Jaycee Lee Dugard, who was kidnapped from a bus stop in Meyers when she was 11 and then was held captive for 18 years before being released in 2009, will be on a special edition of “20/20” with Diane Sawyer.
The show will air July 8.
This coincides with the release of Dugard’s second book, “Freedom: My Book of Firsts” – it comes out July 12.
Sawyer interviewed Dugard in 2011 as well.
As part of the longest annual charity bicycle ride in the world, the Texas 4000 team will be rolling through South Lake Tahoe on July 1-2, 28 days after departing from Austin on their way to Anchorage.
The 67 undergraduate and graduate students from the University of Texas at Austin will pedal more than 4,000 miles in the fight against cancer. After 18-months of leadership development training, volunteering, fundraising, and cycling, riders are put to the test throughout their summer ride to Alaska.
Along their journey, they will visit with cancer survivors, patients, caregivers, and communities to make educational presentations about cancer prevention and early detection.
More than 600 students have made the trek from Austin to Alaska, collectively raising more than $7 million in the fight against cancer since the ride began in 2003.
To learn more about the ride, go online.
By Scott Sonner, AP
A federal agency is on a path to sterilize wild horses on U.S. rangeland to slow the growth of herds — a new approach condemned by mustang advocates across the West.
The U.S. Bureau of Land Management also continues to resist calls from ranchers and western Republicans to euthanize or sell for slaughter the animals overflowing holding pens so as to clear the way for more roundups.
Bureau of Land Management Deputy Director Steve Ellis delivered those messages at an emotional congressional hearing last week. He offered a glimpse of the challenges facing the agency that has been struggling for decades with what it describes as a $1 billion problem.
Highlights of the hearing included Nevada’s state veterinarian calling for the round-up and surgical sterilization of virtually every mustang in overpopulated herds, a protester who briefly interrupted with shouts denouncing “welfare ranchers” turning public lands into “feedlots,” and an Arkansas congressman whose puppy is about to get neutered.
Rep. Tom McClintock, chairman of the House Natural Resources subcommittee on public lands, took aim at those who object to euthanizing mustangs “and yet seem perfectly willing to watch them succumb to excruciating death by starvation, dehydration and disease.”
“That is the future we condemn these animals to if we don’t intervene now,” said the California Republican who represents Lake Tahoe.
Rep. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyoming, emphasized the 1971 law protecting mustangs allows for their destruction if they go unadopted. But since 2012, Congress has required horse purchasers to sign documents promising not to resell them for slaughter, and the Bureau of Land Management opposes lifting those restrictions.
Ellis said the estimated 67,000 wild horses and burros on federal land in 10 states is 2.5 times more than the range can support. However, there’s no more room in government corals and leased pastures, where 47,000 horses cost taxpayers about $50,000 per head over the course of their lifetime.
“Quite frankly, we can’t afford to feed any more unadopted horses,” Ellis said. “I understand your frustration. We are frustrated too.”
Ellis said the agency’s “roadmap to the future” includes use of temporary contraceptive vaccines as well as sterilization.
“We feel that before we can implement a spay-neuter program on the range, we’ve got to do the research to make sure we can do it efficiently and safely,” he said. “It is going to take a little time to do that.”
Rep. Rod Bishop, R-Utah, chairman of the Natural Resources Committee, said it’s time to have “that real tough conversation about something more permanent.”
Other Republicans turned on the lone horse advocate called to testify — Ginger Kathrens, founder of The Cloud Foundation based in Colorado Springs, Colorado and member of the Bureau of Land Management’s wild horse advisory committee.
But Kathrens said most Americans want to see mustangs “roam freely on their native home ranges as intended.”
“Castration, sterilization and long-term confinement of horses in holding facilities … is unnecessary, cruel, unhealthy and fiscally irresponsible,” she said.
Rep. Bruce Westerman, R-Arkansas, noted, however, that “thousands of domesticated animals are spayed and neutered every day.”
“I’ve got a new puppy and he’s got his day coming soon,” he said.
That prompted an outburst from Edita Birnkrant, campaigns director for Friends of Animals.
“They are wild animals. They are not cats and dogs,” she shouted as McClintock banged the gavel and called for Capitol Police. “The solution is getting welfare ranchers off of our public lands, which have been turned into feedlots.”
J.J. Goicoechea, the Nevada Department of Agriculture’s veterinarian and longtime rancher, urged the gathering of “as close to 100 percent of horses as we can” in overpopulated herds for surgical sterilization before returning some to the range.
“Those of us who truly make a living caring for animals … have a moral obligation to manage populations in balance with natural resources,” he said.
A man drowned at Lake Tahoe on Saturday.
El Dorado County sheriff’s deputies were contacted June 25 at 11:35am about an unresponsive man in the water east of Meeks Bay with an unoccupied personal watercraft drifting close by.
The reporting party transported the victim to the Cave Rock boat ramp for medical treatment. There he was pronounced dead by paramedics. His name is being withheld pending notification of next of kin.
Detectives are trying to determine if the operation of the personal watercraft was the cause of the man’s death.
— Lake Tahoe News staff report
By Kate Flanagan, InMenlo
“Getting from point A to point B” has been a major part of Scott Kaloust’s life ever since he first learned to swim from one end of the pool to the other.
Now, decades after he first jumped into the water, he still applies that principle — both to his swimming endeavors as well as to his Menlo Park-based orthodontic practice.
On July 22, he will attempt to swim across Lake Tahoe, a 22-mile journey. Though he has been swimming since he was young boy, he only started doing open water, long-distance swims a few years ago when a teammate on the Menlo Masters swim team introduced him to it.
Updated June 27 3:20pm
By Kathryn Reed
An autopsy conducted this afternoon on a body that was found behind Barton Hospital on Saturday was not able to definitively determine the cause of death.
“The body was in an advanced stage of decomposition. That is what is proving to be problematic,” Lt. Jim Byers with El Dorado County Sheriff’s Department told Lake Tahoe News.
Other than the deceased being a male, no other information has been released.
The autopsy was done in Sacramento because a more in depth exam was required due to the suspicious nature of the death, Byers said.
“Our officers responded to a call about suspicious circumstances — found backpack with animal damage/valuables. A search of the area led to discovering the body, which was located in the county,” South Lake Tahoe Police Chief Brian Uhler told Lake Tahoe News.
The body was found by a resident walking her dog. This was in the 1200 block of Winnemucca outside the city limits of South Lake Tahoe, right behind the hospital.
Lori Tupaj didn’t initially realize she had come across a human body because she was focusing more on finding her dog.
“I woke up in middle of night and thought I bet that had to be a person. There was no way the fur would be ripped off. It had to be a person,” Tupaj told Lake Tahoe News. “It was way too big for a dog and too small for a bear.”
She called authorities on Sunday, who told her they had received another call about the remains.
By John Markoff, New York Times
GLENBROOK — A vast, largely unexplored world is being opened by hobbyists piloting robotic submarines capable of traveling hundreds of feet below the surface of lakes, rivers and oceans.
Styling themselves as citizen scientists, two young engineers, Eric Stackpole and David Lang, have created OpenROV, a small start-up based in Berkeley that builds submarine drone kits. They hope to create a mirror image of the airborne drone craze.
This month, the OpenROV researchers took over a vacation home here and turned it into a command center for the maiden dive of a prototype of the next version of their Trident submarine. The sub explored the wreck of the Tahoe, a turn-of-the-last-century steamer that now lies less than a half-mile offshore in depths up to almost 500 feet below the surface of Lake Tahoe.
OpenROV has sold more than 3,000 of a first-generation submarine, which is able to navigate below the surface, connected by a thin cable and controlled by software running on a tablet or smartphone.
· Personal fireworks are illegal throughout the Lake Tahoe Basin — every day of the year.
· Decadence, a blend of classic Broadway and old time rock mixed with today’s hits and unique tracks, will be at MontBleu in Stateline on July 3 at 8pm. Must be 21 to attend.
· B Gorman’s last day as CEO of Lake Tahoe South Shore Chamber of Commerce is June 30.
· Here is the El Dorado-Tahoe roadwork schedule from Caltrans for this week.
· Khristy Gavigan, a register nurse, and Stephen Bannar, a doctor with Tahoe Center for Orthopedics, are going to discuss practical tips to recognize and treat a wilderness injury. Participate in hands-on case scenarios and learn minimum safety essentials. The free talk is July 13 from 6-7pm in the board room at Lake Tahoe Community College.
By Rick Gross
There are a variety of factors that determine the strength of the U.S. economy, including government-spending levels, imports versus exports and currency values. Yet, the biggest factor in determining the health of the economy is based on consumer spending, which is the case in most developed countries.
According to statistics from the Federal Reserve (the Fed), expenditures from American consumers account for more than two-thirds of the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP), the measure used to determine growth in the economy. While the role of the consumer has not always played such a dominant role in driving the economy, it has generally been responsible for 60 percent or more of economic activity dating back to the post-World War II era.
It is notable that consumers have played a more prominent role in recent decades. According to U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, a half century ago, in 1966, consumer spending accounted for 59 percent of total GDP. By 1991, the percentage had risen to 64 percent. Today, consumer spending represents 68.1 percent of GDP, and has been in a similar range since 2008.
What is the role of consumers?
Economists and market analysts often keep a close eye on trends related to consumer activity. If consumer spending is strong, it can be an indication that most Americans have a high level of confidence in the direction of the economy. The total amount of consumer spending isn’t the only measure people keep an eye on. The types of expenditures can help determine how high consumer confidence may be at any given time. For example, if sales of luxury goods (expensive cars, jewelry) are lagging and people are putting more money into necessities like food, shelter and clothing, it may not reflect a strong vote of confidence about consumer expectations.
The data on spending plays an important role in how businesses and government agencies plan for the future. If consumers show a high level of confidence, businesses are more likely to boost spending as well to try to capitalize on the opportunity for increased sales. By contrast, if consumers are cautious about spending, businesses may invest less and government policymakers have, at times, chosen to provide stimulus through tax cuts or increased spending to help give the economy a boost.
Consumer spending trends also have a big impact on monetary policy, which is directed by the Fed. If consumer spending is lagging, the Fed can decide to reduce interest rates and take other steps to help jump-start household and business spending. If consumers are spending too much too quickly, it might signal that inflation could become a threat. The Fed may take steps, such as raising interest rates, to try and control economic growth.
What can we expect?
It’s difficult to predict what the future will hold for the markets and economy. One thing is for sure – economists and financial analysts will likely continue watching trends in consumer spending to gauge where the economy is headed.
Rick Gross is a financial advisor and private wealth advisor with Ameriprise Financial Services Inc. in South Lake Tahoe.
A South Lake Tahoe woman was shot in the abdomen Sunday night by her boyfriend, according to police officers.
Michael Anderson, 48, of South Lake Tahoe was arrested about 8:30pm June 26 on a felony domestic violence charge as well as discharging a firearm in a dwelling. He has since posted bail.
The victim, who is in her mid-50s, was taken to Barton Memorial Hospital. Police Lt. Brian Williams said the gunshot wound was not life threatening.
“They are both telling us they were struggling over the gun, which is a handgun, and it just goes off,” Williams told Lake Tahoe News.
Detectives are still investigating the incident that occurred on Stanford Street.
— Lake Tahoe News staff report