By USSA

LAKE LOUISE, Alberta -– Despite another day of flat light and a late start number, Travis Ganong (Squaw Valley) powered through light snow to finish 22nd at the Audi FIS Alpine World Cup super G opener Sunday.

Two-time World Cup overall champion Bode Miller (Franconia, N.H.) finished right behind Ganong in 23rd with another promising result in his first super G after missing the 2013 season.

Norway’s Aksel Lund Svindal reeled in the victory for his fifth super G victory in Lake Loiuse.

Four-time World Cup giant slalom champion and reigning super G World Champ Ted Ligety (Park City) was knocked off course in the difficult visibility and did not finish.

The Kings Beach Commercial Core Improvement Project continues to move forward.

AT&T has completed the utility relocation work at the Bear Street intersection and all traffic control equipment has been removed from that site.

For the next two weeks starting Dec. 2, road work will continue in the Kings Beach area near Plumas Bank. Highway 28 access to the bank will be closed Dec. 2-6, however bank customers will have access via Brook Avenue.

Winter utility relocation schedule will be weather dependent, and road work will cease during peak holiday periods. Utility relocations are necessary before the road work begins in spring.

By Debbie Arrington, Sacramento Bee

Farm to fork? These farmers specialize in field to floor.

“We’re growing something that’s sustainable,” said Dee Kobervig, president of the El Dorado County Christmas Tree Growers Association. “We’re trying to grow something for our (Northern California) Christmas tree market, something that people want.”

On Apple Hill, it’s looking a lot like Christmas, which is just the way tree farmers like it. This weekend marks the official opening of cut-your-own-tree season as dozens of mom-and-pop farms open their gates to city folks who drive up.

“A lot of people are going back to the basics with family traditions,” Kobervig said. “(Looking for a tree) is a fun adventure. You can drink hot chocolate and munch a candy cane. And the trees look fantastic this season.”

Mild fall weather helped the firs and pines develop lots of branches and grow lustrous new needles.

Read the whole story

By USSA

BEAVER CREEK -– Slalom world champion Mikaela Shiffrin (Eagle-Vail, Colo.) earned her first Audi FIS Alpine World Cup giant slalom podium Sunday, taking second during the final event of the Nature Valley Raptor women’s World Cup week.

After laying down an inspired first run for the roaring hometown crowd, Shiffrin produced a fluid final run that nearly snatched the win away from Jessica Lindell-Vikarby of Sweden.

Shiffrin’s previous best GS result was a sixth in Soelden, Austria, to open the 2014 Olympic season.

Julia Mancuso (Squaw Valley) made the top 30, advancing to the final run in 28th, but missed a gate and did not finish her second run.

“It’s definitely a step in the right direction but still a little off on time. We have a lot of races and I feel like it’s tougher once you reach a certain level in your career,” Mancuso said. “When you have ups and downs you have to remember that it keeps going. When you’re having breakthroughs when you’re younger everything seems to work a little easier. When you’ve been around for a long time it’s hard when you’re struggling to find that extra bit of energy.”

The race was on the future site of the 2015 FIS Alpine World Ski Championships at Beaver Creek Resort.

• To ensure holiday mail and packages are delivered on time, the Postal Service recommends the following deadlines: Dec. 2 priority mail international; Dec. 10 APO/FPO military priority mail and first-class mail; Dec. 20 first-class mail; Dec. 21 priority mail; and Dec. 23 priority mail express.

• The Herbert Bail Orchestra will be at the Crystal Bay Club on Dec. 6 at 10pm. The show is free, but only those 21 and older will be admitted.

• Food Network’s “Diner, Drive-Ins and Dives” featured the 10 best burger places in the country. Burger Me in Truckee made the list.

• If you want to know where South Lake Tahoe’s plow drivers are, follow them online.

• The Lake Tahoe South Shore Chamber of Commerce board meets Dec. 19 from 8-9:30am at Inn by the Lake in South Lake Tahoe.

By Hugo Martin, Los Angeles Times

After a nasty storm ripped through the East Coast on the busiest travel day of the year, you might think that buying travel insurance for holiday travel would be a no-brainer.

Not so much. The 114-year-old National Consumers League concluded recently that travel insurance is usually a bad deal because most policies are riddled with exceptions that allow insurance companies to reject claims for payoffs.

Most insurance companies won’t disclose their track record for paying out claims, making it nearly impossible to judge whether insurance is worth the money, the league says.

Read the whole story

South Lake Tahoe and the Tahoe Tri Club are partnering to put on Jingle Jog.

The Dec. 15 event starts at 10am at Lake Tahoe Community College, 1 College Way, South Lake Tahoe.

Awards will be given to participants in holiday themed attire.

Register online.

By Warner C. Greene

I saw my first AIDS case in 1981, the year the disease was identified. And for most of the time since then, I’ve conducted laboratory research to better understand the precise mechanisms by which the virus HIV causes AIDS.

Lately, however, I’ve been equally worried about a related condition that is prevalent, persistent and threatens to bankrupt us. People in my world call it AIDS fatigue.

AIDS fatigue has several telltale symptoms. One is thinking that the AIDS crisis is under control. Another is believing that AIDS is someone else’s problem, while still another is assuming that antiretroviral medications cure HIV/AIDS. All three notions, unfortunately, are false.

World AIDS Day — Dec. 1 — is a great opportunity to begin treating these malignant misconceptions, which we must do to address one of the most lethal pandemics ever to strike mankind. As a global community, we are not supplying — and may not even be able to afford to supply — enough of the lifesaving drugs required to prevent an HIV infection from progressing to AIDS for all the people who need them.

Our best option is to cure this disease — thereby eliminating the need to fund a lifetime of expensive medications for tens of millions of people — while also developing a vaccine to prevent new infections. And to do this, we must first treat AIDS fatigue with the only medicine known to address it: facts.

Warner C. Greene is a physician and the director of virology and immunology research at the Gladstone Institutes in San Francisco.

Read the whole story

By Stephanie Baker and Ilya Arkhipov, Bloomberg

In August, Russian President Vladimir Putin flew to the Black Sea resort of Sochi, where his country is spending a record $48 billion on the 2014 Winter Olympics. A regular visitor, with an official residence in town, Putin watched mixed-martial-arts contests at Oblaka nightclub with Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev.

After the first fight, the leaders suddenly were plunged into darkness for almost three minutes, giving them a taste of the blackouts that have plagued Sochi for years. Putin, poker faced when the power returned, strode into the ring to congratulate the fighters as the tournament concluded.

“Here in Russia, we have always valued and respected men who know how to stand firm to the last,” he said.

Putin is bracing for a fight of his own in the mad rush to the Feb. 7 opening ceremony, Bloomberg Markets magazine will report in its January issue. With concerns about terrorist attacks, lack of snow and anti-gay laws dominating headlines, Sochi has endured its share of pre-Olympics tension.

Yet another, potentially longer-lasting battle is playing out behind the scenes — involving Putin’s government, some of Russia’s wealthiest industrialists and a state-owned bank. The government is demanding that the country’s biggest companies stand firm on commitments to bankroll the games.

Read the whole story

Truckee police detectives expect to soon forward the carbon monoxide death case to the Nevada County District Attorneys Office.

Albert Senzatimore, 69, of San Jose and Gary Trovinger, 57, of Los Gatos died in October from carbon monoxide poisoning. The heater in the Tahoe Donner house Trovinger owned was the source of the gas, according to authorities.

Police say the contractor, whose name has not been released, did not have a building permit.

 — Lake Tahoe News staff report