• Tahoe Maritime Museum is collecting fishing rods for use in an activity meant to teach kids about Tahoe fish and fishing history. For questions, contact Corey at (530) 525.9252, ext. 103.

• Nevada Humane Society is one of 12 shelters in the country selected by Pedigree to receive 10,000 pounds of dry dog food.

• Rigoberto’s in South Tahoe went out of business.

• Free e-waste recycling is at South Tahoe Middle School on Aug. 13-14 from 9am-3pm.

• Rescue Union School District’s online school is open to third- through eighth-grade students in El Dorado, Placer, Alpine, Amador and Sacramento, counties. For more information, call Sheila Simmons at (530) 363.7130.

By Susanne Rust, Climate Watch

Despite a global decrease in the production of certain toxic chemicals, we may be in for an onslaught.

That’s because rising global temperatures are causing the release of persistent organic pollutants, such as DDT and PCBs, which have been locked in arctic ice for more than half a century.

Although the chemicals were created to provide societal benefits, such as killing mosquitoes and protecting crops, it didn’t take long for scientists to see they were having devastating effects on the environment.

Studies have shown many of these chemicals can cause cancer, birth defects and other health problems. And they don’t just wash away. Persistent organic pollutants, as the class of chemicals is known, stick around for decades before finally breaking down.

They also are attracted to fatty tissue in animals and pass through the food chain from one animal to the next.

Recognizing the dangers of these chemicals, dozens of wealthy nations joined forces in 2001 to ban 12 of them by signing the Stockholm Convention on POPs (persistent organic pollutants). Yet since that ban, scientists had noticed localized upticks in atmospheric concentrations of these chemicals, especially over the Arctic.

Read the whole story

Publisher’s note: This editorial is from the Aug. 29, 2011, Fresno Bee.

The people of California own the waters and beds of the state’s rivers, streams, lakes, bays and estuaries. They own the waters and tidelands along the 1,100-mile coastline, out to three miles offshore. And they own lands granted by the federal government in 1853 to benefit public education.

The State Lands Commission — composed of the Lieutenant Governor (currently Gavin Newsom), State Controller (currently John Chiang) and Director of Finance (currently Ana Matosantos) — manages these public lands.

Some bring in considerable revenue from leases — $426.5 million last year. But, as a recent Bureau of State Audits report shows, they could bring in even more.

Though California halted new offshore drilling leases after the 1969 Santa Barbara oil spill, existing leases continue to be the big revenue-generator for State Lands — $402 million in 2010-11. Most of the rest comes from marine terminals, industrial wharves, commercial marinas and pipelines.

Yet time-lags between expiration of old leases and finalization of new leases means outdated rents can go on for years, a loss to the state.

Read the whole story

To the community,

The city of South Lake Tahoe is unhappy about the state’s new laws on redevelopment and labels the state an extortionist. The fact is the city’s Redevelopment Agency has been the extortionist when it exercised the power of eminent domain.

It goes like this: If a property owner isn’t willing to sell, the agency condemns the and takes the property. The result is the property owner loses a business or home or livelihood. So the city pot is getting a taste of distasteful medicine and lectures the state kettle, yells foul and threatens a lawsuit.

Bill Crawford

In fact, the city’s Redevelopment Agency through use of eminent domain has created a tyranny in South Lake Tahoe. Redevelopment here is financially and morally a failure. It is time to kill it.

The state is right in its attempts to control or lay to rest redevelopment agencies in California.

Bill Crawford, South Lake Tahoe

The U.S. Forest Service Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit will begin a project to eradicate, control, and contain known and future infestations of invasive weeds using chemical treatment.

Work will occur Aug. 8-11.

An environmental assessment released by the Forest Service last year identified 493 known infestations located on National Forest System lands managed by the LTBMU. Noxious weeds reproduce and spread rapidly, displacing native plants. They also reduce the amount and quality of fish and wildlife habitat, increase soil erosion and stream sedimentation, and impair recreational access.

Current project areas include the Tallac Historic Site and parking area, the corner of Al Tahoe and Pioneer Trail, Pope Beach, 64 acres and 64 acres East, Heavenly Mountain Resort and Meyers Landfill.

Invasive weeds found in these areas include Tall Whitetop (Lepidium latifolium), Dalmatian Toadflax (Linaria dalmatica), Yellow toadflax (Linaria vulgaris), and Canada thistle (Cirsium arvense).

Treatments will use herbicides similar to the commercial product Roundup. Crews will apply the product by hand and no spraying will occur. Herbicide application will follow approved Environmental Protection Agency, state, and local direction.

Caution signs will be posted in treatment areas up to 48 hours prior to treatment and caution tape will provide a barrier around each treatment area. Treatment areas are very small, totaling less than 3 acres. Access to treatment sites will be restricted for several hours during and after the application.

For more information, contact Rena Escobedo at (530) 543.2694.

By Kathryn Reed

A federal judge on Monday seemed a bit bewildered why the League to Save Lake Tahoe brought forward the case against the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency to stop the Sierra Colina development in Stateline from going forward.

Sierra Colina is the name of the project Steve Kenninger and Gail Jaquish are trying to develop on the 18-acre bare parcel between the Lake Village housing area and the old Nugget building on the south side of Highway 50.

TRPA approved the development on the second anniversary of the Angora Fire – June 24, 2009. This is a bit significant because the League in its arguments Aug. 1 said adding an ingress and egress to the 325-unit Lake Village complex was irrelevant. Fire officials have said otherwise.

Sierra Colina's future is in judge's hands.

Right now there is only one way into that development. Sierra Colina would provide another way in and out in the case of an emergency.

What the League is suing over is the transfer of land coverage.

Douglas County agreed it would provide the land coverage for the linear public facilities in exchange for public rights-of-way. The League contends there is not enough public benefit of the trail system, that it only benefits those who will in Sierra Colina, to warrant the coverage transfer.

The League did not challenge the project permit, subdivision permit, intersection permits or environmental documents.

However, at the various hearings two years ago, League representatives spoke in opposition to developing a barren piece of land. But that is not what is being argued in court.

Rochelle Nason, executive director with the League, did not respond to an inquiry from Lake Tahoe News for comment. She was in court, but missed nearly the first half of the 90-minute session.

Project proponents reached out to the League before TRPA issued the permits two years ago.

In the nearly two years since the lawsuit was filed, more than 11,000 pages of documents have been given to the court.

Sierra Colina would be giving 10 acres of the project to Douglas County as open space. The project would connect paved bike trails in the Lower Kingsbury Grade area to Round Hill on the north side. That is where the coverage becomes a sticking point.

Douglas County’s master plan includes this trail as a public asset. Creating trails also plays into TRPA’s recreation goals and desire to have people use alternative forms of transportation.

U.S. District Court Judge Robert Jones at the end of the day Aug. 1 gave the League 10 days to prove his court has jurisdiction over the matter. The TRPA Compact says the venue could be state court, but does not address jurisdiction. However, it’s federal court where TRPA lawsuits are usually resolved.

Jones will then decide if his court is the one to rule on the TRPA-League lawsuit.

“The court was very well prepared, had a very clear grasp of issues and the facts and concurred with the environmental analysis demonstrated,” Lew Feldman told Lake Tahoe News. Feldman was hired by TRPA as outside counsel to represent the bi-state regulatory agency in court.

However, he would not comment further.

Kenninger would only say, “Sierra Colina looks forward to receiving the decision of Judge Jones.”

If Jones rules with history and decides federal court does have jurisdiction, it could be anywhere from a couple weeks to 90 days for him to decide to rule for the defendant or plaintiff.

If TRPA wins, and in effect Sierra Colina, the project could break ground next summer. The housing market would play a huge role in when the developers would proceed. Financing would be another issue – just like it is for the stalled Tahoe Beach Club at the end of Kahle Drive.

Sierra Colina would create 41 market rate dwellings and nine moderate-income deed restricted places. Forty-two units would be in 21 townhouse-style duplexes, with eight being single-family homes.

Another large aspect of the project is environmental improvements. Part of this is reducing 28 to 70 percent of the current volume of sediment from reaching Lake Tahoe. The lake is walking distance from the project. Helping improve Burke Creek is also part of the project.

Environmental improvements have started despite the lawsuit. In fact, Douglas County commissioners will be discussing Burke Creek at their Thursday meeting.

What was pointed out at the hearings two years ago is the area is zoned for a single-family residence and no environmental improvements would have to be made.

Kit Night will be the Artist in Residence at the Viking Room on the Tallac Site on the South Shore from Aug. 12-17 from 10am-4pm.

Night is an award-winning painter and member of Oil Painters of America. She’s known for her uplifting and radiant color. Her work, which is influenced by jazz, redefines how we think of contemporary still life, which includes large oils of glasses. She will also be showing smaller work in a variety of subjects including some new plein air landscapes.

By Sam Stanton, Sacramento Bee 


In a blistering assessment of how badly officials bungled their oversight of rapist-kidnapper Phillip Garrido, El Dorado County prosecutors have compiled a list of dozens of instances for which his parole should have been revoked, many of them that would have saved Jaycee Lee Dugard from being abducted.

The 162-page report from El Dorado County District Attorney Vern Pierson’s office includes numerous federal and state documents that have previously surfaced since Dugard was rescued from 18 years of captivity in August 2009.

But it includes striking new details of Garrido’s parole violations that should have – but did not – return him to prison, including:

• Efforts he made while working at a nursing home to get co-workers to help him buy drugs.

• Positive tests for drugs such as methamphetamine.

• Submitting watered down urine samples during drug testing.

• And wearing a fake penis and using warm Mountain Dew to fool one drug counselor during testing.

Read the whole story

Aberrations await and spirits linger during a two-hour walking tour Aug. 20 and Sept. 24 through the historic district of Carson City.

History and storytelling are the orders of the day on this tour through Victorian-style homes and neighborhoods, where reality and legend come together, leaving ghost walkers to wonder what is truth and what is fiction.

Tickets are available at the Visitors Center, 1900 South Carson St. or call (775) 687.7410. Tours depart from 3rd and Carson streets next to the St. Charles Hotel (Firkin & Fox Pub) at 6:30pm. Cost is $20 per a person.

Tour guides will tell colorful stories about the buildings and its owners inside the humble and not-so-humble abodes, of yesteryear while walking along the historic Kit Carson Trail featuring 1800s Victorian-style homes. Some of the stops along the tour include:

— Ferris Mansion, home of George Ferris Jr., inventor of the Ferris Wheel for the Chicago World Columbian Exposition in 1893.

— Orion Clemens House, home of Mark Twain’s older brother who served as secretary to Territorial Gov. William Nye, was built in 1863 and was called “the Governor’s Mansion,” though the real Governor’s Mansion wouldn’t be built until 1909.

— Rinckel Mansion, built by the fortune of Mathias Rinckel, a forward-looking meat magnate who struck it rich supplying Gold Rushers and Lake Tahoe lumbermen.

— Lee House, also known as Judge Clark J. Guild home, Lee, a prominent doctor and surgeon for the Virginia & Truckee Railroad, built the home from the lumber of the razed school on the same sites.

— St. Teresas Catholic Church, the first in Carson City, which was built in 1871.