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The forecast for South Lake Tahoe over the next seven days calls for cold temperatures, winds and several inches of snow, a recipe for an increased risk of broken pipes in homes and businesses in the area.

Last week, both a private home on Saddle Road and the Boys and Girls Club of Lake Tahoe suffered through broken pipes, a scene that the SLT Fire Rescue Department sees about two dozen times a year. Over the last seven years, SLTFR has responded to 168 calls for broken water pipes. Local plumbers have responded to hundreds of others as well.

Denim is now the state’s official fabric to recognize its role in California history, and every autographed collectible sold in California must come with a certificate that verifies it's not a forgery. Those are just two of 898 new laws facing Californians in 2017.

Here are just a few of them compiled in part by California Highway Patrol (CHP):

If conditions are favorable, the North Lake Tahoe Fire Protection District and the U.S. Forest Service will continue prescribed fire operations on Tuesday, January 3, 2017. They will take place on the North Shore of Lake Tahoe near Tahoe City, Kings Beach, Carnelian Bay, and Incline Village.

A) Jennifer/Tyner Urban Fuels Reduction area near Incline Village will have 34 acres of hand piles scheduled to be burned.

B) Tahoe City along Fairway, across from NTFPD Station 51 - 8 acres to be burned.

C) Hwy 267 has 50 acres schedule for burning.

On behalf of the organizers of the Lake Tahoe Virtual Race, I would like to thank Lake Tahoe community members and businesses as well as Barton Health employees and physicians for their incredible generosity.

Barton Health recently hosted the first Virtual Race Challenge. Racers walked and ran for 72 days and recorded their mileage on a 72 mile digital map of Lake Tahoe. Together, with their financial contributors, the racers raised $4,044 in donations to help expand Barton Health’s Cancer Wellness Program.

As Senator Harry Reid retires from Washington, eight stories were put together to highlight a career that spans decades.

Here is one of them, and to read the rest, visit the Las Vegas Sun story.

Hometown is bracing to lose its greatest champion

When this tiny desert town’s most famous former resident visited in recent years, he sat in the same corner booth at Terrible’s Road House while his entourage of black sport-utility vehicles lined the parking lot.

Join the Tahoe Chamber for an evening of celebration to help the South Shore community start 2017 on the right foot with their Connect for a Cause mixer on Thursday, January 12 from 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at Riva Grill.

All proceeds from the Business After Hours Mixer (BAHM) raffle will be donated to Bread & Broth.

As we are fast approaching the biggest giving season of them all I wanted to remind our wonderful Tahoe pet lovers what to avoid as gifts for your furry family member this year. I would like to thank the folks at Pet Plan Pet Insurance for the following great advice. Speaking of pet insurance, if you’re looking for a practical gift for your pet owning friends pet insurance would make a nice gift!

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, CALIF. - This week's El Dorado County District Attorney's Office Most Wanted Wednesday subjects are from South Lake Tahoe. Marty Beaman and Gabrielle Cooley are wanted on felony warrants for theft, fraud, and conspiracy to commit a crime. Both have been charged in a 12 page, 14 count and 25 overt acts Complaint.

Beaman has been arrested numerous times with convictions for possession of narcotics, receiving stolen property, forgery, with several violations of parole – this is his second time as our featured Most Wanted Wednesday fugitive. He has a $250,000.00 warrant.

El Dorado County Sheriff's Office responds to calls throughout the county.

The following are calls that only pertain to the South Shore. There may be some missing calls due to sheriff's logs not being completed at time of story.

12/11

1:24 a.m. - Death Investigation - South Lake Tahoe - Death of 32-year-old male.

7:03 a.m. - Informational Report - Al Tahoe Blvd - CONTRABAND LOCATED IN C-POD OF THE EL DORADO COUNTY SOUTH LAKE TAHOE JAIL, REPORT TAKEN AND INVOLVED SUBJECTS INTERVIEWED.

The North Lake Tahoe and Tahoe Douglas fire protection districts may continue prescribed fire operations next week if conditions are favorable. Areas scheduled to be burned are in the Glenbrook, Round Hill, Lower Kingsbury Grade and Tahoe City area.

To view a map with project locations and details, visit the Tahoe Fire and Fuels Team (TFFT) website at http://www.tahoefft.org.

Burns in areas A-D (see map):

(A) North Lake Tahoe Fire District will be burning 5 acres in the Bunker Drive area.

It was a cold one last night, and 25 South Lake Tahoe area homeless found relief from the single digit temperatures at the newly opened Warm Room, operated by the Tahoe Coalition for the Homeless (TCH).

The Warm Room opened on Thursday, December 15 after days of renovations to the long vacant building located at 2179 Lake Tahoe Boulevard. There are 25 beds, hot drinks and snacks for those coming in from the cold and spending the night.

Four years ago this month, TRPA approved the 2012 Regional Plan. The landmark plan charts a course to restore Lake Tahoe’s environment and revitalize our communities and it was forged through Herculean work by California, Nevada, local governments, the public, and dozens of other partners.

Many Tahoe Basin stakeholders once questioned if we could work together, but the Regional Plan ushered in an era of collaboration. Today, the answer is how can we work together more efficiently. By building and strengthening partnerships we have made remarkable progress. This year was no different.

CVS announced today that it will now sell the opioid overdose antidote naloxone without a prescription in all of their Nevada locations. This brings the total to 37 states where the drugstore chains sells naloxone over-the-counter, including California.

Our community needs the temporary shelter that the Warm Room provides – not just for those homeless guests who use it, but for everybody else, too. Dickens’ Ebenezer Scrooge could tell you why.

Outgoing South Lake Tahoe City Councilwoman JoAnn Conner was honored for her four years of service to the community during a special Council meeting Monday. She was awarded a plaque, but didn't leave her former position without a few words to say.

Conner's term was not a quiet one. As she said she "fought for the little people," Conner also filed a lawsuit against the City and was censured by her colleagues.

As she spoke to the small group gathered in Chambers to bid farewell, Conner said she would continue to fight for the those that can't fight themselves.

Most people who drive through South Lake Tahoe know Marcus Ashley Gallery by the large wind sculptures outside their Village Center location near Stateline, but a step inside shows so much more.

Museum quality, limited editions, world famous artists, and "wow" are just a few words that come to mind as one enters the doors at the gallery. Each turn treats the eye with beauty and wonder, and anticipation what is around the next bend.

Funds in the amount of $6.8 million are headed to the California side of Lake Tahoe after the California Tahoe Conservancy Board accepted a federal grant on Thursday that will reduce wildfire risk. Fuel treatments on up to 1,800 acres of high fire risk areas of land owned by state and local jurisdictions as well as private property will occur over the next six years

A special benefit concert is being held at the Lake Tahoe Community College (LTCC) Duke Theater on Wednesday, December 14 at 7:00 p.m. to raise money to help a local woman battling aggressive brain cancer.

Students in the school's Rock Ensemble classes will hit the stage for an evening of classic rock n’ roll hits, some gospel, some country, and a little bit of heavy metal to raise funds for the Angie Peart Cancer Fund.

Angie Peart, who herself is a rock student herself, is the wife of the LTCC reprographics/phone operator Bob Peart. She has been battling brain cancer since 2015.

What takes 1236 cups of molasses, 2158 cups sugar, 3800 fresh eggs, 729 cups whole milk, 2736 tablespoons ground ginger, 790 tablespoons baking soda, 729 cups all purpose shortening, 30 cups of lemon juice, a really big bowl, lots of oven space, a whole lotta love and a jolly guy in the kitchen complete with his apron and baker's hat?

1,900 gingerbread houses, of course!

South Lake Tahoe local Monika Taboada was picking her daughter up from the training room at South Tahoe High on Sunday when she received a flat on one of her new snow tires, leaving her the victim of another "Ninja Road Star" being left on roads around town.

Over the past several months there have been dozens of stories just like Taboada's.

Vail Resorts has called on the United States Congress to approve the Lake Tahoe Restoration Act of 2015. This Act provides $415 million in funding and reauthorizes important Lake Tahoe restoration activities that began in 1997 and refocuses federal, state and local efforts toward reducing wildfire threats, improving water quality and clarity, and combating invasive species. All of these are important to the local economy at one of the most visited lakes in the world.

What's going on this weekend in South Lake Tahoe:

Join Sierra Strings of Tahoe for a morning of music, ushering in winter and the holiday season on December 3, 2016 at 11:00 a.m This locally celebrated group will enchant you with a variety of songs. Free and open to all ages, light refreshments provided. At the South Lake Tahoe library.

Zawadisha's annual Holiday Bazaar returns this holiday season on Saturday, December 3 at the Blue Angel Cafe in South Lake Tahoe from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.

Prescribed fire operations by the Tahoe Douglas Fire Protection District, California Tahoe Conservancy and the U.S. Forest Service will continue next week at several locations around Lake Tahoe.

Fall and winter bring cooler temperatures and precipitation, which favor prescribed burning. The joint efforts to remove excess vegetation are scheduled to take place at nine different locations including Glenbrook, Cave Rock, Round Hill, lower Kingsbury Grade, South Lake Tahoe, Tahoe Paradise and Meyers.

South Upper Truckee - 50 acres
North Upper Truckee, Homer - 20 acres

The 8th annual Barton Festival of Trees & Lights at MontBleu got underway on Thursday with the Senior Stroll, complete with an ukulele concert and treats.

Judging of the decorated trees also took place. A team of local media, chamber members and educators viewed the trees and judged them on criteria including elegance, theme and creativity.

The Best of Show and Best Interpretation of Theme awards went to "Woodland Queen."