Anthony Bourdain will be Harrah’s Lake Tahoe on Oct. 2 at 7:30pm.

Tickets are $49-$59.

For more South Shore Room information, call 800.786.8208 or purchase tickets online at www.SouthShoreRoom.com.

Chef Elizabeth Falkner will be at Harrah’s Lake Tahoe on Oct. 1 at 7:30pm.

Tickets are $29.

For more South Shore Room information, call 800.786.8208 or purchase tickets online at www.SouthShoreRoom.com.

By Kathryn Reed

A reunion is how some people described Wednesday’s groundbreaking ceremony of the multi-million dollar Lakeview Commons project in South Lake Tahoe.

Missing, though, were key people who had an early vision to keep the 56 acres of prime real estate that straddles both sides of Highway 50 for the people. It started with D.L. Bliss and was carried on by the Lake Valley Foundation in the 1920s. This land is deed restricted when it comes what can and cannot be done with it.

What El Dorado Beach will look like in summer 2011. Rendering/RHAA

“We could not do this project today if we had to buy the property,” Ray Lacey, California Tahoe Conservancy deputy director, told Lake Tahoe News after the Aug. 4 event.

His agency has allocated $6 million to the project that will be built in phases. The first phase will get under way next week at El Dorado Beach.

Others missing from Wednesday’s festivities included Dennis Machida. He was at the helm of the CTC when the idea of creating what is now called Lakeview Commons started percolating in 2004. The following year he died at age 58 of a heart attack.

Deb Vreeland, the project manager through the planning phase, has since relocated to Montana. Several people bestowed high praise upon her.

More than 50 people turned out on this bluebird day to reflect on the process, the future and above all to prove projects in South Lake Tahoe don’t all get stalled or sit on shelves as planning documents.

Manuela Anne King, vice president of Royston Hanamoto Alley & Abey – the landscape architects, spoke of all the things people talked about wanting in the more than 30 public meetings that were conducted.

Many are being incorporated into the project:

• Beach access for everyone

• Improved crossing at Highway 50

• Non-motorized boathouse (which will be LEED gold)

• Better, more convenient restrooms

• New picnic tables

“I feel this project accomplishes the major goals put out there by the community,” King said.

Besides the aesthetic improvements, the terraced seating and new vegetation will help with erosion control, which is all about the clarity of Lake Tahoe.

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By Kathryn Reed

Not only is the South Shore bus agency losing vehicles, it has lost a member.

El Dorado County no longer is part of South Tahoe Area Transportation Authority.

“A registered letter was sent (July 29) to participating agencies,” county Supervisor Norma Santiago told Lake Tahoe News on Wednesday. “We are working out the details of service for our constituents.”

El Dorado County's buses are parked indefinitely. Photo/Kathryn Reed

She believes 15-20 people in the Meyers area regularly ride public transit. There are also people with physical issues who used the on-call bus service.

For two hours the supervisors last week discussed what to do with public transit in the basin. The lack of an insurance certificate and other concerns resulted in the county pulling its two buses out of the fleet.

Santiago said the fourth lawsuit filed by MV Transportation was the final straw for her and her colleagues.

The remaining members of STATA are South Lake Tahoe, Douglas County, Harveys, Harrah’s, MontBleu, Horizon, Lakeside, Heavenly, Ridge Tahoe, Tahoe Transportation District, and Tahoe Regional Planning Agency. TRPA is a non-voting member of STATA.

The regular board meeting for this Friday has been postponed to Friday the 13th.

On Aug. 21 from 10am to 3pm the South Lake Tahoe Branch Library will be having a book sale to support the Friends of the Library Free Children’s Programs. Many hardcover and paperback books will be available at deep discounts.

DVDs, VHS and books on tape will also be available.

The South Lake Tahoe Branch Library is open Tuesday and Wednesday from 10am to 8pm, and Thursday through Saturday 10am to 5pm. For more information on library services, call (530) 573.3185 during regular business hours.

Who: South Lake Tahoe Friends of the Library

What: Booksale

When: Aug. 21s, 10am-3pm,

Where: South Lake Tahoe Branch Library

Conference Room (1000 Rufus Allen Blvd

Telephone: (530) 573.3185

One of the North Shore’s most heated competitions will pit Tahoe culinary colleagues against each other to determine who rightfully deserves the title of Mountain Chef at the Blazing Pans Cook-Off Sept. 11. The cook-off is part of the three-day Lake Tahoe Autumn Food and Wine Festival (Sept. 10-12) at the Village at Northstar in Truckee.

Reigning champion David Lutz, owner of Tahoe City’s Evergreen Restaurant, will be challenged by Chef de Cuisine Chad Shrewsbury of the Resort at Squaw Creek’s Six Peaks Grille.

Lutz was raised in the Bay Area and attended the Culinary Institute of America in New York. Lutz’s culinary philosophy, which is seen and tasted in the Evergreen menu, revolves around seasonal dishes featuring local and organic ingredients and high quality, sustainable meats. He strives to deliver deceptively healthy meals at an affordable, friendly restaurant.

Shrewsbury was also raised in the Bay Area. As a child, he became entranced with the culinary industry by helping in the kitchen in a variety of restaurants his father managed. Food preparation, atmosphere and creativity were an everyday part of his life. Shrewsbury carried his passion for food to the mountains, where he delights diners with his innovative creativity, especially in the realm of molecular gastronomy.

The one-hour competition will entail both chefs taking one main, secret ingredient and creating as many delicious dishes as possible in the allotted time. The ingredient will not be revealed until moments prior to the start of the clock. Both chefs will also be supplied with a complete pantry of kitchen staples and fresh produce. Past secret ingredients have included mackinaw, lamb, foie gras and rabbit.

Many of this year’s Lake Tahoe Autumn Food and Wine Festival events, including the cooking classes, are free. Ticketed events range from $20 to $90 and are on sale. For more information, call 888.229.2193 or go to www.TahoeFoodandWine.com.

The Lake Tahoe Autumn Food and Wine Festival is a fundraiser for the Community Fund of North Lake Tahoe through the 501c(3) Truckee Tahoe Community Foundation. The 25th annual festival is produced by the North Lake Tahoe Resort Association in partnership with Sunset, Northstar-at-Tahoe, the Northstar Foundation, Standards of Excellence, Charbay Winery and Distillery, Tahoe Quarterly and Tahoe TV.

By Kathryn Reed

A civil rights lawsuit has been filed in federal court against South Lake Tahoe, the city police department and Officer Russell Liles.

John Andoh, former transit administrator for South Tahoe Area Transportation Agency, in documents filed Aug. 2 in U.S. District Court in Sacramento alleges he has been racially discriminated against.

John Andoh

According to the city’s website, in 2008 there were 164 black people in town accounting for 0.7 percent of the population.

Andoh at that time would have been one of those black people.

The defendants in the case had not been served as of Aug. 4. City Attorney Pat Enright told Lake Tahoe News on Wednesday night he was not aware of the lawsuit.

A series of events, mostly in 2009, led to Andoh seeking legal counsel and the lawsuit being filed.

It was fairly well known Andoh had a brief relationship with Allyson Ritchie, a subordinate. Ritchie was hired to do clerical work. She is white.

The suit says, “During the relationship, Ms. Ritchie advised plaintiff that she had a brother (Andrew Eissinger) who was a police officer of the city of South Lake Tahoe and that this individual would become enraged should he discover that Ms. Ritchie was involved in an interracial relationship.”

According to the document, the relationship ended in May 2009. When Ritchie’s position was eliminated two months later, the reason given was budget cuts. The document says she disputed that and alleged it had to do with breaking up with Andoh.

Less than a week after Ritchie was let go, Andoh was involved in a vehicle accident with a cyclist. Officer Liles, who was hired as a rookie in summer 2008, took the report.

Soon thereafter an arrest warrant was issued for Andoh for allegedly giving false information to an officer. That charge was eventually dropped, but not before Andoh’s name was muddied in headlines and with his bosses at STATA.

“We are not limited to the theory about the girlfriend and brother. The arrest itself was unfounded,” Jeffrey D. Fulton, Andoh’s attorney, said.

The lawsuit questions why Andoh’s job was eliminated earlier this year.

The four claims in the lawsuit in large part deal with the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments and subsequent Civil Rights legislation.

No specific dollar amount is being asked for in the damages. Fulton said his client is willing to let a jury come up with a figure.

A status conference has been scheduled for Oct. 25 in Sacramento.

By Sean Collins Walsh, Reno Gazette-Journal

While supporters of same-sex marriage celebrated in the streets of San Francisco Wednesday, Northern Nevada activists mulled what the rejection of a same-sex marriage ban in California will mean for Nevada.

Judge Vaughn Walker of U.S. District Court in San Francisco on Wednesday overturned Proposition 8, a statewide referendum that banned gay marriage in California in 2008.

Kevin Ray, spokesman and organizer of Reno Gay Pride, called the ruling “certainly another step forward for equal rights for all citizens.”

“Many people certainly from Reno and Northern Nevada will go to San Francisco to get married,” he said.

Opponents criticized the ruling.

Read the whole story

By Carlos Alcalá, Sacramento Bee

An El Dorado County jury Wednesday convicted David Charles Zanon of running down and killing a California Highway Patrol officer and attempting to murder other officers.

The first-degree murder conviction with special allegations makes Zanon, 40, eligible for the death penalty.

Zanon killed California Highway Patrol Officer Scott Russell in a 30-mile, high-speed chase in which Russell was struck and killed along Highway 50 in Shingle Springs while attempting to stop the chase with a spike strip on July 31, 2007.

Read the whole story

By Jeff Delong, Reno Gazette-Journal

More than three months after announcing plans to plant up to 3 million carbon-sucking trees north of Reno, the exact status of an Australian company’s Smoke Creek project remains unclear.

Representatives of the ECO2 Forests Inc. international forestry company say they remain “100 percent committed” to their project. But plans for a ground-breaking event in May were postponed and top company executives have not responded to repeated requests for interviews with the Reno Gazette-Journal.

In an e-mail statement to the newspaper July 9, ECO2 Forests representative Andrew Laing said the company intends to proceed.

“ECO2 Forests remain 100 percent committed to the U.S. sustainable forest program in Washoe County,” Laing wrote. “We aim to ensure this project delivers long-term employment for hundreds of Washoe County locals.”

In April the company, based in Queensland, Australia, announced plans to plant up to 3 million “kiri” trees on 14,000 acres near Winnemucca Ranch Road, with initial planting to commence in May. The company reported it was working with Jaksick Entities, landowners in the area.

Read the whole story