Firefighters work to contain a fire that was started Oct. 10 when a plane crashed in El Dorado County. Debris from the plane is in the foreground and to the right. Photos/Kathryn Reed

By Kathryn Reed

Two people died Saturday night when the plane they were in crashed just after takeoff from Lake Tahoe Airport.

The names of the people and their hometowns are unknown.

El Dorado County sheriff’s Sgt. Paul Hadjes told Lake Tahoe News the plane had landed at the South Lake Tahoe airport, waited a bit and then took off. The crash occurred about 5:40pm.

The single-engine plane was a Bonanza 35 with a V tail. The tail number was too charred to completely read.

Airport officials on Oct. 10 had yet to listen to recordings of the take off or any chatter after the plane was in the air to ascertain if the pilot radioed any trouble. The airport does not have a tower.

National Transportation Safety Board and Federal Aviation Administration officials will be on scene Sunday. People will be guarding the site all night.

Pieces of the plane are lodged in a tree.

Trees sheered off by the plane are visible behind the house that was hit on Tionontati Street on the outskirts of South Lake Tahoe. This is due east of the airport.

One woman said this is not the typical flight pattern planes use to take off from the South Lake Tahoe airport.

While it was windy for much of the day, by dusk it had calmed down. The sky was clear.

The bulk of the debris from the plane was to the right of the house. This is what caught fire. The cockpit was not recognizable.

Other pieces of the plane were in the backyard and some was still high in a tree well above the two-story house.

Roommates Bryce Tye and Matthew O’Hara were on top of Echo Summit when they saw the explosion that cast a large plume of white smoke that was followed by black smoke. They raced home thinking it was their house that was hit, but it wasn’t.

One neighbor said the lot is cursed because this is the second time in 10 years a house there has burned.

The two people in the vacation rental escaped with their dog unharmed.

“The guy was sitting in the living room having a glass of wine when they hear what they think is a tree falling. They see fire and thought it hit an electrical line. They look out and saw it was an airplane,” Ginger Nicolay-Davis told Lake Tahoe News. She manages the property for the owners who live in Hollister.

The renter was one of the playwrights who was to perform Oct. 10 at Valhalla as part of the WordWave literary festival. He left the house without shoes and didn’t make it to the performance.

The extent of damage to the house is unknown at this time.

Through the annual American Century Championship celebrity golf tournament the Lake Tahoe Visitors Authority has $55,600 to award local nonprofits.

The LTVA, in partnership with NBC Sports and American Century Investments, gave $51,500 to on-site volunteer organizations and others during the tournament week. Recipients included area high schools, Soroptimist International of South Lake Tahoe, South Lake Tahoe Booster Club, Boys & Girls Club of Lake Tahoe, and the Gene Upshaw Scholarship.

For the next round of funding groups must meet 501(c)3 guidelines, provide an outline of their mission, describe how the donation will be used, and indicate impact in the community. The application is available online and must be received by noon Oct. 26.

Recipients will be contacted by Nov. 9, with checks presented at the LTVA Board of Directors meeting Nov. 12 at 3pm.

By Maura Dolan, Los Angeles Times

California’s new medical marijuana regulations will likely reduce federal crackdowns in the state, but dispensaries will continue to have difficulty obtaining banking services and deducting business expenses, legal experts and activists said Friday.

The Obama administration has backed off major enforcement actions in states that legalize medical and recreational marijuana, but most dispensary owners still remain at risk of a possible 10-year minimum federal sentence should policies in Washington change.

Marijuana advocacy groups said they were unconcerned about a new administration increasing federal enforcement in the future, particularly against medical marijuana.

California’s regulation of medical marijuana also is likely to protect it from federal prosecutions, activists and lawyers agree.

Read the whole story

By Sierra Wave Media

Measure Z yes votes far outnumbered no votes during the special ballot election Tuesday in Mammoth Lakes.

The yes vote on Measure Z means that if the Mammoth Lakes Town Council wishes to expand nightly rentals into residential zones, the people will have the right to vote on it first.

The semi-official results from the Mono County Elections Department showed 858 “Yes” votes for a 69.87 percent total and 370 “No” votes, equaling 30.13 percent.

Read the whole story

By Molly Hucklebridge Coolidge

Sept. 11 evokes a different meaning to South Lake Tahoe resident Christine O’Farrell than it does for most people. In 2002, on the one-year anniversary of the terrorist attacks, O’Farrell was on the operating table at Barton Memorial Hospital facing a new threat: cancer.

O’Farrell had been diagnosed with an aggressive case of breast cancer. At the time, she was 42 and working at Barton’s Home Health and Hospice for quality assurance and infection prevention. Her three children were 14, 12, and 9.

“I thought I did everything right,” O’Farrell recalls. “I exercised, I ate organic food, I didn’t smoke, and I knew and avoided all the risk factors I could.”

But she had a family history of breast cancer. Her aunt and cousin had it and as an extra precaution, O’Farrell started annual mammograms at age 35.

During a routine mammogram screening in August 2002, Barton Medical Imaging staff detected something in her breast. The radiologist conducted an ultrasound the same day and that “something” became “something suspicious.”

A stereotactic breast biopsy confirmed it was breast cancer and it was growing fast. In less than a month, O’Farrell was on the operating table. As a nurse with an analytical and detailed mindset, she consulted multiple medical providers, researched her treatment options, and opted for a lumpectomy.

A lumpectomy is a less invasive surgery that only removes the cancerous tumor and the tissue surrounding it. Today, a lumpectomy is a common treatment option, but O’Farrell says 13 years ago it was considered controversial.

After her lumpectomy that Sept. 11, O’Farrell underwent eight weeks of radiation. That December, she was free and clear of cancer.

“I feel very fortunate they were able to catch it early on and take action so quickly,” O’Farrell said. “Early detection opened more options for treatment and the best possible outcomes.”

O’Farrell continues to be an advocate for breast cancer prevention and early detection. She offers the following tips to help prevent or detect breast cancer:

• All women over age 40 should complete a mammogram screening annually. If you have a family history of breast cancer, ask your doctor when to start screenings and which is right for you. The Affordable Care Act requires all insurance carriers and Medicare to cover the patient’s cost of a mammogram every 12 months.
• Women age 20 and over should conduct a self-exam of their breasts monthly and complete a clinical breast exam every year.
• Exercise regularly.
• Maintain a healthy body weight. Eat whole foods and at least five fruits and vegetables a day.
• Avoid smoking and limit alcohol intake. Smoking and heavy alcohol use greatly increase your risk of cancer.
• If you or a loved one receive a breast cancer diagnosis, be proactive. Research your options, get a second opinion, and be your own advocate.

Today, O’Farrell remains cancer free. She continues to get mammogram screenings every year, and her risk of reoccurrence is the same as never having a cancer diagnosis.

—–

Note: Christine O’Farrell, director of Quality Management, oversees quality assurance, patient safety, and infection prevention for Barton Health. Thanks to a $220,000 donation from the Barton Auxiliary, Barton’s Medical Imaging will be purchasing a 3-D Breast Tomosynthesis, an advanced type of mammogram. October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

Molly Hucklebridge Coolidge is communications specialist for Barton Health.

Joseph John Personeni

A Sonoma County man is scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 22 in the December 2013 killing of an Incline Village resident.

Joseph John Personeni, 21, of Santa Rosa pleaded guilty to manslaughter. He faces one to 10 years in prison.

On Dec. 22, 2013, Christopher Elliott, 46, was found dead on his porch on Northwood Boulevard in Incline Village. According to investigators, Elliott and Personeni had been arguing and it escalated into a physical confrontation. The cause of death was blunt force trauma.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report

By Dale Kasler and Phillip Reese, Sacramento Bee

El Niño might put a dent in the drought after all.

In a revised forecast Thursday, the National Weather Service said Northern California stands a decent chance of getting significant precipitation from this winter’s El Niño weather pattern, a development that could help ease the state’s four-year drought.

Until now, forecasters have been saying this winter likely would bring heavy rains to Southern California, which is typical for El Niño, but they’ve been less certain about the outlook for the northern half of the state. Because the state’s major reservoirs are in the north, that’s where the rain and snow need to fall to substantially bolster the state’s water supplies.

If history is a guide, California will see big snow in the northern mountains along with rain in the south.

Read the whole story

UC Davis Tahoe Environmental Research Center will host Kelly Redmond, regional climatologist for the Western United States with the Desert Research Institute, on Oct. 29.

Redmond will discuss how El Niño can influence weather in our region and present the latest model simulations and predictions for the upcoming winter at Lake Tahoe.

A strong El Niño is predicted for the upcoming winter. El Niño is a warming of the Pacific Ocean that occurs along the equator and can influence the storm track over the West. El Niño conditions do not “cause” individual storms but rather influence their frequency and characteristics.

A $5 donation is suggested. Doors open at 5:30pm, with the presentation at 6pm.

TERC is on the campus of Sierra Nevada College, 291 Country Club Drive in Incline Village.

The Oct. 9 Steampunk Gala got WordWave off to a rousing start at Valhalla. Photo/Denise Haerr

·       This is Day 2 of WordWave, the three-day literary festival taking place on the South Shore. There are free and paid events. Go online for more info.

·       Here is the resolution the South Lake Tahoe City Council will vote on Oct. 19 regarding Councilwoman JoAnn Conner

·       These are the El Dorado-Tahoe and Sierra roadwork schedules from Caltrans for the coming week.

·       Olympian and World Cup phenom Lindsey Vonn surprises skiers on the slopes:

El Dorado County’s senior nutrition program is looking for volunteers in South Lake Tahoe to deliver meals to homebound seniors.

Volunteer drivers help deliver meals one day each week from 10:30am to 12:30pm to homebound adults ages 60 years or older in South Lake Tahoe. For volunteers who are unable to make a weekly commitment, back-up drivers are also needed for on-call purposes.

Meals are prepared and picked up for delivery at the senior center located at 3050 Lake Tahoe Blvd. in South Lake Tahoe. While travel to and from the senior center is not reimbursable, volunteer drivers are reimbursed for their mileage along their delivery route if they choose.

To volunteer  or for questions, call 530.621.6160.