If you like “beachy/campfire” music, come and join the Tahoe Aunties Ukulele Band every Wednesday from 5:30-6:30pm at the platform at Regan Beach in South Lake Tahoe. Sing-a-long, bring your instrument, join the fun.

Volunteer for the 13th annual Tahoe Forest Stewardship Day on Sept. 11 at North Tahoe Regional Park.

Join hundreds of volunteers to help restore forest ecosystems, alpine meadows, creeks and streams, and improve water quality.

Learn about forest and fire ecology, defensible space, wildlife, invasive species, and hydrology.

Volunteers and team leaders are needed.

To sign-up, contact Flavia Sordelet at (530) 541.5388 or email events@keeptahoeblue.org.

Music, art, dance and poetry unite in the Sierra Nevada at 6,200 feet in the seventh annual inspiring art hike produced by Trails and Vistas on Sept. 11-12 at Squaw Valley.

Audience members, led by an experienced guide, hike in small groups pausing at 10 art venues, each set against the striking backdrop of towering granite rock faces. Blending art with nature, the hike has had a profound effect on participants who become integral members of this unique experience. It has sold-out the last four years.

Artists and performers will present the expected and the unexpected. This year’s theme, “If Dreams were Clouds” honors the dreamtime. Inspired by dream songs of the land and animals intertwined with the playful and powerful dance of clouds in the sky, artists play with the concept of dreamtime and clouds-floating, twisting, and holding a sculptural figurine before being carried away to another place or sculpted into a memory.

2010 Artists and Performers Capacitor headlines the 2010 Trails and Vistas art hikes throughout the weekend with poetic moving bodies in the landscape set to musical earthly sounds. San Francisco’s interdisciplinary dance company collaborates with the scientific and art community to create mind-expanding, heart-gripping live performances.

Featured artists for Sept. 12 art hikes is the Banana Slug String Band.

Trails and Vistas is also collaborating with more than 20 other artisans to cultivate a transformational experience for every participant.

Hike information and tickets

The nearly 3-mile long hike is strenuous and includes approximately 1,500 gain in elevation. Hikers must be comfortable traversing some rocky areas, including some steep pitches. Hiking groups will depart every 15 minutes with a trail leader (dogs and photography are not allowed). Tickets are $30 for adults and $15 for children. Tickets may be purchased at www.trailsandvistas.org or by calling (530) 587.2757.

Janill Gilbert of South Lake Tahoe is headed to Sample the Sierra on Aug. 21.

She won Lake Tahoe News’ contest to define what Sample the Sierra means. This is her winning haiku:

Wine, Herb, Cheese Sublime.

Ski Run Culture Tastes Divine

Sated Appetite

Janill Gilbert will be at Sample the Sierra on Aug. 21.

The inaugural Sample the Sierra is a cooperative effort to increase awareness of the region’s bounty, heritage, culture and activities through a market-to-table event featuring tastings from Sierra Nevada chefs and restaurants — all created with local produce, and paired with local wineries. Food and wine tasting will be from 1–4pm. The festival starts at noon and ends at 5pm.

All of the fun is on Ski Run Boulevard in South Lake Tahoe.

Featured restaurants and chefs include Bistro Danielle, Latin Soul, Blue Angel Café, 4 Seasons Soup and Salad, Black Bear Inn, Heavenly and Kids Inc Pies. Restaurants will prepare tasting with fresh products from featured growers including, Sacred Paths, Z & B Ranch, Beal’s Orchard, Perez Produce, Rainbow Orchard, Harris Tree Farm and Storm Valley Ranch.

Featured wineries include Wofford Acres Vineyards, Lava Cap Winery, Madrona Vineyards, Perry Creek Winery, Picchetti Winery, Latcham Vineyards, Chevalier Winery and Jodar Winery.

The event marketplace will showcase regional products such as honey, jams and soaps. A juried, original art show will feature pottery, painting, photography and handmade crafts by regional artists and artisans. Live entertainment, including local bands Late for Dinner and Left of Cool, storytellers, acoustic musicians and activities will round out the program.

Festival admission is free. Food and wine tasting is $20, food only tasting $10 and tasting for children is $5. For more information, visit www.samplethesierra.com or call (775) 588.1728.

Taj Mahal Trio has been added as support for the Bob Dylan concert on Aug. 22 at Harveys Lake Tahoe Outdoor Arena.

The Dough Rollers open the show.

Tickets are on sale now via Ticketmaster outlets, ticketmaster.com and apeconcerts.com.

Composer, multi-instrumentalist and vocalist Taj Mahal is one of the most prominent and influential figures in late 20th century blues and roots music. Though his career began more than four decades ago with American blues, he has broadened his artistic scope over the years to include music representing virtually every corner of the world – west Africa, the Caribbean, Latin America, Europe, the Hawaiian islands and so much more. What ties it all together is his insatiable interest in musical discovery. Over the years, his passion and curiosity have led him around the world, and the resulting global perspective is reflected in his music.

With more than 50 original albums and collections to his credit, beginning with 1962’s landmark debut LP, Bob Dylan, Bob Dylan stands alone as the most prolific and influential singer/songwriter in the small pantheon of artists who can rightfully be recognized as “living legends.”

Tickets are $59.50, $69.50, $89.50 and $125. Show time is 6:30pm.

By Jack Chang, Sacramento Bee

This year, the long road to the governor’s office runs through the high desert reservation of the Morongo Band of Mission Indians.

It also stops at the reservations – and casinos – of the Sycuan and Viejas bands of the Kumeyaay Nation east of San Diego.

In fact, the campaign trail crosses many of the state’s Indian reservations, especially those with lucrative gambling compacts. That’s where Democrat Jerry Brown and Republican Meg Whitman – along with candidates for other offices – are seeking the support and potentially hefty donations of tribal leaders.

At stake is the financial backing of a state gambling industry that generates an estimated $7.2 billion a year in revenue. Also at play are the state-negotiated gambling compacts of 47 tribes that expire in 10 years and a proposal to open Indian casinos far away from reservations.

Read the whole story

By Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman, Newsweek

Back in 1958, Ted Schwarzrock was an 8-year-old third grader when he became one of the “Torrance kids,” a group of nearly 400 Minneapolis children who completed a series of creativity tasks newly designed by professor E. Paul Torrance. Schwarzrock still vividly remembers the moment when a psychologist handed him a fire truck and asked, “How could you improve this toy to make it better and more fun to play with?” He recalls the psychologist being excited by his answers. In fact, the psychologist’s session notes indicate Schwarzrock rattled off 25 improvements, such as adding a removable ladder and springs to the wheels. That wasn’t the only time he impressed the scholars, who judged Schwarzrock to have “unusual visual perspective” and “an ability to synthesize diverse elements into meaningful products.”

The accepted definition of creativity is production of something original and useful, and that’s what’s reflected in the tests. There is never one right answer. To be creative requires divergent thinking (generating many unique ideas) and then convergent thinking (combining those ideas into the best result).

In the 50 years since Schwarzrock and the others took their tests, scholars—first led by Torrance, now his colleague, Garnet Millar—have been tracking the children, recording every patent earned, every business founded, every research paper published, and every grant awarded. They tallied the books, dances, radio shows, art exhibitions, software programs, advertising campaigns, hardware innovations, music compositions, public policies (written or implemented), leadership positions, invited lectures, and buildings designed.

Read the whole story

The Boys & Girls Club of Lake Tahoe Golf Tournament is set for Oct. 11 at Edgewood Tahoe Golf Course. The entire $195 entry fee goes directly to the Boys & Girls Club to continue its work with local children.

Last year the BGCLT raised more than $30,000 for local children and this year’s goal is to break $40,000.

The BGCLT’s golf tournament is a traditional prize bonanza with $10,000 for any hole-in-one, an all-expenses paid golf trip and more:

* Rounds of golf at Tahoe/Reno area’s top courses

* Ski trips

* Sports memorabilia

* Golf equipment

* Wines and spirits

* Stays at top area hotels

* Certificates for area restaurants, attractions, activities and merchandise.

Players have their choice of format, either Best Ball or Scramble, with prizes awarded in both categories. In addition to $10,000 for an ace on all par 3s, golfers have a shot at a Grand Prize Golf Vacation.

Golfers receive a gourmet breakfast buffet, a half dozen Titleist ProV balls, a box lunch, beverages on the course and an awards reception with appetizers.

Playing spots, hole sponsorships, and hole-in-one promotions are all available by contacting the Boys & Girls Club at (530) 542.0838 or email: khouser@bgclt.org. For a registration form, click here.

By Chelsea Phua, Sacramento Bee

Moments before stepping inside an El Dorado Hills coffee shop, Vern Pierson pecked away at his BlackBerry. He was sending an e-mail message to his secretary about the caseload handled by a prosecutor.

It was only 8:30am, and Pierson, El Dorado County’s district attorney, already had his plate full. He confessed he is a workaholic.

Vern Pierson

“My wife will tell you this,” Pierson quipped.

As the district attorney of a rural county of about 178,000 people, Pierson runs a small shop, with 22 prosecutors.

But his office has 11 pending homicide cases, nearly four times as many as neighboring Placer County, which has nearly double the number of prosecutors and population of El Dorado County.

Read the whole story

Charles Goldman will be the guest speaker on Aug. 18 at noon during Soroptimist International of South Lake Tahoe’s lunch meeting at Harrah’s Lake Tahoe.

Goldman, a world renowned limnologist and founder of the UC Davis Tahoe Research Group, hosted the inaugural Lake Tahoe Environmental Summit in 1997 with then President Bill Clinton and Vice President Al Gore..

Reservations are necessary. Call (530) 573.2433. The $15 fee includes lunch.