Well before quagga mussels were found in southern Nevada's Lake Mead in 2007, the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency (TRPA) and other federal agencies had prepared protective measures in case the mussels were detected west of the Continental Divide. Without examining the biological requirements of quagga mussels, the TRPA ignored dozens of scientific studies that showed quagga can't reproduce and survive in Lake Tahoe and implemented the nation's most aggressive watercraft inspection program. As water quality studies increasingly demonstrate that quagga can't survive in Lake Tahoe and its nearby lakes and reservoirs, the TRPA and their scientific partners have expanded the list of aquatic invasive species that could potentially infest Lake Tahoe. However, no reputable studies have been advanced that demonstrate that New Zealand mud snails, spiny water fleas, or hydrilla - the "new" organisms that boat inspections are protecting Tahoe from - can sustain in the lake. As the Town of Truckee considers whether to copy the five-year-old Lake Tahoe boat inspection program at Donner Lake, a draft edition of Tessie, Quagga Mussels, and Other Tahoe Myths has been given to the members of the Truckee Town Council and is made available to the public for their critical review. Publication of the marketed first edition will be withheld until the town council has had time to review the book and related material, and for those who may be critical of the book's science to comment. Documentation of factual errors and additional information are welcomed.

Rock Island: An American History is the entertainingly unvarnished history of the United States. History books tend to be boring, Rock Island isn't. It's a delightful history of the Native Americans who first settled on the scenic bluffs at the confluence of the Mississippi and Rock Rivers and of the white men who fought for the Indians' lands and built one of America's prototypical cities on the rivers' edge. Through Rock Island's 340 year history, since Jacques Marquette and Louis Jolliet were the first white men to walk the rivers' banks until the information age, Rock Island tells the heroic, amusing, and ruthless stories of those who immigrated to America and how history's greatest nation was built. Rock Island is the fascinating history of America's patriots and villains, and how "the land of the free and the home of the brave" was won, stolen, and settled. It's a history that won't be found in student textbooks but is for all Americans, whether your ancestors arrived on the Mayflower or in the hold of a slave ship.