By Richard Chang, Sacramento Bee
At least two people are being tested for measles in Placer County, public health officials confirmed Thursday.
Robert Oldham, public health officer for Placer County, said the pending cases aren’t any cause for alarm. Measles tests, he said, are constantly being conducted because doctors across the state are carefully watching for the disease in patients.
Radio Shack’s bankruptcy filing this week is affecting Lake Tahoe.
The Incline Village Radio Shack store is on the list to be closed. The South Lake Tahoe store is one of the 1,750 that will remain open.
The stores staying open are expected to become co-branded Sprint stores.
The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy this week. The announcement included that nearly 4,000 stores will be shuttered.
— Lake Tahoe News staff report
Tatiana Leibel
A jury on Feb. 5 found a Round Hill woman guilty of shooting her husband to death a year ago.
Harry Leibel, 64, died of a single gunshot wound on Feb. 23, 2014, at the couple’s home.
At first Tatiana Leibel, 51, told authorities her husband shot himself. Jurors on Thursday found her guilty of second-degree murder.
Leibel is scheduled to be sentenced April 24. She was being held without bail.
— Lake Tahoe News staff report
By Associated Press
A Utah congressman is reviving an effort to ban online gambling throughout the United States.
Republican Rep. Jason Chaffetz reintroduced his Restoration of America’s Wire Act bill on Wednesday. The measure would reverse the Justice Department’s 2011 decision allowing online gambling with the exception of sports betting. It’s identical to one he introduced during the last session.
The director of the research firm GamblingCompliance Chris Krafcik doesn’t expect the bill to pass.
He says two powerful forces have lined up on opposite sides of the issue, which likely will lead to a stalemate. Las Vegas Sands CEO and billionaire political donor Sheldon Adelson supports the ban. Caesars Entertainment, MGM Resorts and lawmakers advocating state’s rights oppose the effort.
Online gambling’s currently legal in only Nevada, New Jersey and Delaware.
By USSA
BEAVER CREEK — The FIS Alpine World Ski Championship women’s downhill was run down the famed Raptor course in Beaver Creek on Friday. With uncharacteristically warm temperatures baking the Beaver Creek snow, conditions were challenging and the female racers put on a show for the fans packed into Red Tail Stadium. Lindsey Vonn (Vail) was the top finishing American, taking fifth place.
Slovenia’s Tina Maze displayed unparalleled skill during her gold medal-winning run. Earning the silver, only 0.02 seconds behind Maze, was Austria’s Anna Fenninger. And, Lara Gut of Switzerland rounded out the women’s downhill podium.
The unseasonably warm temperatures created variable snow in the course’s top and bottom flat sections, which played a role in the downhill’s final standings.
“You have to hit the line right in a couple of key sections,” said Vonn after her fifth place finish in the women’s downhill. “Today with the faster speeds, my timing was just a little bit off. Sometimes I was little too early, sometimes a little too late. I haven’t really had a great feel for the course yet. I’m the only one who didn’t do the World Cup downhill [on the Raptor] last year. It just wasn’t my day, unfortunately.”
Even though Vonn missed the podium, she said she was still happy with her result. “I did the best I could. I fought my whole way down. I was so focused,” said Vonn. “I visualized the course a thousand times. I did everything I could do and more. It just wasn’t a great run. It was a good run — a top five-worthy run — but it wasn’t a good enough run for a medal today.”
Vonn was the highest finishing racer for the U.S. Ski Team. Julia Mancuso (Squaw Valley) was next, ending up in 16, and was immediately followed by Laurenne Ross (Bend, Ore.) in 17. Mancuso and Ross were just a shade over two seconds off Maze’s winning time. Stacey Cook (Mammouth Mountain), who had a brutal crash in Thursday’s downhill training run, rounded out the American effort in Friday’s downhill, finishing 19 out of a field comprised of 39 international skiers.
As each American skier pushed out of the starting gate, the loud cheers of the fans at the finish line seemed to pull the skiers down the course.
“It was harder snow today and I just couldn’t feel my skis coming around for me. It didn’t work out how I wanted it to,” said a smiling Mancuso. “But it was still a lot of fun to ski and really fun to come to the finish with all the amazing fans.”
By Margaret McKean
According to the California Department of Public Health, there are 99 cases of confirmed measles cases in California.
Measles is a highly infectious, airborne disease that typically begins with fever, cough, runny nose and red eyes, and within a few days a red rash appears, usually first on the face and then spreading downward to the rest of the body.
The measles virus can live for up to two hours on a surface or in an airspace where the infected person coughed or sneezed. If other people breathe the contaminated air or touch the infected surface, then touch their eyes, noses, or mouths, they can become infected. Measles is so contagious that if one person has it, 90 percent of the people close to that person who are not immune will also become infected. Infected people can spread measles to others from four days before to four days after the rash appears.
About three out of 10 people who get measles will develop one or more complications including pneumonia, ear infections, or diarrhea. Complications are more common in adults and young children.
If your child has not been vaccinated for the measles and is eligible for vaccination, it is urgent that you contact your healthcare provider and have your son or daughter vaccinated. It takes two weeks to build up immunity to the vaccine. So those who receive an MMR now would be immune if a case of measles occurred two weeks or more from now.
You may also call the health department if you have questions — 530.573.3155.
For the safety of your child and students and staff who are unable to be vaccinated due to leukemia, cancer, immune disorders and pregnant women we urge you to get your child immunized against measles.
Contacts to a “confirmed” case, who do not have immunity against the measles, would be excluded for 21 days after exposure.
Lake Tahoe Unified School District waivers as of Feb. 5:
| School |
Students |
Waiver % |
No Immunizations |
Partial Imm |
MMR |
Tdap |
| Bijou |
574 |
5 |
16 |
12 |
24 |
|
| LTESM |
398 |
16 |
32 |
30 |
58 |
|
| SH |
497 |
6 |
19 |
11 |
23 |
|
| TV |
503 |
7 |
31 |
6 |
33 |
|
| STMS |
814 |
9 |
30 |
42 |
43 |
48 |
| STHS |
1025 |
9 |
36 |
53 |
38 |
69 |
| Mt Tallac |
86 |
|
2 |
2 |
2 |
1
|
If you believe your son or daughter may have been exposed to the measles, please keep them home and contact your health care provider for next steps as well as the school to inform them.
If a case of measles appears within our school community, students that have not received the measles vaccine will be sent home from school. Should you have additional questions, please contact your healthcare provider.
Margaret McKean is a registered nurse who works for Lake Tahoe Unified School District.
By Don Thompson, AP
SACRAMENTO — A man charged with killing two Northern California sheriff’s deputies stunned a courtroom Wednesday by blurting out that he committed the crimes and is ready to be executed.
“I did kill those cops. You can execute me whenever you’re ready,” an agitated Luis Enrique Monroy Bracamontes said at the end of a hearing as he was led from the Sacramento County courtroom in chains.
Earlier, during a break, Bracamontes repeatedly told his lawyers he wanted to plead guilty.
“You don’t have the right to plead guilty without our consent,” Assistant Public Defender Jeffrey Barbour told him quietly while the judge waited. They later blamed his outbursts on anxiety.
Norm Dawson, another of his attorneys, told Sacramento Superior Court Judge Steve White, “We’re not at this time prepared to enter a plea.”
Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for the Utah man, who is charged with killing two deputies during an hourslong rampage in October that also left a motorist and another deputy wounded.
His wife, Janelle Marquez Monroy, also is charged but does not face the death penalty. She sat quietly during the 20-minute proceeding, sometimes resting her chin on a fist.
“I think what you were hearing was a great deal of anxiety,” Dawson said outside the courtroom when asked about his client’s outbursts.
But Bracamontes was adamant, turning his head to address spectators as he was being handcuffed to leave the courtroom.
“I killed, I did, I did. I just want to plead guilty and get the execution,” he said as his attorneys stood nearby amid heavy security. “I did it, everything.”
A spokeswoman for the Sacramento County District Attorneys’ Office, Shelly Orio, said she was prohibited from commenting because it would violate legal ethics.
Bracamontes and his wife both are charged with murder, along with numerous other charges, in the slayings of Sacramento County Sheriff’s Deputy Danny Oliver and Placer County Sheriff’s Detective Michael Davis Jr.
Bracamontes is a Mexican national with a long criminal history who had been deported several times and was in the country illegally at the time of the slayings.
Most of the court proceeding itself revolved around a request by attorneys for both suspects to exclude reporters from the courtroom to prevent news media accounts from influencing prospective jurors.
White denied the request. But he barred all still and video photographs, and prohibited audio recordings from being aired or published. He did allow a sketch artist to make portraits.
The suspects are next due back in court March 27 for a status conference.
Updated 1:45pm:
——
Hundreds of people in the Lake Tahoe Basin woke up in the dark Friday morning because they are without power.
Liberty Utilities, which operates on the California side, is dealing with a wire down on Highway 89 near Fallen Leaf Lake. This is affecting that enclave, Camp Richardson, Spring Creek and the Cascade Lake area.
Another 25 customers near Tata Lane are without electricity because of a broken pole. Homes in the North Upper Truckee area are also in the dark.
NV Energy, which operates on the Nevada side, is reporting 15 outages affecting 200 customers, including people in Douglas County.
There is no estimated time when power will be restored for any of these customers.
A high wind warning from the National Weather Service in Reno remains in effect for the Lake Tahoe Basin through 4am Saturday. Rain is in the forecast through Sunday, with snow coming Monday.
• Douglas County Emergency Management received notification from State Emergency Management officials that the flash floods events in July and August 2014 did not qualify for state or federal assistance.
• Hacienda del Lago in Tahoe City is hosting a fundraiser for Tahoe Cross Country on Feb. 10 from 5-8pm. The all you can eat taco bar is $20 for adults, $10 for kids. For more info, call 530.581.3700.
• Tahoe Regional Planning Agency expects its website to be operational by Feb. 9 after hackers disabled it.
• Soroptimist International South Lake Tahoe honored Young Women of Distinction recently. Those from Whittell High School were Michael Gardner, Stephanie Martin, Sabrina Trachsel and Mikayla Warner.
• Tahoe Truckee Unified School District’s transportation department recently had its annual school bus safety poster contest to raise the awareness of the importance of school bus safety. Anahy Valdez Vallin of Truckee Elementary School went on to win the state contest in the 4-6-grade group.
By Deborah Netburn, Los Angeles Times
As the California drought enters its fourth year, scientists are trying to genetically engineer plants that survive on less water.
After adding a new piece of genetic code to their DNA, tomatoes and other plants were able to hold on to more water and survive for as many as 12 days without irrigation.
The tactic, described in the journal Nature, seeks to control how much water a plant loses through the small pores on its leaves known as stomata.
Stomata, as you may remember from biology class, let carbon dioxide in and oxygen out. The size of the opening is regulated by two guard cells that can inflate like little tires.