Letter: Heavenly makes an impact at Bread & Broth

To the community,

After serving beef and salmon burgers with all of the fixings at Bread & Broth’s Aug. 11 dinner, several members of Heavenly Mountain Resort’s sponsor volunteer crew joined B&B’s dinner guests to enjoy the evening’s meal and engage in some lively conversation.

“The dinner guests were thankful, very happy with the meal; and shared some great stories about Heavenly and Tahoe with us,” said Jesse Plate.

Feeding the needy of our community is the goal of Bread & Broth, but also providing a safe place to socialize and experience a positive sense of community is a wonderful bonus of the evening meals. Helping to make B&B’s guests enjoy the evening was the marketing team from Heavenly which included Aly Borawski, marketing research; Nate Gardner, videographer; Jesse Plate, marketing coordinator; Arnaud Robin, partnership sales manager; and Sally Gunter, communications manager.

“We’re all very happy to be able to support Bread & Broth. It’s important to volunteer and stay involved with the community. Giving back keeps you very grateful for what you have,” was the consensus of the Heavenly marketing team.

B&B is very grateful for the active involvement of Heavenly/Vail and their enthusiastic employees in our efforts to feed the needy.

For more B&B information, go online.

Carol Gerard, Bread & Broth




Napa vintners dealing with losses from temblor

By Ken Sweet and Ellen Knickmeyer, AP

NAPA — Winemakers in Californias storied Napa Valley woke up to thousands of broken bottles and barrels as a result of Sunday’s earthquake.

The earthquake couldn’t have come at a worse time for the region, which has just started harvesting the 2014 crop.

“It’s devastating. I’ve never seen anything like this,” said Tom Montgomery, a winemaker for B.R. Cohn Winery in Glen Ellen.

The epicenter of the 6.0-magnitude earthquake that struck Northern California, the strongest in the area in 25 years, was just six miles southwest of Napa, the center of California’s winemaking region.

B.R. Cohn lost “as much as 50 percent” of its wine, Montgomery said. The winery focuses on high-end, single estate wines that retail between $40 and $100 a bottle.

“It’s not just good wine we lost, it’s our best wine,” he said.

At Dahl Vineyards in Yountville a rack full of wine barrels was teetering and in danger of coming down. One barrel containing $16,000 worth of pinot noir fell and was lost as a result of the quake. The owners were trying to save the rest, removing the barrels with a forklift. Elsewhere in the region, red wine stains were visible outside the doors of a warehouse — indicating there was damage inside.

As one moves further from the quake’s epicenter, other wineries reported more modest damage. In Oakville, Silver Oak Winery lost “a couple hundred bottles” of wine, said Ian Leggat, a spokesman for Silver Oak, as well as three barrels full of wine. Most of the product damaged at Silver Oak was single-vineyard wines the winery uses for testing. None of the wines sold to consumers were damaged in the quake, Leggat said.

Even the wine in barrels that wasn’t damaged by the quake may have problems, however, because wines aging in barrels are supposed to be kept as still as possible, Montgomery said.

Napa is California’s best-known winemaking region. While it produces only 4 percent of California’s total wine crop, Napa’s wines are considered among the best in the world and sell for a premium price. The Napa Valley does $50 billion in economic activity a year, or roughly a quarter of wine industry for the entire U.S., according to Napa Valley Vinters.

The earthquake adds to what has already been a difficult year for California winemakers. California is in the middle of its worst drought in decades, and the earthquake comes just as winemakers in the region are getting ready to harvest the 2014 crop. Winemakers were reporting modest damage to equipment, which could affect harvesting




Environmental docs out for Heavenly expansion

Heavenly Mountain Resort wants to expand its summer offering beyond the ropes courses that opened this season. Photo/Kathryn Reed

Heavenly Mountain Resort wants to expand its summer offering beyond the ropes courses that opened this season. Photo/Kathryn Reed

Heavenly Mountain Resort is taking the next step to expand its on-mountain summer offerings.

Comments are being taken on the draft environmental documents for the Epic Discovery project.

The project includes:

· Mid-Station Zipline Canopy Tour: An interpretive zipline canopy tour in the area between the gondola mid-station and the top station to the east of the gondola alignment.
· East Peak Zipline Canopy Tour: A multi-stage guided zipline canopy tour will begin near the top of Big Easy chairlift and end with a zip over East Peak Lake, near the base of Dipper Express chairlift.
· Sky Meadows Zipline Canopy Tour: It will begin near the top of Tamarack Express chairlift and end near the base of Sky Express chairlift.
· Sky Cycle Canopy Tour: Located in the area between the gondola top station and the Mid-Station Observation Deck, the Sky Cycle Canopy Tour will allow visitors to traverse the area by pedaling individual bicycle-like devices that are suspended from a cable in the air.
· Sky Meadows Ropes Course: A self-guided ropes course consisting of a series of platforms and rope walkway-bridges will be located between Sky Deck and the base of Sky Express chairlift.
· Forest Flyer: The Forest Flyer allows guests on individual sleds to descend on a raised track through the forest and natural rock formations. Located north and west of the existing tubing hill, the Forest Flyer will utilize gravity for the descent while giving riders full control of their speed.
· East Peak Lake Water Activities: Water-oriented activities on and around the existing East Peak reservoir will include kayaking, canoeing and fishing.
· Hiking Trails: New hiking trails will connect the top of Tamarack Express chairlift to the top of the gondola and Tamarack Lodge, continuing down to East Peak Lodge, approximately 3 miles.
· Ridge Run Lookout Tower and Observation Deck: A new observation tower will be developed near the existing Ridge Run Overlook. Resembling a historic Forest Service Fire Lookout Tower, it will offer views of High Meadows and Freel Peak, as well as Lake Tahoe. The existing picnic deck adjacent to the top of Sky Express chairlift will be rebuilt.
· Mountain Bike Park: Dipper Express, Comet Express and Tamarack Express will serve as access points to the Mountain Bike Park in the East Peak Basin area, offering eight to 10 total miles of trails ranging in difficulty from beginner through expert.
· Mountain Excursion Tour: A Mountain Excursion Tour will connect all three activity centers via motorized 4×4 vehicles, at the top of the Gondola, East Peak Lodge, and Sky Meadows, and will offer guided tours to various locations around the upper mountain.
· Interpretive Learning: Interpretive Discovery Zones will be integrated throughout the experience, sharing the area’s rich natural environment and cultural history with guests using fun and informative learning techniques.

The draft environmental impact report and draft environmental impact statement may be found online.

Here is the public hearings schedule for the project:
• Sept. 10, 9:30am, TRPA Advisory Planning Commission, TRPA board room, 128 Market St., Stateline.
• Sept. 24, 9:30am, TRPA Governing Board, 128 Market St., Stateline.
• Oct. 8, 4pm, Lahontan Regional Water Quality Control Board, 971 Silver Dollar Ave., South Lake Tahoe.
Comments may be emailed to dlandry@trpa.org before Oct. 21.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report




Ice bucket challenge may change nonprofit world

brandi bucket

Brandi Ledbetter Brown takes the ice bucket challenge in South Lake Tahoe. Photo/Provided

By Alicia Rancilio, AP

NEW YORK — The ice bucket challenge’s phenomenal success is making other charitable organizations rethink how they connect with a younger generation of potential donors.

Since the ALS Association began tracking the campaign’s progress on July 29, it has raised more than $53.3 million from 1.1 million new donors in what is one of the most viral philanthropic social media campaigns in history.

Thousands of people, including celebrities like Taylor Swift and Oprah Winfrey, have posted videos of themselves getting buckets of ice water dumped over their heads and challenging others to do the same — or donate money to the ALS Association, which raises money for Lou Gehrig’s disease research and assistance.

The ice bucket challenge has shown it’s OK to be silly for a good cause, says Brian Mittendorf, a professor at the Ohio State University Fisher College of Business, who teaches courses in nonprofit finance.

“Normally the model is to find people who are passionate about a cause and then ask for donations or to educate people and then seek out donations. (The ice bucket challenge is) something that’s fun that people can do … people are taking part in it and then taking the info and donating.”

The viral nature of the effort surprised even the ALS Association.

“This level of unprecedented giving is (something) I don’t think this country has seen before outside of a disaster or emergency,” said ALS Association spokesperson Carrie Munk. “We had no idea it would get to this point.”

Who should get credit for making this a viral sensation depends on whom you ask. Some say it began earlier this month when friends of a 29-year-old Boston man with ALS, a neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord, did a group challenge.

It’s also demonstrated that the average Joe or Jane can make waves.

“One of the big take-aways is the power of individuals who are so tightly connected to a cause can really make a difference,” Munk said. “I’m pretty sure that if any company or any nonprofit had all of the public relations dollars in the world to come up with a campaign, we never would’ve seen this kind of success.”

Lucretia Gilbert, executive director of The Pink Agenda, which raises money for breast cancer research and awareness, believes it will encourage other nonprofits to get creative on social media.

“It’s a very simple thing and that’s kind of the beauty of it. Everyone can do this challenge,” she said.

The effort comes at a time when private groups are searching for new ways to raise dollars in the wake of tighter federal government spending on basic medical research, including on diseases like ALS.

The National Institutes of Health is spending about $30 billion this year, money that is divided in a highly competitive process to scientists around the country, and the world, to pursue what are deemed the most promising leads to understand various diseases and to find new targets to fight them.

Congress cut government spending last year; in 2012, the NIH’s budget was $30.8 billion. And even before those cuts, the agency’s budget hadn’t kept pace with inflation for about a decade. As a result, the NIH is funding about one in six grant applications — down from about one in three a decade ago, director Francis Collins said earlier this year.

For Lou Gehrig’s disease, the NIH’s estimated budget this year is $40 million, down from $44 million in 2012.

Employing technology for fundraising campaigns, of course, isn’t a new idea: Perhaps one of the most enduring began in 1966 when the Muscular Dystrophy Association had its first annual Labor Day weekend telethon. Last year, it raised $59.6 million in contributions. Fundraisers have also embraced donating by text message in recent years.

But some fundraisers contend that one of their greatest challenges is asking the same people for money year after year — a challenge successful social media campaigns could solve.

Mindy Bailey, corporate and community development specialist for JDRF, a foundation that raises money to fight Type 1 diabetes, said volunteers want to come up with a similar idea to fuel donations.

“We have had a lot of people reach out to us and say, ‘Hey, we’re going to do the ice bucket challenge,'” Bailey said. “Recently we had a woman say, ‘I’m thinking of doing a pie-in-your-face idea.’ The wheels have been turning.”

However, not everyone is a fan of the public approach of the ice bucket challenge.

#NoIceBucketChallenge is a hashtag on Twitter that’s being used for a variety of reasons.

“I just think it seems hokey and far too gimmicky and a hot trend and part of the whole ‘me’ culture of ‘Oh look at me. Pay attention to me,'” said Cameron Mitchell of New York. “The charity part seems like an afterthought.”

Some even argue that it’s wasteful to dump water, even for a cause, especially in places like California, where there’s a drought.

The California Water Board offered a measured response.

“It doesn’t violate any of our regulations. People should always use good judgment whenever they use water while we’re in a drought. On the other hand, we understand that this is a charitable event,” said George N. Kostyroko, director of the California State Water Resources Control Board’s office of public affairs, in an email.

Annoyed, impressed or otherwise, the ice bucket challenge has people talking — and ALS’s Munk asserts that even if they don’t donate, the campaign has raised public awareness, a major focus of the organization that last year spent 32 percent of its annual budget on public and professional education and 27 percent on research.

Just a few years ago, she said, only about 50 percent of Americans knew what ALS is.

“We’re really looking forward to see how the needle moves,” she said.




Snippets about Lake Tahoe

fireworks• South Shore’s fireworks will be launched about 8:30pm on Aug. 31.
• Granlibakken Lodge is hosting Sierra Business Council’s 20th anniversary Conference, Peak Innovation: The Next 20 Years Oct. 8-10. To register and for more info, go online.
• Truckee schools are back in session Aug. 28.
• Here are the El Dorado-Tahoe and Sierra roadwork schedules for this week from Caltrans.
• North Tahoe Public Utility District has broken ground on the $3.6 million administrative offices in Tahoe Vista.




Breakfast may be overrated

By Gretchen Reynolds, New York Times

For years, we’ve heard that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. But scientific support for that idea has been surprisingly meager, and a spate of new research at several different universities — published in multiple articles in the August issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition — could change the way we think about early-hours eating.

The largest and most provocative of the studies focused on whether breakfast plays a role in weight loss. Researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and other institutions recruited nearly 300 volunteers who were trying to lose weight. They randomly assigned subjects to either skip breakfast, always eat the meal or continue with their current dietary habits. (Each group contained people who habitually ate or skipped breakfast at the start, so some changed habits, and others did not.)

Sixteen weeks later, the volunteers returned to the lab to be weighed. No one had lost much, only a pound or so per person, with weight in all groups unaffected by whether someone ate breakfast or skipped it.

In another study — this one of lean volunteers — researchers at the University of Bath determined the resting metabolic rates, cholesterol levels and blood-sugar profiles of 33 participants and randomly assigned them to eat or skip breakfast. Volunteers were then provided with activity monitors.

After six weeks, their body weights, resting metabolic rates, cholesterol and most measures of blood sugar were about the same as they had been at the start, whether people ate breakfast or not. The one difference was that the breakfast eaters seemed to move around more during the morning; their activity monitors showed that volunteers in this group burned almost 500 calories more in light-intensity movement. But by eating breakfast, they also consumed an additional 500 calories each day. Contrary to popular belief, skipping breakfast had not driven volunteers to wolf down enormous lunches and dinners — but it had made them somewhat more sluggish first thing in the morning.

Read the whole story




Plastic bag ban opponents up the ante

By Jessica Calefati, San Jose Mercury News

SACRAMENTO — Lobbyists have launched a frenzied eleventh-hour effort to kill a bill that would make California the first state to outlaw flimsy plastic grocery bags, delaying a key vote and setting up one of the fiercest legislative battles of the year.

Last week, the bill seemed in the bag after it cleared a tough committee vote. But in recent days, industry lobbyists who have squashed more than a dozen other proposed bag bans over the past few years have renewed their effort by targeting moderate Democrats.

“We’re going to do everything in our power to educate legislators on the facts,” said Mark Daniels, a senior vice president at Hilex Poly, an East Coast company that is the largest producer of single-use plastic grocery bags in North America.

Opponents led by the company have spent more than half a million dollars in lobbying fees and campaign donations, painting the proposal as a job killer.

But environmentalists are also expressing confidence as they dig in for an epic battle similar to their ultimately successful fight to pass California’s “bottle bill” in the 1980s. The stakes are even higher this year because the clout of environmental groups is on the line after a series of embarrassing legislative defeats last year.

Supporters say a statewide bag ban is needed to wipe out a particularly noxious form of litter that kills marine life in the Pacific Ocean and costs Californians $25 million a year to collect and bury.

Read the whole story




Tahoe residents needed for river cleanup

The annual community cleanup day is Sept. 20 from 9am-noon.

Volunteers will fan out across the South Shore to clean up litter and debris from local beaches, rivers, and meadows. The event is part of a larger effort, the Great Sierra River Cleanup, where volunteers clean waterways in the Sierra Nevada from Mt. Whitney to Lassen National Park.

Volunteers can choose from 11 cleanup sites, or if you have a group of volunteers interested in a particular site, that can be arranged. All ages are welcome.

Last year, volunteers on the South Shore picked up more than 1,200 pounds.

Click here to register, or contact Catherine at 530.544.4210 or catherine@clean-tahoe.org for more info.




6.0 Bay Area quake felt in Lake Tahoe

Publisher’s note: The 6.0 American Canyon earthquake was felt by a woman who lives in the Angora burn area. “At about 3:20am I felt my couch shake a bit. Cat freaked out,” she emailed Lake Tahoe News.

By Napa Register

An earthquake measuring an estimated 6.0 struck southern Napa County early Sunday with widespread reports of damage throughout the area.

This was the largest Bay Area quake since the 1989 Loma Prieta quake, which measured about 6.9, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

The worst damage appeared to be at the Napa Valley Mobile Home Park in Napa, where at least four homes were destroyed by fire and up to eight more were damaged, according to Napa County Fire Capt. Steve Becker. No residents were injured, but three hours after the quake, the fires continued to burn.

“It’s breaking my heart,” said resident Linda Butler, as she surveyed the damage to her neighbor’s house.

Elsewhere, homes and businesses suffered broken glass, overturned furniture, and some structural damage.City spokesman Barry Martin said there were about 50 known gas leaks and 30 known water leaks as of 7am. PG&E and city public works crews were dealing with those.

Downtown streets were littered with debris, particularly from older unreinforced masonry buildings. Martin said city inspectors would be checking on structures this week to determine if they are safe to occupy.

Read the whole story

 




South Tahoe council candidates to square off

There will be a forum for the seven South Lake Tahoe City Council candidates on Sept. 10 from 5-7pm at Lake Tahoe Golf Course.

Candidate questions will be moderated by representatives of Lake Tahoe South Shore Chamber of Commerce’s Candidate Endorsement Committee. Many of the questions will revolve around principles in the Tahoe Future 2020 South Shore Community Vision. Questions will also be solicited from the audience.

Tahoe Regional Young Professionals will host its monthly mixer following the forum.