By Kathryn Reed

MEMPHIS — Get to the back of the bus. I thought the man was kidding, but he kept repeating this mantra. No one had ever told me to do this before. I was not about to budge.

I was getting mad. Mad that someone whose skin color was the same as mine could even think of saying such a thing. Mad at the stupidity of it all, mad that it had ever come to this, mad that everyone is not created equal in the minds of some people.

I looked to my right. The woman next to me was not about to get up and move either, though she had done so countless times before.

Across the aisle was a stone casting of Rosa Parks, the legendary Civil Rights pioneer who helped abolish segregation with her refusal to go to the back of the bus. The bus I had boarded is just one of the many exhibits at the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis that brings to life the plight of blacks in the United States.

It was eerie to walk up to the Lorraine Motel. For a moment I felt like it was 1968. A couple of cars from that time are parked out front, just under the balcony where Martin Luther King Jr. was murdered. A wreath of flowers adorns the door of the room where he had been staying.

He was in town for a demonstration for striking sanitation workers. James Earl Ray made sure Memphis was King’s last stop on a promising trip through the South to awaken America to the injustice of segregation. His legacy of changing society through peaceful marches and words of enlightenment lives, but so does the prejudice he fought to abolish.

Having the Civil Rights Museum, which opened in 1991, incorporated into the infamous hotel adds a dimension of realism. For those of us who were too young to remember that fateful day and have only read about it, the site gives you a stark dose of reality.

It was time to go inside. To explore the 10,000 square feet of permanent exhibits that begin with black Africans being brought to the United States in barbaric conditions to be sold into slavery.

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Note: Since this was written the museum was renovated in 2014.

Van Halen

Van Halen is a nice 5-year-old boy who is good with other animals. He’s a cute little mutt. We think he’s possibly a Dachshund-Yorkie-Chihuahua mix.

He’s one of many dogs who have come to Tahoe from Contra Costa County to find new homes.

Van Halen is neutered, microchipped, tested for heart worm, and vaccinated. He 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 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.

By Susmita Baral, NPR

Bingeing has become many people’s favorite way to consume television. But marathon-viewing doesn’t just change how we watch, it also affects how we eat.

While the culture of the Netflix all-nighter is relatively recent, researchers have been studying the links between TV viewing and mindless eating for years. And the news isn’t good for our waistlines.

“There’s convincing evidence in adults that the more television they watch, the more likely they are to gain weight or become overweight or obese,” says Lilian Cheung, director of health promotion and communication at Harvard School of Public Health and author of Savor: Mindful Eating, Mindful Life.

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Tahoe Symphony Orchestra and Chorus continues its 11th annual WinterFest with Elizabeth Pitcairn in Concert, performing with the legendary Red Mendelssohn Stradivarius violin.

The program opens with Felix Mendelssohn’s symphonic choral masterpiece Elijah (Part 2), featuring vocal soloists Anna Helwing, Joy Strotz, and Becky Earl, sopranos; Liudmila Mullin, mezzo soprano; Brad Perry and Sherman Modeste, tenor; and Stuart Duke, Chris Nelson and Chris Langton, baritones. Finalizing the concert will be Elizabeth Pitcairn, guest violinist, performing Brahms’ Violin Concerto in D major. Jeffrey Lindhorst is Tahoe Symphony concertmaster. Maestro James Rawie will conduct all performances.

The performances are Jan. 29 at 7pm at St. Theresa Church in South Lake Tahoe (1041 Lyons Ave.); Jan. 31 at 3pm at St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church in South Reno (100 Bishop Manogue Drive); Feb. 3 at 7pm at Corpus Christi Catholic Church in Carson City, (3597 Sunridge Drive), and Feb. 5 at 7pm at Cornerstone Church in Incline Village, (300 Country Club Drive).

Two special soiree musicale fundraisers will take place at private locations. The first will be at the Supper Club at Genoa Lakes Golf Course on Jan. 30 at 3pm and the second at a home on Lakeshore Boulevard in Incline Village on Feb. 6 at 3pm. Tickets are $125 per person. Pitcairn will perform, as well as Strotz and Helwing, Mullin, and Perry, accompanied by Donna Axton on piano. For more details or to reserve tickets call 787.602.2121.

Concert tickets are available at the door or online. Preferred seating is $40 and $15 for youth/students. General admission to all concerts is $30 for all adults, $25 for seniors, and $5 for students 19-23.

By Associated Press

Cancer is becoming the No. 1 killer in more and more states as deaths from heart disease have declined, new health statistics show.

Nationwide, heart disease is still the leading cause of death, just ahead of cancer. While death rates for both have been falling for nearly 25 years, heart disease has dropped at a steeper rate.

As a result, cancer moved up to the top slot in 22 states in 2014, according to the latest government figures.

It’s also the leading cause of death in certain groups of people, including Latinos, Asians, and adults 40 to 79.

The trend is noted in the American Cancer Society’s latest annual report.

The cancer death rate has fallen 23 percent since its peak in 1991. The decrease is attributed to declining smoking rates and advances in cancer detection, treatment and prevention.

The heart disease death rate fell 46 percent in that time.

The cancer society predicts there will be nearly 1.7 million new cancer cases this year, and nearly 600,000 deaths.

Government figures for 2014 show cancer was the leading cause of death in Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Delaware, Idaho, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia and Wisconsin.

Author Bill Morgan will share his newest book “Morgan’s Tahoe” on Jan. 23 at 1pm at the South Lake Tahoe Library.

This book is a memoir of his time with the U.S. Forest Service at Lake Tahoe and, later, of his experiences as executive director of the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency during one of the most tumultuous times in that Agency’s existence.

It has been said that Morgan’s ideas resolved many of the long standing issues at Tahoe and led eventually to a spirit of cooperation among the various interest groups that survives to this day.

His book also has tales of arson, plane crashes, a fatal ski lift accident, a trans-Sierra highway and other stories.

The talk is free. The library is at 1000 Rufus Allen Blvd.

The Squaw Valley Prom is a notoriously high-energy event attracting 1,100 partygoers grooving to the sounds of San Diego-based electro hip hop soul collective Vokab Kompany.

The event will take place at Squaw Valley’s Olympic House on Feb. 20 at 8pm. The 12th annual prom is themed a luau, with guests hula-ing their way through the night.

Tickets for the premier High Fives Foundation event of the season are $100 per couple and $200 stag. Ticket are available online.

This year’s prom will feature world-class musical performers, a bigtruck headwear “Sew-on-Site” store, Elevated Image photo booth, video and entertainment from GoPro as well as drink specials.

Vokab Kompany is the high energy linguistic duo of Rob Hurt and Burke Baby. The two MC’s are accompanied by a four-piece band to bring sounds of funk and rap layered with creative electro-beats to the Squaw Valley “O” House. DJ Silver Boombox Thief, Mary Poppin’ and DJ Carlo will all be spinning tracks accompanying the “Hula” theme.

“This year marks 12 consecutive years of throwing the best party in Squaw Valley,” said CHARITYSMITH and Squaw Valley Prom Founder, Brooks Rohlen. “We look forward to seeing everyone shining bright and having the time of their lives with the ‘Lu’au’ theme.”

By Jenny Kane, Reno Gazette-Journal

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Jan Aphelin paid her way through college by working as a “camera girl” snapping commissioned photos of the high rolling gamblers and highfalutin clients of Reno’s swankiest casinos and clubs.

“All Nighter” is one of Jan Aphelin’s photographs being exhibited at the Nevada Historical Society. Photo/Courtesy of the Nevada Historical Society

She photographed the elite – some of them celebrities, including actress Debbie Reynolds and singer Tom Jones – gambling, drinking and hobnobbing. She earned a commission from her employer, a Las Vegas-based photography company, and charged the subjects $200 to $300 for a package of mostly posed glamour shots that took an hour to process and were delivered in a velvet folder.

But at the end of her shifts, she did not put away her cameras.

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Learn Something New Every Day at the Douglas County Public Library will increase people’s knowledge of myriad things.

Every day the library will share a bit of interesting information mined from one of the many books and other materials in the library’s collection such as the first recorded to climb on a snowcapped peak was by a Japanese monk who climbed Mt. Fuji in 633.

Check the library’s posts on Facebook and Twitter to learn something new each day. Watch the digital screen at the library for the Learn Something New Every Day post while checking out books.

The Douglas County Public Library is located at 1625 Library Lane in Minden and 233 Warrior Way in Zephyr Cove.

By Ashley Whillans, Washington Post

Every day, we are confronted with choices about how to spend our money. Whether it’s thinking about picking up the tab at a group lunch or when a charity calls asking for a donation, we are faced with the decision to behave generously or not.

Research suggests that spending money on others can improve happiness, but can it also improve your physical health?

There is some evidence that donating time can improve physical health, but no one had looked at whether donating money has the same effect. So my colleagues and I at the University of British Columbia conducted an experiment to find out if spending money on others could lower blood pressure.

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