To the community,

A big thank you to the city of South Lake Tahoe, the county of El Dorado, and the businesses and residents of Tahoe’s South Shore for clearing the snow from your sidewalks and paths.

Even during these big storms, you have made sure the multi-use paths and many sidewalks on the South Shore are passable. And after 2 feet of snow overnight, you made the roads and paths safe enough for 500-plus locals to take to the streets by 11am on Jan. 21 for the Women’s March. This is a big and welcome change from the previous years of sidewalk and bike path “freshies”. Let’s save those for the slopes.

Now before any drivers start clamoring about roads and berms and potholes and the rest – we sympathize, we also want the roads clear. The funding for sidewalk and path snow removal comes from Measure S, which the city and county can only use for bike paths and the like, not city streets or potholes. Thanks to this dedicated funding and your gallant snow clearing efforts, Tahoe is becoming more accessible to people with handicaps, no car, or no license as well as those who choose to walk or bike throughout the year.

Even with the dedicated snow removal, getting around without a car in the winter is not all snowflakes and hot cocoa. There are a number of areas with no sidewalks to clear, non-compliant businesses, and otherwise impassable off-road areas. You know many of these places – just think of where you see us walking or biking in the street, usually against traffic and with a look in our eyes ranging from concern to terror. The sidewalk along Pioneer between Highway 50 and Larch is a good example. Let’s work together to make these improvements, along with keeping up the good work. And if you are a business and have not yet cleared the snow from your sidewalks, please get out there and help make South Lake Tahoe more accessible for people walking and biking.

Let it snow!

Gavin Feiger, Lake Tahoe Bicycle Coalition and Community Mobility Group

Publisher’s note: This editorial is from the March 6, 2017, Las Vegas Sun.

In this emotionally agonizing time for unauthorized immigrants living in Nevada, there’s at least one bright spot: Some of the state’s top leaders are showing them they’re not alone.

That group of leaders includes state Sen. Yvanna Cancela, D-Las Vegas, who recently introduced a proposal to protect immigrants living in the state. Cancela’s bill would prevent state and local police in Nevada from transferring custody of a person to federal immigration authorities, and from detaining people for those authorities.

It also would bar police departments from providing information to immigration authorities unless it involved a person’s criminal history.

Read the whole story

To the community,

“The Filipino community would like to extend our sincerest gratitude to Bread & Broth for once again giving us the opportunity to be a part of their very important and heart-warming Adopt A Day program,” commented Mila Seals.

Seals has been coordinating the AAD meals that the Filipino community has been sponsoring for the last four years.

With the help of 11 members of the Filipino community, a wonderful Filipino themed dinner was served to B&B’s dinner guests at the March 6 Monday meal.

The evening’s guests enjoyed sweet and sour pork ribs, honey mustard chicken, chow mien noodles, rice and broccoli with cheese, all prepared and cooked by the Filipino sponsor crew. This generous and hardworking sponsor crew out did themselves hosting the meal. In addition to cooking the tasty meal, they helped with the setup, serving and cleanup and were a joy to all who attended the dinner.

B&B would like to take this opportunity to thank Mila Seal, Myra Fajilan, Cecilia de Leon, Ador Manalili, Julie Fajayan, Nora Cabanero, Bogey Boyes, Sally Dasalla and Belma, Rudy, Mila, and Mercy Penollar. These wonderful members of the Filipino community donated their time and effort to helping others in need by serving a delicious and nutritious meal prepared from the heart.

To partner with B&B as a donor or sponsor, contact me at 530.542.2876 or carolsgerard@aol.com.

Carol Gerard, Bread & Broth

By Ari LeVaux, High Country News

This is the time of year to think about planting trees. It’s a powerful, important and often a genuinely fruitful thing to do. Planting a tree is also a long-term commitment. It requires a deep look into the future, and given the way the climate is shifting around us, it’s like aiming at a moving target you can’t even see.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s plant-hardiness zone boundaries are marching steadily northward, as can be seen on a map loop. In the 15 years since my friend Tom McCamant planted his peach orchard in northwest Montana, his land has been reclassified from Zone 5b to 6a.

It wasn’t long ago that if you wanted to grow peppers here in Montana, you had to plant them in a greenhouse. Now we get outdoor peppers every year. Ranchers who used to get two cuttings of alfalfa are now getting three. Pasta makers are already looking northward, in search of the next hot spot for the best durum wheat. Some wine grape growers are preparing to move north as well.

Read the whole story

By Dan Walters, Sacramento Bee

Dan Walters

The impact of ever-higher pension costs on California’s local governments, particularly cities, has been evident for years.

Pension burdens contributed to the recent bankruptcies of three cities and more are feeling the pinch.

The California Public Employees’ Retirement System, or CalPERS, is ramping up its mandatory contributions to offset investment losses in the Great Recession, its subpar investment earnings more recently, and actuarial projections that retirees will live – and collect pensions – for longer periods.

Read the whole story

To the community,

I read the article relating to flood insurance published March 7. We specialize in the flood insurance niche throughout all 50 states. 

Unfortunately, much of the information covered in this article is incomplete and misleading for the homeowners. We have access to seven-plus different private flood insurance alternatives, plus the NFIP. The difference in premiums can be thousands per year.

Ninety-five percent of the insurance industry has very little knowledge of the whole flood insurance market. It’s sad to hear that agents are taking two days to write a flood policy. They are really quite simple and can be written in less than 30 minutes. This unfortunately, is the norm in the industry. We also have some unique flood products that will cover up to $5 million for higher net-worth properties.

There is much more the consumer needs to know about this whole flood insurance situation.

Emerson Willis, Yep Insurance CEO and co-founder

By Robert Bryce, Los Angeles Times
 
Urban voters may like the idea of using more wind and solar energy, but the push for large-scale renewables is creating land-use conflicts in rural regions from Maryland to California and Ontario to Loch Ness.

Since 2015, more than 120 government entities in about two dozen states have moved to reject or restrict the land-devouring, subsidy-fueled sprawl of the wind industry.

The backlash continued last month when a judge in Maryland ruled that the possible benefits of a proposed 17-turbine project did “not justify or offset subjecting the local community to the adverse impacts that will result from the wind project’s construction and operation.” The judge’s ruling probably spells the end of an eight-year battle that pitted local homeowners and Allegany County against the developer of the 60-megawatt project.

Read the whole story

By Marcos Breton, Sacramento Bee
 
Despite being a self-righteous poser and a carpetbagger, Rep. Tom McClintock deserves credit.

Unlike some of his congressional colleagues, the Elk Grove Republican, whose district is nowhere near Elk Grove, is game enough to continue presiding over town hall meetings where he is the piñata.

But instead of candy pouring out of McClintock when his constituents hit him – with tough questions and heartbreaking testimonials – intolerance pours out of him instead.

At a town hall meeting in El Dorado Hills on Saturday, McClintock told a young woman that she should go back to where she came from – El Salvador – even though she was brought to the U.S. as a child and raised here. He told a pair of gay teenagers that their concerns were not his.

Read the whole story

To the community,

Here is a chronological list of events concerning Squaw Valleys’ refusal to grant any type of credit to us regarding the 2013-14 ski season. We have contacted them every year since their refusal to no avail.

We purchased our season tickets in September of 2013. In October of 2013, Sue was diagnosed with a debilitating spinal condition that would require extensive surgery and rehabilitation and would require care giving by myself as her condition needed constant attention and help in her daily activities. We contacted Squaw Valley in November 2013 and told them of the situation and asked what should we do. We were told that we needed to document all medical procedures and submit them with a letter from our primary doctor and invoices from the performing surgeon and hospital.

We followed these instructions to a tee and delivered them personally to a staff member at Squaw. Our season passes were never activated, nor did we ask for a refund, only a credit toward the 2014-15 season. After contacting them to see the status of our account, we were told that they would not be willing to do anything for us in any form, even though we followed their written instructions.

We then began in 2014, a series of letters stating our case to their director of services and also to CEO Andy Wirth. No responses were received.

At this time I had a conversation with a friend and told him of our dilemma and our dissatisfaction with Squaw’s decision. He told me of a friend of his who had basically the same situation as ours and he had received a full credit minus a $50 fee. That really sent my blood pressure through the roof. We had resigned our selves to the fact that corporate greed was more important that good customer service and satisfaction. I honestly felt that their stance was that “we’ve got your money and we aren’t willing to offer any relief.”

We were just frustrated and irritated by their arrogance and attitude and threw our hands in the air. We’ve never been one to give in, so in 2016, we sent a registered letter to CEO Andy Wirth thinking that he never saw any of our previous correspondence and he would do the right thing. We were wrong. He never responded.

At this point we just decided to call it a day and resigned ourselves to the fact that we would not ski Squaw or Alpine again. Then we read the rant about Squaw’s attitude about their employees, customers, and future plans to develop and then sell the resorts without regard to the people that live and recreate here, and we decided that we had a story to tell about Squaw Valley to the area residents and visitors. Instead of doing the right thing, they choose the low road and did nothing.

Pete and Sue High, Tahoma

To the community,

Heavenly Mountain Resort skier services crew members spend their time making sure Heavenly guests and skiers enjoy a wonderful experience on the mountain. On Feb. 27, skier services Adopt A Day sponsor crew members Ingrid Heinig, Kelsey Carapia, Jack Pippin, Megan Madrid and Amy Rice provided the same dedication to ensure that Bread & Broth’s Monday meal guests had a wonderful dining experience.

“Heavenly and the Vail family cherish the opportunity to give back to the community,” said Rice. 

She and her fellow crew members were a real treat for the B&B volunteers.

These five skier services volunteers were fun and very helpful with the meal’s setup, serving and cleanup. B&B volunteers always know they are going to get a good sponsor crew when one of the Tahoe Vail Resorts hosts a dinner.

Thanks to the funds provided by the Vail Epic Promise Grant program, Heavenly and Kirkwood mountain resorts alternate months hosting AAD sponsorships.

It is a real testament to the Tahoe Vail Resorts’ commitment to community involvement for them to sponsor 12 Adopt A Days every year and send their wonderful employees to help at the dinner.

Carol Gerard, Bread & Broth