By Huffington Post

Angel Pagan has become a fan favorite in San Francisco. But with one clean swipe of second base, he may have won over America. At the very least, those in the country who love Taco Bell are now among his fans.

In eighth inning of the Giants’ 2-0 win in Game 2 of the World Series, Pagan got a great jump on Detroit reliever Drew Smyly’s first pitch to Pablo Sandoval. Catcher Gerald Laird fired a strike to second baseman Omar Infante but Pagan slid in ahead of the tag. By stealing second, he not only got himself into scoring postion but he triggered a World Series promotion by the fast food chain.

The “Steal A Base, Steal A Taco” promotion promised that we’d all be treated to something called a Doritos Loco Taco if any player stole a base in the World Series. According to MLB.com, you just need to turn up at participating Taco Bell on Oct. 30 between 2-6pm to get your free taco.

“Actually, bring it over here. I’m hungry right now. I just found out about it. I’m pretty happy, but I was just trying to play the game hard,” Pagan said after the game, via Big League Stew. “Trying to create a situation for us to score and then, after the game, they told me about it.”

First a three-homer game. Then free tacos for everyone. What’s going to happen in Game 3?

Three stores in Truckee were caught selling tobacco products to people younger than 18.

The Truckee Police Department in conjunction with the Nevada County Tobacco Use Prevention Project conducted an under-age tobacco purchase operation in Truckee on 17 locations.

Citations were issued to the responsible clerks in each of the three stores that sold tobacco products to the juveniles. The three store locations included the Union 76 gas station at 10041 Donner Pass Road, the 7-Eleven store at 11400 Donner Pass Road, and Z Marketplace at 12716 Northwoods Blvd.

The two agencies had conducted a non-enforcement under-age tobacco purchase operation in July. In the July operation, no enforcement action was taken and each store location was sent a letter advising of their compliance after the operation. The purpose of the July operation was that of a survey to determine the level of compliance of local merchants in verifying the age of the purchaser before selling tobacco products.

People under the age of 18 years are not allowed to purchase tobacco products in California. When the age of the purchaser is in question merchants should check identification.

Police officers will conduct periodic future tobacco operations and take enforcement action as appropriate.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report

Lake Tahoe South Shore Chamber of Commerce is partnering with Constant Contact to present a workshop Nov. 8 on the benefits of social media marketing and email marketing.

Attendees will be given real-world advice and knowledge that can be put to work immediately.

The morning is broken into three components, which may be attended separately. From 8-9am, breakfast at the Lake Tahoe Community College Creekside Café. From 9-10:30am, Social Media Marketing Made Simple will cover the strategies and best practices needed to get the most out of your social media activities, including managing your time, measuring the return on your activities, and growing your business using the essential elements of the power of social media marketing. From 10:30am-noon, Grow Your Business with Email Marketing will help build the relationships that are the key to your business success with easy, inexpensive and highly effective email marketing.

The workshop will be presented by Karen Rice, Constant Contact’s regional development director for Northern California.

The workshop cost is $10 for chamber members or $20 for non-members. The workshop and breakfast are at Lake Tahoe Community College in the Creekside Café.

For more information or to register, call (775) 588.1728.

By Mandy Kendall

Over the past few years going gluten free has been touted as being the best way to boost energy, improve your immune system, lose weight and help many issues ranging from ADHD to chronic headaches. However, before its mainstream popularity, a gluten free diet had long been used as a proven treatment for celiac disease, and more recently for those suffering from the less easily diagnosed gluten sensitivity.

The exact cause of celiac disease is unknown and can develop at any time from infancy to late adulthood. Symptoms vary from person to person, making the disease difficult to diagnose. When sufferers of the disease eat or come into contact with a protein called gluten (found in many foods) their immune system attacks the lining of the intestines. This causes damage to the tissues of the digestive tract and affects the body’s ability to absorb nutrients, and can often lead to malnutrition.

Mandy Kendall

Reports suggest that about 1 percent of the population has celiac disease; however an estimated 10 percent could be suffering from gluten sensitivity.

A study published by the BMC Medicine described gluten sensitivity as a separate condition from Celiac disease, partly because the intestine does not appear damaged and symptoms may not be as severe. However, diagnosing celiac disease is not easy and many people suffer for many years before their condition is recognized, by which time permanent damage has occurred to the body as a result of long-term malnutrition.

Long-term issues as a result of malnourishment from a condition like celiac disease can include: depression or anxiety, fatigue, growth delay in children, itchy skin, mouth ulcers, muscle cramps and joint pain, tingling or numbness in the hands or feet. Children especially can experience defects in the tooth enamel and changes in tooth color, delayed puberty, diarrhea, constipation, fatty or foul-smelling stools, nausea, or vomiting, irritable and fussy behavior or slowed growth and shorter than normal height for their age.

So how do you know if you have celiac disease?

Symptoms can be wide and varied but most commonly include the following: abdominal pain; bloating; gas, or indigestion; constipation; diarrhea, either constant or off and on; lactose intolerance (common when the person is diagnosed, usually goes away after treatment); fatty or foul-smelling stools; and nausea, or vomiting.

Specific blood tests can detect several special antibodies to confirm celiac disease. It is generally advised not to start a gluten free diet before having the tests as this may provide false or misleading results.

Although celiac disease cannot be cured, once diagnosed, many sufferers notice significant, if not total, alleviation of all symptoms by following a gluten free diet. Even those diagnosed as not having celiac disease, but suffering similar symptoms, may still from following a gluten free diet.

However, caution is advised as a gluten free diet can cause deficiencies in iron, vitamin B12, vitamin D, magnesium, fiber, and other nutrients because breads, cereals, and grains are being avoided and these are often fortified with vitamins whereas many gluten-free products may not be. Also, many of the gluten free products can be higher in carbohydrates, fat, and sodium and lower in fiber.

Many foods contain hidden gluten. For example these foods will more than likely contain gluten and should be avoided unless they specifically state they are gluten free: beer, breads, cakes and pies, candies, cereals, cookies and crackers, French fries, imitation meat or seafood, pastas, processed lunch meats, salad dressings, sauces (including soy sauce), seasoned snack foods such as potato and tortilla chips, self-basting poultry, soups and soup bases, food additives such as malt flavoring, modified food starch and medication and vitamins that use gluten as a binding agent.

Certain grains, such as oats, can be contaminated with wheat during growing and processing stages of production. For this reason, doctors and dietitians generally recommend avoiding oats unless they are specifically labeled gluten-free.

So it is important to get advice and dietary guidance from a professional dietician regarding a gluten free diet. More information can be found online.

Until next time.

Mandy Kendall operates Health Connective in South Lake Tahoe, which aligns wellness seekers with their ideal wellness provider. If you have questions, would like some advice, or would like to request some Qwik-e tips on any health and well-being topic, drop her an email at connect@healthconnective.com or keep an eye out on Lake Tahoe News for regular Qwik-e tips on how to make healthy changes one Quick and Easy step at a time.

• There will be a Veterans Day ceremony Nov. 11 at 11am at the American Legion Hall in South Lake Tahoe.

• El Dorado County is part of an oil filter exchange program. Bring up to two used filters on Oct. 27 to O’Reilly Auto Parts at 2317 Lake Tahoe Blvd., South Lake Tahoe, and receive two for free.

• Check out this website to find the Caltrans cameras in the Tahoe area for real-time conditions.

• The Placer County Medical Clinics is offering low-cost flu shots. Shots are free for Medicare members showing Part B cards who are not enrolled in an HMO plan. Shots will be available in North Lake Tahoe on Fridays from 8-11:30am and 1-3:30pm at the Placer County Medical Clinic in Kings Beach, 8665 Salmon Ave. For more info, call (530) 546.1970.

• Going trick or treating in South Lake Tahoe this Halloween? If yes, then you might want to stop by this house:

By William Keenan and Robert Block, Huffington Post

Few pediatricians in the U.S. are old enough to have experienced the fear of the polio epidemics of the 1940s and 1950s. Without the ability to protect our children, society was defenseless in the face of this terrifying disease. Today, thanks to groundbreaking scientific discoveries, we’ve broken away from the grip of polio. Armed with effective vaccines, pediatricians, partner organizations and front-line workers around the globe have eliminated 99 percent of all new polio cases.

Last month, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon convened a group of global leaders, including Bill Gates and heads of state of polio-affected countries to renew the commitment to eliminate polio. This show of solidarity reminds us that the fight is not finished. In several parts of the world, the devastating effects of polio continue to be a reality for children, families and doctors. We can’t afford to lose sight of this remaining 1 percent of polio cases. With only three countries where transmission has never been stopped — Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nigeria — polio is facing defeat. There are fewer cases in fewer districts of fewer countries than at any previous time. This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to change history, and we must act now.

The International Pediatric Association, and our national members, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, work on a range of priorities that affect child survival in developing countries, including HIV/AIDS, malaria, pneumonia, and diarrhea. While polio no longer affects as many children as it used to, we have not forgotten the urgent need to eliminate this disease while we have the chance. The effort has major implications for children’s health and mortality: it’s proof positive that critical health services can safeguard children living in even the hardest-to-reach places. Pediatricians have witnessed how these efforts help bring primary care service within reach of nearly every single child on the planet — not just with polio vaccines, but with other preventive interventions such as measles, rotavirus and pneumococcal vaccines, Vitamin A supplements and bed nets.

We see the long-term successes of polio eradication efforts across the globe. In September, more than 32,000 children in Pakistan’s conflict-affected Khyber Pakhtunkhwa area received polio vaccines for the first time since 2009, and measles and pentavalent vaccines for the first time ever. In 2011, India — once considered one of the most challenging places in the world to eradicate polio — was declared polio-free. In India, the polio eradication program helped establish systems to identify and vaccinate every newborn and strengthened other preventive health services.

But these programs need funding. Tragically, funding gaps have led to cancelled and scaled-back vaccination campaigns in 24 countries, leaving children vulnerable and threatening progress. The polio virus, by its nature, is extremely difficult to contain; unless the polio eradication program is fully funded and the disease eradicated, polio will return to countries that are now polio-free.

Recognizing the benefits of success and the risks of failure, the global community has united around a Polio Global Emergency Action Plan to improve vaccination campaign quality, protect every last child and ensure accountability. We must all ensure that the solidarity demonstrated at the UN leads to the political will and financial support needed to put this plan into action. At this crucial juncture, leaders at home and elsewhere must invest in the long-term resources to bring about polio eradication. It can be done.

American pediatricians and families are fortunate to have made polio history in our country. Let’s remind our leaders that we must do what we can so that our colleagues around the world will never again have to treat a child with polio.

William Keenan and Robert Block are medical doctors.

By Kathryn Reed

While the Tahoe Keys subdivision will remain as is, the sensitive wetlands surrounding it could expand, sand dunes may return, the sailing lagoon that abuts the Cove East walking trail may be filled in and that trail rerouted, and the mouth of the Upper Truckee altered.

These are some of the proposals in the draft environmental documents that will be released by the end of the year for the Upper Truckee Marsh.

Four alternatives are being studied. The California Tahoe Conservancy owns this swath of land that borders the Tahoe Keys and Al Tahoe neighborhoods in South Lake Tahoe and goes from Highway 50 to Lake Tahoe. No preferred alternative has been selected, so all four will receive equal analysis.

It's possible this lagoon at the Tahoe Keys will be filled in. Photo/LTN file

“The purpose of the project is restoration, but we know it is well accessed so we had to do some level of public access,” explained Scott Carroll, project manager. “We just put different features in different alternatives so we could evaluate the impacts – from water quality to impacts on biological resources to parking – the array. In the end, when we develop a preferred alternative, what we do to the site will be guided by what access works in that type of setting.”

One option includes building a platform that would allow cyclists and walkers to get from one side of the meadow to the other. Other things being considered to make the area more people friendly include a fishing platform, signs and kiosks.

Most of the proposed changes are for the Cove East side of the marsh. It’s possible the mouth of the Upper Truckee River could be rebuilt or reduced. In the 1960s it was dredged and was the original access to the Keys.

The Conservancy acquired the 22 acres in a settlement agreement stemming from the Keys development. In 2002, a $10.5 million restoration project was completed that brought back the wetlands that run between the walking path at the end of Venice Drive and the river.

Three of the alternatives would fill in the sailing lagoon, which is to the left of the trail when walking toward the lake. Then the trail would head in that direction where boats come into the marina instead of along the river.

Restoring the Upper Truckee River is a large component of this project.

“We want to restore the historic and natural hydrology of the system as much as we can within the constraints we have,” Carroll told Lake Tahoe News. “(The) express purpose (is) enhancing the ecosystem of the area – from habitat for aquatic species and terrestrial, and species utilizing the riparian zone. We are trying to create a sustainable linked system.”

The other goal is improving the water quality that enters Lake Tahoe.

Three individuals own some of the land where the Conservancy would like to do work – Marjorie Springmeyer, Knox Johnson and Royce Dunlap. All have been approached, but no agreements are in place.

For the most part, little is proposed for Trout Creek, which runs through what was known as the Barton Meadow. Those 311 acres were purchased about 11 years ago for $10 million and is now referred to as the Upper Truckee Marsh. It is considered one of the most sensitive areas in the basin.

The bank of the creek near the highway is proposed to be fortified in each of the alternatives.

What this project will cost is unknown. And when it would begin is also undetermined. CTC employees expect a number of comments will be received during the 60-day comment period. The plan is for the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency’s Advisory Planning Commission and Governing Board to discuss the project in January. The final environmental impact report and environmental impact statement could take a year to prepare.

When the project begins, it’s possible it will be done in multiple phases depending on funding sources.

It has been a busy week for the El Dorado County Sheriff’s search and rescuer. Numerous backcountry visitors were caught off guard by the early season storm.

Approximately sixty 60 SAR volunteers, along with four deputies responded to 11 deployments between Oct. 19 and Oct. 24. Nine were in El Dorado County and two in Alpine County.

Events started Oct. 19 with the report of a sick hiker at the Lake of the Woods in Desolation Valley. A 17-year-old girl from Los Osos had been hiking in the Desolation Wilderness area with her 18-year-old girl friend when she acquired altitude sickness. SAR volunteers responded to the area and spent eight hours carrying the teenage girl out to safety.

On Oct. 20, SAR volunteers in South Lake Tahoe responded to an injured mountain biker in the Freel Peak area. The Berkeley man sustained a head injury and had to be carried out by SAR and Lake Valley fire personnel. He was transported to Barton Memorial Hospital. His present condition is unknown.

At approximately the same time SAR personnel responded to a report of two lost hikers on Mount Tallac. A CHP helicopter was utilized to locate the subjects and directed them back to a trail they could follow to get off the mountain. They were then able to find their way out without further assistance.

Also on Saturday, the sheriff’s Placerville office received a report that a 58-year-old hunter from Sacramento was missing as he had not returned to his camp as expected. He had been hunting in the South Fork Camp area of the Crystal Basin Recreation area. SAR was deployed along with the assistance of the U.S. Forest Service and a California Highway Patrol helicopter. After SAR personnel were deployed and initiated search efforts he found his way back to camp. He had a minor leg injury that was checked by SAR personnel, however he refused further medical treatment.

On Oct. 21, Alpine County requested mutual aid to search for a lost hunter. The missing subject was located while SAR volunteers were in route.

That night two girls, 12- and 13-years-old, were reported missing in the Wentworth Springs Campground area of Crystal Basin. While exploring near their campsite they became disoriented and did not return to camp as expected. SAR volunteers were dispatched to the area, however family members located the girls before the volunteers arrived.

Also on Sunday night, three fishermen from the Sacramento area were hiking in the Gerle Creek Reservoir area of Crystal Basin. When hiking back to their vehicle they had become separated and at about 4am on Monday two of the fishermen reported their friend missing. The temperature had dropped and it was snowing. SAR personnel responded to area and found the missing fisherman’s tracks in the snow. SAR personnel began following the tracks. The tracks were headed out of the area and eventually lead to a snow covered access road. SAR personnel continued to follow the individual eventually locating him at 8am. He was in good condition with no injuries.

While conducting the search for the missing fisherman SAR personnel were contacted by the wife of a hunter. She advised that her husband had called her and advised that he had rolled his Jeep on an unknown snow covered dirt road in the Crystal Basin area. SAR personnel began looking for the subject and located him near Granite Springs. SAR volunteers coordinated a medical response for the subject, that provided him treatment for minor injuries.

On Oct. 22, a report was received that a personal emergency response beacon had been activated for a 39-year-old Pleasant Hill man and his wife. Information was obtained that the couple were hiking in the Lake of the Woods area in the Desolation Wilderness.The activation of the emergency beacon indicated the couple were in the area of Echo Lakes. SAR personnel were dispatched to the area and located the couple in a cabin on Upper Echo Lake, where they had taken refuge from the ongoing winter storm. SAR personnel assisted the couple back to their vehicle.

Then on Oct. 23, SAR personnel responded to a mutual aid request to assist Alpine County in a search for two missing hunters. A 40-year-old Calaveras man and his 14-year-old nephew had been missing since Sunday. They were eventually found in the Bear Valley area on Tuesday. The man was alive suffering from severe hypothermia. Unfortunately, the boy had passed away.

That night, just before 10pm, deputies received a report of an overdue hiker in the Desolation Wilderness Area. The father of a 29-year-old male reported his son, and his son’s friend, had gone camping. His son (Nathan Sperring) hitchhiked to the Eagle Falls trailhead on Oct. 19. He planned to hike into Dick’s Lake, in the Desolation Wilderness. They had advised they would return to Tahoe City on Oct. 23. As of this time they have still not returned. SAR personnel have responded to the area and are currently conducting search operations. Because of the volume of SAR details the volunteers have been handling, the El Dorado County Sheriff’s Office requested mutual aid through the California Emergency Management Agency for this event. The U.S. Marine Corp Mountain Warfare Division has sent their Mountain Rescue Unit out of Mono County, to assist in the search.

U.S. Forest Service fuels management crews will conduct prescribed fire operations near Taylor Creek on Lake Tahoe’s South Shore and on Alice Lane in the Meeks Bay area of the West Shore on Oct. 26.

Each area is approximately one-quarter acre.

On Oct. 28, prescribed fire operations will take place in the Timberland area of the West Shore, weather permitting.

Residents and visitors can expect to see smoke from this prescribed fire project area. The Forest Service strives to minimize the impacts of smoke on local communities. Smoke-sensitive residents should consider staying indoors and keeping doors, windows and outside vents closed.

To directly receive prescribed fire updates, send an email to pa_ltbmu@fs.fed.us.

To the community,

Live Violence Free would like to thank the sponsors, donors, and guests of the 35th anniversary Sunset Gala who contributed to making this event a success.

The Sunset Gala is the largest fundraiser of the year for Live Violence Free, formerly the South Lake Tahoe Women’s Center, and this year the event brought in more than ever before at over $35,000.

The gracious generosity of Edgewood Tahoe, MontBleu, Harrah’s-Harveys and Lakeside Inn helped create the atmosphere for a unforgettable evening.

In addition to those aforementioned, all our other sponsors, the local businesses who donated items, and of course those who came out to enjoy the event helped make this the most successful fundraiser ever for Live Violence Free. An enormous thank you to all involved; your support will allow us to keep our services for victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, and child abuse, up and running.

Scarlet Caldwell, Live Violence Free