Light up South Lake Tahoe is Dec. 7.
City emergency vehicles will be decorated with lights and lead a procession from Stateline to the Y starting at 6pm. People are invited to join in the makeshift parade.
The tree at the Y by the Factory Outlet Stores will be lighted, South Tahoe Children’s Choral Society will sing and South Tahoe High School’s brass band will play.
Santa will be there, too, and hot cocoa provided to help take off the chill.
By Shan Li and Andrew Khouri, Los Angeles Times
California continues to be a story of two economies: coastal regions with healthy job growth and inland areas that are still struggling to recover, according to a UCLA report released Thursday.
UCLA economists said in their quarterly forecast that coastal counties stretching from Marin to San Diego have enjoyed employment gains that outpaced the U.S. In contrast, inland areas such as the San Joaquin Valley and the East Bay are showing little or even negative growth.
Years of economic turmoil have especially been hard on the Inland Empire, which includes Riverside and San Bernardino counties. The region’s October unemployment rate was 9.8 percent, down from 11.7 percent a year earlier. But its jobless levels were still well above the 7 percent in San Diego County and 5.8 percent in Orange County.
By USSA
LAKE LOUISE, Alberta -– U.S. Ski Team athlete Julia Ford (Plymouth, N.H.) shed a little light on a tough day for the U.S. women’s speed team, as she finished a career-best 21st in the first of two Audi FIS Alpine World Cup downhills in Lake Louise.
Friday also marked the return of Olympic gold medalist Lindsey Vonn (Vail), who finished a conservative 40th in her first World Cup start since a season-ending injury last February. German Maria Hoefl-Riesch took home the victory in a race delayed by an hour due to fog.
Ford’s finish was a high-mark on a mostly disappointing day for the U.S. women’s speed team. Teammate Julia Mancuso (Squaw Valley) finished 26th, while the rest of the team finished outside the points.
Brutal cold temperatures down to minus 22 degrees added an extra challenge as the snow was slower and the athletes risked frostbite with any exposed skin.
“It just was the first race. It’s tough to come to Lake Louise having not raced not only this season but since last February. So it was a little tough with the nerves,” Vonn said. “Now that I have that first race over, I think tomorrow I definitely can risk more and be more confident.”
By Kathryn Reed
El Dorado County and U.S. Forest Service officials continue to bicker over the cost of remediation at the old Meyers Landfill.
The closed session item on the Board of Supervisors meeting this week was pulled as both sides continue mediation. It will be on a future agenda when something comes out of the mediation.
Earlier this year the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals sided with El Dorado County in regards to whether it should pay for unexpected costs. The bill is about $13 million – twice what was expected. No matter who pays, it’s taxpayer money.
Meyers Landfill has been a contentious issue for decades. Photo/USFS
“Where a project owner like the USFS provides detailed design plans and specifications, the government, and not the contracting party (here the county) bears the risk if such plans and specifications are ultimately determined to be deficient,” the court wrote in its January decision.
That sent the case back to trial court, though the two are trying to resolve the dispute through mediation.
“There is still ongoing litigation over the costs of the closure of the site. The USFS hired a consultant to design the various items to be installed there in order to make sure there were no further problems (things like a ‘cap’ and drainage swales, etc.). The county followed those plans, however in doing so we discovered that the plans were woefully inadequate and failed to cover the entire site, so the county ended up expending a lot more money than originally anticipated,” Ed Knapp, county counsel, told Lake Tahoe News. “The county sued the USFS alleging that the USFS consultant’s plans were below reasonable standards, and that negligence cost the county several million dollars in extra closure costs. This dispute is still ongoing.”
Lisa Herron, spokeswoman with the Forest Service, had no comment because it is active litigation.
The Meyers Landfill off Pioneer Trail on the edge of South Lake Tahoe was used from 1947-71. Twenty years later the feds sued a slew of entities for cleanup costs. Vinyl chloride, a carcinogen produced when household waste breaks down, was the main contaminant under the sealed plot, although methane and other gases posed problems.
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Answers:
1. Sept. 7, 2009
2. South Tahoe Refuse, Deb Howard and Co., Lake Tahoe Community College and South Lake Tahoe.
3. Of course.
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This will be the second year Catalina Rodriguez’s Dancers and Tahoe Dream Foundation’s Directors will perform Aztec Dances at Our Lady of Guadalupe Feast and Celebration at Our Lady of Tahoe Catholic Church in Zephyr Cove.
It is a fundraiser for the Our Lady Of Tahoe Catholic Church.
The event is Dec. 12 from 5:30-9pm at the Our Lady of Tahoe Catholic Church in Zephyr Cove on Elks Point Road. All are welcome. After the liturgy and the performances there will be a feast to celebrate the Our Lady of Guadalupe.
By Ed Vogel, Las Vegas Review-Journal
Douglas County must be the best-kept secret in Nevada.
Lying just south of Carson City, here one finds the lush, green, 20-mile long Carson Valley dotted with ranches covered by grazing cattle. And 1,400 feet above the valley floor lies the southern half of Lake Tahoe, with some of the most beautiful scenery in the world.
View of the Sierra from Genoa. Photo/LTN file
This is where Nevada’s first Anglo residents settled in 1851 — although that was about 9,000 years after the Washoe Indians arrived to live a nomadic life of gathering pine nuts and hunting rabbits in Carson Valley, except for fishing and summering at Lake Tahoe. They knew a good place when they saw it.
But outsiders slowly are discovering this place of clean air and beauty. Until the Great Recession five years ago, wealthy California retirees — like the late Bing Crosby’s wife Kathy — were buying ranches near pricey Genoa. Ever hear of Friesian horses, the horse used in European wars? There are ranches here full of the beautiful and costly black horses.
Others were purchasing multimillion-dollar homes at Lake Tahoe and in the pine forests on the west side of Carson Valley. The boom brought skyrocketing land and home prices that priced many people, particularly those with children, out of Douglas County.
Zephyr Cove Ski Club is open to Douglas County School District and Lake Tahoe Unified students.
The program runs for six Saturdays beginning Jan. 11 at the Boulder Lodge of Heavenly Mountain Resort. Four program options are available: lift and lessons, lift only, lessons only (for Heavenly pass holders), or transportation only. Transportation is provided by Douglas County School District and all lessons are led by Heavenly instructors.
Registration is at Kahle Community Center on Dec. 7 from 9am-noon; and Dec. 10 and Dec. 17 from 6-8pm.
For more information, contact Sally O’Brien at (775) 588.7233.
California State Parks is beginning the 2013-14 winter pile burning season in the Lake Tahoe area this week.
Burning will continue into May 2014, weather conditions permitting.
The planned pile burning locations include designated sites within four Lake Tahoe Basin State Parks:
For questions, call (530) 583.2240.
Squaw Valley Institute is partnering with the Shane McConkey Foundation to raise awareness and funds for this local charity.
The Shane McConkey Foundation has given back to Tahoe area schools and the community by raising environmental awareness and promoting a sustainable future.
The evening of Dec. 28 will start with a safety presentation by the SVI Kids program. The focus will be geared toward navigating risk management in the world of extreme sports.
The film “McConkey” will be followed by a Q&A with the film’s executive producer Sherry McConkey and chief editor-director Scott.
The event will be at the Olympic Village Lodge at 6:30pm. Go online to buy tickets.