Cleo

Cleo is a 7-year-old gray tabby with medium length hair. She has lived with other cats and has been around dogs.

Cleo came to the shelter with another cat when their owner became homeless, and is a very pretty, sweet girl.

Cleo is spayed, microchipped, tested for FIV, 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. Vouchers may be obtained at the animal shelter also, check the website for application procedures.

— Karen Kuentz

Music on the Beach, the free concert series at Kings Beach State Recreation Area, kicks off June 30 from 6-8:30pm and will continue every Friday evening through Sept. 1, excluding Aug. 11.

Produced by North Tahoe Business Association, the 11th annual Music on the Beach will include nine free concerts over 10 weeks featuring a wide variety of music genres with local and regional performers.

Food will be provided by Red Truck, The Rub Shack, A Pop Above, Cheri’s Hand Dipped Ice Cream, Beef Jerky Etc., and Goodies Fresh Squeezed Lemonade. The North Tahoe Business Association will be serving Alibi Ali Works beer in addition to wine and soda. Outside alcohol and pets are prohibited.

Attendees are invited to bring low-back beach chairs and blankets.

For more information, go online.

Liberty Utilities has information on its website about the new Time of Use (TOU) rates.

Residential and small/medium business customers who are willing to use less electricity during periods when total energy demand is highest (the peak), can save money by shifting their usage to times with lower rates. Liberty offers TOU rates to residential and small and medium commercial customers.

For people who can move most of their power consumption to off-peak times (10:01pm to 5pm in winter and 10:01pm to 10am in summer), live in a single-family dwelling that is the primary residence and use more than the baseline kWh (i.e., maximum amount of kWh allocated to your rate class; differs for winter and summer) may be a candidate for this discounted rate.

Electric vehicle TOU rates are available too.

In addition to discounted rates during off-peak, there are also lower mid-peak rates during the winter (7:01am-5pm).

For more details about the TOU rate program, go online.

On June 3, volunteers in Kings Beach, Tahoe Vista, Carnelian Bay and Crystal Bay will take to the streets to pick up trash.

Registration will be at 9am at Community House located at 265 Bear St. in Kings Beach. This registration location is for Carnelian Bay, Tahoe Vista, Kings Beach and Crystal Bay.

Last year, more than 3,100 pounds of garbage was collected at North Tahoe’s Clean Up Day.

Volunteers will be assigned specific locations. They will be provided with gloves, bags, and volunteer appreciation goodies, while supplies last. While cleaning up, volunteers that find “golden items” win prizes donated by local businesses. 

Supplies may also be picked up from May 30-June 2, 9am-5pm at North Tahoe Business Association office, 8401 North Lake Blvd., No. 203 in Kings Beach.

By Tony Berendsen

“In the final decade of the 21st century…men and women in rocket ships landed on the moon. By 2200 A.D., they had reached the other planets of our solar system. Almost at once there followed the discovery of hyper-drive through which the speed of light was first attained…and later greatly surpassed. And so at last, mankind began the conquest…and colonization of deep space.”

Those are the beginning lines of my favorite science fiction movie “Forbidden Planet,” a 1956 classic starring Leslie Nielsen on a mission to the main sequence star Altair. I have revisited the movie over and over again to experience an amazing science fiction adventure, to wonder about the mysteries of the cosmos, and the future of the human race.

For those of you, like me, that enjoy sci-fi movies, the second year of the biggest little science fiction film festival in the world “Sci-On!” begins June 1 at the National Automobile Museum in Reno.

The festival opens with a screening of the Dome Show “Seeing,” narrated by Neil deGrasse Tyson, and introduced by Melodi Rodrigue, UNR astrophysicist. Additionally, there will be virtual reality demos from “Apollo 11”, “The Martian,” “Star Trek,” and festival finalists from VR media makers around the world.

The festival continues on June 2 with live sci-fi readings, by scientists, educators, critics and artists at the UNR Knowledge Center, Wells Fargo Theater. Later in the day there will be showings of the International Student Film Finalists of Animated and live action shorts at the National Automobile Museum.

Paul McFarland, lead flight director of the Challenger Center of Northern Nevada, had this to say about the festival, “The Sci-On! International Film Festival grew out of a passion for science, science fiction, and filmmaking. We partnered with an international organization of filmmakers and the entries started pouring in — with outstanding animation and live action projects from over 24 countries. Many of these gems are five to 10 minutes long, with production quality equal to Academy Award-nominated short films.”

On June 3 the festival peaks with an exciting list of events, including the official opening of the Be the Astronaut exhibit, a science fiction panel discussion, viewing of live action short film finalists, and a new spacecraft simulator at the Challenger Learning Center will be christened the USS Roddenberry.  Attending the ceremony will be Rod Roddenberry, son of Gene Roddenberry and executive producer of a new “Star Trek” series, accompanied by his wife Heidi Roddenberry, president of the Roddenberry Foundation.

Members of the public are invited to join the Roddenberry’s for a luncheon to launch the exhibit and the first ever Nevada Space Center Hall of Fame Awards, with a screening of “Trek Nation” and Q&A following. Tickets are available online.

Proceeds from the film festival events go to help reconstruct the nonprofit Challenger Learning Center project at the National Automobile Museum, which is helping co-sponsor the festival, with support from the Renaissance Hotel in Reno.

Tony Berendsen runs Tahoe Star Tours. He may be reached at 775.232.0844 or tony@tahoestartours.com.

By Paula Span, New York Times

In many ways, the life that Karen Kanter and Stan Tobin share in Philadelphia sounds entirely typical. Both 75, they happily see movies and plays together, visit children and grandchildren, try new restaurants (but avoid sushi).

He supported her through a successful breast cancer treatment years ago. She has been prodding him about putting on pounds, so he has returned to Weight Watchers.

Careful about financial and legal arrangements, they co-own their condo near the Museum of Art and a cottage in upstate New York. She has his power of attorney and health care proxy, and vice versa. But although they have been a couple since 2002 and have shared a home since 2004, they are not married. And among older adults, they have a lot of company.

The number of people over 50 who cohabit with an unmarried partner jumped 75 percent from 2007 to 2016, the Pew Research Center reported last month — the highest increase in any age group.

Read the whole story

Build a Better World is theme for this summer’s Douglas County Public Library’s Summer Reading Program. 

There will be programs for ages 0 to 11 and a teens’ program for ages 12 to 17.  The program runs from June 1 to July 31 at the Minden and Zephyr Cove branches. 

Those who participate will earn prizes while they maintain and build their reading skills during summer break. The registration form is online.

The summer reading kick-off event will be June 6 at the C.V.I.C. Hall, 1602 Esmeralda Ave. in Minden. The Fratello Marionettes will perform a “Mother Goose Land” show at 6:30pm.  The Library Foundation will sponsor an ice cream social from 7:30 to 8pm. Both events are free and open to all ages. 

A children’s used book sale will be before and during the kick-off event from 5:30-8pm. 

The two South Shore Soroptimist organizations separately awarded a number of students with scholarships this month.

Soroptimist International of Tahoe Sierra honored 21  students with scholarships and awards totaling $12,200.

• Senior Scholarships  ($1,200 each): George Whittell High School — Samantha Forvilly; South Tahoe High School — Sophie Caputa, Kamren Gonwald, Isabel Leon, Jocelyn Lopez, and Lek Wei Seow.
• Mount Tallac High School Joy Rothschild Senior Memorial Scholarship ($1,000 each): Carlos Lopez and America Mata.
• Mount Tallac High School Young Parents Program ($500 each): Acayda Babson and Isaac Quintana Hernandes.
• Mt. Tallac Career Award ($200 each): Kayla Kippes, Carlos Lopez, America Mata, Jorge Reyes, Amber Ross, and Michaela Valle.
• Most Improved 8th Grade Students ($50 each): Whittell — Sofia Garcia.; South Tahoe Middle School — Crystal Gomez Ceja and Bryan Hernandez Garcia.
• Most Improved 12th Grade Students ($150 each): Whittell — Kristian Landing; South Tahoe Middle School — Nick McComas, Jade Smith, and Kyla Shelnutt.

Soroptimist ​International ​of South Lake Tahoe recognized the following students for their achievements with the annual Rewards for Excellence Scholarship Program.

• Lake Tahoe Community College: Kimberly Barnett-Burton, Laura Buteau, Chris Fabrri, Kristopher Gaffney, Alysse Gutierrez, Morgan McCauley, Joshua Meno, Rachael Schaefer, Soleil Thiele, and Ben Trevino.
• South Tahoe High School-Ivone Larson AVID Awards: Maya Brosch, Sophie Caputa, and Kendra Conard.
• South Tahoe High School: Sierra Bedwell, Caleb Bray, Angelika Cazares, Thomas Cefalu, Kamren Gronwold, Lek Wei Seow, and Caitlin Hannah.
• Whittell High School: Samantha Forvilly and Kai Mangiaracina.

By Anick Jesdanun, AP

Deborah Braswell, a university administrator in Alabama, is a member of a dwindling group — people with a landline phone at home.

According to a U.S. government study released this month, 50.8 percent of homes and apartments had only cellphone service in the latter half of 2016, the first time such households attained a majority in the survey. Braswell and her family are part of the 45.9 percent that still have landline phones. The remaining households have no phone service at all.

More than 39 percent of U.S. households — including Braswell’s — have both landline and cellphone service.

Read the whole story

By David Caraccio, Sacramento Bee

The historic CB Kruger Whitehouse in Truckee is for sale for $1.5 million, and what comes next for the distinguished property could be interesting.

The Victorian house is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and offers a prominent street front location on Donner Pass Road, 18 parking spaces and a variety of commercial uses, from restaurant to retail and office. Most recently, a wine bar, florist shop and hair salon occupied the property, but it was best known when it was a fine-dining restaurant, according to Andrew Smith of Oliver Luxury Real Estate, which listed the property.

Also, zoning still allows the property to return to use as a single-family home, Smith said.

There seems to be endless possibilities for the site, which is owned by Aaron Bigelow and Tanya Thayer of Tahoe City.

Read the whole story