Lake Tahoe Wildlife Care found a more suitable home for this bobcat. Photo/ DanThriftPhotgraphy.com

By Tom Millham

I have an update for you on “Bobzee” the 40-pound pet bobcat. The owners came here about an hour ago and took her to Safe Haven, a wildlife refuge in Imlay, Nevada.

Bobzee will spend the rest of her natural life there. The owners, Tony and Christel, were very relieved to know that we were able to find a place for their pet of the last seven years. They finally realized that a bobcat is NOT a good house pet. They did their best to persuade Bobzee to walk into the airline pet carrier we had for her transportation to Safe Haven, but Bobzee would have NOTHING to do with it.

We finally had to resort to physical handling and I had to put a noose around her and forceably place her into the cage. No one — human or animal — was injured.

Safe Haven is approximately 100 miles east of Reno near Interstate 80.

So, we are now down to five bear cubs, a Cooper’s hawk and a great-horned owl.

Last Thursday and Friday, we released the 10 raccoons, the osprey, the two river otters and the porcupine.

The five cubs will most likely be with us until late January or early February. The Cooper’s hawk and great-horned owl will probably be released within the next 10-14 days. We do have a few other birds which have come in the past few days, but all have minor injuries and should be released later this week.

And, in case you didn’t hear, we did get an update on Li’l Smokey, but it was several weeks ago. He was tracked within 10 miles from the original release point. We expect to receive another update sometime before the end of the year.

Tom Millham is secretary-treasurer for Lake Tahoe Wildlife Care on the South Shore of Lake Tahoe.

Associated Press

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration will not seek to arrest medical marijuana users and suppliers as long as they conform to state laws, under new policy guidelines to be sent to federal prosecutors today.

Two Justice Department officials described the policy to the Associated Press, saying prosecutors will be told it is not a good use of their time to arrest people who use or provide medical marijuana in strict compliance with state laws.

Read the whole story

Friends of the Library book sale is Nov. 14 from 10-3 at the South Lake Tahoe Branch Library. There is a member hour from 9-10am.

Learn to Ski and Snowboard weekend on the North Shore of Lake Tahoe. For $25 you get an all day beginner lift ticket, group lesson and gear. 888.434.1262

Dear Members of the City Council,

Unfortunately and untimely, I am not able to present this notice in person during the City Council meeting scheduled on Tuesday, October 20, 2009, because I am out of the country. Therefore, I submit the following notice to be read during the public comment period and placed into the public record.

You are hereby notified that on behalf of the citizens of South Lake Tahoe and its bicycle community, I call for the immediate withdraw of Measure B from the November 2009 ballot on the grounds of false and misleading representation that unfairly prejudices the electorate and does not follow the true democratic process of fair and equal representation of an issue.

The proponents of Measure B have willfully omitted a rebuttal to their Measure, knowing there is opposition, with intent of gaining an unfair advantage. They, in collusion with City Staff members, have intentionally avoided contacting members of the bicycle community and when asked, by me, for a response to the Measure it was replied with ignorance of the issue by City management. When I replied to the ignorance, with a reference to the Tahoe Mountain News article about Measure B, management replied with a direction to a department director to contact me and that never happened.

Therefore, a unilateral decision allowing the tactic of rebuttal omission, (non-full disclosure of Measure B opposition), for unfair advantage that carries the Measure forward shall represent a community travesty of miss-guided leadership and abuse of authority with far ranging repercussions – the heart of which is community distrust.

Sincerely,

Tyrone Polastri, Community Advocate

PS. Bike path maintenance funds authorized by Measure S is one of the most important achievements made by this community because maintenance funds for bike paths is one of the more difficult funds to acquire. Additionally, Measure S was a key factor leading to the City earning its national designation as a Bicycle Friendly Community because it demonstrated the community’s commitment to managing a ubiquitous challenge of funding for bike path maintenance. To repeal Measure S for reallocation of those funds may be sufficient grounds for re-evaluating the Bicycle Friendly Community designation of this community.

Publisher’s Note: Lake Tahoe News will be publishing articles from Mt. Tallac High School students through Oct. 21. The South Lake Tahoe school is having an open house Oct. 21 from 9am-noon. But first, a few words from the woman who runs the show.

Susan Baker

By Susan Baker

Mt. Tallac High School, in the words of one student, “Is as misunderstood as the students who attend there.”

Mt Tallac High School is an alternative approach to education and a high school diploma.

Situated below South Tahoe High School, it is a school of second chances for those who for whatever reason have not been successful in a traditional school model. Many of our students work fulltime while going to school, some are pregnant or parenting while attending school, and some just desire a less traditional approach to education.

Our philosophy is based on the model that all students are capable of success and those successes are built one at a time.

This year we have started a Tallac Leadership Team in which every student is invited to participate. We have student ambassadors who are committed to making Tallac the best school in the district.

This year Tallac has a student who was a homecoming princess, a student who is co-editor of the yearbook and one who is the goalie for the varsity soccer team.

The students have chosen the school color to be purple because that color blends all other colors together. Our mascot is a Phoenix, which symbolizes rebirth and rising up from the ashes.

Our individual approach to education has fostered an environment where all students, regardless of their path, are able to be successful. I am the luckiest person in our district to be able to work with these incredibly unique students everyday.

Susan Baker is the leader of Mt. Tallac High School in South Lake Tahoe.

Stephanie Olvera

By Stephanie Olvera

I am a really nice person and I always have a smile on my face. I have been through a lot, good things and bad. It’s been like a roller coaster, sometimes I’m up, sometimes I’m down.

It always seemed like I was at the bottom of the loop ever since I entered the high school and became pregnant.

The ride slowly started going up when I met Mrs. Baker, Amy Jackson, and Mr. Debella. They have helped me through tough times when I just wanted to quit everything. They gave me a push.

I have good grades now and my baby couldn’t be happier in the school’s nursery. I don’t know what I would do without them. Tallac has been a big help.

Now I happily see everything from the top of the loop and I’m planning to keep it that way.

Stephanie Olvera is senior at Mt. Tallac High School in South Lake Tahoe.

Publisher’s Note: This is an excerpt from a story about how nurses can’t find jobs, with Barton Health’s comments here. A link to the whole story is below.

Job sharing was postulated as a way to get new grads into the workforce and accommodate current workers who wanted to work part time, but that idea was nixed by Dennis Yee and others.

“The learning curve is tough for new grads,” Yee explained. “New grads need constant supervision as well as hands-on hours to learn skills and specialties. That means they need to be doing full-time shifts for a period of time to get them up to speed not only on policies and procedures, but also on practice.”

That sentiment was echoed by Mary Bittner, MSN, RN, vice president of nursing for Barton Healthcare System in South Lake Tahoe, CA. Bittner said a sharing program might work between facilities, but not between nurses sharing the same slot.

“A new grad does need a training program to develop competency in practice so the ‘investing’ facility needs to have some guarantee of return on investment,” she said. “The use of a consortium idea might work if the expense for new grad program training was shared by those ‘sharing’ the nurse afterwards.”

Bittner noted facilities with seasonal increases in traffic might do well to look at sharing experienced nurses as well, but such a program would have to benefit everyone and the costs would have to be shared.

“I have long thought that it would be nice to share nurses between facilities [like ours] that experience surges in volume,” she said. “So, two or three resort communities with different business (that is, timed at opposite ends of the calendar year) could share nurses and the nurses retain much needed full-time work. The arrangement might have to be workable geographically to get the most out of the shared employee.”

Read the whole story

By Ray Ford, Santa Barbara Independent

On Saturday, a small cadre of trail volunteers were provided detailed training in advanced erosion control techniques, using rock armoring of the trail, rolling grade dips and a type of “mini-dip” known as a nick. The project was part of the Forest Service burned area recovery program (BAER), which provided funds to help deal with the impacts of the recent Jesusita Fire on Tunnel, Jeusita, Rattlesnake and West Fork of Cold Spring trails.

“We don’t a lot of money for the trail work,” Santa Barbara District Wilderness Trail Manager Kerry Kellogg noted at Steven Park, where the fifteen volunteers assembled. “However, it does provideus the opportunity to bring in several CCC crews over the next month to work on reinforcing existing water control features and redesigning others.”

Read the whole story

John Rich, right, at Sunday's Fallen Leaf Lake board meeting. Photo/Susan Wood

By Susan Wood

FALLEN LEAF LAKE – Resolving the Fallen Leaf Lake marina operator issue has turned out to be more difficult than negotiating the area’s narrow, windy road on a warm summer day.

Facing an unfavorable voter referendum, the small town’s Community Services District board wrapped up another oppositional, but more civil, meeting Sunday at the firehouse by repealing its earlier decisions to take over the marina and general store if a contract could not be met with John and Ruth Rich. The couple has run the village center for 14 years under the auspices of Fallen Leaf Landing.

But the latest in the ongoing saga that has included threats, shouting matches, accusations and now an impasse in this quiet mountain haven at the base of the Desolation Wilderness, doesn’t necessarily mean the Rich family will manage the dual operation when the road is plowed in the spring.

When asked if the door has been left open, John Rich replied as the two-dozen people disbursed: “Well, it’s not shut.”

“We’re more hopeful with the new board,” Ruth Rich added.

The Riches and the CSD board have fought over terms of a contract since April, when on the 25th the board expressed interest in taking over the revenue-generating enterprise. Board members want more accountability, changes in practices and rent – at least $23,000 more than the $90,000 it receives from the operator. The Rich family wants to keep the job.

Some heavy-handed support from the community is behind the Riches.

Fallen Leaf Lake citizen Betsy Wheeler stood Sunday wielding a certified petition of 419 names prepared to nullify the board’s actions of its April 25 and Sept. 5 meetings and offer support of the Rich family maintaining control at the ballot box. No election date has been set.

“We will defend before a judge the validity of this referendum. What else can we do but move forward with the democratic process?” Wheeler asked.

But not everyone sees the issue the same way.

Fallen Leaf resident Steve Tallman stood up and said he felt like “the board is being bullied” and criticized how the marina has been run.

Board President Dana Clark launched the agenda item by saying Fallen Leaf Lake’s attorney found the referendum “inappropriate.” But later in the meeting he discounted the attorney’s opinion and said there is an advantage to pulling back from a full-scale assault for the district to run the operation to keep “it out of a legal battle.”

The board’s decision to repeal its earlier votes essentially takes the referendum off the table.

Time may be on everyone’s side in the long run. A new board will be elected Dec. 4.

“What I can’t understand is why do you expect perfection from your side of the contract?” Jennifer Thornton, who’s running for a board seat, asked the board.

Plus, the winter may give the board a chance to reevaluate and revise an earlier contract with Rich that he signed but board member Eric Thaden calls “unacceptable” and “irresponsible for the board to adopt.”

To be continued.

Susan Wood is a freelance writer based in South Lake Tahoe. She may be reached at copysue1@yahoo.com.