·       Truckee planning commissioners are having a workshop on the proposed Truckee Springs development on May 4 at 6pm in council chambers at the airport.

·       James Murtagh was promoted to golf manager of Tahoe Donner Golf Course.

·       A meeting about the Tahoe Area Plan will be on May 4 from 5:30-7pm at the Tahoe City PUD offices, 221 Fairway Drive, Tahoe City.

·       Caltrans on April 21 had a statewide litter pick up day. Caltrans District 10 employees picked up 1,552 bags of litter, trash and debris in its eight counties, including Alpine and Amador.

·       Tioga Pass is expected to open this week.

By Associated Press

Authorities in Northern California are looking for information in a 35-year-old case involving a woman’s disappearance and death.

The El Dorado County District Attorney’s Office says 28-year-old Debney Lynn Lobanoff was last seen by her husband in December 1981 in their Placerville home. Authorities say they were having marital troubles and her husband said Lobanoff left home with two “biker-type” men.

Fishermen found a woman’s body in July 1982 in Slab Creek Reservoir near Placerville. It was identified as Lobanoff two years later.

The initial investigation ruled out Lobanoff’s husband as a murder suspect.

Authorities say her body was found about 7.5 miles upstream of the bodies of two other women found in June and July 1982.

By Scott Sonner, AP

GARDNERVILLE — Residents of a rural Northern Nevada town are volunteering in the first public-private partnership of its kind providing water for wild horses on the range and shooting the mares with contraceptive darts to help shrink the size of the herd.

Leaders of the Pine Nut Wild Horse Advocates in Gardnerville say their goal is to keep the mustangs off neighborhood lawns and out of government holding pens.

Working with the Bureau of Land Management, the nonprofit group is using the contraceptive vaccine PZP with the help of the American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign to try to reduce the herd’s population and eliminate nuisance complaints that could lead to more roundups 50 miles southeast of Reno.

Board member Robin Havens says it’s a commonsense approach that’s much cheaper than housing tens of thousands of mustangs in government corals.

By Kathryn Reed

Millennials are not something to be feared, laughed at or ignored. They are merely the next generation.

These 18- to 34-year-olds are here and they aren’t going anywhere. What they are doing, though, is changing how those in the tourism industry think. And if people aren’t changing their thinking, they are bound to lose out on this burgeoning segment of the population that is hitting the road.

That was part of the message delivered to a packed room at Lake Tahoe Resort Hotel on April 26. Lake Tahoe Visitors Authority and Lake Tahoe South Shore Chamber of Commerce put on the annual three-hour tourism confab.

Millennials are all about the experience and then sharing it – usually via a mobile device on social media. They want authenticity.

“A connected village is the heart of the new economy,” Jason Broadwater said. “The defining characteristic of millennials is digital and social connectivity. Millennials are digital natives. They don’t know a world without it.”

Broadwater is founder and president of the Internet marketing company RevenFlo, which is based in Rock Hill, S.C. He spoke Tuesday about millennials and the new economy.

He said this generation’s priorities when traveling are:

·      Experiencing new culture – 86 percent

·      Local food – 69 percent

·      Partying – 44 percent

·      Shopping – 28 percent.

About 72.2 million millennials live in the United States. California is home to 6 million of them, while baby boomers account for 4 million. California is the No. 1 state for millennials to visit.

Their adolescence has also been extended, with 36 percent of them still living at home. What is different compared to prior generations, according to Broadwater, is that this is not seen as a social failure.

Often their parents are baby boomers. This extension of the familial circle means that generation is redefining what it means to be older.

Millennials also see themselves as being part of a local culture and a global citizen at the same time. They are collaborators who share information and resources. They don’t buy into institutionalized hierarchy.

This also ties into their work lives where many are entrepreneurs and not part of the traditional 9 to 5, Monday-Friday world.

Connectivity is their motto – in terms of work, play and travel.

“They are less territorial. They share everything,” Broadwater said.

To attract them to the South Shore, Broadwater said, “Let the locals tell their stories in an authentic conversational platform.”

Publisher’s note: This editorial is from the April 24, 2016, Reno Gazette-Journal.

The voices of thousands of Nevada voters will not be heard because of a law passed by the Legislature last year.

Senate Bill 499 was approved unanimously by the Senate and two-thirds of the Assembly before being signed by Gov. Brian Sandoval. Despite this overwhelming support, the law should be revoked in the next session so all Nevada voters can have a say in who represents them.

The situation also exposes how the major political parties — Republican and Democrat — too often fail to serve the public by putting their strategic plans ahead of democracy.

Read the whole story

By Lindsay Holmes and Anna Almendrala, Huffington Post

If you need any more proof that mental health disorders are a public health issue, look no further than rising suicide rates over the last decade and a half.

Deaths from suicide have increased 24 percent from 1999 to 2014, according to an analysis of Americans aged 5 and up conducted by researchers at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

While the CDC researchers can’t definitively pin down why the rates are increasing (there are multifarious factors that contribute to mental illness and self-harm), the study’s results are a huge wakeup call: Suicide is the 10th leading cause of death in the U.S.

Read the whole story

By David Goldman, CNN

The 2016 World Press Freedom Index shows that world leaders are cracking down on the press’ freedom.
World leaders paranoid about journalism are cracking down on press freedom, continuing a recent trend in which governments are increasing their influence over the media.

“There has been a deep and disturbing decline in respect for media freedom throughout the world,” free press advocacy group Reporters Without Borders said in a report released last week.

The United States ranked 41st on the list, eight spots lower than in 2015.

Read the whole story

By Kathryn Reed

The investigation into the April 11 oil spill at the Tahoe Keys has expanded beyond that one incident.

“There seems to be a fair amount of things that need to be addressed. I understand there is lot of history in that particular marina that we’ve just been made aware of,” Mitch Goode, wildlife officer with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, told Lake Tahoe News.

While an oil filter has been recovered, it could not have been responsible for the amount of oil that was recovered, according to Goode and Lahontan Water Quality Control Board officials.

CleanHarbor, which was in South Lake Tahoe for multiple days cleaning up the slick, claimed 30 gallons of oil were skimmed off the surface. The oil was found on a back channel near the professional buildings on Venice Drive.

The contaminated water never reached Lake Tahoe. Goode said wildlife was not adversely affected.

His agency will be following up with the individual who reportedly dropped the oil filter into the water. Divers with the state found it. However, Goode said it has nothing to do with the spill.

Cathe Pool with Lahontan said the enforcement team is meeting Thursday to decide how to proceed. That agency’s investigation is ongoing, as they wait to get the results back from water samples. They are also coordinating efforts with Fish and Wildlife to determine how to go after anyone who may have violated any state laws.

Goode said multiple tips have been flowing into his office since the spill was first reported. Many have nothing to do with this incident, but instead involve other issues at the Keys. His agency is going to investigate all of the leads, with the hope that the source of the latest spill is identified and other concerns are resolved.

By Bill Swindell, Santa Rosa Press Democrat

North Coast Rep. Mike Thompson proposed a series of federal tax breaks Monday for the U.S. wine industry, including a proposal to slash a tax on sparkling wine that has lingered since the aftermath of Prohibition.

The St. Helena Democrat, who owns a vineyard in Lake County, teamed up with Rep. Dave Reichert, R-Wash., to propose a sweeping overhaul of the laws that brought in $1.07 billion in federal excise taxes from the U.S. wine industry during the last fiscal year.

Thompson and Reichert contend the bipartisan legislation will help spur new and innovative products by modernizing federal excise taxes on wine. While the cost of their bill has not yet been calculated, it would provide a major benefit for the North Coast wine industry, which harvested $1.1 billion in wine grapes for the 2015 vintage.

Read the whole story

Entries are open for the second annual Lake Tahoe WordWave One-Act Play Competition.

WordWave, A Festival of Story at Lake Tahoe, will return Oct. 21-23 to the Tallac Historic Site on the South Shore.

Winners of the play competition receive a $500 and the chance to see their work directed and produced as a reading on the historic Boathouse Theatre stage. Winners receive two nights of lodging and the opportunity for a pre- or post-show discussion with the audience. Three winners will be selected.

The deadline for entry is June 3. Submit plays online. There is a $20 submission fee for each play. Manuscripts can have a running time of no more than 60 minutes, and writers may enter multiple works.

WordWave is a three-day writing event that includes workshops, readings, panel discussions, agents, and a steampunk ball. Most of the events are free and all events are open to the public.

For more information or questions, email tahoewordwave@gmail.com.