By Gretchen Reynolds, New York Times

Wearable activity monitors can count your steps and track your movements, but they don’t, apparently, help you lose weight. In fact, you might lose more weight without them.

The finding comes from a study published in JAMA that found dieting adults who wore activity monitors for 18 months lost significantly fewer pounds over that time than those who did not.

The results suggest that activity monitors may not change our behavior in the way we expected, and raise interesting questions about the tangled relationships between exercise, eating, our willpower and our waistlines.

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By Colton Lochhead, Las Vegas Review-Journal

DENVER — Just beyond the Rocky Mountains, an industry that once conjured images of dank basements and back-alley deals is blossoming under state regulation.

After a sluggish start in sales following the 2012 vote to decriminalize marijuana, Colorado’s pot trade — and corresponding tax revenue — is booming as consumers from within and outside the state flock to cannabis shops.

Some predictions made during the campaign by legalization supporters have proved true: Fewer people are being arrested. And despite initial fears that legalization would cause a rampant increase in drug use among Colorado’s youth, teens aren’t smoking more weed, according to the state Department of Public Health and Environment.

But Colorado’s first-in-the-nation dive into a legal pot market also has come with unanticipated problems and failed predictions.

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By Filipa A. Ioannou, San Francisco Chronicle

Criminal sentencing reform and an extension on tax increases for high earners are among California’s November ballot propositions supported by a majority of likely voters, a Field Poll found.

Proposition 56, a $2-per-pack tax on cigarettes, was also leading among the poll’s respondents, though by narrower margins. Fifty-three percent of respondents favored the tax, 40 percent were opposed and 7 percent remained undecided.

In several past elections, tobacco tax initiatives have performed competitively in polling only to fail on election day. In 2012, a $1 cigarette tax to fund cancer research was defeated by a margin of only 0.4 percentage points. In 2006, a proposed tax increase prompted $66 million in tobacco industry spending, and the measure failed.

Prop. 56 would redirect the revenue from the cigarette tax — estimated between $1 billion and $1.4 billion — to health care for low-income Californians. Smoking-related illnesses are costly to the state; a 2015 analysis from the California Health Care Foundation found that among Medicare patients, lung cancer was the deadliest and costliest to treat of the four most common cancers.

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The full closure of Highway 89 near Emerald Bay has been lifted.

The work is part of the $13 million Highway 89 Emerald Bay water quality improvement project from Cascade Road to Upper Emerald Bay Road.

Work will continue throughout the project under daytime one-way traffic control at various locations. Project completion is expected later this fall, but weather or unexpected events could extend the work into next season.

South Lake Tahoe Fire Rescue is hosting its annual open house on Oct. 8 from 10am-2pm.

This will be to commemorate Fire Prevention Week.

Fire Station No. 1 is at 1252 Ski Run Blvd. — participate in a fire extinguisher demo and squirt a hose.

Fire Station No. 2 is at 2951 Lake Tahoe Blvd. — meet paramedics and see ambulances.

Fire Station No. 3 is at 2101 Lake Tahoe Blvd. — Smokey Bear will be there.

By Nicole Raz, Las Vegas Review-Journal

Inside jobs, chip grab-and-runs and craps cheats are the largest ongoing headaches for casinos and casino regulators.

And it’s the most basic scams that can be hardest to catch.

The Nevada Gaming Control Board had 574 arbitration cases in 2015, disputing $51.8 million and made 602 criminal arrests.

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Soroptimist International of South Lake Tahoe has money to give to nonprofits on the South Shore that help women and children.

The service club will consider new programs, improvements and enhancements to current programs as well as supporting programs that have been proven effective.

Grant applications will be available Oct. 1. The grant application, criteria and instructions are online. The deadline to apply is Nov. 15.

All of SISLT’s grant funding comes directly from the organization’s wine tasting, which is Nov. 11 this year.

The registration process for Sierra Nevada College’s bachelor’s degree program at Lake Tahoe Community College remains open. There will be an open house Oct. 3 where prospective students can learn about the program.

The first class enrollment is projected at 25 students.

The open house is from 5:30-7pm in the Aspen Room at LTCC.

The partnership between SNC and LTCC will bring an affordable four-year business degree option to LTCC’s campus.

Transfer students accepted into the SNC Tahoe Global Business Management program will pay $382 per credit, with the possibility of completing upper-division requirements in as little as two years for less than $17,000. For more information, go to SierraNevada.edu/LTCC.

Work in the Martis Valley is one of the Truckee River Watershed Council projects. Photo/LTN

By Kathryn Reed

TRUCKEE – The environment and economy are being altered as the climate changes.

As rain replaces snow and the months when precipitation falls are more in the spring than winter, the Tahoe-Truckee area is going to have to adapt.

People are going to recreate in different ways, which will impact the economy. Different types of businesses may evolve, while others go by the wayside.

Mother Nature will adapt, but she also needs some help.

That was part of the message delivered this month by Joanne Roubique, district ranger of the U.S. Forest Service and Lisa Wallace, executive director of the Truckee River Watershed Council. They were the featured speakers at the Truckee Chamber of Commerce breakfast.

“It’s clear water has a role in buffering climate change near forests,” Wallace said.

Her group has what it calls 50 large scale projects that are slated for completion in the next decade. They are working on waterways, meadows and near the forest.

A main focus is the Truckee River and the neighboring creeks and streams. From Tahoe to Pyramid Lake the Truckee River has been labeled “impaired and polluted.”

“We are seeing the cumulative effect. There is already excessive sediment in the river,” Wallace said. “With more rain, there will be more sediment. This impacts species, the economy and recreation.”

If the river can become healthy, this will help the surrounding forest.

Now in its fifth year, the drought is impacting the health of the environment. Bark beetle is killing trees. Dying trees then become a wildfire waiting to happen. Depending on the fire, it could be catastrophic to people, the built environment and to the natural surroundings.

Roubique said the big issue is what to do with the timber that needs to be removed. The good news, she said, is that the various agencies are working together instead of in silos to address issues.

When it comes to dealing with fire prevention, thinning in the wildland urban interface has been common of late. Now the problem is that the trees upslope need to be dealt with to create a healthy forest.

By Trevon Milliard, Reno Gazette-Journal

California Highway Patrol has identified the motorcyclist shot dead Saturday on Interstate 80 near Truckee.

Jeffrey Sterling Duke, 57, of Georgetown died at the scene on Saturday afternoon, according to authorities. He was shot by three motorcyclists who rode up, fired shots and then took off.

CHP Officer Pete Mann told the Sacramento Bee on Saturday that the victim was associated with the Vagos biker gang. Investigators are gathering information about the assailants and ask witnesses to come forward.

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