By USSA

BRECKENRIDGE, Colo. – Maddie Bowman (South Lake Tahoe) clinched a nomination to the inaugural U.S. Freeskiing Olympic team Sunday with a win in the halfpipe final at the Visa U.S. Freeskiing Grand Prix presented by North Face at Breckenridge.

Adverse weather at the venue forced FIS officials to reschedule the finals twice, and snow fell on the halfpipe while Bowman, Ayana Onozuka of Japan and Aussie Amy Sheehan laid down the top runs of the day.

Brita Sigourney (Carmel) and Annalisa Drew (Andover, Mass.) finished just shy of the podium in fourth and fifth, putting Bowman in an unbeatable position in the qualification standings.

Sunday’s final also marked the end of the FIS World Cup tour for halfpipe skiing, and Devin Logan (West Dover, Vt.) was named the FIS World Cup halfpipe champion and awarded the crystal globe for her winning the most FIS halfpipe points throughout the tour.

Bowman earned the silver in the FIS World Cup overall halfpipe standings with Amy Sheehan taking bronze.

Bowman’s winning run: Straight-air Japan, unnatural (rightside) 900, straight-air mute, rightside 540, leftside 540 mute, rightside 720 tail and switch 360 mute.

“I’ve never been in this position. It’s our first Olympics, but it’s pretty exciting. I’ve just been trying to take each competition day by day, not looking at the big ‘O,’ but now that I know I get to compete there so I’m pretty excited,” Bowman said.

By Matt Gutman, Chris Kilmer and Lauren Effron, 20/20

When Navy veteran Carol Roberts first met A.J. Dicken, who boasted about being the most decorated Navy SEAL ever, she was in awe of him, and she wasn’t the first.

For years, Dicken, 57, claimed he was an ex-Navy SEAL who had served in dozens of covert combat missions, from the jungles of Vietnam to the caves of Afghanistan. He proudly wore the SEAL trident insignia and loved to show off his numerous awards. He would regale listeners about his mission to assassinate Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar and his death defying swoop into Pakistan to make the kill shot on Osama Bin Laden. He also carried discharge papers that included two Medals of Honor, and even a laudatory email from Col. Oliver North. He’s actually a former Lake Tahoe bartender

But it was all an elaborate lie, one that he would allegedly use to take hundreds of thousands of dollars from his victims — and something else harder to put a price on: their honor.

Roberts met Dicken at a military-style self-defense training school he started in an airplane hangar in Carson City, where she took some shooting and self-defense classes, along with Greg Ginn, a surgeon in South Lake Tahoe, and Brian Romaneschi, an ear-nose-throat specialist in Carson Valley.

The business was popular with the locals, and seemed to be booming. But Dicken’s dream to launch his own international security firm was expensive. He convinced Ginn and Romaneschi to invest upward of $850,000 in the new venture.

Read the whole story

Publisher’s note: This is one of a series of blurbs about how the lack of winter is impacting businesses in the Lake Tahoe Basin. If you have an idea, please email it to info@LakeTahoeNews.net.

SMC Contracting Inc. is one of the businesses that is benefiting from the dismal snowfall. But it could be temporary.

The construction company is filling in the hole in the ground in South Lake Tahoe with what will be retail shops this summer.

“The current weather has been favorable for us to pour concrete, do masonry and set steel on the Chateau site. All of which are activities that are much more difficult and costly to do when it’s snowing and freezing cold outside,” Joe Stewart with SMC told Lake Tahoe News. “However, at this point in mid-January we would all prefer it snowed and turned Tahoe into the winter wonderland we all love. Because if it doesn’t snow, then most of the companies we build for will suffer financially and won’t have any new projects for us to build this coming summer.”

 — Lake Tahoe News staff report

• Brooke Laine has been hired to be manager of US Bank in South Lake Tahoe.

• Lake Tahoe South Shore Chamber of Commerce’s community breakfast is Jan. 28 at 8am at Lake Tahoe Resort Hotel. It is free and open to the public.

• Bona Fide Books of Meyers is entering the world of fiction this summer with the release of “Bigfoot and the Baby” by Ann Gelder. Preorder now and the shipping is waived. The link also has details about the book.

• South Lake Tahoe Friends of the Library is having a book sale March 15 starting at 10am. FOL members get in at 9am. The library is at 1000 Rufus Allen Blvd.

• South Lake Tahoe’s Planning Commission is hosting a public workshop Jan. 23 at 3pm at Lake Tahoe Airport to discuss the city’s role in addressing housing issues and provide input on the draft housing element.

U.S. Forest Service fuels management crews will continue prescribed fire operations off of Bunker Drive near Tahoe City and on Luther Pass near South Lake Tahoe through the week of Jan. 12–18, weather and conditions permitting.

All prescribed fire projects are conducted in accordance with an approved prescribed fire burn plan. Burn plans describe specific conditions under which operations are conducted including the weather, number of personnel, opportunities to minimize smoke impacts, and available burn days. This information is used to decide when and where to burn.

Smoke from prescribed fire may continue for several days after the initial ignition. Smoke that settles in low lying areas in the morning usually lifts out of the area during normal daytime heating. All prescribed fires are monitored regularly for burning and smoke dispersal and action is taken to mitigate concerns as they arise. The Forest Service makes every effort to conduct prescribed fire operations during weather patterns that carry smoke away from communities.

By USSA

PARK CITY -– Canadian skier Alex Bilodeau overtook teammate and World Cup leader Mikael Kingsbury for the victory Saturday in front of a crowd of 8,000 at the Visa Freestyle International FIS World Cup at Deer Valley.

Alexandr Smyshlyaev of Russia took the third spot, while crowd favorite Pat Deneen (Cle Elum, Wash.) finished fourth, the top finish for the United States.

Deneen posted the fastest time of the day during finals on the long, steep Champion run, the 2002 Olympic venue.

Sho Kashima (Stateline) advanced to the superfinal, but he lost control for just a second before the bottom air and finished sixth.

The crowd grew to about 8,500 in the finish area during the finals, and the roar became louder as the snow began to fall during the men’s superfinal.

The U.S. men have two more chances to seal their two required FIS World Cup podiums for Olympic team qualification.

These ads were culled from mid-1960s issues of the Tahoe Daily Tribune saved by “Old Long Skiis” who comments frequently here on Lake Tahoe News.

These were popular long-time local businesses we probably thought we’d always see:

The Outdoorsman (now the Grocery Outlet building in South Lake Tahoe) ultimately expanded to Round Hill, Truckee, Carson City, and (do I recall correctly?) Reno. All stores closed in the 1980s.

Tahoe Valley Texaco site, until the 1970s, was near where the recently-moved Grass Roots now stands at the Y (It was built as a Blockbuster Video location.) We have no Texaco station in the region now; Texaco merged with Chevron in 2001.

Tahoe TV Cable was locally owned and operated in the block building still standing on Bal Bijou Road behind Pyramid Peak. Charter now has the cable TV franchise for South Shore.

The Tahoe Drive-In Theater (second edition after original 1940s Stateline site) had a long dirt driveway which was the origin of Glenwood Way in Bijou. It was open every summer. It closed in 1984.

The two Cornet stores — Bijou and the Y — closed about 1970.

(In most cases, a left-click on each image will enlarge it.)

— Bill Kingman

By Kathryn Reed

Dawn Armstrong never intended to run a Humane Society, let alone for more than two decades.

The 70-year-old came to South Lake Tahoe not sure of what she wanted to do. Right away she met people associated with the Lake Tahoe Humane Society. She joined the board mostly as a way to help animals and meet people. At the time the board had been looking for an executive director. After about six months and still no leader, Armstrong said she would be willing to take the job for six months.

Armstrong retired Dec. 31 after 22 years as executive director of the humane society.

“I think I’m going to like retirement. My head is spinning and I feel off balance,” Armstrong told Lake Tahoe News.

Dawn Armstrong with Lexie, Noodles and Goldie. Photo/Provided

Now she has time to pursue her writing (she has a book she wants to finish), enjoy Tahoe, be more physical and spend more time with her animals instead of worrying so much about all the animals.

The phrase “Keep Tahoe Kind” was created on her watch. After all, it was a corporate marketing background that she brought to the job.

“I thought that’s what we were supposed to do,” Armstrong said in reference to the Keep Tahoe Kind phrase. She said at the time the Humane Society was the only group to ask the League to Save Lake Tahoe for permission to alter its Keep Tahoe Blue slogan. The former League director said go for it. Armstrong envisioned people having both bumper stickers on their vehicles.

The slogan is about people being kind to each other and animals.

The local chapter was founded in 1967. It originated on the Nevada side before moving to California. At times its offices were in Meyers, while now they are in South Lake Tahoe.

In 1987 the shelter burned to the ground. Many animals died and the insurance company didn’t cover the costs to completely rebuild so a fund-raising drive helped with the rebuilding.

Today the Humane Society is largely about educating people and cruelty prevention. Children’s programs include the My Reading Buddy program. The society also works with many of the social service groups in town.

Besides the executive director, who is now Niki Congero, there is one other full-time employee. There is a board that oversees everything.

When Armstrong first came on board she was thrown into a controversy with South Lake Tahoe and El Dorado County.

“In 1992 we gave up the city and county animal control contract and moved out of the shelter building,” Armstrong said. “We decided after looking at our finances that we would go broke if we kept doing animal control.”

Money was raised for a shelter in what is now Angie’s Signs in Meyers. This meant there were two shelters on the South Shore. It eventually closed in winter 2002. The population was starting to diminish and change to the point where two shelters were not needed.

The society then began focusing more on education.

“What kept me with it, because it’s hard, was the education aspect of it,” Armstrong said of the job. “The wonderful part is the kids. You hope when they grow up they have a new outlet and appreciation for all creatures.”

And while there were times when funding was such an issue that Armstrong had to have other jobs, the Humane Society remained a passion.

Now Armstrong is pursuing personal passions.

To the community,

“The motto of Kiwanis is to change the world one community and person at a time. That is why we are here. We love to support Bread & Broth,” said Kiwanis Club of Tahoe Sierra member Pat Frega.

He and fellow club members Carolyn Willford and Eric and Nancy Schafer were the sponsor volunteer crew members for the Kiwanis Club of Tahoe Sierra’s Adopt A Day sponsorship on Jan. 6.

B&B appreciates Kiwanis Club of Tahoe Sierra’s annual hosting of an AAD dinner and their hard working and community minded volunteers. In providing the funding and assistance at their evening meal, the Kiwanis organization is making a difference in the lives of many in the Lake Tahoe community.

B&B’s Adopt A Day of Nourishment program is a way for individuals, organizations and businesses to host a Monday evening dinner. A donation of $250 will provide the funds to cover the costs of providing a hot, full course meal to any individual who comes to Grace Hall on Lyons Avenue.

Due to the generosity of our AAD sponsors like the Kiwanis Club of Tahoe Sierra and anonymous donors, B&B also sponsors a soup and pasta dinner every Friday evening at Lake Tahoe Community Presbyterian Church.

To help B&B as a donor or sponsor, contact me at (530) 542.2876 or carolsgerard@aol.com.

Carol Gerard, Bread & Broth

“Since January is National Safety Awareness Month and Heavenly has the most open terrain in South Tahoe, these messages have been placed in popular lift line areas to raise additional awareness and remind guests to ski and ride with care,” Sally Gunter of Heavenly told Lake Tahoe News. Photo/Provided

• The rumor that Kirkwood Mountain Resort is going to close because of lack of snow is false. “Our planned date to close is late April; no plans to do anything different,” Casey Blann, vice president and general manager of Kirkwood, told Lake Tahoe News.

• Snowlands Network Backcountry Film Festival is Jan. 22 at 7pm at the Patagonia Outlet in Reno. Cost is $15. For more info, call (530) 265.6424.

• For the fifth year in a row, the Placer County Sheriff’s Office has been honored for hosting one of the best National Night Out events in the United States in 2013, placing 12th, just behind larger jurisdictions like Los Angeles County and Minneapolis.

• Truckee River Watershed Council is giving a presentation on the Truckee Wetlands restoration project on Jan. 28 from 6 to 7:30pm at the Cedar House Sport Hotel. RSVP is required by Jan. 21 to Michele Prestowitz at (530) 550.8760, ext. 4 or mprestowitz@truckeeriverwc.org.

• Here are the El Dorado-Tahoe and Sierra roadwork schedules from Caltrans for next week.