Fiona

Fiona may look a little scary, with her cropped ears, but she is a very sweet, mellow pit bull mix who is house trained, walks nicely on her leash, and loves people.

She also loves to play with other dogs, but she can be a little bossy with other girls. She is fine with well-mannered children, and didn’t even chase the cats that she met at the shelter. She is a really nice girl – just imagine her with big, soft, floppy ears.

Fiona is spayed, microchipped, 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 online 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

By Michael Orton

SPARKS — Sharon Landsberry, the wife of the Nevada guardsman and teacher killed during a school shooting in Sparks last month, recounted during a tearful memorial ceremony here Sunday that her husband had reconnected with friends and reiterated his Marine values just two days before he died.

Master Sgt. Michael Landsberry – the Sparks Middle School seventh-grade math teacher and Marine veteran who joined the Nevada Air Guard in 2001 – died Oct. 21 after a 12-year-old student fired gunshots that killed Landsberry and injured two others before the shooter took his own life.

A Marine salutes the family of Marine veteran and Nevada Guard Airman Master Sgt. Michael Landsberry on Nov. 3 during  a memorial service.
Photo/James Pierce

More than 1,000 people, including Gov. Brian Sandoval, attended the memorial service that included full military honors at the Sparks Christian Fellowship church.

Sharon Landsberry said her husband had played golf with friends and recited the Marine anthem entitled Ask Me What I Was just days before the incident.

She repeated the anthem during her eulogy to her husband.

“I have seen death and felt its warm breath. It did not faze me for I was different. I was a warrior. You ask me what I was? It was my destiny, until my last breath, to be a United States Marine. And my spirit shall live forever,” she said.

Witnesses said Michael Landsberry acted in a heroic manner and tried to stop Jose Reyes when he realized the student had a semi-automatic pistol and had fired shots outside the school building moments before class started.

“Mr. Landsberry’s heroic actions, by stepping toward the shooter, allowed time for other students in the playground area to flee,” Washoe County School District Police Chief Mike Mieras said.

The event rocked the school’s faculty and its more than 600 students. Vigils were held leading up to a viewing Saturday and the service Sunday.

Government officials, military personnel, family and friends spoke during the ceremony. One of them was Andrea Cook, Landsberry’s stepdaughter, who graduated from Navy basic training a few days after the shooting.

“I love you dad and I will make you proud,” Cook said. “One of the hardest things was to graduate from boot camp and not have you there because you were the reason I joined. You were the reason I pushed so hard in my physical fitness assessment and studied for my tests. I just wanted to make you proud.”

“There’s no such thing as an ex-Marine and (Landsberry) lived that,” said Brig. Gen. Bill Burks said, the Nevada National Guard’s adjutant general.

“He lived the core values. He was the consummate military professional, and with his Batman personality and pictures of him in costume, he just had this unique sense of humor.”

Landsberry’s impact and influence on his students was well represented during the memorial ceremony.

“He had such a great personality,” said Chelsey Avera, a student of Landsberry’s whom he nicknamed “Cherry Top” because of her red hair. “He would always make people smile. He liked to walk down the halls at school on Wednesdays yelling, ‘Hump day.’ He was our hero.”

Landsberry enlisted in the Nevada Air Guard in 2001, the same year he began teaching in the Washoe County School District. He deployed to Kuwait in 2006 and Afghanistan in 2011. During his military career, Landsberry earned more than 20 awards and decorations.

“No one could have imagined or anticipated what happened that day,” Sandoval said. “What is conclusive, though, is Michael Landsberry’s selfless act to give his own life that others may live.”

In Cook’s closing words, she summed up what fellow teachers, military personnel, family and friends had expressed throughout the ceremony.

“You have always been a hero and your friends and family knew that, but now the whole world knows that,” she said. “You’re my hero and I will make you proud of what I will do. I love you.”

Michael Orton is a specialist with the 106th Public Affairs Detachment.

In its third season, the all-ages Polar Express train ride from the frosty Northern Nevada landscape to the North Pole has won the hearts and minds of thousands of children and families.

This year the V&T doubled the number of train rides for this season. With the added trains, remaining coach tickets are available Nov. 24, Dec. 1, Dec. 5, Dec. 12, all departing at 8pm.

Set to “The Polar Express” motion picture soundtrack, pajama-clad children can relive the magical story on the Virginia & Truckee. During the journey, the conductor will punch tickets and chefs will serve hot chocolate, followed by a reading of Van Allsburg’s classic. At the North Pole, Santa will step aboard and greet the children.

The V&T’s engine and holiday decorated passenger cars leave the Carson City Eastgate Depot (seven miles east of downtown Carson City) and travel nearly two miles before stopping at Santa’s mythical North Pole retreat.

The limited coach tickets are $38 for adults and $29 for children (free for children under 2 who sit on a lap). The train Nov. 22-Dec. 22 on Friday, Saturday and Sunday with departure times of 5pm, 6:30pm and 8pm.

To purchase tickets, call 877.724.5007.

By Andrea Petersen, Wall Street Journal

Parents should ban electronic media during mealtimes and after bedtime as part of a comprehensive “family media use plan,” according to new recommendations from the American Academy of Pediatrics.

The influential new guidelines are being spurred by a growing recognition of kids’ nearly round-the-clock media consumption, which includes everything from television to texting and social media.

“Excessive media use is associated with obesity, poor school performance, aggression and lack of sleep,” said Marjorie Hogan, co-author of the new policy and a pediatrician.

Families should have a no-device rule during meals and after bedtime, the guidelines say. Parents should also set family rules covering the use of the Internet and social media and cellphones and texting, including, perhaps, which sites can be visited, who can be called and giving parental access to Facebook accounts. The policy also reiterated the AAP’s existing recommendations: Kids should limit the amount of screen time for entertainment to less than two hours per day; children younger than 2 shouldn’t have any TV or Internet exposure. Also, televisions and Internet-accessible devices should be kept out of kids’ bedrooms.

Read the whole story

By Jan Hoffman, New York Times

Because of heightened awareness about the hazards of sports-related concussions, many states have implemented standards determining when an injured student may resume playing contact sports. But only a few states have begun to address how and when a student should resume classwork.

On Sunday the American Academy of Pediatrics issued recommendations for “return to learn” checklists to alert doctors, school administrators and parents to potential cognitive and academic challenges to students who have suffered concussions.

“They’re student athletes, and we have to worry about the student part first,” said Dr. Mark E. Halstead, the lead author of “Returning to Learning Following a Concussion,” a clinical report in this week’s Pediatrics.

For adolescents prone to risk-taking behaviors, concussions are not just the nasty by-products of sports. Halstead, an assistant professor in pediatric sports medicine at Washington University, recently treated a 15-year-old girl whose concussion came not from a soccer match, but because “she was running backwards in a school hallway and cracked heads with someone.”

The academy emphasized that research about recovery protocols and cognitive function is scant: There is no established rest-until-recovered timeline. The new recommendations are based on expert opinions and guidelines developed by the Rocky Mountain Youth Sports Medicine Institute in Denver.

Doctors generally recommend that a student with a concussion rest initially, to give the brain time to heal. That may mean no texting, video games, computer use, reading or television. But there’s a big question mark about the timing and duration of “cognitive rest.” Experts have not identified at what point mental exertion impedes healing, when it actually helps, and when too much rest prolongs recovery. Although many doctors are concerned that a hasty return to a full school day could be harmful, this theory has not yet been confirmed by research.

Read the whole story

Sandra McElroy, longtime owner of Grass Roots Natural Foods in South Lake Tahoe, died Oct. 19. She was 54.

Born Nov. 11, 1958, to Jack and Carole Spraggins, she and her four sisters grew up in Houston. Gail, Becky, Sandra, Lenny and Kitten sang professionally as “The Spraggin Sisters” for many years in the Houston area. Sandra also did modeling and acting jobs during that time.

Sandra McElroy

In 1989 she moved to Lake Tahoe where she met Jon McElroy. They married in 1990.

Sandra and Jon worked together for almost 25 years running Grass Roots Natural Foods. Sandra always appreciated everyone who worked for her, and saw them more as friends than employees.

She loved hiking in the mountains, swimming in the lake and doing yoga on the beach. She loved to travel, especially anywhere tropical. She loved the hula and took many classes at Lake Tahoe Community College.

Sandra loved to express her creative side. She was a talented artist, enjoying painting, drawing, photography, writing stories and screen plays, playing her drums and sewing.

She had a strong love for her family, and even with them miles apart, she never lost contact with any of them.

Sandra’s smile and cute dimples would light up any room she entered. She enjoyed life and tried to live it as fully as she could.

Words cannot express how much she will be missed by all who knew her.

John Hindmarsh, South Shore author and self-publisher, will share his latest books “Mark One” (a thriller) and “Shen Ark: Departure” (a science fiction novel) on Nov. 13 at 6pm.

Hindmarsh will also discuss the challenges of and how to self-publishing.

This Friends of the Library event is free and open to all. It will be at the South Lake Tahoe Library, 1000 Rufus Allen Blvd.

For more info, call (530) 573.3185.

By Robert D. Dávila, Sacramento Bee

Maryanne B. Ingemanson, a world-class concert pianist who founded a Sacramento land-development company and led a successful property-tax revolt in Incline Village, died Oct. 2 of cancer. She was 80.

Mrs. Ingemanson was a musical prodigy who began piano lessons at 21/2 at the Chicago Conservatory of Music. Her early years of discipline and rigorous training as a performer helped prepare her for a pioneering career in the rough-and-tumble world of commercial real estate and a nine-year battle over property-tax bills in North Lake Tahoe communities in Nevada.

Maryanne B. Ingemanson

“She was a very determined and hardworking woman,” said Andy Matthews of the Nevada Policy Research Institute, a free-market think tank. “When she made up her mind that she wanted to accomplish something, nothing was going to stand in her way. She was very intelligent as well, a really gifted thinker.”

Born Aug. 13, 1933, in Atlanta, the former Maryanne Bullock moved with her family to Chicago and gave her first concert at 5. By 10, she had a manager and traveled the world as a professional classical pianist. She performed with major symphonies after settling in Sacramento with her family and graduated from McClatchy High School in 1950.

At 19, she won the Marie Morrisey Keith Award as the outstanding young piano soloist in the United States. In 1954, she earned a licentiate and fellowship – equivalent to American bachelor’s and master’s degrees – in music from Trinity College in London and began a tour in Europe.

Mrs. Ingemanson settled in Incline Village in 1984 with her husband after he retired from dentistry. She formed the Village League to Save Incline Assets and led the group’s efforts to keep the local hospital from closing and to protect homeowners’ private beaches at Lake Tahoe.

Read the whole story

People interested in becoming trained master gardeners must attend an orientation on Nov. 4 or Nov. 13 to participate in the University of Nevada Cooperative Extension 2014 Master Gardener training course Feb. 24 through April 16.

Course enrollment is limited to 30 students in Reno and 10 students in Gardnerville. Those interested in enrolling must sign up for and attend one of the mandatory orientation sessions. Both orientations will be from 10–11:30am.

The training program develops master gardener volunteers and leaders in environmental stewardship through education. Students complete the training, pass an exam and provide 50 hours of community service to become certified master gardeners.

To sign up for one of the orientation sessions, contact Wendy Hanson Mazet at (775) 784.4848 or hansonw@unce.unr.edu.

By Jeremy Miller

“Enough Said” is a masterpiece written and directed by Nicole Holofcener. It stars James Gandolfini, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Catherine Keener and Toni Collette.

Eva (Dreyfus) is a middle-aged divorced massage therapist. She’s the quirkiest, yet most incredibly charming character I’ve seen in a long time. Her path crosses with Albert (Gandolfini) who’s in pretty much the same boat. They’re both moved on from failed relationships and they aren’t necessarily looking for anything either. They meet at a party thrown by some of the higher ups on the social strata and each character seems to not fit quite right.

Their meeting is pretty low-key, but from the get-go you know these two have something refreshing.

Another positive from the party is that Eva picked up another client named Marianne (Keener) who’s an earth friendly hippie type. They form a pretty cliché friendship and start hanging out on a regular basis.

Simultaneously Eva and Albert go on a few dates that are full of quirky indie-romantic humor. I loved it because it really broke the mold of the “ideal scene” that 99 percent of all romantic comedies tend to fit and show what real dates are like. There’s imperfect conversation, awkward moments, tension and flaws that I’ve always wanted to see characters exhibit in a romance movie.

In the meantime, Eva and Marianne find comfort in the fact that they can talk about their past marriages and vent about all the terrible times they had with their former partners and get down some good old-fashion girl talk. Throw in a bunch of perfect “best friend” humor in the form of her pal Sarah (Collette) who’s blunt and borderline emotionally unstable and boy are there some laughs.

Eva starts to build something pretty nice for herself in the relationship department, but what’s a movie without conflict? Enter in the fact that her newfound bestie and boyfriend were once married, and all that bad-mouthing that Marianne was spewing was about the man Eva’s now falling for. Eva does what any human being would and starts pulling for more. She’s essentially getting “the other side of the story” in an attempt to either protect herself or save a lot of time and heartache.

The film crescendos when everyone finds out about everything; and boy is it rough to watch (in a hysterically tense kind of way). I loved this movie for so many reasons; mostly because of how much reality it brought to the table. Its realism was perfectly balanced with its subtle charm. Every actor brought his or her A-game on this one, and what a way for Gandolfini to end his career.

I had a hard time watching it because of the fact that I knew it was his last. His performance was one of the most personal and equally sentimental that he’s ever done. The chemistry he shared with Julia Louis-Dreyfus was absolutely flawless, touching and all around heart-warming. They bounced back and forth with the wittiest conversations that really made you wish you were that funny.

The ending was perfect. It gave you just enough to leave you satisfied and not too much to where you’re begging for the credits to roll as you’re drowned in overly scripted romantic mush.

James Gandolfini was so incredibly talented; it’s really tough to know that I won’t be writing any more reviews with him in them. I miss him and salute him for one of the most well rounded, beautifully crafted careers in film and television in history. RIP Jim, and from the bottom of my heart thanks for everything.

South Lake Tahoe resident Jeremy Miller has more movie reviews online.