·       Kiwanis Club of Lake Tahoe’s annual Crab feed is Jan. 29 at 6pm at Harrah’s Lake Tahoe. For tickets, call 530. 541.5900.

·      Homegrown Cali Style Reggae Party featuring Mystic Roots from Chico, Thrive from Santa Cruz and Taking Root from South Lake Tahoe is Jan. 30 at 9pm Whiskey Dicks Saloon in South Lake Tahoe. Must be 21 or older. Tickets are $10 in advance at The Spot and Whiskey Dicks or online, or $15 day of show.

·       Here is the Caltrans roadwork schedule for the Sierra for this week.

·       Douglas County School District is asking people to take this survey regarding school calendars.

·       The last video store in South Lake Tahoe – Video Library – is closing; most likely by the end of the month. Libraries are a good option for finding a DVD.

Lake Tahoe Community College will host a free talk focusing on what science has revealed about what kind of exercise is needed to achieve and maintain optimal health.

Walter Morris’ talk Exercise: A Potent Medicine? will be on Jan. 27 at 6pm in the board room at the college.

Morris will explore the evidence from recent studies showing how exercise can be just as effective as many prescription drugs in treating some of the leading causes of illness and death in the United States.

As a full-time faculty member at LTCC since 1999, Morris has taught exercise physiology, sports nutrition, exercise program design, plyometrics, basketball, and other classes.

El Dorado County Teen Court in South Lake Tahoe is recruiting student participants for the spring program.

There will be a volunteer training on Jan. 21 for interested students in grades 8-12. It will be from 5-6:30pm at the El Dorado County Superior Court, Department 4, located at 1354 Johnson Blvd. in South Lake Tahoe.

After completing the mandatory training, teens serve as court personnel for real cases in which a minor has committed an offense, admitted the offense and chosen to be judged for sentencing by their peers. Superior Court judges and senior attorneys preside over teen court. Community attorneys donate their time to help students develop their cases.

Students should arrive at the courthouse no later than 4:45pm. Pre-registration for the training is not required. Courtroom attire is required. Teen court hearings will be held February through May on scheduled Thursday nights. A calendar of hearing dates will be given at the training.

For more information, call 530.573.7964.

The Tahoe Rim Trail Association is putting on a presentation about how to recreate in a snowy backcountry.

Guest speaker and TRTA guide Jordan Summers will inform trail users with helpful tips about what gear to carry, how to navigate and what safety precautions you need to take before heading out.

The free talk will be Feb. 24 from 6:30-8:30pm at Granlibakken in Tahoe City.

Space is limited. To register, go online.

The Camp Rich dining room in 2015. Photo/Bill Kingman.

Historically, the ground floor of this landmark building was the large Camp Richardson Dining Room for the summertime guests of the resort.

The Camp Rich dining room in the 1930s. Photo/Lake Tahoe Historical Society

Dinner was served from a fresh menu typed daily. Or, a fisherman could leave his catch at the kitchen to be enjoyed that evening as prepared by staff and served to his table. Notice the wood-burning stove pipe at left, and the fireplace on the far wall.

Camp Rich dining room in 2015. Photo/Bill Kingman

After the neighboring general store building collapsed under snow load in 1985, most of the historic dining room became the new general store while retaining the fireplace end of the building and a few tables. Summertime adds several more tables, just outdoors on the lawn.

— Bill Kingman

UC Berkeley Professor Ian Haney-Lopez will give a talk Feb. 8 at Lake Tahoe Community College titled Trumpeting Racism: Race, Politics, and Economic Jeopardy for All.

The free event will be in the Duke Theatre starting at 6:30pm.

Haney-Lopez will also be signing his book and answering questions.

Haney-Lopez is one of the nation’s leading thinkers on the evolution and economic consequences of racism.

Carl Rubino, the Winslow professor of Classics at Hamilton College in Clinton, N.Y., will discuss the ancient mythological roots of the perennial Star Wars films in this free lecture on Feb. 6 at 7pm at Sierra Nevada College.

Rubino’s teaching and research interests include ancient Greek and Roman literature, comparative literature and literary theory. In 2011 he published the article, Long Ago, But Not So Far Away: Another Look at Star Wars and the Ancient World, and discussed the films’ roots in mythology in Star Wars: The Legacy Revealed a Lucasfilm documentary that has aired on the History Channel.

A long-time collaborator with the Nobel laureate physicist Ilya Priogine, Rubino is known for his work on the connections between science and the humanities, with a focus on complexity theory, the problem of time, and the impact of the theory of evolution on ethics. He has been president of the Classical Association of the Atlantic States, and has a doctorate from the University at Buffalo.

·       Here is a video of Caltrans blowing up the boulder that blocked Highway 50 earlier this week.

·       A whimsical float called Sweet Shenanigans won the Lathrop K. Leishman Trophy for the most beautiful non-commercial entry at the 127 Tournament of Roses Parade on New Year’s Day. It was constructed by students from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo and their counterparts at California State Polytechnic University in Pomona. The float was designed and built by students from the two universities, including Gregory Baghdikian from South Lake Tahoe, a computer engineering major at Cal Poly.

·       Late Nite Productions is sponsoring a free show with an evening of live electronica from San Francisco featuring NVO. It will be Jan. 23 at Whiskey Dicks Saloon in South Lake Tahoe for those 21 and older. Doors open at 9pm.

·      The El Dorado County Senior Nutrition Program in South Lake Tahoe needs drivers to help deliver lunchtime meals to homebound seniors and other vulnerable people. Call 530.621.6160 for info.

·       The U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association canceled the Audi FIS Skicross and FIS Snowboardcross World Cup at Squaw Valley in March because of the overall cost of event production.

·       The Beacon’s first snowshoe cocktail race of the season is Jan. 16 at 7pm. Signups are from 5-7pm at the Camp Rich restaurant. For more info, call 530.541.0630.

·       Eli Ilano, former deputy forest supervisor of Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit, who left for the same job at the Tahoe National Forest in Tahoe City has been named acting forest supervisor for TNF.

·       Passaretti’s restaurant in South Lake Tahoe is changing hands. Longtime locals Dan and Ty Passaretti are selling to Jeff Sparrow.

·       The B4UFLY app has info from the feds about flying drones. For more info, go online.

·       Visit California, the state tourism agency, is building on its investment in China this week by bringing its China-based team to tour Northern California, including stops at Lake Tahoe, Eureka, Redwood National Park and San Francisco. Chinese travelers spent $2.24 billion in California in 2014.

CalFire and California ReLeaf are sponsoring the annual statewide Arbor Week poster contest for students in 3-5.

Rules and details can be found online.

In addition, this year the organizations are also having a new video contest for students in grades 6-8.

For each contest, students are asked to create original artwork or video based on the theme Trees & Water: Sources of Life. Submissions are due Feb. 12. Winners will be featured at the State Fair, displayed on the California ReLeaf/CalFire websites, and awarded cash prizes.

The goals of Arbor Week include educating Californians about trees, encouraging tree planting, teaching elementary school children the environmental, social, and economic benefits of trees, and protecting the state’s valuable natural resources.