By Melissa Pamer, KTLA-TV

Though there were few attention-grabbing statewide races or ballot measures, Californians headed to the polls Tuesday to cast their votes in the 2014 midterm, re-electing Gov. Jerry Brown to an unprecedented fourth term.

Polls closed at 8pm and results trickled in over the course of the evening, but the gubernatorial election was called in favor of Brown almost immediately by the Associated Press.

Turnout was predicted to be low in the state, which had few of the galvanizing races or the kinds of divisive issues on the ballot that other were at stake elsewhere in the country, where Republicans earned enough seats to take control of the U.S. Senate for the first time since 2006.

Nonetheless, a slew of statewide offices were set to be determined. More than 17.8 million Californians were registered to vote in the election, according to the Secretary of State’s office.

Brown had been expected to easily win over Republican challenger Neel Kashkari. Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom was seeking a second term, and all the other top statewide offices were before voters too.

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South Tahoe High School’s drama department is putting on “Curtains” this month.

It is a  musical whodunnit set in 1959. Boston’s Colonial Theatre is host to the opening night performance of a new musical. When the leading lady mysteriously dies on stage the entire cast and crew are suspects. Enter a local detective, who just happens to be a musical theatre fan.

The cast includes Bjorn Hedqvist as the local Boston detective, along with Aurora Gooch, Bailey Anderson, Kori Zwijacz, Zane Brady, Dalton Daggs, Tyler Martin, Jered Stowell and 60 other performers, musicians and stage crew.

It is directed by Liz Niven, choreography by Marcia Sarosik, conducted by Casson Scowcroft, sets by Drake Niven, and choral direction by Alyssa Little.

Performances are Nov. 7, 8, 14 and 15 at 7pm and Nov. 9 and 16 at 2pm in the South Tahoe High School TADA theater.

Tickets are $15, $10 for seniors, $5 for students 18 and younger. Tickets are available at the door or online.

Mt. Rose and Boreal will be the first Lake Tahoe area ski resorts to open. Lifts will start running Nov. 7.

Both have been making snow, but also got enough out of last weekend’s storm to start the season. Mt. Rose received 5 inches of freshies in last weekend’s storm. The resort plans to be open Nov. 7-9, 10am-3pm. Lift tickets will be available at the main lodge for $10.

Boreal, which is celebrating its 50th season, received 10 inches of snow.

Other resorts have since fired up their snowmaking guns. With temperatures being below freezing overnight, ski areas are able to regularly make snow. Much of last season was all about skiing on manmade snow.

Opening dates:

• Nov. 21: Heavenly Mountain Resort, Northstar

• Nov. 22: Kirkwood Mountain Resort

• Nov. 26: Squaw Valley

• Dec. 12: Alpine Meadows.

Other resorts will open as conditions allow.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report

By Kathryn Reed

El Dorado County Board of Supervisor on a 3-2 vote Nov. 4 accepted the resignation of CAO Terri Daly. Supervisors Norma Santiago and Ron Briggs were in the minority.

Santiago and Briggs also are the two supervisors who are being termed out and won’t be in office starting in January.

Human Resources Director Pamela Knorr has been appointed temporary chief administrative officer.

This action came one week after Daly had removed all of her personal belongings from her office. In all of this time she has had access to the county email system. Today she sent the following email to employees:

Terri Daly

To all my fellow employees:

As you probably have already heard announced at the Board of Supervisors meeting today, I am leaving the county’s employment. It has been a mutual decision. From my perspective, I feel that the culture of the county is no longer conducive to any further positive change under my watch.

It has truly been an honor to work with the employees of this county over the past four years. You do amazing things each and everyday — you save lives, you improve lives, you do things to improve the county. As the CAO and as a resident of the county, I thank you for all the work you do. You make my life better because of your work. Thank you.

Best success in all you do.

Terri 

Daly was not at work on Monday, but she did go to lunch with many of the department heads.

In open session on Nov. 4, Briggs said how he supported Daly and did not believe she had been dealt with fairly.

“Norma has been a supporter of Terri, and will likely provide input on her accomplishments and successes in the near future, which are many in the four years of her time with the county,” Judi McCallum, Santiago’s assistant, told Lake Tahoe News.

Daly has been accused of creating a hostile work environment, with her department being one of the worst morale-wise when an outside consultant was hired to investigate the inner workings of the county. She turned a budget surplus into a budget deficit. This was done in part by hiring more than 100 people – many of them to work in the CAO’s office.

Knorr used to work for Alpine County and is Daly’s friend. Daly gave her a $30,000 raise — though, the board OK’d it.

It is unusual that Assistant CAO Kim Kerr was not given the job as acting CAO. She, too, is a friend of Daly’s and comes with her own baggage, including financial issues when she was city manager in Ione, as well as handling of contracts in El Dorado County.

Mark E. Leung, 60, of South Lake Tahoe, was sentenced today to one year in prison and ordered to pay $160,000 in restitution for making a false statement to obtain workers’ compensation benefits

According to court documents, Leung worked for the U.S. Postal Service until 1987 when he claimed he sustained a work-related injury. Leung never returned to full-time employment with the Postal Service and began receiving workers’ compensation benefits in 1987.

From September 2007 through November 2012, Leung received approximately $160,000 in benefits from the Department of Labor. To obtain the benefits, Leung submitted an annual certification form and also had his medical providers attest that he could not perform any work due to the pain that limited his mobility and range of movement.

While claiming he was totally disabled from employment, Leung maintained a yearly ski pass in Tahoe; skiing at least 40 days per ski season, according to U.S. Attorney Benjamin Wagner. Wagner also said Leung was observed performing arduous physical labor on numerous days.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report

By Kyle Roerink, Las Vegas Sun

The Paradise Park Barber Shop sits in a strip mall still gripped by the recession. It’s a suburban relic anchored by a Kmart, Family Dollar and coin laundry. Twelve storefronts in the plaza are empty. The barbershop is not the kind of place where you’d expect to find the CEO of a state paying for a trim. But every few weeks, a navy blue SUV pulls into the parking lot, and Gov. Brian Sandoval steps out.

At public appearances and in campaign ads, Sandoval looks like a man whose haircuts are fashioned by stylists. But the governor waits his turn for a $14 trim surrounded by trophy buck mounts and bobblehead dolls in a strip mall 30 miles from the Capitol.

Gov. Brian Sandoval is golden in the Silver State. Photo/LTN 

When Sandoval walked in Oct. 16, he was met with handshakes and fawning. A customer who had been alerted the governor was coming handed Sandoval a grocery bag full of venison steaks. A picture of Sandoval and a local Boy Scout troop hangs on the wall. A collegiate pennant from Sandoval’s son’s college also has a coveted spot. No one talks politics. Why would they?

Sandoval’s re-election campaign came without the negative ads, debates and vitriol seen in other statewide races. Despite being vulnerable on a number of fronts — education and health care among them — Sandoval didn’t draw a single serious challenger. Even Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev, the architect of the state’s Democratic machine, couldn’t persuade anyone to step forward.

So why is a governor with an imperfect record being treated as untouchable? The answer lies partly in Sandoval’s connections to the state’s tight power structure and partly because of his knack to keep headlines positive while maintaining a clean-cut image that goes beyond his regularly trimmed hair.

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• South Tahoe High School’s varsity boys cross country team took third place at the regional championships Oct. 31 and the girls took fourth. The boys team and three individual STHS girls will be headed to Las Vegas next weekend for the state championship.

• The comedy-thriller “Meet the Blacks” is being filmed in Placerville. The movie is scheduled for release in 2015.

• Here are the El Dorado-Tahoe and Sierra roadwork schedules for the week.

• Lynn Norton with Barton Health Nutrition Services will give a talk Dec. 2 from 6-7pm that includes nutrition tips to minimize cancer risk, myths and facts about body composition, physical activity, plant-based foods, animal products, alcohol, and supplements. The free lecture will be in the board room of Lake Tahoe Community College.

• Check out this South Tahoe High School video about stopping bullying on campus:

By Richard N. Velotta, Las Vegas Review-Journal

The state’s battle against Uber is on.

The Nevada Transportation Authority late Thursday unanimously supported Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto’s strategy to take legal action against illegal passenger carrier activity in the state.

Commissioner Keith Sakelhide wondered aloud why the board that regulates buses and limousines statewide and taxicabs outside Clark County even had to vote on the measure.

“Is it really necessary to have an agenda item for the attorney general’s office to do its job?” Sakelhide said.

But Chairman Andrew MacKay said taking up the issue was important because “actions of a certain magnitude should be ratified by the full board.”

And the arrival of Uber has hit Nevada with the magnitude of a major earthquake.

In two public comment sessions conducted by the board, representatives of the industry encouraged regulators to use whatever means necessary to prevent illegal operations.

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By Jackie Kucinich, Washington Post 

Despite being bombarded by TV ads in the final days of the 2014 midterm campaigns, undecided voters (yes, they do exist) are going online before they decide how to cast their ballots.

In a study by Republican firm Public Opinion Strategies, Democratic firm Global Strategy Group and Google, “persuadable” voters in Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Louisiana and North Carolina were polled to find out where they were getting information about candidates.

The study found that 50 percent of voters hear about candidates on television, then they hit the Web.

Sixty-six of the persuadable voters use the Internet to vet candidates, 55 percent use it to find candidate positions on issues and 54 percent said the Internet gives them the information they need before they cast their ballots. At the end of all that research, 47 percent of persuadable voters said the information they see or read on the Internet affects how they vote.

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By Josh Richman and Julia Prodis Sulek, Inside Bay Area

California has tried to make casting a ballot as easy as ordering a pizza online.

We’ve scooped up potential voters when they come to the DMV to renew their driver’s licenses. We’ve let Californians register to vote on smartphone apps. We’ve set up voting booths at city halls around the state weeks before Election Day. We’ve sent registered voters mail-in ballots every election.

But while 17.8 million Californians are now registered, more than for any other gubernatorial general election in the state’s history, voting experts project that Tuesday’s could be the first general election in which turnout falls below 50 percent. That’s a far cry from the record 80 percent that cast ballots in 1958, when Democrat Pat Brown beat the GOP’s William Knowland in a Republican-leaning state.

Yeah, this election has mostly been a snoozer — mostly because Pat Brown’s son, Jerry, is expected to win a fourth term in a landslide. But the problem is bigger than one election. With the exception of slightly better turnouts in the last few general elections, the Golden State’s voter participation has been slowly declining for half a century.

One big reason is the state’s sweeping demographic changes. Simply put: White Californians tend to vote a lot more than other Californians. Although whites now make up only 39 percent of the state’s population, they’re 57 percent of voters who show up.

In the next quarter century, 8.3 million more Californians will become eligible to vote, 8 million of whom will be people of color. So it will be a tougher task getting people to the polls, unless attitudes toward voting change.

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