Tibetan Lama Ven. Losang Samten will be at Blue Angel Cafe in South Lake Tahoe on Aug. 25 from 7-9pm.

Classes often include a discussion, story telling, and guided meditation. Suggested donation $10-$20.

The Zephyr Cove branch of the Douglas County Public Library is having a book sale in the meeting room during regular library hours. Used books, VHS tapes, DVDs, and audio books will be on sale Aug. 13 and Aug. 14 from 9am-5pm.

All items will be priced as marked.

The Zephyr Cove library is located at 233 Warrior Way. For more information, call (775) 588.6411 or visit douglas.lib.nv.us.

To the community,

The city of South Lake Tahoe has prepared a draft Green Building Program. This voluntary incentive program will encourage the transformation of the city’s built environment to achieve energy efficiency, water conservation, healthy indoor air quality, and reduced impact on the Earth’s resources.

A description of the draft Green Building Program is posted on the city’s website. Click here or the review the proposed draft Green Building Program. Comments on the program will be taken through Sept. 1. Comments may be submitted in writing or given orally during the following public hearings:

City Planning Commission, Aug. 12 at 3pm, City Council Chambers, 1901 Airport Road or the Sustainability Commission on Sept. 1 at 4pm, City Council Chambers, 1901 Airport Road.

Please contact me at (530) 542.6024 with any questions or written comments.

Thank you,

Hilary Hodges, planning manager South Lake Tahoe

Alternative Energy Home presentation by Ben Solomon at Sierra Nevada College on Aug. 31.

Learn how to develop your own net energy producing, alternative energy home. The program consists of images and description of the development of the Alternative Energy Program at SNC from 1971 to the present, and the conversion of the Solomon house from a “tract” house to a net energy producer.

The material will include helpful information for home owners to reduce their energy consumption and thereby lower utility bills as well as improve home comfort.

Solomon is a professor of Alternative Energy at Sierra Nevada College. He has worked in the energy field since 1971, and has developed many devices and techniques for conserving and harnessing energy.

Time: 5:30pm No-Host Bar. Program begins promptly at 6pm.

Cost: $5 donation requested.

Location: Assembly Rooms 139 and 141, Tahoe Center for Environmental Sciences, 291 Country Club Drive, Incline Village.

For more information, contact Heather Segale at (775) 881. 7562 or email hmsegale@ucdavis.edu.

By Ed Fletcher, Sacramento Bee

In El Dorado County, it pays to stick around.

The county’s response to a Bee inquiry last week into the compensation of top city and county managers omitted the county administrator’s “longevity pay.”

That incentive increased County Administrator Gayle Erbe-Hamlin’s annual salary from the $180,000 base pay reported by The Bee to an actual take-home pay of $202,545.

The adjustment boosts El Dorado County’s current top executive pay from 13th to 10th highest among the Sacramento region’s 22 city managers and county administrators.

Read the whole story

Tahoe Best Friends is offering a free one-hour training session for recently adopted puppies or dogs with proof of adoption from the shelter. Adoption must be within 60 days of the class.

Learn how to integrate your dog into your home, receive training tips and get answers to your questions.

The classes are Aug. 19 from 6-7pm and Sept. 16 from 6-7pm.

Classes are at Tahoe Best Friends at 2197 Ruth Ave., South Lake Tahoe.

For additional information, call (530) 542.2336.

By Kathryn Reed

“It’s a dog’s life” is being taken to a whole new level at Tahoe Best Friends.

Reaching down to pet one of her four legged customers, Paige Rice calls him by name. She knows all of their names. So do the other workers at this canine hotel in South Lake Tahoe.

This is no ordinary place to board a dog.

Harley sees no reason to greet a visitor at Tahoe Best Friends. Photos/Kathryn Reed

“He had to have a couch to lay on and they have a couch to lay on,” says Edith Mankiewiez of Mr. Dutch, her shepherd-husky mix. “They let dogs do the normal things they do at home.”

The Stateline resident uses Tahoe Best Friends as doggie daycare three to four days a week. If she’s late coming back from her job in Carson City, she calls the boarding facility to say Mr. Dutch will be having a sleepover.

About a year ago, Rice started the business out of her home. The desire by a growing number of dog owners to have a facility without kennels or cages led her to expand the business a little more than a month ago. Now she occupies about 2,000-square-feet of indoor space across from South Tahoe Refuse’s recycling center, with about another 1,000-square-feet of outdoor play area.

Maureen Stuhlman is second in charge of the center.

One thing Stuhlman said dog owners like is being able to bring their own food so no intestinal issues arise with changing brands.

Windows to the outdoors and between the three indoor dog areas create airiness. One room is devoted to little dogs, another for big, the other for training. Doors can be opened so it’s one big romper room.

Dogs of all sizes, breeds and ages tromp in and out. A wrestling match of sorts is going on in one corner. It looks like a pool party out back. Others are loafing on comfy couches and chairs by the fireplace or near the television.

A log cabin feel is what Rice is creating.

Shy dogs or ones lacking in social skills are introduced to the rest of the brood gradually. At most there are 25 dogs on any given day.

Zeke is Susan Frailey’s first dog. The 11-month-old black Lab first visited Tahoe Best Friends at about 12 weeks old. Socialization was a big reason she picked this place.

“I feel like I’m taking my son to a really great day care,” the Meyers resident said. “He is super excited every time we go there. We get to day care and he is so happy and ready to go play.”

Zeke it at the center a couple days a week and spends the night when Frailey is out of town.

Lori MacDonald also liked the socialization aspect of Tahoe Best Friends when it came to finding a place for Miso. The teacup Yorkie was 5 months when she first stayed over.

The MacDonalds were in Tahoe earlier this summer staying at their timeshare that doesn’t allow dogs. They had Miso spend the night, but picked her up during the day to play with them.

“The way she was introduced to the other dogs, they did is slow and one at a time,” the Bay Area woman said. “She had not been around a lot of dogs before.”

She said Miso didn’t do any of that shaking or backing up that dogs are prone to do when they go to the vet or groomer. In fact, she made friends with a Great Dane and was eager to return to the center for the night.

“The hardest thing was explaining to my boys (ages 8, 11 and 13) that they could not spend the night. They could have spent hours there,” MacDonald said.

Someone does spend the night – one of the 10 employees. A bed folds into the wall, but when it’s down one ore more dogs are often sharing space with the human.

With the center backing up to a residential area, the rules are owners can get their dogs between 7am and 7pm. Not much barking goes on. Mostly it’s playful snarling that can be heard or a little dog ready to come out of the room.

For more information about Tahoe Best Friends, call (530) 542.2336 or click here.

ngg_shortcode_0_placeholder (Click on photos to enlarge.)

South Lake Tahoe City Council candidates Joy Curry and Georg May have officially qualified for the Nov. 2 ballot.

Alice H. Jones has taken out papers, which brings the number of potential candidates to 10. People have until Aug. 11 to file for the three seats being vacated by Kathay Lovell, Bill Crawford and Jerry Birdwell.

City Clerk Susan Alessi has officially qualified for the ballot as well.

By Kevin Yamamura and Susan Ferriss, Sacramento Bee

In an extraordinary court filing, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger asked Friday that gay marriages be allowed to resume immediately in California after a federal ruling that the state’s voter-approved ban on gay marriage is unconstitutional.

The Republican governor filed his brief with U.S. District Court Judge Vaughn R. Walker before a Friday deadline to submit arguments on whether to continue a stay of Walker’s decision against Proposition 8.

Arnold Schwarzenegger

“The Administration believes the public interest is best served by permitting the Court’s judgment to go into effect, thereby restoring the right of same-sex couples to marry in California,” wrote Kenneth C. Mennemeier, an attorney representing Schwarzenegger, in the brief. “Doing so is consistent with California’s long history of treating all people and their relationships with equal dignity and respect.”

Walker concluded in a decision Wednesday that Proposition 8 violates the equal protection and due process rights of gays and lesbians. The initiative passed with 52 percent of the vote in November 2008.

Read the whole story

By Kathryn Reed

More than 200 people continue to fight the Wolf Creek Fire, which is burning about 14 miles south of Markleeville.

The fire that was started by lightning had burned 580 acres as of 3:15pm today. The fire had smoldered for several days before firefighters began fighting the blaze on Aug. 3.

Smoke from the Wolf Creek Fire can be seen from miles away. Photo/Dave Zaski

“We are not really going to contain this fire. We are going to turn it over to the U.S. Forest Service,” said Dave Zaski, spokesman for Sierra Front. “We are going to let it cleanup the undercarriage of the forest.”

The fire is about a mile from Wolf Creek Campground in the Iceberg Wilderness in the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest. It is being kept off private property and out of the Wolf Creek drainage.

Eight hand crews are working the fire, along with a helicopter that is getting water from Wolf Creek.

Zaski said the fire was at 500 acres this morning.

“We did an 80-acre burn out operation where we are using the burnout to secure a part of the fire so it doesn’t get out of control. It was very successful today,” Zaski told Lake Tahoe News.

There are no definitive plans for how long the fire will be allowed to act as a prescribed burn or how many more acres will be treated in this manner.