Cloe is a 5-year-old pure bred Bengal. She came to the shelter after being abandoned in a rental house.

Although Cloe is very scared and hides often at the shelter and hides often, she loves to cuddle.

She is also very vocal and talks to everyone.

Any family interested in Cloe should do some research about Bengals before meeting her.

Cloe 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.

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 Baumflek

The North Lake Tahoe Chamber of Commerce is hosting a series of seminars this month to help businesses benefit from the Amgen Tour of California  May 5-16.

Hosted by Tourism Director Andy Chapman of the North Lake Tahoe Resort Association, the seminars will educate businesses about how to connect with the thousands of spectators, fans and participants who will be in North Lake Tahoe for the Stage 1 Finish (May 15) and the Stage 2 Start (May 16), as well as the Tahoe 10-Day Countdown, a succession of events in the days leading up to the start.

The seminars are free and open to the public. No RSVP is required to take part.

Attending businesses will walk away with information about deadlines for advertising in publications, race contact information, sponsorship information, best viewing spots for their guests, timing for best viewing, where to view the race on television, ideas for maximizing their revenue during this time, as well as lodging package opportunities.

Seminar dates are:

March 23 2-3:30pm at Sawtooth Ridge in Tahoe City;

March 24 5:30-7pm at Blue Onion Café in Kings Beach;

March 28 9-10:30am at the Parasol Building in Incline Village;

March 28 2-3:30pm at Granlibakken Resort just outside of Tahoe City.

For more information about the seminars, call Kym Fabel at (530) 581.8764 or kym@puretahoenorth.com.

Tahoe Arts Project is sponsoring its 10th annual Arts Festival on July 9-10 at South Tahoe Middle School.

This outdoor festival will include art booths, food vendors, children’s art activities, entertainment, and fun for the entire family. This is a juried show and there is space available for artists interested in showing and selling their work.

Cost is $250 for a 10×10 booth and $400 for a 10×20.

TAP does not take a commission from your sales. Applications are available online or call (530) 542.3632 to request an application. The deadline is March 31.

Entertainers who would like to donate their time to perform at the festival should call (530) 542.3632.

This is Tahoe Arts Project’s major fundraiser for the year. Tahoe Arts project is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to provide cultural enrichment and diversity for the community through the arts and education with particular focus on our youth. Tahoe Arts Project has been bringing professional performing arts of various cultures into South Lake Tahoe schools and community for 24 years. All proceeds from the festival will go toward these programs.

By Mel Shields, Sacramento Bee

There’s a way to feel warm even on a snow-covered day in Reno. Visit the Nevada Museum of Art and see “Wondrous Cold: An Antarctic Journey.” By the third photograph, you’ll be delighting in the relative warmth of a Sierra winter.

Joan Myers, in several trips to the subcontinent, traveled by foot, plane, helicopter and snowmobile to settled (not many of those) and remote (all the rest) locations, taking photographs. The collection on display here, organized by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service, covers a broad range of subjects. Antarctica is, after all, more than just ice.

There is, however, plenty of ice in the photographs. One color image (most are black and white) captures the majesty of an iceberg, going within to show the ocean waves pounding through a passage. In another image, a man stands within a crevasse, dwarfed and vulnerable within the chasm.

Read the whole story

By Lisa Huard

STATELINE — A common celebration occurred throughout the world Tuesday. March 8 marked the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day.

Soroptimist International of South Lake Tahoe and Soroptimist International of Tahoe Sierra marked the event by bestowing the Violet Richardson, Women’s Opportunity, and Ruby Awards to women in the South Shore community.

The Violet Richardson Award program began in 2000 as a way to recognize girls for their volunteer service to their communities. This program honors young women between the ages of 14 and 17 whose volunteer efforts include: helping other disadvantaged girls; fighting drugs, crime and violence; cleaning up the environment; and working to end discrimination and poverty. Violet Richardson Ward, was the first president of the first Soroptimist club and was committed to creating opportunities for girls and young women.

Four young women — Riana Cerceo, Haley Dressel, Allyson Marchus, and Alejandra Medina — were recognized Tuesday night.

Two inspiring women received recognition as they were received the Women’s Opportunity Award, which was first awarded in 1972. Tiffany Reid and Lisa Shafer inspired the room of guests at Harrah’s Lake Tahoe with the story of their past and more important, their plans for the future. To date $25 million has been disbursed to help tens of thousands of women achieve their dreams of a better life for themselves and their families

The Soroptimist Ruby Award highlights women helping women. LeeAnne Stigers-Genasi was recognized with an award that honors the first federation president, Ruby Lee Minar. Stigers-Genasi’s has worked abroad to provide dentistry needs in Third World nations.

Lisa Huard is a member of Soroptimist International of Tahoe Sierra.

Keith Hansen, former National Intelligence Council official, will be the featured speaker at the Fireside Chat on March 24 at 7pm in Sierra Nevada College’s Tahoe Center for Environmental Sciences, rooms 139/141.

Given recent WikiLeaks arrests and controversy, Hansen will discuss this topic from a policy and intelligence perspective. Host Andy Whyman will lead this community dialogue addressing the question, “How does a democracy balance the public’s right to know against the need to preserve national security?”

Fireside Chats — a concept that grew out of the Seniors Conversation Café — are an ongoing series of evening discussions with some of Incline Village’s most interesting community members. It represents a partnership between Sierra Nevada College and the IVGID Senior Programs. Refreshments will be served.

Hansen joined SNC’s International Studies program as a visiting professor in fall 2010. He teaches courses on Global Issues and U.S. National Security Issues. Deeply involved in negotiations on the disarmament of nuclear weapons, as well as on a comprehensive ban on nuclear testing, he served for more than three decades with the government in military and civilian assignments. In Washington he served in various positions, including as the National Intelligence Officer for Strategic Programs and Nuclear Proliferation, where he supported the treaty ratification and counter-proliferation efforts of various administrations through the intelligence community’s efforts to produce national estimates on nuclear and proliferation issues.

Now retired from 35 years of government service, Hansen is a consulting professor of international relations at Stanford University. He and his wife live in Incline Village, but volunteer with various organizations in the United States and overseas. He is the author of several books about nuclear test bans and intelligence technologies.

For more information on the event, contact Shelia Leijon at (775) 832.1310, shelia_leijon@ivgid.org, or Debi Noonan at (775) 831.1314, ext. 7420, dnoonan@sierranevada.edu.

Join the Tahoe Twins baseball team for a fundraiser at the North Tahoe Event Center on March 19 from 7:30-11:30pm.

The Tahoe Twins and the North Tahoe Public Utility District’s Friends of the Park Fund will benefit with all proceeds going to make improvements at the North Tahoe Regional Park’s Ballfield 5, the home field of the Twins. Raffle tickets will be available for $1 each for six for $5 at the event. A beer garden will also be available.

Remley is a five-member band with a versatile style that mixes classic rock sounds with today’s hot rock grooves.

The Tahoe Twins are a semi-pro baseball team in the National Adult Baseball Association League. The Twins play in North Lake Tahoe and Reno. Their season runs from May-September. Approximately 18 home games will be played at the North Tahoe Regional Park this summer and there is no charge to watch the games. They are the reigning NABA World Series Champions and with a record of 52-18.

For information about the fundraiser, call (530) 546.4212.

Nymph is a sweet little girl, weighing about 4 pounds. She really loves to cuddle and be carried.

She likes other well mannered dogs and cats, and she is house trained.

She just had her teeth cleaned.

Nymph is about 10 years young and would like a home without children younger than she is.

Nymph 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.

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 Baumflek

By Kathryn Reed

It was a night of laughter. It was a night of tears. It was a night of reflection. It was a night of contemplation. It was a night of healing.

It was a night about vaginas.

Eve Ensler’s play “The Vagina Monologues” came to life Saturday night at the Loft at Blue Angel Café in South Lake Tahoe before a crowd of well more than 100 people.

Jen Gurecki brought "Vagina Monologues" to South Lake Tahoe eight years ago and continues to be an integral player. Photo/Kathryn Reed

This collection of stories about women touches on lives young and old, straight and lesbian, married and single, all colors, races and religions.

Their stories are about their relationships with their vaginas and how this has made them the women they are today.

A little Lake Tahoe was added to the segment about what women call their vaginas. For those on the North Shore it’s “sugar bowl” and on the South Shore it’s called “heavenly”.

V-Day is a global activist movement to stop violence against women and girls.

This is the eighth year South Lake Tahoe women have come together to present a benefit production. Money raised goes to CASA, South Lake Tahoe Women’s Center, Tahoe Youth & Family Service, and South Lake Tahoe Family Resource Center.

Each year a Vagina Warrior is honored for her dedication to the cause of making the lives of women better. Wendy David was the recipient March 5.

Join Marco Molinaro in learning about the field of biophotonics.

Molinaro will present a public lecture about the science of biophotonics from 7-8pm April 13 at the Tahoe Center for Environmental Sciences.

The event will be held in the assembly room 139-141,291 Country Club Drive, Incline Village.

Tickets cost $5 for the general public and no charge for students with valid student identification. Prior to the presentation UC Davis offers a no-host happy hour with

Biophotonics can be defined simply as the study of the interaction of light with biological material – where “light” includes all forms of radiant energy whose quantum unit is the photon. In biophotonics we generate and harness these photons to image, detect and manipulate biological materials as well as detect and cure disease.

With revolutionary advances in biomedical science, the understanding of the mechanisms of human health and disease has extended into the regime of cellular and molecular structure and function.