By Paul Fain, Inside Higher Education

President Obama may have strong words for colleges about tuition prices, but he continues to push for more federal funding for community colleges.

In a major speech Tuesday on job creation Obama repackaged a February budget proposal for an $8 billion “Community College to Career Fund.” The address follows the president’s vow six days ago to “shake up” higher education to ensure better value for middle-class students and their families.

Both speeches were grounded in the economy and middle-income jobs. And the event Tuesday, which Obama held at an Amazon.com warehouse in Tennessee, was aimed at bringing Congressional Republicans to the table.

The president included a suggestion to slash corporate tax rates, a move Republicans support. The overhaul of business taxes would also generate revenue through a fee on the foreign earnings of U.S. companies, The Washington Post reported, which would help pay for the community college plan and other proposals.

Another idea the administration unveiled Tuesday that involves higher education is the creation of 45 manufacturing innovation institutes, which link companies, colleges and government. That proposal builds on a pilot program in Youngstown, Ohio, as well as three new manufacturing institutes that are slated for creation later this year.

“We’re getting businesses, universities, communities all to work together to develop centers of high-tech industries all throughout the United States that allow us to be at the forefront of the next revolution of manufacturing,” Obama said, according to a written transcript of his speech.

The president dubbed his plan a “grand bargain.” But the GOP doesn’t appear to be buying. Congressional Republicans quickly signaled that they opposed the jobs deal, according to news media reports.

Obama’s proposed community college fund would support job-training programs in growing and high-demand fields, according to a written statement from the White House. The accompanying fact sheet did not include a price tag, but Obama asked Congress for $8 billion for the program in February.

A more detailed description of that proposal, which the administration released when it was announced, described a “blueprint to train two million workers.” The plan included money for apprenticeships and other on-the-job training for community college students, like internships that would lead to college credit for work-based learning.

The fund would also include performance-based incentives. For example, states might set aside money for job-training programs at colleges that successfully place graduates in good-paying jobs.

The American Association of Community Colleges backs the job-training fund, not surprisingly. David Baime, the association’s senior vice president for government relations and research, said campus officials strongly support the proposal.

“If enacted, it would dramatically bolster the work that our colleges are already doing to help address the skills gap and to provide economic opportunity for the many people still struggling in today’s economy,” he said in a written statement.

But advocates for community colleges are realistic about the slim odds of multibillion-dollar plans going anywhere while federal lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are pushing budget austerity.

However, the White House keeps trying to find more money for the two-year sector. And it has succeeded before, even if at levels smaller than those first sought.

Obama in 2009 announced a $12 billion proposal directed at community colleges. The American Graduation Initiative failed, but morphed into $2 billion in U.S. Department of Labor funding for workforce development at two-year institutions.

That program, which has a name that is too long to include here, appears to be having a substantial impact. Community college officials have said that the money has led to lasting, ambitious changes on their campuses, particularly around career services.

A commercial van struck several vehicles July 31 in South Lake Tahoe. Photo/Provided

The driver of a carpet cleaning van sideswiped six parked vehicles in the Tahoe Keys this morning.

South Lake Tahoe police said is appears the 67-year-old man suffered a medical emergency that led to the accident July 31 at 9:25am. He was taken to Barton Memorial Hospital.

The Chem-Dry Carpet and Upholstery Cleaning van from Gardnerville struck three cars on Kokanee Avenue and three on Emerald Avenue. All sustained minor damage.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report

A 3-year-old girl died from the injuries she sustained Tuesday night in car accident near Cave Rock.

The toddler was riding in the vehicle that was headed west when it crossed the double yellow line about one mile before Cave Rock, according to authorities.

There are conflicting reports as to how many people were injured. NHP told Lake Tahoe News on Tuesday that two adults were hurt in the three-vehicle crash that occurred about 8:45pm July 30. KRNV-TV is reporting eight injuries. This morning NHP didn’t have a figure to release.

Nevada Highway Patrol investigators will be at the Highway 50 crash site this morning to diagram the scene in an attempt to figure out exactly what happened.

At this time the names and hometowns of the people involved in the collision are not being released.

NHP troopers said the westbound vehicle sideswiped an SUV that then rolled over. The initial vehicle then hit a mini van nearly head-on.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report

The Aug. 8 sunset cruise on the Woodwind II sailboat out of Zephyr Cove will raise money for the Sugar Pine Foundation.

Tickets are $51 per person and may be purchased online or call (650) 814.9565.

Check in time is 6:30pm and the boat leaves from Zephyr Cove beach at 7pm.

EDAWN — Economic Development Authority of Western Nevada — is looking for nominations for the Existing Industry Awards.

Individuals, companies and community partners that have demonstrated solid growth and expansion, job creation and increased capital expenditure will be considered.

The deadline is Aug. 23 at 5pm. Awards will be given out Oct. 3 at the Peppermill in Reno.

For more inf, contact Nancy McCormick at (775) 829.3719 or mccormick@edawn.org.

Wherever Chris Smith is in the world — even at Everest base camp in November 2011 — he juggles. Photos/Provided

By Kathryn Reed

Some people send postcards, others text a picture. But those modes of communicating one’s adventures are ordinary, especially if you are Chris Smith.

The South Tahoe High School grad – who was in town last weekend for his 10-year reunion – has had some sort of camera in his hands or strapped to him for years. And since he was 12 he has been juggling almost anything that he picks up.

While he was in Iceland this year he decided to use a GoPro camera with a wide-angle lens to film his juggling exploits in that country. It was a way to share with family and friends what he was seeing.

A lot more people than he expected have joined in on the fun. Nearly 700,000 people on YouTube have viewed Juggling Around Iceland. This got the attention of producers at NBC’s “Today Show”.

They tracked Smith down in Hawaii, where he was wrapping up the Blue Man Group tour. He put together a similar video for the morning show from Hawaii to Studio 1A in New York – which includes some footage of Lake Tahoe.

The “Today Show” segment aired July 29.

The start and the future

Smith was 18 when his dad, Phil Smith, and St. Theresa Catholic School student Michael Bank Jr., 14, died off the Mendocino coast. It was that tragedy that led him to write the screenplay “Shadow in the Trees”. The movie is fiction, but there are truths in it about what he and his family went through following the Jan. 11, 2004, drownings.

Netflix and iTunes picked up the movie, which he finished before he graduated from UCLA in 2007.

This was the third year the proceeds from the movie have been used as a scholarship for a STHS graduate who has overcome adversity and who is pursuing a degree in film.

Hollywood film director Stephen Herek, who helped Smith with the final edit, is still a mentor to him.

Writing-directing-acting – he wants to do all three, even though he knows it’s more common to specialize.

South Tahoe High School grad Chris Smith lives in Los Angeles where he is pursuing his dreams of being an actor-writer-director.

“I could do any one of those things and feel like I am happy and successful,” Smith told Lake Tahoe News.

But, he added, it’s the juggler in him that makes him want to have more than one career “ball” going at a time.

Smith has applied for a director fellowship through Universal NBC that he will find out about in September.

He takes off for Copenhagen next week where he’ll spend three weeks. Part of the adventure is to visit the country he was born in – even though he grew up in South Lake Tahoe – and visit with his mom’s side of the family, while also wrapping up an action-adventure-comedy script.

Smith has an agent and manager for the writing side of his career.

He considers the year with the Blue Man Group – which included 10 months in 51 cities – as a significant segment of his acting career.

Directing is Smith’s long-term goal.

But what is most important to the 28-year-old is that whatever he is doing, he is storytelling.

By Dan Sheehan

Lake Tahoe is certainly a beautiful area with its magnificent alpine lake like no other. The Lake Tahoe Basin also has some great wildlife. The black bear or Ursus americanus is a longtime indigenous resident of the area and has become a controversial topic of debate around the lake.

There is plenty of food in the wild for the bears; and many bears eat nothing but wild food. However, some of those bears whose territory borders (and encases) the human neighborhoods are the ones of discussion. These bears have been lured in over the years by tourists and residents who are careless and uneducated about wildlife. Garbage left unsecured or doors and windows left open with food wafting about has been the enticing draw.

Once a bear has learned that the big boxes in the middle of the woods (we call them houses) are a place where food is available, it is pretty tough to stop them from getting in. Momma bear may smell the food and teaches baby bear that this is where we can forage. So this baby bear grows up learning to break into homes regardless if it has the smell of food or not.

It is our responsibility to try and reverse this trend that we are primarily responsible for. Educating ourselves and others about these awesome animals is paramount. The BEAR League is a nonprofit whose sole purpose is to educate and help people live alongside bears. They do so through constant education and intervention.

I have been in the Tahoe area for the past 19 years full time and on and off for the past 46 years and have seen and encountered many bears in the wild and in the home. As a master carpenter I have been called to fix many doors over the years due to bears seeking entry into the home. I am pretty good at rebuilding a door jam to be extremely strong. However, a 600-pound bear leaning on most any door is going to reveal the door’s weakness sooner or later.

And now the local Ursus has become very proficient in breaking windows as well.

So this has led me and others to modify typical electric fencing components as seen on the farm or ranch to work on a home. For the past three years I have been installing these systems and found that they are the absolute most effective solution to deterring bears from getting inside.

The systems pulse about 10,000 volts through the wires. For comparison, a police taser is about 50,000 volts. The amperage is very low (less than one-tenth of an amp). It is amps which kill. Because the charge is pulsing it allows for the muscle reaction of retraction from the fence. If it were not pulsing and you were to grab your muscles, would contract and not allow you to retract. It is this pulsing which also makes it next to impossible for the fence to be a fire hazard. It is also important to note that the electric fence system is safe to the bears, children, pets and other small animals.

This is what a typical door installation looks like:

The green box is the control or energizer that supplies the power to the system and creates the “pulse.” The springs across the door have a handle on one side which can be ‘unhooked” The springs then simply retract and rest out of the way to the other side.

This is a typical window set-up:

We use a polypropylene twine that is very strong and has nine stainless steel strands braided through it that carry the electrical current.

Tahoe Electric Bear Fencing makes sure that the fences we install are effective first and foremost. Our systems are the absolute least obtrusive of anything on the market. More important, our systems are configured so they are not only extremely easy to use but can always be used with minimal effort while you are inside. Other systems either do not allow you to enable the system while you are home or if they do it is burdensome.

Because our systems are the least obtrusive of all the systems, we highly discourage a “removable” system. Please do not be sold by the idea of a removable system. Once you start removing the wires you become less inclined to replace them when you leave the house to go out to lunch or take the dog for a walk. Our systems are always on the house and are extremely simple to engage at all times.

If you have a bear emergency or questions please call the BEAR League at (530) 525.7297.

For inquiries about electric fencing for your home or securing your home call Tahoe Electric Bear Fencing (DS Construction) at (530) 448.9127.

Dan Sheehan is the owner of DS Construction and Tahoe Electric Bear Fencing. He is also a volunteer with the BEAR League and Lake Tahoe Wildlife Care. Sheehan has been trained in the handling of wild birds and animals.

Three people were hurt in a three-car accident Monday night near Cave Rock.

An SUV heading east rolled over after a vehicle going in the other direction sideswiped it. That vehicle had crossed the double-yellow line. After it hit the SUV, it then practically hit a mini van head-on, according to authorities.

The 8:45pm accident on July 30 temporarily closed Highway 50. All lanes are expected to be open by 11:30pm. The accident was about one mile east of Cave Rock.

Nevada Highway Patrol Trooper Dan Gordon told Lake Tahoe News no one sustained life-threatening injuries. Names of the people involved in the accident have not been released.

The driver of the mini van and a juvenile passenger were hurt, as well as a passenger in the SUV. The woman in the SUV was pinned in the vehicle and had to be extricated.

All three were taken to Renown Medical Center in Reno – one by CareFlight, one by Calstar and the other by ground ambulance.

Gordon also said alcohol is not believed to be involved.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report

Several fires are bringing smoke into the Lake Tahoe Basin.

The Aspen Fire in Fresno County had burned more than 14,000 acres and is 30 percent contained.

There are also several fires in Oregon that are sending smoke into the area.

For more info about how to deal with the smoke when it comes to health concerns, go online.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report

El Dorado County officials are warning people not to buy produce from people selling it on the side of the road.

“We are seeing an influx of vendors from outside of the county,” said El Dorado County Agriculture Commissioner Charlene Carveth said in a statement. “In most instances, roadside dealers are not selling produce that is locally grown, or in compliance with basic local and state food safety requirements.”

A “Protect Local Growers Campaign” has been launched to combat the rogue vendors.

“The idea of the campaign is twofold,” Farm Bureau Executive Director Valerie Zentner said in a statement. “We want to educate the public about the risks of purchasing produce from illegal roadside vendors, and in doing so protect the law-abiding local growers in our community.”

Risks from roadside produce include consuming food that is not in compliance with safe handling, pesticide, refrigeration, packaging and labeling requirements, according to officials.

People may call the county hotline at (530) 642.4968 to report suspected illegal roadside vendors.