we can

What's not to love about sunrises and sunsets in Lake Tahoe? While it is fairly easy for most to catch a sunset, very few actually get to experience a sunrise because of the early hour.

"Chasing Sunrise" is a community that understands that with each sunrise, we are given a choice to make: we can either stay in bed waiting for life to come to us or we can get up and get after it, chasing what we want.

Elements Day Spa, a full service day spa and retail shop, will introduce its new location and services to the public during a grand opening from 4:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. on Thursday, September 3. The new location is inside of Fitness Evolution at 2565 Lake Tahoe Blvd. Owner April Vadnais will provide complimentary chair massages, along with raffle prizes, refreshments and appetizers. Tahoe Chamber will officiate a ribbon cutting during the grand opening.

Vast areas of California's Central Valley are sinking faster than in the past as massive amounts of groundwater are pumped during the historic drought, state officials said Wednesday, citing new research by NASA scientists.

The data shows the ground is sinking nearly two inches each month in some places, putting roads, bridges and vital canals that deliver water throughout the state at growing risk of damage.

Perched around a secluded campfire in the Rocky Mountains, Glenn Martin jerked forward, said, "Ow," and died. The wayward bullet that struck him in the national forest has campers and other users calling for changes in recreational shooting policy.

Martin, 60, died July 3 in the Pike & San Isabel National Forest, 30 miles southwest of Denver. The 3.1-million-acre forest holds the record for the most gun-related violations reported in the country, a review of federal records by the USA TODAY Media Network shows.

History shows time and time again our greatest accomplishments at Lake Tahoe are achieved when people work together. In the past, Tahoe was known as a place where unproductive interactions between stakeholders led to a stunning decay in our environment and our economic vitality, creating a region that seemed frozen in time.

We face major environmental challenges at Tahoe, including the uncertainties of climate change. And as Albert Einstein said, “We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.”

The aftermath of the thousands of people who flocked to South Lake Tahoe's beaches last Fourth of July was a ghastly sight. South Lake Tahoe made headlines around the world for the embarrassing amount of trash left on the beaches. It took hundreds of volunteers days to pick up the thousands of pounds of garbage left on the beautiful beaches.

The long-range forecast doesn’t bode well for the interior West as it chokes on a fourth year of drought and smoke from wildfires.

With the fire season ramping up and temperatures starting to soar, drought and fire dominated the discussion at the Western Governors’ Association annual meeting being held this week at Incline Village on the shores of Lake Tahoe.

Gov. Brian Sandoval, who has chaired the group for the past year, made drought his signature initiative, bringing together water experts and managers to develop best practices for water management and drought preparation.

The community has undergone a complete physical and the results are in. Based on the 2015 Community Health Needs Assessment, mental health and substance abuse remain top health concerns in the area.

Barton Health conducted its second Community Health Needs Assessment to identify unmet needs within the community. After identifying these needs, Barton will work with representatives from organizations who provide services for the medically underserved to offer recommendations and a collaborative action plan focused on positively impacting the community’s health.

The members and friends of the South Lake Tahoe Christian Science Church are sponsoring a gift to our community.

Even as campers pour in to the El Dorado National Forest for the Memorial Day weekend, dangers remain.

Several members of a group of campers from Sacramento didn't even realize they were near the King Fire's burn zone as they set up tents at the Ponderosa Cove Campsite.

Fortunately, one camper did understand the risk from burned trees and branches that can still fall on unsuspecting hikers.

It’s Wildfire Awareness Month at Tahoe, and with the summer tourist season around the corner, we must all remember that drought has left our Region with severely dry forest conditions and an extreme risk of wildfire. This summer we need to think about “when” not “if” another fire will happen. All of us have important roles to play in preventing the next wildfire, and in making sure our homes, families, and communities are prepared for it.

Biking and walking positively contribute to Lake Tahoe's economy, but by how much? This subject will be discussed during May's Tahoe Talks Brown Bag speaker series on May 20, 2015. This will feature a panel discussion on what is currently known about how biking and walking impact Tahoe's economy, and how we can find out more.

The 3rd Annual Lake Tahoe Reggae Festival will be held at the Hard Rock Hotel Outdoor Arena on Saturday, June 27. The concert is open to all ages and will feature Iration, Matisyahu, Don Carlos, The Green, The Expendables, Fortunate Youth, Vokab Kompany, Squarefield Massiv and more.

Advanced general admission tickets for the reggae festival are $45, VIP tickets are $90; and kids 12 and under are only $10, and kids under 6 are FREE. All tickets can be purchased on line.

Location

The ongoing drought, warmer-than-usual weather conditions and the fuel for fire those conditions produce could lead to a “perfect storm” this summer where multiple states in the West could be having large, simultaneous fires, state and federal fire officials told Gov. Brian Sandoval Monday.

“The system is going to be heavily taxed this year,” said Kit Bailey of the U.S. Forest Service. “We have preparedness levels of one through five and I’m a little concerned that we may get to an unprecedented level, a level six, and that is kind of a worst-case scenario.

To City Manager of South Lake Tahoe, City Council

RE: motel housing

Honorable City Manager and City Council,

I am writing to you out of concern about the possible new ordinance regarding motel housing. In the past six years I have been involved with working for and advising various properties. The seven different properties opened my eyes to a separate part of our community that goes mostly unnoticed.

When children are removed from their homes and put into foster care, it is most likely the worst day of their life. Foster children are kids who have to be taken from their homes due to some sort of safety risk, such as abuse, neglect, parental incarceration, or illegal activity in the household. When a community does not have enough homes to accommodate for foster youth, the children have to move to the closest available foster home, often times being several hours away.

The majority of Tahoe locals and tourists lack knowledge of bear precaution, causing the growing presence of bears in South Lake Tahoe’s residential areas. In recent years, Lake Tahoe’s black bears have become problematic when outside their natural meadow and forest habitat. Because of human habits, bears have become attracted to local neighborhoods. Passing routines down to their cubs, bears remain dependent on the human food source left outside many residents’ homes.

Let us start with a common interactive scenario for Lake Tahoe:

40 years ago a family came to Lake Tahoe, walked to the water’s edge of a very full lake (on that day in 1975, Tahoe’s surface elevation was at 6228 feet), and said, “What a beautiful lake! Look how clear it is!” and they spent the rest of their vacation not knowing the environmental direction that Tahoe was heading.

South Lake Tahoe elementary students just completed four weeks of Barton Health's We Can program. We Can stands for "Ways to Enhance Children’s Activity and Nutrition."

The students had weekly challenges that focused on fitness and nutrition goals. PE teachers from Bijou Elementary, Environmental Magnet School, Sierra House, and Tahoe Valley orchestrated the program by motivating students with weekly goals and the Cafeteria staff served fruits and vegetables to match the color of the week.

There was both good and bad news in the message released by El Dorado County today. For the fifth consecutive year, El Dorado County has ranked among the top ten healthiest counties statewide in an annual report by the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The "County Health Rankings" report, released on March 25, 2015, ranked El Dorado County 7th healthiest among the 57 ranked counties in California.

Friday morning 10 a.m.: Phone call comes in to the Evans home in Round Hill, Nevada. There is major flooding in the country of Malawi and his help is needed.

Friday afternoon 3 p.m: Ryder Evans is on a plane to the African nation for at least a two week stay.

A newly released scientific study highlights the importance of collaborative work to prevent the introduction of aquatic invasive species at Lake Tahoe, and confirms what many public and private stakeholders have feared: That the invasive quagga mussel, if introduced, could establish in our mountain lake’s clear, iconic waters.

Sierra-at-Tahoe is the latest Lake Tahoe area ski resort to announce that it will suspend operations, beginning Monday, because of the lack of snow brought on by the ongoing drought in the west.

A strong storm advancing through the Lake Tahoe area is causing isolated outages for some of Nevada Energy and Liberty Utilities’ customers. With winds at 35-50 mph and much stronger gusts over the ridges, utility officials would like to remind customers of the following safety measures.

- Always treat low hanging and downed power lines as if they were energized.
- Call 911 or notify Liberty Utilities’ toll-free emergency number at 1-844-245-6868 if you see downed power lines or damaged electrical equipment.