By Kathryn Reed

Five people from Fresno who were in South Lake Tahoe for a birthday celebration died Saturday when their plane sputtered and then nosedived into a field just after taking off at 9:45pm.

Francisco de la Mora, who owned the Piper Cherokee, was piloting the single-engine fixed wing craft. Shannon D. Fleck is the other person the plane is registered to.

With de la Mora were his wife, their 5-year-old daughter, and Harold and Kin Cardwell. The plane could seat seven. De la Mora owned JDM Transport, a trucking company, in Fresno. Harold Cardwell was an insurance agent. Information about the victims is still not complete.

Harold and Kin Cardwell

“I’m sure he was flying right-hand on this plane,” Stephen Buxton told Lake Tahoe News of Harold Cardwell. “He was an incredible pilot. I’ve flown many times with him. He is the one who taught me to fly.”

Buxton had known the 60-year-old Cardwell for more than 30 years. They met in church. While Buxton is now a pastor in the San Diego area, he never ministered to Cardwell. But Cardwell, who owned an Allstate Insurance franchise in the Fresno area, was Buxton’s agent for several decades.

According to Buxton, two adult daughters from a previous marriage survive Cardwell.

“He was a great guy. He was easy to love,” Buxton said. “I’m going to miss him and I know his kids are going to miss him.”

Officials from Mountain West Aviation, which runs the plane operations at the local airport, told investigators the Piper landed Aug. 25 at the South Lake Tahoe airport for a few hours and that the occupants requested a taxi. No gas or other services were requested.

A 1-acre circular area burned after a plane crashed Aug. 25 after taking off from Lake Tahoe Airport. Photo/Claire Fortier

The cause of the crash is not likely to be known for some time as federal investigators do their job. The fuselage is all that remained of the plane after it disintegrated upon impact.

Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board officials have been scouring the site.

Witnesses told authorities they heard the plane sputter before it crashed. It also appeared to bank right, which could have been an attempt to get back to the airport or to avoid the heavily populated area at the end of the meadow.

The plane, according to authorities, needed most of the runway to take off – which is not usual and should have been an indication something was wrong before the plane left the ground.

According to the National Weather Service in Reno, the wind at Lake Tahoe Airport at 9:45pm Aug. 25 was out of the south at 4 to 8mph, so that was not a factor. Plus, it was a clear night.

The pilot was unable to gain altitude after take-off. Photo/Claire Fortier

“They will be out there all night. They will probably remove the bodies sometime tonight,” El Dorado County sheriff’s Lt. Pete Van Arnum told Lake Tahoe News of investigators. “From what I saw, we’ll probably have to go to X-rays and dental charts (for definite identification of the victims).” He added that could take a couple days.

A fire immediately started after the plane crashed Aug. 25. About 1 acre of brush burned a circular area.

This same plane was involved in an accident on March 5, 2005, in Destin, Fla., according to the National Transportation Safety Board. In that accident the two people aboard were not injured. At the time it was registered to other people.

NTSB records said the cause of that accident was, “The pilot’s inadequate compensation for wind during a crosswind takeoff resulting in a loss of directional control and subsequent collision with terrain.”

The last plane crash at Lake Tahoe Airport was Aug. 5, 2007, which killed the Bay Area pilot on impact when he took off on a summer morning heading south. On Aug. 19, 2002, a single engine plane went down near Meiss Meadows after taking off from Lake Tahoe Airport. The Bay Area couple on board died. That crash ignited what became known at the 294-acre Showers Fire.

Updated Aug. 26 3:17pm:

Javier de la Mora has told KOLO-TV in Reno that his brother Francisco de la Mora was piloting the plane that crashed in South Lake Tahoe on Saturday night. The pilot is one of the registered owners of the plane.

The four others on board are believed to be de la Mora’s wife, daughter and two other people.

Updated Aug. 26 3:10pm:

Federal officials are waiting for family members of the deceased to be notified before releasing the names of the people who died in the Aug. 25 plane crash in South Lake Tahoe.

The fire that was ignited by the downed plane was about 1 acre in size.

Updated Aug. 26, 2012, 2:05pm:

Francisco J. De La Mora of Fresno and Shannon D. Fleck, hometown unknown, are the registered owners of the plane that crashed into a field off the runway of Lake Tahoe Airport on Saturday night, according to the FAA Registry.

The Piper that disintegrated on impact, killing all on board, was a fixed wing single-engine.

Federal officials are on scene at the site of the Aug. 25 plane crash in South Lake Tahoe. Photo/Claire Fortier

This same plane was involved in an accident on March 5, 2005, in Destin, Fla., according to the National Transportation Safety Board. In that accident the two people aboard were not injured.

NTSB records said the cause of that accident was, “The pilot’s inadequate compensation for wind during a crosswind takeoff resulting in a loss of directional control and subsequent collision with terrain.”

The plane did not get far off the runway before crashing Aug. 25. Photo/Claire Fortier

FAA and NTSB officials are in South Lake Tahoe investigating the Aug. 25 accident that is believed to have killed five people who had been in Tahoe for only a few hours. The plane seats seven.

——-

Updated Aug. 26, 2012, 9:10am:

By Kathryn Reed

FAA officials believe five people could have been on board the plane that crashed Saturday night on take-off from Lake Tahoe Airport.

The Piper Cherokee could seat six people.

The Federal Aviation Administration in Southern California would not give details about the victims, nor where they are from or what makes them believe there were five people on board.

In looking at the wreckage from Saturday night’s plane crash in South Lake Tahoe, officials the morning of Aug. 26 were not able to recover any identifiable markings.

“It’s just a charcoal circle,” City Manager Nancy Kerry told Lake Tahoe News.

Nor have there been any calls from the airport the plane originated from.

Mountain West Aviation officials, which runs the operations, told investigators that the plane landed Aug. 25 at the South Lake Tahoe airport for a few hours and that the occupants requested a taxi. The taxi took them to a local restaurant and returned them to the airfield.

The plane crashed about 9:45pm into a field on the north end of the runway.

FAA officials from Reno are to be at the site this morning.

National Transportation Safety Board officials will be coming from Idaho today or Monday.

Because the plane landed on El Dorado County property, the sheriff’s office is taking control locally. However, neither the local lieutenant nor the lieutenant in charge of media relations was available Sunday morning.

—–

By Kathryn Reed

A plane crashed after taking off from Lake Tahoe Airport on Saturday night. No one on board survived.

Because the plane was completely engulfed in flames and only the fuselage remained intact, rescue personnel do not know what type of plane was involved. And because no flight plan was filed, it is not known how many people were on board.

The South Lake Tahoe airport does not have a tower, so information about planes taking off and landing is not as complete as it is at other airports. There is a recording the pilot made, but it has limited information.

A fire started immediately after the plane crashed Aug. 25. Photo/Dan Wilvers

What officials could determine from what the pilot said is that the plane was not involved in the air show that took place at the airport earlier in the day. The plane also is not registered at Lake Tahoe Airport.

Because no part of the tail could be seen where the plane landed, it is not possible to match what is on the recording to what is on the ground.

South Lake Tahoe Police-Fire Chief Brian Uhler is the one who got closest to the plane, and as someone who owns a small plane, would know what to look for. It is hoped daylight will reveal a piece of the tail section.

Officials are saying it’s possible the plane was a four- or six-seater Lancer. The plane was registered to more than one person living outside the Lake Tahoe Basin. No fuel or other services were purchased locally.

“Witnesses report sputtering, that the engines didn’t sound good,” City Manager Nancy Kerry told Lake Tahoe News.

She said people saw the plane try to bank to the right. It’s not known if this was to try to return to the airport or avoid structures.

The aircraft crashed nose first into the dry brush north of the runway by Winnemucca Drive. No buildings were hit. On impact a brush fire of a few acres broke out that took firefighters about an hour to fully extinguish.

According to the National Weather Service in Reno, the wind at Lake Tahoe Airport at 9:45pm Aug. 25 was out of the south at 4 to 8mph.

Flying in and out of the mountains always poses risks, and more so in the summer because of the density of the air. A heavy plane can prevent a pilot from being able to gain enough altitude.

National Transportation Safety Board and Federal Aviation Administration personnel have been notified. It’s possible they will be on scene Sunday.

Overnight, local public safety personnel will secure the perimeter so no one can tamper with evidence. The body or bodies are likely to be recovered Sunday, with autopsies to follow.

Officials hope a flight plan was filed where the plane originated from so when it is overdue, that airport’s staff will call Lake Tahoe as another mechanism to confirm who was on the plane.

The last plane crash at Lake Tahoe Airport was Aug. 5, 2007, that killed the Bay Area pilot on impact when he took off on a summer morning heading south.

The crash is not expected to interfere with any airport operations on Sunday, including the Young Eagles flights that will be taking place. Capt. Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, who landed an Airbus in the Hudson River, will be at the airport for the Young Eagles event.

By Ed Fletcher, Sacramento Bee

As county officials work to implement state legislation requiring tattoo and piercing shops to register and pass a battery of tests, some area practitioners question the need for the new regulations and ask whether the government will crack down on underground artists.

AB300 created California inspection and registration protocols for tattoo and piercing shops, as well as the artists, but left it to the counties to do the legwork. The bill, authored by Assemblywoman Fiona Ma, D-San Francisco, is aimed at protecting the public from exposure to hepatitis C and other blood-borne pathogens. It took effect in July.

Ma said she was shocked six years ago to learn there were no state rules on the operation of tattoo parlors.

“I wanted to do something about this to ensure diseases would not be shared through needles,” Ma said.

With the backing of industry trade groups, her legislation was passed in 2011.

The legislation also allows counties to assess shops and practitioners to fund annual inspections.

Placer County took action Tuesday, adopting a fee schedule under which Placer County tattoo and piercing practitioners must pay $80 a year. Other fees were assigned for permanent facilities, temporary events and in various other categories.

Read the whole story

By Torey Van Oot, Sacramento Bee

California’s top Republican operatives are busy raising millions of dollars to pump into the state’s most competitive races.

But this election, many of the checks aren’t being made out to the California Republican Party.

A new crop of independent committees and fundraising efforts created to support Republican candidates are allowing major donors to bypass the state party.

As California delegates gather in Tampa for the Republican National Convention this week, they leave behind a party organization in a major state of flux.

Historically, state political parties have been expected to raise and spend money to support candidates statewide. They lead voter registration and outreach efforts, work to boost turnout and map out messages that strengthen the party’s brand.

But the California Republican organization has fallen on hard times, particularly since losing every race for statewide office in 2010. GOP registration has dropped to 30 percent of California voters, and the party’s bench of potential statewide candidates isn’t deep.

Those leading the new efforts say claims of mismanagement from the top, including the leadership of state Chairman Tom Del Beccaro, have discouraged donors.

The party recently downsized its Sacramento office, eliminating some of its staff, as it reported ending June with just $169,000 in the bank for state races and about $156,000 in unpaid bills still on the books.

That doesn’t necessarily mean Republicans are on the ropes this November. Top GOP politicians and strategists are moving to work around what they see as the state party’s failings, spearheading efforts of their own to recruit candidates and reach out to voters.

Read the whole story

By Cy Ryan, Las Vegas Sun

CARSON CITY — A Las Vegas assemblyman says the policy of some casinos to force table games dealers to share tips with others isn’t fair, and he wants the 2013 Legislature to examine the issue.

Assemblyman Joseph Hogan, D-Las Vegas, calls tip-sharing an “inappropriate intrusion” on what dealers earn from players. Tips are a large part of income for dealers who are paid minimum wage, he said.

The controversy is currently before the Supreme Court and, according to briefs, some dealers earn $100,000, including tips.

Hogan asked that a bill regarding tip-sharing be drafted last week.

Tip-sharing has resulted six-year legal battle between dealers at Wynn casinos in Las Vegas. Dealers lost an appeal to state Labor Commissioner Michael Tanchek in July 2010 but won a suit before District Court Judge Kenneth Cory.

Cory ruled that dealers could launch a class-action lawsuit.

In September 2006, the Wynn casinos adopted the present tip-sharing policy, which it maintains has been endorsed in a collective bargaining arrangement by the dealers.

But a suit by casino employees Daniel Baldonado, Joseph Cesarz and Ouyngoc Tang challenges the policy that allows tips to be shared by the box person at the craps tables and with “casino service team leads.”

Read the whole story

Of the 64 people being laid off by Pacific Monarch Resorts Inc., none is from the Tahoe Seasons Resort in South Lake Tahoe.

Las Vegas-based Diamond Resorts bought Pacific Monarch’s unsold vacation ownership inventory for $49.3 million earlier this year in a bankruptcy reorganization deal.

“In an effort to consolidate back-office functions with existing Diamond Resorts capabilities, a number of PMR employees in functions such as human resources, accounting, finance, information technology and legal unfortunately were not offered positions,” Elliot Sloane, a Diamond Resorts spokesman, said in a statement. “Many of these employees were offered relocation packages to Diamond’s headquarters in Las Vegas, but declined the offer. It is worth noting that none of the employees at the acquired resorts (was) terminated and without Diamond’s purchase of PMR’s assets, the long-term viability of PMR was in serious question.”

Layoffs are all in Southern California.

Diamond Resorts also owns Lake Tahoe Vacation Resort in South Lake Tahoe.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report

By Massimo Calabresi, Time

If someone wanted to create a global system for tracking human beings and collecting information about them, it would look a lot like the digital mobile-device network. It knows where you are, and — the more you text, tweet, shop, take pictures and navigate your surroundings using a smart phone — it knows an awful lot about what you’re doing.

Which is one reason federal officials turned to Sprint, Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile in early 2009 when they needed to solve the robbery of a Berlin, Conn., branch of Webster Bank. Using a loophole in a 1986 law that allows warrantless searches of stored communications, the feds ordered the carriers to provide records of phones that used a nearby cell tower on the day of the crime. The carriers turned over to the prosecutors the identities, call records and other personal information of 169 cell-phone users–including two men who were eventually sentenced to prison for the robbery. With a simple request, the feds cracked a case that might have otherwise taken years to solve.

In the process, they collected information on 167 people who they had no reason to believe had committed a crime, including details like numbers dialed and times of calls that would have been protected as private on a landline.

Such cases are common. In response to a request from Representative Ed Markey, major cell carriers revealed in July that they had received more than 1.3 million requests for cell-phone tracking data from federal, state and local law-enforcement officials in 2011.

By comparison, there were 3,000 wiretap warrants issued nationwide in 2010.

That revelation has added to a growing debate over how to balance the convenience and security consumers now expect from their smart phones with the privacy they traditionally have wanted to protect. Every second we enjoy their convenience, smart phones are collecting information, recording literally millions of data points every day.

The potential for good is undeniable. In recent years, the average time it takes the U.S. Marshals Service to find a fugitive has dropped from 42 days to two, according to congressional testimony from Susan Landau, a Guggenheim fellow.

Cell phones have changed criminal investigation from the ground up.

“There is a mobile device connected to every crime scene,” says Peter Modafferi, the chief of detectives in Rockland County, New York.

But as smart phones’ tracking abilities have become more sophisticated, law enforcement, phonemakers, cell carriers and software makers have come under fire for exploiting personal data without the knowledge of the average user. Much of the law protecting mobile privacy in the U.S. was written at the dawn of the cell-phone era in the 1980s, and it can vary from state to state. Companies have widely differing privacy policies.

Now conservatives and liberals on Capitol Hill are pushing legislation that would set new privacy standards, limiting law-enforcement searches and restricting what kinds of information companies can collect.

Read the whole story

By Alyx Sacks, KRNV-TV

Joe Humasti is a golf and ski coach for Incline High School.

Humatsi has coached for 30 years and has been trained in CPR since 1972, but until now has never had to use it.

“It comes back just like a reflex, the reflex takes over your emotions and you’re just in a different zone,” Humasti says.

Humatsi says his instincts just took over Sunday when he was working at his other job as security the Hyatt Regency Lake Tahoe in Incline Village.

A woman staying at the hotel felt faint, but denied be taken to the hospital.

“I just had a feeling that something might be wrong, she just didn’t look right,” Humasti says.

So a little later in the day Humasti went to check on the woman at her room and her daughter answered the door.

“She was frantic and she just said, “My Mom is not doing well.” She was faced down on the bed I immediately went over there, rolled her over asked her if she was OK, no response, started CPR immediately,” Humasti says.

Read the whole story

When the Fallen Leaf Lake Community Services District board meets Sept. 1, the settlement agreement with former General Manager Tom Barnes is expected to be ratified.

Barnes had sued the district for wrongful termination after being fired in 2010. He had asked for unpaid leave while he received treatment for cancer. He was denied that request and subsequently fired.

Tom Barnes

The settlement is for $280,000.

“All I can say is that the civil action was settled and because of the settlement there cannot be any appeal. The district has insurance that will pay the settlement and at this time, prior to the board meeting scheduled to approve the settlement, it is premature to comment,” Tom Bacchetti, president of the Fallen Leaf Lake board told Lake Tahoe News.

Jacqueline Mittelstadt, Barnes’ attorney, declined to comment and said her client did not want to comment either.

 — Kathryn Reed

By David Siders, Sacramento Bee

A late-hour bid to overhaul the California Environmental Quality Act fell apart Thursday, with Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg saying the upper house will not take up the measure before the legislative session ends next week.

“The Senate will not take up comprehensive CEQA reform in the last days of the legislative session,” Steinberg, D-Sacramento, told reporters at the Capitol. “This law, for all of its strengths and its faults, is far too important to rewrite in the last days of the session.”

The announcement cheered environmentalists, who had been lobbying furiously against the bill.

The proposal, backed by a group of business interests and some lawmakers, would have limited the reach of California’s signature environmental law, insulating from litigation certain projects that comply with a city general plan or other planning document for which an environmental review already has been done.

“I’m relieved,” said Sierra Club California director Kathryn Phillips, who called the bill “one of the worst attacks on environmental protections that we’ve seen in the 40-year life of this law.”

State Sen. Michael Rubio, who had been seeking co-authors for the bill as recently as Wednesday, said Thursday morning – just hours before the announcement – that the legislation remained viable. Later, standing beside Steinberg, the Central Valley Democrat said, “We always have to read the dynamics of the building.”

Read the whole story