By Cy Ryan, Las Vegas Sun

CARSON CITY — Some casinos that gained prior approval from state regulators are taking a go-slow approach in entering the online poker market.

The state Gaming Control Board Wednesday recommended approval to three companies to extend their license for another six months before they offer the computer poker business in Nevada.

Board chairman A.G. Burnett said the law requires companies to activate their licenses within six months. He said these firms are in a “holding” mode, waiting to see how the market emerges.

And he said some companies are still developing their product or waiting for the control board’s staff to clear their interactive game system.

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By Robin Wilkey, Huffington Post

When it comes to dealing with mosquitoes, one generally has two options: drench yourself in potentially harmful (and often ineffective) repellant or suck it up.

But California-based start-up Olfactor Laboratories has developed a sticker that the company claims can make wearers virtually invisible to mosquitoes.

Dubbed the Kite Patch, the sticker reportedly uses nontoxic materials to block mosquitoes from detecting the carbon dioxide omitted in our breath –- the means by which the bugs usually track us.

“When you wear Kite, the product makes you practically invisible to mosquitoes,” said Dr. Michelle Brown, the project’s chief researcher, in an Indigogo video. “And we’ve been able to accomplish this using food-grade FDA approved compounds, removing the need to use toxic and dangerous chemicals that are currently found in today’s products.”

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• Mark Twain is coming to the Truckee Winery tasting room. McAvoy Layne will be at the winery Aug. 16 from 5:30-7:30pm. Tickets are $20. Call (530) 587.4626 to reserve a spot.

• World renowned artist Michael Godard will visit Wyland Galleries in South Lake Tahoe on Aug. 10 from 6-10pm.

• Do you want to help keep Lake Tahoe News in business? Then fill out a paid subscriber form today.

• Learn about how best to landscape for your yard at free talk on Aug. 12 at 5:30pm at Lake Tahoe Community College’s demonstration garden.

• There is a meeting Aug. 13 from 7-8:30am at the Truckee airport about the Squaw Valley specific plan and the potential of Olympic Valley incorporating.

A reunion for those who worked or played at the Del Webb Sahara Tahoe, High Sierra, and Horizon casinos will be Aug. 24.

Opened originally in 1965 as Del Webb’s Sahara Tahoe, this property used to bring in top-notch performers like Elvis Presley.

It was rebranded in 1983 with a Western theme, the property changed names and became the Del Webb’s High Sierra Hotel.

In 1990 it became a Columbia Sussex property and was rebranded as the Horizon Casino Resort.

Anyone who was a former executive, employee, customer, or fan is invited to the reunion. The $20 tickets are available at the door, and include a dinner buffet and entertainment. A cash bar will be available. Bring old photos, T-shirts, souvenirs, and memorabilia to share.

The event will be at the pool at the Horizon from 4-8pm.

By Kathryn Reed

An orange tinge appears to be hovering over parts of the Al Tahoe neighborhood. It’s needle miner.

Needle miners are small insects that are in the moth and butterfly family. And they are native to Lake Tahoe. But this is the first time there has been noticeable activity of the insect in the basin.

Bob Harms, who lives in the South Lake Tahoe neighborhood, said he first started noticing the discoloration of trees last year, with it being even more evident this spring.

Trees in the Al Tahoe area of South Lake Tahoe are turning orange from the needle miner. Photo/Kathryn Reed

This led him to do some calling and learn that it’s the Jeffery pine needle miner doing the damage.

The bulk of the brown-orange needles can be seen on Los Angeles Avenue, along Oakland Avenue and with spotty sections heading into the neighborhood toward the lake.

Beverly Bulaon, forest entomologist for the Southern Sierra region of the U.S. Forest Service, is tasked with dealing with such critters. She works out of the Stanislaus National Forest office in Sonora.

“It is a very small little insect that feeds in the needles,” Bulaon told Lake Tahoe News. “Why it is occurring in the Al Tahoe neighborhood we don’t know.”

She said there is the possibility it will spread to other areas in the basin, but with this being the first year her team has been aware of the outbreak on the South Shore, it’s too soon to know many details other than the insect is active in this one location.

The insect is killing the needles, but not the whole tree. And because much of the damage is at the crown, limbing the tree is not an option to rid it of the needle miner.

Bulaon said what could eventually kill a tree is a secondary insect coming in and injuring the pine. How healthy and strong the tree is before the needle miner comes will determine its resiliency because trees can survive after being attacked by the insect.

Drought is a possible reason for the recent infestation, Bulaon said.

On July 30, Bulaon and a group from the California Pest Council toured the Al Tahoe neighborhood looking at the needle miner damage. Some neighbors tagged along. Now the neighbors are forming a loose knit group to keep an eye on whether the needle miner damage spreads or goes away.

Bulaon suggests people call their local U.S. Forest Service office if they are concerned needle miners are infecting their neighborhood.

Wyland Gallery in South Lake Tahoe will host an artist’s reception and sculpting demonstration by international bronze artist June Towill Brown on Aug. 17-18 from 2-6pm.

Brown will be finishing her bear series which is a spin-off of the life-size showcase brown bear that sits in the roundabout in Incline Village at the base of Mount Rose Highway on Highway 28. Some of her more popular limited edition sculptures will be on display.

In addition, the gallery will showcase Brown’s newest artistry with a selection of her sterling silver equine jewelry collection.

Wyland Gallery is located at 4000 Lake Tahoe Blvd., Building A, Unit 3 in South Lake Tahoe.

To the community,

As part of the statewide celebration recognizing July as “Parks Make Life Better” month, recreation departments throughout the state created programs and campaigns to celebrate the benefits that recreation programs bring to the community. The city of South Lake Tahoe newly branded summer camp program, South Tahoe Adventure Recreation or STAR Camp, aligns directly with the promise of the campaign through the mission to provide an active, healthy and safe environment for youth to learn and play.

During the month of July STAR Camp youth participants were challenged to complete one fitness activity a day for 30 minutes in addition to regular STAR camp adventure activities. Camp leader Gina Locicero is credited with creating and implementing the fitness challenge. Gina created a display identifying each daily activity. Every child who completed the activity each day had his or her name posted on the display.

Scheduled fitness activities included bike riding, jumping jacks, running, pushups and more. Not to worry if a child missed a day of activities; participants were encouraged to participate in the fitness activities while on vacation or outside of a scheduled camp day by having a parent sign off on the list of activities accomplished.

The motivation and inspiration for fitness spread like wildfire as children began to challenge their peers, parents, and camp leaders to “get fit”.

Recognizing that fitness is more than just exercise, Gina incorporated nutrition goals each day. Children learned about healthy snacks and participated in choosing their own snacks according to nutritional values that benefit lifelong health. One parent shared that her daughter asked her to “buy more fruit at home because she learned that it is a healthier choice”.

The creative approach to making exercise and nutrition fun through the 30-day fitness challenge not only had lasting impacts on young lives but also earned the STAR Camp a Presidential Active Lifestyle Award.

At the conclusion of the challenge STAR Camp leaders hosted a celebration inviting parents to participate in a fitness routine and witness their child receiving their certificate of completion, a T-shirt and individual Presidential Active Lifestyle Award.

Lauren Thomaselli, South Lake Tahoe recreation manager

By Ian Schwartz, CBS-13

Kids who have suffered severe burns are getting special treatment this week at a firefighters’ burn camps along the shores of Lake Tahoe.

Camp is a great way for kids to get away from the city and be around nature. But at this camp, it’s a chance for kids to get away from the questions, the stares and be around fellow burn survivors who know what it’s like.

These kids have gone through a lot, physically scarred by fire. But in many cases, the pain didn’t stop there.

“Everybody will just look at me weirdly, and I’d just be like, ‘Who cares?’”

That’s what growing up has been like for girls like Kindsey Woodrow. But at this camp, none of that matters.

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By Paul Rogers, San Jose Mercury News

Rising ocean waters. Bigger and more frequent forest fires. More brutally hot summer days.

These aren’t the usual predictions about global warming based on computer forecasts. They’re changes already happening in California, according to a detailed new report issued Thursday by the California Environmental Protection Agency.

Climate change is “an immediate and growing threat” affecting the state’s water supplies, farm industry, forests, wildlife and public health, the report says. The 258-page document was written by 51 scientists from the University of California, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, U.S. Geological Survey and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, among other agencies and institutions.

A report released Aug. 8 points out how global warming is affecting California. Photo/LTN file

“Climate change is not just some abstract scientific debate,” said California EPA Secretary Matt Rodriquez. “It’s real, and it’s already here.”

Most Californians seem to agree. In a poll last month by the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California, 63 percent of the state’s residents said the effects of global warming are already being felt, while 22 percent said they will happen in the future. Eleven percent said they will never happen.

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Details of the fatal July 30 accident on Highway 50 at Cave Rock are emerging as Nevada Highway Patrol officers continue their investigation.

Sixteen people were involved in the three-vehicle crash that claimed the life of 3-year-old Caroline M. Maxfield of Centennial, Colo.

A child died in this car accident on July 30 near Cave Rock. Photo/Provided

Sylvia Hurtado of South Lake Tahoe was driving a black 2011 Cadillac SRX4 west when the vehicle crossed the double-yellow line and sideswiped a black 2008 GMC Yukon traveling east. Ross King of Centennial, Colo., had seven passengers in the Yukon. Every person in that vehicle was hurt when it rolled over.

The Cadillac then collided head-on with a red 2008 Chrysler Town & Country van driven by Emily Maxfield, of Centennial, Colo. She had six passengers. The child who died was Emily Maxfield’s daughter.

Witnesses to the crash and anyone with additional information are encouraged to contact Trooper Doug Hildebrand at (775) 689.4623 or dhildebrand@dps.state.nv.us.

 — Lake Tahoe News staff report