By Joanne Marchetta

The 16th annual Lake Tahoe Summit, held on the lakeshore at Edgewood Tahoe on Monday, opened with beautiful sunshine after a refreshing rain that, quite literally, cleared the air as federal, state, and local officials, and members of the science, business and conservation communities all came together with a singular focus on protecting and restoring Lake Tahoe.

This year’s summit theme of public-private partnerships showcased the important role they will play in future restoration efforts at Lake Tahoe. With the sun-setting of funds from Southern Nevada federal land sales and diminished funding from all levels of government that have traditionally fueled much of the restoration work here in Tahoe, a new model of environmental restoration is needed. Supporting and encouraging the private sector to invest in environmental redevelopment and restoration projects is a promising path forward. It is one that has already shown positive results here in the Lake Tahoe Basin.

Joanne Marchetta at the 2012 Lake Tahoe Environmental Summit. Photo/LTN

For example, when the Heavenly Mountain Resort master plan was adopted, the phased restoration of upper Edgewood Creek near Stateline was funded by Vail Resorts. And on lower Edgewood Creek, where the stream passes through Edgewood Golf Course, restoration of the lower reaches are proposed as part of the hotel and golf course realignment project. In addition, stormwater from the highway crossing the creek will be filtered in ponds on the golf course significantly reducing stormwater treatment costs for Nevada taxpayers.

The Lakeside Trail recently completed in Tahoe City was financed with government and private funds including the California Tahoe Conservancy, North Lake Tahoe Resort Association, and the Tahoe Fund, while local contractors, engineers and planners did much of the work. In addition, private property owners donated easements for the public trail through their properties and one business substantially modified its operations to allow for safe public use. With collaboration, the Lakeside Trail, with its beautiful design and stormwater treatment components is an unqualified success to be enjoyed by local families and visitors alike.

South Lake Tahoe’s new Lakeview Commons park is also a great public-private partnership success. Funded largely by public money, the project has environmentally restored a neglected area of shoreline, but has also been an economic boon to local businesses and concessionaires benefiting from the large number of people flocking to the park for great outdoor events or just to take in the view.

And who can forget Fred Jackson, owner of the Tahoe Lobster Company, and the latest entrepreneur to dip his toe (or crayfish traps) into the lake as he commercially harvests a troubling invasive species at Lake Tahoe in a successful new business venture that is also helping the environment.

TRPA is prioritizing partnerships like these through key policies in the Lake Tahoe Regional Plan update that could be approved by the TRPA Governing Board in December of this year. The draft policies create incentives for property owners in town centers to redevelop in a way that incorporates water quality improvements with pedestrian and transit improvements for greater community benefit. Other proposed updates would reward homeowners for completing stormwater BMPs by allowing additional land coverage. These innovative proposals will open opportunities for a vigorous redevelopment market that will lead private sector restoration efforts using 21st century public-private partnerships.

More good news out of this year’s summit: key stakeholders are collaborating and compromising in unprecedented ways to protect Lake Tahoe. The bi-state consultation efforts led by California Natural Resources Secretary John Laird and Nevada Department of Conservation and Natural Resources Director Leo Drozdoff delivered a suite of policy recommendations designed to forge agreement on long-outstanding differences involving the Regional Plan update. New levels of cooperation among states, agencies, organizations and individuals may hold promise not just for the lake, but equally for ourselves.

Elsewhere, compromise has become elusive; holding strong on our differences preserves only the status quo. As we move toward a collective goal of completing the Regional Plan update by the end of this year, my hope is this: that the many people who love this region make it a habit to really listen to those whose vision for the future is slightly different than their own. For Lake Tahoe, cooperation, collaboration, compromise and partnerships are habits we should keep if we wish to secure a healthy and sustainable future now, and for generations to come.

Joanne Marchetta is executive director of the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency.

If you’ve got a computer headache, curiosity or question, the South Lake Tahoe Public Library’s Computer Tutor might be able to help.

Bring your laptop, tablet, e-reader or smart phone and meet one-on-one with an experienced computer instructor. Appointments are available from 1–6pm on Sept. 18 and Sept. 25. Each appointment is 30 minutes and completely free.

Make an appointment by calling (530) 573.3185 or visiting the library at 1000 Rufus Allen Blvd.

After a two-hour standoff with South Lake Tahoe police officers, the man believed to have fired six shots into a house on Nevada Avenue on Friday night is in custody.

Officers tracked Agustin Bautista, 29, to the Ambassador Motor Lodge on Manzanita Avenue near Stateline after following his girlfriend there Thursday afternoon. Sgt. Shannon Laney told Lake Tahoe News that officers saw Bautista in the window so they knew they had the right room.

Agustin Bautista

He said the suspect then barricaded himself in the room. Bautista was believed to be armed based on prior weapons violation arrests, and that a shotgun and pistol had been confiscated from his house in past six days. However, no additional weapons were found Aug. 16.

After a two-hour standoff involving the SWAT and negotiation teams, Bautista surrendered without incident at 5:30pm.

Bautista faces charges of violating his probation and shooting into an inhabited building.

Sgt. Brad Williams told Lake Tahoe News officers are looking into Bautista’s potential gang affiliation.

 — Lake Tahoe News staff report

Kmart in South Lake Tahoe on Aug. 18 from 10am-1pm will be collecting school supplies and cash to fill backpacks for local children.

The Lake Tahoe Boys & Girls Club is looking to fill 400 packs with pens, paper and other supplies.

Kmart with Jon Hetherton Farmers Insurance Agency, KRLT and KOWL is putting n the event.

Divorced people suffer common problems — from financial issues to re-entering the dating world to helping their kids heal after divorce. And an event happening at Lake Tahoe will show divorced people how they can solve all those challenges.

Rebuilding Your Life After Divorce Mountain Retreat is Sept. 15-17 at Granlibakken Resort in Tahoe City.

The retreat will bring together 15 authors and experts from around Reno and the country, who will show divorced people how to:

• Overcome nervousness over dating again.

• Get back on your financial feet.

• Let go of post-divorce anger and sadness.

• Avoid the losers and meet the good ones when venturing back out into the dating world.

• Use four questions to get your child to cooperate with your every request.

• Begin the steps necessary if you’re as unhappy with your job or career as you were with your marriage.

• Feel whole again now that you’re a single person instead of part of a couple.

Use code Local for $200 off the retreat fee through Aug. 25. To sign up, go online.

A strong isolated thunderstorm has developed along Highway 4 near Ebbetts Pass. This storm may contain small hail, with locally heavy rain and dangerous lightning, according to the National Weather Service in Reno.

The storm is moving to the north, northwest at 5 to 10 mph toward Hope Valley and Kirkwood. It is expected to dissipate after 6:30pm Aug. 16. This cell is part of a larger area of showers and isolated storms east of the Sierra Crest.

On the north end of Lake Tahoe, three fires started Thursday — in Lemon Canyon east of Sierraville; near Haskell Peak east of Sierra Buttes; and near Granite Chief Wilderness.

Thunderstorm activity is expected into the weekend.

Tahoe National Forest has recorded 25 fires in the last few days.

Fires in the American River District 

1 north of French Meadows Reservoir – contained

2 farther north of French Meadows Reservoir – north of Sunflower Hill – both out

1 near Robinson Flat – contained

3 in or near the Granite Chief Wilderness – Two are out and one is contained

1 new one near the Wilderness – crews are continuing to work this evening.

Fires in the Sierraville District

1 east of Jackson Meadow Reservoir – controlled

2 more near Jackson Meadow Reservoir – one out and one controlled

1 north of Stampede Reservoir near Kyburz Flat – out

1 more north of Stampede Reservoir – out

2 in the Bear Valley area east of Sierraville – out

1 new fire in Lemon Canyon east of Sierraville – crews working – quarter acre

Fires in the Truckee District

1 near the Cedars – about 5 miles south of Interstate 80 at Norden – half acre – out

1 near Barker Pass – 4 miles from Lake Tahoe – out

1 on south eastern side of TNF – 5 miles from Lake Tahoe – third acre – controlled

1 near Boca Reservoir – out

1 near the entrance of Squaw Valley – controlled

Fires in the Yuba River Ranger District

1 near Old Man Mountain – north of Interstate 80 – controlled

1 north of Interstate 80 near Rainbow off ramp – out

1 near Signal Peak north of Interstate 80 – north of Cisco Grove –controlled

1 new fire near Haskell Peak east of Sierra Buttes – crews working on it.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report

By KCRA-TV

AUBURN – Increased wildfire activity and concern over the weather forecast led CalFire to suspend all burning permits on open fires throughout California.

There are currently 16 active wildfires throughout the state, according to CalFire’s website.

“Over 8,000 CalFire, local and federal firefighters are on the front lines. … With conditions being so dry, we need to take every step possible to prevent new wildfires from starting,” said Ken Pimlott, the state fire director.

The burn ban suspends all residential burn permits, forest management, hazard abatement and other industrial-type permitted burning within the 31 million acres of State Responsibility Area, read a CalFire news release.

“We are seeing increased fire activity earlier in the season. Historically, the next few months are when we experience our biggest fires,” said Daniel Berlant, a CalFire spokesman.

Campfires within organized campgrounds or on private property are allowed if they are in a designated campfire site that prevents fire spreading outside the site, the release said.

CalSHRM and SHRA will be presenting California Employment Law Essentials for Business so small business owners, office managers, department managers and supervisors, and human resource practitioners who want to gain essential knowledge in the unique and complex system of California employment laws will have the opportunity to do so locally.

In partnership with Truckee Donner and North Lake Tahoe Chambers, this one-day eight-hour workshop is Sept. 14 from 8am–5:30pm, at the Hampton Inn in Truckee.

Gov. Jerry Brown signed almost two dozen human resources and employment-related bills into law effective Jan., 1 2012. Attendees will receive in-depth knowledge on California specific employment laws in the areas of Leaves of Absence & Worker’s Compensation, Employee & Labor Relations, Compensation & Benefits and Health, and Safety & Security.

The speaker is Mike Letizia, president-elect of California State Council of the Society for HR Management and brings more than 25 years of human resource, operations, training and leadership experience to his dynamic presentations.

The cost is $199 for current SHRA or SHRM members, $229 for North Lake Tahoe and Truckee Donner Chamber members and $249 for non-members. Seating is limited and advance registration is required for this popular workshop. To register, go online. For more information, call Laura Moriarty at (530) 573.0224.

By Norimitsu Onishi, New York Times

SACRAMENTO — Seemingly an afterthought, the last appetizer listed on the menu at Restaurant Thir13en is a brioche that, at $21, may sound overpriced even if it is “house made” and comes with strawberry rhubarb purée and a bacon chip. Accompanying it, though, are “complimentary seared foie gras and foie panna cotta.”

This restaurant, not far from the State Capitol here, is one of the few in California still offering foie gras since a ban on its sale went into effect on July 1. Though some restaurants are finding clever ways to serve the fattened duck or goose liver — the law bans sales, but says nothing about giving it away — most of the 340 to 400 establishments that served it before the ban have taken it off their menus, according to restaurant owners, industry experts and animal rights supporters.

Suppliers of foie gras to California, the biggest market for the product in the United States, have halted shipments to the state. So staunch defenders of foie gras like Adam Pechal, Thir13en’s owner and chef, are considering new ways to replenish their supplies.

“I’m still working off my treasury,” Mr. Pechal said, explaining that he and other restaurateurs in Sacramento “stocked up big time” before the ban. “Foie freezes fantastically. That’s the beauty of it. The foie gras liver, it’s a beautiful product. Worst-case scenario for me, I’ll just go to Tahoe and spend the week and find somebody in Nevada. It’s as simple as that. I can drive an hour and a half and buy it in another state.”

Read the whole story

By Cole Mayer, Mountain Democrat

Chuck Holland, local bail bondsman and political activist, was prepared to enter into litigation against El Dorado County Superior Court Judge Warren “Curt” Stracener. Stracener, Holland alleged, misrepresented himself to voters on a candidate statement. But, as of Aug. 13, changes have been made.

“Holland has had repeated contact through his lawyers with Stracener’s legal representatives over the past months encouraging Stracener to come clean and tell the truth about his record,” a press release states. “Holland believes Stracener’s candidate statement misled voters in the June primary.”

The press release goes on to state that the mistruths were in three areas: Stracener’s appearance before the California and United States Supreme Courts and the number of cases he had heard in juvenile court.

But, Holland said Tuesday, changes were made to the Aug. 13 statement, available for review at the county Elections Office on Fairlane Court until Aug. 17. Viewing the statement is free and a copy can be purchased for 10 cents.

Wording was changed from “I have handled thousands of emotionally charged Dependency and Delinquency cases…” to “I hear emotionally charged Dependency and Delinquency cases…” The statement also changes “I have appeared before the U.S. and California Supreme Courts…” to “As an attorney, I have over 20 years experience including matters before the U.S. and California Supreme Courts…”

Both had been points of contention in the June primary race, which ended in a runoff between Stracener, the incumbent, and attorney Joseph Hoffman. Holland, the press release states, contacted the U.S. Supreme Court and received written confirmation that Stracener had not “argued a case before the court.” For the California Supreme Court, “Stracener has had his name attached to eight petitions for review, all subsequently denied at the review stage,” the press release states.

“It’s critically important that the voters receive truthful information about a candidate’s credentials, qualifications and experience,” Holland was quoted in the press release. “He never appeared before either the United States Supreme Court or the California Supreme Court and shouldn’t be allowed to lie about it.”

Stracener, regarding the changes to his candidate statement, said he had “No comment on that at all.”