By USSA

VAL D’ISERE, France – Steven Nyman (Sundance, Utah) led the American’s in the first downhill of the season in 15th Saturday at the Audi FIS Ski World Cup.

Norway’s Kjetil Jansrud won for the second-straight day after taking Friday’s super G victory. Peter Fill of Italy was second. Aksel Lund Svindal of Norway, who was second in Friday’s super G, finished third.

An early November storm dropped upwards of 10 feet of snow on the top of the course in Val d’Isere. However, rain fell on the lower slopes during the same storm. Organizers were able to make enough snow on the lower slopes to host the event, but the conditions proved challenging for the racers, with extremely aggressive snow.

 “The snow is super aggressive,” Nyman said. “You’re going from natural snow (up top), to really grippy (snow), to dense wet stuff and it’s hard to adapt.”

“It was just crazy,” added Andrew Weibrecht (Lake Placid, N.Y.), who finished 37th. “The snow was so much more aggressive than it has been over the past days. My skis were too sharp and I’m just happy to be down. I had a couple close calls.”

Other American finishers included Travis Ganong (Squaw Valley) in 22nd, Bryce Bennett (Squaw Valley) in 48th and Jared Goldberg (Holladay, Utah) in 56th.

Tahoe Regional Planning Agency and Placer County staff will give an overview of new and improved processes that help home and business owners make changes to their property.

At the Dec. 13 talk staff highlight recent changes to streamline permitting, online tools, the application process, new area plans and how they are making it easier for the public to navigate. This workshop will include a short presentation followed by a question-and-answer session.

It is from noon-1:30pm in the Tahoe City Public Utility District board room, 221 Fairway Drive, Tahoe City.

By Daniel Fisher, Forbes

Like a monk on a mountaintop, Rob Katz is sitting in the Eagle’s Nest, a gourmet restaurant high above the quaint faux-Swiss village of Vail, ready to impart wisdom. “If you’re a casino you have these very committed, addicted gamblers,” the 49-year-old CEO of Vail Resorts says, explaining his business. “Well, we have these very committed, addicted skiers.”

As with resorts in Las Vegas and Macau, Vail Resorts accumulates enormous amounts of information about its customers and obsessively tracks their activities. On the slopes, for instance, there are radio-chip-equipped lift passes that record which runs skiers take and with whom they ride the lifts. Vail can even send targeted cable-television ads to their TV sets when they are home contemplating next winter’s ski season.

High-end amenities like the Eagle’s Nest or the Vail Mountain Club–with an initiation fee of $275,000–may not add much to profits, but like the fine restaurants and high-roller clubs at a casino, they’re necessary to entice and reward loyal skiers.

Vail owns Heavenly, Kirkwood and Northstar in the Lake Tahoe area.

Read the whole story

By Jim Ogsbury

On Jan, 20, 2017, Donald Trump will be inaugurated as the 45th president of the United States. The installation of a new administration naturally presents an opportunity to reset the state-federal relationship, and Western Governors’ Association looks forward to working with the president-elect in that endeavor.

In the meantime, WGA is urging the appointment of a sitting gestern Governor to the critical cabinet post of Interior secretary. Department of the Interior operations have disproportionate impacts on WGA member states. The jurisdictional area of the Bureau of Reclamation, for example, is entirely within our footprint. The Bureau of Land Management administers 264 million acres of public lands, the vast majority of which are located in the West. The policy issues confronted by the department — from endangered species to water scarcity to tribal matters — have profound and unique impacts on the West.

No one is in a better position to lead Interior than the governor of a western state. Western governors work closely with departmental bureaus on a daily basis and have a deep appreciation for the challenges faced jointly by Interior and the states. Western governors acquit themselves with honor, dignity and integrity as the chief executives of their respective states. WGA has no doubt that such an appointment would visit great credit upon the new administration.

You can learn more about the presidential transition when the governors convene Dec. 13-14 for their winter meeting in San Diego. The meeting opens with a keynote by David Eagles, the director of the Center for Presidential Transition at the Partnership for Public Service. That address will be followed by a transition roundtable featuring the governors.

Jim Ogsbury is the executive director of the Western Governors’ Association.

By Sandra Chereb, Las Vegas Review-Journal

CARSON CITY — The number of active registered voters in Nevada reached a record in November, topping 1.5 million, Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske said Thursday.

The latest report shows 40,195 Nevadans registered to vote since the Nov. 8 general election, adding of 2.74 percent to state voting rolls. The deadline to register to be eligible to participate in the election was Oct. 18.

Read the whole story

By Kathryn Reed

There is now only one defendant in the case initiated by South Lake Tahoe City Councilman-elect Jason Collin in regards to the loop road.

This is the strategy concocted by Collin’s attorney.

“He said since the measure passed, it is the appropriate thing to do,” Collin told Lake Tahoe News.

The lawsuit was filed in July to prevent Measure T from going on the November ballot. It named supporters of Measure T in the filing. Those individuals are now no longer a party to this legal matter.

“Right now I have no standing to speak because I have been dismissed,” Bruce Grego told Lake Tahoe News. As of Friday afternoon he had not decided if he would still attend Monday’s hearing.

In August, El Dorado County Superior Court Judge Jim Wagoner ruled that Collin and his attorney did not provide enough reason to remove the question, and essentially said the voters have a right to cast a vote.

Voters approved Measure T, which in essence says voters will get to have a say in the loop road and it won’t all be up to the City Council – assuming the council ever has a vote in the matter.

On Dec. 5 there will be a court hearing in Placerville to decide how to go forward with the lawsuit.

“What we need now is the judge to give it clarity to say what the measure means. I’m not sure if he will do that Monday or if he will set another date to do that,” Collin said.

Ironically, Collin will take the oath of office to be on the South Lake Tahoe City Council a week after the hearing. He will not be allowed into the closed session meetings pertaining to the case.

Expect delays on Highway 50 for the next few weeks between Echo Summit and Camino.

Caltrans has a $3.2 million emergency contract with Doug Veerkamp General Engineering to cut down dead or dying trees along the highway. The project is to address motorist safety.

Thousands of trees have been impacted by the drought and the bark beetle infestation all across California. 

Intermittent closures of both lanes of Highway 50 will be required to remove larger trees. These closures will be between 7am and 4pm Monday-Friday. Expect delays of up to 15 minutes. 

High Camp and Gold Coast do not have potable water. Photo/LTN file

By Kathryn Reed

Skiers at Squaw Valley are drinking bottled water and eating packaged food – at least on the mountain – because the wells are contaminated.

E. coli and coliform bacteria have been detected in the four wells that service Gold Coast and High Camp. As long as no one drinks the water, there is no danger to the public.

The Olympic Valley has three water purveyors. The on-mountain water company is run by the ski resort and is called Squaw Valley Resort 8200. The Mutual Water Company has about 250 residential customers. Squaw Valley Public Service District is the largest, serving about 750 customers – commercial and residential – including the village.

Testing has been going on every day since the issue was discovered in mid-November. Until there are two consecutive tests done 24 hours apart that show no bacteria the water on the mountain cannot be consumed.

“We don’t know the cause for sure,” Wesley Nicks, director of Environmental Health for Placer County, told Lake Tahoe News. “We have data back to the 1990s on the wells to support there have never been bacteria hits from the aquifer. So it is not a groundwater issue. Anything that gets in the system, of course, has bacteria.”

The resort did extensive work on the water system during the summer. In about a 72-hour window more than 9 inches of rain fell before the entire system was secure. It is believed that is how the wells and new pipes got contaminated. The irony is the existing well-head apparatus was relocated from underground vaults to above-ground secure well-houses, and supply pipelines were replaced in order to diminish risk of surface water intrusion.

A chlorine treatment is being used to flush out the system. One well is clean, but it does not produce enough water to solely rely on it. As of Dec. 1 no E. Coli was detected in the three wells that service the restaurants, however low levels of coliform were measured.

“Until this testing process is complete and the system is returned to normal operation, safe, chlorinated water will be available for hand washing and bathroom use. Clean drinking water has been delivered to Gold Coast for all guest uses. Sanitized water servicing the sinks and toilets should be limited to non-consumptive purposes,” Liesl Kenney with Squaw Valley told Lake Tahoe News in a statement.

The packaged food is required because ice made from the water at the restaurants cannot be used for food or drinks, food cannot be washed with that water, and it’s not advised to handle food after washing hands with the water at those lodges.

The annual seasonal closure of dirt roads in the Eldorado National Forest took effect this week.

Rainfall, soil moisture, road and trail conditions, and weather forecasts are factors that trigger a seasonal closure earlier than Jan. 1. The roads will remain closed until at least April 1.

The seasonal closure is designed to protect roadbeds and watersheds from damage and to protect water quality.

Roads subject to seasonal closure are identified on a map that is free-of-charge and available at all Eldorado National Forest offices and online. The seasonal closure does not affect routes in the Rock Creek Area of the Eldorado National Forest near Georgetown, which has its own route closure process.

Liberty Utilities is suggesting the following electrical safety and conservation tips.

Holiday lighting tips:

• Switch to safe, long-lasting, energy efficient LED holiday lights.
• Use a timer to reliably turn lights on and off.
• Don’t overload your electric circuits.
• Stay within limits of your circuit breaker.
• Adhere to manufacturer’s designations and locations for indoor vs. outdoor use.
• Don’t run extension cords under rugs, around furniture legs, or across doorways.
• Avoid stringing more than three sets of lights together and plugging into a single outlet.
• Keep your natural trees well-watered to prevent bulbs from igniting dry branches.
• Never use electrical decorations on metal trees.

Winter energy conservation tips:

• Set your thermostat to 68 degrees when home, and then back to 55-68 degrees when unoccupied.
• Open window coverings on the sunny side of your home to take advantage of free heat from the sun.
• Close foundation vents.
• Turn off lights and appliances when not in use, including your computer.
• Vacuum your refrigerator coils, underneath and in the back.