By Julia Angwin, Noam Scheiber and Ariana Tobin, New York Times

A few weeks ago, Verizon placed an ad on Facebook to recruit applicants for a unit focused on financial planning and analysis. The ad showed a smiling, millennial-aged woman seated at a computer and promised that new hires could look forward to a rewarding career in which they would be “more than just a number.”

Some relevant numbers were not immediately evident. The promotion was set to run on the Facebook feeds of users 25 to 36 years old who lived in the nation’s capital, or had recently visited there, and had demonstrated an interest in finance. For a vast majority of the hundreds of millions of people who check Facebook every day, the ad did not exist.

Verizon is among dozens of the nation’s leading employers — including Amazon, Goldman Sachs, Target and Facebook itself — that placed recruitment ads limited to particular age groups, an investigation by ProPublica and the New York Times has found.

Read the whole story

By Eli Day, Mother Jones

For the first time in seven years, the number of people without a safe, regular place to sleep in America has grown. On any given night in 2017, nearly 554,000 people across the country were homeless, just under a 1 percent rise above 2016 levels.

The figure comes courtesy of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which publishes an annual report on the landscape of American homelessness. Overall, the number of people without a decent place to lay their heads at night is still down by more than 83,000 since 2010, a 13 percent drop. 

Fueling this year’s rise in homelessness is California, which had 134,278 homeless people in 2017, more than any other state and 25 percent of the nation’s total. California saw the largest absolute increase in homelessness of any state between 2016 and 2017.

Read the whole story

By Todd Dewey, Las Vegas Review-Journal

Nevada sports books lost a record $11.4 million on baseball in November after bettors cashed on the Astros beating the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 7 and on futures wagers on Houston to win the World Series.

It was the largest baseball loss ever suffered in a month by the state’s sports books, according to Michael Lawton, the Nevada Gaming Control Board’s senior research analyst.

The books’ previous record baseball loss was $6.2 million in November 1999, when bettors cashed their winning tickets on the New York Yankees following their World Series sweep of the Atlanta Braves.

Read the whole story

By U.S. Ski & Snowboard

Ryan Cochran-Siegle (Starksboro, Vt.) led three Americans into the top 20 in Friday’s FIS Ski World Cup alpine combined event in Bormio, Italy.

Alexis Pinturault of France won Friday’s race, Italy’s Peter Fill was second, followed by Norway’s Kjetil Jansrud in third. 

Cochran-Siegle was 14th, followed by Jared Goldberg (Holladay, Utah) in 15th and Bryce Bennett (Squaw Valley) in 19th.

“When I kicked out of the start gate, I wasn’t able to let it go as much,” said Cochran-Siegle, who tweaked his knee earlier this week in downhill training. “But there is some good that I am able to take away from this race, and some things I still need to work on.

“I think it’s good that we’re all in the points and we can move forward from today,” he added. “But we also have a lot of work to do as well.”

On the women’s side, in one of the tightest finishes on the FIS Ski World Cup circuit this season, Italy’s Federica Brignone edged out Germany’s Viktoria Rebensburg and Mikaela Shiffrin (Eagle-Vail, Colo.) by just 0.08 seconds to win Friday’s giant slalom in Lienz, Austria.

In finishing third, Shiffin picked up her ninth podium result of the season and maintained her overall World Cup lead over Rebensburg. However, with her second-place finish, Rebensburg moved into the overall World Cup giant slalom lead by 13 points over Shiffrin.  

By Ezra David Romero, Capital Public Radio

Caltrans is taking climate change seriously. So seriously that the organization is prepping a dozen reports that evaluate how things like warming temperatures, changes in rainfall and wildfires affect roadways.

“Climate change poses an immediate and growing threat to California, and Caltrans is being proactive in determining what this means for the state’s transportation system,” said Caltrans Director Malcolm Dougherty in a press release.

Last year’s storm season caused more than $1.2 billion in highway damages statewide. Think severe flooding, landslides, and coastal erosion.

Read the whole story

A Santa Rosa man died skiing at Heavenly Mountain Resort on Wednesday.

The name of the 49-year-old has not been released.

He was on the Poma Trail when he lost control on Dec. 27. Resort officials would not say if the man was wearing a helmet, but first responders said he wasn’t.

According to Lake Valley Fire Protection District Fire Chief Tim Alameda, paramedics tried to revive the man, but were unable to do so.

“We had to use a low angle rope rescue to get to him. He was down in a tree well and did not have a helmet. They had to extricate him by using ropes to get to him,” Alameda told Lake Tahoe News. “You don’t know if it would have made difference, but it would have put odds in his favor (if he were wearing a helmet). People need to make the investment and wear a helmet whether it’s up there or in the backcountry.

Alameda told Lake Tahoe News that at the same time another skier who was going to render aid to the man ended up injuring her foot, which required her to be transported to Barton Memorial Hospital.

“It’s been a busy week for us,” Alameda said. The district has extra staffing to handle the added people in town.

A guy at Kirkwood Mountain Resort hurt his chest Friday in a serious accident, according to Alameda.

Without fresh snow, injuries are more common at ski resorts because of the hardpack conditions and the obstacles.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report

Congestion getting into and out of the Heavenly Village parking garage on Dec. 28. Photo/Kathryn Reed

By Kathryn Reed

Parking is a growing problem on the South Shore.

Those in the tourism industry want more people here. Those in the regulatory business want people out of their individual cars so they limit the number of parking spots that can built. Private businesses only want people parking there who are frequenting their business.

The problem is exacerbated during peak holiday periods like the Christmas-New Year’s weeks.

Anyone who has been in the Stateline area in the last week is likely to have a story about congestion and parking.

Here is one of those stories:

“With company in town for Christmas we went down to Basecamp Pizza; it was the Saturday before Christmas in the early afternoon. I discovered the parking garage is way too small in many areas,” one South Lake Tahoe resident told Lake Tahoe News. “We had to wait on the street to get into the garage. There was a handwritten sign taped over the rates sign that said due to holiday rates would be double. So instead of $7.50/hour fee, it would be $15/hour. Once inside the garage it was near impossible to negotiate around due to so many vehicles inside. If a car is coming toward you, there isn’t enough room for both cars. One car has to wait. After about 15 minutes trying to go up to find a parking spot my husband told me to get out and go save us a table. He continued up into the garage to find a spot. Turns out the garage was full. It would seem the garage should have an attendant or two, especially on holidays, and their system should know when the space limits have been met to not allow additional vehicles in. Ultimately, he made it out of the maze and went over to Harrah’s and parked easily, which is what he wanted to do in the first place. I won’t be using the garage in the future. It’s unfortunate when it was built someone didn’t think through the amount of people congested into the Heavenly Village area with the gondola, restaurants, entertainment, etc.”

Several years ago the South Lake Tahoe City Council set a rate schedule for the parking garage at Heavenly Village that increases the fee during holiday times. This year rates are doubled from Dec. 22-Jan. 1. The July 4 week is another time rates spike.

Even the $5 after 5pm rate is now $10.

“By having higher prices we hope people carpool in and there are less vehicles in the area,” Police Chief Brian Uhler told Lake Tahoe News.

Uhler admits the design of the garage is flawed in that it does not accommodate large SUVs well, and the exit lane on the left makes it near impossible for cars to keep going up the structure.

“That’s partly why we staff it during holidays. If it stacks up and causes difficulties, we a have person there who can get people through more quickly,” Uhler said.

With Heavenly Village now being a destination for locals and visitors, the parking garage is being used more. This is a good thing for the city, which has about seven more years until the debt on the garage is paid off. Once those bonds are paid, it will mean more money for the city’s General Fund.

Adding to the chaos is Harrah’s Lake Tahoe no longer lets skiers park in its lot. This change took effect earlier this month. This was to provide more parking for casino patrons.

“What I can tell you is that our guests have access to free parking at our Cal base lodge, Stage Coach, and Boulder base facilities. We additionally offer a free offsite parking option for our guests at the Hard Rock Lake Tahoe,” Kevin Cooper with Heavenly Mountain Resort told Lake Tahoe News. “Once our guests have parked at their hotel or rental property, they have access to five free shuttle routes accessing all four of our base areas.”

Driving around the area in the late afternoon on Dec. 28 it was a mess. Delivery trucks on Bellamy Court added to the congestion. Vehicles were parked on Montreal Avenue despite the no parking signs. People seemed to be going in circles in search of spot.

The city has parking meters on Bellamy and Transit Way. The old Crescent V Center is just for their customers. With Van Sickle Bi-State Park parking off-limits this time of year, people wanting to play there are also searching for parking.

Parking — paid or free — is definitely in short supply, and public transit is not a viable option here. For now, it means patience or stay away from the Stateline area.

November was a good month for North Lake Tahoe casinos, a lackluster month for South Shore venues and so-so for the whole state of Nevada.

North Shore revenue was up 18.9 percent compared to 2016 to $1,859,371, Stateline was down 2.92 percent to $15,510,510, and statewide it was down 2.3 percent to $909,007,025.

Tourism should change the numbers for December.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report

A fire that started Thursday night in the Pine Nut Mountains has burned about 50 acres.

Called the Holiday Fire, it is burning south of Gardnerville between Carter and Buffalo Spring. Crews had a hard time reaching the fire because of the remote location.

It was reported just after 7pm Dec. 28 on acreage owned by the Bureau of Land Management.

The cause of the fire is not known.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report

Lake Tahoe South Shore Chamber of Commerce is hosting an educational workshop titled China-Ready.

Citcon USA will be conducting the Jan. 25 event from 10am-12:30pm in Stateline.

With Beijing the host of the 2022 Winter Olympics, Chinese tourists have been increasingly visiting winter sport destinations in the U.S. Many rely on Chinese social media platforms to make travel plans and purchases in the areas of lodging, fine dining, shopping, and other entertainment.

The talk is to learn how to connect with these travelers.

RSVP to yan.mu@citcon.com.