By Anna Edney, Bloomberg

E-cigarettes require strict regulation at a time when there’s been little research into potential harm, more than 100 scientists told the World Health Organization in a letter.

The group said the health organization should support marketing regulation, safety and efficacy data requirements and protection for bystanders from second-hand vapor. A different group of researchers wrote WHO last month urging the group to avoid suppressing sales since the devices may help smokers quit.

The letter dated June 15, from 129 academics and anti-tobacco advocates, disputed the potential of e-cigarettes as a cessation device. The WHO is preparing a paper it will submit to its tobacco control convention made up of 178 countries.

“The absence of detailed evidence on adverse health effects is not evidence that no effect exists,” according to the letter. “Rather, insufficient time has elapsed to determine what effects exist and their magnitude on a population level.”

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• League to Save Lake Tahoe’s summer kickoff party is June 27 from 5-8pm at 2608 Lake Tahoe Blvd., South Lake Tahoe.

• California Public Utilities Commission has awarded the Tahoe Prosperity Center a California Advanced Services Fund grant. The $167,000 grant is for a two-year project focused on promoting the expansion of broadband services in unserved and underserved areas of the Lake Tahoe Basin.

• Mark Estee, owner of Campo in Reno and Burger Me in Truckee, will be on Food Network’s “Guy’s Grocery Games.” Guy Fieri and Estee met several years ago when Burger Me Truckee was featured on “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives”. Estee’s episode will air at 8pm June 22.

• Bernhard Museum in Placer County is putting on free 19th Century Kids Games on June 21 from 10am-noon. For more info, call 530.889.6500.

• TOCCATA’s ninth anniversary gala is July 6 at 5pm at the Cornerstone Church, 300 Country Club Drive, Incline Village. For more info, call 775.313.9697.

By Kyle Kim, Los Angeles Times

Americans aren’t dying the way they used to. The data come from an article published by the New England Journal of Medicine, which combed through 200 years worth of its back issues to look into how Americans die.

The article was originally published in 2012, but became a top post on Reddit this week after computer scientist Randy Olson posted a reworked version. We created a chart to more clearly show the changing causes of death.

The most visually striking difference is the enormous decline of infectious diseases (pneumonia, influenza, tuberculosis, etc). Advances in medicine and society have largely eradicated many of these diseases that were an overwhelming cause of death in 1900.

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By Kim Severson, New York Times

In the luxe dining room of Del Posto, one of New York’s most heralded and expensive Italian restaurants, one-third of the tables on any given night will have at least one gluten-free diner.

Mark Ladner, the restaurant’s chef and widely considered to be one of the best pasta cooks in the nation, knows it is a remarkable number. Gluten, the protein in wheat that gives dough its elasticity, has been a key ingredient in his culinary success. But Ladner also knows gluten-free dining remains a big and growing business, so he offers each of his pasta dishes, down to his 100-layer lasagna, in gluten-free form.

Similar gluten-free dishes, like pasta made with rice and corn starches and chewy focaccia, are woven into the menus at all the restaurants owned by Del Posto’s proprietors, Mario Batali, Joe Bastianich and Lidia Bastianich, Bastianich’s mother. “It really has become a thing, and I don’t think it’s going to go away anytime soon,” Ladner said.

A decade ago, few people other than those with celiac disease, a digestive condition, knew much about the health implications of gluten. But today, if you aren’t gluten-free, you likely know someone who is or is trying to be. The style of eating has become a way of life for many and a national punch line for others. More than a quarter of Americans say they are cutting down on gluten or eliminating it entirely. Optimistic researchers predict the market for gluten-free products will hit $15.6 billion by 2016. The Food and Drug Administration has noted the diet trend as well, and passed new labeling laws for gluten-free products to take effect in August.

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Astronomy experts Jay Lawson and Adam Kremers will have telescopes set up to view Jupiter, Mars, Saturn and other objects in the night sky during a Summer Solstice Astronomy Party.

The June 21 event from 8:30-10:30pm is at Washoe Lake State Park at the maze-playground parking area. The park is off Highway 395 between Reno and Carson City.

There is no charge for the program, but there is a $7/vehicle entrance fee. Nevada residents receive a $2 discount.

Red lights, or flashlights wrapped in red plastic, are recommended, as they do not negatively affect night vision. Participants may want to bring a lawn chair, or something to sit on.

For more info, call 775.687.4319 or email washoelake@hdiss.net.

Firefighters on June 18 hike into a small blaze in Stateline. Photo/Carol Faccinetti

Crews are battling a small wildland fire behind the former Kingsbury Middle School in Stateline.

The call came in about 2:45 this afternoon.

About a 50 foot by 50 foot swath of land has burned between Meadow Drive and the school. There is a hose around the perimeter and crews were starting to be released as of 3:20pm

The U.S. Forest Service is the lead agency. Also assisting are Tahoe Douglas, Lake Valley and CalFire. The Forest Service had a helicopter on standby out of Minden, but it was released as of 3:20pm.

The cause is not known, but there is no electrical in the area and there has been no lightning. While there have been homeless encampments nearby, they haven’t been exactly in the spot where this fire occurred, a Tahoe Douglas firefighter told Lake Tahoe News.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report

The track at Echo Summit was used for training for the 1968 Olympics. Photo/ Les Wright

Eldorado National Forest in cooperation with El Dorado County and the state will place a California State Historical Marker at the site of the 1968 Olympic training facility at Echo Summit on June 27.

A celebration entitled Return to the Summit will honor the site where U.S. Olympic men’s track and field athletes broke four world records during the Olympic trials at a tumultuous time in our nation’s history.

Tommie Smith and John Carlos, who finished with gold and bronze, respectively, in the 200-meter dash in the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City, are among the athletes scheduled to speak at the ceremony. Smith and Carlos famously bowed their heads and raised black-gloved fists on the victory stand in Mexico City, as a visible statement about the condition of human rights in this country.

The Echo Summit training site was an ideal high-altitude site to help athletes train for the thin air in Mexico City.

The facilities were disassembled and moved to South Lake Tahoe once the athletes left for Mexico City. They remained in use until 1992.

The Echo Summit site is on the south side of Highway 50, 10 miles west of South Lake Tahoe. The entrance is marked by a sign for the Adventure Mountain snow play area. The event will begin at 10:30am.

By Renee Lewis, Aljazeera America

The Drug Enforcement Administration has maintained marijuana’s classification as a harmful drug with no medical benefits despite scientific evidence to the contrary, a report said, adding that the agency has also obstructed research that could lead to the substance’s reclassification.

“The DEA impedes research by abusing its discretionary powers over the scheduling process, making it difficult to obtain marijuana for research purposes. We recommend taking away the DEA’s power over drug scheduling and access to drugs for research,” Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance, said last week.

The report, “The DEA: Four Decades of Impeding and Rejecting Science,” released by the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies and DPA, calls on the DEA to end its “unjustifiable” monopoly of the supply of research grade marijuana available for federally approved research.

The DEA has ignored calls to reschedule marijuana — which is currently called a Schedule 1 drug meaning it has no known medical value and is on par with drugs like heroin and crack.

Medical marijuana advocates are calling for a rescheduling to Schedule 2 — where the Food and Drug Administration would regulate it as a prescription medicine, allowing easier access to medical grade cannabis for scientific research, the study said.

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By Matt Weiser, Sacramento Bee

As if the drought isn’t enough to worry about, weather officials say California is likely to experience a hotter-than-normal summer this year, a phenomenon certain to add anxiety for water agencies and fire departments.

Summer doesn’t officially begin until Saturday. But the heat already is scorching the record books, as seen by a wave of 100-degree weather that swept across Northern California early last week. Heat records fell at six locations in the Sacramento Valley, including downtown Sacramento, which saw a high of 107 degrees last Monday. That shattered the date’s record of 103, set in 1883.

This follows what already has been an unusually warm winter and spring. In a study released Thursday, the National Climatic Data Center reported that California experienced its warmest January through May on record, with temperatures 5 degrees above the 20th-century average. Five California cities also set records: Sacramento, Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco and Eureka. In Sacramento’s case, the first five months of this year were 3.7 degrees warmer than the average over the past 30 years.

In its long-range forecasts, the National Weather Service is reporting that odds favor a summer across all of California that is warmer than average. The agency extends that forecast all the way into October, the earliest that Californians normally expect seasonal rains to resume.

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South Lake Tahoe’s STAR Camp– South Tahoe Adventure Recreation — starts this week.

The mission is to provide an active, healthy, and safe environment for youth to learn and play.

This is for ages 6-16.

This program is designed for youth and teens to explore Lake Tahoe, discover the possibilities, and create memories in a fun and safe environment. Independent teen activities will be available on Tuesdays and Wednesdays throughout the summer.

STAR Camp offers 10 weeks of 10 different themes including; outdoor fun and adventure, love my neighbor, fitness challenge, go green and bike, act like a star, cowboys and angels, NASA and science, career week, be the change, and spirit week.

For more information, call 530.542.6056.