Charles Barkley bought drinks for friends at Flight Deck before boarding his plane at Lake Tahoe Airport. Photo/Cathy Vogelgesang

In a weather-delayed finish, Mark Rypien emerged the winner of the 25th annual American Century Championship on Sunday.

“Every 25 years. I hope they still have this around in 2050. This is surreal. To go eagle-birdie-birdie after the rain. There is a reason why I live in Washington State. We are used to playing in this weather,” Rypien told NBC. Rypien’s only other ACC win was the first year.

The last golfers at Edgewood Tahoe on July 20 had to endure a two-plus-hour delay as a thunderstorm rolled through the basin.

Annika Sorenstam, who was favored to win, finished tied for second with Jeremy Roenick.

Chad Pfeifer, the Iraqi war vet who was in the lead after the first day, finished fifth.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report

By Kathryn Reed

St. Theresa School is being reincarnated into Lake Tahoe Catholic Academy when it opens Sept. 2.

“The diocese will not control the direct day-to-day operation of LTCA, but instead we’ll focus on maintaining a Catholic identity within the school, as well as our adherence to the principles of Catholic education,” Malin Kennedy, spokeswoman for the academy, told Lake Tahoe News.

Lake Tahoe News first reported in June that St. Theresa would be closing. Declining enrollment at the K-8 South Lake Tahoe school has been an issue for years. There were just more than 50 students last school year.

St. Theresa Catholic Church will continue to have a school operating next door.

The academy, like St. Theresa’s, will be preschool-8. It will operate in the same buildings. Differences are that it will not be overseen by Sacramento Diocese and it will not be an official Catholic school.

“STS simply was not successful as defined by the Sacramento Diocese enrollment numbers and financial stability model,” Kennedy said. “But STS was consistently successful in its mission to educate successful, well-rounded students. High school valedictorians and community leaders have graduated from STS.”

Anne Flice, who had been principal at St. Theresa, will be the interim principal at the academy as well as director of education. Allison Monroe is president of the academy. There is also a board of directors.

“Many duties of the principal will be co-managed with the president – specifically, curriculum development, recruitment and fundraising, and public relations,” Kennedy said.

The division of labor will have Flice being responsible for improved academics, with a focus on science and math, while Monroe’s job is more about fundraising and recruitment.

“We still believe that a small private faith-based school is critical to the South Lake Tahoe education community. We have a dedicated group of parents and educators, a Catholic parish, and an entire community that will support our goals,” Kennedy said.

The academy came about from parents and teachers not wanting to let the Catholic school model die. They, with other community members, created Lake Tahoe Catholic Academy.

“I truly believe in this school and I’m an atheist. It not only was a strong positive influence on my son’s life, but it made quite a positive impact on me and my ex-wife as well,” Toogee Sielsch told Lake Tahoe News. “I volunteered on average 200 to 300 hours a year when Ian was a student and I still help out where I can.”

All faiths are welcome.

Enrollment applications will be available in the next week. Lake Tahoe Catholic Academy may be reached at 530.208.7657.

Publisher’s note: This editorial is from the July 18, 2014, Mountain Democrat in Placerville.

Some of you may have noticed the My Turn column July 2 by all four members of the El Dorado County Board of Supervisors. [The same editorial was posted July 4 in Lake Tahoe News.]

Unusual.

Also, illegal.

Yes, there was no regular item on the board’s agenda for them to approve whoever wrote this on their behalf. It’s been clear to us for a long time that none of the four has ever exhibited a talent for writing. And now it’s also clear none seems to have a talent for knowing the law. Even if one board member happened to actually put together a few bullet points and a lot of general PR pabulum, it still required approval from the other three.

We’re sticking with the theory that someone on staff or someone on contract wrote this 864-word piece.

Why is this illegal? It violates the Brown Act that is also known as the local government open meeting law. Under Section 54952.2 (b) of the Brown Act, “… any use of direct communication, personal intermediaries or technological devices that is employed by a majority of the members of the legislative body to develop a collective concurrence as to action to be taken on an item by members of the legislative body is prohibited.”

The operative word here is “prohibited.”

For the four members of the Board of Supervisors to sign their names to this requires action. To act requires communication. Because this did not appear on an agenda item for the board members to vote in public they either did it secretly behind closed doors without notice or they approved it one at a time through the actions of an intermediary.

We call on the district attorney to investigate this, find out who the intermediary was, publicize that person and send a formal letter to the board to take corrective action for this “unlawful action by the legislative body.”

To the community,

We just celebrated our 50th anniversary. We saved up to have a little party and then take our family to Lake Tahoe for a few days.

Back in April we booked the dinner cruise on the Tahoe

Queen for 12 people on July 17, our last night there. Since there was thunder that afternoon, we called the office to make sure the boat was going out. They asked for my name and confirmation number. They said, yes it was going out and to be there 30-45 minutes before the departure time of 6:30. We were there at 5:45. When we arrived, the boarding gate was locked and the

office closed. A crew member came out and said “tonight is a private party.”

I showed him my confirmation paperwork. He then went and got someone who we found out was Rubin, the food and beverage manager. He told us in no uncertain terms we were not getting on the boat. We could see he didn’t want to help us. He was rude and obnoxious in his attitude. He basically said that this was a $30,000 booking and our 12 people wasn’t very important.

We asked what he could do to help us with this situation. We asked for a phone number to speak to some

one else in charge. We were told they could put us on the Dixie. By now it’s almost 6:30. The

Dixie had already sailed.

When my husband explained that “you could have called us and let us know this was happening” he was told we called and left a message. It’s now 7pm.

The kids are hungry and the adults upset with how the situation was being handled.

When we got home Saturday, I checked my answering machine. It was Thursday at 11:44am. The message was from the company stating “the boat isn’t going out tonight, but we can put you on the Dixie.” I’m away from home, having family time. I’m not thinking about messages. You don’t call five hours before to tell us our cruise wasn’t going out.

You can’t tell me that the party of 160 was a last-minute booking. They had plenty of time to notify us of this event. We’ve all ready paid for the dinner cruise. We were told. we’d get our money back. That’s not the point.

Our celebration was ruined. The whole situation with Rubin and his attitude was very unprofessional. He wasn’t a very good representative for the company.

Ron and Anita Pasch, Livermore

Candidates for Douglas County manager will be meeting the public Aug. 4 from 5:30-7:30pm at the Carson Valley Inn’s Valley Ballroom.

During the reception, each candidate will briefly discuss her or his qualifications for the position and converse with the public. Each candidates’ qualifications may be reviewed online.

Seventy-one people applied for the position. The top seven candidates will visit Douglas County on Aug. 4-5 for a series of interviews, a tour of the community, and the reception.

Candidates will be interviewed by commissioners at a special meeting on Aug. 18.

A wood burning ban is in effect in South Lake Tahoe because of the drought.

The South Lake Tahoe Fire Department issued the following warnings:

• Avoid outdoor burning, such as campfires, or any other open flame and even grilling is not advised.
• Dispose of cigarettes and other smoking materials into fire safe containers. Tossing smoldering cigarettes onto the ground should be avoided.
• Properly store flammable materials such as gasoline, alcohol, paint, lighter, and matches. These materials may reach their critical points during hot weather and can possibly result to fire.
• Be extremely careful when using and fueling chain saws, lawn mowers, weed eaters and other lawn care equipment. High heat conditions make ignition of the fuel vapors more likely. Find shade if possible and allow the machinery to cool if it has been running. Also avoid welding in dangerously dry conditions, as the sparks can easily ignite the dry vegetation around you.
• Be careful where you park your vehicles. The hot underside of a car or truck filled with gasoline parked over dead grass or leaves is an explosion waiting to happen. Be sure to park on concrete or solid dirt or gravel, especially during red flag days. Do not park where vegetation touches the vehicle.

To the community,

The South Tahoe Drug Free Coalition would like to extend a huge kudos to the businesses that attended the ABC (Alcoholic Beverage Control) seminar hosted by South Lake Tahoe Police Department on July 18.

It was great to see these businesses taking the extra steps to avoid selling alcohol to minors or visibly intoxicated community members.

Thank you for your hard work: Base Camp Pizza Co., Azul, Rojos, Classic Cue, Turn 3, Tahoe Bowl, Flight Deck, and 7 Seas Inn.

Melody Easton, South Tahoe Drug Free Coalition

There is no estimated time when power will be restored to thousands of South Shore Liberty Utilities customers.

Two circuits are out in Meyers that is affecting South Lake Tahoe, too.

Nevada Energy customers are also in the dark, except those with generators.

“This storm is wide spread,” Randy Kelly told Lake Tahoe News.

All of South Lake Tahoe, Meyers and Alpine County Liberty customers are in the dark.

By Henry Brean, Las Vegas Review-Journal

On lonely highways from Pahrump to the state capital, you can still find signs of a rare and controversial business as old as the mining camps that helped put Nevada on the map. Just follow the trademark spinning red lights.

While recent decades have seen casinos sprout from coast to coast, Nevada still holds the distinction as the only state where brothels are legal.

Lately, though, this regulated version of the world’s oldest profession seems a little long in the tooth.

“There’s just nothing that’s really working for this unique little industry,” said George Flint, longtime lobbyist for the Nevada Brothel Owners Association. “I hesitate to say this, but I think legal, regulated sex for sale is on its way out.”

The culprit isn’t moral opposition or government interference, although U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid did call for an end to legal brothels during a speech to state lawmakers in 2011. What’s really killing the houses is unfettered competition from illegal prostitution set loose on the Internet and the Strip, Flint said.

Clark County is one of five Nevada counties that prohibits brothels, and it is the only one barred from the practice by state law. But thanks to an endless barrage of handbills, mobile billboards and phone-book ads promising women on demand, many tourists — and a fair number of locals — are under the mistaken impression that prostitution is legal everywhere in the state, not merely at approved establishments far from its largest cities.

Flint said legalization is the only viable way to curb the rampant illegal sex trade in Las Vegas — a billion-dollar criminal enterprise he said the Strip resorts seem content to ignore or tacitly encourage in the name of customer service.

Replace “the exploiters and the pimps” with some legal, closely regulated bordellos, he said, and the county could bring in as much as $500 million in annual tax revenue while helping to curb crime, disease and the victimization of underage girls.

Read the whole story

There will be a blood drive in South Lake Tahoe on Aug. 4 from noon-6pm.

Walk-ins are welcome. Blood drive participants will receive a parking validation for Lake Tahoe Resort Hotel at the blood drive check in.

Donors must weigh at least 110 pounds, be at least 17 years old (16 with a signed BloodSource parental consent form) and be generally healthy. There is no upper age limit for blood donations. Donors must bring a photo ID and should drink plenty of fluids before donating.

For more information, call 800.995.4420.