The U.S. Forest Service Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit will host a field trip Oct. 25 to observe progress on the Upper Truckee River restoration project.

Participants should meet on Onnontioga Street, just south of the Omaha Street intersection at 5pm. Onnontioga Street is located off of Washoan Boulevard on Pioneer Trail.

Sturdy shoes are recommended and no RSVP is required.

Staff will be on hand to answer questions and provide information about the project. Project information is online.

By Karoun Demirjian, Las Vegas Sun

WASHINGTON — The congressional standoff that shut down the government and brought the country to the brink of defaulting on its debt may not have produced any winners, but polls, pundits and politicians from both sides of the aisle agree that the biggest political losers are Republican lawmakers.

Yet, in Nevada, Republicans are betting that in a year’s time, the political hit they took in October 2013 won’t matter much at all.

“OK, you (Democrats) shouted louder and you messaged better,” Rep. Mark Amodei, R-Nev., told the Sun. “But in terms of drawing any long-term conclusions? We can quit talking about what a bunch of meanies the Republicans are. … Past this weekend’s cycle, it’ll be OK.”

Amodei, along with Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev., voted against a compromise measure to restore the federal budget and raise the debt ceiling through early 2014. The bill passed with the support of the rest of the Nevada delegation, including Republican Rep. Joe Heck.

It is with a collective shrug that most Republicans are greeting the plummeting poll numbers, vitriolic campaign messages and general complaints about their party’s unwillingness to make a deal.

“People have short memories, especially when it comes to politics,” said Bob List, former governor of Nevada and current Republican strategist. “Life’s going to to go on. … It’s hard for me to understand exactly why Republicans are taking the heat.”

“Victory is fleeting in the world of politics,” Nevada Republican strategist Sig Rogich said. “I don’t think it’s one of those issues that transcends into the 2014 election — it’s a long way off.”

Rogich isn’t one of those Republicans who can’t bring himself to criticize his own party. In fact, the former head of the 2010 cycle’s “Republicans for Reid” thinks the GOP completely “mishandled” the crisis by “trying to be so hard-edged.” He also has no love lost for the Tea Party, some of whom “are orangutans, for different reasons,” he said.

But Rogich, like many Republicans, questions whether the fallout from the government shutdown was really as bad as Democrats make it out to be.

Read the whole story

By Rong-Gong Lin II, Rosanna Xia and Doug Smith, Los Angeles Times

After the 1971 Sylmar earthquake, California began to map faults across the state.

Over the next two decades, officials published 534 maps of active earthquake faults. New construction was prohibited on top of these fissures because previous quakes showed that buildings could be torn apart during violent shaking.

But the mapping campaign has slowed to a crawl – with many dangerous faults still undocumented.

Since 1991, only 23 have been drawn. Because of budget cuts, none were completed between 2004 and 2011.

State officials said there are still about 300 maps to draw and even more to revise – including some in heavily populated areas of Southern California. That represents about 2,000 miles of faults statewide.

The slow pace affects public safety. The ban on building atop faults is enforced only for those mapped by the state; the regulations don’t cover faults not on California’s official map.

Officials are also concerned about several other zones they believe need further seismic research, including San Diego Harbor, Yorba Linda, the San Gabriel and Pomona valleys, Indio, Napa County and South Lake Tahoe.

Read the whole story

By NPR

This Halloween season, the cereal monsters are on the loose. Count Chocula, Boo Berry and Franken Berry have consumers in their grasp — for a limited time only.

General Mills’ line of “Monster Cereals” originally hit the market in the early ’70s, but the company decided in 2010 they would only be available during the Halloween season.

“That was bad news for some people,” says Dan Pashman, host of Sporkful food podcast.

Cereal fans found ways to get by. One of Pashmn’s podcast listeners turned her sister in Tuscan, Ariz., into a “Boo Berry mule” by making her cross the border into Mexico to get the cereal.

“This artificial scarcity has kind of galvanized a cult following around this time of year for these cereals,” Pashman tells Weekend Edition host Rachel Martin.

Read the whole story

November is National Novel Writing Month and to celebrate the South Lake Tahoe Library will be hosting a Teen Writers Group.

Check out books to help you write your novel, and meet other authors for fun and encouragement.

The group will meet Nov. 1, Nov. 8, Nov. 15 and Nov. 22 at 3pm at the library, 1000 Rufus Allen Blvd.

There is no cost to participate.

For additional information, call (530) 573.3185.

Celio mural at Meek’s in Meyers. Photo/Kathryn Reed

By Kathryn Reed

Capturing the South Shore’s history via murals has been an ongoing endeavor since the 1990s. The last creation was recently installed on the Meek’s building in Meyers.

Called the Celio Family Cattle Drive, it brings to life the annual cattle drive between Lake Valley and the West Slope. In the center is one of the Celio men on horseback. His wife is to the left driving the wagon with their three children. To keep it authentic, chickens and most of their belongings are also in the wagon.

Above the vintage scene are portraits of Charles Guiseppi Celio Jr., Henrietta Celio, George Celio, Carlo Guiseppi Celio, Benjamin Caesar Celio and Frank E. Celio.

The Celio family used to own what is now Meyers, along with thousands of acres in the area. Today 103 acres in the Lake Tahoe Basin are controlled by the Celios.

“This is my final tribute to the pioneering Celio family,” Shirley Taylor told Lake Tahoe News. Taylor used to live at the family ranch. Now her cousin and his wife call the South Upper Truckee area home.

A plaque explaining the significance of the mural and what is going on in the picture will be installed later.

The Celio mural is the last of nine that were part of the Heritage Murals of Lake Tahoe project. This was a joint endeavor by the Lake Tahoe Historical Society and the now defunct South Lake Tahoe Chamber of Commerce.

John Cerney of Salinas created the mural. Besides being an accomplished muralist, Cerney was chosen because his work can be relocated if need be. The mural is not painted directed on to the building.

The other murals include: the one at the South Lake Tahoe museum, Nepheles courtyard off Ski Run Boulevard, El Dorado Beach at Lakeview Commons, Tahoe Daily Tribune building, Tallac professional building, South Tahoe Refuse transfer station, and U. S. Forest Service Taylor Creek Stream Profile Chamber. The one at Chateau Suites no longer exists.

The goal was to capture a bit of the various aspects of the area. With the Celio mural complete, Tahoe’s pioneers are now represented.

Publisher’s note: Squaw Valley is not in the Lake Tahoe Basin.

By Tom Mooers

Lake Tahoe is no stranger to wild development schemes.

The latest threat to the Tahoe Sierra centers on Squaw Valley, where developers are proposing a series of high-rise hotels and condos – even an indoor amusement park the likes of which the Sierra has never seen.

In the 1860s, the Lake Tahoe and the San Francisco Water Co. wanted to dig a tunnel from Squaw Valley under the crest of the Sierra and into the Sacramento Valley to drain the lake for the young city’s water needs.

A hundred years later, planners and speculators mapped a proposal to encase Lake Tahoe in concrete and subdivisions with double and triple bands of freeways ringing the lake and a causeway across the mouth of Emerald Bay.

At stake now is one of those great Tahoe settings where the natural scenery provides a unique sense of place. Squaw Valley’s own iconography is a matter of its meadow and mountains – the flat of the valley quickly giving way to some of the world’s most challenging ski terrain.

But developer KSL Capital Partners’ proposals promote a very different version of the Squaw Valley experience – based not on the great outdoors but, instead, on indoor amusement.

All told, the proposed development would be 10 times as big – and twice as tall – as the existing village. New development would include as many bedrooms as the four big high-rise casinos at Stateline combined. And it would encourage us to turn our backs on what makes the Tahoe Sierra so special in the first place.

One indication of the scale of development is the projected construction time: 20 years. In other words, developers propose so much that Squaw Valley would be a construction zone for two decades – raising big questions not only about what we leave behind for future generations, but also how we experience Squaw in our own lifetimes.

At the heart of the proposal lies a dangerous, publicly asserted misconception of the Tahoe Sierra – a false notion that “there is nothing to do here in the summer.” So, instead of opportunities to swim in Lake Tahoe, hike the Pacific Crest Trail or raft down the Truckee, the development would be built around a massive, indoor amusement park – about as big as an average Costco warehouse store – with indoor water slides, a fake “action river” and an arcade. It sounds like fun, but does it sound like Tahoe?

Fortunately for us, Tahoe was not drained in the 19th century, and it wasn’t encased in concrete in the 1960s. Now it’s time for us to appreciate Tahoe for what it is – and not try to remake it into what it is not.

The alternative for Squaw Valley developers is simple: pull their proposal and work together. There are plenty of examples of how conservationists, landowners and developers can cooperate – including last month’s agreement to allow limited development and secure permanent preservation of the neighboring Martis Peak property.

Squaw Valley provides a perfect opportunity to engage local know-how, regional expertise and sound planning to come up with a blueprint that makes sense – a plan that respects the timeless beauty of our Tahoe Sierra and ensures an outcome that, looking back, we can all be proud of.

Tom Mooers is the executive director of Sierra Watch.

Sugar Bowl and Squaw Valley-Alpine Meadows are relying on Facebook votes to move to the finals of Powder magazine’s Ski Town Throwdown.

Each resort will have 24 hours to garner more votes than its competition.

First up, Sugar Bowl Resort will compete against Mount Baker, Wash., on Oct. 24. Next up, Squaw Valley-Alpine Meadows will take on Whitefish, Mont., on Oct. 28.

The Ski Town Throwdown voting for all 64 resorts began Oct. 14. If the resorts receive more votes than their competition, they will enter the second round of voting beginning Oct. 31.The winner will be announced Dec. 16 after multiple rounds of voting.

To vote, go online.

The South Lake Tahoe Police Department has been awarded a $33,200 grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety for a year-long program aimed to improve traffic safety.

The grant will assist in efforts to deal with traffic safety problems and to reduce the number of people killed and injured in traffic collisions. While traffic deaths from all causes declined by nearly 39 percent between 2006 and 2010 in California, they rose by 2.6 percent in 2011. State and federal officials anticipate that figures will show another rise for 2012.

DUI deaths remain the largest sector, at nearly 30 percent of traffic fatalities. Recent trends show increases in two new categories – distracted driving and drug-impaired driving.

Activities the grant will fund include:

· Specialized DUI and drugged driving training such as standardized field sobriety testing, advanced roadside impaired driving enforcement, and drug recognition evaluator.

· DUI saturation patrols.

· Motorcycle safety enforcement.

· Distracted driving enforcement.

· Seat belt and child safety seat enforcement.

· Speed, red light and stop sign enforcement.

· Pedestrian safety.

Ruth (Murphy) Valine of Reno died Oct. 10 after a brief illness. She was 82. She was born Sept. 4, 1931, in Oklahoma City to Pearl Marie and Henry Goslin.

She was greatly influenced by wartime. As a young woman, Ruth volunteered for church groups and was proud to plant a victory garden to help her family survive.

By 1951 she was out on her own and working in the insurance industry in California. She married the late William “Brad” Murphy in 1953 in Grass Valley. They began their life together in Sacramento. They were blessed with two daughters, Patti and Kathy.

Ruth Valine

At the time of their marriage, Brad was a partner in a Sacramento CPA firm. In 1959, they jumped at the chance to relocate their young family to Lake Tahoe, opening a branch office of Johnson, Miller and Murphy. They quickly immersed themselves in their new community and Ruth became active in the Soroptimist club, where she was elected president in 1962. Both were ardent supporters of the drive to form a new city government. In November 1965, Brad was honored to be elected the first mayor of the newly incorporated city of South Lake Tahoe. After Brad’s untimely passing in 1971, the family relocated to Sacramento.

In 1993, Ruth relocated to Las Vegas to reunite with her family. In 2004, Ruth moved to the Reno area with her daughter, Patti, son-in-law Chuck and granddaughters Abigail and Caroline. Ruth’s daughter Kathy joined them in 2006.

Upon her return to her beloved Sierra Nevada, Ruth was thrilled to rejoin the Soroptimist International of South Lake Tahoe chapter to reconnect with many old friends. She looked forward to the Wednesday morning drive “over the hill”.

Ruth continued her lifelong history of volunteerism in Reno as she devoted time to the S.A.F.E project, numerous service activities with the Soroptimist club, and knitting hundreds of winter scarves for the Reno-Sparks Gospel Mission.

Grandma Ruth had a profound impact on her two granddaughters, instilling good manners and respect for adults. She was an avid supporter of the school activities the girls were involved in, and attended all of the girls’ volleyball, basketball, ROTC and track and field events over the years. She was quite well known in the Reno High Gym, arriving several hours before each event to knit or play her hand-held solitaire game. Grandma Ruth was passionate about creating and continuing family traditions. Her granddaughters will tell their children about “Red Shirt” ravioli dinners, the yearly Christmas gingerbread house and the ingredients for the perfect Thanksgiving stuffing and gravy.

Ruth is survived by her sister, Fran Tarjany of Culver City; daughters, Patricia Boorman (Chuck) and Kathleen Murphy. She also is survived by five grandchildren, Abigail, Caroline, Shawn, Jason, Aaron and three great-grandchildren. She will be greatly missed by her extended family and friends in Nevada and California.

The family wishes to thank the doctors, nurses, and Home Health Care employees at Saint Mary’s Regional Medical Center for their loving and compassionate care of Ruth and her family during her illness.

In lieu of flowers, the family is requesting donations be made in Ruth’s name to the Food Bank of Northern Nevada (fbnn.org) or the Reno-Sparks Gospel Mission, 355 Record St., Reno.

Many thanks to Del Laine for her assistance and support of the family. A graveside service is scheduled for Oct. 25 at 11am at Happy Homestead Cemetery in South Lake Tahoe.A celebration of Ruth’s life will be next summer in Lake Tahoe.