By Cindy Krischer Goodman, Miami Herald

As the temperature rises and the day lengthens, summer slowdown creeps into almost every workplace. But this summer, a growing number of professionals are strategically using the downtime to rebalance.

Experts estimate that when vacation mindset seeps into offices during summer, productivity slips by as much as 20 percent. Rather than give in, some professionals are tackling to-do lists, researching new projects and brainstorming fresh ideas — activities that get ignored during busier times.

Duree Ross looks at the sluggish season as a time to rethink processes at work and home. After she sent her two children to sleep-away camp last week, she took a deep breath and began strategizing how she will break out time from her daily life — chauffeuring kids, spending time with her her husband — to build her Fort Lauderdale public relations/events firm.

“My husband and I are going to Colorado and we are going to spend time together like before we had kids. We haven’t had that in 11 years,” she said. When she returns, Ross will focus her attention on aspects of her business that usually get ignored during busier times, such as updating her bio and website, and retooling marketing materials. “This is an opportunity to refresh in all aspects of my life.”

Some professionals are using summer months to sharpen skills. Barrett Wolf, director of office leasing at Turnberry Associates in Aventura, has hired a business coach and enrolled in Florida International University’s Summer of Well-being course to work on his mental strength — activities he can’t fit in during the rest of the year. “Normally, I’m 24/7. I’m using the slower months of summer to create a vision in my head for what I want for fall,” he said.

A former professional tennis player, Wolf now leases office buildings, restaurant space and aviation hangars. He is meeting twice a week with his performance coach to mentally prepare for stressful situations ahead, such as bringing a complicated negotiation to a positive conclusion. “With my new skills, I will be able to attack every scenario head on.”

Miami business coach Marlene Green says summer is for big-picture thinking about moving forward in your career and personal life. It’s a natural fit, she finds. “The heat alone makes you slow down and take inventory.”

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• South Lake Tahoe is canceling its Aug. 19 City Council meeting so members may attend the annual Environmental Summit at Valhalla, which starts at 10am.
• Tom Lotshaw has been hired as public information officer for the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency. Most recently he has been a reporter at the Tahoe Daily Tribune.
• On Aug. 22 at 8pm, Will Richardson is giving a presentation on Birds of the Sierra Nevada at the Taylor Creek amphitheater on the South Shore.
• The Friends of the Library is having a book sale Aug. 16 from 10am-3pm at the South Lake Tahoe Library, 1000 Rufus Allen Blvd.
• Laurie Lewis and Tom Rozum will perform at the Boathouse Theatre on the South Shore on Aug. 6 at 7:30pm.

To the community,

This is part of an email that I sent my son Aug. 1. We hear so much now days about people that don’t care, are apathetic, and just don’t want to get involved. That’s not the case in South Lake Tahoe. The people that I witnessed today were amazing. They did care, weren’t apathetic, and jumped right in, literally, to help a person in dire need.

I was in the water so I don’t know where they were running from to help.

I am proud to live in South Lake Tahoe, and I do feel safe here if I ever needed rescuing.

August 1, 2014

Today is the 14th anniversary of my moving here to Meyers so I’m going kayaking to celebrate. As I’m loading up, there are some people in front of the house across the street crying. I go over and ask what’s up. The sweet lady Marilynn that has been battling cancer for the past 6 years died this morning. Very sad. Tom was married to her for 45 years. I can’t imagine the grief that he and his family must feel. She used to run a day care from her house. All of the families that could leave their kids with someone that they could really trust. She will be sorely missed. I thought about them throughout the day and the kindness that they showed me by inviting me over for dinner this last Thanksgiving. I could tell that it was not easy for her but she was a very strong person. They are such nice caring people.

So I finally make it to the Lake. The little island at the Upper Truckee river mouth is now part of the shore. People were riding their bikes out there. Some were walking way out beyond where I was paddling. Very low lake.

Saw A ton of birds and ducks.

So it’s evening now and I’m coming back to Timber Cove pier and the waves were pretty big and several came in the boat to be with me. This time I brought my sponge. They were mostly coming from the north so I was broad sided all the way back. As I came up to go through the pier I had to work hard not to crash into it. I noticed two girls walking on the pier just a little ahead of me towards the beach. I got through ok and turned to head in when I noticed one of the girls ripping her shirt off and had a swim suit underneath. She flew down the stairs ahead of me and started wading through the water as fast as she could go. I had no idea what she was doing.

She stops about 20 feet ahead of me and reaches down into the water and pulls up a limp girl, face down from under the water. I thought that she had found a dead body, then I realized that it was the girl that she was walking with. She lifted her head out of the water and held her by her under arms face down for a few seconds and then gently turned her over and held her face out of the water. Just then another guy races down the stairs and wades over to help and is joined by two other guys a few seconds later. The rescuing girl says that she is breathing and talking and leaves her with the other three guys while she retrieves something from the water and tells the drowning girl that she found it. Then I hear them say that she can’t move. Another girl from the pier is yelling to put her in a C-spine position and not to let her bend. Now all four of them are holding her from head to toe keeping her straight. They really struggled because of all the big waves coming in. They held her facing the beach so the waves weren’t broad siding her. The guy holding her head was between her and the waves. Other people on the pier were running around and showed up with a paddleboard and lowered it down to the water. They get her on it and slowly started moving her to the beach. The paramedics were already there waiting for them to bring her in. Now they take over and a few minutes later they rush her off to Barton. I was amazed at how all of these people responded so quickly and knowing just what to do.

I talked to the rescuing girl afterwards to see how the girl was and she said that she could raise both hands over her head when the paramedics asked her to but they fell down right away. She also had a grip in both hands, but very weak. They thought that she might be slowly recovering already. I pray that she will recover fully. She told me that the wind blew $30 out of the girls hand and she dove in head first to retrieve it. The water was maybe 3 1/2 feet deep and very muddy. She said that she is a professional lifeguard and went after her right away. She said that one of the rescuing guys was an EMT. I told her that she just saved her life and that the response and professionalism were excellent. I said that I’m glad that they knew how to handle the situation because I know very little about medical emergencies. I did stay close, but out of their way, in case there was something they could use me for. I told her again, ” You just saved that girls life.” She thanked me for that and went on her way.

So that was my anniversary day paddle.

Mitch Forster, Meyers

By Amber Phillips, Las Vegas Sun

Facing a contested re-election bid that is increasingly being framed around immigration, Rep. Joe Heck voted against a Republican bid to require the president to deport immigrants brought into the country illegally.

Heck was one of 11 House Republicans, including Rep. Mark Amodei of Northern Nevada, to defy their party in a much-politicized 216-192 vote to end President Obama’s program that defers deportations of some of those immigrants, known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals.

There was confusion among House Republicans and Democrats about whether the law would allow immigrants whose deportations were waived to stay in the program.

The vote won’t see the light of the day in the Democratic-controlled Senate. Instead, it allowed Republican leaders to garner enough support from their ultra-conservative members to pass emergency funds aimed at stemming the crisis of migrants on the border.

But while the vote helped conservative Republicans, it put moderates like Heck, a two-term incumbent representing Henderson and Boulder City, in an interesting spot.

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Placer County is in the process of figuring out what the Lake Tahoe area should look like in the next 20 years.

Staff presented an update last month to the Board of Supervisors and Governing Board of the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency.

The environmental documents being prepared cover most of the North Shore of the California side of the basin.

Comments on the Placer County Tahoe Basin Community Plan are due by 5pm Aug. 15 to cdraecs@placer.ca.gov.

More  info about the notice of preparation is available online.

A 21-year-old woman sustained serious injuries when she dove from the pier at Timber Cove into the shallow waters of Lake Tahoe.

About 6:30pm Aug. 1 Timber Cove staff and others rescued her from the water.

South Lake Tahoe paramedics transported her to Heavenly Mountain Resort’s California Lodge where CareFlight flew her to Renown Medical Center in Reno.

The name and hometown of the woman have not been released.

“The SLTFD was very impressed and appreciative at the level of care professionalism provided by the Timber Cove staff. They truly made a difference in this young girl’s life,” South Lake Tahoe firefighter Rob Hembree told Lake Tahoe News.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report

The Humane Society of Truckee-Tahoe’s Heroes Now and Forever campaign is in its final months.

This means there is limited time and space to be a part of the shelter’s recognition wall.

Individuals or businesses contributing $1,000 or more can be part of the wall, either in honor or memory of a person, pet, or event. The contribution can be broken down into two or four equal payments. The deadline to take part is Oct. 31.

For more information or to join this campaign, call Dale Lawrence at 530.582.2468 or Stephanie Nistler at 530.582.2462.

By Kathryn Reed

Nothing separates the South Lake Tahoe Police Department fleet from the public. No fence. Only a sign telling people they can’t park in that area.

Earlier this summer when the City Council was discussing capital improvement projects, No. 18 on the list was a perimeter security fence for the department. But it was never brought up for discussion at the meeting.

On the Aug. 5 council agenda is the five-year capital investment plan. It’s possible the council will approve it Tuesday. There is no specific mention of the fence.

While Police Chief Brian Uhler does not expect the security fence to be part of the 2014-15 budget, he hopes it will become a reality sooner rather than later.

“It’s on the list of things to be done. It is competing with many other projects,” Uhler told Lake Tahoe News. “It will be an item I will continually press forward.”

South Lake Tahoe police vehicles are not kept in a secure area. Photo/LTN

When he was hired a few years ago he couldn’t believe one did not exist. He said previous chiefs have lobbied for a fence, but it has never risen to the top of the priority list.

“It’s normal and customary for police to have secure parking for employees and the fleet,” Uhler said.

Uhler said known suspects have videotaped officers; this includes filming the officers’ personal vehicles. Officers’ vehicles have also been vandalized.

While there are video cameras in the parking lot, that doesn’t prevent someone from tampering with vehicles or filming officers. The cameras can only help identify the people. But it is not illegal to film officers.

“It would provide an extra layer of security when doing prison transports, drop offs and coming to the jail facility,” Uhler said of the fence.

He proposes a 6-foot fence with a mesh lining to prevent clear visibility of the vehicles. It would have a security gate that would need to handle opening and closing multiples times a day. Plus, if there is power outage, there needs to be a backup to make sure vehicles can get in and out.

While there is no official estimate on the cost, Uhler said the fence and gate are likely to be in the $100,000 to $200,000 range.

Publisher’s note: This editorial is from the July 14, 2014, Los Angeles Times.

California’s landmark climate change law, Assembly Bill 32, has created a promising cap-and-trade program for greenhouse gases that has put the state on track to meet its emissions goals for 2020, kick-started the state’s green technology industry and generated hundreds of millions of dollars for mass transit and other projects that will further reduce reliance on fossil fuels.

Gas prices already have risen by close to 50 cents a gallon since the beginning of the year.

But now comes the harder part for many Californians: In 2015, AB32 will begin to cover companies that produce transportation fuels, including gasoline. That means oil companies will begin paying for the greenhouse gases their products emit, a cost the oil companies say they will pass on to consumers. They say it will amount to an extra 15 cents a gallon.

Gas prices already have risen by close to 50 cents a gallon since the beginning of the year, for reasons that have nothing to do with AB32. The prospect of adding 15 cents more — though it’s relatively minor compared with the overall price increase — is daunting to many drivers. Assemblyman Henry T. Perea, D-Fresno, has introduced a bill to delay the extension of the law to transportation fuels for three additional years.

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