Lake Tahoe Community College’s Haldan Art Gallery is about to showcase the work of three Bay Area artists whose work is derived either literally or abstractly from organic form.

The exhibit opens Sept. 30 and runs through Dec. 3. There will be a reception for the artists Sept. 30 from 6 to 8pm, with an artists’ talk in the gallery from 5 to 6pm. The reception is free and open to the public.

Joy Broom's art will be at Lake Tahoe Community College.

In addition to an extensive professional art career spanning three decades, Joy Broom is a full-time art instructor at Diablo Valley College in Pleasant Hill. With a drawing and painting style that is uniquely hers, Broom’s imagery ranges from precise botanicals to da Vinci’s faces to scary insect forms. She has shown in numerous galleries throughout the Bay Area and the West Coast. In 1992 Broom was awarded a WESTAF/NEA Regional Fellowship for Visual Artists, for Works on Paper. Her work is included in the DiRosa Preserve and Collection in Napa and numerous other private collections in the Bay Area.

Pamela Glasscock was born in Colorado and studied fine art at Stanford University. In 1974 she met her future husband, artist Tony King in New York, where the couple pursued their careers until the early 1990s. During this time Glasscock focused on landscape and still life in silverpoint, a Renaissance drawing technique. The couple spent summers in California until 1992, when they relocated permanently to Freestone with their two sons. After the move, Glasscock began to paint flowers from her own garden and those of friends. Her drawings and watercolors of flowers are meticulously rendered, and created with amazing scientific precision.

The executive curator of Bedford Arts Gallery in Walnut Creek, Carrie Lederer has exhibited her own work in major arts venues and California museums.

Her complex paintings are inspired by fractals and botany.

Lederer’s recent paintings depict turbulent gardens informed by nature’s riotous beauty, or the deep space of our universe filled with a Byzantine intricacy of stars, snowflakes, and snowmen.

Haldan Art Gallery hours are:

Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday 11am to 5:30pm

Friday 11am to 2:30pm

The gallery is open and free to the public and hours are subject to change. To schedule a tour,contact Diana Nelson at nelson@ltcc.edu or (530) 541.4660, ext. 335.

School Group Tours:

Lake Tahoe Community College welcomes all school groups to take advantage of the learning opportunity that exists in the gallery and Discovery Center. Teachers or class leaders should plan on a minimum of one hour for a group tour.

The college is located off Al Tahoe Boulevard on One College Drive. For more information, call (530) 541.4660, ext. 251.

The El Dorado County Resource Advisory Committee will be accepting proposals for projects that benefit National Forest lands in El Dorado County beginning in October. Applicants will be required to complete a written application and will have the opportunity to make an oral presentation before the RAC. Information about the RAC and the types of projects that will be considered for funding can be found on the Internet.

The committee currently has $500,000 available to recommend projects to the forest supervisors of the Eldorado National Forest and the Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit for implementation on their respective units.

RAC funds were made available under Title II of the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self Determination Act of 2008 which spells out how the funds can be spent. The act says funds may be used for the purpose of making additional investments in, and creating additional employment opportunities through, projects that improve the maintenance of existing infrastructure, implement stewardship objectives that enhance forest ecosystems, and restore and improve land health and water quality.

The act goes on to say that projects should have broad based support with objectives that may include, but are not limited to: road, trail, and infrastructure maintenance or obliteration; soil productivity improvement; improvements in ecosystem health; watershed restoration and maintenance; restoration, maintenance and improvement of wildlife and fish habitat; control of noxious and exotic weeds; and reestablishment of native grasses.

At least 50 percent of the funds must be used for projects that are primarily dedicated to: road maintenance, decommissioning, or obliteration; or restoration of streams and watersheds.

The purpose of the El Dorado County Resource Advisory Committee is to recommend funding of eligible projects to the Forest Supervisors of Eldorado National Forest and the Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit. The next scheduled RAC meeting is Oct. 18 at the El Dorado Center of Folsom Lake College, in the Community Room, beginning at 6pm.

By Mark Glover, Sacramento Bee

An industry that relies on giving is taking some lumps these days.

Northern California charitable organizations big and small have seen donations decline as the recession, high unemployment and declining home values erode donors’ wealth.

Competition for the dwindling pool of private donations is also up, since nonprofits that long relied on government funding have been hurt by local and state budget cuts. The affected nonprofits have stepped into an already crowded pool of organizations seeking donations from recession-battered businesses, foundations and consumers.

“It’s a very challenging environment at the moment,” said Steve Heath, president and CEO of United Way California Capital Region, which kicked off its annual workplace giving campaign this month at the Sacramento Convention Center.

The United Way campaign is the region’s largest, seeking donations from workers at some 700 employers in Sacramento, El Dorado, Placer, Yolo and Amador counties. Scores of nonprofits benefit from the campaign.

Read the whole story

Nearly 150 Douglas County third-graders will participate in a journey of exploration from the Minden-Tahoe Airport to space and beyond.

The program is sponsored by the Minden-Tahoe Airport as part of a partnership with the Douglas County School District. The airport and school district plan to make the program an annual event that is coordinated with the science curriculum of the students.

“This program is aimed at inspiring and educating young people in our community about the world of aviation and aerospace science,” Steve Mokrohisky, assistant County manager for Douglas County, said in a press release. “We are truly excited about our partnership with the school sistrict and the opportunity to highlight the educational value of aviation.”

This year the district is starting with students from Pinon and Minden elementary schools,

“Everything being offered at the Aviation Education Day is in line with our third-grade science curriculum and it provides such a great way to add hands-on relevance and rigor for our students,” Kerry Pope, director of curriculum and instruction for DCSD, said in a press release.

The program begins at 9am Sept. 29 at the Minden-Tahoe Airport. Groups of approximately 30 students each will rotate through the Challenge Learning Center of Northern Nevada dome where they will learn about aviation, earth science, space science, space travel and exploration, and geography.

By Debbie Arrington, Sacramento Bee

To horse rescuer Beth DeCaprio, a pair of recent cases represent the worst of an already bad situation.

A 3-year-old gelding – unable to stand on his own four hooves – was discovered in July in an empty field at Latrobe and Stonehouse roads near Rancho Murieta. Left without food or water for weeks, the horse was hundreds of pounds underweight, had been burned with cigarettes and most likely poisoned.

In August, a starving thoroughbred mare and her filly foal were let loose to fend for themselves. Animal control officers found them standing on the side of Clay Station Road, emaciated and near death.

Sacramento County animal control officers took all three horses to the Grace Foundation, a nonprofit rescue facility in El Dorado Hills. The Humane Society of the United States has offered a $2,500 reward for information leading to the arrest and prosecution of parties responsible for these horses’ neglect and abuse.

Read the whole story

By Kathryn Reed

Sociologists, psychologists, psychiatrists and several other professional ists could probably have a field day analyzing people who have garage sales and the people who go to them.

I fell into the former category last Saturday.

I’m still baffled why people on vacation go to garage sales. I find them to be the strangest breed of garage sale-goer. I realize people shop on vacation. But why for other people’s stuff and not some cool souvenir instead?

What didn't sell Sept. 18 is now at the Attic thrift store. Photo/Kathryn Reed

Maybe I’m too critical of what I had out in the driveway. Obviously, several people thought there was something special because each of those 50-cent sales added up to $127.35 by the end of the day.

What didn’t sell was thrown into the back of the Jeep to be hauled to Barton’s thrift store. It wasn’t coming back into the house.

With the interior of the house about to be painted, it was time to start going through things. Drawers were unloaded, the underneath of beds sorted through (though still in need of vacuuming), closets thinned, wine glasses tossed, an entire book shelf cleared and sold, and knickknacks dumped, um, sold.

Putting out signs on fluorescent colored poster board the night before did the trick in luring would-be buyers to our street. One of our neighbors was getting rid of stuff too, so people scored on our street last Saturday.

This was the most traffic I have had at a garage. (I always just do one-dayers – there are too many other things to do in Tahoe on a weekend.) The six or so hours spent selling my wares also allowed me to engage in conversation with people I probably would not otherwise have met. A couple people I knew also stopped by.

And doing nothing is a bit of a foreign concept to me. So the garage sale got me off my computer – OK I was on it the first hour, but then I put it in the house. I brought out reading material to fill the few gaps of time.

I’m not sure if it is the economy or lack of garage sales in September, but the number of people coming by was astounding.

What I don’t understand is a person who asks the price of something but doesn’t bother to haggle. Some do. But plenty of others don’t. Really, that $2 rug could have gone for $1. Oh well, I eventually got the two bucks I wanted.

I didn’t sell anything for more than $20. I asked $25 for the bookcase and got $20. It’s hard to stay firm when neighbors are doing the bidding.

What are people thinking when they walk onto private property with a cigarette or cigar. My hacking didn’t faze any of them. Isn’t there some sort of garage sale etiquette out there?

And the people who bring their kids and let them step on stuff. Unbelievable. Yes, I want to get rid of the stuff, but it doesn’t need to be trampled on and broken.

And people — slow down. Nothing at any of these garage sales is that valuable that you must speed through residential neighborhoods. I apologize to my neighbors for bringing so much traffic to our little street last week.

What has amazed me at most garage sales I’ve had is how the stuff I got for free sells better than the stuff I paid good money for. I’m not sure what that says about my spending choices or other people’s buying habits. I don’t think I want to know.

I don’t go to garage sales. But I know good things can be had from them – like our $10 gas lawnmower. (Though it did cost $15 to sharpen the blades.) And we have a set of cool cordial glasses I would have never bought in a store, but sure are fun to sip libations from.

And, yes, I’ll tell my accountant about the earned income in case I need to pay taxes on it.

By Laurel Rosenhall, Sacramento Bee

Political pressure on teachers unions has been mounting for months, with national attention focused on charter schools, merit pay and other approaches to education that unions generally hate.

Now the pressure is moving to the big screen in a manner sure to pervade the public consciousness in a whole new way. Three new documentary films explore public education, taking stances that have inflamed teachers unions and brought applause from organizations that support charter schools and other union-busting changes.

The films criticize tenure and highlight how difficult it is for school districts to fire bad teachers. They present the unions as a major cause of problems in America’s public schools. The solution, offered in two of the films through compelling stories of children trying to get into better schools through a lottery, is charter schools.

Read the whole story

Discover a unique combination of theater, video and live interaction that creates a high impact experience and an unforgettable journey through history with Living Voices presented by Tahoe Arts Project.

Witness the dynamically changing Northwest at the turn of the century. The expansion of the railroad, the discovery of gold, labor struggles, and world war – these are the passages experienced by a young Swedish immigrant and her community. As she interacts with her African, Asian, and Native American neighbors you’ll discover the diversity of the American experience.

The Northwest Passages’ program is Oct. 1 at 7pm at the South Lake Tahoe Senior Center.

Suggested donation of $5.

For more information, call Tahoe Arts Project at (530) 542.3632.

By Kathryn Reed

See that pink Ford F-150 cruising around South Lake Tahoe. It belongs to an elementary school principal. It’s not that he can’t afford a professional paint job, it’s just that his students are so smart.

Sierra House Elementary School Principal Ryan Galles smiled and shook his head as Girl Power, peace signs and hearts were painted on the hood of his 1992 truck.

Principal Ryan Galles, pink shirt, watches his truck become bright pink. Photos/Kathryn Reed

Pink paint was everywhere as most grades, including sixth-graders who came back Sept. 22, took brushes to every open spot except for windows, chrome and tires.

Malia Alexander, a fifth-grader, took her time to fill in the brown parts on the side that still showed through.

Pedro Chavez and Jesus Zepeda, sixth-graders, climbed into the bed of the truck to reach the roof.

Galles was trying to convince himself the original brown paint mixed with the pink created a camouflage look of sorts. He wasn’t convincing anyone within earshot.

This is the vehicle he drives to work most days.

“The paint is magenta, but it’s drying pretty pink,” Galles said.

The students were rewarded with this bit of mischief because they exceeded expectations on the statewide test scores that were just released. Last year he had to shave his hair into a Mohawk because these South Tahoe kids did so well.

“It’s getting harder and harder to top the previous year,” Galles said. “I’ve told the kids to put on their thinking cap for what to do next year.”

Galles’ philosophy is education needs more ways to motivate kids. The thought of painting the principal’s truck did the trick this year.

ngg_shortcode_0_placeholder (Click on photos to enlarge.)

Todd Offenbacher, world-class climber and Resort Sports Network host, will be speaking at Sierra Nevada College in Incline Village on Sept. 28 in the Tahoe Center for Environmental Sciences, rooms 139/141, from 7-9pm.

Widely known for founding and hosting the Tahoe Adventure Film Festival, a high-energy event in its eighth season that showcases 10-minute clips from the best adventure sports films of the year, Offenbacher is also intensely devoted to rock climbing in some of the world’s most remote and challenging terrain. This passion led the South Shore resident and three other climbers to a remote region of Pakistan to attempt a first ascent on the colossal, unclimbed granite face of Shingu Sharpa. The expedition was unsuccessful. Undeterred, the climbers journeyed back to the region, one year after a massive land slide had destroyed the nearby village of Kande.

Todd Offenbacher

Recipient of the Mugs Stump Award and the Lyman Spitzer Grant from the American Alpine Club, Offenbacher’s presentation “A Return to Pakistan” recounts the tale of a climbing epic that includes a broken leg at 5,500 meters, natural disasters, Taliban road blocks, and a mountain culture based on religion, honor, and respect. Long before the world was introduced to the acclaimed book “Three Cups of Tea,” Offenbacher and his fellow companions worked alongside Greg Mortenson and the Central Asia Institute offering aid to the people of Kande whose lives had been ruined by the natural disaster.

For more information on the presentation “A Return to Pakistan,”contact Library Director Betts Markle at (775) 881.7511 or emarkle@sierranevada.edu.