By Kamille Wong, NPR

Nevada has the fourth highest rate of suicide in the nation. To combat this issue, the Nevada Suicide Prevention Office is forming a committee with 10 members from across the state.

Each member will focus on a different facet of the problem, including how to help veterans and Native American youth.

Suicide Prevention Coordinator, Misty Allen, says the committee wants to look more closely at the factors and trends related to Nevada’s suicides.

“We are a very rural state. With ruralness comes isolation, high gun ownership in homes, lack of resources if someone does need help, high stigma about mental health, substance abuse and suicide.”

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Austin’s House, an emergency children’s shelter located near the Douglas County-Carson City border, is celebrating six years of providing compassionate care for children in crisis by launching its second annual giving campaign, the 2013 Appeal For Kids.

The 10-bedroom facility opened in September 2007 and was built entirely with donations from our generous community.

The need for services has increased 30 percent in the past year. Children are now staying an average of 50 days compared to 21 days in past years. Austin’s House has no limit on the length of stay.

In 2012, Austin’s House revenue of $272,126 and expenses of $260,144. The 2012 Appeal For Kids raised more than $32,000. This year, the goal is $40,000.

Anyone interested in learning more about Austin’s House, the Appeal For Kids campaign or making a donation can contact Austin’s House at (775) 267.6711 or go online.

By Bettina Boxall, Los Angeles Times

Californians say the state’s water supply system has serious problems that require improvement, but they are unwilling to spend billions of dollars in ratepayer and taxpayer funds on the task, according to a new USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times poll.

Shasta Dam is an integral component of California’s water system. Photo/LTN file

The results suggest an uphill fight for proponents of a state water bond and for a proposal to replumb the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, the transfer point for Northern California supplies delivered to the San Joaquin Valley and urban Southern California.

Reluctance to pay for big public works projects was reflected throughout the survey, which also questioned voters on the California prison system and the high-speed rail project.

“On all three of these issues voters have very clear concerns and want to see something done — until they see the price tag,” said Dan Schnur, director of USC’s Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics.

In initial questioning, 60 percent of those polled said they would favor a bond to finance statewide water improvements such as levee repair and groundwater cleanup. But when told the bond would require the state to borrow $5 billion to $6 billion, support plunged to 36 percent.

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As part of Placer County’s Tahoe Basin Community-General Plan update efforts, the county is having a public workshop on Oct. 9.

The topic will be Land Use, Community Design & Development Potential.

The meeting is from 5-6:30pm at the North Lake Tahoe Event Center, 8318 North Lake Blvd., Kings Beach.

For more information, contact Crystal Jacobsen at (530) 745.3000.

By Allison Aubrey, NPR

The Mediterranean diet is a pattern of eating that lately has become a darling of medical researchers. It includes vegetables and grains, not so much meat, and, of course, generous portions of olive oil.

Mary Flynn, an associate professor of medicine at Brown University, says the evidence that olive oil is good for your heart has never been more clear. “Olive oil is a very healthy food, I consider it more medicine than food,” she says.

She points to a big study published earlier this year in the New England Journal of Medicine where researchers in Spain had men and women in their fifties, sixties and seventies who were at risk of heart disease follow one of three diets.

Some ate a low-fat diet, another group ate a Mediterranean diet with nuts. And a third group ate a Mediterranean diet that included almost four tablespoons of extra-virgin olive oil per day.

Don’t hold back on the olive oil, a Spanish study concludes.

Surprise: Some of the best-tasting extra-virgin olive oils are now being produced domestically. Think Texas, California, Florida.

“So, they could compare the three diets: Was it nuts, was it olive or was the low fat diet beneficial,” says Flynn.

Read the whole story

Gluten free baking will be the topic of the Friends of the Library presentation by Kathe Hughes on Oct. 16.

Hughes is with the Celiac Sprue Association. She will talk about Celiac disease, provide helpful hints for Gluten-Free dining, and discuss various ways to live healthy.

The free event starts at 6pm at the South Lake Tahoe Library, 1000 Rufus Allen Blvd.

For more info, call (530) 573.3186.

By Kathryn Reed

With the majority of the land in the Lake Tahoe Basin being owned by the feds, the impact of the government shutdown is starting to be felt.

This will be the last weekend Camp Richardson, Tahoe Tallac Site, Round Hill Pines and Zephyr Cove Resort will be open during the government shutdown. That is because the U.S. Forest Service owns the land.

Activities at Camp Richardson may not continue past this weekend if the federal government shutdown continues. Photo/LTN file

It doesn’t matter that independent concessionaires operate those entities on the South Shore.

“We got a 48-hour cease-and-desist notice (Wednesday) night,” Ginger Nicolay Davis, president of the Tahoe Tallac Association, told Lake Tahoe News on Thursday afternoon. That was the same message delivered by the USFS to the other concessionaires.

But by Thursday evening the Forest Service had changed its mind. A reprieve was given to the Tahoe entities through the weekend. This means the weddings scheduled at Valhalla will go on, Oktoberfest will happen and the paddle-wheelers will set sail.

However, on Monday all of the concessionaires are anticipating receiving a letter from the USFS explaining the closure procedure. This is assuming Congress has not resolved its differences and the federal government remains in shut down mode.

“This will likely have a major impact on tourism at Lake Tahoe in the short term,” Douglas County Manager Steve Mokrohisky told Lake Tahoe News. “There is an important point that should not be missed here: local governments and businesses are becoming increasingly important in providing services and information to our residents at a time when the federal government is literally inoperable.”

The two leaders within the Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit of the USFS — Nancy Gibson and Jeff Marsolais – are talking to government and tourism officials, but not to the media.

“If people stay home and don’t travel and tourists don’t come, it affects everyone,” South Lake Tahoe City Manager Nancy Kerry told Lake Tahoe News. “If the federal government can’t get its act together and realize that their decisions affect everybody, they shouldn’t get paid. It’s unbelievable they are still getting their salaries. We have people here who don’t get to work.”

The local economic toll from the shutdown remains to be seen. Federal paychecks have stopped – which means those people are watching how much money they spend. And if concessionaires close up, those employees will be without income. The Tallac Association, which is a small nonprofit, counts on weddings to fund the summer arts and music festival.

“I truly believe this is coming from way, way up and not a local thing,” Davis said of closing Tahoe sites. “I do believe it’s a political move to get as much attention around this as they can, to get enough people mad so more people will start calling their congressmen.”

Davis had rearranged the two weddings set for this weekend before the reprieve was issued. While she said it was hard to call the brides to tell them a Plan B had to be found just days before the big event, they were understanding. The call to tell them Plan A was back on was a much more pleasant conversation.

The Tahoe Tallac Association has multiple weddings scheduled every weekend in October, so alternative locations need to be found now just in case the shutdown continues.

And with 50 guests for one of the weddings staying at Camp Richardson this weekend, word that the resort is staying open for at least the next three days was welcome news to many.

Kris Knox, general manager for Camp Rich, was not available for comment.

“The city is reaching out to anybody and everyone who has events. We will do whatever we can to accommodate them,” Kerry said.

Aramark, which operates Zephyr Cove Resort, and the M.S. Dixie II and Tahoe Queen paddle-wheelers, did not know about this weekend’s potential shutdown until Lake Tahoe News called. Officials never got back to LTN after saying they would.

The Queen would still be able operate because it is docked at a private marina in the city limits.

Lake Tahoe Visitors Authority sent out a special press release Thursday letting people know Tahoe is open for business. North Lake Tahoe Resort Association officials said thy have no intention of doing anything special based on what Congress is doing.

Even though the Forest Service operates many of the trails in the basin, they remain open. There would be no way to close them even though USFS law enforcement officers are not furloughed.

In addition, there are state parks in both states in the basin that are not affected by the feds, as well as other commercial vessels on the lake.

By Jeremy Miller

Rush is Ron Howard’s re-creation of the highly intense era of Formula One racing during the 1970s, culminating in the 1976 Grand Prix. It stars Chris Hemsworth, Daniel Bruhl, Olivia Wilde and Alexandra Maria Lara.

The piece focuses on the rivalry between drivers – British superstar James Hunt (Hemsworth) and the more conservative Austrian Niki Lauda (Bruhl). The story starts with each of them coming up through the Formula 3 circuit gunning for the big show. Their rivalry kicks off almost instantaneously with a tense disagreement off the track after the race.

They each evolve, both pushing themselves and their teams harder and harder with 90 percent of their focus on beating the other. Hemsworth’s portrayal of James Hunt was full of playboy appeal like one would expect. In hindsight I remember thinking “well wait, this just seems like how he is in real life, is he really portraying a character or just acting like he does off screen?” Then it hit me that maybe that wasn’t a bad thing, he had me so convinced of his character I thought it was real; kudos my friend.

Bruhl stole the show though, hands down. His performance was an absolute tour de force that very well may win him an Oscar. He channeled every bit of power he could through his character flawlessly. His injury and recovery were intense and riveting, making you shift your opinion over the course of the film. I feel somewhat obligated to speak to the faint-of-heart or those with a weak stomach — certain scenes are pretty rough.

Howard shows us how it would really be to be in a car that’s on fire for more than a minute, and by doing so empowered the character with all the drive and emotion he could to make the final race as epic as humanly possible. The film was backed by an expectedly impressive and uniquely crafted score from Hans Zimmer, the scenes of character rivalry and dialogue-driven emotion cut right to the core; and the race scenes had me on the edge of my seat begging for an outcome from the minute they started.

The conflict between the two was built flawlessly, their quips and digs were softly spoken at first … but they packed one helluva punch. As they each progressed through the circuit, the tension turned dirty, and every slight between them made me shake my head pondering how on earth it didn’t come to blows. It was great because I was most definitely rooting for each of them at different times, which made the peak of the film 10 times as climactic. I’ll be honest, I didn’t know the history of all of it going in, which in a way I am thankful for. It made the ending’s delivery and outcome mean so much more seeing as how I was in the dark the entire time. I wanted each of them to win for different reasons, in different ways.

Howard’s resolution made sure to keep the audience pleased, as it’s an ending where everyone wins.

It’s a must see, an absolute triumph of rivalry and sportsmanship, not to mention flawless filmmaking typical of a movie mogul like Howard. He absolutely brought his A-game on this one and didn’t waste any time brushing off the cobwebs from his two-year hiatus (three if you don’t count “The Dilemma”). It reminded me what a powerful high budget motivating Hollywood blockbuster is all about. It delivered what this summer’s big movies couldn’t: a powerful story backed by an even more powerful screenplay portrayed by incredibly talented actors without any of the cliché fluff that typically turns me off from the stereotypical Hollywood productions. I left the theater, jumped in my car, fired her up and felt inspired … until of course I came back to reality and reminded myself that my 95 Sentra is pretty far from a Formula One Ferrari. Regardless, the film left a feeling of absolute satisfaction and appreciation for Howard’s impeccable style, the power of the characters and the story, like any big blockbuster very well should.

South Lake Tahoe resident Jeremy Miller has more movie reviews online.

To the community,

So, it’s really happened.

The federal government has shut down, threatening the livelihoods and well-being of hundreds of thousands of families like mine. It’s a good time for us to step back and look at who gets hurt – and why.

Small businesses get hurt. They get important loans from the government. California is home to 684,953 small businesses. People who are newly eligible for Social Security, like my parents, get hurt – there’s no one to process their claims. Federal employees get hurt – they’re not rich to begin with and now they are going to start missing paychecks.

That’s just a small sample of who gets hurt because Congress couldn’t do the one simple thing it needed to do to keep government operating. And why? It’s due to a doomed effort by Rep. Tom McClintock and his radical colleagues to defund, or at least delay, the Affordable Care Act. Back in 2010, Republicans tried to block its passage and failed. They tried to have it declared unconstitutional and failed there too. And then they ran a presidential campaign that was based in part on repeal and they failed a third time.

This is patently ridiculous. Rep. Tom McClintock needs to stop playing partisan games and get our government up and running again.

Patrick Stelmach, El Dorado Hills

El Dorado County supervisors will make their annual pilgrimage to the basin on Oct. 7.

Their regular meeting will be at 10am at Lake Tahoe Airport to hear an update on the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency Regional Plan update that was passed nearly a year ago, as well as the Meyers Area Plan – of which only Supervisor Norma Santiago has attended any of those meetings.

Lunch and an afternoon meeting starting at 1:30 will be the first time the entire elected board of El Dorado and Douglas counties, and South Lake Tahoe have met. Topics will include area plans, transportation and recreation.

The afternoon session is at Lake Tahoe Resort Hotel in South Lake Tahoe.