Author Mojie Crigler will read from “Get Me Through Tomorrow: A Sister’s Memoir of Brain Injury and Revival” at Bona Fide HQ in Meyers on Aug. 13.

In intimate and unflinching prose, Crigler chronicles her brother’s medical saga while drawing on memories of their unusual childhood. “Get Me Through Tomorrow” is much more than the story of a medical victory amid a broken healthcare system. It is about a sister’s metamorphoses from fearful naïf to assertive caregiver. It is about families bridging heartache and divorce to find hope. It is about the deep, enduring relationship between siblings—and the love that transforms both.

Crigler’s fiction and nonfiction work have appeared in Glimmer Train, Los Angeles Review, Drunken Boat, Hunger Mountain, The Rumpus, The Believer, and in the collection “Tahoe Blues” published by Bona Fide Books.

The free talk is at 7pm. Bona Fide is at 1069 Magua St., No. 4, Meyers — behind the Getaway Cafe.

Suzanne Roberts, an award-winning memoirist and travel writer, and Kim Wyatt, the founding editor and publisher of Bona Fide Books based in Meyers, are putting on a three-day writing seminar next month in Virginia City.

Writing and Publishing Your memoir — A Women’s Retreat is Sept. 11-13.

Have you always wanted to tell your story? When you talk about your life, do people say you should write a book? Are you already polishing up your memoir, hoping to submit it for publication? No matter where you are, this all-women’s writing retreat will provide support and guidance in the process.

There will also be optional one-on-one manuscript critiques for an additional fee.

To purchase your tickets or find out more information about the event, go online.

The Lake Tahoe Dance Connection is bringing professional dancers and choreographers from Broadway, Los Angeles, and the Joffrey Ballet to South Lake Tahoe for a weekend of dance, professional instruction, and fun.

This is a unique opportunity for dancers in and around the Tahoe basin to learn from elite dancer.

The Aug. 12-16 classes are through Lake Tahoe Community College’s Connect Community Education. It’s possible to take classes all six days, one day or single classes.

Dance studios that bring 10 or more dancers will receive a 20 percent discount.

LTDC is open to a variety of age groups and will be offering classes in ballet, hip hop, contemporary, and musical theater, all at an intermediate level.

For more info, go online. To register, call 530.541.4660, ext. 717.

Chautauqua performer MacAvoy Layne will perform An Evening with Mark Twain at Taylor Creek Visitor Center on Aug. 7 at 7pm.

Samuel Clemens came to the shores of Lake Tahoe in 1861 to stake a timber claim and returned less than two years later as Mark Twain, reporter and columnist for Virginia City newspaper Territorial Enterprise. Twain’s early visits to Lake Tahoe are that of adventure, tragedy, and self-discovery.

For more than 25 years, Layne has been portraying the wit and wisdom of Twain.

The $5 donation goes the Tahoe Heritage Foundation. Tahoe Heritage Foundation, a non-profit that partners with the Forest Service to preserve the culture and natural history of Lake Tahoe, hosts this event at the Lake of the Sky Amphitheater. Taylor Creek Visitor Center is located approximately 3 miles north of South Lake Tahoe on the lakeside of Highway 89.

By Megan Messerly, Las Vegas Sun

Despite the proliferation of credit cards, Apple Pay and Square readers, Nevada’s gaming business has remained largely cash-based.

Though the days of players carting around buckets of quarters are, for the most part, long gone, “the gaming business will remain a cash-heavy business,” said Douglas Florence Sr., vice president of strategic operations at eConnect, a security software company, and former head of surveillance at the Mirage.

So what happens to the money gamblers lay down on tables or feed into slot machines?

The Nevada Gaming Control Board sets standards for casinos about how money must be watched and secured. Some casinos set their own stricter standards as well.

Read the whole story

By Lake Tahoe News staff

Mental health, substance abuse and access to healthcare services are the main concerns of people on the South Shore, according to Barton Health’s 2015 Community Health Needs Assessment.

Other issues to be addressed include: Alzheimer’s disease, cancer, heart disease and stroke, infant health, injury and violence, nutrition and weight, oral health, and tobacco use.

The Affordable Care Act mandates these studies be done every three years, with this being the second one for Barton. The information was collected from community members, health professionals, and national Census data.

Assessment highlights:

·      Substance abuse ranked as the No. 1 major problem.

·      The ratio of primary care doctors to patients in the region is less than the California or U.S. proportion. In the past year, 20 percent of patients had difficulty finding a physician and 25 percent struggled to schedule a physician visit. More than 25 percent of survey responders reported not having a specific source for ongoing care.

·      Responders indicated mental health as a major problem. Nearly 30 percent of responders showed signs of chronic depression for more than two years and only half have been diagnosed with depression.

·      Suicide rates are above the state and national average.

·      Seventeen percent reported experiencing emotional abuse in the past or present.

·      Deaths from liver disease and drug use increased from the 2012 assessment and remain above California and national levels. One third of responders reported being excessive drinkers and 7 percent admitted to drinking and driving within the past month. Five percent had sought help for an alcohol or drug problem.

·      The majority of survey responders met physical activity guidelines, and 41 percent of adults and 72 percent of children identified as a healthy weight. Fewer adults and children were overweight or obese compared to California, Nevada, or national levels.

·      Violent crime and homicide rates were both low.

·      Teen pregnancy rates were half the national average.

Lake Tahoe News asked Leanne Wagoner, Barton community relations manager, a few questions about the assessment:

LTN: What steps did Barton take three years ago to deal with top needs in the assessment?

Wagoner: Barton Health staff has worked with numerous community partners, including the Community Health Advisory Committee and Lake Tahoe Collaborative, to create and implement more than 20 action items to address the top health concerns in the community.

Between 2012 and 2014, Barton Health awarded $25,000 each year in community health grants to organizations with projects that addressed the top three health priorities: mental health, substance abuse and access to healthcare. In 2015, Barton Health doubled the amount and will award $50,000.

Barton Health has provided volunteers and financial support for community-based initiatives, including the Drug Store Project, Every 15 Minutes, Sober Grad Nights, and educational classes such as Mental Health First Aid. To assist community members with finding the appropriate community resources, Barton Health now annually creates a “Health and Wellness Directory,” a free community resource guide comprised of local health and wellness resources. In addition, the top health issues are woven into free wellness lectures conducted by Barton physicians and clinicians, articles in submissions to local media and every Health & Life magazine, and a poster and advertisement series.

Barton Health continues to expand services for mental health. Staff has contracted with a second psychiatrist at Barton Psychiatry and hired a full time clinical social worker at Barton Community Health Center. The demand for counseling services and social service guidance is high and Barton is currently in the process of hiring an additional social worker. Because services are often restricted to a county or state, Barton Health collaborated with mental health agencies to create a process for Legal 2000, the ability to transfer mental health patients across state lines, which increases Barton’s ability to place patients in need of in-patient psychiatric care from five to nine facilities, improving access and expediting appropriate care. Barton Health hosted two well-attended mental health forums with partners and agencies in the fall of 2013 and spring of 2015, and formed a Mental Health Cooperative to address mental health issues. From the 2015 forum, a six-month action plan was developed identifying the following priorities: development of transitional housing, expand the health resource guide, implement coping skills programs for fifth-graders, attain local representation for NAMI, and launch a Mental Health Awareness campaign in May. All have been completed or are on target for completion this year.

Barton Health has implemented programs and protocols to address substance abuse. Physicians have received training in chronic pain management and an integrated pain management task force continues to help the program evolve. A Barton Health staff member chaired the Drug Free Coalition for a year and now leads the Reducing Access workgroup. In the fall, Barton Hospital’s Emergency Department will start implementing an Alcohol Brief Intervention Program to assess trauma patients for alcohol abuse and provide counseling services.

To improve access to health care, Barton expanded the Community Health Center by 3,000 square feet.  Barton added new specialties and telemedicine services for underserved community members, including those uninsured, underinsured, and Medi-Cal patients. With implementation of the Affordable Care Act, more than a dozen certified employees helped community members enroll in a health plan.  They hosted eight enrollment events, created a website link and telephone line to answer questions, and provided private appointments.

New services were also added. Additional service lines include Urology, Sleep Medicine, and Robotic Surgery. Barton expanded telemedicine services and created new partnerships with Tahoe Forest Cancer Center as well as a free Cancer Wellness Program. Transitions in Care was started to help patients being discharged from the hospital with chronic conditions, such as congestive heart failure, manage their conditions successfully at home to reduce the risk of readmission. Launched in spring 2015, Barton now offers a price estimator tool for certain procedures allowing patients to understand and plan for medical expenses, including a cost reduction program for MRI services.

LTN: With the data similar to what it was three years ago, it would seem like whatever was implemented didn’t really work. Can you speak to that?

Wagoner: Significant progress has been made. In 2012, access to care referred to the number of uninsured in our community. In less than three years, the uninsured population has reduced from 26.2 percent to 14.7 percent.  Barton Health’s certified enrollment counselors helped nearly 600 South Lake Tahoe residents navigate the insurance market and get the coverage they need. The 2015 Assessment shows new access to care hurdles that reflect demands from newly insured residents, which will be addressed in the 2015-2018 Action Plan.

With other results, we are seeing progress, but know it takes time and resources to see change. Mental health issues can be life long and difficult to diagnose and treat. Within the mental health category, Barton Health has expanded the telemedicine psychiatry services and has hired an additional psychiatrist and licensed social worker at the Community Health Center. This spring, Barton developed a Mental Health Cooperative with other agencies to implement a mental health action plan and has received a rural health grant to implement preventative and action measures to address mental health issues. The South Lake Tahoe community has also seen an investment from the school district with the allocation of increased counseling resources at the middle and high school.

To help address substance abuse, Barton plays an active role in the South Tahoe Drug Free Coalition which has had a number of successes including the new Brief Intervention program at the high school. A permanent drug take-back bin is now located at the police department and this school year a Friday Night Live program will launch at the high school. Barton’s integrated pain management group will continue to work on protocols to responsibly address acute and chronic pain patients throughout our health system. The California Healthy Kids Survey is a survey administered by LTUSD illustrating perceptions and usage around substance abuse in addition to other behavioral health measures. Improvement occurred in certain categories such as: there was a decrease in frequency of alcohol use among three age categories for kids in the 2014-15 school year as compared to 2011-12; across all grade levels more teenagers now perceive marijuana use as harmful.

Mental health, substance abuse, and access to healthcare are almost always listed as “Areas of Opportunity” among other Community Health Assessments and fairly frequently end up as priorities for both rural and urban communities alike. Mental health and substance abuse cannot be solved by one entity and require time and collaboration between social service agencies and the individuals as well as community support.

LTN: Is Barton required by law to create a three-year action plan, or is this something you are doing on your own? How will the outcomes be measured?

Wagoner: Barton Health has gone above and beyond the Affordable Care Act requirement that nonprofit hospitals conduct a Community Health Needs Assessment and Action Plan. Barton Health has maintained Community Health as a strategic plan priority for the organization and has hired a community outreach liaison to oversee the Action Plan and strengthen community partnerships. Barton Health has donated funds for community projects that address community health needs and successfully acquired additional partnerships and funding sources to support the action plan.

Outcomes can be measured by community data such as the California Healthy Kids Survey, county public health data, results from the Community Health Needs Assessment, and law enforcement reports. Hospital data provides valuable insight into our patients and their care.  Barton has expanded services and hired new clinicians and primary care providers. The community resource guide is widely distributed and has expanded to include mental health services. Find Barton’s community investments highlighted in the Community Benefit Report.

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Notes:

·      The 2015 Community Health Needs Assessment results and summary are online.

El Dorado County Mental Health has opened a transitional housing unit in South Lake Tahoe to better meet local mental health needs.

The transitional housing site (also known as a T-house) provides a supportive living environment and services for mental health clients who need help transitioning to stable, independent living.

Up to six people at a time may live at the T-house, which provides a supportive community environment, mental health professionals and services, such as wellness groups, medication management and classes in basic life-skills such as cooking, cleaning, and managing other household responsibilities. Residents are also encouraged to explore college classes and volunteer opportunities and are assisted with job searches once they are stable.

The program is funded through state Mental Health Services Act.

Potential residents of the T-house are pre-screened by mental health staff and must meet eligibility requirements before moving in. People must also agree to live drug-free. Most residents will likely stay six to 12 months.

For more info, all 530.573.7970.

K-Lou

K-Lou is a 15 month old Shih Tzu girl who likes to play with other gentle dogs. She is very sweet, but has a few challenges — she is not yet house trained, and she needs to learn manners and gain some confidence. She is also a little shy of new people to start with, especially men.

Plus, she will need regular grooming. She was very matted when she came to the shelter and had to be clipped really short. The right owner should be patient and committed to her care and training.

K-Lou is spayed, microchipped, tested for heart worm, and vaccinated. She 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.

— Karen Kuentz

Beverages were served throughout the day in the morning room; a room not on the regular tour. Photos/Kathryn Reed

By Kathryn Reed   

EMERALD BAY STATE PARK – An iconic gem of Lake Tahoe describes Vikingsholm as well as Helen Smith.

Smith spent her first 14 summers staying at what is now a castle within the California State Parks system. At the time, it was the private summer residence of Lora Knight. Smith’s mother was a friend of Knight’s so that’s how they had the opportunity to summer at Lake Tahoe.

Smith, upon hearing the State Parks in 1953 bought the more than 200-acre parcel that included all the land in Emerald Bay up to the highway, made her way back to Lake Tahoe to see what the estate looked like.

She was taken aback a bit that no one knew much about the property. By this time furniture had been removed from some of the rooms. State Parks thinking at the time of acquisition was to tear down the buildings and return the land to its natural state or make it a campground.

Activists got involved and saved what is now a treasured jewel.

Helen Smith’s goal is to ensure Vikingsholm’s history keeps being told and that there will be money for its upkeep.

“This is considered one of the top cultural resources in the State Park system behind Hearst Castle,” Heidi Doyle, executive director of the Sierra State Parks Foundation, said.

(This wasn’t the only time the furniture was removed. In 2007, during the Angora Fire the house was evacuated.)

Smith, who is now in her 80s, was not comfortable letting the rich history of Vikingsholm disappear so she started the docent program. She gave tours for 42 years, retiring in 2009. But it wasn’t an easy job to get because the thinking at the time was that this kind of work wasn’t meant for women.

This is the fourth summer she has been a part of special fundraising events where guests get to see some of the rooms that are normally off limits as well as have the opportunity to ask Smith questions.

The intimate evening includes wine and light snacks. The emphasis is getting a chance to relive part of this history as well as contribute to the restoration of the site via the price of admission. Sodding the roof so it’s like it was in Mrs. Knight’s era is the current fundraising project.

The electrical system is next. Mrs. Knight had electricity and running water at Vikingsholm when it was built in the late1920s.

“I would like to see an endowment so the house is kept up,” Smith told Lake Tahoe News. “With a building as old as this, there are problems. It’s continuous upkeep.”

Besides seeing the library, Mrs. Knight’s top floor and a room off the kitchen, stories not heard on the regular tour are told, like how some people came to Vikingsholm in the winter of 1951-52 for Thanksgiving but weren’t able to leave until Easter because it was an epic snow year.

While stories abound about Mrs. Knight and her guests being rowed to Fannette Island for tea, the truth, Smith said, is this seldom occurred. This is largely because it was not an easy endeavor to take all the cooking devices to the island, plus most of the guests were older and the island is rocky.

This was the era when guests were expected to dress for all three meals. This meant dresses for the women and and coat and ties for the men.

At what is now the boat-in campground was Emerald Bay Resort. Smith said Frank Lloyd Wright visited the area before Mrs. Knight.

“He was interested in building a bridge from the resort to the island,” Smith said.

Smith stays in the caretakers quarters when she is town. The rest of the year she is in Palo Alto. She and her late husband lived on the Peninsula for years. Smith obtained her doctorate in teaching from Stanford. The special tours are her way of continuing to teach about a bygone era as well as an opportunity to help preserve a slice of Tahoe’s history.

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Notes:

·      The next event at Vikingsholm with Helen Smith is Aug. 27 at 5pm.

·      Cost is $60.

·      Tickets are available online. A limited number are available.

By John Charles Lewis

In 1970, a young and talented piano player from England found himself as the opening act for a band that, according to ThreeDogNight.com “from 1969 through 1974 achieved more top 10 hits, moved more records and sold more concert tickets than any other band”, including the Beatles, Rolling Stones, The Who and Led Zeppelin.

That’s just part of the story of the journey of Three Dog Night’s show Saturday night at MontBleu Casino in Stateline.

Back in 1967, a 17-year-old songwriter named Bernie Taupin was writing songs that soon would be recognized as masterpieces, including the first charted hit for the 1970 opening act for Three Dog Night, Elton John.

According to Song Facts, Taupin said, “The original lyric was written very rapidly on the kitchen table of Elton’s mother’s apartment in Northwood Hills in the suburbs of London, if I recall, on a particularly grubby piece of exercise paper.” Taupin wrote “Your Song”.

On Aug. 1, Three Dog Night brought its headlining show back to Caesars in Tahoe. OK, it’s not the 1970s anymore, so now its the MontBleu Resort, but nonetheless, the show gave the aging crowd a chance to relive their youth as the crowd returned to their celebrity ball as they celebrated their youth and danced to the music.

Three Dog Night was formed in 1967 by three talented vocalists: Chuck Negron, Cory Wells and Danny Hutton. Negron is no longer with the band, but Wells and Hutton and original guitarist Michael Allsup we’re all in fine form, along with longtime members Paul Kingery on bass and Pat Bautz on drums. Eddie Reasoner replaced long time member Jimmy Greenspan on keyboards after Greenspan passed away last year from cancer.

The show had many highlights, including a soulful cover of Randy Newman’s “You Can Leave Your Hat On” as well as solid renditions of their timeless hits “Out in the Country”, “Joy to the World”, “One” and “Shambala”.

Three Dog Night has always been known for its ability to recognize the talents of other songwriters, and no example is more profound than with the 1970 album “It Ain’t Easy”, which included another Newman cover in “Mama Told Me (Not To Come)”. Their version of this song at Saturday’s show was spot on. Mid-song they stopped and told a story of a family friend who claimed this song would be a great rap song. After a quick attitude adjustment and change of outfits, they turned this former No. 1 song into a very entertaining rap song, and when they asked the crowd which version they liked better, surprisingly, the reaction was even.

On side two of “It Ain’t Easy”, they recorded “Your Song”, which was being played in John’s set list when he was Three Dog Night’s supporting act as an unknown, undiscovered piano player and aspiring songwriter.

Interestingly, Three Dog Night was considering releasing “Your Song” as their next single back then, but they chose not to so they could give John a chance to release it as the “B-side” to his first single, “Take me to the Pilot”, which he did in 1971. Interestingly, “Your Song” became Elton’s first hit song, it was later inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, and more than 20 years ago Elton John was elected to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, a well-deserved honor Three Dog Night still awaits.

Next Saturday night, Elton John headlines the much larger Harveys outdoor arena in Stateline and Three Dog Night shares the bill with Nazareth at the Choctaw Grand Theater in Durant, Okla. It would have been fitting to have Three Dog Night on the bill with John at Harveys, allowing John to return the favor from when Three Dog Night recorded his song “Lady Samantha” in 1969 when no one had heard of Elton John. This way he could help turn a whole new generation on to some of the most pure and classic rock  from when rock ‘n roll mattered. John could also help expose two new Three Dog Night songs, highlights from the show last night, to a whole new generation of potential fans. The catchy lick in “Heart of Blues” and the powerful vocals from “Prayer of the Children” deserve to be heard.

Maybe next summer the local Tahoe promoters can help John return a much-deserved favor. Who knows, maybe John can even make a phone call to Cleveland to ask why Three Dog Night is not the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, an honor that is definitely deserved based on statistics alone.