By David Purdum, ESPN

Nevada sports bettors wagered more — and lost more — than ever in 2014.

The state’s 187 sportsbooks won $227.04 million off of the $3.90 billion wagered on sports in 2014. Both amounts are all-time records, according to Nevada Gaming Control.

Football, per usual, carried the load. The sportsbooks won $113.73 million on college and pro football in 2014, a giant 40.73 percent increase from 2013. Overall, $1.74 billion was bet on football in 2014, $12 million more than in 2013. Nevada Gaming Control does not track pro and college football separately, but sportsbook managers estimate the NFL accounts for around 55-60 percent of their annual football handle.

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• Damian Santana, left, and Aaron Santana show off the sculpture created bh Edwin Winslow for Sierra House Elementary School in South Lake Tahoe. The school motto is Sierra House Rocks.

• The High Fives Foundation is giving Tahoe City resident Eric Zerrenner $8,560 to be used for medical transportation from Renown Medical Center in Reno to Craig Hospital in Englewood, Colo., along with 12 sessions of acupuncture and massage at the Colorado facility. On Jan. 8 when skiing at Alpine Meadows he went to jump off of a roller, which dropped down to a flat landing. He burst fractured his L1 vertebrae causing paralysis from his waist down.

• The 2015 edition of U.S. News &World Report’s Best Hotel Rankings included 47 of Ritz-Carlton hotel properties. The Ritz-Carlton, Lake Tahoe was named among the Best Hotels in the USA, Best California Hotels and Best Lake Tahoe Hotels.

• Author Patti Higdon will be at Comma Coffee (312 South Carson St., Carson City) on Feb. 7 from 1-5pm signing copies of her book “Bobby, the Blue-Footed Booby”.

• Tahoe Truckee Excellence in Education Foundation is offering $60 full-day, adult lift tickets to Northstar Feb. 1-6. All tickets sales go to the foundation. Tickets are available on a first-come, first served basis and may be purchased online and at Tahoe Dave’s ski shops located in Truckee, Kings Beach and Tahoe City.

By Eli Segall, Las Vegas Sun

Nevadans may not be on the edge of financial disaster anymore, but their personal finances remain among the worst in the country, with many residents unable to “build a secure economic future,” a new report says.

The state is racked by some of the highest rates of lousy consumer credit, bankruptcies, foreclosures, underemployment, mortgage delinquencies and uninsured residents.

That’s on top of Nevada’s many education woes, including a near-bottom high-school graduation rate, one of lowest shares of residents with college degrees, and below-average rates of middle-school math and reading skills.

That’s all according to the nonprofit Corporation for Enterprise Development, a Washington, D.C., advocacy group for lower-income Americans.

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California State Parks and the U.S. Forest Service may continue prescribed fire operations in multiple locations around Lake Tahoe on Feb. 2.

Operations may take place near Tahoe City on Highway 28 between Rocky Ridge and Lake Forest, across from D.L. Bliss State Park near Meeks Meadow, Gardner Mountain near South Tahoe High School, Christmas Valley, Luther Pass near Grass Lake, Ski Run Boulevard near Heavenly, and on the East Shore near Logan Creek Drive and the north side of Spooner Summit. Operations will last through the next several weeks as conditions allow.

Smoke from prescribed fire operations is normal and may continue for several days after an ignition depending on the project size. Agencies coordinate with state and local county air pollution control districts and monitors weather conditions closely prior to prescribed fire ignition.

The Forest Service updates the local fire information line at 530.543.2600, ext. 6.

If someone calls asking questions about Barton Health, it’s not a scam.

Barton is conducting a Community Health Needs Assessment survey by phone. The assessment is done every three years. The results will guide Barton Health and other local health and human service agencies on what is considered the community’s most pressing health needs.

The survey takes between 20 and 25 minutes and is anonymous. Respondents will be asked in detail about their health history. The survey is conducted by a third party from out of the area to ensure privacy of personal information. Responses will be compiled and only used for the assessment.

For more info, call 530.543.5537.

By Ski Area Management

DENVER — There’s stoke, and then there is the opposite of stoke. When Bill Jensen, former CEO of Intrawest, told a crowd of nearly 400 ski industry executives that from his view, 150 ski areas were in “the sunset of their existence” and an additional 150 ski areas could also be out of business within the decade, it became an immediate water-cooler topic.

Jensen was speaking as part of the Assembly 2015, a one-day forum that took place on the first day of the SIA Snow Show at the Colorado Convention Center.

In his presentation, Jensen laid out a hierarchical pyramid of U.S. ski areas (left nameless), with the most viable ski areas at the top, that he labeled, “Ubers” and “Alphas”. He estimates that there are 45 ski areas in those categories, while 125 resorts are “status quo” and 150 more were breaking even. The remaining 150 he called “Sunsets”, and predicted they would eventually fade out of the business.

Jeff Harbaugh of Jeff Harbaugh & Associates, a consultant to the action sports, outdoor and youth culture attended the above presentation and noted that much of the discussion focused on the critical millennial group but wondered “why there were no Millennials on the panel.”

Harbaugh went on to say there was acknowledgement on the panel that “family incomes of $100,000 is sort of the floor below which we can’t hope to attract people.” But, he observed, that acknowledgement comes with a further acknowledgement that “we’re increasingly dependent on the millennials who don’t have anywhere near that income, and may not in the foreseeable future.”

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El Dorado County Board of Supervisors are urging Congress to reauthorize and fund the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act of 2000.

SRS expired Sept. 30, 2013, resulting in a loss of funding in 2014 and future years to support programs in schools and counties across the United States. California’s forested counties and the schools located within these counties have been dependent upon federal revenue-sharing programs such as SRS for maintaining local roads, and for providing local services and programs.

SRS funding mitigates the impact to county governments from the reduction of allowable timber harvesting production on federal forest lands. California’s rural counties have come to rely on SRS funding – more than $33 million statewide – to support public schools and critical county road programs.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report

By Doni Bloomfield, Bloomberg

Tim Tyrrell’s bosses wouldn’t pay for a standing desk, so he took matters into his own hands.

The software engineer in Austin, Texas, used parts from Ikea for a makeshift desk to prop up his keyboard and monitor, letting him avoid the excessive sitting he had heard was bad for him. Other co-workers did the same. His employer at the time, HomeAway Inc., has since relented, converting the office’s more than 800 desks so they’re now adjustable.

Employers are under increasing pressure to give desk-bound workers more options to get out of their chairs as evidence mounts that sitting for long periods is unhealthy — even for people who are otherwise in good shape. While the desks can cost thousands of dollars apiece, companies have to weigh the expense against showing concern for employees’ health.

An analysis published this week in the Annals of Internal Medicine is likely to give concerned workers more ammunition. Researchers dug through data in 47 separate studies to conclude that longer sitting time was associated with higher risk for death, heart disease, cancer and type 2 diabetes. This can lead to life expectancies that are years shorter, according to David Alter, the paper’s lead author and a researcher at the Toronto Rehabilitation Institute.

Sitting for hours every day was correlated with bad health even for people who exercised frequently, he said. The study didn’t find that sitting caused people to die or get sick, and didn’t seek to explain why there was an association.

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While gaming revenue declined throughout Nevada in 2014, local casinos ended the year on an up note.

The statewide and December numbers were released Jan. 30 by the Gaming Control Board.

Statewide the casinos took in just more than $11 billion in 2014, a 1.1 percent decline from 2013. The numbers had been increasing the previous years since the end of the recession. In December, the state was down 8.06 percent from the previous year.

For December, the Stateline casinos were up 1.05 percent to nearly $16 million. And for the entire year, those casinos were up 2.6 percent compared to 2013, for a win of more than $124 million.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report

The future of Tahoe City’s Fanny Bridge is still being decided. Photo/LTN file

By Kathryn Reed

INCLINE VILLAGE – Unclogging the congestion at Tahoe City’s Y, dealing with a seismically unfit bridge and providing more access points to the West Shore are the reasons the Tahoe Transportation District and others want to realign Highway 89.

Three public hearings this month, the last one on Jan. 28 before the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency Governing Board, were opportunities for the public to give input. It also gave those who will ultimately make the decision on the final project to get a preview of the alternatives.

Alfred Knotts with TTD said at this time there is no preferred alternative.

The four ideas TTD brought forward call for realigning the highway so it goes through the 64-acre parcel owned by the U.S. Forest Service near the transit center. The differences between them have to do with if there is a roundabout, if from where the bypass starts to the intersection of highways 89 and 28 becomes a city street, if that section would be pedestrian-bikes only, or if a cul-de-sac would be put in south of the bridge.

Now under consideration are two other alternatives that have come about from public input. They call for rehabbing, replacing or widening Fanny Bridge, and reconfiguring the intersection of highway 89 and 28 or putting in a roundabout at the Y.

The bridge is nearly 90 years old and no longer meets Caltrans’ roadway standards. The dam also needs improvements, but that is not part of this project.

Twelve people spoke at Wednesday’s meeting; many who are less than thrilled with the prospect of creating another road – mostly for environmental reasons. They don’t want businesses displaced or have cars no longer drive in front of their property, and some wondered why more of TRPA’s thresholds are not being addressed.

Representatives from the Chevron and Shell stations were in lockstep in opposition to the bypass, saying their businesses would suffer dramatically if people coming to and from the area no longer had to drive by their fuel tanks. They said it would mean less tax revenue for the area and employees would have to be let go. And they said the economic impact study that was done never looked at the businesses in what is called the “kill zone” – those located on Highway 89 that would be bypassed with a highway realignment.

Nancy McDermid, Douglas County commissioner and TRPA board member, said this bypass would not allow for development along the route, so there would not be competing businesses.

“If they need service, they still need to go into your area of Tahoe City,” McDermid said.

Two other board members foresee more people in the Tahoe City area using an improved intersection to get to the South Shore because it will speed up the drive. But they question where the traffic studies have taken into account how locals may change their habits.

Doing something with this intersection has been talked about since 1986. Safety is a large component of why people want to make improvements.

John Pang, retired Meeks Bay fire chief, said, “From a public safety standpoint we need multiple entry points. During the Washoe Fire (in 2007) we had access problems. Multiple escape routes are vital to community safety.”

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Notes:

• Comments on the environmental documents are being taken until Feb. 17. They may be sent to Brian Judge, TRPA, P.O. Box 5310, Stateline, NV 89449; faxed to 775.588.4527; or emailed to bjudge@trpa.org.

• The environmental documents are available online.

• The final document with the preferred alternative is expected to be before the TRPA Governing Board in March.