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OLYMPIC VALLEY, Calif. - Squaw Valley Alpine Meadows announced Tuesday that it is making a commitment to change the name of the legendary California mountain destination and remove the word "squaw."

What the new name will be is unknown at this time and work to determine what it will be is beginning immediately. They will announce the new name after the winter season concludes in 2021.

ZEPHYR COVE, Nev. - The Zephyr Cove Elementary Parents Club and Whittell Boosters are reaching out to the community for support in the safe reopening of the two Douglas County Lake Schools on August 31.

Both of the schools will begin the 2020/2021 school year on Aug 31 with in person, daily instruction utilizing social distancing and other safety protocols.

NV Energy is urging its electric customers in both northern and southern Nevada to conserve electricity Tuesday and Wednesday between 2:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m. in order to offset energy supply issues caused by record-breaking heat throughout the Western United States. Conservation is the best way to reduce strain on the local power grid.

Liberty Utilities gets some of its power from NV Energy so they too are asking for customers to limit unnecessary power use and stay prepared for potential outage.

Effective measures to conserve energy during this time period include:
 Turn off lights

A $45,000 grant from the Tahoe Fund has allowed the nonprofit Tahoe Area Mountain Biking Association (TAMBA) to begin a trail improvement project that will reconstruct sections of the Upper Tyrolian Trail in Incline Village. The project is designed to enhance the user experience, make critical trail connections, rehabilitate and restore old logging roads to reduce erosion and improve lake clarity. It is expected to be completed by the end of October 2020.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - Every ten years a Census is taken of all people living in the Unitied States. While the state of California currently has a 64.5 percent response rate, South Lake Tahoe once again is lagging far behind.

As of August 6, 28.1 percent of those living in South Lake Tahoe had turned in answers to the Census Bureau. El Dorado County as a whole, 58.6 percent. Nationally, the Census return rate is 63.2 percent.

Why is it so hard to get South Lake Tahoe residents to participate?

Incline Village and Crystal Bay property owners will be soon getting refunds from Washoe County after the County Commission approved a settlement of an estimated $56M during their meeting Tuesday. Half of those funds will come from Washoe County and the rest will come from the other beneficiaries of those tax payments - Washoe County School District, North Lake Tahoe Fire Protection District, Incline Village Improvement District, and the State of Nevada.

STATELINE, Nev. - Tahoe Douglas Fire Protection District (TDFPD) Chief Scott Baker has announced the promotion of two in his department - Brandon Brady and Mark Norwood.

People around the country are receiving mysterious seed packets in the mail from China. While the shipping package may be mislabeled as jewelry or other merchandise, the contents are instead unlabeled seeds.

The California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) has become aware of a number of reports regarding these seeds.

Some have been mailed to homes in El Dorado County.

El Dorado County Department of Agriculture officials are instructing residents not to open, plant, or dispose of any unsolicited seed packets received, but to contact their office.

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Twenty-five California students have been named as National Youth and Young Adult Ambassadors by the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids for demonstrating leadership in fighting tobacco use in their communities.

These young leaders were among 133 youth and young adults from 33 states who participated in the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids’ Digital Advocacy Symposium, a five-day online training session focused on building advocacy, communications and leadership skills.

LAKE TAHOE, Nev. - The 31st annual American Century Championship in Lake Tahoe next week will still bring over 70 celebrities to the greens of Edgewood Tahoe, but this year spectators will be absent from both the beach and the course.

The tournament will be held July 8-12 and Patrick Mahomes, Tony Romo, Jerry Rice, Steph Curry and his dad Dell Curry, and a host of others from the entertainment, sports, and broadcasting fields will be in Lake Tahoe for the annual event.

LAKE TAHOE, Calif./Nev. - It will be different at the American Century Championship at Edgewood next week with no fans allowed, but what won't be different is the philanthropic focus of the tournament.

With its decision last week, the U.S. Supreme Court delivered a real sense of relief and a bit of a reprieve to approximately 800,000 DREAMers in America, including 200,000 in California alone. When the justices sided with Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients, ruling that the way the Trump administration rescinded the program in 2017 was unlawful, it was a big victory for immigrant communities and their many allies.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - Summer mountain activities will soon get underway at Vail's Lake Tahoe resorts: Heavenly, Northstar, and Kirkwood.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - There are two community-wide events in South Lake Tahoe Friday, June 12 to join voices around the world to eradicate racism, educate and peacefully protest.

Lakeview Commons - 12:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - In a graduation season marked by COVID-19 social distancing regulations, high school students across the globe knew the ceremonies marking the end of K-12 school careers would be different than in years past. With daily school work moved online, graduations were moved to a virtual format.

At both South Tahoe High and Mt. Tallac High schools, graduation has been made special by social media acknowledgments, yard signs, and special bags full of gifts.

It’s difficult to find the right words. Even now, a week after the on-camera murder of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, by police officers, and all of the fallout felt nationwide, I’m still trying to understand the world, how to respond as a community leader, and how to explain it to my kids. All of the frustration, sadness, and outrage — it all seems so familiar since we’ve all been witness to these acts before, all seen and read and heard about cases of unarmed black people and other people of color killed in police custody when it was clearly avoidable.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - In a 3-1 vote the Lake Tahoe Unified School District (LTUSD) Board of Trustees voted to bring retired engineer Lauri Kemper on board to fill Barbara Bannar's term.

Bannar resigned in March and her term ends December 2022.

Originally there were three candidates but one dropped out of the running, Chris Proctor, leaving Kemper and David Wise. Interviews took place during the Tuesday LTUSD Board meeting on ZOOM, each candidate having two minutes to answer each of the board's ten questions.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - The messaging from the state, county, and city has been consistent throughout the coronavirus pandemic: This is not the time to travel to South Lake Tahoe. Nevada has also sent out the same message as a ban on nonessential travel that was created to prevent the spread of COVID-19 between communities.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - The Saint Joseph Community Land Trust (SJCLT) has announced a new program that seeks to preserve existing housing stock for permanently affordable, full-time homes for Tahoe Basin employees and residents. It is called the TAHOE (Tahoe Affordable Home Ownership Enabling) program.

TAHOE has been created to do three things:

1. Provide assistance to income-qualified households searching for a home in the Tahoe Basin;
2. Enable SJCLT to purchase available homes to be made available to income-qualified Tahoe Basin employees or full-time residents;

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - Lake Tahoe Community College (LTCC) has selected a seasoned professional with two decades of experience in California state policy and politics to fill a critical role during unprecedented and uncertain times.

STATELINE, Nev. - The Tahoe Douglas Visitors Authority (TDVA) voted unanimously Wednesday afternoon to cancel the 4th of July fireworks show on the South Shore of Lake Tahoe due to concerns around COVID-19 and large group gatherings.

Not all is lost though as TDVA is planning on a Labor Day Lights on the Lake show on Sunday, September 6, Labor Day Weekend. That show will depend on the coronavirus situation at the time and the TDVA board of directors has until July 23 to decide and not be held to any fees from Zambelli Fireworks, the producer of the show.

DOUGLAS COUNTY, Nev. - The Douglas County School District has hired a new superintendent to replace the retiring Teri White.

In a unanimous decision, the board voted 7-0 to hire Keith Lewis as the next superintendent. Lewis is the District's current Human Resources executive director. He will start to transition into the position immediately and officially take over when White leaves, sometime this summer.

The following is a letter sent to El Dorado County and City of South Lake Tahoe. It is published here in its entirety at the request of the author.

The South Tahoe Chamber of Commerce would like to offer encouragement and support of a revival of the local economy, while continuing to keep the health and safety of our residents in mind. Cases of COVID-19 have remained low in our region when compared to other more populated areas around the State and Nation. We applaud the quick action taken by the County and City that has helped us keep the case count low.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - El Dorado County officials announced Sunday they will open two appointment-only community sites for COVID-19 testing for any resident wanting to be tested for the virus, one in South Lake Tahoe and the other in Shingle Springs.

These sites follow Governor Newsom's announcement last week to add more than 80 community COVID-19 testing sites across the state, focusing on underserved communities. His goal is to test 60,000 to 80,000 people per day for the virus as the state prepares to reopen.