This morning we have a welcome blue sky in the Lake Tahoe Basin. Clouds could roll in later—until then, enjoy the view! Curtis Fong, the Guy from Tahoe, delivers his ski report.

The South Shore was a little brighter this holiday season, thanks to Leadership Lake Tahoe and the enthusiasm of the local business community. More than 40 local businesses participated in the first Light Up Lake Tahoe.

Judging of the lighting displays was conducted Jan. 4-15. The title of Best Lights on the Lake goes to Inn by the Lake (3300 Lake Tahoe Blvd). Judges weighed in on creativity, coverage, and overall impact.

Inn by the Lake wins lights contest. Photo/Provided

“The brightly lighted trees really make a statement and stand out on what would otherwise have been a dark corner along Lake Tahoe Boulevard,” judges said in a press release.

The lights program was conceived with two primary goals in mind: to give lights to businesses that would not have purchased them on their own, and to encourage businesses that can to put up more creative lighting displays.

The project received initial funding from Lake Tahoe Visitors Authority, the South Lake Tahoe Lodging Association, the Tahoe Douglas Visitors Authority, Barton Health, Heavenly Ski & Snowboard Foundation, and Harrah’s-Harveys. In addition, several businesses that received lights made donations.

Sponsorship covered the cost of the lights, and all proceeds benefit Tahoe Turning Point. Tahoe Turning Point is a private, nonprofit agency that provides group care and residential treatment for young men ages 12 to 18.

By Denise Sloan Smart

Are you dealing with a major loss such as the death of a loved one? Perhaps you’re grieving over a divorce after many years of marriage? It’s normal to feel that your whole life is shattered and that you are alone. Barton Health can help.

Barton’s Hospice offers monthly “Memory Dish Bereavement Groups.”

In South Lake Tahoe, the group meets the first Thursday of each month from 3:30-5pm at the South Lake Tahoe Senior Center, 3050 Lake Tahoe Blvd.

Dates are Feb. 4, March 4, April 1 and May 6.

Call (530) 543.5581 or (530) 307.0288.

In the Carson Valley, the bereavement group meets from 3:30-5pm in the Carson Valley Medical Center Administration Building, second floor, the fourth Wednesday of each month.

Dates are Feb. 17, March 17, April 21 and May 19.

Call (775) 782.1510.

Trained facilitators and group counselors will be in attendance. There is no cost to attend the group but it is helpful to know who is coming.

Barton’s Bereavement Groups can help people pick up the pieces and rebuild their lives. A bereavement group is a safe place for individuals to feel empowered to express grief and sorrow and receive help in re-creating a rewarding life filled with authentic happiness.

Taking good care of yourself helps your body heal from the physical signs of grief. Try to stick with healthy exercise, sleep and eating routines. Having family around can help you feel loved. Or you might need a walk or see a movie with friends to take your mind off things for a little while.

Joining the world again is part of healing. These tips may help:

·Stay in touch with family and friends, even if it’s hard to talk.

·Tell people how they can help. It can be as simple as running an errand for you. Attend a support group for people who have been through the same type of loss.

You may find yourself asking: “Why?”

It’s normal to seek meaning by asking questions, but there’s not always an answer for loss. With time, your loss will still be part of your life, but not the only thing in it. You’re not alone and remember that grief healing is a process.

Denise Sloan Smart is a communications specialist for Barton Health.

By Mike Dunne, Sacramento Bee

Edgar Allan Poe, Stephen King or some other master of the macabre must have planted the notion in my head:

I walk into a cemetery and find my name and birthdate on a gravestone. The date of death is there, but it doesn’t matter. The plot is set.

I even know the cemetery where this scenario takes place: an isolated and rarely visited graveyard some 2,000 feet up the Sierra foothills, just outside Colfax.

It’s on the grounds of what historically has been Weimar Joint Sanatorium, 450 acres of manzanita, pine and oak whose central cluster of buildings is now Weimar Institute, a campus of Seventh-day Adventists studying religion and health.

Read the whole story

By Kathryn Reed

South Lake Tahoe’s Calstar base is now fully staffed at eight with the arrival of Stephen Poehls and Nathan Schwab.

Poehls and Schwab joined the Tahoe outfit late last year. Poehls had been doing the same type of work in Montana, while Schwab had worked between the Calstar bases in Salinas and Gilroy since September ’08.

“I went to Northstar-at-Tahoe (in December) and transported a patient that hit a tree. It was the first time I came into a very snowy landing zone,” Schwab said.

Winter is the busiest time of year for Calstar’s Tahoe base because of all the ski related injuries. Landing at a resort – on snow or in a parking lot – is not uncommon.

Assault victims are who Schwab was used to treating when working at the bases south of San Jose.

One of the reasons Poehls wanted to work in Lake Tahoe is because he would be in a similar mountain environment compared to where he came from. He and his fiancee, who is a nurse practitioner at Carson Tahoe Hospital, were also ready for a change. They are living in Minden.

Poehls said the crew in Tahoe works well together and is tight knit.

“We communicate with one another so we can overcome a lot of things having to work in a helicopter,” Poehls said. “We decide things before we put the patient in the aircraft to be efficient.”

The registered nurses work two 24-hour shifts each week. When they aren’t on a call, they are training. They have sleeping facilities at Lake Tahoe Airport so they never leave when on duty. It’s similar to a firehouse.

The Tahoe crew has traveled as far south as Mammoth, into eastern Nevada, west to about Georgetown and north to Susanville.

The next closest Calstar helicopter is in Jackson. It can be moved to Placerville to act as backup for Tahoe and Vacaville. It takes that bird 18 minutes to get from Placerville to South Tahoe.

The Tahoe crew regularly transports people to Barton Memorial Hospital, but also to Reno hospitals that have more advanced medical facilities.

Calstar, which stands for California Shock/Trauma Air Rescue, started in 1984 in San Mateo. The operation at Lake Tahoe Airport began in 2001. The fixed wing and helicopter air ambulances have eight bases in Northern California.

The U.S. Postal Service is commemorating the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games with the issuance of a stamp featuring an illustration of a snowboarder.

The stamp went on sale this month.

Illustrator Steve McCracken captures the thrill of Olympic sports in his portrayal of an airborne snowboarder against the backdrop of a snow-capped mountain.

Stamps featuring Olympic themes have been popular since the first modern Olympiad in 1896, when Greece issued 12 Olympic-themed commemorative stamps. Beginning in 1932, when the Olympic Games were in Los Angeles, numerous U.S. stamps have honored the Games.

By Bay Area News Group

Jaycee Dugard’s two girls now have birth certificates, with both listing Dugard and Phillip Garrido as their parents, and their birthplace as the home outside Antioch where authorities say Garrido and his wife, Nancy, confined Jaycee to a secret backyard lair after snatching her in 1991.

The certificates list birth dates for the girls in August 1994 and November 1997, making them 15 and 12. Dugard gave birth to the first at age 14. At the time, Phillip Garrido was 43 and on parole after his 1988 release from federal prison for the kidnapping of a woman he also raped in a Reno storage shed.

Read the whole story

The LTCC Writers’ Series presents Jennifer Woodlief, author of “A Wall of White”, on Feb. 26 at 7pm in the Lake Tahoe Community College library.

It is rree and open to the community.

Jennifer Woodlief is a former reporter for Sports Illustrated. A graduate of Stanford University and the UCLA School of Law, she has prosecuted first-degree murder cases and worked as a case officer for the CIA. Her first book, “Ski to Die: The Bill Johnson Story”, was optioned by Warner Bros. for a movie.

Lake Tahoe South Shore Chamber of Commerce’s annual Business Expo at Harveys Convention Center is March 5 from 4-8pm.

The Expo will feature more than 75 local businesses, a silent auction and food and beverages from popular South Shore establishments.

For more information, visit www.tahoechamber.org or call (775) 588.1728.

Father-Daughter Dance on Feb. 12 from 7–9:30pm at Harvey’s Convention Center, Stateline.

Cost is $20 per couple/$8 for each additional daughter,

For more information, call (775) 586.7271.