Tahoe Silicon Mountain in Truckee next week will host Dick Schulze; his talk is titled Fame, Fortune, and Exploitation: The Fascinating History of Patents and Patent Trolls.

Schulze, with Holland & Hart’s Intellectual Property Group, has experience in all aspects of high-tech patenting. He was a supervising attorney for 20 years in the corporate legal departments of Hewlett-Packard and its successor Agilent Technologies.

For at least as long as there has been a Patent Office, there have been inventors who seek to exploit their patents to maximum advantage. This talk will examine the history of how patents have shaped modern technology — and brought fame and fortune to their owners — and how people can apply these lessons to new ventures in the future.

The March 13 talk from 6-8pm is free. Pizza and salad will be available for $5.

·      Douglas County is updating the strategic plan to guide the county through fiscal years 2018-22 and is seeking public feedback on the draft that is scheduled to be presented at the March 16 board meeting. Go online to provide input.

·      On March 16, Tahoe Expedition Academy will host a free presentation in Tahoe Vista by Judy Klein, assistant professor of emergency medicine at UCSF-ZSFG. She will talk about the importance of connection with nature and risky play in the outdoors. The free talk is from 6:30-8:30pm at 7000 Latone Road, Tahoe Vista.

·      El Dorado County Supervisor John Hidahl has scheduled a community meeting in El Dorado Hills to describe the mission of the El Dorado Hills Community Council, and the realignment of the organizational leadership structure and teams to align with the El Dorado County Strategic Plan. It will be March 13 from 7-9pm at EDHCSD Norm Rowett Pavilion, 1021 Harvard Way, El Dorado Hills.

·      Ladies’ Morning Out, formerly Mom’s Morning Out, is a day of pampering, fitness and wellness with Barton Health. It is free for all ages. Yoga class starts at 8am April 29, other complimentary activities start at 9am and include coffee and brunch, wellness booths put together by local businesses, health presentations, and a Zen room with complimentary pampering and massage services. No registration required.

·      El Dorado County CASA training begins April 18 from 1-4pm at the courthouse in South Lake Tahoe. For more info, email shanna@casaeldorado.org

The South Lake Tahoe Democrats will meet monthly at Lake Tahoe Golf Course in Meyers beginning March 16 from 6-8pm. The meetings will be the third Thursday of each month. Democrats and progressives are encouraged to attend. 

Items on the March 16 agenda include: 

• Reports from subcommittees on local immigration issues, health care, candidate recruitment and more
• Discussion of collaborative efforts with indivisible groups in El Dorado County and congressional District 4, the Solidarity Network, Climate Coalition, Sierra Club and city of South Lake Tahoe as well as county and state organizations
• Next actions.

The purpose of the club is to advance the views of the Democratic Party on a local level, promote democratic candidates at all levels of government, to collaborate with other organizations in the Lake Tahoe Basin to promote the social and environmental sustainability of the community, to engage in community service and to be inclusive of all who share their values.

The South Lake Tahoe Democrats can be found on Facebook.

The U.S. Forest Service Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit is accepting public comment for the Off-Highway Vehicle Cooperative Funds grant application submitted to the state.

The OHMVR grants would provide for OHV safety and education information, resource and use monitoring, and site and trail maintenance in the Lake Tahoe Basin.

The 30-day grant application comment period ends April 3. 

For more information about the grant and how to comment, go online.

South Lake Tahoe resident Kerry Gross is embarking on a project to tell the stories of courageous women.

Women Who Dare is a cross-country interview project. Gross is looking for recommendations of inspirational women for inclusion in a forthcoming podcast. Suggestions will be accepted until March 31.

Gross will plan a route across to reaching as many women as possible. Throughout the summer, she will follow this route on her bicycle, interviewing inspirational women and sharing updates on her blog and Instagram.

For more information and to suggest a woman for the project, go online.

·      Time to load up on Thin Mints and other Girl Scout cookies. Booths sales run until April 2. Girls will be at Safeway and Grocery Outlet in South Lake Tahoe on Fridays from 4-6pm and Saturdays and Sundays from 10am-4pm. Each box is $5, with about $4 of that money going to support local, life-changing programming for girls. 

·      Barton Palliative Care is now at 1067 Fourth St. in South Lake Tahoe

·      The 4th annual Wildfire Safety Expo will be June 17 from noon to 3pm at the TJ Maxx parking lot in South Lake Tahoe.

·      The second Truckee Town Council Community Workshop Cannabis Dialogue is March 9 from 6-8pm at the airport.

·      Here is the El Dorado-Tahoe roadwork schedule for the week from Caltrans.

·      Barton Health is offering discounts to patients needing a CT scan. The discount is 40 percent for insured patients and 75 percent for self-pay patients if paid in full at or before the time of service. These discounts are also applicable to CTAs, MRIs, MRAs, and any contrast materials used during these procedures.

·      Genoa Cowboy Festival is April 28-30.

·      The Truckee Public Arts Commission has partnered with the Nevada County Arts Council to present Image Nation. A free opening reception will be on March 10 from 5-7pm at the Truckee Community Recreation Center.

·      Help complete a giant 3,000-piece puzzle at Zephyr Cove Library. A puzzle table will be set up in the library on March 11 from 9am-5pm.

·      Sandra Taylor has joined Barton General Surgery. She is a general and trauma surgeon.

Roland Knapp will talk about how 90 percent of the mountain yellow-legged frogs have been disappearing, the ambitious and promising effort under way to recover these frogs, and how this approach may be applied to conserving other threatened amphibians globally. 

Knapp works for the UC Santa Barbara Marine Science Institute based in Mammoth.

The April 6 lecture starts at 6pm at Sierra Nevada College in Incline Village.

Cost is $5.

On  March 15, Live Violence Free will host the Helping Hands volunteer fair at Lake Tahoe Community College.

Service organizations and nonprofits in need of volunteers will inform locals of their services and how they can get involved in what they do.

The fair is designed to connect those in the South Tahoe area with skills, time, and passion to give with organizations that most need community support.

It will be from 3-5pm in the commons area of the main building.

Nonprofits and service organization wishing to participate may register or rent a table online.

·      Magician Chipper Lowell returns to the stage at The Loft in South Lake Tahoe from March 16-28.

·      Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage Community Cares Foundation gave back to the Sacramento, Tahoe and Truckee communities in 2016 with cash donations of more than $50,000, while agents and offices provided additional estimated contributions of materials, supplies and labor for a total donation of more than $100,000.

·      The Douglas County Public Library is participating in the In-N-Out Burger Cover to Cover Reading Program from March 4-April 15. Children ages 4-12 are eligible to earn a certificate for a free cheeseburger or hamburger for every five books they read. Each child may earn up to three certificates. Sign up for the program at the Minden or Zephyr Cove libraries.

·      Jacks Valley Road in Douglas County has a temporary speed limit of 30 mph. It is scheduled to be fully reconstructed in late spring between Genoa Lane and the Upper James Canyon Loop.

·      Rock Tahoe Half Marathon is June 17. It sells out every year. More info online.