Are extreme weather events linked to global warming? Deciphering the science and providing answers is the job of national weather broadcasters and journalists. How do they decide what is aired? These topics and more will be addressed at the annual Operation Sierra Storm, a leading national weather conference Jan. 21-24.

Keynote speaker and Stanford University professor of earth system science Noah Diffenbaugh, and his lab team examined the connections between global warming and extreme events. They recently published their findings in a new framework.

A media panel will address results from the disbanding of the national climate assessment advisory committee, controversial positions on both sides, editorial polices, sources from scientists, and what is allowed. Speakers include Angela Fritz, deputy weather editor for the Washington Post; Brandon Miller, meteorologist and CNN supervising weather producer; Paul Goodloe, The Weather Channel; and Keith Stellman, meteorologist in charge of the Atlanta National Weather Service office.

The free presentations will be Jan. 23, 8-10:30 in the Cabaret Theater at Harveys. are encouraged.

Ty Dayberry at the Johnsville Longboard races. Photo/Provided

By Kayla Anderson, Tahoe Weekly
 
John Dayberry wants to make sure that the history of early Sierra Nevada mountaineering isn’t easily forgotten. He is using his experience in wood-shop instruction, environmental restoration, back-country ski-shop management in Hope Valley and a drive to share indigenous wisdom in the modern age to document that history.

“SST-X” is a home-grown documentary film project to preserve Tahoe Sierra mountaineering heritage that goes back hundreds of years.

On an archaeological quest to learn about the early mountaineers in the Eastern Sierra, the South Shore resident started reading books on Snowshoe Thompson, aka John Albert Thompson, who delivered mail in the snowy mountains of the Sierra in the 1800s, as well as the history of back-country skiing and the indigenous Washoe who were at the forefront of a sport that has gained great popularity today. “SST-X” stands for Snowshoe Thompson Expedition.

By David Page, Powder

One Tuesday morning in early March, the day before Vail Resorts Inc.’s scheduled earnings announcement for the second quarter of fiscal year 2017, I clicked in to my skis outside a 10th Mountain Division backcountry hut high in Colorado’s Sawatch Range, nearly 12,000 feet above sea level.

The first light of dawn was just bleeding into the sky. I was less than 20 miles as the crow flies from the site where Pete Siebert and Earl Eaton, back in March of 1957–60 years earlier almost to the day–first stood on skis atop the “no-name mountain” that would eventually become the centerpiece of an $8.5 billion global resort and hospitality empire. Eaton had come upon the terrain while prospecting for uranium. Siebert was a WWII ski trooper, nationally ranked slalom racer, and a ski patrolman at Aspen. “My God, Earl,” he famously said, looking across wide open powder fields (that would later be trademarked as Vail’s World-Famous Back Bowls and Blue Sky Basin), “we’ve climbed all the way to heaven.”

My plan for the day was to ski down to the car and drive to Broomfield for a congenial visit to Vail’s LEED-certified corporate headquarters. Ideally, I’d sit down for a quick chat and maybe even a beer with CEO Rob Katz, recently hailed in the local press as “the most powerful man in the ski industry.” He’d been on Vail’s board of directors since 1996 and lead director since 2003. Since taking the helm as Chief Executive in 2006, he’d pissed plenty of people off–moving the company offices from the mountains to the suburban Front Range (to cut costs); pulling Vail out of (and nearly breaking) the marketing-slash-trade association Colorado Ski Country USA; mocking climate change in the national media; underpaying employees; and leading the charge to purchase and homogenize major North American ski resorts. He’d also successfully brought Vail Resorts through a devastating recession; navigated an unprecedented spree of ski resort acquisitions; helped push legislation through Congress (the Ski Area Recreational Opportunity Enhancement Act) to allow for greatly expanded summer use of public lands under existing ski area permits; began a protracted battle with homeowners at Beaver Creek over a proposed roller coaster; pioneered the popular Epic Pass program; and overseen–despite less than one percent growth in skier numbers over the past two decades–one of the most impressive, sustained stock growth curves on Wall Street in recent history.

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By Austin Frakt and Aaron E. Carroll, New York Times

The United States spends almost twice as much on health care, as a percentage of its economy, as other advanced industrialized countries — totaling $3.3 trillion, or 17.9 percent of gross domestic product in 2016.

But a few decades ago American health care spending was much closer to that of peer nations.

What happened?

A large part of the answer can be found in the title of a 2003 paper in Health Affairs by the Princeton University health economist Uwe Reinhardt: “It’s the prices, stupid.”

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By U.S. Ski & Snowboard

For the second-straight day, Bryce Bennett (Squaw Valley) led the way for the U.S. Ski Team, finishing 17th on the famed Lauberhorn downhill course at Wengen, Switzerland, on Saturday.

For any fans that arrived, or tuned in late, they missed the show as Switzerland’s Beat Fuez came out of the No. 1 start position and took home the victory. Norway’s Aksel Lund Svindal was second, followed by Austria’s Matthias Mayer in third.

Steven Nyman (Sundance, Utah), competing in only his second downhill since returning from a knee injury, had some blazing top fast splits and made a miraculous recovery off the final jump and finished 28th. Kipling Weisel (San Francisco) made his World Cup downhill debut and finished 52nd. Jared Goldberg crashed midway down the course, but is OK.

Bennett secured his Olympic team selection Friday after finishing ninth in the alpine combined. However, he still has a shot to make the downhill team for the Games with a solid result next weekend in Kitzbuehel, Austria.

“The pressure is still on to throw some results down in downhill,” Bennett said. “I want to compete in downhill (at the 2018 Olympic Winter Games). I think I’m skiing well, and I could have a good chance there if I keep skiing the way I am.”

By Thomas Moore, Las Vegas Sun

Nongaming spending on the Strip drove resort revenue in Nevada to record levels in 2017, according to numbers released today by the Nevada Gaming Control Board.

Each January, the board release its Nevada Gaming Abstract, a review of the previous year’s financial results from resorts grossing $1 million or more in gaming revenue.

Overall revenue — gaming, rooms, food, beverage, attractions — throughout Nevada increased 3.7 percent in 2017 compared to fiscal 2016.

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By Philip Marcelo, AP

BOSTON — A new daily fantasy sports game that lets users home in on a single NFL playoff game has some gambling experts wondering if the contest inches the industry closer to the territory of sports betting that remains illegal in most of the United States.

The “Showdown” variant offered by leading fantasy sports company DraftKings allows users to pick six athletes from two teams playing against each other in a real-life football game, racking up fantasy points based on stats like touchdowns, receptions and yards passing, rushing or receiving. That means users playing “Showdown” this weekend can wager on performances in the Jaguars-Steelers game Sunday without having to wait for the Saints-Vikings game to play out several hours later.

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Sierra-at-Tahoe is dedicating an event in memory of local snowboarder Natasha “Tash” Sagucka. The USASA Jammin’ 4 Tash event will take place Jan. 20 on Broadway Trail.

Additionally, Sagucka will be commemorated each year on the last USASA Rail Jam event at Sierra.

Sagucka competed in USASA events for seven years, from 2000-07. As a tribute to her love of the mountains, she is able to be remembered in her most peaceful state: snowboarding.

Sagucka was ultimately a victim of acute lymphoblastic leukemia and passed away in early November.

A Rainbow Rail terrain park feature was made in her honor and will be incorporated into the setup. A cash purse of $1,000 has been donated by Sagucka’s mother, Margaret, in memory her involvement with USASA.

USASA members are invited to participate in honor of Sagucka. Sierra invites all interested to register; entry fees for non-members is $45. Registration will take place in Solstice from 7:30-9am on the morning of the event. A portion of the proceeds go to the Leukemia Lymphoma Society Cancer Research for A.L.L to support further research. Other support comes Love Your Melon who is donating hats to all competitors and from USASA sponsors. The rail jam will take place at the bottom of Broadway near the West end of the Solstice Plaza – great for spectators.

A transient was indicted this week in the murder of a man last fall at the Hard Rock casino in Stateline.

Jose Rodriguez-Quezada, 44, is accused of murder with a deadly weapon.

Douglas County sheriff’s deputies found Kevin Edwards, 56, deceased in a Hard Rock hotel room on Oct. 3.

Rodriguez-Quezada is scheduled to be arraigned Jan. 23.

Details of the murder and the connection between the two have not been released. It is not known why the suspect was in Tahoe when he had been homeless in the Reno-Sparks area before then.

Bail was set at $1.5 million for Rodriguez-Quezada, who also is being held in Washoe County on a re-entry hold by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report

By Heidi M. Przybyla, USA Today

WASHINGTON – A lawyer representing President Trump arranged a $130,000 payment to a former adult film star one month before the 2016 presidential election to prevent her from discussing an alleged sexual encounter between her and Trump some 10 years earlier at Lake Tahoe during the American Century Championship celebrity golf tournament, the Wall Street Journal reported. 

The Journal, citing anonymous sources familiar with the matter, was the first to report on the agreement between Trump’s longtime attorney and the woman, Stephanie Clifford, whose stage name is Stormy Daniels. 

Michael Cohen, who was a lawyer for the Trump Organization at the time, did not directly address the latest report of the payment, but said “these rumors have circulated time and again since 2011.”

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