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One would think a car filled, bumper-to-bumper highway would be the most dangerous place for drivers to be during the holiday season, but no, crowded parking lots lead the list.

The American Automobile Association (AAA) has warned there are increased hazards of parking lot traffic during the holidays. Nationwide there are over 50,000 accidents in parking lots and garages resulting in 60,000 injuries and over 500 deaths. In fact. almost 20 percent of all accidents involving vehicles taking place where most might think driving 5 mph or less would lead to safer conditions.

Northern California has been drenched this month, giving the state the second wettest October on record since the Department of Water Resources began keeping track in 1921.

The Lake Tahoe Airport on the South Shore received 7.3 inches of rain in October, just over double of the monthly average of 3.54 inches. This water is helping to fill Lake Tahoe, which rose during the wet mid-October storm by over 3 inches, adding 11 billion gallons of water to the lake.

2016 is the 26th year that the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency has handed out its "Best in the Basin" award for projects in the Lake Tahoe basin that demonstrate exceptional planning and implementation and compatibility with Lake Tahoe’s environment and communities.

During Wednesday's TRPA board meeting in Kings Beach, the nine winners for the year were honored.

The City of South Lake Tahoe was one of those recipients for the Bijou Bike Park project, a collaborative effort between the City and Tahoe Area Mountain Biking Association.

A Dayton, Nevada man driving the wrong way on a stretch of Highway 50 near the V & T train track overpass in Carson City caused a major injury accident on Saturday night just before midnight.

Steven Stults, 52, was in his Mazda pick-up, traveling west in the eastbound lanes of the highway when he struck a Saturn driven by Victoria Dwyer, 25, also of Dayton. In the backseat of Dwyer's car were her two small children.

There is a new resource in South Lake Tahoe for those seeking information on mental health resources. Finding help for someone experiencing a mental health crisis can be difficult and it can also be a lofty task for a family member or friend seeking support for a loved one in need.

Six mental health kiosks have been placed through the community, each one with a highlight of local mental health services available along with educational materials. Brochures are in both English and Spanish, and updated regularly.

The Tahoe Derby Dames, an all-female amateur flat track roller derby league in South Lake Tahoe since 2008, are inviting the community to their fundraiser at Sno Frozen Yogurt on Friday, June 10 from noon to midnight.

The Dames will be at Sno to meet the public from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.

For the whole day, when customers mention "Tahoe Derby Dames" at check out, 50 percent of all sales go to the club.

Cost for the frozen yogurt is $1 per ounce.

Sno Frozen Yogurt is located 4125 Lake Tahoe Blvd. in South Lake Tahoe

Wondering if that smoke in the air is cause for concern? Or just want to make sure you’re the first to know if flames do break out near your home?

Last week the Forest Service debuted a new website where residents can input their location and automatically receive real-time notifications about wildfires that break out in their area.

Then, the tool allows the user to follow any fire that has started within their area of interest, providing the option of text and email updates.

Sledders and snowboarders this season were not kind to the new Bijou Bike Park, breaking down banked trails, overturning tables and benches, and leaving the area full of trash.

At Thursday's South Lake Tahoe Parks & Recreation Commission meeting, City staff, commissions and bike enthusiasts discussed how to ensure the damage and some other issues at the park come to an end.

Mickey George, a member of the Whittell High School class of 2012, helped the California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly) Supermileage Team recently achieve high scores at the Shell Oil Eco-Marathon in Detroit.

The three-day event scores a car's performance based on energy efficiency, not speed. George served as the team's manufacturing lead.

Achieving 1,215 miles per gallon, Cal Poly's gasoline-fueled prototype vehicle was the top-scoring American entry and placed third overall at the 10th annual competition.

At an event held at the Juvenile Treatment Center in South Lake Tahoe, five youth from the Challenge Program recently performed for their families, other detained youth at the facility, Juvenile Service Council members and community members.

The following is the ski, snowboard and weather report for Sunday, March 13, 2016 for South Lake Tahoe brought to you by Lake Tahoe SkiBum.

Wind and weather will be an issue at ski resorts today.

Winter Storm Warning until 11 a.m. Monday
Flood Watch in place until 6:00 p.m. Sunday

South Tahoe High may soon have a new Strength and Condition Center, and the public can make donations to have their name put on the project.

The Sports Medicine program at the school was developed to help train students to assist injured students, and the new plan at the school is being designed to prevent injuries to the student athlete.

If you live in Nevada, chances are you felt an earthquake in 2015. The University of Nevada, Reno's Seismological Laboratory said there were 17,500 earthquakes in the state during the year, 231 of those recently in south Reno.

South Tahoe High graduate Graham Kent in the director of the Nevada Seismological Lab. "While the Reno shaking is fresh in our minds, what's really bumping the number up from the background rates is the energetic sequence in far northwestern Nevada, the Sheldon sequence," he said.

NORTH POLE —No longer do we need to guess when the big man is coming to town.

Whether you made the Naughty or Nice list, you can track Santa Claus as he goes around the world, delivering presents on Christmas Eve thanks to the North American Aerospace Defense Command.

The tradition began in 1955 after a Sears Roebuck & Co. advertisement in Colorado Springs, Colorado, misprinted the telephone number for children to call Santa. Instead of reaching Santa, the phone number put kids through operations hotline for the commander of the Continental Air Defense Command.

When Nick Arbelaez moved to South Lake Tahoe with his fiancee Stephanie Shamo, he was taking the Assistant Soccer Coach position at LTCC and she was headed to Barton Health.

After Head Coach Ben Wade and LTCC parted ways mid-season, Arbelaez stepped in as interim head coach, leading the Coyotes to the final four for California Community Colleges.

At Tuesday's board meeting, Arbelaez was introduced to the trustees along with
other coaches and volunteers that have helped both the men's and women's soccer teams have early successes in the young programs.

Some have jobs. Some have families. Some are recent high school graduates. Some are retired military. Some are college graduates. They are all future firefighters.

One month into the new school year, 33 men and women are part of the tenth class of firefighters being trained at the Lake Tahoe Community College's program, the Lake Tahoe Basin Fire Academy. This year's class started with 36 students, but some find out early on how physically demanding the program is and they find it isn't for them.

UC Davis Tahoe Environmental Research Center (TERC) will host Dr. Kelly Redmond, regional climatologist for the western United States with the Desert Research Institute, on Thursday, October 29, 2015.

You'll soon be seeing red if all goes as planned.

The annual trek of the Kokanee salmon into Taylor Creek from Lake Tahoe should begin in the next week or so, but with the drought and a very active beaver population, the Forest Service had to step in and help.

"We didn't have a lot of fish last year," said Lindsay Gusses, the Taylor Creek Site Supervisor. "We are updating our strategies to have fish here during the festival."

Community Outreach: During the month of August, we concluded our “Coffee with a Cop” program. Members of the public expressed support for the program but several asked for us to do the same thing at the Starbucks located at the “Y” to help give locals who frequent this location a chance to participate. This said, our plan is to do another session for a month during the winter at the “Y.” When we have specific dates and times, we will forward this information.

Summit, an integral member of the Heavenly Ski Patrol for the last ten seasons, is facing an uphill battle after being diagnosed with aggressive firbro-sarcoma two weeks ago.

A fundraising campaign has been started to get the $5,000 to $10,000 needed to be treated at UC Davis with radiation and for follow-up care. The cancer began in his eye socket and has now infiltrated his sinus cavity.

Doctor's gave Summit two weeks to live without intervention, but his owner Colton Terry wanted to do all he could to let the dog who had helped so many "become an old man."

Mother Nature hasn't been very nice to Southern Bleachers out of Texas. They are the contractors working on the new football stadium bleachers at South Tahoe High and they missed the August 8 deadline for completion of the project. Summer rains caused several delays but they are now back on track to have the project finished by August 21, a week before the school's first football game.

Perched around a secluded campfire in the Rocky Mountains, Glenn Martin jerked forward, said, "Ow," and died. The wayward bullet that struck him in the national forest has campers and other users calling for changes in recreational shooting policy.

Martin, 60, died July 3 in the Pike & San Isabel National Forest, 30 miles southwest of Denver. The 3.1-million-acre forest holds the record for the most gun-related violations reported in the country, a review of federal records by the USA TODAY Media Network shows.

South Tahoe High School is one of the most unique and fun schools I’ve
attended, it’s full of opportunities for students to achieve their maximum

Every year for two weeks, hundreds of Lake Tahoe residents and visitors park their cars and ride their bikes to work, school, and for fun. Participants in the Tahoe Bike Challenge, which runs from June 1 to June 14, track their miles and join the friendly competition for fun prizes and bragging rights.