By David Jeans and Majlie De Puy Kamp, New York Times

It seems like a common convenience in a digital age: a car that can be powered on and off with the push of a button, rather than the mechanical turning of a key. But it is a convenience that can have a deadly effect.

On a summer morning last year, Fred Schaub drove his Toyota RAV4 into the garage attached to his Florida home and went into the house with the wireless key fob, evidently believing the car was shut off. Twenty-nine hours later, he was found dead, overcome with carbon monoxide that flooded his home while he slept.

“After 75 years of driving, my father thought that when he took the key with him when he left the car, the car would be off,” said Schaub’s son, Doug.

Schaub is among more than two dozen people killed by carbon monoxide nationwide since 2006 after a keyless-ignition vehicle was inadvertently left running in a garage. Dozens of others have been injured, some left with brain damage.

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A South Lake Tahoe man serving time for burglary now faces murder charges in the death of his 3-week-old son.

David Paul DeMartile

When David Paul DeMartile Jr. died on Nov. 14, 2008, there was something suspicious that led officers to request an autopsy. It was determined the infant had been abused. However, there was not enough evidence to make an arrest even though DeMartile was a person of interest a decade ago.

The case was reopened by the El Dorado County District Attorney’s Office, which is going through cold cases. While the new evidence is not being released, the department believes it has enough to charge David Paul DeMartile Sr. with the death of his son.

Investigators are not commenting on the whereabouts of the child’s mother or what she might have known at the time.

DeMartile was sentenced last year to 14 years in prison on a burglary charge. He has been in trouble with the law multiple times.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report

By Carl Segerstrom, High Country News

Ted Stroll, a bespectacled, balding, retired attorney whose remaining hair is short and white, doesn’t fit the stereotype of an extremist mountain biker. But his group, the Sustainable Trails Coalition, is challenging the mainstream mountain biking establishment by fighting to permit bikes in America’s wilderness areas.

Stroll’s crusade has sparked strong resistance, particularly from wilderness advocates and environmentalists. His alliance with notoriously environmentally unfriendly Republican congressmen, whom he has enlisted to push a bikes-in-wilderness bill, is particularly controversial. Stroll’s group has alienated would-be allies in the mountain biking community, who are loath to ostracize the greater recreation and conservation communities, especially at a time when many feel public-lands protections are taking a back seat to extractive industries.

The original text of the 1964 Wilderness Act bans “mechanical transport” — and bicycles are clearly a form of mechanized transport. For the federal agencies tasked with enforcing the ban, however, the definition hasn’t always been clear-cut.

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By Jim Krajewski, Reno Gazette-Journal

A record was set at the Nevada state swim meet on Saturday that can never be broken.

Incline senior Kate Rye won the 50-yard race for the fourth time. She is the first person in any division, boys and girls, to accomplish the feat of winning the same race at four state meets.

She won in 24.25, a personal best. She also won the 100-freestyle in 53.64 in the state meet held at the Jim Reitz Natatorium, UNLV Aquatic Center on the UNLV campus.

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These two people are being sought by Placer County sheriff’s detectives.

By KTVN-TV

The Placer County Sheriff’s Office is seeking the public’s help to identify two suspects involved in a series of burglaries from March.

Secret Witness is offering a cash reward of $750 to find two people who were involved in vehicle burglaries on Mt. Rose Highway, residential burglaries at North Lake Tahoe and fraudulent use of credit cards.

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By Kellen Browning, Sacramento Bee

As gas prices continue to rise nationwide – with California leading the way, at $3.71 per gallon – Americans are planning fewer and shorter road trips this summer, a recent survey found.

Currently $2.93 per gallon on average in the U.S., gas prices are expected to rise to $2.95 by Memorial Day – 50 cents more than last year. The 2018 summer travel survey for GasBuddy.com, a gas price tracker, found drivers plan to cut costs and avoid gas guzzling by limiting road trips.

Fifty-eight percent of GasBuddy’s survey respondents said they will take a road trip this summer, down from 82 percent last year.

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By Tom Stienstra, San Francisco Chronicle

The thunder rumbled across the mountains, a low, steady roll that carried for miles.

On Saturday evening, as I cooked dinner at our fire pit, I gazed above a distant ridge, where the thunder seemed to originate. About a minute later, a lightning bolt fired across the dark sky.

“One, two three,” I counted, and at “nine,” another deep thunder roll resonated across the mountains.

The time from flash to bang, or lightning to thunder, represents 5 seconds per mile. At 9 seconds, the lightning was nearly 2 miles away.

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If you have a story you want to share on stage, then enter WordWave’s annual one-act playwriting competition.

Three winners will be celebrated on Oct. 20, with winners receiving a $500 cash prize and a two-night stay in South Lake Tahoe to see their work directed and produced as a staged reading at the historic Valhalla Boathouse Theatre.

Manuscripts must have a running time of no more than 60 minutes and be written within the last five years. Writers may enter multiple works. There is a $25 submission fee per manuscript. 

Applications are available online.

·      The South Lake Tahoe Library will be hosting an art program for children ages 8-13 on June 2 from 10-11am. Children will learn about Pointillism and create artwork to keep. Space is limited, registration required. Register online, then click on Programs and Events Calendar.

·      Tioga Pass is open.

·      The spring Progress for Tahoe meeting will be June 5 at 5:30pm at Tahoe Mountain Lab. Topics will include the Tahoe Prosperity Center workforce housing project, starting a rental matching program with second homeowners, and a microtransit project for South Lake Tahoe/Stateline.

·      The Minden Library is showing family movies every Saturday in June at 2pm in the meeting room. The movies and fresh popcorn are free. Movies are June 2, “Curious George” (Rated G); June 9, “The Great Gilly Hopkins” (Rated PG); June 16, “Mary Poppins” (Rated G); June 23, “Despicable Me 3” (Rated PG); and June 30, “Moana” (Rated PG).

·      Jerry Blackwill of the Truckee Donner Railroad Society will tell the story of the first passenger train arriving in Truckee from Sacramento, the railroad’s construction over the Sierra, and how a civil engineer and four businessmen brought the dream to reality. The June 16 talk will be from 5-6:30pm at Donner Memorial State Park Visitor Center. Cost is $5.  

A section of the Upper Truckee River is part of the 200-plus acre land deal. Photo/Kathryn Reed

By Kathryn Reed

With the acquisition of the 206-acre Johnson Meadow, 93 percent of the Upper Truckee watershed is now owned by public agencies.

Tahoe Resource Conservation District in April closed on the South Lake Tahoe property. It roughly borders Lake Tahoe Airport, Highway 50, the Upper Truckee River on the Sierra Tract side, and the Barton Memorial Hospital/Fourth Street area.

It cost $8.315 million to buy, with the money coming from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife ($4 million), California Tahoe Conservancy ($4.215 million), and Tahoe Fund ($100,000).

Standing above the river it’s like being transported to an oasis that should take hours to walk to, but is less than a five-minute walk from the Sierra Tract neighborhood. Two arms of the river are running at a pretty good clip, with the one to the right likely to dry up as the snowmelt subsides.

Unfolding behind the river is a carpet of native green grasses. From this distance it looks like a playground. One day it might be. Recreation and connectivity are two words being associated with the parcel now that it is in the public domain.

This large swath of land in the middle of South Lake Tahoe was once going to be an integral component of the original South Tahoe Greenway bike trail that was to go from Meyers to Stateline. The owners wouldn’t sell. The route was scrapped and downsized.

But with the property now in the public domain it’s possible the original plans could be resurrected by the California Tahoe Conservancy.

The CTC tried to buy the land in 2006, but Bill Mosher wouldn’t sell. Talks resumed in 2010, then stalled. Then Mosher reached out to the TRCD about three years ago. Mosher died in January 2017 before the deal could be finalized. His extended family continued on with the talks and made the transaction a reality this spring.

Mosher was familiar with resource conservation districts in the Sacramento area, and knew the work they did. They are all about being local.

“One of the big concerns or challenges is the main channel is deeply incised and the erosion,” Nicole Cartwright, TRCD executive director, said as she peered out at the Upper Truckee River.

The Johnson Meadow spills forth beyond the Upper Truckee River, with Lake Tahoe beyond the tree line. Photo/Kathryn Reed

In the distance is a grove of willows where historical photos show the river once ran. This is something scientists are analyzing as they consider how to restore this damaged landscape.

It wasn’t that long ago this was ranch land. Names like Mosher, Ledbetter and Johnson all have ties to this acreage. In the ranching world a parcel is named after the previous owner not the current one. So, maybe it will be renamed Mosher Meadow.

In an attempt to be good stewards, the Moshers erected an array of fencing to keep the dairy cows from the river so as to reduce the erosion. Those fences dot the landscape and keep the public from the area.

“There is a lot of fencing throughout the meadow,” Cartwright told LTN. “There is some exposed barbwire and T-posts in the river.”

Safety is the No. 1 concern. That will be addressed before any real plans are put into action. The majority of the fencing will remain until funding is secured for restoration.

It’s estimated that between $10 million and $15 million will be needed for planning and implementation. The hope is the plans can be designed in the next three to five years, with implementation taking no more than 10 years.

Molly Hurt and Nicole Cartwright with the TRCD on the remaining portion of the Barton Bridge. Photo/Kathryn Reed

Creating a meandering wet meadow that naturally floods and therefore keeps sediment from reaching Lake Tahoe would be a big goal – just like it is with other reaches of the Upper Truckee River. Providing sustainable recreation and access are other desires. It is possible trails will be built, maybe boardwalks, with connections to other parts of town.

Today there are user created trails; mostly on the border of the property.

This parcel is surrounded by various other landowners, mostly public entities.

Preserving habitat – primarily riparian – will be another centerpiece of restoration work. Song birds, migratory birds and the threatened willow flycatcher make their home here.

“It’s also a refuge for species. As ranges contract these meadows will be ever more important,” Molly Hurt, TRCD director of programs, told Lake Tahoe News.

This is the first land acquisition for the TRCD. It’s too soon to know if this is the first of many or the lone one. It was a good fit, according to Cartwright, and one other agencies supported.

Also on this parcel is what’s locally known as Hospital Bridge. A large section of it came tumbling down in winter 2016-17. It was a popular connector for mountain bike riders from Barton Memorial Hospital to what could be considered the Pioneer Trail side of the river.

TRCD wants to rebuild the bridge. It’s possible a temporary structure could be erected, perhaps not in the exact same alignment. A more permanent solution will be studied in the formal planning process.

It was originally installed and maintained by the prior owner, with the last iteration built in the early 1990s.

The money to purchase what at the time was the largest sensitive public land holding in the basin came with strings attached. This means it won’t be developed with structures. But it does mean the public will have access, which hasn’t happened in more than 100 years.