By Eli Segall, Las Vegas Sun

Bondholders are ratcheting up pressure on Caesars Entertainment Corp., saying the debt-laden casino giant defaulted on the terms of possibly more than $1 billion in debt when it sold four casinos to an affiliate this year.

Las Vegas-based Caesars, which received the default notice Thursday, rejected the claim as “baseless” and said the company would “defend itself vigorously against any action” the creditors take.

Caesars did not say which bondholders filed the notice against subsidiary Caesars Entertainment Operating Co., nor did it explicitly say how much debt the creditors claim is at stake.

However, the lenders say they hold 30 percent of $3.7 billion in bonds that were issued in 2009, according to Caesars.

Read the whole story

By Angela Zimm, Bloomberg

Which is better at detecting cancer, a laboratory or a Labrador retriever?

Consider the talents of Tsunami, a regal-looking dog with attentive eyes and an enthusiastic tail wag for her trainer friends. University of Pennsylvania researchers say she is more than 90 percent successful in identifying the scent of ovarian cancer in tissue samples, opening a new window on a disease with no effective test for early detection that kills 14,000 Americans a year. When found early, there’s a five-year survival rate of over 90 percent.

With 220 million olfactory cells in a canine snout, compared with 50 million for humans, dogs have long helped on search-and-rescue. Now, a growing body of evidence supports the possible use of canines by clinicians. The largest study ever done on cancer-sniffing dogs found they can detect prostate cancer by smelling urine samples with 98 percent accuracy. At least one application is in the works seeking U.S. approval of a kit using breath samples to find breast cancer.

“Our study demonstrates the use of dogs might represent in the future a real clinical opportunity if used together with common diagnostic tools,” said Gian Luigi Taverna, the author of the prostate cancer research reported yesterday at the American Urological Association in Boston.

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A higher number of moths are being reported in Northern Nevada compared to past years.

The Nevada Department of Agriculture entomology laboratory is receiving a lot of inquiries about them. The moths are the adults of the army cutworm (Euxoa auxiliaris), an insect native to Nevada.

The army cutworm overwinters as partially grown larvae – caterpillars – in the soil. They feed on a variety of plants for a couple of months when the weather warms up in the spring.

The moths pupate then emerge as adult moths. The adult moths, called millers, feed on nectar and some pollen and therefore are not generally a threat to gardens or crops.

While the moths may be a nuisance, officials do not recommend spraying with them pesticides.

For more info, call 775.353.3767.

By Jane Brody, New York Times

Heeding some basic safety tips this summer could help to keep you and your companions in the game and out of the emergency room.

As an emergency room physician in Southern California, Brady Pregerson has seen or heard it all. He incorporates many of the resulting insights in a helpful little book, “Think Twice: More Lessons from the ER,” a sequel to “Don’t Try This at Home: Lessons From the Emergency Department.”

I’ve selected those lessons that are especially relevant for the coming months. But many of the tips can help at other times of the year, especially for those living in the warmer states.

Want some fresh air? Don’t push on the glass when opening windows. “I’ve seen many terrible hand and forearm lacerations from this mistake,” Dr. Pregerson writes. To which I will add: If there are children under age 10 in the house, install window guards. It takes but a moment for a young child to fall out of an open window.

If you work or play in the dirt, be sure your tetanus immunization is up to date. The deadly bacterium Clostridium tetani lives in soil, and it can enter the body through even a small cut or splinter, Pregerson said in an interview. Children require a vaccine series called DTaP, and adults need a booster every 10 years.

Read the whole story

The second annual Tahoe Treasures Tour will feature some of Incline Village’s loveliest homes, gardens, and art collections.

The July 12 event is from 11am-4pm.

The event is sponsored by the American Association of University Women, Tahoe Nevada branch. Tea and tapas will be served and ticket sales will fund the AAUW scholarship program. Tickets are $35.

For more info, email nicholas89451@gmail.com.

Tulip

Tulip is one of several small dogs currently at the shelter. She’s a Chihuahua, as are most of the others. You see by the smile on her face that she is happiest in someone’s lap. Tulip is about 3 years old, has pretty fawn fur, and is a very nice little girl.

Tulip is spayed, microchipped, tested for heartworm, and vaccinated. She is at the El Dorado County Animal Services shelter in Meyers, along with many other dogs and cats who are waiting for their new homes.

Go online or to the Tahoe animal shelter’s Facebook page to see photos and descriptions of all pets at the shelter.

Call 530.573.7925 for directions, hours, and other information on adopting a pet.

For spay-neuter assistance for South Tahoe residents, go online.

— Karen Kuentz

Sierra Houses’ growing domes will be much like the Truckee dome. Photos/Provided

Publisher’s note: This is one in a random series of stories about growing vegetables in South Lake Tahoe.

By Kathryn Reed

Students at Sierra House Elementary School are about to get two nontraditional classrooms. They are going to be full of dirt – and ideally a lot of edible plants.

Parents and community members for some time have been working on bringing a growing dome to the South Shore campus. They are on track to have two domes installed by October.

Domes are a four-season geodesic greenhouse structure that use a fish pond and passive solar design to heat itself.

The original plan was one dome, 28-feet in diameter that would be 600-square-feet. Now the plan is two domes, each 18-feet in diameter for a total space of about 500-square-feet. They will lose a little space this way, but gain more, too, in terms of teaching possibilities. Different crops and growing methods could be taught with two domes.

The smaller dome comes with fewer restrictions when it comes to permitting. Lake Tahoe Unified School District and Tahoe Regional Planning Agency still need to have final approval, but school board members told the group at a May meeting to carry on with the two-dome idea.

“The main goal of having a dome is for kids to see food growing year-round,” parent Rebecca Bryson told Lake Tahoe News.

It might mean a salad bar is created in the school cafeteria using all ingredients from the dome, or a veggie side dish is served from dome-grown produce. A lemon tree may be part of the dome and then kids could see what it’s like to have fresh squeezed lemons on a variety of things.

“We really envision during recess kids will go in there. We want it not just for instruction,” Bryson said. She expects kids will want to see how things have changed, to touch plants and explore on their own.

And the goal is not to limit it to Sierra House kids, but have other schools come for regular visits. Instructors will be teachers and parents.

This project is a collaboration between Sierra House PTA, Small World Parents Network, Lake Tahoe Sustainability Collaborative and the Truckee Dome Raising Project.

Truckee has had a dome for a couple years, but on private property. However, schoolchildren are there regularly. The South Shore contingency made another trip to Truckee this month to get more insight. Truckee’s dome at 36-square-feet is twice as big as one of Sierra House’s domes.

While the dome will be on district property, taxpayer money is not going into this. So far the group has raised $85,330 of the estimated $120,000 that is believed to be needed.

Part of that money is from a grant Gardens 4 A Healthy Tahoe secured through the General Mills Foundation. The $20,000 awarded locally is going toward the domes and the South Lake Tahoe Family Resource Center’s garden.

Once these domes are erected, the organizers would like to find a way for domes to be the norm throughout Lake Tahoe Unified. If this happens, then there is the possibility through AmeriCorps to have someone full time overseeing the domes.

Nutrition has been a growing quest of parents. They have been working with Kathy Martinez, the district’s nutrition coordinator, to create parent-led nutrition classes. Bryson said they’ve found kids who’ve never eaten celery before or didn’t know bell peppers could be orange. They also find that students will taste unusual produce in a classroom, but toss the same thing in the garbage in the cafeteria.

That is one way the dome may help – making different food fun, not scary and gross.

But not all of the food being wasted at the schools is ending up at a landfill. Sierra House began a composting program about 1½ years ago, Bijou and the magnet school started last fall, and Tahoe Valley will have one next school year.

At Bijou, the garbage had to be picked up every three business days. With composting, the garbage truck now comes about every 10 days. For health code reasons, compost is picked up weekly.

—-

Notes:

• For more info about the dome project, email TahoeDomes@gmail.com.

• To donate to the cause, go online or write a check to LTUSD: SHGD and drop it off at the school or district office.

To the community,

Voting is the opportunity for government to be brought into alignment with the wishes of its citizens. Voting is that precious American right to elect candidates to public office who will govern and shape the future of the community.

The local election results tell us that our California chamber is on the right path. Our high energy and experienced voluntary board of directors have our ears to the ground and a sense of what the people of our community are thinking. The voters want a voice and appear to be listening to our message.

As California’s chamber of commerce, we will continue and redouble our efforts to create community where there is opportunity and prosperity for all and where government officials respects the voice of its residents and protects the rights of property owners and existing business owners and operators. We want to work with like-minded individuals and organizations to achieve these goals.

Finally, I want to thank Peggy Bourland and the Keep Tahoe Tahoe group for their extraordinary effort to qualify a measure for the ballot on public parking. They exercised their rights and the people have spoken. I also want to thank the City Council for agreeing to place the matter on the ballot. It is now time city government officials and the community to engage in a truly collaborative process and devise an acceptable parking management program that has broad community support.

George Alm, president South Tahoe Chamber of Commerce

By Scott Sonner, AP

RENO — Former Nevada developer and political power broker Harvey Whittemore has been ordered to begin serving a two-year prison sentence for making illegal campaign contributions to Sen. Harry Reid after a judge decided the ex-lobbyist’s conviction is unlikely to be overturned on appeal.

U.S. District Judge Larry Hicks granted prosecutors’ request in Reno on Thursday to order Whittemore to turn himself in Aug. 6 to a federal a prison in Herlong, Calif., about 60 miles north of Reno.

Whittemore was convicted a year ago of violating campaign-spending laws by using family and employees of his billion-dollar real estate company to funnel more than $130,000 to the Senate majority leader’s re-election committee in 2007.

Hicks agreed to delay the start of his sentence originally set to begin Jan. 31 because the U.S. Supreme Court was considering a case with some of the same First Amendment claims Whittemore argues in his appeal to the 9th Circuit. But the judge says the high court’s ruling in April undermines Whittemore’s case.

By Stacey Plaisance, AP

BATON ROUGE, La. — Miss Nevada Nia Sanchez, a fourth-degree black belt in the Korean martial art of taekwondo, was crowned Miss USA 2014 on Sunday night.

She beat out 50 other contestants from all the states and the District of Columbia for the title of 63rd Miss USA. First runner-up was Miss North Dakota Audra Mari. Erin Brady, of South Glastonbury, Connecticut, the 2013 winner, gave up her crown to Sanchez after a three-hour telecast from the Baton Rouge Civic Center in Louisiana.

Miss Nevada Nia Sanchez is crowned Miss USA on June 8. Photo/Jonathan Bachman/AP

Other runner-ups, judged on interviews, evening gowns and swimsuits were: home state beauty queen, Miss Louisiana Brittany Guidry; Miss Georgia Tiana Griggs, Miss Florida Brittany Oldehoff and Miss Iowa Carlyn Bradarich.

Bradarich got a second chance when the viewing audience gave her the most votes on Twitter in the pageant’s first-ever “Save the Queen” option.

Sanchez will go on to represent the U.S. at the Miss Universe competition later this year.

In a vibrant red floor-length fishtail gown, Miss Nevada talked about the importance of women being able to defend themselves when asked a question about the high rate of sexual assaults on college campuses. Judge Rumer Willis, the 25-year-old daughter of Bruce Willis and Demi Moore, said 19 percent of U.S. undergraduate women are victims of sexual assault and asked Sanchez why she thinks this is being swept under the rug and what should be done about it.

Sanchez said bringing awareness to the issue was important, as well as women taking it upon themselves to learn how to defend themselves.

The subject of sexual assault was also on the mind of Miss Pennsylvania Valerie Gatto. She made headlines this week when she said she was the product of rape. During a taped segment that aired when her name was called, Gatto said her mother was 19 when she was attacked leaving work in Pittsburgh and became pregnant.

Gatto said she is living proof “that your circumstances do not define your life.”

First runner-up Mari said she overcame being bullied in high school by competing in ice hockey. The Fargo, N.D., native wore a green floor-length evening gown and in her final interview talked about the importance of getting an education and going to college.