Caregiving is a difficult and often challenging role that one can undertake, and taking the opportunity to share information and feel connected to others who are providing care is a vital step to perform this task to the best of your ability. Take the opportunity on Aug. 12 from 5:30pm to 7:30pm at South Lake Tahoe Senior Center, 3050 Highway 50, South Lake Tahoe to become connected and rejuvenated at your local support group.

Refreshments will be served. Free respite care is available to qualified caregivers. Pre-authorization is required for respite services. Questions? Contact the Family Caregiver Support Program at (530) 621.6151.

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.

By Howard Blume, Los Angeles Times

At a special meeting Monday, the state board of education unanimously adopted common national academic standards. These standards are to provide the basis for future instruction in the state.

The common-standards initiative has been pushed by the Obama administration, but executed through a voluntary national effort in which nearly all states are participating.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger applauded the vote, praising the state board for maintaining “California’s high expectations and our belief that every student is capable of success in the classroom.”

The standards are to ultimately supplant California’s current academic framework, which is widely viewed as among the best in the nation, although the same cannot be said of the results in the classroom.

Read the whole story

Toccata presents “Big Organ Bash” as part of the 11th Annual Hot August Pipes Aug. 6 at 7:30pm at St. Patrick’s Episcopal in Incline Village with organist David Brock. Tickets are $20/adult, $5/students, 12 and under free.

Aug. 8 marks the start of the next series of positive focus dog training classes designed to promote bonding, dependable good behavior, and fun activities with your dog.

The current series includes Rally O Sport, Adolescent Dog Obedience, and Brilliant Buddy Advanced Obedience.

To assure individual attention, class size is limited to 10 participants. Preregistration is required. Classes are at the South Lake Tahoe Recreation Center. Only positive reinforcement methods are used – no choke chains, pinch collars, or physical restraint. The instructors are certified professionals from “Dog Training by PJ”.

For information and to register, call the Lake Tahoe Humane Society and S.P.C.A. at (530) 542.2857.

The 8th Annual Great Lake Tahoe Bike Race, a classic 72-mile course and a 35-mile race or ride, kicks off fall in Lake Tahoe on Sept. 25.

The race features new electronic chip timing and larger 72-mile purse prizes, with the overall winning man and woman taking home $500 each, second place with $400, third with $300, fourth with $200 and fifth place with $100.

The 72-Mile Bike Race starts 7am in Zephyr Cove and has racers moving clockwise around the lake. There is a six-hour time limit for this race. The start is organized by riders’ anticipated speed with the fastest riders at the front.

Police will escort the pack through the first nine miles and 24 stoplights of the race. The last eight miles of the race is downhill or flat and has four lanes. There are three water stations located at Emerald Bay, Tahoe City and Incline Village.

The elevation gain for the ride is 3,900 feet. There will be a special award for any 72-mile cyclist who finishes in less than 3 hours and 30 minutes.

Neither course is closed to traffic.

The 35-Mile Bike Race starts in Tahoe City at approximately 8:45am. after the 72-Mile Bike Race participants pass. Racers must finish by 1pm (a 4-hour and 15-minute time limit). Participants drop their bikes at Commons Beach and drive to the finish at Zephyr Cove in the morning, where a bus brings them back to the start line on the North Shore.

The Great Lake Tahoe Bike Race is part of the 15th Annual Lake Tahoe Marathon Race Week, Sept. 22-26, when runners, walkers and all recreational athletes have a host of events to choose from, including the marathon, coined “a Sunday morning run you’ll never forget,” that winds down the West Shore from Tahoe City to South Lake Tahoe for a post-run bash; Tahoe Triple (three marathons in three consecutive days); Marathon Relays; Half Marathon; Three-Day Triathlon; 10K; 20-Mile Run, Jog and Walk; 5K; Kayaking events; free Kids Fun Run and Speed Golf.

For more information or to register (fees vary for events), call (530) 544.7095 or visit the Lake Tahoe Marathon website at www.laketahoemarathon.com. The website is also home to a course map and profile and event descriptions.

By Reno Gazette-Journal

NV Energy Inc., doubled its net income in the second quarter from the same period in 2009, according to the utility’s earnings report released today.

• This in from Daron Rahlves, “This clip from Teton Gravity Research is not the way I wanted to kick off my trip in Alaska. I took a beating, but managed to ski the rest of the day.”

• An 18-hole disc golf course designed by Craig Getty is open in Turtle Rock Park in Markleeville. For more information, call (530) 694.0532.

• After more than 50 years of taking people to tropical destinations, Pleasant Holidays has added the continental U.S. to its destination portfolio — including Lake Tahoe.

• The recent adoption of Proposition 90 by El Dorado County enables qualified people who have sold their homes in other California counties to transfer their property tax base to a home in El Dorado County. El Dorado County is one of eight counties of the 58 counties in California to adopt this proposition, and is the only rural county in California to do so.

• Mike Crawley, fire supervisor at Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest, is leaving to be a ranger in the Bridgeport District ranger at the end of August.

Fair Play Wine and Poker Run is Aug. 14 from 11am to 5:30pm.

Sample wines from five Fair Play wineries, then end the day enjoying dinner on the Grand Deck at Chateau Routon. Each winery you visit will present you with an envelope containing a playing card. At the end of the day, you will have at least five cards to create your hand. Prizes will be given for various hands.

Tickets are $89.50 plus tax. Call (530) 620.5818 for reservations.

Two meetings are scheduled for this month by the Placer County Planning Department and TRPA Advisory Planning Commission regarding a proposed biomass plant in Kings Beach.

The purpose of the meetings is to receive comments from the public and agencies regarding issues in the EIS/EIR.

The first meeting is Aug. 9 at 6pm at the North Tahoe Conference Center, 318 North Lake Blvd., Kings Beach and on Aug. 11 at 9:30am at Tahoe Regional Planning Agency office at 128 Market St., Stateline.

The plan is to build a 1-3 megawatt biomass energy facility. Tahoe City is a possible alternative location.