I’m excited to be collaborating with celebrated author Michael Archer on a pictorial essay we’re calling, Now Let’s Get Your Story Out! 

Michael wrote the book on Bill Raggio, and is in possession of a very sharp sardonic but kind sense of humor that can cast mirth upon most any subject.

The first part of our essay is to encourage the performance art of Chautauqua as an alternative to screen time. Chautauqua is destined to diminish adverse effects of our modern-day smart phone in this age of AI. Our people are craving eye contact, subtle signals of body language, and the warm sound of a live human voice…

So we would ask you to start thinking about who you might like to be. History is so much more interesting when presented firsthand, and you can put some muscle and blood into the telling of the story. You might be thinking, “I could never do that,” but you could, if you found it to be an interesting challenge, which is exactly what will happen… 

And then, let’s get your story out! We all have a good one to tell, and you only need to do two things.  One, read good books. “The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who cannot read them.” So whenever you have a choice of two things to read, let’s say between social media and a good book, try to remember that quote from our old friend Mark Twain. Just this morning I stopped for coffee, and while looking around, saw this headline on the cover of a tabloid, “Woman Pigs Out on Five Gallons of Haagen-Dazs and Freezes to Death!”

Reading social media is like eating cotton candy for breakfast, you have nothing to build on, but when you read a good book you have ideals and ideas, and that good book can bring out your best instincts, and good things can happen for you when you read good books.”

Now the other thing you need to do is to provide yourself with some solitude, that is to say a place where you cannot be interrupted by a person or a text. Only then can you engage the critical thinking, the creative thinking necessary to unleash your imagination and let it work its magic. 

If you do those two things, read good books and provide yourself with some solitude, your story will jump out just like that Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County. It might not come out in book form, it might emerge as a screen play or a song or a poem, but it will jump out, and people will be glad to see it…

We shall leave the last word here to Mark Twain: “There is only time for love, and but an instant, so to speak, for that.”

So now you have a sneak preview of Michael and my pictorial essay coming soon to a Thrift Shop near you…

Audio: https://open.spotify.com/show/7Fhv4PrH1UuwlhbnTT23zO

Originally Published in the Tahoe Daily Tribune, 1/30/2026, Written by Eli Ramos

As bears settle into crawlspaces under unsecured homes this winter, you may be tempted to chase them off or call someone to handle the situation. But if it’s not your property, it’s still trespassing. While it might be frustrating to let sleeping bears lie, calling your neighbors should be your first course rather than stepping in.

Ann Bryant, executive director of the BEAR League, says that since she started the organization, the number of bears sleeping under people’s homes has grown to 150 every winter. But while their volunteers often haze bears out of neighborhoods, they aren’t allowed to go on property they haven’t been given permission to enter.

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Originally published in the Tahoe Daily Tribune, 1/30/2026, Written by Katelyn Welsh

The Nevada Legislative Oversight Committee of the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency and Marlette Lake Water System held its first meeting on Friday, Jan. 23, at the Nevada Legislature, providing agency updates, public comment and committee inquiries, which set the tone for the remaining meetings.

The Nevada Legislature has provided review and oversight of the TRPA and MLWS since 1985 with interim studies and eventually this interim committee, which took root in 2003. The now eight-person committee, up from six per a senate bill that passed last year, will meet another five times through August, discussing pertinent topics to the Tahoe Basin such as forest health, wildfire prevention, evacuation planning, transportation, sustainable recreation, lake clarity, and aquatic invasive species.

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Originally published in the Tahoe Daily Tribune, 1/26/2026, Written by Katelyn Welsh

The face behind Women of Patrol and Sierra Nevada Resiliency Team, Kari Brandt is a leading voice in the ski patrol industry, expanding access to the career and developing vital resources. But when she thinks back to where it all started, it takes to her to a powder day on her home mountain, Ski Green Valley, over 30 years ago. 

That’s where four-year-old Kari Brandt, outfitted in her neon onesie and 101 Dalmatians fanny pack (stuffed with band-aids and wet wipes), had prepared to clean up and bandage any mess the powder day threw her way. 

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Photo: Kari Brandt climbs a lift tower at Diamond Peak in 2021. Provided / Jake Pollock