• Drink Up magazine is about all things related to wine in the Sierra foothills.

• A meeting Sept. 7 at Lake Tahoe Community College is designed to talk about the needs of those between the ages of 18 and 26. For more information, contact Vonnie Shane at ShaneV@flc.losrios.edu or (530) 642.5682.

• When asked the question: Would you recommend Barton ER to others? Respondents who said “definitely yes” in the first quarter came in at 55 percent, while 79 percent those who were at the South Lake Tahoe hospital in the second quarter said “definitely yes” .

• Alan Barichievich is now director of Rehabilitation and Sports Medicine at Tahoe Center for Orthopedics.

• With construction at South Tahoe Middle School, students will be re-routed a bit. Here is the STMS logistics plan

Everything Spanish was the rule of the day this month at Lake Tahoe Community College with 527 students attending the college’s 18th Intensive Spanish Summer Institute.

Approximately 470 of those students came from outside the Lake Tahoe Basin. With them came an influx of more than $60,000 for local merchants, hotel owners, restaurants and more, according to college officials.

According to a survey commissioned by Lake Tahoe Visitors Authority and conducted by Strategic Marketing Group, the average tourist party spends more than $500 a day on food, lodging, transportation, recreation, gaming, entertainment, and retail shopping.

ISSI Director Sue O’Connor said last year more than 40 percent of ISSI students were returning ones.

• Edgewood is the only Lake Tahoe restaurant on OpenTable Diners’ list of Most Scenic Restaurants in the United States.

• Great Tahoe Flume Race-Sierra Cup No. 6 is Sept. 10. All proceeds from this event support the bike patrol, which has grown significantly this year to one of IMBA’s largest National Mountain Bike Patrol chapters. Online registration is open until Sept. 7 or when the 200-rider limit is reached.

• Here is the Measure R resolution – the rewrite of the Measure S recreation decree – that will be before voters on Nov. 8. The ballot question is near the top of Page 3, and full text of Measure R is section 3 of the resolution, Pages 3 to 6.

• Robert “Booie” Alward has been hired to be Sierra-at-Tahoe’s ski school director.

• Squaw Valley has donated $25,000 to the Tahoe Fund.

• Here is the El Dorado County-Tahoe roadwork schedule from Caltrans, as well as the Sierra roadwork schedule.

Lake Tahoe News turns 2-years-old next month. We think everyone should wear a Lake Tahoe News T-shirt that day to celebrate. It would be your gift to us.

We have T-shirts to give away. Just post a comment stating what you like about Lake Tahoe News or what story you’ve liked that LTN has covered in the past two years. You must be willing to have your full name posted as one of the winners. Winners will be picked randomly.

If you aren’t picked to win a free T-shirt, there are other ways to get one.

The older shirts are for sale at the Tuesday farmers’ market in South Lake Tahoe for $15.

The other way to get one of the new T-shirts like what will be given away as part of LTN’s birthday celebration is for subscribers to send in a check of $40 or more. For each check received, in addition to the T-shirt, you will be added to our special NEWS list. People on this list will qualify for special benefits like the recent ticket give-away to the American Century Celebrity Golf Tournament.

(Subscribe by putting your email address in at the bottom right of the home page. Then you will receive the morning digest.)

Send checks to Lake Tahoe News, P.O. Box 13406, South Lake Tahoe, CA 96151 or pay via credit card through PayPal on the website at the bottom right of the home page.

Please include your email address so we can ensure you are subscribed to receive the daily digest. To receive the daily email, which lists what has been posted in the last 24 hours, enter your email address at the bottom right of the home page.

Please don’t forget to include your mailing address and shirt size – S, M, L, XL or 2X.

And thank you for making Lake Tahoe News the success that it is with nearly 60,000 readers a month in more than 100 countries, and more than 3,500 cities.

Kathryn Reed, LTN publisher

• AAA has given its five diamond designation to the Ritz-Carlton at Northstar.

• A tribute to Olga Hopkins will be Sept. 16. Click on flyer for more details.

• Tahoe Keepers is a free training program designed to help non-motorized watercraft operators guard against inadvertently transporting aquatic invasive species.

• Kiwanis Club of Lake Tahoe is having a pancake breakfast Aug. 27 at 7:30am at Lake Tahoe Airport as the first event of the annual air show on the South Shore.

• Lake Tahoe Unified School District has released a map of what the traffic pattern around South Tahoe High School will be like when classes start next week. Click on STHS info for the map.

The California Arts Council is giving Tahoe Arts Project a 2010-11 Creating Public Value grant worth $7,500.

The grant was given to support and expand participation in performing arts programs for K-12 students and public performances for residents and tourists in South Lake Tahoe. Funds support more than 5,000 K-12 students and more than 3,000 residents and tourists who attend the organization’s public performances.

TAP was one of 87 organizations that submitted a proposal.

The Douglas County Sheriff’s Office will be participating in two upcoming high-visibility traffic enforcement details.

During the late evening/early morning hours of Aug. 26-27 and Sept. 2-3 deputies of the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office working with deputies of the Lyon County Sheriff’s Office will be conducting increased DUI enforcement patrols along the corridors of highways 395 and 208.

This enforcement detail is partially paid for by a grant from the Nevada Department of Highway Traffic Safety.

The second annual Firefighter’s Poker Pedal, organized by members of the International Association of Fire Fighters Local No. 2139 Incline Village and Crystal Bay firefighters of the North Lake Tahoe Fire Protection District, proved to be another success, as they pedaled their way to raise $1,500 ($500 more than last year’s event) that will go toward the Northern Nevada Children’s Cancer Foundation.

This summer more than 36 riders rode a 9-mile loop starting at the Great Basin Brewery on South Virginia Street and ending at Silver Peak Restaurant.

The donated funds will go toward research, family assistance, advocacy, clinic assistance and other awareness programs.

• Lake Tahoe residents receive a 15 percent discount on any of the Lake Tahoe Marathon events in September. Just put Tahoe Local in the promo box when registering on the website.

• Volunteers are needed for the 22nd annual Lake in the Sky Air Show on Aug. 27. Contact Tracy Franklin at (530) 542.6093 for more information.

• Kiwanis donated a small climbing wall that went up this summer inside the South Lake Tahoe recreation center.

• Northstar-at-Tahoe Resort welcomes the return of the 2011 Pro Gravity Tour, a pro mountain bike “gravity” event sanctioned by USA Cycling, on Aug. 26-28.

• Douglas Count Sheriff’s Office is having an open house Aug. 24 from 5-7:30pm at 1038 Buckeye Road, Minden.

Each year, the National Pony Express Association re-creates the Pony Express of 1860-1861 by riding from St. Joseph, Mo., to Sacramento. Mormon Station State Historic Park is hosting this event in Genoa on Aug. 26 at 8am.

The national, 10-day, 24 hour-a-day event includes more than 600 riders stationed at intervals to relay a mochila (mailbag) filled with Pony Express Mail for the 1,966 mile ride.

The Pony Express rider will ride into Mormon Station’s stockade, exchange the mochila and see the next rider ride out to the next stop. Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev., is scheduled to be the rider leaving Mormon Station.

Although the rider is scheduled to arrive at Mormon Station around 8:30am, because of the distance traveled, it’s difficult to predict exactly when they arrive.