Home weatherization services are available to income-qualified residents living in El Dorado and Alpine counties to help reduce high-energy costs.

An estimated $1.5 million in federal stimulus American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds will allow El Dorado County to expand its Home Weatherization Assistance Program to serve more households during the next two years.

Weatherization measures may include window repair, ceiling fans, weather-stripping, attic insulation and/or minor home repairs. An individual home assessment will determine what measures are necessary and appropriate.

For more information, call (530) 621.6150.

Lake Tahoe South Shore Chamber of Commerce is seeking nominations until noon Oct. 2 for its 2009 Blue Ribbon Awards.

The awards highlight outstanding South Shore businesses and individuals who exemplify what it is to work together in an effort to improve the quality of life in Tahoe.

Categories are: Experience, Service — Customer & Public Agency, Entrepreneur, and Green — Small and Large Business.

More details and entry forms are at www.tahoechamber.org or call (775) 588.1728, ext. 303.

Winners will be honored at a Nov. 12 lunch at Embassy Suites, South Lake Tahoe.

Students are coming and going from Lake Tahoe – all because of the Rotary Club of South Lake Tahoe.

Maria Amélia Caixeta Barcelos is a 17-year-old from Brazil who is spending this school year at South Tahoe High School.

Amanda Strong just returned from a year in Japan.

For students and families interested in considering applying for a Rotary Youth Exchange from August 2010-July 2011, the application deadline is Sept. 28 at 5pm. Interviews are Oct. 5 at 5pm.

Students must be between the ages of 15½ and 18½ at the beginning of the year abroad. The student may be a 2010 high school graduate.

For more information, contact B Gorman at (775) 588.5900, ext.301.

Helen Smith, who lived at Vikingsholm as a child and is now a docent for California State Parks, was recognized this summer for her 40 years of service to the preservation of the historic home at the base of Emerald Bay.

Trivia: Kings Beach was named after card shark Joe King, who won the town site from George Whittell nearly a century before poker had a cult cable-TV following.

Sierra magazine reports that in the first quarter of 2009 more bicycles were sold in the U.S. than cars.

Harveys handed over $1,141,923 to an Oxnard man after he hit the Wheel of Fortune MegaJackpot on Aug. 10.

Lake Tahoe’s Shane McConkey is featured in the September issue of Skiing magazine.

Tahoe Mountain Resorts Foundation in Truckee is raffling a $1.4 million home in the Village at Northstar.

Proceeds help the nonprofit foundation enrich the quality of life in Truckee/North Lake Tahoe by giving back to various organizations in the community.

The drawing will be Feb. 14. Raffle tickets are $100 each, and the grand prize winner chooses either the grand prize package valued at more than $1.4 million or $1 million.

More information is at www.laketahoeraffle.com.

From Angie Keil at Lake Tahoe Unified School District:

Sept. 17 brought some very tragic news for our friend and co-worker, Sierra Soleta, senior accounting assistant. She was notified that her husband, Ben Soleta, had passed away at home sometime during the morning due to unknown causes. He leaves behind his grieving wife, Sierra, and two sons (3 and 13).

An account, “The Soleta Family Fund”, has been set up at El Dorado Savings Bank to assist Sierra and her family. Donations may be made at any El Dorado Savings bank and the account number is: 143008985.

Carol Lark

When all was said and done, Douglas County School District Superintendent Carol Lark was given an extension to her contract. It now expires July 2011.

The board met more than once to decide if it would honor Lark’s request to have the one-year extension.

“It was hard fought, but it was not as ugly as the June 17 meeting,” board President Cindy Trigg said.

No changes were made to the contract. Lark gets a “step” raise per Nevada law of 2.5 percent now that the Legislature has unfrozen those dollars.

Today is the last day to submit nominations for Tahoe Regional Planning Agency’s 2009 Best in the Basin awards.

Categories are: new residential, residential modification, rebuild projects, new commercial, commercial modification, commercial rebuild, shorezone, green building, public service, erosion control, restoration, BMP retrofit, defensible space, mixed-use project and green remodel.

Entry forms are at www.trpa.org. Dennis Oliver at (775) 589-5235 or doliver@trpa.org has more info.

Kim Wyatt recently launched the Bona Fide Books’ website — www.BonaFideBooks.com.

According to the website, “Bona Fide Books is a small press that seeks to publish provocative and adventurous literature. We will promote bold, unsung writers and connect them with readers. In an alleged age of declining readership, Bona Fide wants to give everyone a reason to read.”

The South Shore woman’s philosophy is the more good writing that is published the better it is for readers.

“We seek to promote bold, unsung writers and connect them with readers, and plan to publish literary fiction, nonfiction, and poetry in a variety of media, from monthly guerilla-style broadsheets to traditional bound books to downloadable flash fiction, serials, and guides for modern life,” the website says. “In an alleged age of declining readership, Bona Fide wants to give everyone a reason to read.”

Ally Jacobs and Lisa Campbell Photo by Cathy Cockrell/NewsCenter

Two special guests will be at the Oct. 6 South Lake Tahoe City Council meeting.

UC Berkeley police Officer Ally Jacobs and UCPD special-events manager Lisa Campbell will be recognized by the council for their intuition and savvy that led to Phillip and Nancy Garrido being arrested in the kidnapping of Jaycee Lee Dugard.

Mayor Jerry Birdwell credits the two Cal employees for being the catalysts that led to Dugard’s release from captivity after 18 years. Dugard was snatched from a bus stop in Meyers on June 10, 1991.

Councilwoman Kathay Lovell said the local fund set up for the Dugard family by Soroptimist International of South Lake Tahoe is close to the $20,000 mark.

On Tuesday, investigators in Antioch searched the Garrido house and the one next door for evidence that could link the couple to other crimes in the Bay Area.