By Neal E. Boudette, New York Times

Pedestrian deaths in traffic accidents have reached levels not seen in years, and a safety group has sought to explain why. It has identified several possible causes, like digital distractions and an increase in driving. Now it has added another: marijuana.

Over the first six months of 2017, pedestrian fatalities rose sharply from a year earlier in states that had legalized recreational marijuana, according to the Governors Highway Safety Association. In the rest of the country, such deaths declined.

“We are not making a definitive, cause-and-effect link to marijuana,” said Richard Retting, a traffic safety engineer at Sam Schwartz Consulting who was the author of the study. The data “is a marker for concern,” he added. “It may be a canary in a coal mine, an early indicator to address.”

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By Alastair Bland, Water Deeply

California has been blessed with the distinction of being home to some of the richest and the poorest income-earning Americans, according to a 2015 report by the Social Science Research Council. This stark division of wealth between the extravagantly rich and the destitute is displayed vividly in how the state’s residents consume water. On the one hand, some estate owners have been publicly shamed for watering their lawns during extreme drought with thousands of gallons per day – sometimes five or 10 times the average household rate. While other Californians live in communities where there isn’t enough water or the water isn’t safe to drink.

But it’s not just access to water that’s a problem, it’s also the cost. Many California residents, in both small towns and big cities, are struggling to keep up with the rising price of water. The State Water Resources Control Board has been tasked with coming up with a plan to tackle affordability, but it’s been slow going.

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By Reno Gazette-Journal

David Wise is finally back in his hometown Friday, and everyone’s invited.

The 27-year-old Wooster High alum won his second Olympic gold medal last week during the PyeongChang Olympic Games.

Wise is expected to land at the Reno-Tahoe International Airport about 7pm March 2.

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What the Y roundabout in Tahoe City could look like.

Work is expected to resume this month on the Highway 89/Fanny Bridge project in Tahoe City.

If the weather cooperates, concrete for the bridge abutments will be poured. The new Truckee River Bridge is located just east of the Caltrans maintenance yard along Highway 89 heading into Tahoe City from Truckee.

The trout sculpture created by John Betts will soon be dismantled. A site has not been selected to relocate it in the project area.
 
The entire project is scheduled to be completed by late fall this year.

There will be a talk on April 11 at 6pm about all the experiences available along the Tahoe Rim Trail.

The free event will be at the South Lake Tahoe Library on Rufus Allen Boulevard.

This event will feature a panel of TRTA guides and trail enthusiasts.

They will help people find that perfect weekend hike with the family or a bike ride with amazing views. Plus, they will answer questions.

South Lake Tahoe Fire Chief Jeff Meston testifying Feb. 27 in Sacramento before legislators. Photo/Provided

By Melody Gutierrez, San Francisco Chronicle

SACRAMENTO — California fire officials asked lawmakers Tuesday for $100 million to improve the state’s strained mutual-aid system, which is designed to quickly rally first responders in an emergency, such as the deadly fires that ravaged the North Bay last year.

At a legislative hearing in Sacramento, fire chiefs and emergency officials said wildfires across the state last year exposed shortcomings in the 60-year-old system.

 “The system is a little too slow to react sometimes, and you are really starting to see it in these instances where a fire is moving so fast that you can’t keep up,” said Santa Rosa Fire Chief Tony Gossner, who battled one of the quickest moving and most destructive fires last year, the Tubbs Fire. “The system worked great in the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s. In today’s world, the last three or four years have shown it is too slow.”

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The Last Straw is an event in Incline Village to bring awareness to the plastic devices that fill landfills, and end up polluting streams, oceans, and beaches.

It is said that 500 million straws are used and discarded every day in the United States. That is enough straws to wrap around the Earth’s circumference 2.5 times a day.

Students at the Tahoe Environmental Research Center will host educational tables during happy hour from 5:30-6pm on April 19 on the campus of Sierra Nevada College. At 6pm, students will present on local programs to reduce single use plastic waste and host screenings of the short films “Straws” and “Everything Connects.”
 
This collaborative event is hosted by local students together with IVGID Waste Not, Keep Truckee Green, League to Save Lake Tahoe, SOS Outreach, Sierra Watershed Education Partnerships, Tahoe Institute for Natural Science, and UC Davis TERC.

The even is free, though registration is required.

Jamie Anderson’s media schedule is preventing her from returning to Lake Tahoe this weekend.

This means the athlete celebration party at Sierra-at-Tahoe originally scheduled for March 3 has been postponed. The resort is looking at rescheduling for later this month or in April.

This week the Meyers resident has been showing off her gold and silver medals from the just completed Winter Olympic Games in South Korea on “Ellen” and “Conan.” She may be on “Saturday Night Live” on March 3.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report

·      The special El Dorado County Board of Supervisors meeting regarding VHRs set for March 3 has been canceled because of weather.

·      The Wilbur D. May Arboretum in Reno is unveiling an exhibition to call attention to the many threats facing trees. Vanishing Acts: Trees Under Threat highlights the precarious future of the world’s most endangered trees. It will run from March 2-June 10. No cost to visit.

·      Tahoe XC on March 4 is hosting the Alpenglow 20K in lieu of the Great Ski Race, followed by the 2018 Great Ski Race Party. Race is at 10am; signup that day in Tahoe City from 8-9:30am.

·      South Lake Tahoe and Tahoe Arts Alliance are partnering for the third art gallery reception on March 5 at 6pm at City Hall. The Tahoe Arts Alliance has selected Nick Akins as the featured artist. His art will be on display from March 5-June 15.

·      Check out this video of Tahoe’s Jamie Anderson on the “Ellen” show.

Updated 2:27pm:

Lake Tahoe Unified, Tahoe Truckee Unified, Incline Village schools, Lake Tahoe Community College and Sierra Nevada College are closed today because of the blizzard warning issued by the National Weather Service in Reno.

For Douglas County schools at the lake, students on will be picked up at the main bus stops on March 1.

The California Tahoe Conservancy has canceled its Thursday meeting, the Waste Management JPA meeting on March 2 on the South Shore is canceled, and the El Dorado County Board of Supervisors meeting on vacation home rentals set for March 3 is canceled. The March 1 board of directors meeting of Tahoe Paradise Recreation and Park District has been moved to March  8.

The retro film night on March 1 at Incline Village General Improvement District has been canceled.

The March 2 blood drive at the South Lake Tahoe Recreation Center has been rescheduled for March 10.

The NWS has also issued an avalanche warning for the backcountry.

The blizzard warning is in effect through 4am March 2. The lake could see 1 to 3 feet of snow, with 2 to 5 feet above 7,000 feet.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report