By Adam Ashton, Sacramento Bee

State pension funds across the nation shelled out more than $10 billion in fees in 2014 as they chased higher returns from increasingly complex and risky investments, according to a new report from the PEW Charitable Trusts.

The report traces 10 years of performance at the 73 largest state-sponsored pension funds. Collectively, they manage more than $2.8 trillion in assets.

Most of them, including California’s two major public employee pension funds, did not hit their target investment returns over the decade that PEW studied, 2006-2015.

Both California plans, the California Public Employees’ Retirement System and the California State Teachers’ Retirement System, sought to earn an average return of 7.5 percent. CalPERS brought in 6.2 percent over the decade, while CalSTRS earned 7 percent.

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By Sarah Ponczek, Bloomberg

American drivers paying the the most for gasoline since 2015 can take some comfort from forecasts that prices don’t have much further to rise.

Regular gasoline averaged $2.42 a gallon Monday, according to the Energy Information Administration. While prices are 35 cents higher than a year ago, they’re just 4 cents below the agency’s forecast average for the summer.

The EIA in its Summer Fuels Outlook sees prices averaging 23 cents higher this summer than a year earlier, primarily because Brent crude oil is forecast to be $8 a barrel more than in the summer of 2016.

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·      Leap Frog Group, a nonprofit organization committed to driving quality, safety, and transparency in the U.S. health care system, gave Barton Memorial Hospital an A for its commitment to reducing errors, infections, and accidents. This is the third consecutive A Barton Hospital has received.

·      Douglas is seeking public feedback through a quick survey of residents in Douglas, Lyon, Alpine, and Storey counties about how information was disseminated this winter about the flooding issues.

·      Lake Valley Fire’s inaugural commendation ceremony will be April 15, 6pm at Lake Tahoe Golf Course in Meyers.

·      The Who will play at Harveys in Stateline on Aug. 16 at 8pm.

·      On April 16 Sugar Bowl Resort is having an Easter Keg Hunt for guests ages 21 and older starting at 10am. For kids 6-12 they may hunt for candy-filled eggs hidden around Nob Hill at 9am.

By Soumya Karlamangla and Rong-Gong Lin II, Los Angeles Times
 
The vaccination rate for California’s kindergartners soared this fall from the previous year, fueled by a state law that made it significantly tougher for parents to exempt schoolchildren from shots.

It was the highest vaccination rate among kindergartners since at least 1998, and comes after a measles outbreak that began at Disneyland in 2014 focused new attention on the issue.

Data released Wednesday showed that the percentage of California’s kindergartners as of last fall with all required vaccinations rose from 92.8 percent to 95.6 percent.

More kindergartners were also getting the measles vaccination.

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Pleasant Valley is known as El Dorado County’s Rhone Zone, and as such there is a wine event focusing on Rhone varietals.

During Rocks & Rhones weekend, May 20-21, visitors will meet local winemakers, sample gourmet food, and sip wine pairings at five Pleasant Valley wineries.

Rhone wines include Syrah, Grenache, Mourvedre and Viognier.

The wineries are in a four-mile drive of each other: Auriga, Holly’s Hill, Miraflores, Narrow Gate and Sierra Vista.

Tickets are $35 in April, $40 in May; $45 at the door; $20 designated driver. Price includes logo glass. They are available online.

Hundreds of businesses and community leaders gathered at the Resort at Squaw Creek to celebrate the 63rd annual North Lake Tahoe Chamber Awards Dinner. The event celebrates businesses, organizations and individuals who have had a significant impact on North Lake Tahoe during 2016. 

This year, the North Lake Tahoe Chamber Resort Association gave special recognition to Liberty Utilities, the Placer County Public Works & Facilities and the Placer County Sheriff’s Department for their heroic efforts during snowmageddon 2017.

Winners of this year’s distinguished awards include:

• Best New Business of the Year: Tahoe Art Haus
• Nonprofit Organization of the Year: Boys & Girls Club of North Lake Tahoe
• Public Servant of the Year: Crystal Jacobsen, project manager for the Tahoe Basin Community Plan
• Regional Marketing Award: Tahoe Weekly
• Hospitality Award: Tunnel Creek Café
• Best Place to Work: Jake’s on the Lake
• Citizen of the Year: Heidi Hill-Drum, CEO Tahoe Prosperity Center
• Business of the Year: Alpenglow Sports.

To the community,

Lake Valley Volunteer Firefighter’s Association held its 55th annual Fire Fighters Ball on March 10. The Ball was given a new theme this year as the firefighters hosted a sold out elegant event at the Edgewood Tahoe, which included fine dining, a presentation by Lake Valley Honor Guard, auctioning of firefighters skills such as yard cleanup, car detailing to name a few, an ongoing silent auction packed with dozens of items that were so generously donated to Lake Valley by our community and live music and dancing.

The evening also included a presentation in which the benevolent Lisa Maloff was honored and thanked for her generous donation of $150,000 to the Firefighter’s Association. The donation along with proceeds of the evening will be used to construct a new on-site fire and rescue training building in order to enhance firefighting and rescue skills and bring the highest level of “all risk care” that Lake Valley prides itself on. The new building will benefit neighboring agencies as well by giving the option of joint trainings between the departments. The old building being deemed unsafe after over 30 years of use had to be demolished.

Lake Valley Fire Department would like to personally thank Edgewood Tahoe for the use of the beautiful facility for this event and to all the many businesses and private parties that so generously donated prizes for the silent auction, and grand prize giveaways. It is a pleasure and honor to serve this community.

Chris Heng, Lake Valley firefighter

Passengers get off the Amtrak train in Truckee. Photo/LTN

By Seth A. Richardson, Reno Gazette-Journal 

President Trump’s proposed budget would cut all Amtrak funding for Truckee, Reno, Elko and Winnemucca, possibly ending rail service in Northern Nevada.

Trump’s proposed budget would zero out funding for long-distance rail lines, which are defined as more than 750 miles. Parts of Amtrak’s California Zephyr, which runs from Chicago to San Francisco with stops in Northern Nevada, is among the lines facing cuts.

The president said in his budget book that the long-distance lines “have long been inefficient and incur the vast majority of Amtrak’s operating losses.” The president wants to shift focus to the heavily-traveled Northeast Corridor – most of the eastern seaboard between Boston and Washington – and state-supported lines.

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By Lake Tahoe News

Noise complaints associated with aircraft using Lake Tahoe Airport will now be monitored on a case-by-case basis.

In other words, it will be complaint driven.

A 20-year agreement that came out of a lawsuit filed by the League to Save Lake Tahoe and Tahoe Regional Planning Agency expired in 2012. In the last five years monitoring has been done via devices set on property owned by the California Tahoe Conservancy and U.S. Forest Service.

The agreements with the monitoring companies expired this spring, which gave South Lake Tahoe officials a reason to revisit how it handles noise.

Monitoring at Lake Tahoe Airport is voluntary as far as state and federal laws go.

The bulk of complaints – 72 percent – are because of military aircraft and helicopter tour operators. The military is exempt from the noise rules.

The city averages one complaint a month. In the four months since Mark Gibbs, the current airport manager, has been on staff there has been one complaint.

With so little traffic at the airport on most days, the city is usually able to figure out which aircraft caused the noise via information provided by the complaining party. Once the pilot is identified, a bit of education will be the first course of action so ideally it’s not a recurring situation. Noise complaints can be filed via the city’s website.

Lake Tahoe South Shore Chamber of Commerce and Lake Tahoe Visitors Authority’s annual Tourism Forum will focus on the global traveler.

The forum aims to prepare the South Shore tourism industry to better serve global travelers. According to Visit California, 17,000,000 global travelers visited California in 2015. Understanding how to attract this demographic and leverage their unique travel tendencies is vital to strengthening your sales force, business, and the community. 

The Welcoming the Global Guest: Tourism + Breakfast Forum will feature speaker Kristine Tsusaki-Reddick, director of Client Relations at Visit California, who will provide a market update on California’s tourism industry with a focus on international travel trends in the California market. Keynote speaker will be Daniel Crain, VP of Education and Training at BRIC Marketing.

The cost for the April 18, 8:15-11:30am forum is $25 for chamber members and $40 for non-members. Ticket price includes breakfast. For more information and to register, go online. The event is at Lake Tahoe Resort Hotel in South Lake Tahoe.