An ex-felon has fled California and could be in Douglas County, according to officials.

Douglas deputies got word that Randy Nourse, 48, was at the Summit Crest Apartments on Mica Drive in north Douglas County.

When the SWAT team entered the apartment at approximately 6:50pm June 5 no one was inside.

Randy Nourse

It is unknown at this time where Nourse is hiding. Anyone with information on the whereabouts of Nourse is asked to call (775) 782-.5126.

Nourse has an extensive felony criminal history in California for burglary, robbery and narcotics offenses. There is no information that Nourse is currently armed or has access to weapons, however anyone who observes him should use caution and do not approach him, according to deputies

Nourse is described as male, Caucasian, 48, 6-foot-1, about 215 pounds, large build, with balding light-colored brown hair and blue eyes. Nourse was last known to have a mustache and long goatee (brown and grey in color). Nourse also has several tattoos on his neck.

By Martha Bellisle, Reno Gazette-Journal

A Reno Gazette-Journal investigation into Harvey Whittemore’s election campaign activities in Nevada found that the embattled former lobbyist, his family and associates have given more than $400,000 to people running for mayor, county commissions, city councils, the Legislature and other offices during the past decade.

After a recent grand jury investigation into Whittemore’s campaign contributions to Congressional candidates, the Reno Gazette-Journal examined his contributions to local and state officials. The RGJ compiled a database of donations from various expense reports filed throughout the state during recent election cycles. Among the findings:

• In two cases, candidates received thousands of dollars from Whittemore companies and employees on the same day. A Washoe County Commission candidate received checks from nine contributors tied to Whittemore on a single day in 2004, and a gubernatorial candidate received four $10,000 checks from Whittemore employees in 2005, as well as $10,000 from Whittemore and one of his companies during that campaign.

• At least four of the employees who gave to the county commission and gubernatorial candidates were part of the recent FBI investigation into whether Whittemore used friends and employees to skirt contribution limits in Congressional races. In particular, federal officials gathered information for their investigation about contributions employees made on a single day in 2007 to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. Whittemore-related contributions on that day topped $115,000.

Federal officials have been investigating whether Whittemore violated federal campaign finance laws by allegedly funneling donations through employees to Congressional candidates. Campaign giving in which the donor goes through other people to make donations above the legally allowed contribution amount is sometimes called using a conduit. The practice is a violation of federal law.

Nevada Secretary of State Ross Miller said using a conduit to get around campaign contribution limits also is a violation of Nevada law. State laws say it is illegal to make a contribution in the name of another and to exceed campaign contribution limits. In Nevada, the limit is $5,000 per candidate per election.

Read the whole story

By Sean Whaley, Nevada News Bureau

CARSON CITY – A national survey of 6,000 small businesses has generated mixed ratings for Nevada, with high marks for its regulations and tax code but also showing one of the least healthy climates overall among the states.

The survey, conducted by Thumbtack.com in partnership with the Kauffman Foundation, found Nevada’s businesses are healthier only than those of Maine and Connecticut.

Some of the key findings for Nevada include:

– Nevada soared above its rivals in one category where it excelled – the state achieved an A+ grade for having the third friendliest business tax code nationwide.

– The survey also found that male-owned small businesses in Nevada felt significantly more supported by the state than their female counterparts. Male entrepreneurs were 13 percent more likely than female entrepreneurs to rate Nevada as supportive or very supportive of small business.

– Although Nevada ranked reasonably well overall, it struggled in two very important categories. Of all small businesses in the West, Nevada’s small businesses ranked first for least healthy and second for slowest-growing.

– Conservative small business owners felt significantly more supported by the Nevada state government than did liberal small business owners. Conservative entrepreneurs were 71 percent more likely than liberal small business owners to rate their state as “supportive” or “very supportive” of small business.

– Small businesses run by liberals seem to be doing significantly better than small businesses run by conservatives. Liberal entrepreneurs in Nevada were 75 percent more likely than the state’s conservative entrepreneurs to rate their business’s financial situation as “good” or “very good”.

“There are a lot of business climate rankings but there aren’t any that draw upon considerable data from small business owners themselves, said Sander Daniels, co-founder of Thumbtack.com. “The Thumbtack.com Small Business Survey is the only survey to draw data from an extensive, nationwide universe of job creators and entrepreneurs themselves in order to investigate the best places in the country to do business.”

Thumbtack.com surveyed 6,022 small businesses across the United States. The survey asked questions about the friendliness of states towards small business and about small business finances, such as:

– “In general, how would you rate your state’s support of small business owners?”

– “Would you discourage or encourage someone from starting a new business in your state?” and

– “How would you rate your company’s financial situation today?”

Thumbtack.com and Kauffman then ranked states and cities against one another along 15 metrics.

One small business owner surveyed, a Las Vegas massage therapist, said: “Nevada is very tax friendly to small business, but it’s extremely difficult to obtain a small business loan to grow your small business or create jobs.”

A Sparks home inspector said: “With the economy here, it is very difficult to get people to spend money. Some businesses cut costs. Some also cut quality and ethics.”

“After a two-month survey of over 6,000 small business owners nationwide, it’s clear that Nevada’s small businesses are struggling in the down economy,” Daniels said. “Nevada’s entrepreneurs want to get back on their feet, and it appears that they believe Nevada is a setting where they can do just that.”

Asish Janardhan has been identified as the man who drowned June 2 near Camp Richardson.

The 29-year-old man from Antioch was attempting to swim from his kayak near the Valhalla pier, but was unable to make it to shore.

This is the second drowning of the season in Lake Tahoe.

Robert Ranieri, 29, of South Lake Tahoe died May 22 when on a parachute jump he landed in the lake instead of on shore. Autopsy results show he drowned and drugs were not a factor in the accident, according to El Dorado County sheriff’s officials.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report

By Kathryn Reed

While the medical care is the same as any Barton facility, the environment has the feeling of being second class.

Walking into the Barton Community Clinic it seems a bit dingy – not dirty – just old and tired. Next summer that statement won’t be able to be made.

Orange construction fencing is in place, the entrance is on the reverse side, trees are down, sod is gone, parking will be a bit chaotic. On June 4 dignitaries from Barton Health had a groundbreaking ceremony for the facility even though the preliminary work had begun in May. In a year the facility will practically be new.

Sharon Bishop is overseeing the renovation of the Barton Community Clinic. Photo/Kathryn Reed

When the renovation is finished, 3,000 square feet will have been added to the existing 4,400-square-foot building that sits across from Barton Memorial Hospital on the corner of South and Third streets. Here is a before and after rendering of the facility.

“The facility is old and not well designed,” Brooks Martin, who runs the clinic, told Lake Tahoe News.

He is looking forward to the space being used in a more efficient manner.

Offices with doors instead of curtains being drawn will give the medical professionals privacy as they do dictation and paperwork.

The nurses’ station will no longer be in the middle of the hall.

Four exam rooms will be added to the existing 12. Gone from one room will be the IT equipment that hums in a corner and can make for an incredibly hot and uncomfortable setting for patient and practitioner.

Nurses must work in the hallway of the clinic. Photo/Rebecca Wass

An expanded waiting room means in the cold of winter people on crutches won’t be waiting outdoors on a busy day.

As the economy remains stagnant in South Lake Tahoe, where the unemployment rate is at 15 percent, more people are going to the community clinic. On average, about 1,500 patients are treated each month, peaking at about 1,700.

Sharon Bishop, clinic manager, doesn’t envision patient counts to go down even when the local economy rebounds. This is because health insurance is not likely to return to what it was – with 90 percent coverage and low deductibles.

More than 60 percent of the clinic’s patients are women and children. Nearly 60 percent of all patients use English as their primary language.

Patients are often undocumented migrant workers not eligible for Medi-Cal or are insured low-income patients with very high deductibles, according to Barton officials. Patients are charged on a sliding scale. The clinic is operating at a loss of more than $800,000 a year.

The waiting room will be part of the $1.5 million overhaul. Photo/Rebecca Wass

“The cost of the expansion and renovation of Barton’s Community Clinic’s architectural design, interior design, permitting fees, construction, special inspection, equipment, furnishings, way-finding, moving and relocation of departments during phasing, the cost of the clinic will cost nearly $1.5 million,” Rich Belli, Barton’s director of facilities administration, told Lake Tahoe News.

Barton Memorial Hospital’s Auxiliary came up with the bulk of the money for improvements – mostly through operating The Attic thrift shop. Other funding sources are the Barton Foundation – in large part through the Festival of Trees and Lights, and Barton Health.

It was in 1989 that doctors Paul Rork, Greg Bergner and Martin started the clinic. Barton took over in 1995.  Martin is the only one still directly involved with the clinic.

During construction Bishop said there should be no interruption in care – just some changes to parking. The entrance is already on the reverse side from where it had been.

By Susan Wood

In the second nightclub incident in a few weeks, South Lake Tahoe police were trying Monday to piece together reasons why a 48-year-old local man pulled a gun on another resident at Whiskey Dick’s Saloon in a sudden fight this weekend that resulted in his arrest on charges of attempted murder.

Scott Enerson, who was booked into the El Dorado County Jail with no bail, allegedly pulled the handgun from his waistband and placed it to the head of Harlee Suida-Tuttle early Sunday morning shortly before the bar was to close. But the gun did not discharge, according to police. In its malfunction, the shot was fired into the air and hit the ceiling of Lake Tahoe Boulevard bar.

Suida-Tuttle apparently restrained Enerson as city officers arrived with assistance from the El Dorado County Sheriff’s Department and California Highway Patrol. The call came in at 1:45am June 3.

No one was shot. The two men suffered from minor injuries.

It is unknown whether Enerson had a permit from the “uncommon” handgun, police Chief Brian Uhler told Lake Tahoe News Monday night. It’s also unclear what the relationship is between the alleged shooter and victim. Detectives are conducting an investigation.

Alcohol or drugs could be contributing factors.

“They’re in a bar, and it seems likely they’re drinking,” Uhler said.

The chief watched a surveillance video captured in the bar and surmised the action escalated to a level of intent that went way beyond mayhem. Charges rose to attempted murder because Uhler said police detectives were able to determine that Enerson may have tried to shoot the gun against the victim’s head and the gun malfunctioned.

“It actually happened quite quickly. The victim was lucky it didn’t discharge,” Uhler said.

No one from Whiskey Dick’s would talk to Lake Tahoe News on Monday night.

Uhler plans to meet with officers to discuss possibly beefing up weekend scheduling after a disproportionate number of serious calls at local bars have come in.

“This could be a case of lightning striking, but we want to enforce what’s going to be responsible bar activity with the seriousness of these incidents,” Uhler added.

Officer Aaron Crawford, who responded to the incident, said Enerson had to be placed in restraints and believes alcohol or drug use could be a factor if not both.

The case comes on the heels of a tragic beating at Mo’s Place just two weeks prior to this incident. The two bars are a few miles apart from the other.

“Obviously, this is alarming to us, but bars are always an issue in every city,” Crawford said. “It could be a sign of the times.”

As of Monday night, no arrests had been made in connection with the Mo’s Place beating.

“We will work with the DA’s Office on presenting evidence and they will assess to determine if there are to be any prosecutions. An arrest or arrests is a possibility, but it is not something I can publicly speculate about,” Uhler told Lake Tahoe News.

Derek “Zippy” Penaranda remains at Renown Medical Center in Reno.

The draft Relocation Study pertaining to the loop road project will be available June 5.

People will have until 5pm July 6 to comment on the proposal.

The overall projects involved realigning the highway on the Nevada side from the intersection at Lake Parkway on the mountain side behind MontBleu and Harrah’s, then into California behind Heavenly Village, Village Center, and then creating a new alignment between Fern and Echo roads before rejoining Highway 50.

This would be four-lane highway.

The document being released Tuesday is supposed to outline how the affected properties – residential and commercial – would be moved elsewhere in South Lake Tahoe.

Copies of the relocation plan will be available at the TTD office, which is in the same building at the TRPA in Stateline – 128 Market St., Ste. 3F. Or call Alfred Knotts for a copy – (775) 589.5502.

Comments on the relocation plan may be submitted to aknotts@tahoetransportation.org or P.O. Box 499, Zephyr Cove, NV 89448.

Tahoe Transportation District is the lead agency of the entire project.

Placer County Supervisor Jim Holmes testified last week at a regulatory hearing before the California Board of Forestry in Redding.

The hearing was held to receive public comment on the implementation of a “fire fee” on structures located in State Responsibility Areas — areas where the state has firefighting responsibilities.

The annual fee would be up to $150 per structure for lands within the SRA and could affect about 800,000 property owners and 31 million acres throughout the state, including rural land in Placer and El Dorado counties. The fee originated in a state budget trailer bill for fiscal year 2011-12 and imposed the fee on all habitable structures within the SRA. The fee could raise as much as $85 million annually.

Holmes, representing the state’s rural counties as a representative of the Regional Council of Rural Counties (RCRC), spoke at the hearing.

“RCRC has numerous concerns with the law, as we have continuously stated throughout the legislative and regulatory process,” said Holmes. “We opposed SRA fees when first introduced several years ago on the grounds they were bad public policy, and they were repealed as a result of legal action. SRA fees remain a bad idea and we remain opposed.”

The fee has been controversial since it was first enacted and many of those opposed say the fees are unfair because residents pay local taxes for fire protection, on top of services provided by CalFire. Prior to the Redding hearing, the Forestry Board was in San Diego in June to receive comment on the fee. The board’s temporary implementation of the fee is set to expire in late July, and the board may start a new 45-day comment period on making the fee permanent. In addition, there is pending legislation in the Assembly that would repeal the fee entirely.

By Linda Fine Conaboy

MEYERS — Search and rescue volunteers know when they sign up for the job no two days will be the same, a generalization they discovered to be tragically true on Saturday during what was supposed to be a routine training exercise.

The SAR training cadre, consisting of Marcel Rowley, Terry Carroll, Nathan Smith, Chris Stanton, Bruce Donley, Sten Seeman, Charlie Powers, Brian Tupper, John Nugent, Mike Mullens, Matt Massie and Sienna Smith under the leadership of Scott Gabler and Deputy Greg Almos had finished a water rescue training class on the Upper Truckee River and had just arrived at Camp Richardson to complete their smooth water maneuvers.

According to Almos, suddenly a 911 call went out and the SAR team-in-training made their way to the vicinity of the Valhalla pier where a male had jumped off of a kayak and attempted to swim to shore.

El Dorado County search and rescue volunteers on June 2 train in the Upper Truckee River. Photos/Linda Fine Conaboy

“We had two boats in the water,” Almos, who leads the El Dorado County Sheriff’s Department SAR unit, told Lake Tahoe News. “The SAR volunteers ran to help and with the assistance of Camp Richardson employees, immediately pulled the victim out of the lake and started CPR.”

Almos said the SAR team continued administering CPR even after the medics arrived to start their advanced care procedures. According to Almos, rescuers were able to detect a pulse after performing CPR, but the Bay Area man died the evening of June 2.

The 31-year-old from Antioch has not been identified pending notification of family.

Almos, who is also in charge of the Office of Emergency Services as well as the boating program, said more adults than kids are rescued by the SAR team, mainly because adults are more daring and kids tend to be supervised, a fact that proved true on Saturday.

He said lake rescues happen fairly frequently, but not often in the rivers. “If someone is in distress in swift water, it’s tubists and sometimes it’s kayakers,” he said of river rescues. “This is a mild year because the water [in the rivers] isn’t so high.”

Saturday’s training class started on the Upper Truckee River where it flows through Meyers and passes the banks of the old Sierra Pines Campground. It is designed to give awareness and beginning insight into various types of water — standing or flowing waters, Almos explained.

During a moving water rescue, ideally, there will be two people downstream to snag a victim who may have slipped by the upstream team. Rescuers communicate by a series of whistles; one blast is an attention getter; two blasts notifies people something is coming and to look upstream; three short sounds means something is happening downstream and three long blasts indicates an emergency, or that a rescue is in progress.

Almos cautioned that it’s important to do what you can do to rescue someone while you’re onshore rather than wading into the water — especially if you’re alone.

“You could attempt to use a throw bag (an inflatable attached to the end of a rope). Going in after somebody has to be well thought out. You need a support team for that,” he said. “Do what you can do from shore.”

The 11 people involved in Saturday’s rescue are all volunteers, ranging in age from 18 to 50 and are part of a larger group totaling 35 within the Lake Tahoe Basin in El Dorado County. There are about 100 volunteers located on the West Slope. They all have pagers and are on call 24/7.

“We run anywhere from 50 to 70 calls annually,” Almos said. “Although most calls are for backcountry rescue, all of the rescues are performed by the team.”

He added that the Placerville team handles between 20 to 40 calls each year.

“People need to understand that cold water can be very dangerous. Plan your recreation. Don’t be impulsive. Always have people with you and always have a life jacket if there is a chance you could be submerged. It’s all about safety and avoiding a problem,” Almos said.

——-

Notes:

• The 2012 National Search and Rescue Conference is June 4-6 at Harvey’s in Stateline. The conference is a combined presentation by the Mountain Rescue Association and the National Association for Search and Rescue and features various exhibitors, speakers and workshops.

• The third annual El Dorado County Search and Rescue Appreciation Day is June 20 at Riva Grill in South Lake Tahoe from 5-9pm. More information is on the flyer.

Updated: June 3, 2012, 9:40pm:

Two firefighting P-2V air tankers went down Sunday afternoon — one in Minden where the crew was safe, the other on the Nevada-Utah border that killed two people.

An air tanker fighting a fire in Douglas County slid off the runway Sunday afternoon because of a malfunction with the landing gear. The plane sustained significant damage because the pilot had to land using only one of three landing gear components. Two malfunctioned by not lowering, according to authorities.

The Lockheed P-2V spent nearly 90 minutes in the air burning fuel before making the emergency landing at the Minden Tahoe Airport on June 3 at 3:30pm.

The tanker was being used to fight the Preacher Fire near the Pinenuts in Douglas County. That fire is 90 percent contained; having burned 1,070 acres since June 1 when lightning sparked the blaze.

While firefighters are mostly in mop-up mode, a red flag warning has been issued for Monday.

Across the state and into Utah, Capt. Todd Neal Tompkins, 48, and first officer Ronnie Edwin Chambless, 40, of Idaho were flying a P-2V heavy air tanker that went down about 2pm Sunday in the area of the White Rock Fire. The private plane, which was contracted through Neptune Aviation Services of Missoula, Mont., was dropping retardant on the fire, according to the Salt Lake Tribune.

National Transportation Safety Board officials were en route to the crash site.

 — Lake Tahoe News staff report