Terry Bradshaw loves to perform. The legendary Hall of Fame Steelers quarterback, football announcer, actor and author will bring his comedy musings and a water cooler full of songs and stories to MontBleu in Stateline on Dec. 13.

“Terry Bradshaw America’s Favorite Dumb Blonde – A Life in Four Quarters” is the equivalent of a 90-minute football huddle. That is if a football huddle included backup singers, video, dance numbers, and the quarterback telling his life story.

Bradshaw’s one-man show premiered in June at the Mirage in Las Vegas.

The show begins at 9pm. Tickets cost $35 to $45 and are available through Ticketmaster or the MontBleu Box Office, 888.829.7630.

By Charles Passy, Market Watch

Perrie Susman devotes plenty of time to picking the perfect Halloween costume. In previous years, she’s opted for skeleton, frog and cow outfits. This Halloween, she’s going with a Headless Horseman theme, she says.

But Susman, a rehabilitation aide in West Palm Beach, Fla., is not talking about the outfit she herself will wear on Oct. 31. Instead, she’s referring to the costume she’s purchased for Domino, her five-year-old Lab-pit bull mix.

“I do it because I like to dress up and I like to have somebody to dress up with,” says Susman.

Yes, Halloween has gone to the dogs. And the cats, too. Sales of pet costumes have soared in recent years, growing by 68 percent — from $220 million in 2010 to $370 million in 2012, according to the National Retail Federation. And individual retailers say they see demand only increasing in the years ahead. PetSmart points to the fact that it now carries 111 styles of pet costumes and accessories; it’s even starting to offer items for “small animals.”

Read the whole story

By Laura Stevens, Wall Street Journal

ATLANTA — FedEx Corp. expects to ship a record 22 million packages on Dec. 2, known as Cyber-Monday, which would make it the first time ever it has been the busiest shopping day of the holiday season.

The total number of packages that day would be an 11 percent increase over the company’s busiest day last year, FedEx said.

FedEx expects to handle 85 million shipments from Dec. 1 through Dec. 7, a 13 percent increase in shipments over last year and another record for the holiday season.

FedEx attributed the increase to the continued acceleration in online retail, including electronics, clothing and luxury goods. In addition, Cyber-Monday, a term coined to label one of the busiest online shopping days of the year, falls later in the shopping season this year.

“Online commerce is growing at three to four times the rate of retail,” said Raj Subramaniam, FedEx executive vice president of marketing and communications.

Also, Cyber-Monday got a boost this year because Thanksgiving falls so late in November. Thanksgiving is Nov. 28, which leaves less than four weeks before Christmas. No matter how much shopping gets done in brick-and-mortar retail stores on so-called Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving and into the following weekend, FedEx still expects a lot of shopping to extend into the workweek on Monday.

Read the whole story

By USSA

SOELDEN, Austria – Four-time Audi FIS Alpine World Cup giant slalom champion Ted Ligety (Park City) pulled out a historic win at the Soelden World Cup GS, becoming the first man in history to win three World Cup GS races in a row at Soelden.

Ligety beat out Frenchman Alexis Pinturault by 0.79 seconds to nab his 18th victory and open the Olympic season. Two-time overall champion Bode Miller (Franconia, N.H.) skied into the top-20 during his first World Cup race since February 2012. Teammate Tim Jitloff (Reno) finished 20, right behind Miller.

The course was drenched in sun and became slushy during the first run, but high winds, bumps and variable light made for a more difficult second run.

The start was lowered by 10 gates for both runs due to the high winds.

Ligety will be in New York City on Tuesday to receive the U.S. Olympic Committee’s Olympic SportsMan of the Year Award, a part of the 100 Days Out to Sochi festivities.

Batten down the hatches because it’s going to get super windy this afternoon in the Lake Tahoe Basin.

The National Weather Service has issued a wind advisory from Sunday at 1pm to 5am Monday. Winds will be from the southwest at 20-35 mph, with gusts of 50 mph.

Waves on Lake Tahoe are expected to be 3 to 5 feet, with the highest waves on the north and east shores.

“Winds may also down tree branches and move unsecured outdoor items,” the Weather Service said.

With the wind, will come moisture. There is a 40 percent chance of rain-snow at the lake this evening, and 70 percent chance of snow on Monday.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report

The Tahoe Regional Young Professionals’ annual Winter White FUNdraiser returns Nov. 23.

The white-themed holiday party supports TRYP’s professional development programs like workshops and scholarships, while also raising funds for the Boys & Girls Club of South Lake Tahoe.

Appetizers, festive drink specials including Riva Grill’s infamous Wet Woody, dancing, silent auction and raffle prizes plus a Winter White costume contest highlight the 6:30-10pm event.

Advance tickets are $20 for TYRP members and $30 for non-members. Ticket prices will increase at the door. Cash, checks made out to TRYP and credit cards will be accepted. For tickets, email TahoeTRYP@gmail.com. Advance tickets are also available at

• Boys & Girls Club Lake Tahoe: located at 1100 Lyons Ave. South Lake Tahoe;
• Tahoe Production House, 2291 Lake Tahoe Blvd., South Lake Tahoe;
• Weidinger Public Relations, 225 Kingsbury Grade, Suite C., Stateline.

Zephyr Cove Resort in the 1930s. Photo/Lake Tahoe Historical Society

Today’s Zephyr Cove Resort has roots dating back 150 years to the 1860s.

E.B. Scott described the first building (in his book “The Saga of Lake Tahoe”) as “…an ostentatious T-shaped hotel.” It became popular with travelers heading to Virginia City.

Zephyr Cove Resort in 2013. Photo/Bill Kingman

The early 1930s photo shows the later Zephyr Cove Store and gas pump. That store building has been enlarged and today includes a restaurant at its north end.

Millionaire George Whittell, who owned most of the Nevada side of Lake Tahoe, added Zephyr Cove to his land holdings in 1938. As I recall, Tahoe Harrah’s briefly had a part in the resort’s operation in the mid-1960s.

Zephyr Cove Resort now is managed by Aramark Parks and Destinations by special use permit from the U.S. Forest Service.

— Bill Kingman

Point Lobos State Reserve in Carmel offers endless views of the Pacific Ocean. Photos/Kathryn Reed

By Kathryn Reed

CARMEL – Tails smacking the water, backs breaking the surface and water spewing from the blowhole.

It’s an unusual sight in early October to see humpback whales breaching off Point Lobos. About a half dozen of these creatures were a few hundred yards from shore. A volunteer with the state preserve says a shelf about 1,000 feet deep provides plenty of food for the whales. He allows visitors to peek through his high-powered binoculars to get a better view of the action in the ocean.

A couple kayakers are out with the whales in what looks like a potentially precarious situation.

Point Lobos State Reserve is full on this first Sunday in October. We had to park on the road – which saved us $10. Maybe it had something to do with the federal shutdown; after all it’s why the four of us were there. Our girls camping weekend was canceled because we were headed to a national park. But Plan B was just fine – Carmel and its surroundings.

Birds are the most common and easiest form of wildlife to spot. Cormorants, herons, and pelicans flock to rock outcroppings and are in the bay area perched on kelp as they scout for food.

It would be near impossible, definitely exhausting, to hike all the trails in the reserve in one day. The $2 map that may be purchased at the parking kiosk is worthwhile. Besides letting you know where you are and how to get to the next spot, there is a wealth of information about the preserve.

Trails for all ability levels abound and some are wheelchair accessible. And those not into exploring by foot will find parking near the water.

Offshoots along many of trails provide sweeping vistas of the Pacific Ocean. The reserve is on a jagged slice of the Central Coast, which provides for several rather tranquil coves, at least on this day.

Windswept trees look deformed as their branches are not uniform. This just adds a unique natural beauty to the already stunning scenery. The Cypress Grove Trail goes through one of two naturally growing stands of Monterey Cypress trees that exist in the world.

Chinese fishermen built the Whalers Cabin in the 1850s. Now it’s a museum that tells stories of abalone being shipped to Japan, how cattle were brought to the area by the Carmel Mission padres in the 1770s, that Portuguese dairy farmers in about 1903 started making Monterey Jack cheese. The Jack is a tool, not a person.

Point Lobos is also a popular launching spot for scuba divers. In 1960, it became one of the country’s first underwater reserves.

In total, the reserve includes 775 acres underwater and 554 acres on land. The State Parks system began managing the area in 1933. It is on the National Register of Historic Places.

ngg_shortcode_0_placeholder (Click on photos to enlarge.)

To the community,

This nation has gone through 18 government shutdowns in the last 37 years. Fifteen of those 18 shutdowns occurred when Democrats controlled the House. In those 15 shutdowns, the Democrats demanded increased abortion services and labor and environmental policy concessions.

Perhaps the reason we don’t remember those shutdowns as vividly is because in those days, presidents negotiated around the clock to resolve the disputes that caused them and did everything they could to minimize the public’s inconvenience and suffering.

Tom McClintock

This time was different. This time, the President refused to negotiate and took unprecedented steps to amplify the pain and suffering that the public endured.

Why would the administration do this? They told us why – because they were winning politically.

What was the outrageous Republican demand that Democrats refused even to discuss during the 16-day shutdown while they ordered our public servants to make life as difficult as possible for people?

On Sept. 30, with the deadline just hours away, House Republicans had dropped all conditions to fund the entire government with one substantive exception: delay the individual mandate that forces people to buy policies against their will. Democrats summarily rejected this proposal and for 16 days refused to negotiate on this single point, while literally accusing Republicans of sedition.

Then this past Monday, the president’s press secretary made this stunning admission: the Obama administration may itself seek to delay the individual mandate by dropping the penalty for non-compliance.

They’ve got to be kidding.

For the 16 days of the shutdown, the only substantive dispute was the Republican plea to delay the individual mandate for the millions of Americans who couldn’t find or afford Obamacare policies.

Doing so could have ended the impasse instantly. During those 16 days, it was clear to everyone that the exchanges weren’t working. Yet the president and congressional Democrats refused even to discuss the matter, while they turned their formidable propaganda machine to the task of winning politically.

These facts speak for themselves and need no embellishment from me. John Adams once observed that “Facts are stubborn things.” As passions cool and reason resumes its rightful place in the nation’s discourse, these facts will speak eloquently and stubbornly of what happens when politics trumps policy and propaganda trumps reality.

Sincerely,

Rep. Tom McClintock, R-Granite Bay

The next two Tech Tuesday courses will focus on tips and tricks for using Microsoft Office suites.

These workshops are suitable for all levels of computer skills, particularly businesses and individuals already using Microsoft products who would like to learn to use them more effectively.

In November, Sanne Steele, the software consultant and Microsoft certified partner, will be taking attendees on an interactive tutorial of Word, Excel and Outlook. December’s course will be more graphically oriented, diving into PowerPoint and Publisher.

The classes are at Lake Tahoe South Shore Chamber of Commerce in Stateline on Nov. 5 and Dec. 3 from 8-9:30am. They are free for chamber members and $15 for prospective members. Bring a laptop.

For more information or to register, email Jessica@TahoeChamber.org or call (775) 588.1728, ext. 312.