A swarm of earthquakes continues to rattle the Gardnerville area.
While most have been less than a magnitude of 2.0, a 3.5 temblor struck at 9:31pm on June 9. It was located about 12 southeast of Garderville. At 10:15pm a 2.2 quake hit.
A 3.9 quake hit on June 6.
There have been no reports of damage or injuries.
— Lake Tahoe News staff report
By Keith Ridler, AP
BOISE, Idaho — State officials have approved an Idaho utility company’s plan to close a coal-fired power plant in Nevada about 10 years ahead of schedule and raise monthly bills for customers to cover depreciation costs.
The Idaho Public Utilities Commission announced Monday a settlement with Idaho Power to close the North Valmy Generating Station near Valmy by 2025.
The company said closing the plant early will save customers money because a decrease in market prices for electricity has made the plant uneconomical except when energy demands surge during extremely hot or cold weather.
· June 10 is the one day of the year when people may fish in any public water in Nevada without a fishing license.
· On June 13 from 6:30-9:30pm padre Paul Funfsinn will be offering a spiritual healing service at Unity at the Lake in South Lake Tahoe. Donation of $30 is suggested. Call Juliette Tanzi — 530.318.6233 — for more information.
· The draft of the initial study-mitigated negative declaration for the Truckee Meadows restoration project has been released, and public comments are being sought.
· Marisa Irby, who grew up in Douglas County and graduated from Douglas High School, is now a deputy with Douglas County Sheriff’s Office.
· Free shuttles are available for Truckee Thursdays. Go online for details.
By Christopher Reynolds, Los Angeles Times
Who flies to Reno on a spring evening, rents a car and heads into the mountains with no skis, no mountain bike and a backpack full of books? Me.
Why? Because in 1861 a 25-year-old Missouri riverboat pilot named Sam Clemens boarded a stagecoach bound for the same territory.
He was going to dodge the Civil War for a few months, work for the government, do some writing, maybe dig for silver. Instead he stayed for almost seven years, emerged as Mark Twain, gave us “Huckleberry Finn” and won global fame as that sardonic old man with the white hair and droopy mustache.
I wanted to see some of what he saw in those early travels — a dusty Nevada silver-mining town, the shores of Lake Tahoe, the hills of California Gold Country. And I wondered: After so much history, myth and marketing, how much Twain remains?
Jonathan Hetherton with Farmers Insurance will give a presentation about flood insurance on June 14 from noon-1pm.
The talk is sponsored by the South Tahoe Association of Realtors.
It will be in the agency’s conference room on James Avenue in South Lake Tahoe.
This session is open to the public to learn about the costs and benefits of flood insurance.
Reserve a seat by calling 530.541.7007.
By Rick Gross
It can be easy to overlook the importance of saving for retirement, especially when you’re focused on shorter-term financial priorities such as buying a new car or saving for college.
However, it’s crucial to consider your long-term financial security and make saving for retirement a priority. If you start early and save regularly, even small sums can grow into significant retirement savings. Additional money you save today may have years – or even decades – to grow before you need it for retirement.
Rick Gross
Consider the following two examples to see how saving a dollar a day or an additional one percent could make a big difference in helping you retire with confidence.
Set aside one extra dollar per day
To start, set a goal of saving the equivalent of $1 per day. Or if you’re already saving, strive to save $1 more per day. If you invest this $365 over 30 years, earning an average annual return of 7 percent a year, your dollar-a-day commitment would grow to nearly $34,500. If you extend this commitment to 40 years, the total accumulated more than doubles to just shy of $73,000. That’s a meaningful amount of money when you consider the minimal effort needed to save $1 per day.
Boost savings by 1 percentage point
You can also consider boosting your savings by 1 percentage point. Let’s say you are committed to setting aside 5 percent of your income for retirement. For this example, we’ll assume you began saving when you earned a salary of $30,000 per year in 1987 and your salary rose by 3 percent per year for 30 years. If you continued to save 5 percent of your income and earned a 7 percent average annual return, you would accumulate approximately $208,000 over those three decades.
But what if you choose to boost your savings to 6 percent of your income? Over that 30-year period, you would increase your nest egg to nearly $250,000. One percentage point of additional annual savings could add up to 20 percent more in accumulated savings at the end of 30 years.
It pays to get started
No matter how small the dollar amount or how modest any additional savings may be, your diligence and patience can be rewarded. You don’t need a lump sum of money to start saving. Whether it’s one dollar more or a one percent increase, any amount can help you get closer to achieving your financial goals. Now, the most important part is getting started.
Rick Gross is a financial advisor and private wealth advisor with Ameriprise Financial Services Inc. in South Lake Tahoe.
By Dale Kasler, Sacramento Bee
Californians pay about 15 cents a gallon extra at the pump to fight climate change.
Here’s what they’re getting for their money: continued progress in the effort to curb carbon.
Greenhouse gas emissions fell by 1.5 million tons in California in 2015, state officials announced Wednesday. The reduction was the equivalent of pulling 300,000 cars off the road for a year, according to the California Air Resources Board.
The agency said emissions dropped 0.3 percent compared with 2014, and have fallen a total of 10 percent since 2004. The state is on target to meet 2020 benchmarks established in a landmark climate change law passed in 2006.
Search efforts resumed Friday morning for a kayaker who was reported missing from the D.L. Bliss State Park area on June 8.
Pham Dan Vu Thanh called a friend Thursday at 9:15am to tell him he was going kayaking and camping in the Lester Beach area. As of 6:15pm he had not been hear from.
The search was suspended at midnight and resumed at 6am June 9.
Resources from the El Dorado County Sheriff’s Office, U.S. Coast Guard, State Parks and other Lake Tahoe marine agencies are actively searching the area.
The kayaker is a Filipino adult male, 5-feet-7, 150 pounds, muscular build, short dark hair, multiple tattoos on shoulder and chest. The forest green kayak is 10-feet-long.
Anyone with information is asked to call 911 or 530.621.6600.
— Lake Tahoe News staff report
Flames shoot from a duplex in South Lake Tahoe on June 9. Photo/SLTFD
Updated 6:25pm:
Just before 7 Friday morning firefighters arrived at a house on Paloma Street in South Lake Tahoe that was fully engulfed in flames.
A woman living in the duplex was taken to Barton Memorial Hospital for smoke inhalation. Two dogs at the residence died in the fire.
The cause of the June 9 blaze is believed to have been smoking materials in bed.
Damage is estimated at $150,000; with the front unit severely damaged, and the back unit sustaining extensive damage as well.
— Lake Tahoe News staff report
Crews working overnight to remove the mounds of mud from Highway 50 in the American River canyon were able to clear the roadway so one lane is now open.
Caltrans originally thought the road would be closed until Friday night if not longer.
Expect it to be slow going between White Hall and Kyburz. The slide is at Alder Creek.
With it being a weekend, having the road closed would have made it problematic for tourists to take the longer routes to get to the South Shore.
The hillsides in this area have been unstable throughout the winter. More rain fell on June 8, bringing down more debris. With the weather forecast for more moisture this weekend, it’s possible the slopes will continue to move.
— Lake Tahoe News staff report