South Lake Tahoe firefighters are getting the Christmas truck ready to roll.

The truck leaves Station 2 at 5pm each night and will stop at 8pm. The truck locations are subject to change due to bad weather or an emergency. The truck will also be at the Light Up Lake Tahoe even at the Y on Dec 7. at 7pm with Santa Claus.

Tips for picking a Christmas tree: Select a fresh tree with good color and firm, flexible needles that do not easily pull from the branches.

Place the tree in plain water immediately after recutting the trunk at least one-half inch above the old cut. The container you use for your tree should hold 2 to 4 quarts of water.

The longer you wait to place your tree in water, the greater the chances are that it will lose the required moisture content to keep it fresh through the holiday season.

Never place your tree on a wooden stand.

Locate the tree away from sources of heat. Avoid placing the tree near heaters, wood stoves, fireplaces, large appliances, such as TVs, and direct sunlight.

Be careful not to block a door or other exit with the tree or rearranged furniture.

Use mini-lights on your tree and never place candles on or near your tree. Remove your Christmas tree as soon as possible after the holiday.

Never burn your Christmas tree or wrapping paper in the fireplace. The rapid burning and excessive heat can damage the firebox and chimney creating a serious fire hazard.

The South Lake Tahoe Fire Department wants to wish everyone a fun and safe holiday season.

— Sallie Ross-Filgo, South Lake Tahoe Fire Department

By Kathryn Reed

I admit that 99.9 percent of the time I buy salsa. With there being so many choices of tasty fresh salsas to choose from, it is so much easier than making it from scratch.

However, when it comes to fruit salsas, hands-down I would rather have a homemade one.

The recipe below is from Edible Communities, which has publications all over the country.

I just recently stumbled across this recipe again. I remember making it for friends who don’t like heat as much as I do. Penny and Sue still say one good-size pepper is all this recipe needs. I put in two. I also used two limes instead of the one it called for. Mangos should be soft like a ripe peach and be more red than green on the outside.

This salsa works well served with fajitas. And chips are always a good choice for any salsa.

Mango Mint Salsa

2 C mango, diced

3/4 C red onions, minced

1 red bell pepper, seeded and diced

2 jalapeño chile peppers, seeded and diced

1 bunch fresh mint, chopped

1 lime, juiced

In a medium bowl, place all of the ingredients and mix gently.

Chill the salsa in the refrigerator at least one hour before serving.

By Kathryn Reed

Traveling to receive medical treatment. More people are doing it every year and Barton Health wants to tap into that market in a more significant way.

Three representatives from the South Shore health care conglomerate recently attended the sixth annual World Medical Tourism and Global Healthcare Congress in Las Vegas.

More than 2,000 people were at the conference. The 200 exhibitors represented locales from around the world.

Barton sent gynecologist John Missanelli; Chris Proctor, director of Tahoe Center for Orthopedics; and Monica Sciuto, director of public relations and marketing. This is the first time anyone from Barton has attended one of the conventions. This is also the first year Barton has belonged to the association.

Barton Health wants to attract patients from outside the Lake Tahoe Basin. Photo/LTN

“With the large number of travelers to our area, we have an opportunity to share with them the incredible team we have and serve them well should they have a medical need. We already have a destination program for orthopedics where we have many traveling from out of the area for our care,” Sciuto told Lake Tahoe News. “It is prudent for us to continue to provide a program that serves their needs as well as our locals’ needs. Both will benefit from the improvements we make.”

Barton has a contract with a travel concierge to work with people who are coming from outside the area for medical care. The service is free. It includes booking flights, shuttles from the airport and hotel reservations.

“This service is also used by patients who were initially tourists and find themselves staying in Tahoe for unforeseen medical care,” Sciuto said.

Orthopedic care is the No. 1 service Barton is pushing. Second is the Da Vinci surgery service.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website says, “Medical tourism is a worldwide, multibillion-dollar phenomenon that is expected to grow substantially in the next five to 10 years. However, little reliable epidemiologic data on medical tourism exist. Studies using different definitions and methods have estimated there are 60,000–750,000 medical tourists annually from around the world.”

But not everyone agrees that medical tourism is growing. “Market size, market share and market strategy: Three myths of medical tourism” will be published in 2014 by Policy Press at the University of Bristol in the journal Policy & Politics.

The International Medical Travel Journal said of the research, “They describe three myths of medical tourism: the rise and rise of medical tourism; enormous global market opportunities; and that national governments have a role to play in stimulating the medical tourism sector through high-tech investment. The researchers say these three widely held assumptions cannot be backed up with hard evidence but are encouraged by interested parties such as associations, healthcare providers, and intermediaries between providers and patients.”

Many of the locations considering themselves medical destinations are places people would want to vacation – such as Thailand, Argentina and Costa Rica.

“Patients have a choice on where they go for their health care. Providers must compete to provide the best care to attract patients. Best care, in our vision, includes high quality care, exceptional patient experience, best outcomes, proactive follow-up and convenience,” Sciuto said. “There are a lot of international hospitals going after the American patient. They say they provide the newest facilities, the best doctors and comparable procedures. There is a big concern by patients, employers and insurers about how these facilities are measured, how a patient follows up if there is an issue with their care and coordination with the patient’s primary care provider back home. It is important for us to consider the concerns of patients and address these same issues locally and with our destination patients.”

To fill the beds with people from out of town Barton has been investing in its infrastructure. This includes upgrading and remodeling patient rooms at the hospital, buying the latest MRI and CT scanners, and improving doctors’ offices and the emergency room.

Creating a personalized experience for patients is one way Barton wants to set itself apart from other health care providers. Patient satisfaction is an ever-increasing priority.

“We do not believe that we will receive a significant return on investment from this program. Our hope is that by providing the best service to our community and its visitors that we will create a reputation that will sustain a healthy amount of patients to our health system,” Sciuto said. “By consistently investing in our services, we stay ahead of the curve to provide the best care to our patients and continue the loyalty that we have created. Word of mouth has provided us our best marketing.”

To the community,

Ameriprise Financial Services Inc. has a legacy of giving back to the community and annually sponsors a corporate wide National Day of Service with the goal of ending domestic hunger. This year, the South Lake Tahoe Ameriprise Financial Services office chose to join with Bread & Broth in their efforts to feed the hungry by sponsoring an “Adopt A Day of Nourishment” on Nov. 11.

“A humbling and uplifting experience. Very moving –- thank you for the opportunity to serve the community,” Roger Pratt, Ameriprise financial adviser, said after serving the evening’s dinner guests.

Also, from the South Lake Tahoe Ameriprise office were Rick Gross, Kristie Nauman, Travis Klover and his, son Mark Klover. The Ameriprise crew had a busy evening helping the B&B volunteers with bagging the giveaway food items, serving heaping trays filled with roast beef, mashed potatoes and veggies and even working the cleaning line by drying trays, pots and pans.

Since 2009, through Ameriprise’s National Day of Service program and individual contributions of time and money, over 28 million meals have been served to relieve hunger. Bread & Broth would like to thank Ameriprise Financial Services, Inc. and the local Ameriprise office members for their generous monetary and time contribution to seeing that over 90 meals were served to the less fortunate members of the south shore community.

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

Carol Gerard, Bread & Broth

South Tahoe High School’s basketball teams open against Incline High school on Friday at home.

The freshman boys start the action at 1pm, followed by the JV girls at 2:30pm, then the JV boys at 4pm, varsity girls at 5:30pm and varsity boys at 7pm.

Both varsity matches are expected to be entertaining, according to one of the coaches. Despite Incline having a smaller enrollment, the school has a respected basketball tradition.

Radon is a colorless, odorless, radioactive gas that can accumulate in a home and can cause serious health problems. Eric Matus will present an overview of radon, where it’s found, how to test for it and what to do if your home has a radon problem.

Free test kits will be offered to Nevada residents.

The talk is Jan. 28 from 5:30-7pm at the Tahoe Center for Environmental Sciences, 291 Country Club Drive, Incline Village.

Cost is $5.

By Cynthia H. Craft, Sacramento Bee

The good news is that overall soda consumption is on the decline among California’s young children. The flip side? A new UCLA survey says kids are still being fed fast food meals on a regular basis.

Though kids’ fast food meals and sodas usually come packaged together, there’s been a sharp decline in kids ages 2 to 5 drinking sugar-sweetened beverages, UCLA researchers said. Ten years ago, about 40 percent of young children drank soda the previous day of the survey. By 2009, that proportion dropped to 16 percent.

But the decrease in soda drinking, seen as a positive by nutritionists, is offset by a steady rate of fast food meal consumption, the survey found. In both 2007 and 2009, about two-thirds of California children ate at least one fast food meal daily, and about 29 percent ate the meals twice a week or more.

Researchers concerned about children’s health say the fast food habit is a factor in rising obesity rates for children. About one-fourth of California kids ages two to five are overweight or obese.

Read the whole story

By James Rainey, Los Angeles Times

Nearly 40 news organizations have accused the Obama administration of improperly controlling images of the president by limiting the access granted to independent photojournalists while allowing free rein by the White House’s own photographers.

In a letter and a meeting last week, the news outlets and journalism groups complained to White House Press Secretary Jay Carney about the practice, saying the White House has prevented an unvarnished view of government business, while encouraging officially sanctioned competition for private news organizations.

Limitations on photographers’ access to President Obama create “a troubling precedent with a direct and adverse impact on the public’s ability to independently monitor and see what its government is doing,” charged the letter from the 38 organizations, including the White House Correspondents Association and the Tribune Co., owner of the Los Angeles Times.

The White House said it has limited access by photographers only as necessitated by logistics or a desire to preserve a zone of privacy for the president and his family. Carney noted that previous presidents, including George W. Bush, battled with the media over how much of their activity to put into the public domain.

Read the whole story

To the community:

In the Nov. 27 edition of the Lake Tahoe News, it was reported that South Lake Tahoe’s City Attorney Tom Watson has “rejected” a vote initiative presented to him to provide a title and summary of the initiative, as provided by law.

Steve Kubby

I believe this is an outrageous and illegal effort by the city attorney to suppress the democratic process. The city attorney does not have the legal option of “rejecting” a voter initiative by the people. His objections can only be raised in a court challenge, after the initiative passes. Instead he has refused to perform his lawful duty, a direct and serious violation of the California Election Code which states: “Section 9203 (a) Any person who is interested in any proposed measure shall file a copy of the proposed measure with the elections official with a request that a ballot title and summary be prepared. This request shall be accompanied by the address of the person proposing the measure. The elections official shall immediately transmit a copy of the proposed measure to the city attorney. Within 15 days after the proposed measure is filed, the city attorney shall provide and return to the city elections official a ballot title for and summary of the proposed measure. The ballot title may differ from any other title of the proposed measure and shall express in 500 words or less the purpose of the proposed measure. In providing the ballot title, the city attorney shall give a true and impartial statement of the purpose of the proposed measure in such language that the ballot title shall neither be an argument, nor be likely to create prejudice, for or against the proposed measure.”

Violations of the state Election Code are a serious matter and I plan to file a criminal complaint with the secretary of state unless it is immediately corrected and a title and summary is issued to the paid parking foes.

Steve Kubby, South Lake Tahoe