Ski company to offer MLB team logos as topsheets

By Matt Hansen, Powder

The month of October holds many promises. Heroes are made under Friday night lights. Hunters march into the woods for meat, others harvest vegetables from the garden. It’s the best time of year to go fishing, and the best excuse to dress up and howl at the moon.

It’s also the beginning of ski season, as we saw last Friday with the opening of Colorado’s A-Basin. The 10th month also means it’s time for the Fall Classic.

To help celebrate, Park City-based RAMP Sports has developed a licensing deal with Major League Baseball to provide topsheets sporting the colors and logos of all 30 teams.

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Yosemite entrance fee may rise by 50%

By Paul Rogers, San Jose Mercury News

Yosemite National Park is known for its waterfalls, huge granite walls and stunning peaks.

The views may be priceless, but the cost of getting in could be going up.

On Monday, Yosemite officials announced plans to raise the park entrance fee from $20 to $30 per car, saying they need the money to pay for restoration and maintenance projects in the park. The 50 percent increase, which would take effect Jan. 1, is part of a new Obama administration proposal to raise fees at 130 of America’s 401 national parks.

Yosemite would join Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, Glacier and six other high-profile parks as the most expensive in the United States. The last time Yosemite’s entrance fee was raised was in 1997, when it jumped from $5 per car to $20. Adjusted for inflation, that $20 today is equal to $29.64, Yosemite officials note, adding that each entrance fee is good for seven days.

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Nurses: Calif. not ready for Ebola

By David Siders, Sacramento Bee

The state’s largest nurses union said Tuesday that no California hospital is prepared to treat an Ebola patient, pressing Gov. Jerry Brown to require increased training and protective equipment for nurses.

The union’s call – and a rebuttal from the California Hospital Association – came as Brown met privately with nurses, public health officials and medical providers to discuss Ebola.

Though there are no known cases of Ebola in California, the virus has gripped public attention since an outbreak in West Africa and the infection of two nurses treating an Ebola patient who died in Texas earlier this month.

The Brown administration issued no mandates but said in a prepared statement that “officials are taking steps to help ensure health care workers, hospitals and first responders are prepared to treat and care for patients with Ebola.”

RoseAnn DeMoro, executive director of the California Nurses Association and National Nurses United, said California hospitals have failed to provide adequate training or equipment to nurses, a claim hospitals disputed.

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Letter: Keep Davis on council

To the community,

Tom Davis first came into our lives in the ’70s when he worked at  Sahara Tahoe as the pilot for their luxury yacht. He has been very  supportive of Lake Tahoe Wildlife Care since the organization started  in April 1978, offering his experience and support to help in the growth.

During our time of friendship, Davis has always been a community person. A South Lake Tahoe community person, specifically. His  love for South Lake Tahoe has been evident with the 12 years he has  served on the City Council as well as the four times he served the city as  mayor. His firsthand knowledge of the city is matched by few and his leadership skills have shown him as a proven leader within our government.

He has championed a number of projects within the city that show he can get things accomplished.

We need his continued service on our City Council. Cheryl and I recommend you vote for Tom Davis for City Council on Nov. 4.

Tom and Cheryl Millham, Meyers




Full House Resorts for sale

By Associated Press

NEW YORK — Full House Resorts Inc., the casino and hotel operator, said Wednesday that it is putting itself up for sale.

The company, based in Las Vegas, evaluated strategic alternatives and decided that a sale was the best move. It is working on finding a buyer.

Full House, headquartered in Las Vegas, owns the Rising Star Riverboat Casino in Rising Sun, Ind.; the Silver Slipper Casino in Hancock County, Miss., and Stockman’s Casino in Fallon. It also operates a Hyatt in Incline Village under a lease agreement.

Its shares are down nearly 55 percent since the beginning of the year. They closed at $1.27 on Tuesday.




Halloween Carnival in Stateline

Douglas County Parks & Recreation Department and the Kiwanis Sunrisers of Lake Tahoe will be sponsoring the annual Halloween Carnival on Oct. 31 at Kahle Community Center in Stateline.

The free event is from 4-6:30pm.

Kids need to bring a trick or treat bag for carnival prizes and goodies.

For more information, call 775.586.7271.




Ire over proposed Tahoe ridgeline development

This ridgeline located in Carnelian Bay is what East West wants to develop. 

This ridgeline located in Carnelian Bay is what East West wants to develop.

By Kathryn Reed

KINGS BEACH – Developing 112 acres of pristine ridgeline in Lake Tahoe is drawing the wrath of many North Lake Tahoe residents and environmental groups. Even the Placer County supervisor who represents the area has questions.

“I’m struggling with how the Lake Tahoe piece is consistent with the Regional Plan,” Supervisor Jennifer Montgomery said at the Oct. 21 board meeting. She asked for staff to explain it at a later date.

Paul Thompson with the Community Development Resource Agency on Tuesday gave supervisors an update on several Lake Tahoe projects. His request of the packed audience at the North Tahoe Events Center to not comment on the Martis Valley project was met with grumbles. He wanted comments to wait until the environmental documents are released.

Seven people voiced their outrage with the project, including representatives of the League to Save Lake Tahoe, Friends of the West Shore and the Mother Lode Chapter of the Sierra Club. Many at the meeting were wearing “Stop Martis Valley West” stickers.

East West Partners, which developed the Village at Northstar and Lake Tahoe Ritz-Carlton, is proposing to build housing on both sides of Highway 267 – some of which is in the basin and some in the Martis Valley.

martis valley

“The Tahoe Regional Planning Agency’s most recent Regional Plan update states that new and redevelopment should be concentrated in urban town centers – areas that already have services such as schools, hospitals, banks, retail stores, and so on, plus infrastructure such as roads, sewer, water, and utilities,” said Ellie Waller, who was speaking on behalf of several people at the meeting. “Building on undeveloped forest land miles from any services is in direct contradiction of the Regional Plan. The negative effects are far reaching and will impact everyone who lives, works, or visits, Lake Tahoe.”

Others repeated that sentiment; each time it was followed by applause.

County officials pointed out that anyone could propose any project.

The environmental documents are where concerns will be ferreted out. But many opponents believe it will be a waste of taxpayer money and staff time to go through the environmental impact statement and environmental impact report process when the project doesn’t meet Tahoe Regional Planning Agency rules.

Opponents plan to be at today’s TRPA meeting to speak out about the Martis Valley proposal during public comment.

East West wants to build 760 residential units in the form of single-family homes, townhomes, cabins and condominiums. More than 6½ acres would be used for commercial. To make this happen acreage between the east and west parcels needs to be rezoned.

That is what has people upset because it would mean building on what is now a forested ridge in Lake Tahoe. Opponents believe it would be precedent setting in a negative way.

The west parcel is approximately 1,185 acres adjacent to Northstar. The east parcel is approximately 6,376 acres, of which 660 acres are zoned for residential and commercial development.

Today, the east parcel can have 1,360 residential units and 6.6 acres of commercial. East West wants to rezone 775 acres of timberland production on the west parcel to allow for the development. The 660-acres of the east zoned for development would be rezoned forest.

The end result is for no development on the east side and 600 fewer residential units fewer than currently allowed.




Letter: Pierini runs fiscally sound department

To the community,

The Dave Brady for sheriff campaign claims that “public safety dollars are not being spent wisely” by Sheriff (Ron) Pierini. I want to say that I believe that this claim is a clearly false and misleading statement.

Here is why. The claims expressed in a recent Brady campaign brochure stated the sheriff’s annual budget had “skyrocketed” from $3.1 million in 1986 to $16 million. While the raw numbers appear correct, Brady’s analysis and interpretation are very wrong. At first blush the increase seems astronomical and that is what Brady wants you to think. The problem is that this representation is a classical “apples and oranges” comparison.

The 1986 $3.1 million budget had not been adjusted for annual price inflation which, if done correctly, would have made the numbers truly comparable. The failure to adjust for price inflation is a very significant omission rendering the 1986 and 2014 budget numbers completely non-comparable. The omission may have been deliberate since Brady claims many academic and other credentials and should have known better.

Nevertheless the omission appears to have led to a series of false claims and representations on the part of the Brady campaign.

When the 1986 $3 million budget number is adjusted for annual inflation over the course of the 28-year period from 1986 to 2014, the $3.1 million number becomes approximately $12.2 million. The $12.2 million number is now comparable with the 2014 $16 million budget.

Using a financial industry standard HP 12C calculator for all calculations, I determined that the budget growth rate over the 28-year period comes out to be approximately 0.97 percent. This means that Sheriff Pierini’s real annual budget adjusted for price inflation has only grown at the rate of slightly less than 1 percent per year for the last 28 years. More significantly, Pierini’s budget growth rate of approximately 1 percent per year has been less than half the 2.4 percent rate of population growth.

Frankly, that is simply an outstanding budgetary management accomplishment that deserves to be applauded and appreciated by all us voters and tax payers. On top of all that he has kept us safe and for that I am truly appreciative.

Dennis Favero, Minden




Snippets about Lake Tahoe

truckee• Truckee area residents and businesses may dump off unused paint for free on Nov. 8 from9am-1pm at the town’s corporation yard, 10969 Stevens Lane, Truckee.

• Switchback PR + Marketing based in Truckee is celebrating 15 years in business.

• Tahoe Cross Country’s ski swap is 15 at 10am. Proceeds benefit the Tahoe Cross Country Ski Education Association.

• North Tahoe ski and snowboard swap is Oc. 25. Proceeds benefit the students of North Tahoe Middle and High schools.




Brown touts decades of water policy experience

By Melanie Mason, Los Angeles Times

Gov. Jerry Brown pitched his decades-long political career as an asset in tackling California’s vexing water problems in a speech at Stanford University on Monday, portraying this year’s major water legislation as a continuation of his first gubernatorial term nearly 40 years ago.

Amid the state’s crippling drought, water was a top policy priority this year, including the crafting of a $7.5 billion water bond now on the ballot as Proposition 1. Brown and lawmakers also pushed through the first statewide groundwater regulation law in California’s history, an accomplishment Brown called “quite heroic.”

Noting he began work on groundwater back in 1978, Brown said “this is not something for a flash in the pan. This is not just for a one-term governor. This is really the work of a four-term governor.”

Brown laid out a number of steps of his administration’s Water Action Plan, which includes water conservation, ecosystem restoration and fixing the San Joaquin-Sacramento River Delta.

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