To the community,

The following poem was written in 1971 when I was 19 and in the midst of a quest to see every state, city, national park – all this country had to offer. In every city and town, from New York to Dubuque, and on every highway, there were veterans who served in combat during WWI, WWII, Korea, and Vietnam.

Some I met were very successful business people, ranchers, farmers, and blue collar workers. But tens of thousands were entrenched in our inner-cities and towns, in physical, psychological, and spiritual pain that no amount of alcohol or drugs brought relief from. It was clear to me back then that our government/military had no clue how to deprogram veterans or even treat physical ailments.

Every day I thanked God for my No. 333 in the first draft lottery that allowed me to continue on my journey. I stayed at one military base (Fort Bragg) and visited several others and wondered how many recruits and draftees there would face a similar plight.

Two years later, back home in New Jersey, I shared a place with two Vietnam veterans — a Marine volunteer who withstood two lengthy sieges and an Army draftee who was besieged by crazed South Koreans raiding his warehouse at Cam Ranh Bay. I made several trips with Bill (the Marine) to the veterans hospital in attempts to find out what was in his body attacking it. They were clueless. The conditions there were deplorable.

So here we are in 2014, still reading and listening to news stories about Walter Reed Army Hospital and other facilities around the country and hearing promises to upgrade them and the research into what our veterans have been inflicted with. Kudos to the city of Phoenix and several other cities for developing and funding programs to provide housing to homeless Veterans so they can begin to find the space to heal. A Jan. 17 USA Today story stated there are 48,000 Iraq and Afghanistan veterans who are, or are on the verge, of being homeless. Federal grants have been increased to assist these programs. When a shovel-jumper employed by the city of South Lake Tahoe has more options and better quality health care, the system is flawed.

Veterans Benefits

News-stands stained

with wine and urine

gutters filled

with twice-smoked butts

bus fumes mixed

with soup and coffee

in stomachs hardened

by old floor boards.

Lingering about

downtown hotels

relating old tales

of battles and feasts

while with varying patience

point to scars on their faces

that reveal all the places

they once fought for Peace.

In appreciation,

Ed Mosur, South Lake Tahoe

Squaw Valley’s 5th annual Kid-O-Rama celebration returns Feb. 15-22 to the Village at Squaw Valley.

It includes street parties, kids’ concerts, face painting, balloon art, s’mores, snowtubing and Big Truck Night.

The weeklong event caters to families with children and provides an array of kid-friendly activities the whole family can enjoy.

Big Truck Night gives kids the opportunity to explore a helicopter, firetruck, snowplow, grooming machine and tractor. It is Feb. 20 from 3-5pm.

For a full schedule of daily events, go online or call 800.403.0206.

“Vagina Monologues” will be staged in South Lake Tahoe on Feb. 28 and March 1 at 7pm.

The Eve Ensler production will be at Blue Angel Café in South Lake Tahoe at 7pm.

Cost is $15. Tahoe Youth & Family Services, Live Violence Free, CASA and Zawadisha are the beneficiaries.

“The Sex Show”, a Jeopardy-style sex education game show, is Feb. 13 at 8:30pm at Himmel Haus in South Lake Tahoe. Tickets are $5.

V-Day is a global activist movement to end violence against women and girls that raises funds and awareness through benefit productions of “Vagina Monologues” and other artistic works.

By Barbara Barte Osborn, Sacramento Bee

The U.S. Forest Service’s refusal to revise existing restrictions on snowmobile use in the Lake Tahoe Basin is one of a dozen objections filed by groups and individuals against the agency’s proposed updated land-management plan.

The objection charges that the current 25-year-old restrictions do not address the effects of additional snowmobile outfitters, permitted by the Forest Service, whose machines allegedly endanger cross-country skiers and snowshoers on popular trails and cause noise, air and water pollution.

The Tahoe Douglas Fire Protection District says the plan’s fire suppression tactics in roadless areas near homes, rather than leaving continuous fuels in place, should have community safety as a primary objective. And Heavenly Mountain Resort officials ask that the plan be revised to clarify a 200-acre limitation on development, lest it encourage a development race between resorts.

Read the whole story

By Eliza Barclay, NPR

Remember those ballot initiatives California in Washington and that aimed to get food companies to label products containing genetically modified ingredients?

They failed, in 2012 and 2013, respectively, thanks in part to the tens of millions of dollars lavished by the Grocery Manufacturers Association and other food industry groups on campaigns to convince consumers that labeling would make their food more expensive.

Even though the food industry won those battles, it’s not exactly eager to rehash them elsewhere. So now the GMA — along with a new coalition of 28 groups representing farmers, seed companies and other food producers who rely heavily on GMO ingredients — is changing its tune a bit.

Read the whole story

• South Lake Tahoe pro snowboarder Elena Hight shares these ab workouts with Women’s Health magazine.

• Former South Tahoe High grad Chris Grant has been fired as general manger of the Cleveland Cavaliers.

• Here is the Sierra roadwork schedule from Caltrans.

• South Lake Tahoe Family Resource Center will be hosting a mental health forum Feb. 13 from 6-8pm.

• Elephant Revival will be at Crystal Bay Club on March 8 at 10pm. Cost is $15 in advance, $18 at the door. For info, call (775) 833.6333.

By Bill Lindelof, Sacramento Bee

Written notice has been sent to more than 3,000 clients of Easter Seal Society of Superior California after a laptop belonging to one of the charity’s workers was stolen.

The employee’s vehicle was broken into on Dec. 10, resulting in the theft of a number of items, including a work-issued laptop computer. Emails containing the health information of 3,026 Easter Seals clients and potential clients could be accessed with the laptop, according to a press release for the organization.

Easter Seal Society of Superior California serves children and adults in Alpine, Amador, Calaveras, El Dorado, Nevada, Placer, Sacramento, San Joaquin, Stanislaus, Sutter, Tuolumne, Yolo and Yuba counties.

Read the whole story

The AARP Tax Aide Program offers free income tax preparation for California and Nevada residents of all ages.

Returns are prepared by IRS trained volunteers.

Services are offered on Thursdays 1:30-6pm, Fridays 9am-1pm, and Saturdays 10am-2pm through April 12 at the South Lake Tahoe Senior Center, 3050 Lake Tahoe Blvd.

No appointments are necessary. Bring ID, Social Security cards, pertinent tax documents and last year’s tax return.

For more info, call (530) 573.3050.

Chocolate: Heritage of the Americas is the topic of a lecture in Incline on April 10.

Louis Grivetti will present the social history of chocolate and its cultural role at various periods in U.S. history, with special attention to California, and a brief overview of chocolate as medicine.

No-host bar opens at 5:30pm and the program begins at 6pm.

The talk is at Tahoe Center for Environmental Sciences, 291 Country Club Drive, Incline Village. Cost is $5.

Julia Mancuso of Squaw Valley celebrates as she finishes the slalom portion of the women’s super-combined to win the bronze medal Feb. 10. Photo/Luca Bruno/AP

By AP

American Julia Mancuso won a bronze medal in the super combined Monday in Sochi, securing her status as a prime time performer on the slopes.

It was Mancuso’s fourth career Olympic medal for Team USA. No other American woman has won more than two.

The 29-year-old from Squaw Valley soared to the top of the leaderboard in the downhill portion of the two-part event, finishing the challenging course in 1 minute 42.68 seconds. She notched the bronze medal after the slalom.

Germany’s Maria Hoefl-Riesch won her second straight gold in the event. Hoefl-Riesch was fifth fastest in the downhill, but her superior slalom skills gave her the super-combined title.

The German’s two-run time of 2 minutes, 34.62 seconds was 0.40 seconds faster than silver medalist Nicole Hosp of Austria.

Mancuso, 0.53 behind Hoefl-Riesch, punched the air with her right first after the race.

At the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, Hoefl-Riesch won the super-combined and Mancuso took silver.

Hoefl-Riesch stood in the snow at the finish area to watch Mancuso’s run and let her skis fall to the ground after seeing her rival’s time flash up on the giant screen.

She turned to face fans in the grandstand, placed her hands to her head then kneeled on the snow.

The 29-year-old German matched Janica Kostelic in winning two straight combined titles. The Croatian great won gold in the traditional version, which includes two slalom runs, in 2002 and 2006.

Mancuso’s Olympic tally includes two medals in super-combined, a gold in giant slalom from the 2006 Turin Olympics and silver in downhill in Vancouver.

Mancuso raised her level on the biggest stage again in the first of five women’s events despite having a best result of only seventh on this season’s World Cup circuit.

An event which tests racers’ all-around ability to be fast and technically correct proved to be challenging, especially on a steep slalom track lit by floodlights on a cloudy afternoon.

Four of the 10 fastest downhill racers failed to get down the slalom, including Lara Gut of Switzerland, who had been second behind Mancuso.

One pre-race favorite for a medal, Marie-Michele Gagnon of Canada, fell in the slalom and appeared to injure her left wrist.

Gagnon trailed badly in the morning downhill, then straddled a slalom gate and crashed forward on the snow.