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Foodies and wine lovers alike are invited to attend the variety of Sample the Sierra festivities during the 3rd annual farm-to-fork festival over Labor Day Weekend. Friday, August 31st kicks off Sample the Sierra with a Winemaker and Chef’s Table dinner at Crystal Basin Bistro in Camino on the Western Slope of the Sierras. Saturday, September 1st hosts a Sip & Shop at Après Wine Company featuring the award winning wines of Synapse “Microwinery” and locally made gifts.

Here is this week's fishing report for rivers, lakes and streams for Northern California, the Sierra and across Nevada. This report is for the week of August 16.

The region's best food, wine, and art in the Sierra Nevada will be highlighted at the 3rd annual Sample the Sierra farm-to-fork festival. This popular community event is on Sunday, Sept. 2 on Ski Run Boulevard in South Lake Tahoe.
This year, 15 local restaurants and farmers will be paired together to produce mouthwatering samples for festival-goers to enjoy. Each food sample will be paired with an accompanying wine, also local to the region.

CARSON CITY – A broader measure of Nevada’s unemployment picture, including those who have given up looking for work, showed slight but continued improvement through the second quarter of 2012, a federal report released today shows.
Called the U-6 rate, it declined in Nevada from 22.3 percent in the four quarters through March 31 to 22.1 percent in the 12 months ending June 30, according to the quarterly report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Heavy-hitting comedy, celebrity golf and blockbuster concerts make for a sizzling summer at Tahoe South with an dynamic lineup that includes legendary actor-comedian Robin Williams; hall-of-fame athletes teeing it up at the American Century Championship and Grammy award-winning pop-rock group, Maroon 5.

Most Americans may not realize it, but the Fourth of July is one of the deadliest holidays of the year due to alcohol-impaired driving crashes. That’s why this Fourth of July the Avoid the 6 DUI Task Force is stepping up enforcement efforts as part of the ongoing “Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over” enforcement crackdown to catch and arrest impaired drivers who put themselves and others at risk.

Needed improvements at the Thunderbird Lodge got a lift on Wednesday when the Nevada Commission on Tourism announced the Lake Tahoe site was among several to win an improvement project grant.
Grants were awarded to 19 different projects. The announcement was made by Nevada Lt. Gov. Brian Krolicki.
NCOT's Projects Relating to Tourism Grants program help fund infrastructure improvements that will attract visitors, and after a temporary suspension due to a decline in tourism revenues, the grants were reinstated this year.

CARSON CITY – Local elected officials representing the Northern Nevada workforce development agency have endorsed a plan to restructure the delivery of job training funds to Nevadans, including eliminating the two local boards now involved in the process.

STATELINE, Nev. - Though I ascended more than 1,000 feet across five miles of the Tahoe Rim Trail from Spooner Summit to South Camp Peak, it was the view that was breathtaking.From a windy but c...

CARSON CITY — Sixty state lawmakers and legislative candidates who responded to a survey on government transparency largely favor new laws requiring the Legislature to follow the Open Meeting Law and mandating expanded reporting of spending on legislators by lobbyists.

A ride on the Heavenly Gondola transports Lake Tahoe sightseers to the Mid-Station Observation Deck, a 14,000 square-foot platform nestled among massive granite boulders nearly 3,000 feet above the lake. Offering unparalleled views of the Desolation Wilderness, Carson Valley and, of course, the sparkling waters of Lake Tahoe, the Observation Deck also features Café Blue, an outdoor dining area serving coffee, beer, cold beverages, hot chocolate and snacks.

CARSON CITY — While Mitt Romney and Barack Obama were campaigning elsewhere Tuesday, Nevada Democrats and Republicans took up the battle for the presidency on their behalf.
Rep. Joe Heck, R-Nev., held a telephone conference call to talk up Romney’s credentials as a “turnaround specialist” who will get the country back on track. He also criticized Obama for failing to get spending or the national deficit under control as he promised early on in his presidency.

CARSON CITY — A state agency announced Tuesday it plans to consolidate three separate boards that oversee workforce development into one, resulting in $5 million more in federal funds directed annually to helping train job seekers to find employment.
The plan, “Moving Nevada Forward: A Plan For Excellence in Workforce Development,” was released by the Nevada Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation (DETR).

Sammy Hagar "The Red Rocker" will perform Sept. 1 at Harveys Outdoor Arena as part of the 2012 Lake Tahoe Summer Concert Series. Tickets go on sale May 4 at www.ticketmaster.com and www.apeconce...

CARSON CITY — A new business index evaluating the states on the effects of their tax systems on entrepreneurship and small business ranks Nevada 3rd behind South Dakota and Texas.
The Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council’s “Business Tax Index 2012” pulls together 18 different tax measures, and combines them into one tax score that allows the 50 states and District of Columbia to be compared and ranked.

Region takes as-needed approachTAHOE/TRUCKEE - In Truckee, they can be seen in the downtown Beacon parking lot near the intersection of Donner Pass Road and Bridge Street. In North Lake Tahoe, t...

CARSON CITY – Nevada’s unemployment rate fell four-tenths of a percentage point in February to a seasonally adjusted 12.3 percent, but the news is not all positive, a state agency reported today.
Bill Anderson, chief economist with the Nevada Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation (DETR), said an argument can be made that the forces behind the drop in the jobless rate were signs of weakness.

CARSON CITY – Gov. Brian Sandoval said today he will propose to extend a package of taxes now set to expire in June 2013 into the next budget to avoid further cuts to education, which he said cannot withstand further reductions.
To maintain a basically flat spending plan for the two-year budget that will begin on July 1, 2013, Sandoval said the modified business tax that was maintained at a higher rate for large businesses in the 2011 legislative session, along with a small increase in the sales tax, must be continued.

The Nevada State Demographer’s Office, located at the University of Nevada, Reno College of Business, has released its 2011 population estimates. The state gained an estimated 17,152 people from July 2010 to July 2011, an estimated increase of 0.6 percent, about equivalent to the increase of 0.7 percent the prior year. Two years ago, the state lost 27,677 people, a decrease of about 1.0 percent.

CARSON CITY – Members of the Nevada chapter of a small business organization say the state’s minimum wage and construction defects laws are hampering job growth in the state.
The state’s prevailing wage law was also cited as a drag on economic development in the survey of its members by the Nevada chapter of the National Federation of Independent Business.

CARSON CITY – A broader measure of Nevada’s unemployment picture, including those who have given up looking for work, showed some improvement through the end of 2011, a federal report released this week shows.
The rate in Nevada dropped to 22.7 percent in the 12 months through Dec. 31, down from 23.3 percent in the 12 months through Sept. 30, 2011.

The South Tahoe Public Utility District will have a regular board meeting on Thursday, February 2 at 2 p.m. at the District office at 1275 Meadow Crest Drive. The agenda can be found here.

Items on the agenda include a resolution establishing criteria for determining whether a public works project is "substantially complex.” Defining a project in this way will allow the District to withhold retention funds for contractors higher than the federal limit, which is 5 percent.