen Bruce Grego and Bill Crawford; the city attorney; city manager; fire, police and building department reps; homeowner; and planning commissioner. In the coming weeks they will meet to hash out their differences and ideally find consensus so an ordinance is brought back to the current council to vote on.

Health and safety issues are what the council wants to address.

Jan McCarthy, who will be the homeowners’ voice on the panel, told the council she has spent more than $30,000 to rehab a home that has been used as a grow-house. She is going to have a clause written into future rental agreements not allowing pot to be grown.

“Black mold is such a problem for insurance companies they will tear a house down before they remediate it,” Fire Marshal Ray Zachau told Lake Tahoe News.

It’s the high moisture content that causes the nasty mold. One house was so bad a few years ago on Walkup Road that the entire structure was demolished.

Holes are cut in floors and walls to move air around. The aroma of pot plants permeates the night air when the grow-houses use fans to circulate the air in the house – and subsequently push it outdoors.

Another concern of fire officials is if there were a fire at the grow houses with all the air circulating, it unknowingly puts firefighters at risk. Fire loves oxygen.

Several people who spoke wondered why no outdoor plants are allowed. The answer was the Planning Commission proposed that rule.

The city wants to restrict those who are allowed to grow marijuana per rules in the 1996 voter approved Proposition 215 to inside the house or the garage. Zachau said the garage is better for fire prevention reasons.

“It’s responsible growers who are speaking today, not the ones doing damage,” said Matt Lonardo. He works at Mt. Tallac High School and pointed out the students he is around have a lot more serious issues to deal with than medicinal marijuana.

It’s felony vandalism that the District Attorney’s Office has charged people who have recently been arrested with large indoor grows. With the state and federal laws about marijuana being out of alignment, this is a better legal route to pursue with less chance of an appeal or acquittal.

There is disagreement about how much space plants need as well as the wattage, or amps, needed to keep them thriving. Those are some of the issues that will be discussed by the committee.

It was said over and over that experts should be helping write the ordinance.

It’s legal for growers to sell what they don’t use to the collectives. But it’s only supposed to be at the price that it cost them to grow it. This is not supposed to be a revenue source for the growers, per state law.

A concern of city officials is these small growers with medicinal marijuana permits are deriving income from the sale of the end product. That was not the intent of the proposition.

Regulating whatever ordinance is approved is another concern. Pot advocates on Aug. 19 said they didn’t want the police to be the ones knocking on their door to enforce compliance. Medical privacy – HIPPA – was brought up.

Most in the room supported regulating the industry. What they want is for it to be fair, logical, relevant and to have a say in the rules they will have to follow.

“You can’t change the law just because of your personal opinions,” Leanne Aalmo told the council.

This year’s evening program series at the Lake of the Sky Amphitheater will close out Aug. 26 with “An Evening with Mark Twain.” The program, which begins at 7pm, features local favorite MacAvoy Lane recounting Twain’s significant role in the history of the Lake Tahoe Basin.

The local U.S. Forest Service’s nonprofit organization, the Tahoe Heritage Foundation, accepts a $2 per person donation to help defray costs.

Come get a chuckle and go back in time for this one-hour living history presentation at the center’s Lake of the Sky Amphitheater, located on Highway 89 toward Emerald Bay.

By Susan Voyles, Reno Gazette-Journal

To keep homegrown special events from taking flight, the Reno City Council is on the verge of setting new rules requiring special event producers to promise not to put on a similar event within 45 days before or after their events in Reno.

If they break the rule, they’d pay a penalty equal to half of the money received under their sponsorship agreements with the city.

“If the community nurtures an event,” said Cadence Matijevich, city special events manager, “we would want our homegrown events to stay here.”

The council asked for the policy in early July after the executive director of Hot August Nights, Reno’s premiere special event, announced plans to expand to Long Beach, Calif., next summer. South Lake Tahoe was added for this year’s event.

Read the whole story

By Shannon Laney

The problem of impaired driving is a serious one. While America witnessed a decline in the number of DUI fatalities in recent years, the numbers are still too high. That’s why the Avoid the 6 DUI Task Force Campaign today announced it will join other law enforcement agencies throughout the country in support of an intensive crackdown on impaired driving Aug. 20–Sept. 6, known by its tagline, Drunk Driving. Over the Limit. Under Arrest.

Alcohol involved fatalities and injuries have dropped dramatically in the last three years of this end-of-summer enforcement campaign in California. Combined deaths and injuries in 2007 were 1,780, dropping to 1,682 in 2008. Provisional 2009 data show that the numbers have dropped again, to 1,317 a 26 percent decrease in just three years.

The Avoid the 6 El Dorado County will deploy officers to conduct 3 Checkpoints, a multi-agency DUI Task Force operation, 5 local roving DUI saturation patrols, and a warrant/probation sweep targeting repeat offenders throughout the county.

Aug. 20 from 8pm-2am, officers from South Lake Tahoe, Placerville and El Dorado County will be conducting a DUI checkpoint on Pioneer Trail and on Lake Tahoe Boulevard.

Aug. 24, South Lake Tahoe will be conducting a DUI checkpoint along Pioneer Trail.

Aug. 27, Placerville and South Lake Tahoe will be conducting a DUI checkpoint along Highway 50 in Placerville.

“All too often, innocent, law-abiding people suffer tragic consequences and the loss of loved ones due to this careless disregard for human life,” said Christopher J. Murphy, director of the California Office of Traffic Safety. “Because of the commitment to end the carnage, Police, Sheriffs and CHP are intensifying enforcement during the crackdown. They’ll be especially vigilant during high-risk nighttime hours when impaired drivers are most likely to be on our roads.”

According to the latest national data, 32 percent of fatalities in motor vehicle traffic crashes involve a driver or motorcycle rider with a blood alcohol content of 0.08 percent or above, averaging one fatality every 45 minutes.

“Our message is simple and unwavering. If we find you driving impaired, we will arrest you. No exceptions,” said interim Police Chief Martin Hewlett of South Tahoe. “Even if you beat the odds and walk away from an impaired-driving crash alive, motorists should be aware that the financial and social consequences of a DUI can be devastating.”

Violators will face jail time, loss of their driver’s license, huge fines and maybe sentenced to use ignition interlocks. Their insurance rates go up. Other financial hits include attorney fees, court costs, lost time at work, and the potential loss of job or job prospects. When family, friends and co-workers find out, violators can also face tremendous personal embarrassment and humiliation.

Driving impaired is simply not worth all the consequences. Just designate a sober driver. Don’t take the chance. Remember, if you are over the limit, you’re under arrest.

For more information on local and statewide Avoid DUI Task Force Campaign Enforcement Schedules and Daily DUI Arrest/Fatal Stats, visit the www.californiaavoid.org. The Program is funded by the California Office of Traffic Safety who reminds everyone to report drunken driving by calling 911.

Shannon Laney is a sergeant in the South Lake Tahoe Police Department.