Jesse Wells
A fugitive wanted in the killing of a pot farmer in Mendocino County was arrested in South Lake Tahoe on Friday afternoon.
Jesse Cole Wells, 32, was found living on Conestoga Avenue. He is originally from New York.
Wells is one of eight suspects in the Nov. 11 killing of 35-year-old Jeffrey Quinn Settler.
He was arrested without incident at 4:15pm Feb. 24.
— Lake Tahoe News staff report
To the community,
Helping to feed those in need, Mind Body Physical Therapy hosted Bread & Broth’s Monday meal on Feb. 16. It’s really wonderful that these folks not only help others feel better in their work lives, but also donate their personal time and funds to provide healthy meals and compassion to food insecure members of the South Tahoe community.
Mind Body Physical Therapy owner Christina Frohlich shared her thoughts about hosting her second Adopt a Day of Nourishment in the past two years. “B&B runs a tight ship! Very clean and organized. The food was fantastic, especially the cauliflower! Lovely staff, very friendly and caring.”
Joining Frohlich were her fellow Mind Body teammates Jessica Jones and Kiley Lathrop. These three ladies were a big help in assisting the B&B volunteers with packing food giveaway bags, serving and cleanup.
B&B always enjoys having return Adopt A Day sponsors because we know how much they enjoy the experience of selflessly giving to others and personally experiencing how their providing a wonderful dinner and food to take home impacts those in need. B&B would like to thank Mind Body Physical Therapy and the three wonderful crew members for their thoughtful and sincere efforts to improve the lives of other.
Carol Gerard, Bread & Broth
Tahoe Mountain Resorts Foundation is offering seven scholarships totaling $50,500 to eligible graduating seniors from the class of 2017 at Truckee and North Tahoe high schools who are applying to a four-year college.
Applications will be accepted through April 3, with recipients to be notified at each school’s awards night.
Annually, one four-year scholarship is available in the amount of $30,000. TMRF provides six additional scholarships; one $10,000 scholarship, one $6,500 scholarship, and four $1,000 scholarships. Requirements of these scholarships are outlined in the TMRF scholarship application.
Just as Liberty Utilities makes progress on restoring power, another problem occurs.
The newest outage is affecting about 300 customers in the Martis Valley Road area of Truckee. A tree fell on primary and secondary lines. Power should be back by Friday evening.
The Floriston line has been rebuilt and power restored.
At River Road/Silver Creek/Fir Grags/Highway 89: Progress today; power should return by this evening.
Sudan Road (Tahoe Vista/Carnelian Bay): Crews continue to dig out vaults looking for the problem, but have determined it is not a transformer issue so power could be restored by this evening.
Digger Boggs Gooch
South Lake Tahoe native Digger Boggs Gooch died Feb. 10, 2017. He was 37.
He spent his childhood in Pollock Pines.
As an adult he returned to South Lake Tahoe, also spent time in Santa Cruz, and most recently was living in Kyburz.
Digger was as unique as his name. He was a generous, caring, and loving man of many talents which included being artistic, creative, and musical. He loved trees and being high up them so that he could see all the beauty. His most current job fit him to a tee – he worked for a tree company. He was a hard worker and always gave 100 percent.
Digger had an amazing smile that could brighten and warm all the hearts of those around him. He also had a keen sense of humor, and kept everyone on their toes and laughing.
However, the most important trait he had was the deep love and dedication for his family.
Digger is survived by his father, Jerry; mother Barbara; sister Rachel; grandparents, several uncles, aunts and cousins.
Services will be March 3 at 1pm at the Green Valley Church, 3500 Missouri Flat Road, Placerville, with reception to follow.
By Sean Whaley, Las Vegas Review-Journal
CARSON CITY — A bill that would significantly increase the amount of funding available to address problem gambling in Nevada saw no opposition Wednesday during a Senate committee hearing.
Senate Bill 120 would increase funding from the approximately $1.8 million in fiscal year 2018 in Gov. Brian Sandoval’s proposed 2017-19 budget to as much as $2.8 million a year.
Anthony Cabot, a member of the Advisory Committee on Problem Gambling, said the current revenue comes from a $2 fee on slot machines. But the number of machines has been declining, reducing the amount of money available for the program.
By Seth A. Richardson, Reno Gazette-Journal
Sen. Dean Heller and Rep. Mark Amodei didn’t mean to have a town hall meeting on Wednesday during a Carson City event, but it quickly turned into one.
What was slated as a routine luncheon in front of the Carson City Chamber of Commerce with the two Republicans quickly turned into an impromptu forum. Protesters, who had to pay the admission price to get in, quickly started yelling, “Town hall meeting!” wanting Heller and Amodei to schedule in-district meetings for constituents. A group could also be heard from outside the event.
Groups have been putting pressure on Heller – as well as other Republicans nationwide – to hold town halls. Several have, often getting shouted out of their own meeting over policies proposed by Republican President Trump.
By USSA
KVITFJELL, Norway – Travis Ganong (Squaw Valley) felt all the good sensations of a solid run in Friday’s Audi FIS Ski World Cup downhill, a make-up race from the canceled December event at Lake Louise, Canada, leading the U.S. in eighth place.
Slovenia’s Bostjan Kline took his first career World Cup victory Friday, nipping Austria’s Matthias Mayer by just 0.19 seconds and Norway’s Kjetil Jansrud by 0.20 in second and third respectively.
Seeing and feeling the course are the two critical components of good ski racing. So when one sensation goes wrong, the other sensation of a finely tuned athlete usually picks up the slack. For Ganong, he felt like he put down a great run Friday, and indeed he did, but the seeing part didn’t go so well.
“I skied really well and it easily could have been a winning run,” Ganong said. “But on the third gate, I hit the gate and got snow in my goggles somehow. So it was like I was skiing in a blizzard. Every time I would hit a bump, the snow would go up and down inside my goggles. It was just kind of distracting the whole way down. But it was still really good skiing.”
Jared Goldberg (Holladay, Utah) put down his second top-20 result of the season, finishing 14th. Bryce Bennett(Squaw Valley) and Andrew Weibrecht (Lake Placid, N.Y.) also snuck into the points, finishing 27th and 30th, respectively. Brennan Rubie (Salt Lake City, Utah) was 43rd and Tommy Biesemeyer (Keene, N.Y.) was 49th.
Austria’s Marcel Hirscher, who did not race Friday, continues to lead the overall World cup standings with 1,275 points. Jansrud overtook Italy’s Peter Fill in the overall World Cup downhill standings with his second-place finish. Jansrud (307 points) leads Fill (294), who finished 16th Friday, by 13 points.
By Daniella Matara, AP
CRANS MONTANA, Switzerland — Lindsey Vonn wasn’t about to risk another injury, and neither was Mikaela Shiffrin.
Vonn and Shiffrin, along with some of their American teammates on the World Cup tour, pulled out of the Alpine combined race on Friday because of dangerous conditions on the course. The first three racers all crashed, and one was taken away on a stretcher with a knee injury.
“For me I’ve had so many injuries, I don’t need to risk anything today,” Vonn said. “A lot of the other athletes and coaches were asking me to put pressure on everyone to try to cancel the race because it’s too dangerous and I did my best but I just pray that no one else gets hurt today. I think it was a smart decision for our team to pull out of the race.”
After Ilka Stuhec, Tessa Worley and Denise Feierabend all fell at nearly the same point in the opening super-G portion of the combined race, the event was postponed and the start was lowered.
Stuhec and Worley were able to restart but Feierabend could not because of her injury. Worley then crashed again on her second attempt.
Federica Brignone, who was second after the super-G portion, won the race, overtaking first-run leader Stuhec in the slalom. Michaela Kirchgasser was third.
“It was not easy for anyone,” Brignone said. “The snow was really soft but I just told myself to start. If they say there’s a race then I have to start and see myself. If it’s dangerous, I’m going to stop or go slower. It’s better to stay safe then do a race.”
Vonn said the race shouldn’t have gone ahead at all after several of the forerunners — including American teammate Julia Mancuso — crashed while testing the course as the snow began to melt in changeable weather conditions.
“First and foremost, if all of the forerunners are crashing and not finishing that’s a sign that something’s wrong,” Vonn said. “The forerunners are there for a reason. Julia was one of the forerunners, she told them and they didn’t listen.
“No. 2: Listen to the representatives. Sofia (Goggia) told them that it was not acceptable to race but they didn’t listen and now Denise probably blew her knee out because no one listened.”
The 32-year-old Vonn missed nearly two seasons of competition after injuring her right knee in Austria in 2013. She hurt the same knee in her comeback.
Vonn returned to competition last month after nearly a year out with knee and arm injuries.
“The problem is a lot of times people mistake our opinions as just whining,” Vonn said. “We’re women and we’re whining and we just need to suck it up and race, and that’s not the case. Probably more than half or the field has been injured before … it’s unfortunate that the FIS doesn’t listen to us.”
The U.S. ski federation announced that its team of Vonn, Shiffrin, Laurenne Ross, Jaqueline Wiles, Breezy Johnson and Stacey Cook would not compete. But Wiles, Cook and Johnson did start, with only Johnson finishing the opening leg. She was in 36th place after the super-G.
“It’s dangerous. I said before coming into this series, knowing that the weather was supposed to be warm and maybe some snow and rain, that if it wasn’t good, I’m not going to race,” said Shiffrin, the overall World Cup leader. “I don’t have enough experience in speed, but to be honest, it’s just dangerous.”
Shiffrin holds more than a 300-point lead in the standings over Stuhec and Goggia, the next active challengers. Defending overall champion Laura Gut, in second place, is out for the rest of the season after injuring her knee while training between runs of the combined event at the world championships in St. Moritz two weeks ago.
Goggia was also among the 16 skiers who did not finish the super-G.
Friday’s race was rescheduled from Altenmarkt-Zauchensee, Austria. There is another combined race scheduled for Sunday, with a super-G on Saturday.
“It has to be everyone looking out for the most important thing, the athletes’ safety,” Vonn said. “I realize if the race is cancelled people lose money and the fans, I understand all of the politics, but there is no ski racing and there is no politics if we don’t have safe athletes.”
· Comet lift at Heavenly is open after being closed since Jan. 1 when dozens of people had to be evacuated from it.
· Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest is launching an email subscription service. Go online to manage choices.
· Truckee is looking for input as it looks to hire a town manager. Go online to contribute.
· The Roemer will be at Whiskey Dicks Saloon in South Lake Tahoe for a free show on Feb. 25. Must be 21. Doors open at 9pm.
· Placer County plans to build a 29-space free, lighted parking lot in Kings Beach connected to pedestrian corridors by new sidewalks at the west end of the corridor.