By Robert Preidt, HealthDay

Drinking alcohol and smoking marijuana may lead to different types of harmful consequences for teens, a new study suggests.

Researchers analyzed 2007 to 2011 data gathered from more than 7,400 U.S. high school seniors who said they had used alcohol or marijuana at least once.

The investigators found that drinking alcohol was associated with more unsafe driving, damage to relationships with friends and romantic partners, and regret about actions while under the influence of alcohol, especially among females.

On the other hand, marijuana use was more often tied to worsening relationships with teachers or supervisors, less energy or interest, and poorer school or job performance, according to the NYU researchers.

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The Theater Arts Department at Lake Tahoe Community College is seeking men and women of various ages and types for the comedy “Leading Ladies” by Ken Ludwig.

Auditions are Sept. 23 at 7pm in the LTCC Duke Theatre. Performances will be Nov. 14-23.

In this farce, the year is 1958 and two British Shakespearean actors, Jack and Leo, find themselves so down on their luck that they are performing “Scenes from Shakespeare” on the Moose Lodge circuit in the Amish country of Pennsylvania. When they hear that an old lady in York is about to die and leave her fortune to her two long-lost English nephews, they resolve to pass themselves off as her beloved relatives and get the cash. Comedy ensues when they learn that the relatives aren’t nephews, but nieces.

Auditions will consist of readings from the play. Scripts are available on reserve in the LTCC library. Audition information and character breakdowns can be found online.

Opportunities for light and sound board operators, stage manager, backstage crew, and construction crew are also available.

For more information, call 530.541.4660, ext. 240.

By Meeri Kim, Washington Post

The pervasive glow of electronic devices may be an impediment to a good night’s sleep. That’s particularly noticeable now, when families are adjusting to early wake-up times for school. Teenagers can find it especially hard to get started in the morning. For nocturnal animals, it spurs activity. For daytime species such as humans, melatonin signals that it’s time to sleep.

As lamps switch off in teens’ bedrooms across America, the lights from their computer screens, smartphones and tablets often stay on throughout the night. These devices emit light of all colors, but it’s the blues in particular that pose a danger to sleep. Blue light is especially good at preventing the release of melatonin, a hormone associated with nighttime.

Ordinarily, the pineal gland, a pea-size organ in the brain, begins to release melatonin a couple of hours before your regular bedtime. The hormone is no sleeping pill, but it does reduce alertness and make sleep more inviting.

However, light — particularly of the blue variety — can keep the pineal gland from releasing melatonin, thus warding off sleepiness. You don’t have to be staring directly at a television or computer screen: If enough blue light hits the eye, the gland can stop releasing melatonin. So easing into bed with a tablet or a laptop makes it harder to take a long snooze, especially for sleep-deprived teenagers who are more vulnerable to the effects of light than adults.

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By Robert D. Dávila, Sacramento Bee

Dean Adraktas, a broadcast journalist who was a news reporter at KFBK until his voice on the air was silenced by amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, died Aug. 28, his wife said. He was 49.

Dean Adraktas

With a booming voice, outgoing personality and enthusiasm for covering breaking stories, Mr. Adraktas advanced steadily in radio news. He began working at KVNA in Flagstaff, Ariz., and KFYI in Phoenix after earning a broadcast communications degree from Arizona State University in 1987. He moved to South Lake Tahoe in 1992 and was a reporter, talk show host and news director for KOWL/KRLT.

His thorough reporting, meticulous writing and fun sense of humor impressed colleagues at KQMS radio in Redding, where he was a news director and morning news anchor from 1995 to 1998. He moved to Sacramento to work at KFBK and covered a variety of stories as a morning reporter, including social issues and politics.

“He was very professional but very gregarious,” KFBK news anchor Kitty O’Neal said. “He took his work very seriously, but he interacted with people very easily. He had a great sense of humor and was very vital.”

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Internationally known organist Roger Nyquist will put on a virtuoso recital program Sept. 27.

This is first visit to Lake Tahoe since the dedication of the organ at St. Patrick’s Episcopal Church in 2005.

He will be at the church (341 Village Blvd., Incline Village) at 7pm.

Tickets are $15 in advance, $20 at the door. Go online or call 775.781.4702 for tickets.

Mark McLaughlin, award-winning, nationally published author, professional speaker, and photographer returns to the South Lake Tahoe Library on Sept. 20 at 11am.

His presentation will be about the history of Lake Tahoe and the Comstock. The 1859 discovery of silver in western Nevada and the development of the Comstock brought entrepreneurs of all types to the region. It also brought disastrous consequences for the Tahoe basin and its environment. But one timber baron was a visionary who saw beyond the denuded lake-side slopes to dream of a paradise for tourists and nature lovers.

This history lesson is sponsored by the Friends of the Library and is free. The library is at 1000 Rufus Allen Blvd.

Barton Health puts on a Type I Diabetes Support Group the first Tuesday of each month at 5:30pm.

Led by medical professionals, the support group provides a place for those affected by Type 1 Diabetes to share ideas, experiences, and resources. All ages welcome.

The guest speaker on Sept. 2 is CalSTAR nurse Beth Frisby who will talk about gestational diabetes. On Oct. 7, Tami Force is the speaker.

The talks are Barton Memorial Hospital’s board room.

For more info, email tt1thrive@gmail.com.

By Martin Griffith, AP

The Burning Man counterculture festival drew a peak crowd of nearly 66,000 celebrants as it neared an end Monday on the Northern Nevada desert.

Friday’s official peak attendance of 65,922 was within the population cap of 68,000 the federal Bureau of Land Management imposed on the quirky art and music festival, said Gene Seidlitz, manager of the agency’s Winnemucca District.

The number was down from last year’s record peak crowd of 69,613, which resulted in organizers being placed on probation for a second time in three years for violating the limit.

Organizers had been warned that if they were placed on probation a second straight year, the agency might suspend or cancel their permit.

“That (crowd size) is not a problem this year,” Seidlitz said, adding the attendance cap was one of 55 conditions organizers had to comply with under terms of their permit.

“We don’t see any reason why we shouldn’t meet all other stipulations,” Burning Man spokesman Jim Graham said.

Overall, the weeklong festival leading up to Labor Day was successful and safe except for Thursday’s death of a 29-year-old Wyoming woman who was struck by a bus carrying passengers on the playa of the Black Rock Desert, Seidlitz said.

Crime statistics will not be released until later this month, he added.

Rain early on closed the gate for a day — the longest closure in the event’s history — and dust storms caused occasional whiteout conditions Friday.

But the festival’s eclectic artwork, offbeat theme camps, concerts and other entertainment drew praise from participants from around the world.

“Actually, I feel renewed faith in humanity,” John Bacon, of Seattle, told KRNV-TV.

Ron Adair, of Ojai, said he felt “a little tired.”

“It’s a little hard to have that many nights in a row and get by on four, five, six hours of sleep every night,” Adair said.

After it moved from San Francisco, the inaugural Burning Man in Nevada drew only about 80 people in 1990.

Yazzy

Yazzy is a 2-year-old Australian shepherd mix who is house trained and very affectionate with her people. She walks nicely on her leash, and has lived with teenagers.

Yazzy does well with large dogs, but cannot be trusted with cats and small animals. She has a lot of energy and would make a great hiking and camping companion.

Yazzy is spayed, microchipped, tested for heartworm, 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

Timothy B. Schmit dazzles the crowd at Harveys on Aug. 30. Photos/Kathryn Reed

By Susan Wood

STATELINE – I was 12 years old when the Eagles’ debut album came out. I spent so many hours in my room listening to it that my mom would occasionally feel the need to check on me.

I loved the melodic harmony and kickback California style so much that it set the ground for my longing to leave the East Coast for the West. More than half the songs off the album became hits, from one of their favorite early garage-type jams “Witchy Woman” and heavy guitar rhythm “Already Gone” to top-down cruisey “Take It Easy” and sway-inducing “Train Leaves Here This Morning.”

From there, I was hooked – gobbling up LPs from “On the Border” to the more recent “Long Road Out of Eden.” This was the first full studio album in 28 years for one of the most popular rock bands of all time.

Some would say the group’s signature country-rock blend was a first for this popular mix and definitely not the last.

The Eagles wrapped up the Harveys Outdoor Concert Series this weekend with two sold-out shows. This part of their box-office record-breaking “History” tour was so named to coincide with a 2013 documentary of the same name. The band, which is led by front men Glenn Frey, Don Henley, Joe Walsh and Timothy B. Schmit, will continue on its massive $145 million tour that started July 2013.

Glenn Frey and Don Henley

The core singers and musicians returned to Stateline for the second time. This time original guitarist and banjo plucker Bernie Leadon joined them, much to the delight of the heavy baby boomer crowd. The band members looked older, but still had it — as they were on key and in sync with their guitars, percussion and keyboards.

Always considered the proverbial bad boy of the band, the longhaired Walsh even delivered on his own major hits “Life’s Been Good” and “Rocky Mountain Way.” He engaged the crowd with a call to perfect a guttural chant and provided his own classic contorted facial expressions.
Through the years, Walsh, Henley and Frey have shown their mettle in going solo.

Henley – always widely respected for his ability to sing as a drummer, launched the band into his own mega hit “Dirty Laundry.” The timeless piece showed news images depicting the public’s fascination with misfortunes in the news cycles.
Even Schmit, who mainly plays with the band, took the lead for his sweet, high-pitched honest depiction of a romance gone awry with “I Can’t Tell You Why.”

And later Frey tipped the band’s hat to the Beach Boys, indicating how the 1960s beach soft rock group led by Brian Wilson inspired his band’s harmonious sound.

“The Eagles were settlers, but the Beach Boys were pioneers,” he said.

With that, “Heartache Tonight” made the crowd rise again.

Then, Walsh cranked out the sexy “Those Shoes.”

After a fun-filled electric guitar challenge between Walsh and Frey in which the latter announced “you got to be funky,” the boys of summer got the crowd to its feet for “Life in the Fast Lane” – one of its biggest hits in more than four decades of making music.

The event brought hit after hit after hit.

I’ve never been to a concert where so many people knew most of the words to the songs. The couple behind us belted out a good majority of them.
Harrah’s entertainment director, John Packer, said before the Aug. 30 show to expect that based on Friday night’s concert.

“This is a bucket list show for people,” he said. “People hear they’re touring and don’t care what tickets cost.”

The Eagles shows are some of the priciest.

The first time the band played Stateline the shows sold-out immediately, prompting Harrah’s management to add a performance.
The Eagles apparently like returning to Lake Tahoe for however long they play together.

“They find out what a lot of what locals know. It’s nice here. And (the band members) get that vibe,” Packer said.

Some people don’t think twice about seeing this band more than once, as in Joe Patone of Belmont.

“I like the venue here,” he said, while the band opened with country tune “How Long.”

The group followed up with the audience sighing with a big “ah” for its soft melody “Take it to the Limit.”

From start to finish, the band gave the audience a walk down memory lane. When Henley and company left the stage before a triple encore; I could hear concertgoers declaring the band had to play “Hotel California.” The song, with its so-named album, became one of its biggest hits and marked its peak of commercial success in 1976.

But it was Henley standing in a plaid shirt at the mic for his melancholy “Desperado” that is moving enough to make the emotional cry. The lights even came up for the entire audience to sing, “you better let somebody love you.”

With yet another special pinnacle in the band’s storied career, the Eagles have sold more than 120 million albums worldwide, earning five No. 1 U.S. singles and six Grammy awards. In 1998, the band was inducted in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.