By Ricardo Lopez, Los Angeles Times

They aren’t leaving the nest.

More than one-third of millennials still live with their parents, the highest share in their age group in at least 40 years, according to a Pew Research Center analysis released Thursday.

Last year, a record 21.6 million adults ages 18-31 lived in their parents’ homes, Pew said. That’s up from 18.5 million in 2007.

The reasons why millennials are living with their parents vary, Pew said. It’s a combination of economic, educational and cultural factors.

But one striking detail shows that men are more likely than women to still be living with their parents, according to Thursday’s analysis.

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UNR’s Department of Anthropology, in partnership with the Nevada Indian Commission and the Washoe Tribal Historic Preservation Office, is conducting an excavation at the historic Stewart Indian School in Carson City.

The Stewart facility is a 110-acre historic district that is home to more than 50 historic buildings.

Sarah Cowie, assistant professor of anthropology in the university’s College of Liberal Arts, is directing the excavation, which also serves as a summer field school that teaches students about archaeology and historic preservation. This collaborative project combines the efforts of professional archaeologists, Native American specialists in heritage, and students from diverse backgrounds.

The Stewart Indian School was open from 1890-1980 with a federal mandate to educate American Indian children, initially from the Great Basin Tribes (Washoe, Northern and Southern Paiute, and Western Shoshone), but eventually accepting children from tribal nations of the region. The intent of the Indian boarding school was not to prepare the American Indian children for higher education, but to educate them enough so they could work in the dominant society, away from their culture and traditions.

Stewart alumni have told Washoe Tribal Historic Preservation Officer Darrel Cruz that in early years, young native children were forcibly removed from their homes to live on the Stewart Indian School campus. This practice was well documented at other Indian schools around the country and resulted in a traumatic time for both the children and their parents. However, in later years attendance at Stewart was optional and alumni from that period say it was good for some. It provided an avenue for the native population to learn a skill that would allow gainful employment.

The Nevada Indian Commission, a state agency, has been the lead on efforts to preserve the history and legacy of the school. The commission has worked with stakeholders, including the school’s alumni, to identify potential cultural tourism use of the buildings and campus. A cultural center and museum are planned, with future plans for a destination experience. The project is in the planning and fundraising phase.

Although the Stewart Indian School site is now owned by the state, it is located on the traditional homelands of the Washoe Tribe of California and Nevada.

The public is welcome to visit the site (5500 Snyder Way, Carson City) while the team is working there, Mondays through Fridays, 9am-noon and 1-3pm. They expect to conclude their work Aug. 13.

Tahoe Lakeshore Lodge and Spa is hosting a benefit for Tahoe Arts Project that will feature the music of Niall McGuinness, Trey Stone and John Shipley.

The event is Aug. 15 from 7-9pm.

Bring blankets, low back chairs, food and beverages, but no pets. Soda, water and baked goods will be available for purchase and there will be a raffle.

A suggested donation of $10 per person will support Tahoe Arts Project’s mission of bringing professional performing arts into the schools and community of South Lake Tahoe. This is a family friendly event.

Tahoe Lakeshore Lodge and Spa is behind Heidi’s Restaurant in South Lake Tahoe.

Call (530) 542.3632 for more information.

Dogs enjoy games at the inaugural Dawgs on the Run event. Photo/Provided

The 2nd annual Dog Carnival returns to South Lake Tahoe on Aug. 17 from 10am to 4pm.

The nonprofit Dawgs on the Run puts on the event to promote the fun and benefits of having dogs in our lives. It’s a full day for dogs and their humans to enjoy games, contests, raffles, food, prizes and informative demonstrations.

All leashed dogs are invited.

Dog games and contests during the day include:

• Play Dead Time Contest

• Peanut Butter Lick Contest

• Agility Contest

• Strut Your Mutt Runway Costume Contest

• Groom Off Makeover

• Tail Wagging Trick Contest

• I have The Music In Me Musical Chairs

• Dawgy Karaoke Contest

• Barnyard Bingo

• Bobbing For Tennis Balls.

There will be special presentations by Tammy Cowen of K9 Bliss Dog Behavior & Training, a Paw Reader, Jacki Wright Mobile Dog & Cat Grooming will be on hand with demonstrations and grooming tips, and a Big Bite Biscuit Bake Off with local chefs. Pet rescue groups will be on hand for adoptions as well as the South Lake Tahoe Humane Society.

Who’s the Tahoe Dog Contest is back. Dog owners can post their dog’s photo and short essay on why they deserve the honor on the Dawg’s on the Run. The winner will be announced during the carnival.

Ski Run Boulevard will be closed at Larch Avenue.

On Aug. 4, TOCCATA — Tahoe Symphony Orchestra & Chorus — will continue its 21-concert Summer MusicFest with the annual presentation of NorthStar Chamber Players.

The two concert series opens at Squaw Valley Chapel (444 Squaw Peak Road in Olympic Valley) at 5pm. The chamber music series features Toni Healy on flute, Amy Heald on oboe, Darrell Moore-clarinet, Ben Benson-bassoon and Bruce Kanzelmayer on French horn. Works to be performed include the “Three Short Pieces” by Jacques Ibert and “Three Shanties” by Malcolm Arnold. Pianist Donna Axton joins the group for Francis Poulenc’s “Sextet for Wind Quintet and Piano”.

Mezzo soprano Liudmila Mullin joins the group for selections by J.S. Bach with piano and solo wind instruments.

The concert will be repeated Aug. 6 at 7pm in the Steinway Gallery in Reno located at 500 East Moana Lane.

Tickets are $20 for adults and $15 for seniors at all concerts, $5 for students younger than 23 with a valid student ID, and youth 18 and under enter at no charge for admission.

For information, call (775) 267.1720.

The kitchen at the Pope estate, left, was separate from the main house for fear of fire. This was customary during that era. Photos/Kathryn Reed

By Kathryn Reed

CAMP RICHARDSON – Do you have what it takes to work for the wealthy on a seasonal basis along the shore of Lake Tahoe?

A new tour this summer at the Tallac Historic Site is designed to give visitors a glimpse into what it was like to be part of the hired help at the estates.

“The Servant’s Tour is from the perspective of the servants. They act like you are there for a job,” Tami Africa, who works for the U.S. Forest Service at the Tallac Site, told Lake Tahoe News. She said visitors find out what was expected of people who worked for the Popes.

Pets in 1880 came via these carriers.

While it’s the maid or butler who gives the tour of the Pope estate, other servants at the time would have included a nanny, tutor, cooks, gardeners, blacksmith, seamstress and others.

The Pope, Baldwin and Heller estates make up the Tallac Historic Site on the South Shore near Camp Richardson. The 150 acres have been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1986.

While the site is open year-round to meander through, the buildings are only open seasonally.

These sprawling lakefront compounds were summer homes for wealthy San Franciscans in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

At one time Lucky Baldwin, who was the first president of the Pacific Stock Exchange, had 8,000 acres on the South Shore. He also owned more than 50,000 acres in Southern California.

He came into the Tahoe property in 1880, and developed what was there into a resort that included a hotel and outbuildings that could house 250 people. Remnants of the tennis court still exist. And long before men with the name of Harrah and Gross built casinos in Stateline, Baldwin has his own in Tahoe – in California.

What is now the museum at the Baldwin property was the home Dextra Baldwin, granddaughter of Lucky Baldwin, had built in 1920 when she was 19. Her bedroom has been turned into a gift shop. Another room is devoted to the Washoe Indians who before the wealthy arrived called the shore of Lake Tahoe their home.

The main house on the Baldwin estate.

But even the expanse of the kitchen and what are now antiques prove these were people with money who could afford a 5,000-square-foot home.

The Pope house remains more like it would have been nearly a century ago. (Tours are available.) George Tallant built it in 1894, with George Pope acquiring it in 1923. It is the largest of the three estates. The main house is also more ornate than the others.

Walter Heller built Valhalla in 1924. Today it is better known as the Grand Hall – which is used for weddings and other events that Tahoe Tallac Association puts on.

The TTA also uses the old boathouse on the property as a theater for summer performances.

Today the U.S. Forest Service owns the Tallac Historic Site. A cadre of volunteers keeps it running and helps maintain the grounds.

—

Things to know:

• Baldwin Museum is open daily through Sept. 2 from 10am-4pm, then Thursday-Sunday from Sept. 5-Oct. 6 from noon-4pm.

• Pope tours run daily through Sept. 2 except Wednesdays. Times are 11am, 1pm and 2:30pm. Cost is $8 for adults and $3 for children.

• Servant’s Tour is weekends at 3pm and Wednesdays at 11am and 2:30pm until Sept. 1. Cost is $5.

• The Tallac Site is 2½ miles north of the Y in South Lake Tahoe on Highway 89.

Wherever Chris Smith is in the world — even at Everest base camp in November 2011 — he juggles. Photos/Provided

By Kathryn Reed

Some people send postcards, others text a picture. But those modes of communicating one’s adventures are ordinary, especially if you are Chris Smith.

The South Tahoe High School grad – who was in town last weekend for his 10-year reunion – has had some sort of camera in his hands or strapped to him for years. And since he was 12 he has been juggling almost anything that he picks up.

While he was in Iceland this year he decided to use a GoPro camera with a wide-angle lens to film his juggling exploits in that country. It was a way to share with family and friends what he was seeing.

A lot more people than he expected have joined in on the fun. Nearly 700,000 people on YouTube have viewed Juggling Around Iceland. This got the attention of producers at NBC’s “Today Show”.

They tracked Smith down in Hawaii, where he was wrapping up the Blue Man Group tour. He put together a similar video for the morning show from Hawaii to Studio 1A in New York – which includes some footage of Lake Tahoe.

The “Today Show” segment aired July 29.

The start and the future

Smith was 18 when his dad, Phil Smith, and St. Theresa Catholic School student Michael Bank Jr., 14, died off the Mendocino coast. It was that tragedy that led him to write the screenplay “Shadow in the Trees”. The movie is fiction, but there are truths in it about what he and his family went through following the Jan. 11, 2004, drownings.

Netflix and iTunes picked up the movie, which he finished before he graduated from UCLA in 2007.

This was the third year the proceeds from the movie have been used as a scholarship for a STHS graduate who has overcome adversity and who is pursuing a degree in film.

Hollywood film director Stephen Herek, who helped Smith with the final edit, is still a mentor to him.

Writing-directing-acting – he wants to do all three, even though he knows it’s more common to specialize.

South Tahoe High School grad Chris Smith lives in Los Angeles where he is pursuing his dreams of being an actor-writer-director.

“I could do any one of those things and feel like I am happy and successful,” Smith told Lake Tahoe News.

But, he added, it’s the juggler in him that makes him want to have more than one career “ball” going at a time.

Smith has applied for a director fellowship through Universal NBC that he will find out about in September.

He takes off for Copenhagen next week where he’ll spend three weeks. Part of the adventure is to visit the country he was born in – even though he grew up in South Lake Tahoe – and visit with his mom’s side of the family, while also wrapping up an action-adventure-comedy script.

Smith has an agent and manager for the writing side of his career.

He considers the year with the Blue Man Group – which included 10 months in 51 cities – as a significant segment of his acting career.

Directing is Smith’s long-term goal.

But what is most important to the 28-year-old is that whatever he is doing, he is storytelling.

By Nancy Shute, NPR

The misery of low back pain often drives people to the doctor to seek relief. But doctors are doing a pretty miserable job of treating back pain, a study finds.

Physicians are increasingly prescribing expensive scans, narcotic painkillers and other treatments that don’t help in most cases, and can make things a lot worse. Since 1 in 10 of all primary care visits are for low back pain, this is no small matter.

What does help? Some ibuprofen or other over-the-counter painkiller, and maybe some physical therapy. That’s the evidence-based protocol. With that regimen, most people’s back pain goes away within three months.

But when researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston looked at records of 23,918 doctor visits for simple back pain between 1999 and 2010, they found that doctors have actually been getting worse at prescribing scientifically based treatments.

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Bona Fide Books is seeking literary essays for a collection about life and work in U.S. national parks.

In Volume 1 were tales of grizzly encounters and streaking through Denali, personal relationships with temperamental elk and the dirty truth behind housekeeping in Yellowstone. Now, the Meyers publishing house wants stories from parks east of the Mississippi, from Acadia to the Everglades, from the Smokies to Shenandoah. Contributors must have lived or worked in the parks.

Each writer will receive $100 for their essay and one copy of the collection.

Submissions will be accepted through Sept. 1. Submit via email to submissions@bonafidebooks.com.

Bongo

Bongo is a very sweet bloodhound who is 4 years old.

He’s a big boy, about 90 pounds, and he’s very well-behaved and walks nicely on his leash. Bongo will do well in just about any household, but potential adopters might research the breed to be informed about their traits and tendencies. He’s a great dog who has a big bay to match those ears.

Bongo is neutered, microchipped, and vaccinated. 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 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.

— Karen Kuentz