By Alexandra Spychalsky, Moonshine Ink

Environmental sustainability is a buzzword these days, but when it comes to small businesses, it takes a lot to incorporate sustainable practices. For these business and nonprofit owners/founders, sustainability goes way beyond being good to the environment.

It’s also a boon to the health of employees and customers, as well as a way to support our local economy. They are committed to being green, no matter how much extra green it may cost to uphold those values.

“Some products in hair salons can be rather toxic or cause medical issues for the people who handle them day in and out,” said Christina Bowers, owner of Sacred Salon in Truckee. Before she opened her own business, she saw her fellow stylists becoming sick from some of the chemicals they were forced to inhale day in and out. While she was pregnant Bowers found out her daughter had a serious birth defect, and that was the final motivation it took for her to start a salon that would not just be sustainable for the sake of the environment, but also provide a healthy and safe work environment for her and her stylists.

Read the whole story

Bob LaPerriere

Bob LaPerriere, a retired medical doctor and historian, will be sharing stories of the woes of immigrants traveling to California for the Gold Rush in a talk on May 8.

These adventurers were subjected to numerous devastating diseases at a time when doctors were unable to provide specific treatment and many of the doctors were really not doctors. Thousands died from various epidemics at a time in history when the most advanced medical treatment consisted of bleeding, cupping, puking, purging and the use of “drugs” such as mercury and arsenic.

LaPerriere will explore these experiences using quotes from diaries of the time to illustrate and bring the past alive. 

The event starts at 7pm at Camp Richardson’s Historic Hotel, 1900 Jameson Beach Road. Cost is $3 to attend, free for Lake Tahoe Historical Society members.

Douglas County sheriff’s explorers participated earned 15 trophies out of 19 events at the Central Valley Law Enforcement Explorer Competition.

They took the overall award, out-preforming the long standing first-place holders Hanford Police Department. They received three first place awards: in building search, team obstacle, and Individual Obstacle. 

Fallon Montanucci was awarded a laptop computer as her scholarship prize for oral interview.

The 13 explorer posts competed April 6-7 in Tulare.

Exploring provides vocational training and experience to youths ages 14-20 who have a desire to learn about law enforcement or the military.

Competing were Cameron Norkunas, Maverick Duffy, Sierra Edwards, Manuel Castrellon, Tobin Schultz, Spencer Flanders, Charity Rosier, James Alvarez, Tyler Smith, Madison Palmer, Fallon Montanucci, Brady McLaughlin, Caitlyn McLaughlin, Nick Wiggins and Jocelyn Smith.

By Rick Gross

Inflation is the normal state of affairs in the U.S. economy. Most economists consider an annual increase in the cost-of-living of 2 or 3 percent per year to be a manageable level of inflation. This increase usually is a good trend because it is an indication of a growing economy.  

While inflation has not been a concern in recent decades, the 1970s and early 1980s are remembered as a time when inflation created major economic challenges. In some years during this timeframe, the cost-of-living (as measured by the Consumer Price Index or CPI) increased more than 10 percent per year.

Rick Gross

Signs of an inflation uptick

Through much of the current economic recovery, which began nine years ago, inflation has remained modest. Some economists and analysts believe this could change going forward. One key factor that could contribute to an accelerated inflation rate is the unemployment rate, which dipped to its lowest level in years. This may mean employers will have to start offering higher wages to attract and retain qualified staff, which could trigger higher inflation. Another contributing factor could be that most global economies are simultaneously experiencing economic growth. This synchronized expansion may continue to stimulate demand for products and services, leading to faster price increases. Investors are also watching for the impact of the recent tax reform legislation, which could contribute to inflation should consumers spend more and prices rise.

Watch the Federal Reserve

One way to keep an eye on inflation risk is to follow actions taken by the Federal Reserve (the Fed). It targets an annual inflation rate of two percent, a goal it has had little difficulty maintaining in recent years. If the Fed begins lifting the short-term interest rates it controls more quickly than expected, it may be a sign that Fed policymakers are concerned that the threat of higher inflation is upon us. If the Fed raises rates quickly, consumers could see rising interest rates and a more volatile stock market. Your financial advisor can provide you more guidance as you prepare for changes that may lie ahead.

The potential impact on your bottom line

While no one can predict what will happen in the future, you should consider how to respond to a changing environment for living costs. If inflation increases rapidly, the impact can be dramatic for consumers. When prices of everyday items begin to noticeably increase, consumers could have, in effect, less disposable income. The greatest impact can often be on big-ticket items. For example, the price of houses or cars could begin to climb. In select housing markets, this has already happened even though the broader inflation rate has, at least until now, remained subdued.

Does that mean you should quickly adjust your spending? While it may seem prudent, you must be careful not to let short-term economic trends overly influence your long-term financial strategy. Being mindful about your spending and saving is a helpful strategy no matter the economic backdrop.

Prepare your portfolio

Investors also need to be cognizant of the potential impact inflation can have on their portfolios. In what has generally been a period of low inflation (the 1980s through now), stocks and bonds have both performed consistently well. In the 1970s, when inflation was much higher, stocks lagged their historical averages and bonds were negatively affected by rapidly rising interest rates.

If inflation rises, interest rates historically have tended to follow that trend. If inflation should begin to accelerate, bond yields may as well. This could hurt bond investors; as existing bond holdings can lose value when yields rise in the broader bond market.

If you are concerned that inflation risks will become a greater concern, this may be a good time to review your portfolio. Consider taking steps to prepare for potential changes in the investment environment that could be caused, in part, by changes in the inflation scenario.

Rick Gross is a financial advisor and private wealth advisor with Ameriprise Financial Services Inc. in South Lake Tahoe.

By Michelle Robertson, San Francisco Chronicle
 
“Every day I wake up here is a vacation,” says 46-year-old Ricardo Garcia. He and his wife moved to Truckee in 2005, after years of hopping around San Francisco’s neighborhoods in an effort to make the city feel like “home.” The endeavor was complicated by an expensive real estate market.

Unable to find the house they wanted in the Bay Area, they looked east, to Tahoe.

“Everything we enjoyed doing was here,” he said – hiking, boating, skiing, climbing and other -ings.

Garcia is one of an unquantifiable number of Bay Area ex-pats who’ve turned the vacation destination of Lake Tahoe into a permanent home. The place can suck you in quick.

Read the whole story

Gypsy

Gypsy is an 18-month-old golden retriever/German shepherd mix. She came to the shelter when her owners had to move.

Gypsy likes other dogs and didn’t chase the cat that she met at the shelter. She needs a home without children under 12.

Gypsy is spayed, microchipped, tested for heart worm, and vaccinated. She is at the El Dorado County Animal Services shelter in Meyers, along with many other dogs and cats who are waiting for their new homes. Go to the Tahoe animal shelter’s Facebook page to see photos and descriptions of all pets at the shelter. 

Call 530.573.7925 for directions, hours, and other information on adopting a pet. 

For spay-neuter assistance for South Tahoe residents, go online. 

— Karen Kuentz

By Grant Tomkinson and Justin J. Lang

Physical fitness is important for success in sports and athletics, but it is also important for good health. If you are generally fit, you probably have a strong heart, brain, muscles and bones, all of which help you to exercise and improve your chances of living a long, fit and healthy life.

The most important type of fitness for good health is aerobic fitness, which is your ability to exercise or be physically active at a constant pace for a long period of time (say, more than 20 minutes), such as running, walking, biking, swimming, rowing, or playing aerobic sports such as soccer or basketball.

Monitoring national and international trends in kids’ aerobic fitness is important to understand trends in the underlying current and potential future health of a population. Research shows that if you are aerobically fit as an adult, then you are less likely to develop or die from chronic conditions such as heart disease, stroke and some cancers. And, if you were fit as a kid, then you are more likely to be a fit and healthy as an adult.

Take a second to think about your own fitness level. Do you think you were as fit as today’s kids when you were their age?

This has been a topic of much discussion in recent decades. Most people say that kids’ fitness has declined, some say that it has not changed at all, while few are willing to say that it has improved.

To help settle this debate, our research team has spent the past two decades gathering historical fitness data on millions of kids from around the world.

Improvements in some kids

We systematically analyzed decades of data from hundreds of studies across many different countries to compare the aerobic fitness of kids of the same age and gender, all measured using the same fitness tests.

In 2003, our research was the first to conclusively show that kids’ aerobic fitness did in fact decline around the world at the end of the 20th century. In our very large study of 25 million kids aged 6 to 19 years from 27 countries, we showed that aerobic fitness declined worldwide between 1970 and 2000, with kids in 2000 about 15 percent less fit than their parents were when they were kids.

Yet there is some good news suggesting that kids’ fitness levels may no longer be on the slide. We recently published an update to our 2003 study in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, which examined trends in the aerobic fitness levels of 1 million kids aged 9 to 17 years from 19 high-income (such as Australia, Canada, the United States, etc.) and upper middle-income (such as Brazil and South Africa) countries between 1981 and 2014. We measured aerobic fitness using the 20-meter shuttle run, also called the “beep” test, or the PACER test.

The beep test is the world’s most popular field test of aerobic fitness for kids. It is a progressive exercise test involving continuous running between two lines 20 meters (66 feet) apart in time to recorded beeps. The time between beeps gets progressively shorter, and the test is over when you can no longer run the 20-meter distance before the audio beep.

Our updated study confirmed that kids’ aerobic fitness levels had in fact declined in the 1980s and 1990s, but interestingly, the decline appears to have slowed since 2000 with fitness levels plateauing over the past decade.

While trends in fitness differed between countries, most showed overall declines. After 2000, however, aerobic fitness improved in Brazil and Japan; plateaued in Australia, Canada, Greece, South Africa and Spain; and declined in Portugal, the United Kingdom and the United States. Today’s kids are still less fit than their parents were when they were kids, but the gap is about half as much as previously thought — and now about 7 percent.

What’s the cause?

We explored links between trends in aerobic fitness and trends in broad socioeconomic and health factors in each country, including income inequality, physical activity levels, and overweight and obesity levels.

The strongest indicator of a country’s fitness level was the gap between rich and poor, as measured by the Gini Index. Countries with a widening gap between the rich and poor experienced the largest declines in aerobic fitness between 2000 and 2014.

Countries with a widening gap between rich and poor tend to have a growing number of poor people. Poverty is linked to poor social and health outcomes in high- and upper-middle income countries, known as the social determinants of health. An indirect result of poverty could be a lack of opportunities, time and resources to be physically active and to participate in activities that improve or maintain an individual’s aerobic fitness level.

Assuming this link is causal, policies that tackle income inequalities and build on improving the social determinants of health within countries could lead to improved aerobic fitness levels to not only stem the declining fitness tide, but to turn the fitness tide around for good for people of all ages.

Grant Tomkinson is a professor at University of North Dakota. Justin J. Lang is a research associate at University of Ottawa.

Mt. Rose ski patrol is the first non-ambulance, non-fire department, non-air ambulance service to earn the advanced life support permit from the Nevada Department of Health Emergency Medical Services Division.

The Mt. Rose ski patrol has been providing ALS medical care to its sick or injured guests since 2010 under a cooperative services agreement between the ski patrol, North Lake Tahoe Fire Protection District and REMSA.

Mt. Rose now has the only ALS permitted ski Pptrol in the Northern Sierra/Lake Tahoe area.

The ALS permit sets a new standard of care for the ski area and allows Mt. Rose ski patrol to provide services that include:

• Patient care provided by paramedics, advanced EMTa and EMT basic patrollers

• Medical direction and oversight by physician Lisa Nelson

• Ability to hire advanced ski patrol providers who do not currently work at NLTFPD or REMSA

• Participant in the Washoe County Regional EMS Protocols so as to provide uniformly accepted local standards of care

• Improved coordination and patient care transfer with EMS transport agencies

• Ability to apply for EMS/Pre-hospital medical grants

• Ability to purchase medications under the resort’s own DEA license.

• Mt. Rose Ski Tahoe ski patrol can provide:

• Advanced cardiac care, including 12 lead ECG

• Pain management

• Advanced airway and respiratory support

• Glucose testing and diabetic emergency care

• Access to direct medical control from hospital emergency department physicians

• Emergency medicine administration

• Over the counter medications.

Unity at the Lake will welcome back Rene Jenkins as he offers a “sound blessing” on April 8 from noon-2pm.

This is a group sound healing ceremony requiring participants to simply sit or lie down and receive, using ancient indigenous instruments along with some sharing of their historic metaphysical attributes.

Jenkins is a ceremonial sound practitioner and healing performance artist, whose mission of service is to raise consciousness-vibration for individuals and for the planet through sound.

There is a suggested donation of $30, but no one will be turned away.

He will also be performing the music during Unity’s Sunday celebration beginning at 10am.

Unity is at 870 Emerald Bay Road, upstairs in suites 205-7, South Lake Tahoe.

By Sarah Pond

Too many of El Dorado County’s children are growing up in homes plagued with domestic violence. Children’s continually developing brains are like sponges that absorb everything, good and bad. They see the adults in their lives modeling various behaviors, ultimately being their primary source of reference.

In a home environment where violence is present, the abusive behaviors become normalized to those who are the direct or indirect victim of such behavior. As a result, the children often exhibit symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), somatic issues, and behavioral and relationship issues.

One program in El Dorado County, the Second Generation Project, is designed to aid in breaking the intergenerational cycle of domestic violence and helping this vulnerable population understand that the abusive behavior is not normal.

The Center for Violence-Free Relationships has a variety of programs that serve the residents of El Dorado County who are affected by domestic violence and/or sexual assault. One of the most influential of those programs is the Second Generation Project (SGP). SGP is a 12-week group tailored for children ages 8-12 who have been in homes where domestic violence has occurred. In a healing and therapeutic environment, children learn how to talk about their experiences, develop positive coping skills, meet other children with similar experiences, and participate in group activities that foster growth and development.

This powerful program includes sessions for children and adults that are facilitated by a social work professional and a domestic violence peer counselor. Children respond to SGP in different ways, some exhibiting change nearly immediately, while others may have a slower response. For instance, a previous parent who was a participant called after the first session and stated that she noticed immediate changes in her child. She shared that her child was more cheerful, cooperative, affectionate, and her child had asked for their favorite breakfast, which they hadn’t asked for in months. Another mother reported on an assessment administered at the intake that her child exhibited a number of behavioral and physical concerns. The total score for the average child on this assessment is below 47 and her child scored a 97. The mother reported that her child frequently experienced headaches, showed constant signs of sadness or unhappiness, consistently had a negative attitude toward others, and had frequent suicidal ideation. When the mother completed the mid-program assessment, her child’s score had dropped drastically to a total of 24, reporting that her child’s aforementioned symptoms had decreased significantly.

There have been many reports from parents and children alike that are similar to these two cases, sharing their enjoyment of the program, support from the other participants, and increase in confidence in sharing their thoughts and feelings. The Center is excited to share SGP with the community and is continually adjusting the program to ensure it meets the needs of the children. If you would like to hear more about SGP and the center, call 530.626.1450.

Sara Pond is a case manager with the Center for Violence-Free Relationships.