Weather and Traffic

Today: Sunny, with a high near 63. East wind between 5 and 10 mph.

Tonight: Clear, with a low around 34. East wind around 5 mph.

Saturday: Sunny, with a high near 69. East wind around 5 mph becoming west.

Saturday Night: Clear, with a low around 39. West wind around 5 mph.

Sunday: Sunny, with a high near 71. Southwest wind between 5 and 10 mph.

Sunrise, sunset, pollen and lake report

Sunrise/sunset

Today—

Sunrise: 6:29 a.m.

Sunset: 7:33 p.m.

Saturday—

Sunrise: 6:28 a.m.

Sunset: 7:34 p.m.

Pollen count—

Today: 9.9/high

Saturday: 10.2/high

Lake level— 6225.24

Lake temp— 42.5°

What's going on around the basin

Get Slammin'

Local poets will stand and deliver for a chance to take home the title of Tahoe Slam Poet of the Year at the Sierra Nevada College Poetry Slam on Friday, April 11, at 7pm in the college’s Patterson Hall. Note: Competitors will be limited to the first ten people to sign up (a change from last year’s Slam), so hopeful contestants should plan on arriving a minimum of 20 minutes before the event to sign up for a chance to compete. Judges will be chosen at random from the audience, and audience members are encouraged to participate (Note: booing or cheering the judges is acceptable; heckling the poets is not). Poets will be limited to a maximum of three minutes for their first utterance (just the poem, please; no long preambles!) First-, second-, and third-place winners will receive cash prizes. For more information on the Poetry Slam, please contact English professor June Saraceno at jsaraceno@sierranevada.edu.

Sierra Nevada College

999 Tahoe Blvd.

7:00pm - 9:00pm

Phone: (775)831-1314, x7420

Click here for more information

Join nine time Grammy winners, Asleep at the Wheel at 9 p.m.on Friday, April 11, in the Crystal Bay Casino’s Crown Room. Tickets are $23 in advance and $25 on the day of the show. The after party with The Trainwrecks is in the Red Room. Tickets are available at www.crystalbaycasino.com or by phone at (775) 833-6333.

Blvd with MC Souleye

Blvd with MC Souleye will present a free show at 9:30 p.m. on Friday, April 11 at the Tahoe Biltmore in Crystal Bay for ages 21 and over. Catch San Francisco's hottest emerging livetronica talent, BLVD. Drummer Dylan McIntosh, layers in samples and melodic

elements from his mounted laptop to provide a solid foundation for the rest of the musical soundscape. Tripp Bains is responsible for adding synth and deep bass grooves, while guitarist Curtis Sloane loops and

rides the effects of his guitar lines to create moving vehicles for the band's sound. With Souleye dropping the hip-hop lyrical flows, their groove is infectious, something apparent in the movements and faces of

dancing fans.

Astounding factoids

On this day in world history— On April 11, 1814, Napoleon Bonaparte, emperor of France and one of the greatest military leaders in history, abdicates the throne, and, in the Treaty of Fontainebleau, is banished to the Mediterranean island of Elba.

On this day in U.S. history— On April 11, 1963, One hundred U.S. troops of the Hawaiian-based 25th Infantry Division are ordered to temporary duty with military units in South Vietnam to serve as machine gunners aboard Army H-21 helicopters. This was the first commitment of American combat troops to the war and represented a quiet escalation of the U.S. commitment to the war in Vietnam.

On this day in baseball history— On April 11, 1981 - After 15 seasons with the Dodgers, Don Sutton makes his debut with the Astros and is pounded by his former club for six runs in four innings. Los Angeles wins 7-4.

Awesome fact about bears— The American black bear is found only in North America. The population is estimated at 750,000. They live in forests as far south as Florida and northern Mexico and as far north as forests grow in Alaska and Canada. In northern Labrador, where grizzly bears no longer live, black bears range out onto open tundra where there are no trees to escape into. People are becoming more tolerant of black bears as we learn more about them. Many people are enjoying having bears live close to them where the bears were once feared and killed.

Michigan fun fact— forty of the state's 83 counties adjoin at least one of the Great Lakes. Michigan is the only state that touches four of the five Great Lakes.