Alison Ledgerwood will give a lecture on positive psychology at the Tahoe Environmental Center on July 17.

She will address: Why do bad things seem to stick in our minds so much longer than the good things? Is there anything we can do about it?

Ledgerwood joined the Department of Psychology at UC Davis in 2008, after receiving her doctorate in social psychology from New York University. Her research and teaching focuses on understanding how people think and behave in social situations, and how to harness that knowledge to improve the social world in which we all live.

At 5:30 the no-host bar opens; presentation at 6pm.

TERC is at 291 Country Club Drive, Incline Village, on the campus of Sierra Nevada College.

Cost is $5.

By Tim Grant, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

While most high school students still plan to go the traditional route of attending four-year colleges and universities when they consider educational options after graduation, a significant number say they are open to the idea of attending community colleges and technical schools

The Washington, D.C.-based College Savings Foundation’s fifth annual “How Youth Plan to Fund College” survey of high school students across the country found many are broadening their perception of what higher education means. One-in-five, or 21 percent, said they think of vocational or career schools in the same way they think of public or private college.

Prior surveys did not ask that question so there is no way to compare past attitudes toward community college and vocational schools.

Cost continues to be a hot topic for families and students — a reality reinforced when President Obama issued an executive order attempting to ease loan-related stresses many face following graduation from college or other post-high school educational programs.

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By Nilda Rego, San Jose Mercury News

Alexis Waldemar Von Schmidt was an ambitious man with big ideas. Perhaps his biggest was to provide 200 million gallons of water daily to San Francisco from Lake Tahoe.

Von Schmidt came to the United States as a child. He claimed to have been trained as an engineer and surveyor in prestigious schools, but no record confirming that has been found. At 29 he caught Gold Rush fever and sailed to California. He discovered he could make more money providing services to the burgeoning population of the state than by digging for gold.

As a deputy United States surveyor, he roamed the state, documenting land grants issued by the Mexican government.

In 1860 he went to work for the Spring Valley Water Works as chief engineer. The company provided water to San Francisco and charged a lot for it, making an enormous profit.

Von Schmidt realized he, too, could make a lot of money from water. In 1865 he and five investors organized the Lake Tahoe and San Francisco Water Works. He acquired control of land at Lake Tahoe’s outlet at Tahoe City for $3 an acre and the right to appropriate 500 cubic feet per second from Lake Tahoe.

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By Jaime Hayden, KRNV-TV

INCLINE VILLAGE — With summer officially here, you may expect to see many boats out on Lake Tahoe. But with the low snow pack this winter, some boat ramps may be closing early this year.

Experts say this will be one of the shortest boating seasons our region has seen in years. The low water level in Lake Tahoe is keeping some boats out of the water, and with summer time just heating up, it could get worse.

“We have been watching the lake go down further and further, this has been the worse year because it was just a poor winter,” said Lake Tahoe Nevada State Park supervisor Jay Howard.

Howard said the Sand Harbor boat ramp has not been as busy this year compared to previous years. Because of the low water level, the department is advising people to not launch boats over 17 feet.

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Tahoe Valley — aka the Y in South Lake Tahoe — may become more of a destination. Renderings/Design Workshop

By Kathryn Reed

South Lake Tahoe officials believe the best way to get people to renovate their properties is to dangle a carrot in front of them. For those with property in the Tahoe Valley Area Plan, the carrots are coverage and commercial floor area.

At a meeting Thursday night about the plan, where only a handful of residents showed up, it was revealed that incentives are part of the draft plan.

“Some properties in Tahoe Valley are 70 percent or 100 percent covered,” John Hitchcock, planner with South Lake Tahoe, said. “Either they can’t afford the fees or they don’t want to rip out the coverage.”

Tahoe Regional Planning Agency has rules about how much of a property can be covered with an impervious material. When it comes time to remodel, mitigation fees come into play. Either that, or the end result must be less coverage to comply with the regulations.

The city plans to match coverage transfers in certain instances. Projects will have to meet city environmental and economic goals to receive the incentives.

The city will create specific criteria for when incentives would be allowed.

Commercial floor area (CFA) is another TRPA-created commodity. Based on the Regional Plan, jurisdictions in the basin have 200,000-square-feet of CFA to use. The city has less than 50,000 square feet banked and will get another 15,000 square feet from the TRPA when the Tahoe Valley Area Plan is approved.

Above, is what a section of the Tahoe Valley are looks like today. Right,  is conceptually what it could become.

TRPA limits development with CFA instead of allowing jurisdictions to use more traditional zoning methods.

The incentives are being used so the plan gets implemented instead of being a document that collects dust or is disregarded on some computer server.

Some of the written comments about the plan include having large swaths of landscaping in front of buildings to keep an open feel and not impacting views of ridgelines.

Hitchcock said that while the design of future buildings or redevelopment projects will have a mountain theme, there is leeway for creativity.

People also said they have no desire for the Y to look like the Stateline end of town.

The stormwater basins are still projected to be turned into a greenbelt that people could use for walking and biking.

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Notes:

• For more info, go online.

• The draft Tahoe Valley Area Plan and notice of preparation of an EIR/EIS will go before the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency June 25, to the City Council on July 1 and to the Planning Commission July 10.

• The final plan is expected to be released later this summer, with it going to the City Council for adoption in the fall and likely to TRPA in December.

By Kathryn Reed

Something is terribly wrong in El Dorado County. A survey of county employees and the latest grand jury report point to dysfunction that is startling.

While it isn’t always a boss’ fault, it is her responsibility to fix the problems. And when the boss is the problem, it’s time for her to go.

Terri Daly

The grand jury report said part of the county’s problem is that it has too many elected department heads. The report stated this creates an atmosphere where those people, and others, circumvent the normal chain of command by bypassing the chief administrative officer and going directly to the Board of Supervisors.

But the glaring hole in that assessment is the grand jury didn’t look into the effectiveness of the CAO and why people go directly to the supes. Perhaps Terri Daly, the CAO, is the problem. A problem the current supervisors aren’t dealing with.

As Colin Powell said, “Leadership is solving problems. The day soldiers stop bringing you their problems is the day you have stopped leading them. They have either lost confidence that you can help or concluded you do not care. Either case is a failure of leadership.”

Clearly, there is a failure of leadership in El Dorado County.

By the end of the year Daly won’t have her buddies in office. There will be three new supervisors. Ray Nutting is gone; his seat will be filled in September via a special election. Norma Santiago and Ron Briggs are termed out; their replacements will be elected in November.

Daly became CAO in December 2010. She was assistant chief administrative officer for El Dorado County from July-December 2010, prior to that she was CAO in Amador County.

She has a penchant for hiring friends, awarding contracts that never have to go before the supervisors that in some cases buy her favoritism, and pointing fingers at those who don’t walk lockstep with her.

Daly has the authority to sign contracts up to $50,000 without going to the Board of Supervisors. She is the one who signed the contract with One Globe for what became known as the Catalyst Project in Meyers. She did this because Santiago wanted it. One Globe was also supposed to work on economic development in the basin. Because the work was not completed the county auditor-controller did not pay One Globe the full contractual amount.

In the employee survey, the Auditor-Controller’s Office had a 92 percent approval rating. But for some reason part of the county’s corrective action is doing a management audit of this office. (The Human Resources Office, which is led by a friend of Daly’s, is also being audited. But that office didn’t do well in the survey.) Is Daly singling out Joe Harn, who has been the county auditor-controller for 20 years and was just re-elected June 3, because he isn’t afraid to say no to her?

Harn can be abrasive. Some don’t like his style. He can say “no” and back up it up with reasons why he came to that conclusion. “No” is not a popular word when you want a “yes”. Harn is anything but a yes man. Is he a bully? I don’t know. His staff doesn’t think so. The real question should be: Is he doing his job effectively? Yes, because he can say no – and for a whole lot of other reasons.

Daly allowed an employee in her office, Mike Applegarth, to work for Mike Owen, who was Harn’s opponent in the recent election. Applegarth on May 12 had a letter published on www.inedc.com asking people to attend a future supervisors’ meeting to complain about Harn.

Days after Harn won the election, Applegarth went out on an indefinite leave.

One of Applegarth’s duties was to be a liaison between the county and media, or a public information officer of sorts.

However, Daly is now using an outside firm for those duties. Without going to the board, she hired Stephanie McCorkle on May 13 to do public relations work. The one-year contract is not to exceed $25,000.

McCorkle has operated McCorkle & Driscoll Communications since March. Prior to that she worked in communications for 17 years for California Independent System Operator.

When McCorkle was contacted about a story on the Meyers Area Plan she told this reporter she didn’t have the answers and that I could ask the questions at next week’s meeting. I’m sure that was billable time.

Daly needs to stop pointing fingers and getting people sidetracked about where the real problem in the county lies. It’s staring her in the mirror.

If the Board of Supervisors keeps the leadership status quo, the public can only hope the next grand jury will do some digging into the CAO’s handling of county affairs. The public deserves more than it has been getting out of El Dorado County and its so-called leaders.

Three people were arrested this month in a gang sweep of the South Shore.

Probation searches were conducted on six residences in the South Lake Tahoe area on June 11. During these searches evidence of gang affiliation was found. Two additional gang member validations were documented, according to law enforcement.

One person was arrested on a violation of probation and another for possession of drug paraphernalia. The third person was a fugitive from justice who was wanted on a felony warrant out of San Diego County. El Dorado County sheriff’s officials are not saying why they are not releasing the names.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report

Cove East is going to the dogs June 22.

Doggie Day is a free event put on by California Tahoe Conservancy and Lake Tahoe Humane Society that involves dog related contests and education.

Pet owners will learn about the Conservancy’s public lands and be given an opportunity to hone their pet etiquette skills.

Every leashed pooch will leave with a free Frisbee.

Trail access to Cove East beach begins at the end of Venice Drive near the Tahoe Keys Marina.

For more information, call 530.542.6063.

Ruth Anne Scudder, 28, has not been seen by her family since June 4.

The South Lake Tahoe woman is considered a voluntarily missing adult. She lives with family in town.

Ruth Anne Scudder

She has a mild mental handicap, which causes the police to consider her at risk.

Scudder does not drive and, although she has a history of voluntarily leaving home unannounced, she has always returned within a few days.

Scudder is 5-foot-4 and weighs 135 pounds. She has blonde hair and green eyes.

No crime is suspected at this time.

Anyone with information is asked to call 530.542.6100.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report

By Amber Phillips, Las Vegas Sun

Could the commercial trucks we share our highways with be getting bigger?

Congress is mulling an idea to allow bigger and heavier semitrailers on American roads. There’s nothing set in stone yet, but the idea floating around Capitol Hill has transportation safety and law enforcement advocates worried enough to fly out to Washington, D.C., and try to convince lawmakers otherwise.

Two Nevada advocates are part of the delegation talking to lawmakers in Washington this week. They say the state has seen its fair share of traffic accidents and fatalities from big trucks.

In 2012, 450 crashes and 18 deaths in Nevada were tied to big trucks, said Richard Tiran, the president of the Peace Officers Research Association of Nevada.

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