By Mantill Williams

The largest generation in U.S. history and the most multi-modal could be a game changer for public transportation and America’s transportation network as a whole.

The millennial generation chooses the most practical transportation mode (driving, public transit, biking or walking) for each trip, and this flexible concept of mobility is spreading. According to the study Millennials and Mobility, nearly 70 percent of millennials, people 18 to 34, use multiple travel options several times or more per week.

The study shows that while car-sharing, bike-sharing, walking and car ownership will all play a part in the multi-modal network, public transportation is ranked highest as the best mode to connect to all other modes, according to 54 percent of millennials polled.

Smartphone applications allow public transit users to be increasingly spontaneous and flexible with their travel decisions. This is a game changing element because it closes the gap with the perceived benefit of auto use.

According to the study, the top five reasons and motivations for choosing public transportation are pragmatic, as 46 percent state that a need to save money drives their choices, 46 percent note convenience, 44 percent want exercise, and 35 percent say they live in a community where it just makes more sense to use public transportation.

Millennials say the key advantages of public transportation is the ability to pay-per-use (58 percent), protecting the environment (50 percent), the ability to socialize online (44 percent), and creating community (44 percent).

Because of the future demands of this millennial generation, transportation systems and public transportation systems in particular, will be built around the smart phone.

Mantill Williams works for the American Public Transportation Association.

One of the casualties of the federal government shutdown is work by the U.S. Forest Service to reroute the Upper Truckee River had to come to an abrupt halt.

Without being able to talk to anyone in the Lake Tahoe office, it is not known how this setback will impact the project or the environment.

Oct. 15 is the date set by the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency for when dirt can no longer be moved in the basin without special permission. The Lahontan Regional Water Quality Control Board also has a say in what is going on with projects affecting waterways.

Both agencies have been watching to make sure the staging are at Sunset Stables has been secured.

“The large stockpile at the staging area was graded and compacted, then covered with a hydraulically-applied bonded fiber matrix. Weighted fiber rolls surround the downslope sides of the pile. In addition the entire staging area has runoff collection ditches along the downslope side that lead to infiltration basins,” Laurie Scribe, environmental scientist with Lahontan, told Lake Tahoe News.

Jeff Cowen with TRPA told Lake Tahoe News, “The shutdown has affected the project, but the USFS was able to get an exemption to keep a couple of people on for one extra week. They are on call for emergencies.”

— Lake Tahoe News staff report

By Motoko Rich, New York Times

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — The high school equivalency exams taken by people who dropped out of school and immigrants seeking a foothold in the American education system are about to get harder and potentially more expensive, causing concern that fewer will take and pass the exams.

At a time when a high school diploma — much less an equivalency certificate — is losing currency in the labor market, exams being introduced in January will start to be aligned with the Common Core, a set of rigorous academic standards for kindergarten through 12th grade that 45 states and the District of Columbia have adopted.

In an echo of the debate surrounding the standards in elementary and secondary education, instructors and officials at adult education centers worry that increasing complexity could demoralize a population that already struggles to pass the current test, commonly known as the GED.

Read the whole story

Rolo

Rolo probably has a few different little dogs in his background, but we’re guessing Chihuahua and maybe a little Boston terrier, with those perky ears.

Rolo is 2 years old, is pretty well house trained, and very affectionate. He likes most other dogs, but would like to meet yours before going home. He even likes cats. He is a very sweet little boy who would fit into most families well.

Rolo is neutered, microchipped, and vaccinated. He is at the El Dorado County Animal Services shelter in Meyers, along with many other dogs and cats who are waiting for their new homes.

Go online to see photos and descriptions of all pets at the shelter.

Call (530) 573.7925 for directions, hours, and other information on adopting a pet.

For spay-neuter assistance for South Tahoe residents, go online.

— Karen Kuentz

AJ has no problem helping herself to treats along the Mutt Strut route. Photos/Kathryn Reed

By Kathryn Reed

Mutts of all kinds – and a few pure breds – strutted their stuff as they paraded through South Lake Tahoe on Sunday.

With the temperature close to freezing at the start of the ninth annual Mutt Strut, dogs and their people were bundled up for the 1.3-mile walk from the library to the beach at Timber Cove. By the time the beach party started, the sun was out, and dogs kept sniffing and playing.

Labradoodle, pit bull, King Charles Cavalier, bulldog, Bassett, collie, Cockapoo, Dachshund and many other breeds were represented.

Although their people were collecting a poker hand along the route, the day was about the canines. More than 100 poker hands were sold. All the money goes to the Animal Coalition of Tahoe.

The all-volunteer group spends the bulk of the money that is raised on veterinary bills for the spay-neuter program. More than 1,500 families have benefited from these services in the last nine years.

The route of the strut occasionally changes. Some years it has been at the Y, other times on Ski Run Boulevard. This year dogs took their people from the library, through Campground by the Lake, across Highway 50 at Tallac Avenue, down Harrison Avenue to Lakeview Commons, along the beach and then back on the trail to Timber Cove.

At the finish the dogs bonded in their usual way.

Then it was time for the games. With hotdog pieces in a tub of water, it took all the strength of some owners to keep their canine from gobbling up the goods before the start. Pearl the black Lab emerged the winner.

Then it came time to see how well the four-leggeds did sitting on command as they played a version of musical chairs – only they had squares to sit on.

A wag-off was necessary to determine whose tail enthralled the people the most. Toby edged out Sadie for the title.

Colin and Susan Melville were at the Mutt Strut with their three dogs for the first time because they love doing stuff with their furry family members. Plus, Susan Melville is a volunteer at the animal shelter so she knows about the work ACT does.

Jim Burkett had no issue with having a pink leash for his bulldog.

“It’s the only way to tell she is a girl,” he said as Princess sat patiently at his feet.

—

Note: Animal Coalition of Tahoe is having fundraiser Nov. 8 at Tahoe Bowl.

ngg_shortcode_0_placeholder (Click on photos to enlarge.)

By Mark Z. Barabak, Los Angeles Times

Arnold Schwarzenegger has a story he has often told about the lightning-strike moment he became a Republican.

He had just arrived in the United States in the roiling year 1968, with the closely fought Richard Nixon-Hubert Humphrey presidential race in full swing. He remembers watching television as a friend translated, from English to German, the back-and-forth between the two candidates. Nixon spoke of “free enterprise, getting the government off your back, lowering the taxes and strengthening the military,” Schwarzenegger recounted to cheers at the 2004 Republican National Convention. “I said to my friend, ‘What party is he?'”

“My friend said, ‘He’s a Republican.'”

“I said, ‘Then I am a Republican.'”

When Schwarzenegger entered the 2003 California gubernatorial recall race, with a surprise announcement on Jay Leno’s “Tonight Show,” it was a similar bolt from the blue. The California GOP was already well on its way to marginalization, thanks to positions on immigration, abortion and other issues that pushed the party increasingly to the right of most Californians.

But the fiscally conservative, socially liberal Schwarzenegger offered hope: to broaden the appeal of California Republicans, move the state party away from the ideological fringe and even, thanks to his celebrity and uber-personality, make the GOP seem a little less old and stodgy.

Read the whole story

By Daniel Lippman, Wall Street Journal

Increased access to family planning programs is linked to higher incomes and better college completion later in life, according to new research.

“Cheaper and more reliable contraception reduces the immediate and expected costs of delaying childbearing, freeing up resources in the parents’ human capital,” according to the new working paper by University of Michigan economist Martha Bailey. Such a delay allows “soon-to-be parents to get more education, work experience, and job training, and thus increase their lifetime earnings.”

Before the Supreme Court’s 1965 case Griswold v. Connecticut, a number of states had banned the sale of contraception. The paper, which primarily used data from the 2000 Census and the 2005-2011 American Community Survey, found that children conceived in areas that had higher legal or financial access to the birth-control pill were associated with a 2-3 percent increase in income when they were adults. Children in these areas also had a 2-7 percent higher chance of finishing college.

Read the whole story

Bear sightings have been heavy this weekend throughout much of western Nevada.

West Reno has two bear traps set in the Caughlin Ranch-Mayberry-Juniper area. Residents on the west side of Carson City have called Nevada Department of Wildlife officials on Saturday and Sunday mornings with reports of a black bear visiting backyards. In Gardnerville, a bear up a tree in a rural area near town was harassed by Karelian bear dogs and chased back into more traditional bear habitat.

In Yerington, a bear was trapped on Saturday and was to be released into the Pine Grove Mountains southeast of Yerington. The 6-year-old female had never been handled before by NDOW.

“She will be fitted with an ear tag and more importantly, a satellite collar and she will become part of our long-term research project studying the population of black bears in Nevada,” NDOW biologist Carl Lackey said in a statement.

The satellite collars send a GPS signal periodically to researchers who can follow the movements of the bears fitted with such collars.

“These movements tell us what habitats the bears utilize, where the females give birth to their cubs and a myriad other details on the bear’s lives that we could only wish to know just a few years ago,” Lackey said.

Bear activity in western Nevada is expected to be “busy and active” for at least the next month. Sierra Nevada black bears usually go into hibernation in between Thanksgiving and Christmas as food sources become harder to find.

When most people think about Africa, they don’t think of snow. Two Lake Tahoe women will change that as they attempt to summit and ski Mount Kenya in November.

They are climbing to make a statement about climate change and raise funds for micro-loans in an expedition they call Summit for our Sisters.

Mount Kenya is home to the first and only skiing competition in the country, which was in 1936. Africa’s second highest mountain after Kilimanjaro, it rises above the country’s highlands to 16,355 feet. Due to recent global warming trends, only a handful of mountain enthusiasts have accomplished this trek on Lewis Glacier, one of the last permanent snowfields in Africa. Studies show the snow and ice on the volcanic peak of Mount Kenya are melting away so fast scientists estimate they will disappear in the next two or three decades.

Jen Gurecki trains for her Africa expedition. Photo/Provided

Given this trend, Jen Gurecki and Meghan Kelly are following their passion and jumping on the opportunity to become part of the select few to accomplish such a large feat. The expedition, sponsored by Coalition Snow, an emerging ski and snowboard company for women, and will benefit Zawadisha.

The Zawadisha Fund is a micro-credit organization started in Lake Tahoe, whose mission is to empower, entrust, and expand opportunities for women in Kenya.

“The women I work with in Kenya are incredibly impacted by climate change. Many of them are farmers and other sell food staples at the local market. Drought, caused by climate change, leads to less productive crops, decreasing daily incomes and increasing food costs. While I sit and contemplate the effects of climate change, these women are living it day in and day out,” Gurecki said in a statement. “At Zawadisha, we are actively developing strategies on how we can support our members in adapting to climate change. Through this expedition we are hope to raise awareness about the issue, while also raising funds for the small business loans Zawadisha provides to women living in poverty.”

Kelly added, “At Coalition Snow, we’re passionate about three things: snowsports, women’s empowerment, and the environment. The expedition to Mt. Kenya combines all three and really shows the world what we’re all about. While we partner with Zawadisha, we hope to share our experiences in entrepreneurship with the micro-loan recipients and learn from their experiences. We’re environmentally and socially conscious, but we’re also unique in the snowsports industry — we’re launching a skiing and snowboarding company in Africa.”

The two adventurers have been passionate about playing in snow since moving to the Sierra Nevada nearly a decade ago. They also have been equally passionate about empowering women, both locally and internationally.

—

Note: Summit for Our Sisters fundraising campaign begins Oct. 14. More information is online.

By Kathryn Reed

The South Lake Tahoe woman who was beaten by an unknown assailant continues to recover from her injuries.

The victim, who is in her 30s and whose name is not being published, was hit in the head several times, sustained defensive wounds and a severe concussion.

El Dorado County sheriff’s deputies were called to Barton Memorial Hospital on Oct. 8 because the woman told hospital staff she had been assaulted near Meyers. Upon further questioning by deputies the woman said it was closer to Woodfords where a man posing as a cop pulled her over and assaulted her. That is when the investigation was turned over to Alpine County Sheriff’s Department.

Now both departments are handling the investigation.

As is common with a trauma like this, the brain can become scattered and memories jumbled. It is normal with head injuries for the sequence of events to be remembered in a random manner. That is what is now happening to the victim. The victim was in Alpine County that day, but whether that is where the crime occurred is not definite.

“(An assault like this) absolutely will cause memory issues and for the brain to be so fuzzy you cannot remember exactly what happened,” El Dorado County sheriff’s Deputy Damian Frisby told Lake Tahoe News.

Frisby said that while the circumstances of the assault are not definitive, the fact remains the woman was assaulted and the assailant remains unknown, and therefore at-large.

“In no way has the victim provided us with false information,” Frisby said.

He added that the scariest part is that a woman was beaten up for unknown reasons by someone who remains a mystery.

The investigation is ongoing and the woman is cooperating.