By Seth A. Richardson, Reno Gazette-Journal

Nancy Lang has been trying to reach Sen. Dean Heller’s office for some time, but to no avail.

The 67-year-old from Gardnerville wanted to talk about some of the votes before the Senate – especially confirmation votes for some of President Trump’s cabinet appointees and the precarious position of President Barack Obama’s health care plan in Congress.

Especially problematic at the moment for Lang is Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, who Heller on Wednesday came out in support of.

Heller addressed the large numbers of calls via a Thursday morning tweet” We are experiencing heavy call volumes in all our offices. Staff is answering as many as possible. Please continue calling to get through.”

Read the whole story

What started out with California Highway Patrol officers trying to pull over a suspected drunken driver early Friday morning ended with a Placer County sheriff’s deputy fatally shooting that person.

Highway 89 between Squaw Valley and Fairway Drive in Tahoe City is expected to be closed for the better part of Feb. 3 while officers investigate. Squaw Valley is accessible via Truckee.

Names of the victim and the officer involved have not been released.

The incident started about 1:40am today when CHP officers said they saw someone driving erratically on Highway 28. The pursuit was stopped because it was creating a dangerous situation for others.

The vehicle was then spotted near Dollar Hill about an hour later. The suspect would not pull over. This is when spike strips were employed on Highway 89 between Squaw and Alpine Meadows.

“The driver exited the car, holding his female passenger hostage, at gunpoint, and walked away. He pointed his gun at deputies and at passing vehicles,” according to PCSO.

Law enforcement followed him, trying to negotiate as he walked up a residential driveway.

“Fearing for the safety and lives of the hostage and the people inside the home where he was headed, deputies shot the suspect,” Placer deputies said.

The suspect was pronounced dead at the scene. No one else was hurt.

The relationship of the suspect and woman has not been released.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report

The 40th annual Great Ski Race features a historic course linking Tahoe City to Truckee.

The 30-kilometer cross country ski race is the main fund raising event for the Tahoe Nordic Search & Rescue Team, a nonprofit all-volunteer organization.

Team members, along with community supporters, organize event,which continues to be one of the largest Nordic ski races west of the Mississippi.

Race proceeds are used primarily to purchase equipment for the team, and to support winter survival and avalanche education programs sponsored and conducted by the team.

The event is March 5. Go online to register.

By Kathryn Reed

KINGS BEACH – California State Parks wants to turn the centerpiece of Kings Beach into a masterpiece.

Overhauling the master plan from 1980 for the Kings Beach State Recreation Area and replacing the pier that boats can’t reach are closer to being a reality. Creating a more welcoming, aesthetically pleasing, environmentally sensitive destination that links the land to the water are the goals.

On Thursday night the preferred alternative for the master plan was unveiled. Instead of picking one of the three alternatives, what are deemed the best aspects of the project were selected and incorporated into essentially what is a new alternative.

The preferred placement for the pier is on the eastern edge. (All three alternatives will be studied in the environmental documents.) It would be part fixed and part floating. While the pier would be able to accommodate boat shuttles, it is not being designed as a port for a cross lake ferry.

Marilyn Linkem, superintendent of the Sierra District for State Parks, talks Feb. 2 about the future of Kings Beach. Photo/Kathryn Reed

“What goes away is the motorized boat launch,” explained Lisa O’Daly of the California Tahoe Conservancy. The ramp has been unusable since 2012 because of the drought, and since 2008 it has been off-limits 75 percent of the time.

O’Daly’s agency is integral to the process because it owns some of the land in the area and has been involved with planning grants for part of the project.

Non-motorized watercraft will be encouraged to use the area even more. A building to keep kayaks-canoes-paddleboards is part of the plans.

Specifically what the pier will look like was a concern of one man who attended the Feb. 2 presentation. While the agencies tend to like structures to blend in with the natural environmental, he was a proponent of making it architecturally appealing, as well as functional. That level of design is still a ways off.

All of the environmental documents – CEQA, environmental impact report for the general plan, and EIR/EIS for the pier — need to be completed. The goal is to have them finalized about a year from now.

State Parks engineers will then plot out what it will cost. The Legislature and state Department of Finance must give their OK, and will help with financing.

“Then we decide the implementation; if we do phases,” Marilyn Linkem, superintendent of the Sierra District for State Parks, told Lake Tahoe News. Once the other state agencies weigh in it will be a few more years before any work is done.

Build out? No speculation for that date.

A promenade on the edge of the beach will go from the event center to Koon Street. From there it will be up to Placer County what happens. Lookouts will be built in so people can take in the scenery without blocking pedestrians or bicyclists.

Retaining walls and vegetation are part of the plan. Those two items are key to keeping sand out of the parking lot.

Today whenever sand reaches the asphalt it has to be hauled away. Per Tahoe Regional Planning Agency rules the parking lot sand cannot be returned to the beach.

The parking lot will be reconfigured a bit so when driving in vehicles are not the main focus. There will be a 12 percent or 22-car space reduction.

“This is a state recreation area, not a state parking area,” Steve Musillami with State Parks said.

An automated pay system is expected to be implemented this spring.

The basketball court will be relocated. Near it will be a grassy area with a stage. Bands or the like could also bring in a portable stage. It’s possible the audience could be on the beach or the lawn.

Current restrooms will be upgraded and another one added.

For now dogs on leashes will still be allowed in a section of the park, but dogs are not part of the general plan overview. That level of detail will be up to State Parks in the future.

—–

Notes:

·      More information is available online. 

·      Comments are being accepted until Feb. 15. They may be emailed to plan.general@parks.ca.gov.

To the community, 

If you’re a visitor to this site, you know that I have a strong opinion about SnowGlobe. Again, I will state that I am not against it, I am against were and when it is held. I’m all for well run events that bring people to the area.

Now that being said, I just want to ask: When is SnowGlobe going to clean up its mess? Its been a month and there are still office trailers, cargo containers, port a potties, signage, tables, and fencing that needs to be cleaned up. Not to mention all the trash that is now covered by snow and won’t be seen until spring.

You can’t use snow as an excuse. You know it snows here and snow is in your event name. Snow is a part of your promotion. The promoter and vendors at SnowGlobe made theirs and we are left looking at the mess. Again, this is another example of a poorly run event.

John Spinola, South Lake Tahoe

By Jon Mark Saraceno, Las Vegas Review-Journal

HOUSTON — NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said Wednesday that no team owner can have any ownership stake in a casino, a proclamation aimed squarely at Las Vegas as the Oakland Raiders pursue relocation to a stadium suddenly in need of new investors.

“That is not something that’s consistent with our policies,’’ Goodell said during his televised State of the League address and news conference leading to Super Bowl LI. “Not likely a stadium (ownership role), either.’’

Last month, Goodell told Fox Sports’ Colin Cowherd: “If we did in any way approve the Raiders’ move, I don’t see us compromising on any of the policies,’’ the commissioner told Colin Cowherd on his Fox Sports show.

Read the whole story

By Keith Rogers, Las Vegas Review-Journal

The Nevada commission charged with overseeing nuclear waste issues on Tuesday warned that it expects Congress to seek funding to revive the shuttered Yucca Mountain repository project this year.

The warning is contained in a report to Gov. Brian Sandoval and the state Legislature from the Nuclear Projects Commission.

The report states it is not yet clear whether the Trump administration would support reviving the shuttered program to permanently store 77,000 tons of high-level radioactive waste — primarily spent fuel from commercial power reactors — in a maze of tunnels inside the Nye County mountain.

Read the whole story

·      The 2017 Douglas County School District Spelling Bee winners are Lilly Dingman (sixth grade, Zephyr Cove Elementary School), Ruby Jacobsen (seventh grade, Carson Valley Middle School), and Grace Wolski (eighth grade, Whittell High School).

·      The Loft in South Lake Tahoe is hosting a five-course wine pairing dinner on Feb. 8 at 6pm. Grace Patriot will be the featured winery. For tickets and more information, go online. 

·      Tahoe Cross Country in Tahoe City is having a demo day Feb. 11 from 10am-3pm.

·      The 3rd annual Lake Tahoe Fat Bike Challenge is Feb. 26 starting at 8am at Tahoe Cross Country in Tahoe City.

·      Tahoe Donner Association is hosting an open mic on Thursdays from 6:30-pm starting Feb. 16 at the Northwoods Clubhouse.

By Sandra Chereb, Las Vegas Review-Journal

CARSON CITY — The state retirement board voted Tuesday to appeal a judge’s order requiring it to release the names and pension information of tens of thousands of retired public workers.

The Public Employees Retirement System board, after meeting briefly in a closed session, agreed unanimously in a public vote to appeal the case to the Nevada Supreme Court.

Chris Nielsen, the board’s general counsel, said the legal issues go beyond the suit filed against PERS by conservative group Nevada Policy Research Institute, and the high court could provide “black and white guidance” on how to balance confidentiality statutes and public information.

Read the whole story

David Kelly

South Lake Tahoe’s main advocate for the disabled has died.

David Joseph Kelly passed away in his sleep at his South Lake Tahoe home on Jan. 31, 2017. He was 73.

Kelly is the man behind Tahoe Senior Plaza, Kelly Ridge (named in his honor), and Sky Forest Acres. These three South Lake Tahoe developments are affordable housing for seniors and those with disabilities.

He was born Feb. 19, 1943. Though he lived with post-polio syndrome and was told he would not live a long life, he proved many doctors wrong.

He used to be a regular at City Council meetings. His involvement led him to being named an honorary firefighter by the South Lake Tahoe Fire Department.

In the early 1980s Kelly believed people were being mistreated locally. That’s when he started to become involved in local issues.

“I do it because it needs to be done,” Kelly told Lake Tahoe News in 2013.

For years he was the force behind the Tahoe Area Coordinating Council for the Disabled. He was also on several other boards related to the disabled. When businesses were being sued by an out of town attorney for ADA violations, Kelly worked with the locals.

His activism was noted by the many awards he received such as the Betty Davis Award for his exemplary service to the community, the Ellie O’Toole Humanitarian of the Year Award, as well as the ABHOW Presidential Citation Award.

Kelly’s legacy is evident by the housing he got built, as well as his family, whom he could never say enough about.

He is predeceased by his father, Lloyd Dunham. 

Kelly is survived by wife Coco; mother Patricia; sisters Patti (Dennis) and Debi (Bob); children Patty (Jimmy), Debbie (Myk), Joey (Scott,) and Jason (Allison); 14 grandchildren; and 13 great-grandchildren. 

Services will be at St. Theresa Catholic Church in South Lake Tahoe on Feb. 4 at 1:30pm. 

In lieu of flowers, donations to the family may be made to the family’s Fundly account to help cover costs of services.