By Anjeanette Damon, Las Vegas Sun

Election after election, Democrats in Nevada have demonstrated they have the superior party apparatus.

Democrats can count the ways they have the upper hand in Nevada’s political landscape: 100,000 more registered voters than Republicans; a well-funded, professionally staffed party organization; and a proven turnout machine.

Oh, and Democrats have demographics on their side, too, as Nevada’s population has grown largely more Hispanic and more urban in the past decade.

So with all of that going for them, why haven’t Democrats been able to cough up a candidate to take on Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval in next year’s top-of-the-ballot race?

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Updated 3;30pm:

The U.S. Forest Service is reporting five small fires, all located between Echo and Monument. Not one is expected to spread much before crews can get to them to put them out.

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It was a restless night Monday for many people in and around the Lake Tahoe Basin with all the booming thunder and flashes of lightning filling the sky.

Lightning in South Lake Tahoe on July 22. Photo/Brandi Ledbetter Brown

Unsettled weather is going to be here for the rest of the week until it clears out on Sunday, according to the National Weather Service in Reno.

Crews in Alpine County are working on a fire that started from the lightning. It is burning near Jobs Peak. Firefighters are hiking in to the east-facing slope above the Fay Luther trailhead. U.S. Forest Service crews are hiking to Timmer Peak where a small blaze started near the same ares where lightning struck a few weeks ago.

The rain was spotty throughout the region. South Lake Tahoe received 0.11 of an inch, Minden 0.07, and Truckee and Reno nothing.

Meteorologist Brian O’Hara in Reno said afternoon heat usually triggers the thunderstorms. It was an upper level disturbance that moved over last night that set up these boomers.

“There is still a chance of precipitation through the week. That system that is over us will be parking over the region for the next few days,” O’Hara told Lake Tahoe News.

Flash flooding is possible in many locations, he said, but mostly the Weather Service is keeping an eye on Mineral and Mono counties. However, where the Bison Fire burned in Douglas County is susceptible to mudslides because there is no vegetation to absorb the moisture.

 — Lake Tahoe News staff report

Al Gore will be one of the speakers at the 17th annual Lake Tahoe Environmental Summit.

It was 1997 when he was vice president that then President Bill Clinton launched the summits.

This year’s event is being hosted by Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev. It will be at Sand Harbor on Aug. 19.

The governors of Nevada and California have also been invited.

By Kathryn Reed

Ray Nutting, his attorney and supporters believe the felony and misdemeanor charges brought against the El Dorado County supervisor should be dropped.

Nutting didn’t say a word during his arraignment Monday in El Dorado County Superior Court in South Lake Tahoe. Before the hearing he sat with his wife and cadre of supporters, getting up at times to confer with his attorney, and mostly looking sullen.

Instead of entering a plea, defense attorney David Weiner told Judge Tim Buckley that he intended to file a 995 and a demurrer.

The legal proceedings challenge whether there is enough evidence to try Nutting and essentially ask for the case to be dismissed.

Ray Nutting, back left on phone, with wife, Jennifer, wait with supporters July 22, while his attorney, David Weiner, left foreground, goes over paperwork. Photo/Kathryn Reed

Weiner has until Aug. 15 to file the paperwork. The prosecution has until Sept. 9 to respond to it. Buckley will hear both issues on Sept. 20 in South Lake Tahoe.

“We are aware of the negative impact on the county and related government entities with this case hanging around,” District Attorney Vern Pierson told Lake Tahoe News. “We are doing everything we can to move it along as expeditiously as possible.”

Nutting, 53, faces four felony counts regarding money he received from the state to clear brush from his 350-acre ranch on the West Slope. (His brother owns an adjacent 350 acres.) He is accused of not reporting the money and voting on contracts that affected him monetarily.

After those charges were leveled in May, the district attorney and state Attorney General’ Office filed seven misdemeanor charges against Nutting regarding how he got his $55,000 in bail money. He is accused of taking loans from county employees.

The bail was the subject of most of Monday’s hearing because Weiner wanted his client to be released on his own recognizance. The state said the $55,000 bail should remain in place.

Buckley said the money for the bail should be returned to the people it came from and that Nutting would have until Friday to post a reduced bail of $20,000.

The Village People will be taking over MontBleu in Stateline on Aug. 3.

With more than three decades of party music, the Village People will perform their hits “YMCA,” “In The Navy” and “Macho Man,” and “Go West” plus disco cover classics packaged and arranged to bring fans to their feet.

The show begins at 9pm. Tickets are $25 and available through Ticketmaster.com or the MontBleu Box Office, 888.829.7630.

The Village People hit the disco scene in 1977. The Village People are Eric Anzalone, Alex Briley, Felipe Rose, David Hodo, Ray Simpson and Jeff Olson.

To the community,

On July 15, Heavenly Mountain Resort sponsored its seventh Bread & Broth Adopt A Day of Nourishment for the year. With the $250 funding provided by the Vail Echo Foundation, B&B cooks prepared food sufficient to feed over 100 guests at St. Theresa Church Grace Hall.

To supplement the dinner, Heavenly’s generous volunteer crew members donated blueberries, avocados and lettuce to add a Heavenly green salad and a berry fruit salad to serve with the evening’s dinner menu.

Lezlee Cain, administrative assistant, volunteering for the first time at a B&B dinner, found the dinner’s guests “to be so moving. So polite, smiling, everyone was so great. We all could learn something from them.” Working alongside of Lezlee were Alyson Borawski, marketing/research assistant manager, Nancy McCoy, executive assistant and Frank Papandrea, environmental manager. The Heavenly crew had a great time greeting and serving the dinner guests and helped the B&B volunteers throughout the evening.

Bread & Broth would like to thank Heavenly Mountain Resort for their monetary donation and the Heavenly volunteer crew members for contributing their time and their tasty food donations. B&B is able to continue its mission of feeding the hungry of South Lake Tahoe thanks to the generosity of local businesses like Heavenly Mountain Resort and their caring employees.

If you would like to support Bread & Broth’s program, please contact me at (530) 542.2876 or carolsgerard@aol.com.

Carol Gerard, Bread & Broth

By Rebecca Klein, Huffington Post

California’s teen birth rate has dropped nearly 60 percent as a result of expanded sex education programs, according to a report released by the California Department of Public Health last week.

The report –- which was based on data collected until 2011 — revealed that the California teen birth rate reached a 20-year low that year. While in 1991, there were 70.9 births for every 1,000 teens aged 15-19, in 2011 this number decreased to 28 births per 1,000 teens.

Teen birth rates fell across all ethnic groups, according to the report. The Hispanic teen birth rate dropped from 73.6 in 2001 to 42.7 in 2011 –- although Hispanics continue to be the group with the highest teen birth rate. Teen birth rates for African-Americans, Whites and Asian-Americans also decreased significantly.

Several factors contributed to the falling birth rates, the department said in a press release. One factor was the state’s school sex education program, which law requires to be comprehensive and medically accurate. The report also credits community-based education programs that provide sexual health information to teens and their parents.

“We do believe that our programs are behind these numbers,” Karen Ramstrom, the chief of the program standards branch at the California Department of Public Health’s maternal child and adolescent health division, told the Los Angeles Times.

“California’s innovative strategies and community partnerships aimed at lowering teen pregnancy are helping young women and men make responsible choices,” Dr. Ron Chapman, director of the CDPH, said in a press release. “We must not be complacent; we must continue to promote teen pregnancy prevention programs and strategies in all communities.”

As Think Progress noted, California’s teen birth rate decreases are part of a national trend. The national teen birth rate dropped nearly 50 percent between 1991 and 2011, NBC’s Today Health reported.

The nation’s southern states continue to have some of the highest teen birth rates, Think Progress pointed out — partially due to a lack of comprehensive sex education programs in many of those states.

A 6-year-old boy drowned at Jenkinson Lake near Sly Park on Sunday.

Trip Demetri of Latrobe had gone missing about 4pm July 21. He was visiting the lake with his dad and sister. The siblings had been playing in the water.

The boy was found underwater about 10 feet from shore. He was pronounced deceased at the scene.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report

“Apparently tempers flared, but it was a personal matter that was quickly resolved.”

That is how Phil Weidinger, the public relations honcho for the American Century Championship golf tourney, described the fight between tournament champion Billy Joe Tolliver and another guy.

Billy Joe Tolliver

Douglas County sheriff’s Sgt. Pat Brooks told Lake Tahoe News, “I don’t have any details yet.”

Sheriff’s deputies regularly patrol the grounds of Edgewood Tahoe during the tournament. But golf was long over when the confrontation occurred.

Sources have told Lake Tahoe News that about 8:30pm July 21 Tolliver got into a fistfight with someone regarding his son.

During a post-tournament interview, Tolliver said, “I’ve got five kids. But only Bubba was here. Bubba got reprimanded by the marshals in the playoff. Hey, kid get off the golf course. Hey, that’s my kid. Relax, yell at me. I told him to stand over there.”

The extent of the injuries to both men is unknown. It took sheriff’s deputies to separate them.

 — Lake Tahoe News staff report

The two-day Ragnar Trail Tahoe is July 26-27.

More than 1,000 runners are expected to participate in this relay event. The 17.6-mile course consists of three loops of varying length and difficulty at Sierra-at-Tahoe.

Ragnar Relay Series has also partnered with TAMBA (Tahoe Area Mountain Bike Association) to continue improvements to the local trails in and around Lake Tahoe and Eldorado National Forest.