Douglas County teens will get a chance to examine evidence and learn crime scene techniques.
Douglas County sheriff’s Sgt. Pat Brooks will walk teens through a staged crime scene investigation on July 9 from 4-5:30pm at the library in Minden.
Sign up for the free program by July 8; 775.782.9841.
By Barbara Barte Osborn, Sacramento Bee
NEVADA CITY — Tahoe National Forest Supervisor Tom Quinn approved a plan Tuesday for restoration of forest lands burned by last year’s American Fire.
The fire, which started in August near Foresthill in Placer County, burned about 27,000 acres, including more than 22,000 acres on the Tahoe National Forest.
The Big Hope Fire Salvage and Restoration Project calls for tree planting on approximately 7,300 acres to speed regrowth and prevent soil erosion, salvage harvesting of about 3,440 acres and hazardous-tree reduction on 125 miles of roads and trails.
By Howard Stutz, Las Vegas Review-Journal
Caesars Entertainment Corp. said Friday it would close one of four casinos the Las Vegas-based company operates in Atlantic City, shutting down operations of the Showboat on Aug. 31.
The Showboat will be the second U.S. casino financially strapped Caesars has closed this year. Earlier this month, the company closed Harrah’s Tunica in northern Mississippi.
Caesars is the parent company of Harrah’s Lake Tahoe and Harveys at Stateline.
Caesars has a gaming industry-high $23 billion in long-term debt.
In a statement, Caesars Entertainment Chairman Gary Loveman said the Atlantic City market has lost $3 billion in revenue since 2006 because of competition from neighboring states.
Young’s Bijou Lodge in the 1920s. Phot0/Lake Tahoe Historical Society
Young’s Bijou Lodge of the 1920s was enlarged in the 1930s to Young’s Bijou Lodge.
The dance hall. Photo/Frasher Photo collection of Pomona Public Library
The adjoining large Bal Bijou dance hall, left, with the high roof is at the right of the building.
Dave Wakeman recalls that many prominent big-name bands played at Bal Bijou. The tower and coffee shop wings were razed in the 1950s, replaced by a strip of adjoining businesses including the Bijou Post Office.
Young’s Lodge
Photo/Frasher Photo collection of Pomona Public Library
That strip today is Nikki’s Chaat Cafe, adjacent to the original Bal Bijou which now is CVS, still identifiable by that high, steep roof.
Today’s Bijou Center. Photo/Bill Kingman
Since the 1960s, Bal Bijou has housed Ink’s Market, Nay’s Bijou Center Market, the Liquor Barn a d Smart & Final.
— Bill Kingman
Les Lovell with El Dorado County Sheriff’s Department cites personal watercraft riders who were allegedly speeding in Emerald Bay. Photos/Kathryn Reed
By Kathryn Reed
CAMP RICHARDSON – The drought may be good and bad news for Lake Tahoe.
Many reservoirs in California and Nevada are well below normal levels. Folsom Lake slip owners have until today to remove their boats because of the rapidly declining water level. Lahontan and Rye Patch reservoirs’ boat launches in Nevada are closed.
All of those boaters and other could be headed for Lake Tahoe.
But Tahoe marinas are also affected by the lack of water. The runoff is at a trickle. Sand Harbor marina officials say launches could stop mid-summer. Meeks Bay recently dredged. Even so, they could only go to the bulkhead.
Emerald Bay presents the most problems for boat patrollers, especially on July 4 when hundreds of vessels are there.
El Dorado County Sheriff’s Department’s marine vessel could not maneuver into that West Shore marina on June 27 without risking damaging the prop. The boat was kicking up sand before it reached the buoy near the entrance.
Getting gas at Camp Richardson was a bit precarious on Friday, too. Kahl Eidam had to carefully maneuver the 27-foot Almar to the dock. A dockhand said Bob Hassett, who operates the marina, is going to get a longer hose so it stretches farther down the dock where vessels are waiting in deeper water.
(Eidam, a former sergeant with the California Highway Patrol, is in his first year with the sheriff’s boat patrol.)
The sheriff’s boat is operating out of Camp Rich right now after being at Tahoe Keys Marina for 20 years. A long-term lease with Tahoe Keys is being negotiated.
Marinas throughout Tahoe could be affected by the declining water level.
“I don’t know how they are going to get some of the bigger boats out in the future,” Les Lovell said of vessels at Tahoe Keys because of the shallow water.
Meeks Bay Marina was dredged this season, but the approach was not.
Lovell, a former lieutenant at the department who has been on boat patrol for three years, said he expects there to be more issues this season because of the lower water level and potential for more boaters at Tahoe because of the lack of water elsewhere.
“Because of the low water level this year there will be a lot of crashes into rocks. You can’t mark them all,” Lovell told Lake Tahoe News.
He is also fearful people will run into sandbars during Fourth of July. This is always a precarious evening for people returning to marinas. Many have been drinking and all are ready to be home by the time the fireworks are over.
Hitting a sandbar usually means instantly stopping and often people are thrown overboard.
Lovell said his biggest worry is near Cove East before the Tahoe Keys Marina where the water level is so shallow and the long sand bar is not marked.
South Lake Tahoe officials are also worried about the water level.
“A concern for this year is the shallowness of the water. There is a concern of boaters literally getting stuck in the shallow waters this year,” Tracy Franklin, spokeswoman for the city, told Lake Tahoe News.
She said off Regan Beach the depth is 2½ feet quite a ways from shore.
Emerald Bay is El Dorado County’s biggest spot to patrol. While there were about a dozen incidents last season, some including people being thrown from their vessel, there were no major injuries. Property damage was the big issue because of the rocks.
A rock garden of sorts is protruding on the right side of the entrance to Emerald Bay. This might be better than last year when the shallow rocks weren’t visible.
Not far from D.L. Bliss State Park is a tree that is about 50-feet down. About a foot of it is now above the surface. A buoy that looks like an old balloon is attached to it to warn boaters. Still, the boat guys predict boaters or those on personal water craft will run into it.
The dropping water level will keep exposing rocks and trees – thus becoming a hazard. Not all will be marked.
Jumping off rocks is also an issue. There’s a group near Rooster Rock along the Rubicon hiking trail taking pictures. But this is where many opt to do bit a jumping off into Lake Tahoe. California State Parks, which owns the land, has made this a big no-no. The boat patrollers have the authority to cite them.
A tree stump is one of many obstacles in the way of boaters on Lake Tahoe.
While it’s OK to operate a boat with alcohol in hand, it’s not OK to be inebriated. The same 0.08 blood alcohol level while driving a car applies to a boat.
Most of the agencies at Lake Tahoe with boat patrols are participating in Operation Dry Water, a three-day enhanced boating under the influence program that ends today. Besides getting drunken boaters off the lake, it is also an opportunity to educate people.
Education is a large part of what the boat patrolmen do.
On Friday, the boat guys were talking to people about their speed in Emerald Bay. It’s a 15 mph zone. Around a buoy field – like near the boat-in campground – it’s is a maximum of 5 mph within 200 feet.
On this day it’s tourists who are contacted. Some are in rental boats. A clue to a rental vessel is if the registration ends in LE.
Lovell is quick to spot boats with outdated registration. When they prove they have their paperwork, they are given a warning. But citations may be issued. And if they are drunk, they are going to jail.
But it’s not just the water these guys patrol. They also can and do patrol the beaches.
The U.S. Coast Guard, which operates out of the North Shore, may board any vessel. All other law enforcement on the lake must have probable cause to stop someone.
Registration is a biggie with motorboats, while lifejackets is an issue with others. Anyone using a paddle needs to have a lifejacket that fits him or her. If the person is 14 or older, it’s OK to have the jacket in or on the vessel.
But Lovell pointed out that a jacket attached to a standup paddleboard isn’t going to help the person if they hit their head on the board or are in deep water. After all, the surface temperature of Lake Tahoe has not hit 60 degrees and hypothermia can then become factor.
By Dan Walters, Sacramento Bee
With the state budget behind them, the Capitol’s politicians are turning to water, always California’s most divisive political issue – but particularly so during a very severe drought, as a state Senate debate and vote demonstrated last week.
Dan Walters
They are trying – some harder than others – to write a new water bond to replace an $11.1 billion proposal placed on the ballot in 2009 but already postponed twice and widely believed to face voter rejection.
Six would-be successors are floating around the Capitol while private negotiations among politicians and myriad stakeholders seek a magic mix that could win two-thirds legislative votes and stand a decent chance of voter approval.
A $10.5 billion version stalled Monday in the Senate, falling five votes short as Republicans refused to vote for it. Anticipating the outcome, Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg said during the debate, “It’s not a loss. It’s the beginning … of successful negotiations.”
Gov. Jerry Brown, seeking re-election as a debt-reduction zealot, has been clearly reluctant to have any debt-increasing bond on the ballot, either for water or schools.
By Meriflor Toneatto
Everyone has a relationship with money, but for women, it’s much more fraught with emotion.
When we avoid and ignore those emotions, we allow them to quietly guide our decision-making – which inevitably holds us back.
Understanding our emotions, fears and doubts about money and how they affect our behavior can help us heal them so we can experience financial and personal freedom.
For women, money is an emotional currency. It’s tied to our sense of self-worth and self-confidence, and our feelings of safety and security. These feelings often translate into self-limiting decisions.
The effect can be profound. Consider female entrepreneurs. The number of women-owned U.S. businesses is growing 1.5 times faster than the national average, but a 2013 report found that they’re still contributing less than 4 percent of overall business revenues, about the same as in 2007.
Our businesses are smaller because we’re less likely than men to borrow in order to expand. We’re afraid to take financial risks.
And in the corporate world women comprise half the work force, yet hold the majority of lower-wage jobs in the United States, according to the 2014 State of the Union address.
What are the emotions shaping so many of our decisions?
• Fear: The most common emotion among women is fear. With money, we fear not having enough of it; that someone will take it; that we’ll lose it all and never get it back. Nearly half of all U.S. women fear becoming a “bag lady” – including those in households earning more than $200,000 a year, according to the 2013 Women, Money and Power Study.
And we fear an abundance of money. We may fail to negotiate a higher salary because we fear we can’t live up to it. Successful women may be reluctant to reach higher because we fear failure — and losing it all.
These fears often have roots in situations we were exposed to growing up, and feelings of vulnerability and self-worth. They send a strong signal that we need to root out their source and heal it.
• Guilt: People who say things like, “I feel guilty when I spend instead of save” or “I never buy anything unless it’s on sale” have guilt feelings associated with money. These, too, are often rooted in the fears and messages we saw and heard in childhood about not having enough money. Many of us are natural nurturers who’ve gotten the message that “good” women are selfless, and so we may freely, even recklessly, spend on others while withholding from ourselves.
• Shame: This painful emotion cuts to the core because it springs from how we feel about who we are – whether we’re “good enough,” worthy and deserving. We avoid talking about shame, and so it exerts control over us. With money, shame is commonly connected to amassing a lot of debt and hiding it because we fear being judged, humiliated, and disliked.
• Anger: This emotion repels money, opportunities and people because it can leave us closed off emotionally and physically from others. It’s based in a belief in the unfairness of life and/or the unfairness of money. A person who becomes angry about money may be angry at herself for missing an opportunity or for mishandling money in the past. Anger can lead to trust issues and to over-protecting every cent – even hoarding money.
• Blame: Anger and blame often go hand in hand. It stems from feeling disappointed or wronged because you believe your life would have been easier and/or better if someone – maybe parents or a spouse — had been able to provide you with more money. Blame can sabotage relationships with both people and money for years.
At some point in our lives, we all have felt one or more of these emotions. The good thing is, once you begin to recognize them, they’re like a flashing yellow caution light.
Meriflor Toneatto is the founder and CEO of Power With Soul, a company dedicated to empowering female entrepreneurs and professionals by helping them transform their relationship with money.
North Lake Tahoe is geared up for three days of fun over Independence weekend.
North Tahoe Event Center hosts the July Fireworks and Beach Party at Kings Beach State Recreation Area from 4-10pm. The event includes food vendors, free watermelon eating, sand castle building, games, patriotic costume contests, music and live entertainment, glow toys, souvenirs and more.
A garden with beer, wine and mixed drinks is also available.
The sky lights up at 9:30pm.Fireworks can be seen from all parts of the beach, however preferred seating tickets are available for $12. Tickets sell out quickly so be sure to preorder here.
Incline Village is hosting the eighth annual Red, White and Tahoe Blue Festival July 3-5. It features live performances by Billy Ray Cyrus and the Reno Philharmonic.
The Children’s Patriotic Chalk Drawing, Ice Cream Eating Contest, and Kids’ Bike Parade are some of the 25 events taking place. For more info, go online.
The fireworks show is at 9:30pm July 4.
The Tahoe City Downtown Association has a full afternoon of family activities leading up to the fireworks show off Commons Beach on July 4. For more information, go online.
By Adrienne Lu, Stateline.org
State lawmakers who dream of dollar signs from legalized online gambling might want to pause for a moment to consider Delaware, Nevada and New Jersey.
Last year, the three states became the first in the country to legalize Internet gaming. But as New Jersey Treasurer Andrew Sidamon-Eristoff told state lawmakers earlier this year: “Clearly, the results so far have not met our expectations.”
New Jersey officials initially predicted legal online gambling would boost state tax revenues by $180 million in fiscal 2014. By the time Republican Gov. Chris Christie signed the budget last June, the figure had been revised downward to $160 million.
By the end of May, one month shy of the fiscal year’s end, the state had taken in just $9.3 million in revenue from online gambling, according to the nonpartisan Office of Legislative Services. And with collections in April and May falling below those in March, online gambling isn’t even trending upward. State officials have blamed the slow start on technology glitches and payment processing issues.
Nevada and Delaware, which have much smaller populations than New Jersey, also have collected only modest revenue from online gambling.
In Delaware, state officials had counted on $7.5 million in additional tax revenue in fiscal year 2014. But because of a delayed rollout and one-time startup costs, Internet gaming made no net contributions to the state budget in fiscal 2014, state officials said. The startup costs included software design and data servers to host the gambling.
In Nevada, officials opted not to make revenue projections for the nascent industry – or to count on the money in its budget. The state, which legalized only interactive poker, generated about $700,000 in tax revenue from about $10.2 million in gaming wins from May 2013 through April of this year, according to Michael Lawton, a senior research analyst with the Nevada State Gaming Control Board.
“We just didn’t feel that it would be wise to put out a number,” Lawton said. “It was just too much unknown.”
In March, Morgan Stanley chopped its market projection for the U.S. online gaming industry by 30 percent, from $5 billion to $3.5 billion by 2017, “to better reflect the insights we have gained following the first few months of operations” in Delaware, Nevada and New Jersey.
By Darrell Smith, Sacramento Bee
Local health officers have a common recipe for keeping their counties’ children healthy: Make sure children and their parents have ready access to doctors. Provide prenatal care for young mothers. Educate families on healthy habits. Keep kids active and in school.
“One of the drivers of economic health is the physical and mental health of the community,” said Robert Oldham, Placer County health officer. “Having an approach that looks at many different factors – getting more into the schools, environments that support physical activity, education – there’s not one intervention that has an impact.”
It’s a blueprint that placed Placer, Yolo and El Dorado counties among America’s 50 Healthiest Counties for Kids 2014-15, according to recently released rankings published in U.S. News and World Report. Placer County ranked 17th among the nation’s top 50 counties; Yolo County placed 30th; El Dorado County was No. 43. All three – Placer (2); Yolo (5); and El Dorado (7) – finished in the top 10 among California’s 58 counties.