A South Lake Tahoe man was arrested Monday in connection with the Oct. 23 burglary at the Trailhead Lodge.

Louis Fiori Jr.

The theft at the South Lake Tahoe motel occurred after business hours in the locked, unattended front lobby. Surveillance footage shows the suspect entering the lobby by forcing open the locked front door and stealing money from the cash drawer.

The suspect was carrying a McFlurry ice cream container from McDonald’s. Surveillance footage showed the suspect filling out a job application for McDonald’s. Officers collected the job application as evidence and identified the suspect as 29-year-old Louis Fiori Jr.

Officers located Fiori at McDonald’s on Oct. 26.

This burglary is not believed to be related to the ones at the Y last week.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report

Barton Health is putting on two free medical lectures in November.

The first is Common Shoulder Conditions, Prevention and Treatment by Kyle Swanson, a physician with Tahoe Orthopedics and Sports Medicine, and physical therapists Monique Havilund and Gary Standifer.

They will talk about about a variety of shoulder issues, including rotator cuff tears, shoulder arthritis, and shoulder replacement. Shoulder exercises and treatments will also be addressed.

It will be Nov. 5 from 6-7pm at the Holiday Inn Express in Minden.

The next lecture is Winter Sports Injuries & Conditioning

Terry Orr, doctor with Tahoe Orthopedics and Sports Medicine, will talk Nov. 13 from 6-7pm in the board room at Lake Tahoe Community College in South Lake Tahoe.

He will talk about common sports-related injuries, including current knee injuries and treatments. Pre-season conditioning tips will also be covered.

It’s time to think about ordering the famous Barton cheeseballs.

They will be on sale during the Barton Auxiliary’s Holiday Faire on Nov. 9 from 9am to 3pm at St. Theresa Parish Hall in South Lake Tahoe.

Starting Nov. 6 they will be available at Barton Memorial Hospital. Carson Valley Medical Center will start selling them Nov. 13. They will also be on sale during the Festival of Trees and Lights, Dec. 3-7 at Harrah’s Lake Tahoe.

By Peter Whoriskey and Dan Keating, Washington Post

More than a million times a year, a terminally ill patient in the United States is enrolled in hospice care. Each time, the family confronts a decision that, while critical, often must be made almost blindly: Which hospice to hire?

A boom in the industry allows patients to choose from an array of hospice outfits, some of them excellent. More than a thousand new hospices have opened in the United States in the past decade. But the absence of public information about their quality, a void that is unusual even within the health-care industry, leaves consumers at a loss to distinguish the good from the bad.

Though the federal government publishes consumer data about the quality of other health-care companies, including hospitals, nursing homes and home health agencies, it provides no such information about hospices.

After years of public pressure, Congress in 2010 required that the government publish information about hospice quality, but the Medicare agency said in May that such consumer information would not be forthcoming until 2017 — at the earliest.

Similarly, state records of hospice inspections are often unpublished, sparse, and, when they are available, difficult to find and understand. Government inspections of hospices have typically been scheduled about every six years, though Congress in September called for more frequent checks.

Read the whole story

By Associated Press

Environmental regulators at Lake Tahoe say Sierra Nevada College failed to obtain a permit necessary to move dirt and protect plants while building a new home in Incline Village for the school president.

As a result, the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency issued a cease and desist order on Oct. 8 for the college to immediately stop work, except to stabilize the site and prepare it for winter, agency spokesman Tom Lotshaw said.

“It’s a minor violation,” he said, adding that the agency’s Governing Board would have to approve any penalty beyond a possible $1,002 filing fee.

A filing fee for the grading permit costs $501, but agency regulations call for doubling that amount if there’s a violation.

The college plans to submit an application for the house, which will incorporate garden modifications, to the agency and Washoe County in December, said Dianne Severance, the college’s director of grants and sponsored programs.

Lotshaw said the violation will not determine the outcome of the college’s application.

Lotshaw said the college moved and mounded on-site about 20 cubic yards of dirt. Any project within the basin that moves more than 7 cubic yards of dirt requires a grading permit from the agency.

The college currently leases a house for the president about a mile from campus. The planned one-floor, 3,000-square-foot structure will host events for students, faculty and staff, and existing and potential donors.

College president Lynn Gillette said a donation made by an anonymous individual is covering a large majority of the $1.6 million project cost, including garden improvements.

By Kathryn Reed

Homeowners in Glenbrook are going to have to pay a $55,000 penalty to TRPA and restore the disturbed area of their Snug Harbor property.

The Tahoe Regional Planning Agency Governing Board last week approved the settlement with Jeff McClure, Roy Darrow and Brad Gundel.

According to the staff report, “This violation involves unauthorized grading and dredging activities in the shorezone on the lakefront residence.”

The issue dates to 1997. Fast forward to October 2013. The defendants and TRPA staff meet regarding unpermitted work that was done on the beach involving large boulders.

The staff report says, “They explained that they were protecting their rights under an easement allowing homeowners in Snug Harbor to access the beach area on the Tahoe Estates Property, and that their attorney gave them direction to go ahead with the work without a permit.”

But that work violated TRPA regulations. In addition to the fine, the land must be restored to conform to the 1998 TRPA permit.

The settlement says, “The plan will result in returning some of the disturbed rocks to the area below highwater lakeward of the Tahoe Estates Property to a pattern supportive of fish habitat and reasonable beach access and to prevent beach erosion.”

Attorney Lew Feldman, representing some of the property owners, spoke briefly before the TRPA legal committee on Oct. 22 to voice his displeasure with the settlement agreement.

However, he did not want to talk to Lake Tahoe News. “I don’t believe it ethically appropriate for me to discuss a negotiated settlement,” Feldman said.

The property owners also declined comment.

By Sandra Chereb, Las Vegas Review-Journal

CARSON CITY — Nevada voters will decide next month whether to give lawmakers the power to raise mining taxes — a revenue source long decried by critics as an under-tapped funding spigot shielded by the state Constitution.

Whether or not passage of Question 2 will lead to more taxes on gold, silver and other minerals remains to be seen. But if history is any indication, lawmakers will seek to capitalize on the new tool in the budget box, should the measure pass, and again turn their eye toward all that glitters to boost state coffers.

State Sen. Tick Segerblom concedes that raising mining levies is the ultimate goal.

“It’s the first time in 150 years that the Legislature will actually have a chance to raise taxes on mining,” said the Las Vegas Democrat. “That is, in my perspective, incredibly significant.

“We’ve finally gotten rid of that stone around our neck.”

Question 2 is the last step in a process that began three years ago to purge a cap on net mining proceeds from the constitution.

Read the whole story

By Laura Geggel, Washington Post

Whether they drank decaf or regular, people who consumed large quantities of coffee daily had lower levels of abnormal liver enzymes, a new study finds. This suggests that a chemical in coffee other than caffeine may help the liver, the researchers said.

Other studies have found that drinking coffee is associated with lower risks of developing diabetes, cardiovascular disease, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, cirrhosis and liver cancer.

To answer the decaf question, researchers used data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, which is conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to assess the health of Americans. In this survey, not only are participants interviewed, they also undergo physical examinations including blood tests.

Read the whole story

The Meyers Community Foundation’s fourth annual tree lighting is Dec. 5 at 5pm.

Santa will be arriving via a special sled.

The event is in the parking lot of Divided Sky/Downtown Café.

Popcorn, hot chocolate and other goodies will be available.

New this year is the South Lake Tahoe Children’s Choral will be singing.

To the community,

In a just a month, the snow surface crew members from Heavenly Mountain Resort will be working hard to see that Heavenly’s skiing and snowboarding guests will be experiencing great snow conditions.

But on Oct. 20, Todd Rudis, grooming manager, Lupe Barrientos and Kyle Henderson, grooming supervisors, and Daniel Huizar, grooming lead, were hard at work volunteering alongside Bread & Broth volunteers to feed less fortunate members of the Lake Tahoe South Shore community.

The Monday dinner was the 10th Adopt A Day sponsorship for Heavenly Mountain Resort for this year and B&B deeply appreciates the history of funding and service provided by Heavenly through the Vail Echo Foundation.

As a nonprofit, all-volunteer program, B&B is dependent upon our many generous AAD sponsors, anonymous donors and volunteers who have been an integral part of our success in feeding the needy of our community.

“After being a part of the community for so many years, it is nice to get a chance to give back to the people who help made this place so great,” said Kyle Henderson. “Everyone is so nice and seeing the smiles on their faces makes it all worth it.”

Seeking to give back and help others, is a frequent feeling shared by our sponsor volunteers and the B&B volunteers who regularly give of their time to improve the lives others. It’s a heartwarming experience.

For more B&B information, go online or find us on Facebook.

Carol Gerard, Bread & Broth