A 23-year-old South Lake Tahoe woman has been missing since she went on break from work Tuesday morning. Michaela Vandenberg, is white, with brown hair, 5-foot-7, 140 pounds. Vandenberg was last seen at work in the area of Takela Drive and 3300 block of Lake Tahoe Boulevard. Michaela Vandenberg She was...

By Melissa Healy, Los Angeles Times They sifted through about 800 programs to prevent and fight obesity–to find the ones most likely to counter the nation’s growing girth. In the end, a panel of independent experts asserted that only by implementing many of those initiatives at once can the...

By Mark Robison, Reno Gazette-Journal Actions by Nevada voters in 2000 and 2002 are costing the state tourism dollars now and may for decades to come. The state’s constitutional ban on marriage by same-sex couples may also cost Nevada its reputation as the marriage capital of the world. It’s possible...

By Peter Fimrite, San Francisco Chronicle There have already been more than 800 wildfires in California this year – nearly triple the number for this time last year – prompting state fire officials this week to warn residents to prepare for what could be an infernal summer. A shortage of...

By Kathryn Reed With the percentage of protests to the proposed sewer and water hikes in single digits, the South Tahoe Public Utility District board can go forward with raising rates. On the May 17 agenda is an item to raise sewer rates by 5 percent and water by 2 percent. At the May 10 budget hearing...

By Sean Whaley, Nevada News Bureau CARSON CITY – They have names like “A Better Nevada PAC”, “A Bolder Nevada” and “The Nevada Hispanic Legislative Caucus”. They are all political action committees formed or renewed by state lawmakers this year to help promote their parties, push their...

By Matt Krupnick, Contra Costa Times An alarming number of California high school graduates are deciding not to attend the state’s once-vaunted public universities, researchers have found. From 2007 to 2010, the percentage of graduates attending University of California or California State University...

By Paul Takahashi, Las Vegas Sun U.S. News and World Report is looking into a local high school’s ranking as the nation’s 13th-best public high school after its principal questioned the data used by the national magazine. U.S. News’ Best High Schools rankings were released Tuesday, with Green Valley...

By Nicholas Riccardi, Los Angeles Times Gov. Jerry Brown today released a $91-billion budget proposal that sharply cuts health and welfare spending, reduces state payrolls by 5 percent and freezes construction of new courthouses. Brown’s revised budget reflects a steadily worsening fiscal picture...

By Loretta Kalb, Sacramento Bee The Placer County Sheriff’s Department has identified the victim of a fatal head-on collision in a north Lake Tahoe community on Thursday as Thomas Heron, 67, of Carnelian Bay. Heron died and a Tahoe City man was injured when their pickups collided at 11:43am near...