U.S. Forest Service Fuels Management Crews will begin prescribed fire operations in the Meeks Bay/Meeks Meadow area on approximately 148 acres.

These operations will be conducted as weather and staffing allow.

Residents and travelers can expect to see smoke from prescribed fire project areas.

Other fire protection agencies, state and local, may also be conducting prescribed fire operations during this period.

This and other prescribed fire projects are designed to reduce wildfire risks to communities and critical resources. Smoke management is part of every prescribed fire burn plan, and efforts will be taken to reduce actual or potential smoke impacts on community areas.

To learn more about the efforts to reduce catastrophic wildfire risks in the Tahoe Basin, visit: http://fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/fsm9_045864.pdf.

Santa’s Candy Cane Lane is coming to the Horizon in Stateline for three days of holiday activities geared toward children.

The festivities are Dec. 11 3-7pm, and Dec 12-13 noon-6pm in the convention center of the hotel-casino.

Mrs. Claus will help each child write a message to Santa. The Horizon has checked with the North Pole and has been assured Santa will be writing letters back. Santa will haul his letters home each night at 7:15, 6:15  and 6:15, on the respective nights.

Hot cocoa, candy canes and games are free. Holiday movies will be shown.

For $5 kids (and presumably adults, too) can get a framed picture of themselves with Santa. It costs $1 to make ornaments, $2 to decorate cookies and $10 to build a gingerbread house.

A holiday crafts fair will be going on at the same time. Carolers will be strolling, music playing.

Kirkwood’s Tim Cohee, who is also an instructor at Sierra Nevada College in Incline Village, talks about the difficulties of operating a small ski resort and the need for a cooperative approach in the December issue of Skiing magazine.

Also in that issue is a blurb about Sierra-at-Tahoe’s Huckleberry Canyon.

Lake Tahoe is the cover story of this month’s Ski magazine.

Politicians in Nevada are lining up to change seats — Assemblyman James Settelmeyer of Gardnerville wants Mark Amode’s Capital District Senate seat. Amodei wants to be the next Republican U.S. senator from the Silver State.

An hour-long segment on the Jaycee Lee Dugard case will be shown in January on E Entertainment.

California’s state Christmas tree — a 55-foot white fir — was donated by U.S. Forest Services Institute of Genetics near Placerville. Lights will be turned on Dec. 10.

By Tara Hall, LiveDaily

Alt-musician Les Claypool has unveiled a short selection of winter dates early next year in support of his most recent solo set, “Of Fungi and Foe.”

The Primus bassist, who will ring in 2010 with a New Year’s Eve performance in San Francisco, will hit the road for a solo excursion beginning Feb. 12 in Aspen. Claypool will wrap up the seven-date trek, which focuses on the Midwest and parts of the West Coast, with a Feb. 20 gig in Eugene before heading across the pond for a month-long European run.

Read the whole story

By Bruce Edwards, Rutland Herald

Two Dartmouth College professors have come out with a report that accuses ski areas across the country of fudging snowfall totals.

The study, “Wintertime for Deceptive Advertising?,” compares snowfall reports from eastern and western resorts with totals recorded by nearby government weather stations.

The report co-authored by Eric Zitzewitz and Jonathan Zinman concluded that ski areas inflated snowfall totals, especially on weekends, which are the more profitable days of the week.

Read the whole story

By Forrest Hartman, Reno Gazette-Journal

It’s been 68 years since the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, but Howard J. Spreeman of Carson City says he remembers nearly every detail of the attack that drew America into World War II..

“I was just ordering breakfast,” said Spreeman, who was an aviation radioman stationed at Naval Air Station Kaneohe Bay, across from Pearl Harbor, in Hawaii. “I ordered bacon and eggs. It’s one of those things I’ll never forget.

“And a plane came over and almost took the roof of the place off.”

Read the whole story

Apres Wine Co. New Year’s Eve party starts at 9pm in South Lake Tahoe. Cost is $79 for singles, $149 per couple. Hourly Champagne toasts, plated dinner. (530) 544.9463

Apres, a wine bar and shop in South Lake Tahoe, is having its one-year anniversary party on Dec. 29 from 6-8pm. Cost is $15. It includes a Champagne toast, food and prizes. www.apreswineco.com

The South Tahoe Chamber of Commerce will host a mixer directly following the Green Builders Forum on Dec. 9. It will be at Lake Tahoe Community College in South Lake Tahoe from 5:30-7pm and it open to the public. For more information, call (530) 542-5060.

The Tahoe chapter of the Women Entrepreneurs will have a holiday mixer on Dec. 10 from 6-7:30pm. For more information, call (530) 544-7412.