El Dorado County Elections Department this morning came out with the results of the Fire Special Tax for Fallen Leaf Lake.

The extension of the Fire Special Tax received 78.3 percent of the vote. Two-thirds was needed. There were 137 votes in favor of extension, 37 against, and one blank.

A special meeting of the Community Services District will be this weekend – date and time not set yet – for the board to vote on the final Fire Department budget and to set the Special Fire Tax parcel rate for 2010-11.

The sport of water skiing is 88 years old. Tahoma’s Les Bartlett is 75 years old. The two got together along with some 20 somethings and other assorted ages to put on quite a show for the Tahoe Maritime Museum’s first on-the-water exhibition of water skiing.

Bartlett demonstrated how “not to learn to water ski” by skiing hunched over as well as dropping his derriere repeatedly into the water as the crowd in boats and on shore looked on. A crowd of 100 plus watched the July 23 morning events from the Obexer’s Marina pier while another 70 or so were crowded into 17 boats to survey the demonstrations of slalom skiing, wakeboarding, wakeskating, kneeboarding, trick skiing, double skiing, wakesurfing and aquaplaning.

Les Bartlett without a wetsuit on Tahoe's icy water. Photo/Tom Bredt

Ten-year-old Amanda Shepherd of Homewood concluded the day’s exhibition on an aquaplane by being the youngest “skier” on the oldest piece of equipment. The aquaplane’s heyday at Lake Tahoe came in the 1940s before water skiing had really dipped its toe in the water at the lake.

Event coordinator Warren Fallat called the Water Ski Weekend “a great success” and said he hopes the event can be held in some fashion on an annual basis.

The lineup of demonstration skiing/boarding went as follows: Wakeboarding and Wakeskating, Jeff Stoike; Slalom Water Skiing, Lee Schmidt; Kneeboarding, Robert Dawson; Trick Skiing, Warren Fallat; Double Ski’s – how not to water ski – Les Bartlett; Wakesurfing, Greg Felsch; Aquaplaning – Amanda Shepherd; and a special “Air Chair” exhibition by Ron Rupp.

Contact the Tahoe Maritime Museum at (530) 525.9253 for more information, photos or video of the Water Ski Weekend.

The discovery of an unexploded blasting cap on a construction site is causing traffic issues on Highway 50 in El Dorado County.

Caltrans is advising motorists to expect delays on Highway 50 near Bass Lake Road.

Beginning at approximately 12:15pm today, eastbound traffic will be held at Latrobe Road and westbound traffic will be held at Bass Lake Road. Motorists should anticipate delays of up to 45 minutes.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has set Nov. 2 as the special primary election date to fill the 1st Senate District seat vacancy that was created by the death of Dave Cox earlier this month.

The special election will be Jan. 4.

Nevada State Parks invites the public to Mormon Station State Historic Park at 10am July 31 to hear a free presentation on “Women’s Voices on the Overland Trail.”

The 45-minute presentation will feature stories from women’s diaries and reminiscences of early pioneers who traveled westward on the trail. These accounts, which pay special attention to the landscape, Native Americans and the danger and promise of the journey, provide a vivid account of pioneer life and illustrate how women pioneers often formed the backbone and inspiration for the long, arduous western journeys of 19th-century emigrants.

Doris Dwyer will give the presentation. Dwyer is a professor of history at Western Nevada College whose research focuses on women pioneers of the nineteenth century American West. She is also nationally known for her Chautauqua portrayals of remarkable women from this period. Her appearance is made possible by the Nevada Humanities Committee, the National Endowment for the Humanities and NV Energy.

Bring a blanket, lawn chairs and meet in the shaded stockade area of Mormon Station State Historic Park. After the presentation, enjoy a picnic lunch in the park and tour the log-cabin museum and see relics from early pioneers. A $1 entry fee applies. Children 12 and under are free.

Mormon Station State Historic Park is located in Genoa, a 20 minute drive from Carson City via Highway 395 and a 20 minute drive from South Lake Tahoe via Kingsbury Grade.

For more detailed directions, call the park at (775) 782.2590.

On Aug. 13 from 5-7pm at Aspen Hollow Nursery at 541 Emerald Bay Road, South Lake Tahoe there will be a Garden Party sponsored by the Tahoe Area Sierra Club and the nursery.

Proceeds benefit the Sierra Club’s efforts to protect Lake Tahoe.

Cost is $10 for wine and appetizers.

For more information, call (530) 577.4945.

By Carlos Alcalá, Sacramento Bee

The El Dorado County Sheriff’s Office is the target of a lawsuit – the second in two months – claiming that a “boy’s club” in the department subjects women to harassment and discrimination.

In the latest suit, filed Friday in U.S. District Court, three civilian employees of the department allege violations of California fair employment and federal civil rights laws.

Tanya Hunt, a female deputy in the department, filed a similar suit in June. She has since been placed on administrative leave.

Representatives of the Sheriff’s Office cannot comment on the suits, said Lt. Bryan Golmitz, citing laws that maintain the confidentiality of personnel matters.

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By Kathryn Reed

By the end of the year it’s possible South Lake Tahoe won’t have any medicinal marijuana dispensaries.

On Tuesday the council voted to have staff come up with an ordinance that would ban the three existing collectives as well as any future ones. The divided vote had Councilman Bill Crawford voting no, Councilman Hal Cole abstaining and the other three saying yes.

The vote that appeared to have more to do with emotion than fact was preceded by a presentation by City Attorney Pat Enright that spelled out how to go about banning the medicinal marijuana facilities. He said his report was not biased and that he had no opinion on which way the council should proceed, but his PowerPoint was dominated with material on how to ban these businesses.

Enright started out by saying the council could ban the dispensaries, regulate them or wait until after the November election to see what California voters say about legalizing marijuana. But his presentation did not address the latter two options in much detail.

As the council goes forward, the public will have more opportunities to comment – and likely more notice than the 24 hours given for the special meeting.

Talk of these outlets bringing more crime to town was brought up July 27, but never substantiated. Lt. David Stevenson, who was in the audience representing the South Lake Tahoe Police Department, was never asked to address the issue whether these businesses increase crime. Nor did the council ask him if they reduce the number of illegal pot transactions on the street.

Nor was it discussed if people are going to smoke pot, if it’s better for them to ingest the stuff from the dispensaries that is somewhat regulated or take their chances with what the street-grade grass might be laced with.

Six people from the public spoke, bringing a mixed response for the council to ponder.

After the decision, Shelly Arnold, who works for the Tahoe Wellness Collective, said, “We’ll fight it. They will never close us down. We’re not leaving.”

It was brought up at the meeting how it’s easy to get a prescription from a doctor for medicinal marijuana – essentially $200 and it’s a done deal. But doctors who are writing illegal scripts are not who the council is going after. Instead, the council wants the pot clubs shutdown even though some people using them are there with legitimate reasons.

Councilmembers Bruce Grego and Jerry Birdwell admitted to never having been in one. Only Councilman Bill Crawford said he had visited two of the dispensaries. Grego and Birdwell said they sat outside at least one club and said the people going in had no visible ailment requiring the use of marijuana.

Cancer patients don’t all look anemic with bald heads. Glaucoma would be hard to detect sitting in a vehicle.

This is not to say abuse isn’t a real possibility at the clubs. Arnold claims her collective alone has 2,700 patients – that’s more than 10 percent of South Lake Tahoe’s population. That is a high percentage even without the other two dispensaries included of locals in need of medicinal marijuana. It’s not known where the customers of each of the collectives reside.

In other action at the special July 27 meeting:

• The council agreed to discuss at the Aug. 3 meeting the possibility of buying the Tahoe Daily Tribune building to convert it to a City Hall.

• The council agreed to consider moving the Aug. 17 meeting to Aug. 19 to avoid a conflict with the annual Environmental Summit.

By Emily Richmond, Las Vegas Sun

Former Nevada Gov. Kenny Guinn was remembered Tuesday as a common man with an uncommon sense of duty.

More than 1,200 people filled the pews at St. Joseph, Husband of Mary Catholic Church on West Sahara Avenue for the two-hour funeral Mass. Among them were family and friends, lawmakers and business leaders, former campaign workers and public employees. Republican Guinn was remembered as always putting the needs of the state above party politics, and expected others to do the same.

Kenny Guinn

Six bagpipers and four drummers led the procession into the church. Clergy — including Bishop Joseph Pepe of the Diocese of Las Vegas — and pallbearers escorted Guinn’s casket, draped in a simple white cloth with a small gold cross. Former Nevada First Lady Dema Guinn, supported on either side sons Jeff and Steve and with a procession of family behind them, followed her husband’s casket to the front of the church.

Guinn, who served as Nevada’s governor from 1999 through 2006, died July 22. He was 73. The Guinns’ 54-year marriage was a testament to their love and faith in each other, said Pepe, who led the funeral Mass. And Kenny Guinn’s commitment “was present wherever he was — what he brought was a sense of responsibility, understanding, fairness, caring and warmth.”

Read the whole story

In preparation for Hot August Nights, the South Lake Tahoe Police Department will be conducting a DUI/driver’s License checkpoint on July 29 from 8pm-1:30am, along Lake Tahoe Boulevard and Pioneer Trail.

This will be followed up July 30 and July 31 with extra officers on roving DUI Saturation Patrols from the “Avoid the 6” Multi-Agency DUI Task Force searching for possible impaired drivers.

The summer months are a dangerous time of the year and your odds of being involved in a drunken driving crash can be high. In 2008, law enforcement statewide reported 7,801 people were injured or killed in alcohol involved collisions during the three summer months of June, July and August.

A major component of the checkpoints, beyond taking dangerous drivers off the road, is to increase awareness of the consequences of impaired driving and to encourage using sober designated drivers. A DUI checkpoint is a proven effective method for achieving this goal.

By publicizing these enforcement and education efforts, the South Lake Tahoe Police Department believes motorists are deterred from drinking and driving.

In addition to these DUI operations, law enforcement agencies throughout the region are putting more officers out on checkpoints and DUI roving saturation patrols during the end of August/Labor Day 18-day nationwide anti-DUI effort.

The checkpoint and other DUI enforcement patrols are part of the city and county’s ongoing traffic safety efforts. Officers will also be checking for those who are driving with a suspended driver’s license as well as those who are unlicensed. Any motorist found driving with an invalid license may have their vehicle impounded for 30 days and be issued a citation.

The funding for this program was provided by a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

If you see a drunken driver, call 911.