The Tahoe Area Sierra Club is bringing “Wrenched”, a documentary film about Edward Abbey, to South Lake Tahoe on Nov. 6.

Abbey authored 21 books in his lifetime, including “Desert Solitaire”, “The Brave Cowboy”, and “The Fool’s Progress”. His comic novels “The Monkey Wrench Gang” and “Hayduke Lives” helped inspire a whole generation of environmental activism. A writer in the mold of Twain and Thoreau, Abbey was a larger-than-life figure as big as the West itself.

Filmmaker ML Lincoln’s documentary “Wrenched” reveals how Abbey’s anarchistic spirit and riotous novels influenced and helped guide the emerging environmental movement of the 1970s and ’80s. Through interviews, archival footage, and re-enactments, Lincoln captures the outrage of Abbey’s friends, who were the original eco-warriors.

The film will be shown at Unity at the Lake, 1195 Rufus Allen Blvd., South Lake Tahoe at 7pm. Cost is $5.

By Chris Moody and Alexander Rosen, CNN

The sportsbook section at the South Point Casino was packed, the nearby bar overflowed and rowdy gamblers dressed in their team’s colors crowded the walls while they gazed up at screens broadcasting live football games. It was a Sunday—the busiest time for sports betting–and Jimmy Vaccaro, the casino’s lead odds maker, scurried around the room greeting familiar faces and checking in on employees taking bets below a massive board that displayed the live betting odds of each game.

For years, Vaccaro has watched billions of dollars pour into Nevada for sports betting. And he dreams of extending casino gambling to political elections.

The effort has had little success.

Casino gambling on elections is currently illegal throughout the country.

Read the whole story

By Al Jazeera

The U.S. consumes 80 percent of the world’s supply of painkillers, and overdoses from prescription opioid drugs kill at least 16,000 Americans every year – more than cocaine and heroin combined.

Once thought to be a problem of the young, opioid addiction is becoming more common among elderly Americans.

“I was taking exactly what the doctor prescribed, when the doctor prescribed, how the doctor prescribed,” says Larry Moore, who calls himself an “accidental addict.” He said he wasted years of his life in “a deep, deep hole” hooked on painkillers.

When asked who should have stopped it, he says it should have been the doctors. “I was just doing what the doctors told me to do.”

Read the whole story

Through the annual American Century Championship celebrity golf tournament the Lake Tahoe Visitors Authority has $55,600 to award local nonprofits.

The LTVA, in partnership with NBC Sports and American Century Investments, gave $51,500 to on-site volunteer organizations and others during the tournament week. Recipients included area high schools, Soroptimist International of South Lake Tahoe, South Lake Tahoe Booster Club, Boys & Girls Club of Lake Tahoe, and the Gene Upshaw Scholarship.

For the next round of funding groups must meet 501(c)3 guidelines, provide an outline of their mission, describe how the donation will be used, and indicate impact in the community. The application is available online and must be received by noon Oct. 26.

Recipients will be contacted by Nov. 9, with checks presented at the LTVA Board of Directors meeting Nov. 12 at 3pm.

By Molly Hucklebridge Coolidge

Sept. 11 evokes a different meaning to South Lake Tahoe resident Christine O’Farrell than it does for most people. In 2002, on the one-year anniversary of the terrorist attacks, O’Farrell was on the operating table at Barton Memorial Hospital facing a new threat: cancer.

O’Farrell had been diagnosed with an aggressive case of breast cancer. At the time, she was 42 and working at Barton’s Home Health and Hospice for quality assurance and infection prevention. Her three children were 14, 12, and 9.

“I thought I did everything right,” O’Farrell recalls. “I exercised, I ate organic food, I didn’t smoke, and I knew and avoided all the risk factors I could.”

But she had a family history of breast cancer. Her aunt and cousin had it and as an extra precaution, O’Farrell started annual mammograms at age 35.

During a routine mammogram screening in August 2002, Barton Medical Imaging staff detected something in her breast. The radiologist conducted an ultrasound the same day and that “something” became “something suspicious.”

A stereotactic breast biopsy confirmed it was breast cancer and it was growing fast. In less than a month, O’Farrell was on the operating table. As a nurse with an analytical and detailed mindset, she consulted multiple medical providers, researched her treatment options, and opted for a lumpectomy.

A lumpectomy is a less invasive surgery that only removes the cancerous tumor and the tissue surrounding it. Today, a lumpectomy is a common treatment option, but O’Farrell says 13 years ago it was considered controversial.

After her lumpectomy that Sept. 11, O’Farrell underwent eight weeks of radiation. That December, she was free and clear of cancer.

“I feel very fortunate they were able to catch it early on and take action so quickly,” O’Farrell said. “Early detection opened more options for treatment and the best possible outcomes.”

O’Farrell continues to be an advocate for breast cancer prevention and early detection. She offers the following tips to help prevent or detect breast cancer:

• All women over age 40 should complete a mammogram screening annually. If you have a family history of breast cancer, ask your doctor when to start screenings and which is right for you. The Affordable Care Act requires all insurance carriers and Medicare to cover the patient’s cost of a mammogram every 12 months.
• Women age 20 and over should conduct a self-exam of their breasts monthly and complete a clinical breast exam every year.
• Exercise regularly.
• Maintain a healthy body weight. Eat whole foods and at least five fruits and vegetables a day.
• Avoid smoking and limit alcohol intake. Smoking and heavy alcohol use greatly increase your risk of cancer.
• If you or a loved one receive a breast cancer diagnosis, be proactive. Research your options, get a second opinion, and be your own advocate.

Today, O’Farrell remains cancer free. She continues to get mammogram screenings every year, and her risk of reoccurrence is the same as never having a cancer diagnosis.

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Note: Christine O’Farrell, director of Quality Management, oversees quality assurance, patient safety, and infection prevention for Barton Health. Thanks to a $220,000 donation from the Barton Auxiliary, Barton’s Medical Imaging will be purchasing a 3-D Breast Tomosynthesis, an advanced type of mammogram. October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

Molly Hucklebridge Coolidge is communications specialist for Barton Health.

UC Davis Tahoe Environmental Research Center will host Kelly Redmond, regional climatologist for the Western United States with the Desert Research Institute, on Oct. 29.

Redmond will discuss how El Niño can influence weather in our region and present the latest model simulations and predictions for the upcoming winter at Lake Tahoe.

A strong El Niño is predicted for the upcoming winter. El Niño is a warming of the Pacific Ocean that occurs along the equator and can influence the storm track over the West. El Niño conditions do not “cause” individual storms but rather influence their frequency and characteristics.

A $5 donation is suggested. Doors open at 5:30pm, with the presentation at 6pm.

TERC is on the campus of Sierra Nevada College, 291 Country Club Drive in Incline Village.

Patagonia, well-known for its environmental activism and green stewardship, has created community engagement called the New Localism. The company conveys this new mantra most strongly through film.

On Oct. 21 in collaboration with Alpenglow Sports four environmental films will be shown on the North Shore. “The Fisherman’s Son”, “Defined by the Line”, and “Mile for Mile” will be followed by the critically-acclaimed and award-winning “Damnation”. Each film documents a different environmental fight being waged to protect a unique wild place and/or natural resource.

While the films document global issues, organizers say the goal of the evening is to galvanize and inspire the community to become more involved in environmental issues in North Lake Tahoe.

The screening will take place at 7pm at Tahoe City’s Tahoe Art Haus & Cinema. Tickets are $5 and can be purchase online.

Basecamp Hotel in South Lake Tahoe is catering to an active and younger clientele. Photos/Kathryn Reed

By Kathryn Reed

In some ways staying at Basecamp Hotel is like glamping, only every room has at least four walls. In some ways it like a hostel – because of the communal venues – but there is no need to share a room with strangers. In most ways it is redefining what casual, relaxed, fun lodging with good beer and food is all about.

The idea is that it is the base camp for fun in South Lake Tahoe for a traveler who has no intention of spending the bulk of their time in the room.

Basecamp is trying to create a community of travelers and locals. The beer garden is open to anyone of drinking age. Plenty of locals were enjoying it during the summer concerts because the sound travels easily across the street from Harveys.

“We want guests to feel like they are locals. We want that interaction,” General Manager Amber Gardner told Lake Tahoe News.

This weekend is the inaugural Oktoberfest. West Coast beers are on tap or in bottles/cans.

Rooms have few frills, but all the basic necessities.

Christian Strobel in 2012 renovated what was the boarded up, bankrupt 50-room Block Hotel near the state line in South Lake Tahoe. In summer 2014 he and his partner Neils Cotter acquired the adjacent Capri motel, making an additional 24 rooms available last December.

Slapping on a coat of paint and new furniture were not enough. The old Capri parking lot was turned into a greenbelt of sorts for people to hang out on, play games and enjoy a bite and beer. Entrances to the rooms were completely changed, in addition to being overhauled.

The beer garden was the porte-cochère for the Capri, while the kitchen used to be the on-site manager’s living room.

Three large garage type doors roll up so there is a seamless flow between the indoors and outdoors. When it’s cold, the glass still provides an airiness. Even the concrete floors add to the casual urban feel.

It’s not necessary to be a guest to enjoy the beer garden.

Adjacent to the beer garden is a playroom with ping-pong and a television. It can double as meeting space.

“Accessible and casual” is the concept of the entire venue.

Chef Nathaniel Lawrence is creating a pub type menu, with lots of bratwurst. He searched quite a while before he found the perfect pretzel bun. Wild game sausage will be rotated in.

(The hotel owners also own the restaurant at Lakeside Beach and the wedding venue there, so Lawrence was busy cooking there this summer as well.)

Creative, good food is what he was serving the day this vegetarian reporter popped in. The watermelon salad included his prized pickled onions with feta and fennel vinaigrette.

The portabella dog was something no one else in the basin is doing. On the same bun the meat eaters get, slices of portabella mushroom were interspersed with arugula, cucumber and avocado. It was divine.

“My background is fine dining. I’m trying to incorporate it,” Lawrence told Lake Tahoe News. His goal is to make as much from scratch as possible, and to buy it as local as possible.

Dessert – strawberry shortcake – comes in a mason jar. It was creative in presentation, the perfect amount, and a good balance of cubed cake with the sliced berries.

Vegetarians and meat eaters are bound to be satisfied.

This winter Basecamp intends to resume the family-style dinners on Thursdays-Fridays-Saturday – which are open to anyone. Lunch is also a possibility down the line. For guests, it means not having to go anywhere else; for locals it means another destination.

The beer garden becomes the breakfast room in the morning.

The communal feel of Basecamp is carried throughout the property, with a 16-person hot tub and fire pit that are fenced in. There is also a rooftop hot tub.

S’mores are always available to roast on one of the seven fire pits.

For those needing a place to lay their head at night there are 16 room types to choose from. The family room sleeps six; it has two full size beds with a twin bunk bed above each.

Some rooms have gas fireplaces, a few have private balconies, some come with bathtubs.

In room amenities are sparse and masculine. Lanterns are the lights. The orange-gray décor is comforting.

The Basecamp concept is expanding, with a hotel in Boulder now open and the old Aviva in Tahoe City being renovated with a summer 2016 opening. Each has a slightly different theme, with the South Lake Tahoe one being bear oriented and North Shore trout.

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Notes:

·      The inaugural Oktoberfest celebration is Oct. 10 from 2-8pm at the beer garden.

·      The hotel is located at 4143 Cedar Ave., South Lake Tahoe.

·      Phone is 530.208.0180.

·      The beer garden is open from 3-11pm.

By Kia Croom, San Francisco Chronicle 

Freelance work is on the rise, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which reports more than 15.5 million people in the United States are self-employed and working independent contractors.

The Bureau anticipates that by 2020 more than 40 percent of American workers (60 million people) will follow suit. Workers across the country are leaving and even turning down corporate jobs to become entrepreneurs.

So what exactly has these professionals shifting gears from working at corporations to working for themselves? A Harvard Business Review report from 2012 cites growing employee dissatisfaction and the removal of barriers that once made independent contracting challenging. New online marketplaces are making it easier for consultants to find work.

Additionally, contractors are finding jobs that permit them to work remotely—opening them up to a broader range of opportunities. Plus, companies are seeking contractors with competitively priced fees for services.

Read the whole story

Truckee Community Christmas is working to help community members in need during the coming holiday season.

Many generous locals will be donating their time to collect and distribute food, toys, and warm coats to help neighbors in the community. This nonprofit is expected to benefit approximately 215 families, 25 teenage moms and their babies, 60 low-income seniors and 70 homebound seniors.

Truckee Community Christmas offers a range of ways that caring community members can step up to help:

• Food collection barrels will be placed in local grocery stores (Safeway, Save Mart, and New Moon) on the Saturday after Thanksgiving for donations of non-perishable food items;
• New, unwrapped toys may be placed in collection bins at banks, real estate offices, schools, homeowners’ association clubhouses, and businesses around town;
• Warm, clean, gently used winter coats may be dropped off at Church of the Mountains in downtown Truckee, or at Sierra Bible Church on Brockway Road;
• Donors can also provide necessities for our area seniors, whose wishes are often easy to fulfill and whose gratitude is always abundant.

In addition to donations of goods and services, Truckee Community Christmas needs help sorting, packing, and wrapping donated items at the Sierra Mountain Community Education Center on Donner Pass Road on Dec. 17-18.

If you would prefer to simply write a check to help with the effort, tax-deductible contributions can be mailed to Truckee Community Christmas, P.O. Box 2955, Truckee, CA 96160.