By Brigid Schulte, Washinton Post

The iconic 1950s family of the breadwinner father going off to work and caregiving mother taking care of the homefront, has been described by economists as the most efficient family structure. Everyone has a distinct job to do in their “separate spheres” of public and private life. And in the 1950s, the majority of children were being raised in such “typical” families.

We all know that’s not true anymore. But perhaps what we haven’t fully understood yet is that today, there is no one “typical” family. The breadwinner-homemaker family, the norm since the dawn of the Industrial Revolution in the 19th century, is being replaced by a new norm of diversity.

“There hasn’t been the collapse of one dominant family structure and the rise of another. It’s really a fanning out into all kinds of family structures,” said Philip Cohen, a sociologist at the University of Maryland. “Different is the new normal.”

In a report for the Council on Contemporary Families being released this week, Cohen notes that in the 1950s, 65 percent of all children under 15 were being raised in traditional breadwinner-homemaker families. Today, only 22 percent are.

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“My Fair Lady”, the exquisite musical, is playing in Carson City for three weekends in November.

The Western Nevada Musical Theatre Company is presenting the award-winning production Nov. 8-23 at the Carson City Community Center.

The play that follows phonetics professor Henry Higgins as he transforms a lowly flower girl into an elegant, refined woman, swept multiple Tony and Academy Awards.

Kirk Gardner plays the irascible Henry Higgins training Hannah Eckert as Eliza, Michael Peters is Pickering, Jody Paslov is Alfie Doolittle and Brad Fitch is Freddy. The show is produced and directed by Stephanie Arrigotti and choreographed by Gina Kaskie Davis. Kevin Murphy conducts the orchestra.

Friday and Saturday performances are at 7:30pm, Sunday matinees are at 2pm. Tickets, priced $25 and $28 according to location in the theater, are available online or call 866.977.6849. All seating is reserved.

By Richard N. Velotta, Las Vegas Review-Journal

A committee that advises the Nevada Tourism Commission on how to market the state to prospective winter visitors deadlocked on two votes over which company it wants to run the $1.75 million campaign.

The committee on Friday heard pitches from two companies, Las Vegas-based B&P Advertising and Public Relations, and Creative Concepts of Fairport, Conn. Both have worked in the past with the commission.

The companies didn’t discuss creative elements of the campaign, but the state’s winter effort traditionally focuses on Lake Tahoe’s ski season. The value of the contract is higher than last winter’s $1.5 million budget but less than last summer’s $3.6 million campaign.

The split vote was the result of philosophical differences on the campaign.

While the request for proposals seeks a campaign that drives prospective visitors to the state’s Travel Nevada website through traditional and social media, the two companies offered different views on how to accomplish that.

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By Kathryn Reed

A diploma doesn’t mean much if you don’t have any skills that translate to the working world. That is why Mount Tallac High School is changing its emphasis.

All the basics are still being taught at South Lake Tahoe’s continuation school. But now there is a focus on making the instruction more pertinent to real world situations.

“We are getting out of the old textbook which had a lot of drill and kill,” math instructor Jackie Tan told Lake Tahoe News. “I’m going to be able to make their math relevant.”

Algebra lessons might come in the form of having students getting into groups to start a business and then needing to work out inventory, pricing and other factors.

Working in groups is a new concept in Tan’s classroom, too. She is doing this because so often in the workplace it’s about being a team, working collaboratively and not solo.

Adrian Ortega talks with Joy Barney from the U.S. Forest Service. Photos/Holly Greenough

The changes are the brainchild of Holly Greenough who is in her first year of being principal of the school. She had trained under Susan Baker, who retired in 2013 after 23 years in Lake Tahoe Unified School District. (Karen Tinlin was at Tallac last year and is now working out of South Tahoe Middle School on the School Attendance Review Board before she retires in December.)

“I’m working hard to change the program to become a work to career program so students are better prepared to serve our community in the service industry once they graduate,” Greenough told Lake Tahoe News.

She said most Tallac grads end up staying in the community. Being employable and then perhaps rising through the ranks to management positions is her goal for them.

The school is working with local businesses to make this successful. A job fair was conducted the first week of school to acquaint students with the type of work that exists on the South Shore and for employers to tell students the skills they will need.

But it’s not just about service industry jobs.

“We are looking for students with a positive attitude about working in the outdoors, who are committed to eight weeks of hard, physical work, and who are open to future opportunities or a career in natural resource management,” Joy Barney, conservation education program specialist with the U.S. Forest Service, said.

The Forest Service through its Generation Green has a history of working with Mount Tallac.

“We have employed between one and seven of their current and former students each year for the past seven years of the program – 15 to 25 percent of our summer employment program,” Barney told Lake Tahoe News.

Mount Tallac students talk with potential employers.

Harveys-Harrah’s will let students take tours of the Stateline properties to get acquainted with the various jobs that are available. Different human resource specialists will be able to go to the campus.

Eric Campbell, manager at Bank of the West, is on board to teach students how to create a business plan.

“We don’t want to limit them with what they learn. We want to open doors and their minds to show them whatever they are interested in they can pursue,” Greenough said.

Developing certifications is something she is working on. This is so when students are learning to write resumes in Krista Serra’s class, they will have substantive information to put on it. Plus, it will be a relevant skill to use on a job. Certifications will range from CPR to 10 key to food safety. The school hopes to obtain grants to pay for the ones that require money to obtain, such as CPR.

Being bilingual, which many of the students are, is being promoted as a skill to hone. But it means proper Spanish and not just slang.

Many employers say issues they have with workers are soft skills – which translate to dressing appropriately, using proper language, being on time and not calling in sick on a powder day.

“If a student cusses, she says ‘you are fired’. It snaps you back to reality,” senior Joe Morales said.

The idea is for students to get in their heads what is right and wrong in the workplace.

While most have cell phones, if they have to take a call, it has to be done so outside. This makes them think if they should even be answering the phone.

Looking people in the eye, firm handshakes and the art of listening are being taught.

A big thing that is new is the students must clock in and out – just like some jobs require.

Adriana Aguilar, who is a senior, likes that things are much more structured this year.

“Having to check in every morning motivates you to be on time every day. It’s just like if you had an actual job,” Aguilar said.

By Mike Boots and John Podesta

Fifty years ago this week, President Lyndon Johnson signed two landmark bills, ushering in a new era of conservation.

The Land and Water Conservation Fund Act codifies the simple premise that when we take something from the earth, we have a responsibility to give something back. Using revenues from offshore oil and gas development, the Land and Water Conservation Fund has made critical investments in nearly every county in the United States. The LWCF has been used to increase access to the outdoors for hunting, fishing, and other recreation, to protect iconic places like National Parks and Civil War battlefields, and to advance over 40,000 local projects.

Thanks to the Wilderness Act, more than 109 million acres of wild land have received our country’s strongest protections, ensuring that future generations can continue to enjoy these places as they are today, and as they were hundreds of years ago. Designated wildernesses promote clean air and water, provide habitat for iconic wildlife, and protect places of incomparable natural beauty for all Americans to experience and enjoy.

But more than that, these laws protect what the novelist Wallace Stegner called “the geography of hope,” a vision of the American continent in all its vastness, its wildness, its natural power. “Something will have gone out of us as a people if we ever let the remaining wilderness be destroyed,” Stegner wrote in 1960. “We need wilderness preserved — as much of it as is still left, and as many kinds — because it was the challenge against which our character as a people was formed.”

Protecting the outdoors is not just good for our air and water — it’s good for our economy. In 2012, over 900 million visits to national parks, national monuments, and other federally managed lands and waters helped support over $646 billion in spending on outdoor recreation.

But our work to conserve America’s great outdoors is far from over. Right now, too many Americans lack easy or safe access to parks. Climate change is placing new stresses on lands, waters, and wildlife. Too many of our rivers, lakes, and ecosystems are choked with pollution.

That’s why President Obama has called on Congress to fully and permanently fund the Land and Water Conservation Fund and to act on dozens of conservation proposals that have been introduced by Democrats and Republicans alike. In the meantime, the President will use his executive authority to protect our outdoors and our heritage by designating new national monuments — as he has 11 times so far.

As we mark the anniversary of these important laws, let’s celebrate what we have accomplished over the past 50 years and redouble our efforts to work together to preserve the wild places that define the American character and to leave behind a healthy, beautiful country for future generations.

Mike Boots is the acting chair of the Council on Environmental Quality. John Podesta is counselor to the president.

By Lindsaay Whitehurst, AP

SALT LAKE CITY — Park City Mountain Resort will have to pay $17.5 million to stay open this winter during an ongoing court battle between two ski company titans.

The ruling is much closer to Park City’s $6.6 million request than the $124 million demand from its opponent, Vail Resorts Inc., raising hopes that the ski season will go on when the snow flies. Attorneys for the Park City institution, however, said their clients would have to decide whether to post the money.

“We’re certainly hopeful there will be a ski season,” Park City attorney Alan Sullivan said.

Judge Ryan Harris required the resort to post the bond within a week to postpone an eviction he ordered in May. Harris ruled Park City missed a deadline to renew a decades-old bargain lease rate it got from a mining company in the industry’s early days.

Attorneys for the other side said they wouldn’t appeal the bond, even though it’s below their request. An attorney for Talisker, the company that owns the land, said in a statement that any suggestion the resort can’t pay is “foolishness.”

“PCMR generated over tens of millions in profits over the past three years using Talisker’s land without a right to do so,” wrote John Lund.

Vail Resorts is guiding Talisker’s legal strategy because it wants to run a resort on the land once Park City is evicted.

Park City residents and business owners who attended the hearing said the town would feel the absence if the historic resort shuttered for the season. Lost sales have been estimated at $185 million.

“I’m hopeful, yes, I think they’re community players and they know the damage a closure would create,” resident Myles Rademan said.

Without the resort that bears its name, “Park City is going to be in a world of hurt,” said Mike Sweeney, owner of the Town Lift Plaza. Even though there are two other resorts nearby, tourists come to the area to experience all three, he said.

The Utah resort, one of the state’s largest, has been a fixture in the state’s ski culture for 50 years and served as the training ground for Olympians like Ted Ligety. The country’s largest ski resort operator, Vail Resorts, wants to take it over as well as the neighboring Canyons it started operating last year.

But even if the current owners, Powdr Corp, are evicted, Vail can’t simply move in because Powdr owns the land at the bottom of the hill.

“One of them owns a beach, and the other owns the beachfront hotel,” Lund said.

The stakes are high. Both companies are trying to acquire as many resorts as they can in an effort to strengthen their hands in the lucrative ski industry, said Ralf Garrison, a Denver-based ski industry consultant with the Advisory Group.

Park City is owned by the wealthy Cumming family and is part of Powdr Corp., which is also of one of the country largest ski companies. Consolidation offers protection from variables like weather and offers savvy skiers lift passes with privileges around the country, Garrison said.

“Vail and the Cumming family … are both really competing for those other independent resorts that might become available,” Garrison said.

Vail’s 10 resorts also include properties in the Midwest and the Lake Tahoe area. Powdr owns seven major U.S. ski areas, from Vermont’s Killington to Oregon’s Mt. Bachelor to Boreal in California.

Though there are two other resorts in the area, Park City Mountain Resort has deep historical roots and is physically connected to the ski town through a lift on its Main Street. The resort also employs about 2,000 people, and it’s responsible for at least a third of the 1.84 million skiers who come every year to Park City.

“We’re in the moment of highest anxiety,” Park City Mayor Jack Thomas said. “I don’t think I’ve seen an issue more important than this in the 50 years I’ve been skiing up here.”

“It’s now getting to the point where people are getting pretty nervous about what’s going to happen this winter,” said Hans Fuegi, owner of the Grub Steak.

Lifts began running at what was then called Treasure Mountain in 1963, starting off the modern-day ski industry in the town about 30 miles east of Salt Lake City that hosted many 2002 Winter Olympic events.

It’s where many locals taught their children to ski, said Thomas, and also served as a training ground for Olympians.

“Where’s next Ted Ligety coming from if (Park City resort) shuts down?” Thomas said.

Park City plans to appeal the eviction.

By Brian Uhler

Several South Lake Tahoe businesses were disrupted over the past three months (June-July-August) by 19 smash and grab commercial burglaries. Typically, these burglaries are occurring between 3-9am.

The offender(s) have broken windows or glass doors to gain access to these businesses across town. The crimes have not been centralized in any one particular area, although several have occurred in the area of the Y and some businesses have been victimized more than once. After forcing entry, the thief or thieves grab a variety of products such as cigarettes and alcohol.

Brian Uhler

If you know of anyone who has an unusual amount of cigarettes or alcohol or if you have other information, please call the police department (530.542.6100), or the Secret Witness program (530.541.6800).

Another summer time crime trend we have identified has involved auto thefts. Although there have been several vehicles stolen throughout the summer months, we have noted a unique sub-trend of the theft of utility trailers. These trailers, some enclosed and others open, are commonly used to store tools and equipment for construction and other types of labor projects. There have been five of these trailers stolen this year. At least one of the stolen trailers has been recovered.

During August we were able to add some staffing to the police department. Two police officers and four public safety dispatchers were hired to replace current vacancies in the police department. Two of the dispatchers will be serving par -time, which represents a staffing improvement funded by 9-1-1 service fees.

We have received many comments of support for the department’s efforts to help control the illegal cultivation of marijuana. We have taken enforcement action against four illegal residential marijuana grows in the past month. On Sept. 16, the City Council will be receiving additional information about ways to control the unchecked growth of marijuana commerce in South Lake Tahoe. The main point for this effort is to promote safety.

Brian Uhler is South Lake Tahoe’s police chief.

Expect to see a ton of bicyclists on the roads Sept. 7 for the annual Tour de Tahoe.

Cyclists will leave MontBleu in Stateline beginning at 6:30am Sunday, travel through South Lake Tahoe, head north up Highway 89 through Emerald Bay, the West Shore and into Tahoe City, then take Highway 28 back to Highway 50 and finish back at MontBleu.

The highways won’t be closed during the event. Caltrans urges motorists to leave at least 3 feet of space between their vehicles and riders when passing.

For more information on the Tour de Tahoe, go online.

By Sharon Bernstein, Reuters

SACRAMENTO — The Pacific Ocean phenomenon called El Nino, which can lead to storms in the U.S. Southwest and other places, will likely start soon, but may not bring hoped-for relief to drought-parched California, U.S. government meteorologists said on Thursday.

Scientists with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said in a report the likelihood was increasing that El Nino, characterized by a warming of the ocean temperature in the eastern Pacific near the equator, would be weak this year.

A weak El Nino could still bring flooding, storms and even hurricanes to Southern California, but it is too soon to tell whether that will happen, said Eric Boldt, a meteorologist with the agency.

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• Starting Sept. 7 the South Lake Tahoe Recreation and Swim Complex will be open 8am-noon on Sundays. Monday through Saturday hours remain the same.

• The California Department of Fish and Wildlife is offering a free fishing day Sept. 6 — as in no license required. All fishing regulations, such as bag and size limits, gear restrictions, report card requirements and fishing hours and stream closures remain in effect.

• Truckee Police Department is recognizing various employees on Sept. 9 at 5pm at the town hall.

• Team Tahoe is asking people to take this survey about bicycle wayfinding signs that have recently been installed in South Lake Tahoe.

• Izzy’s in South Lake Tahoe is closed for one month during the construction next door of Auto Zone. During that time the parking lot will be paved and striping done for spaces.