More than 400 people are expected to raise more than $30,000 at Walk MS: South Lake Tahoe on Sept. 16, which will take place at Camp Richardson.

In 2016, nearly 300,000 people at more than 550 locations across the country walked to create a world free of MS, raising nearly $50 million. Since 1988, hundreds of thousands of people have taken part in Walk MS events across the country raising critical funds and awareness for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. This year, the cumulative fundraising is expected to surpass $1 billion.

Check-in opens at 10am; walk begins at 10:45am.

For more info and to register, go online.

By Vicki Gonzalez, KCRA-TV

UC Davis is using an underwater robot with the hopes of understanding how climate change is affecting Lake Tahoe.

Tahoe Environmental Research Center deployed the autonomous underwater vehicle earlier this month.

More commonly known as a glider, the autonomous vehicle will coast 150 meters under Lake Tahoe’s surface, going back-and-forth taking measurements.

The robot will continuously measure the lake’s temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, chlorophyll, among other data, broadcasting the information back to researchers.

Read the whole story

These two people are wanted by WCSO. Photo/Provided

Washoe County sheriff’s detectives are trying to identify two people suspected of burglarizing a home in Incline Village on April 27.

Sometime following the burglary the suspects attempted to use credit cards belonging to the victim at businesses in Crystal Bay and Reno.

One suspect is described as an adult male, approximately 6-feet tall, 190-210 pounds, with short, buzzed dark hair and a goatee. The other is an adult female, approximately 5-feet-6-inches, 180-200 pounds. with dark hair reaching to mid-back.

They drove a light-colored 1998 Dodge Durango with California license plate number 5EZC444. The current owner of the vehicle is not registered with the California Department of Motor Vehicles.   

Anyone with information is asked to call 775.328.3320 or Secret Witness at 775.322.4900. Secret Witness has offered a $500 reward for information leading to the identification and arrest of the suspects.  

— Lake Tahoe News staff report

Sinkhole near Zephyr Cove causing traffic issues. Photo/NDOT

Expect lane closures on Highway 50 near Zephyr Cove as Nevada Department of Transportation officials deal with a sinkhole.

The slow lane of westbound Highway 50 near Zephyr Cove Resort is currently closed after an approximately 3-foot hole appeared in the roadway on Aug. 11.

Officials believe it may have been created by erosion of a storm drain.

NDOT is conducting manual and video investigation underneath the roadway. Crews will temporarily fill and repave the hole with roadway base and paving materials with the goal of reopening the lane for weekend travel.

Future lane and/or roadway closures are possible if more extensive repairs are needed.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report

Nevada Highway Patrol is reminding drivers who use Sand Harbor Beach that stopping in the travel lanes is illegal as well as crossing over double yellow lines to pass other vehicles.

Early mornings, especially on Saturdays and Sundays, there have been several reports along Highway 28 of traffic issues including backups, stopped vehicles waiting to enter Sand Harbor Beach, and other dangerous situations before the park opens. 

Traffic backs up all the way into Incline Village and causes long delays.    

Motorists wanting to bypass the congestion have taken to crossing the double yellow lines and attempt to pass the stopped traffic by going the wrong way in the northbound travel lane.  This is causing many near head-on collisions. 

NHP is making a concerted effort to control the chaos.

·      South Lake Tahoe Fire Chief Jeff Meston is now president-elect of the California Fire Chief’s Association.

·      Rafael Martinez has been hired as director of transportation for El Dorado County.

·      Bring the whole family to the Tahoe-Douglas fire station on Elks Point Road for the annual pancake feed on Sept. 2 from 8:30-11:30am.

·      Tahoe Transportation District wants the public’s feedback via this survey.

·      This month’s annual Oscar de la Renta and Saks Fifth Avenue fashion show-benefit lunch for the League to Save Lake Tahoe raised a record $1.1 million.

By Wayne Parry, AP

Casinos are slowly embracing competitive video game tournaments as a way to help their bottom lines, but the money is coming from renting hotel rooms to the young players and selling them food and drinks, not from turning them into gamblers.

Like most other ways gambling halls have tried to attract millennials and their disposable income, it hasn’t been easy. Atlantic City was first city in the nation to adopt skill-based slot machines to woo millennials but bailed on them after a few months when the response was underwhelming.

Competitive video game tournaments, known as esports, are a growing industry around the world. The fast-paced action, vivid graphics and often violent on-screen action is catnip to millennials, the audience casinos are targeting as their core slot players grow old and die.

Read the whole story

Stuart Merrill

Former Alpine County Sheriff and Supervisor Stu Merrill died Aug. 1, 2017, at his home in Woodfords.. He was 94.

Stuart was born to Grant Perry Merrill and Angie Tibbetts Merrill in Gardnerville in January 1923. He was raised in Woodfords, the third generation of the pioneer Merrill family.

He spent his later grade school and high school years in Mojave after his father was transferred there to serve as the state highway superintendent. Stu always returned to Alpine County during the summers and school vacations.

After high school he attended Sacramento Junior College. He divided his time between studies, ski racing and ski instructing at Sugar Bowl.

College was interrupted when Stu served in the Air Force in the European theater during WWII. After the war he enrolled at San Jose State, pledged Delta Sigma fraternity, continued his intercollegiate ski racing. He met Eileen Hunter, who he declared to be “the girl he would marry.” They were married on Sept. 11, 1948.

After graduation the couple moved to Woodfords where they assumed management of the family’s Woodfords Store & Resort. In 1958 Stu was elected sheriff of Alpine County. He served five terms until his retirement in 1978. Stu continued his public service for several years serving as an Alpine County supervisor.

In retirement Stu rekindled his passion for ski racing (senior division). He joined Eileen golfing. Together they traveled and went on reunion adventures with close friends. He was an avid fisherman (he always kept his fly rod in the trunk of the car), knowing every fishing hole in the Eastern Sierra but never divulged his favorites. In later years he would teach his three grandchildren to fish, how to drive the golf cart and use the stick shift in the old truck.

Stu was a people person known for his sociability, admired for his compassion, generosity and willingness to help others. He was a member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, California Peace Officers Association, Carson Valley Freemasons, Sirs and the Alpine County Historic Society.

He was preceded in death by his brothers Austin and Robert Merrill.

Stu is survived by his wife, Eileen; children, Eric (Michele) and Cathy; grandchildren, Grant, Ian and Hanna; nephews and nieces, Greg Merrill, Linda Merrill, Sandra Merrill, Warren Merrill, Barbara Merrill Moore and their children.

The memorial service will be Aug. 27 at 11am at Turtle Rock Park Community Center in Markleeville. Burial will be private.

The family requests that in lieu of flowers or sympathy gifts, memorial contributions may be made in his name to the Alpine County Historic Society, PO Box 517, Markleeville, CA  96120.

By Meghin Delaney Las Vegas Review-Journal

Nevada is among the first states in the nation to have its new education plan approved by the federal government, the state Department of Education announced Wednesday.

The state plan was a requirement under a new federal education law, the Every Student Succeeds Act. Nevada was one of 16 states to submit a plan to the U.S. Department of Education for review by an early deadline.

The state got feedback in mid-June and resubmitted the plan with changes later that month.

Read the whole story

By Kathryn Reed

STATELINE – Fireworks are out, lasers are in. A single event on one night has been traded for multiple activities on four days.

Labor Day Lake Tahoe is being reinvented.

Earlier this year the Tahoe Douglas Visitors Authority decided to scrap the annual fireworks show on the Sunday of Labor Day weekend. This is because lodging establishments said it had become a non-starter.

While plenty of locals are disappointed the sky won’t be lighting up in a couple weeks, the TDVA is about driving tourism, not entertaining locals.

At the board’s meeting this week it was revealed that the TDVA is allocating almost $58,000 on a four-day carnival, art, and music festival at Heavenly Village, along with an event at Lakeview Commons that Sunday afternoon and evening.

This expenditure is less than 50 percent of what the 20-minute fireworks show cost.

Mike Frye, who handles events for TDVA, gave the board an overview of what to expect. The goal is to provide easy, fun, free events for people.

The fun will start that Friday at Heavenly Village. The carnival will go from 6-9:30pm. It will include all the usual rides except for a Ferris wheel. Games, stilt walkers, jugglers, caricaturists and the standard fair food will be offered.

On that Saturday and Sunday the events go from 1-9:30pm. The headliner music acts start at 6pm both days, though there will be music in the afternoon. Bands include Hit Parade, Steele Breeze, 3 Musicole, Failure Machine, Merry Gold, Dead Winter Carpenters, Jelly Bread, Shanda and the Howlers, Cameron Calloway, and Grace Hayes.

Art and classic car exhibits will be part of the mix.

Over at Lakeview Commons on Sept. 3 the activities go from 4:30-9pm. A disc jockey will be spinning tunes, while various vendors peddle their wares, people imbibe at the beer garden, get something to eat from the food trucks, and hang out in the hammock lounge.

UV99, the same group that does the laser events for Burning Man, will be coming to put on a show from 8:30-9pm. This will be something boaters will be able to see from the water.

TDVA has some “extra” cash to devote to luring people to the South Shore for these events.

“We paused some of our summer advertising in Northern California,” TDVA Executive Director Carol Chaplin told the board. She said the weather combined with July 4 and the celebrity golf tournament were bringing people without any sales pitch. “We put some of that into Labor Day specific advertising; about $40,000 was shifted.”

This isn’t all that will be going on that weekend. There’s always the Heavenly tent sale, Eric Church has two shows slated to wrap up the Harveys Outdoor Concert Series, Tahoe Beach Retreat is having a luau on Sept. 1 and the usual outdoor fun Tahoe has to offer including TAMBA’s Rose to Toads bike ride on Sept. 2.