· Charles Barkley is delaying hip surgery so he can play in next month’s American Century Championship at Edgewood Tahoe in Stateline.

· Tahoe Production House is having an open casting call for a national ad it is producing. More info is online.

· Tahoe Donner’s annual Summer Concert on the Green returns with ’60s and ’70s flair on July 3 with the Beatles and Rolling Stones as inspiration. Two tribute bands will take the stage under the stars at the Tahoe Donner Driving Range, located adjacent to Trout Creek Recreation Center at 12790 Northwoods Blvd., Truckee. Doors open at 5pm. Tickets are available online.

·  The Tahoe Expedition Academy will host a public workshop on June 17 about the school’s proposed campus on the edge of Martis Valley in Truckee. Currently located in Kings Beach, the independent Expeditionary Learning School, in an agreement with the Martis Fund, purchased a 42-acre property on Schaffer Mill Road with plans to build a 60,000 square foot campus to accommodate up to 270 students in grades pre-K-12. Information on the proposed campus and public input will presented from 12:30-2pm and 5:30-7pm in the Truckee Tahoe Airport’s board room.

· Tahoe Paradise Resort Improvement District’s board is meeting June 11 from 6-8pm at the park.

By Noam N. Levey, Los Angeles Times

Millions of Americans could soon lose health insurance when the Supreme Court decides the latest challenge to the Affordable Care Act this month, but states have made few concrete plans to deal with the potential fallout, and they may get little help from Washington, President Obama warned Monday.

“If somebody does something that doesn’t make any sense, then, it’s hard … to fix,” the president said, suggesting his administration can’t do much if the justices side with the health law’s Republican critics.

When the court rules this month, the justices may eliminate insurance subsidies in as many as 37 states that use the federal HealthCare.gov marketplace established through the health law. The law’s challengers argue that a strict reading of the statute makes those subsidies available only in states that established their own marketplaces, rather than having the federal government operate the marketplace for them.

A state could restore the aid if it runs its own marketplace, as California and 12 other states and the District of Columbia already do.

Read the whole story

By Scott Sonner, AP

RENO — Reno is bidding a bittersweet farewell to an iconic 110-year-old bridge made famous by newly divorced women — and a Marilyn Monroe character— who walked from the courthouse to cast their past and their wedding rings in the river below.

The “Wedding Ring Bridge,” also known as the “Bridge of Sighs,” became a symbol of Reno as the “Divorce Capital of the World” until other states relaxed their divorce laws in the 1960s.

The legend of divorced women walking a block from the Washoe County courthouse to the bridge over the Truckee River dates to the 1920s. Photographs, postcards and Hollywood movies depict the scenes — the most famous with Monroe in the 1961 film “The Misfits.”

Major demolition work is scheduled for the bridge, which will be replaced by a span critical for flood control.

The classic double-arched, concrete span is officially named the Virginia Street Bridge and was designed by architect John B. Leonard. Iron rails and ornate lamp posts adorn the bridge.

Historic preservationists had been pushing for its protection even before its addition to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places in 1980. Ten years ago, they celebrated its 100th anniversary with a re-enactment, tying ribbons to plastic rings and throwing them over the side.

“We were still trying very hard to save it at that point,” said Alicia Barber, an author and historian who was a Reno Historical Resources commissioner at the time.

“It’s played a central role in the city for more than a century,” she said. “It wasn’t just the divorce trade. It really anchors the civic heart of Reno.”

City planners eventually decided they couldn’t afford the nearly $40 million in necessary repairs. Preliminary demolition work began a week ago and the bridge was closed June 2.

“A few people were down there last weekend to take one last trip over it,” said Jeff Bean, a vice president for the contractor, Q&D Construction.

The bridge was built in 1905 on the downtown site where the first permanent wooden structure crossed the Truckee River in 1860.

Kerrie Koski, the city’s project manager, said the bridge’s structural integrity ranks among the worst in Nevada. She said there wasn’t any feasible way to make it safer and still meet flood control objectives on the river that tumbles out of Lake Tahoe 40 miles upstream.

Reno has experienced significant floods at least once a decade since the 1950s. The biggest flood came on New Year’s Day in 1997 and caused $1 billion in damage across six counties, $700 million in Washoe County.

In 2005, the center pier supporting the bridge again became a choke-point where trees and other debris dammed up, flooding the casino district. The new “bowstring truss” bridge — expected to be completed next May at a cost of $18.3 million — will be supported by arches above.

Researchers at the University of Nevada’s Special Collections Department are gathering historical accounts from individuals nationwide for an extensive multimedia online exhibit about Reno’s 20th century divorce trade.

Many mention the bridge tradition, which apparently was referenced for the first time in a 1927 brochure, said Barber, who’s assisting project co-curator Mella Harmon, an historian and adjunct assistant professor of anthropology.

Cornelius Vanderbilt told the tale in his 1929 novel, “Reno,” which was made into a movie in 1939. A scene features a woman tossing her ring after a “quickie divorce.” In “The Misfits” shot in Reno in 1960 with co-star Clark Gable, Monroe played a depressed, divorced woman who contemplated doing the same before changing her mind.

“The big question is not whether rings were thrown into the Truckee River,” Barber said, “but whether it began as a fictional story or really started as a spontaneous act.”

It’s uncertain how many women actually tossed their rings off the bridge, unlike Monroe’s character.

New accounts include a woman who “thought that everybody just threw their wedding rings into the river so she did,” Barber said. “She said her lawyer waded into the water and plucked it back out again and told her she needed to protect her assets.”

By Terri Hendry, KRNV-TV

Plans to build a medical marijuana dispensary off the Mount Rose Highway is raising opposition.

Now, one of the owners and investors of the proposed dispensary is speaking out.

Hugh Hempel says he plans to attend a meeting set from 5:30 to 7:30pm  June 10 at Galena High School to answer questions and address concerns.

Washoe County Commissioner Bob Lucey said his phone has been ringing off the hook.

He said, “I have had hundreds of calls from upset citizens in regards to the location of the dispensary. They are not opposed to medical marijuana, they’re just upset about the location.”

Read the whole story

Four, two-hour walks around Spooner Lake to look at some of the more than 100 species of wildflowers are planned for this month.

People will be taught plant names, their uses, and habitats.

Children younger than 16 and pets should not take this hike. Comfortable clothes, walking shoes or boots and a hat are recommended. Bring water, snacks, sunscreen and insect repellent. This event is limited to 12 participants sign up by phone at 775.749.5980 or at the Spooner Lake Park Entrance Station.

The dates are June 18, June 20, June 25 and June 27; start time is 10am. Entry to Spooner Lake State Park is $10 per vehicle, with a $2 discount for Nevada residents.

By Kimberly Pierceall, AP

Call it a mutual fund for sports bettors or maybe a legal framework for buddies to pool their money to bet on the big game.

Nevada is the first in the nation to allow business entities to wager on sports on behalf of investors, regardless of how big or small the enterprise.

Pushed by sports book manager CG Technology and signed by Nevada’s governor last week, Senate Bill 443 from state Sen. Greg Brower requires the businesses be based in Nevada, including its bank account. Staff and investors must fully disclose their identities to the sports book where they’re wagering, but investors don’t have to live in Nevada.

The activity was technically permitted before allowing common law partnerships to make wagers. Imagine a bunch of sports fans pooling their funds together and dispatching one of them to make the bet on their behalf, for example.

Brower, who pitched the idea unsuccessfully during the legislature’s 2013 session, said the aim is for the process to be more transparent and respond to a changing marketplace for sports betting that has diminished Nevada’s monopoly on the activity.

CG Technology and deputy general counsel Quinton Singleton pushed for the new “clear cut, black and white” framework. The company operates several sports books in Las Vegas including the Venetian and the Palazzo, the Cosmopolitan, the Palms, the Tropicana and the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino.

If disputes arise from investors feeling bilked, Singleton said the claim would take its normal legal course against the business entity, not the sports book or the state’s regulators.

“This is going to be, really, an alternative investment strategy,” he said.

Singleton described the new allowable scenario as something akin to a mutual fund, or sports investment betting.

As an example, he pointed to a firm in Australia, Priomha Capital, that’s a hedge fund that pools its client’s money and bets it via funds related to sporting events.

Rules will still bar individuals from accepting money to take bets on someone else’s behalf in Nevada sports books, the so-called messenger betting regulation, but the new law allows for the registered business and its employees to make bets, a distinction that satisfied regulators.

The key was making the sports books responsible for collecting the information about the businesses and identities of those involved, said Nevada Gaming Control Board chairman A.G. Burnett, adding that regulators would still be watching and would have the option of reviewing the business entity’s members and investors.

It’s up to the sports books if they want to accept the wagers. It’s also up to them to investigate the people behind the bets.

Johnny Avello, who runs the sports books for Wynn Resorts in Las Vegas, however says the new law doesn’t spell out specifics of how the bets and the businesses will work. He still has questions, he said.

“If you don’t know all the rules you’re bound to get yourself in hot water,” he said.

Jay Kornegay who runs the sports book at the Westgate Las Vegas, formerly the Las Vegas Hilton, has questions, too.

“We’re all trying to understand what it’s all about,” he said.

But Singleton, with CG Technology, said the law makes the process more clear and transparent, whether it’s three buddies who like to pool their money on bets or a hedge fund.

“You can run it like a real business,” he said.

The International Olympic Committee approved big air snowboarding and an alpine team event for the 2018 Olympic Winter Games in PyeongChang.

The U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association had been among nations lobbying for inclusion of big air.

The successful slopestyle events at the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi provided a platform to launch big air as an additional medal opportunity. Big air was introduced at the 2003 FIS Snowboarding World Championships and was included on the World Cup tour in 2015.

“The inclusion of big air is another positive step from the IOC to incorporate more events that are more appealing to a younger audience in the Olympic schedule,” USSA Snowboarding Program Director Jeremy Forster said in a statement. “The ability to host big air events on the hill or in stadiums make it exciting and engaging for a variety of audiences.”

The alpine team event, first introduced at the FIS Alpine World Ski Championships in 2005, was a fan favorite at the 2015 Worlds in Vail/Beaver Creek. The event features a mixed team of two men and two women competing for their national teams in a head-to-head slalom with a knockout format each round.

                       Source: National Weather Service

Severe thunderstorms are forecast today for Lake Tahoe and the surrounding area.

According to the National Weather Service in Reno, “Thunderstorms will form throughout the region with the strongest storms along the Sierra north of Highway 50.”

The potential for supercell thunderstorms is because of the warm temperature, high instability, lingering moisture from Tropical Storm Blanca and the upper-level low are coming together at the same time.

“The strongest storms will be capable of producing winds in excess of 60 mph, large hail over an inch in diameter, very frequent lightning, and brief very heavy rates of rain or small hail,” the Weather Service warns.

The storm is expected between 1-9pm June 9.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report

By Sean Whaley, Las Vegas Review-Journal

CARSON CITY — Gov. Brian Sandoval announced Tuesday he will not run for Harry Reid’s Senate seat.

Sandoval made known his intentions to remain as governor, at least for now, following the conclusion of the 2015 legislative session on June 1.

In a statement, Sandoval said: “In 1984, Nevada Senator Paul Laxalt gave me the opportunity of a lifetime to serve as a legislative intern in his office in Washington, D.C. Coming from humble beginnings, the experience changed my life and charted me on a path of public service. It never occurred to me then that I would someday have an opportunity to be a candidate for the United States Senate.

“I have said many times that it is an honor and a privilege to serve as Nevada’s chief executive and that I love my job. My heart is in my responsibilities as governor and continuing to build the New Nevada. My undivided attention must be devoted to being the best governor, husband and father I can be.”

Read the whole story

By Kathryn Reed

Putting a roof over people’s heads from Nov. 1-April 30 is the goal of a small coalition of people on the South Shore who are making strides to create a warm room.

Marissa Muscat, who has taken on the role of project manager, is spearheading the efforts to create a nonprofit that would be in charge of the homeless center.

The goal is that it would operate from 7pm-7am, be for men and women, allow pets, and that it would be within walking distance of a bus stop. It would accommodate 20 people in a space no smaller than 700-square-feet.

“The warm room will also work to break the cycle of homelessness by providing clients with connections to community-based services including subsidized housing, food-clothing resources, counseling, financial management, health care, empowerment, and other services as needed,” the draft proposal reads.

Mental illness, substance abuse and gambling problems are some of the issues facing local homeless people. Many are also veterans. Warm room committee members want to ensure people know what resources are available to them. They also recognize some people are resistant to change.

Proponents are working to provide homeless people a place to stay on the South Shore during the winter. Photo/LTN file

Advocates are looking for a fiscal sponsor. Live Violence Free’s board of directors is contemplating being that entity. This would help the warm room be able to go after grants as it works to establish itself as a standalone nonprofit.

“Fiscal sponsors provide a link to the community and fiscal oversight, and may be able to assist in acquiring liability insurance and filing taxes. The local faith community has been supportive and is participating in this project. The Red Cross has agreed to provide blankets, staff training, and cots for clients,” the proposal says.

Statistics show that the homeless situation in El Dorado County is increasing. The 2015 U.S. Housing and Urban Development count identified 247 homeless in El Dorado County, with 38 of them living in the South Lake Tahoe area. According to the warm room committee, local agencies believe the county homeless rate is closer to 600.

At a committee meeting last week some of the nuts and bolts of creating a warm room were vetted – such as discussing what the center should look like (it could be multiple places and not be at the same venue each night), creating intake forms for clients, security, the need to look at city codes, fundraising, getting volunteers, and being ADA compliant.

Besides creating the nonprofit, the committee is actively searching for a site or sites that would accommodate the seasonal warm room. Two toilets and a sink are needed, along with electricity, heat and trash removal. Showers would be optional. Storage for clients’ belongings would be ideal.

It’s estimated it will cost at least $20,000 to keep the warm room open for six months. And that is operating with a cadre of volunteers.

For more information about the warm room or to help with the project, contact Marissa Muscat at tahoewarmroom@gmail.com.