“Reel Rock 9, Valley Uprising” will be shown Oct. 2 at 7pm at High Altitude Fitness in Incline Village. The movie is about Yosemite’s rock climbing revolution.

It is free for members; $12 for non-members at the door; $10 tickets available for advanced purchase online. Proceeds from ticket sales will be donated to the Access Fund and Truckee Donner Land Trust in a joint effort to purchase the Donner Summit Black Wall climbing area.

Mamasake Food Truck will be outside to serve dinner. Snacks and baked goods will also be available for purchase in the lobby. Beer and wine specials are available inside during the event.

Colten John Kingman

Colten John Kingman, 22-year-old son of Paige and Bob Kingman of Newcastle, passed away suddenly the morning of Sept. 5, 2014. Colten was born Oct. 9, 1991, in South Lake Tahoe. He attended Scarselli Elementary School in Gardnerville and middle school in South Lake Tahoe. He was a straight-A student while attending Silver State High School in Carson City.

He spent his adult years living in various communities in Placer County and regularly attended St. Joseph Catholic Church in Lincoln.

He had a passion for natural hot springs and seeking out waterfalls in the wilderness. He traveled with his parents to the Caribbean and learned to sail and kayak. The family also enjoyed floating the Green River in Utah and made trips to Hawaii where he made many memories with his childhood friend, Kaisha Martinez of Gardnerville. He loved traveling in Mexico where he convinced his grandmother to attend an all-Spanish Mass even though they didn’t speak the language. In 2010 he and his maternal grandmother completed an adventure camping their way to Vancouver, British Columbia, and Victoria Island and back, seeking out natural hot springs to explore on the way. In 2013 they made a similar excursion to Yellowstone National Park.

From the time he was 2 years of age he had a love for learning that culminated in passions for a wide array of subject matters that included: vacuum cleaners, wild cats, islands, astronomy, locks and keys, high performance and old cars, coins, beanie babies, herbs, and alternative medicines. He loved music and was a natural musician, enjoying both acoustic and electric guitars.

Colten forged wonderful friendships with people of all ages and found something to value and love in everyone he met.

He is survived by his parents, Bob and Paige Kingman and his sister, Cambria, all of Newcastle; maternal grandparents, Larry and Gail Davenport of Lincoln; paternal grandparents, Bill Kingman of Stateline and Vickie Kingman of Gardnerville; and an abundance of aunts, uncles, and cousins, as well as his special companion, John Naylor of Citrus Heights and his beloved little dog, Buddy.

A rosary will be said in Colten’s honor at 7pm Sept. 15 and a Mass for the celebration of life at 11am Sept. 16 at St. Joseph Catholic Church, 280 Oak Tree Lane in Lincoln. A reception will follow the Mass with directions available at the church.

It was always Colten’s wish that attendees dress in lively, happy colors to celebrate his life. In lieu of flowers, please make donations to National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) or St. Vincent de Paul Society.

By Martin Griffith, AP

RENO — For nearly six decades, Reno was known as the divorce capital of the world because of liberal divorce laws that drew hundreds of thousands of estranged spouses from across the country, including Arthur Miller, Jack Dempsey, Clare Boothe Luce and Cornelius Vanderbilt Jr.

Now, a group of Nevada researchers is seeking personal stories from those who traveled to Nevada for “quickie” divorces from roughly 1910 to 1970.

UNR library’s Special Collections Department plans to feature recorded interviews in an extensive multimedia online exhibit about Reno’s 20th century divorce trade, which hastened the acceptance of divorce in America.

“Reno changed the national attitude about divorce,” said Donnelyn Curtis, head of special collections and project co-curator. “We’re finding a feeling of liberation from the letters of women we have in our collections.”

Organizers hope firsthand accounts about heading to Nevada for the “Reno cure” will lead to a better understanding about it, said Mella Harmon, historian and project co-curator.

It became a major industry for the state, spawning dude ranches where spouses stayed, and gave Reno an international reputation, she added.

“It’s one of those important areas of history that has faded away and not everyone remembers Reno was known as the divorce capital of the world,” Harmon told The Associated Press. “We thought it’s something that needs to be captured in some way so people can understand the significance of the industry to the area.”

By repeatedly passing legislation that shortened the time required to establish state residency, Nevada lawmakers encouraged what became known as the “migratory divorce.” Estranged husbands and wives traveled to the Silver State to establish residency and take advantage of its lenient divorce laws. The time required for residency was lowered from six months to three months and, in 1931, to six weeks.

By the 1960s, other states had loosened their own divorce laws, rendering the migratory divorce unnecessary.

From 1931 to 1934 alone, people from 32 foreign countries and all 48 states at the time got divorces in Reno, Harmon said.

“Recognition about Reno’s divorce trade entered the national consciousness in such a way that nearly everyone understood what it meant if people said they were going to Reno,” said Harmon, an adjunct assistant professor in the university’s Department of Anthropology.

While most divorce-seekers returned home, many chose to remain in Nevada, including former U.S. Rep. Barbara Vucanovich. She traveled from New York to Reno in 1949 to get a divorce and ended up staying and becoming the first woman to be sent to Congress from Nevada, serving seven terms in the House as a Republican. She died in 2013 at the age of 91.

Researchers not only want to speak with anyone who traveled to Reno for a divorce, but with those with a relative or close friend who did so.

In addition to personal stories, researchers will review essays, oral histories, novels, postcards, newspaper and magazine articles, and Hollywood films to include in the digitized project.

Scheduled for completion in July 2015, the project will be the most thorough portrayal of Reno’s divorce industry in any format, Harmon said.

Max

Max is a 1-year-old Malamute mix. He is a big boy who loves to play and cuddle with people.

He does well with other medium to large dogs, but will not be able to go home with cats or small pets.

Max would love to go to training classes as he really does want to please his people. Max is house trained. 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.

— Susan B.

On Oct. 8 at 7pm Bona Fide Books will launch St. Louis poet Travis Mossotti’s award-winning collection “Field Study” at the Lake Tahoe Community College’s Writers’ Series. The reading is free and open to the public.

Mossotti’s second collection, “Field Study” won Bona Fide’s 2013 Melissa Lanitis Gregory Poetry Prize, offered annually in honor of the local artist who died in 2009. Written in the tradition of American naturalists, “Field Study” chronicles a courtship through the vehicle of carnivore conservation efforts.

Mossotti was awarded a cash prize, publication and a reading at Lake Tahoe. Previously, he was awarded the May Swenson Poetry Award by contest judge Garrison Keillor for his first collection of poems “About the Dead”, and his chapbook “My Life as an Island” was published by Moon City Press in 2013. Mossotti is the poet-in-residence at the Endangered Wolf Center in St. Louis.

Books will be available for signing and purchase in the Aspen Room at LTCC. Mossotti will be reading with prize-winning novelist Josh Weil, author of “The Great Glass Sea.”

For more information, contact Kim Wyatt at editor@bonafidebooks.com.

By Charles Fleming, Los Angeles Times

Who’s riding motorcycles in California? Older, married, educated men with money — and getting more so.

New statistics prepared by the Motorcycle Industry Council show the median age of California motorcycle owners was 45 years old in 2012 — having risen from 33 years in 1990, 38 years in 1998 and 41 years in 2009.

But the age number is a little misleading. Almost 40 percent of the study’s respondents were 50 and over — compared to only 10 percent in that age range in 1990.

That rising number is unnerving to motorcycle industry professionals, many of whom have said they’re afraid their core audience is rapidly aging out of the sport, and soon will be too old to ride at all.

The average biker is male — 88 percent of them, down from 94 percent in 1990 — and married — 63 percent of them, up from 57 percent in 1990.

Read the whole story

By Brigid Schulte, Washinton Post

The iconic 1950s family of the breadwinner father going off to work and caregiving mother taking care of the homefront, has been described by economists as the most efficient family structure. Everyone has a distinct job to do in their “separate spheres” of public and private life. And in the 1950s, the majority of children were being raised in such “typical” families.

We all know that’s not true anymore. But perhaps what we haven’t fully understood yet is that today, there is no one “typical” family. The breadwinner-homemaker family, the norm since the dawn of the Industrial Revolution in the 19th century, is being replaced by a new norm of diversity.

“There hasn’t been the collapse of one dominant family structure and the rise of another. It’s really a fanning out into all kinds of family structures,” said Philip Cohen, a sociologist at the University of Maryland. “Different is the new normal.”

In a report for the Council on Contemporary Families being released this week, Cohen notes that in the 1950s, 65 percent of all children under 15 were being raised in traditional breadwinner-homemaker families. Today, only 22 percent are.

Read the whole story

“My Fair Lady”, the exquisite musical, is playing in Carson City for three weekends in November.

The Western Nevada Musical Theatre Company is presenting the award-winning production Nov. 8-23 at the Carson City Community Center.

The play that follows phonetics professor Henry Higgins as he transforms a lowly flower girl into an elegant, refined woman, swept multiple Tony and Academy Awards.

Kirk Gardner plays the irascible Henry Higgins training Hannah Eckert as Eliza, Michael Peters is Pickering, Jody Paslov is Alfie Doolittle and Brad Fitch is Freddy. The show is produced and directed by Stephanie Arrigotti and choreographed by Gina Kaskie Davis. Kevin Murphy conducts the orchestra.

Friday and Saturday performances are at 7:30pm, Sunday matinees are at 2pm. Tickets, priced $25 and $28 according to location in the theater, are available online or call 866.977.6849. All seating is reserved.

By Kathryn Reed

A diploma doesn’t mean much if you don’t have any skills that translate to the working world. That is why Mount Tallac High School is changing its emphasis.

All the basics are still being taught at South Lake Tahoe’s continuation school. But now there is a focus on making the instruction more pertinent to real world situations.

“We are getting out of the old textbook which had a lot of drill and kill,” math instructor Jackie Tan told Lake Tahoe News. “I’m going to be able to make their math relevant.”

Algebra lessons might come in the form of having students getting into groups to start a business and then needing to work out inventory, pricing and other factors.

Working in groups is a new concept in Tan’s classroom, too. She is doing this because so often in the workplace it’s about being a team, working collaboratively and not solo.

Adrian Ortega talks with Joy Barney from the U.S. Forest Service. Photos/Holly Greenough

The changes are the brainchild of Holly Greenough who is in her first year of being principal of the school. She had trained under Susan Baker, who retired in 2013 after 23 years in Lake Tahoe Unified School District. (Karen Tinlin was at Tallac last year and is now working out of South Tahoe Middle School on the School Attendance Review Board before she retires in December.)

“I’m working hard to change the program to become a work to career program so students are better prepared to serve our community in the service industry once they graduate,” Greenough told Lake Tahoe News.

She said most Tallac grads end up staying in the community. Being employable and then perhaps rising through the ranks to management positions is her goal for them.

The school is working with local businesses to make this successful. A job fair was conducted the first week of school to acquaint students with the type of work that exists on the South Shore and for employers to tell students the skills they will need.

But it’s not just about service industry jobs.

“We are looking for students with a positive attitude about working in the outdoors, who are committed to eight weeks of hard, physical work, and who are open to future opportunities or a career in natural resource management,” Joy Barney, conservation education program specialist with the U.S. Forest Service, said.

The Forest Service through its Generation Green has a history of working with Mount Tallac.

“We have employed between one and seven of their current and former students each year for the past seven years of the program – 15 to 25 percent of our summer employment program,” Barney told Lake Tahoe News.

Mount Tallac students talk with potential employers.

Harveys-Harrah’s will let students take tours of the Stateline properties to get acquainted with the various jobs that are available. Different human resource specialists will be able to go to the campus.

Eric Campbell, manager at Bank of the West, is on board to teach students how to create a business plan.

“We don’t want to limit them with what they learn. We want to open doors and their minds to show them whatever they are interested in they can pursue,” Greenough said.

Developing certifications is something she is working on. This is so when students are learning to write resumes in Krista Serra’s class, they will have substantive information to put on it. Plus, it will be a relevant skill to use on a job. Certifications will range from CPR to 10 key to food safety. The school hopes to obtain grants to pay for the ones that require money to obtain, such as CPR.

Being bilingual, which many of the students are, is being promoted as a skill to hone. But it means proper Spanish and not just slang.

Many employers say issues they have with workers are soft skills – which translate to dressing appropriately, using proper language, being on time and not calling in sick on a powder day.

“If a student cusses, she says ‘you are fired’. It snaps you back to reality,” senior Joe Morales said.

The idea is for students to get in their heads what is right and wrong in the workplace.

While most have cell phones, if they have to take a call, it has to be done so outside. This makes them think if they should even be answering the phone.

Looking people in the eye, firm handshakes and the art of listening are being taught.

A big thing that is new is the students must clock in and out – just like some jobs require.

Adriana Aguilar, who is a senior, likes that things are much more structured this year.

“Having to check in every morning motivates you to be on time every day. It’s just like if you had an actual job,” Aguilar said.

Carl Thomas Strickland was a fun-loving child who always loved anything with wheels and speed. As an adult he moved from Big Wheels to real wheels.

Mr. Strickland died Aug. 22 in a boating accident in Incline village. He was 40.

Carl Strickland

Mr. Strickland was born Jan. 11, 1974, in Kansas City, Mo.

His outgoing, charismatic personality made his life memorable for everyone around him. During college, Mr. Strickland managed and operated the start-up of two surgical practices in San Francisco before becoming director of information systems for the international legal consulting firm Major, Lindsey & Africa (formerly Major, Hagen & Africa), while simultaneously completing his degree in international business from University of San Francisco in 1999.

In 2000, Mr. Strickland moved to Lake Tahoe with his partner, Bruce Lindstrom, where he founded a real estate investment and development company, the Tahoe Zephyr Group LLC. In 2001, the two founded Point Foundation, the national LGBTQ scholarship fund.

Mr. Strickland served on the board of directors of several private companies and pursued his passion for Point Foundation, automobiles, classic wood and contemporary boats, international travel and snowboarding. He was passionate about life, with a desire to experience every adventure to the fullest.

He is survived by his life partner of 17 years, Bruce Lindstrom of Crystal Bay; his parents, Jeanne Thomas (Wayne Auer) of Boise, Idaho, and Richard Strickland (Pam) of Prairie Village, Kansas; sister Kathy Weinert (Mike, Ryan and Julianna) of Boise, Idaho; his grandmother, Betty Thomas Baker of Boise, Idaho; and many loving family members and friends.

Contributions in memory of Mr. Strickland may be made to Point Foundation.