Two people were arrested April 6 in Truckee in connection with a vehicle that had been stolen in March in Reno.

The owner of the stolen vehicle called the police about 4:45pm Thursday saying he saw his vehicle in Truckee. Officers responded near the Rite Aid store where they found the vehicle parked and unoccupied. Two people returned to the vehicle and were taken into custody without incident.

Both suspects claimed to be from the Bay Area, however officers are still trying to confirm their identities. The names provided, Shmid Osibin, 43, and Lindsey Turner, 40, were arrested on charges of possession of a stolen vehicle and conspiracy. Osibin also faces charges of  possessing drug paraphernalia.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report

A 60-year-old man was in critical condition after being struck by an alleged drunken driver early this morning in Incline Village.

The pedestrian was on Tanager Street near Oriole Way at about 2:45am April 7 when a vehicle driven by Bradley Perry, 33, of Incline hit him, according to deputies with the Washoe County Sheriff’s Office.

Perry was arrested on charges of driving under the influence resulting in substantial bodily harm.

The victim, whose hometown is unknown, was taken to Renown Medical Center in Reno.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report

By Scott Sonner, AP

A former worker at the children’s ski school at Heavenly Mountain Resort pleaded not guilty Thursday to sexual exploitation of a minor and child pornography charges accusing him of photographing young children in a bathroom at a rural Nevada daycare.

Stephan DeGraffenreid, 26, entered the pleas to four federal counts in U.S. District Court in Reno.

U.S. Magistrate William Cobb set a hearing for April 18 to determine whether he should continue to be held without bail until a trial set for June 13.

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By Colton Lochhead and Nicole Raz, Las Vegas Review-Journal

Following in the footsteps of Colorado, Washington and other states which have legalized recreational marijuana, Nevada is bracing for an influx of cash — cash that will have no bank to call home.

Because federal law prohibits banks and credit unions from depositing marijuana money, the state’s legal marijuana industry has a banking problem.

Marijuana companies can’t get loans or have a company bank account. No banking means businesses can’t take debit or credit cards, forcing customers to pay in cash. And when it comes time to pay taxes and licensing fees, some businesses do so with bags of dollar bills in tow.

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By Meghin Delaney, Las Vegas Review-Journal
 
 Nevada school board trustees would be required to undergo at least six hours of training in the first and third years of their terms under a bill introduced this week.

Training sessions would include financial management, public record laws and local government ethics, according to Assembly Bill 451.

The Nevada School Boards Association, a nonprofit, offers voluntary training.

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Douglas County exceeded its requirement to reduce fine sediment from reaching Lake Tahoe.

The mandate was a 10 percent reduction that had an equivalent of 41 credits. One credit is equal to 200 pounds of fine sediment particles. Douglas earned 53 credits.

The total maximum daily load program’s first deadline was in 2016. These numbers reflect those results. Each jurisdiction around the lake has goals established by the Lahontan Regional Water Quality Control Board and/or Nevada Division of Environmental Protection. 

The overriding goal is to improve the clarity of Lake Tahoe.

Douglas County is required to coordinate with the Kingsbury General Improvement District on road operations, Tahoe Regional Planning Agency on private parcel best management practices compliance, and maintain water quality improvement projects annually to keep credits in place.

The next goal is a 21 percent reduction of fine sediment, or 101 credits, by 2021.

Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev., is upset about the proposal to gut the Southern Nevada Public Land Management Act.

On Tuesday he sent a letter to Department of the Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke and Senate Interior and Environment Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Lisa Murkowski and ranking member Tom Udall to express his strong concern with the recently leaked budget proposal.

Enacted in 1998, SNPLMA is a program that allows the Bureau of Land Management to sell public land within a specific boundary around Las Vegas and the revenue generated by those sales are invested in important projects in Nevada.

Lake Tahoe has received millions of dollars from SNPLMA for water quality, storm water and fuels reduction projects.

According to Heller’s office, “Specifically, the proposal suggests rescinding $230 million from the program, generated from previous land sales within Clark County. This rescission would prohibit the Department from implementing a variety of important public works, wildfire prevention, and wildlife conservation initiatives throughout Nevada in coming years.”

— Lake Tahoe News staff report

By Angela Hart, Sacramento Bee

A Santa Monica lawmaker is preparing to battle California’s powerful real estate industry, going after a state law that for two decades has blocked cities from adopting stronger rent control measures.

A report released this year by California housing officials indicated the state’s housing crisis is unprecedented. So Democratic Assemblyman Richard Bloom decided to target a state law passed in 1995 that curtails the type of housing covered under local rental control laws and prevents cities from strengthening tenant protections for renters.

In California, when a tenant leaves a rent-controlled unit, landlords are allowed to raise the rent to market rate, raising the rent-control floor. The number of housing units covered by any local rent-control ordinance is severely restricted. Single-family homes, duplexes and condominiums are also exempt. Under current law, rent control doesn’t apply to housing built after 1995. Cities that adopted rent control prior to 1995 cannot strengthen existing ordinances.

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The National Weather Service is saying the storm approaching Lake Tahoe is expected to be the worst April storm in more than a decade.

A winter storm watch is in effect from midnight April 7 to 5pm April 8. A flood watch starts at the same time and ends at 11am April 8.

“There is a larger than normal uncertainty in snow level predictions with this storm which has a great
impact on snow accumulations and impacts. Current projections have snow levels starting 6,500-7,500 feet Friday, falling to 4500 feet by Saturday morning,” according to the National Weather Service in Reno.

It’s possible by the end of the storm the higher elevations could have 4 feet of snow and the lake 10 inches.

South Lake Tahoe has sand bags available for free at 1160 Rufus Allen Blvd. and 2101 Lake Tahoe Blvd. Residents fill their own bags and transport back to their own residence. Try to limit the number of bags to 10 per visit.

Because this will be a wet, heavy snow, it could bring down trees and utility lines. Travel is expected to be a mess, especially on Friday.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report

By Taylor Kate Brown, BBC News

At the height of California’s multi-year drought, Rafael Surmay’s well – the only source of water to his house – went dry. For two and a half years, Surmay, his wife, and his four children showered, cleaned, drank and cooked using a water tank and 10 gallons of bottled water per month. They depended on monthly deliveries to refill their water tank

Over the past several months, rainstorms have brought relief to parts of California, which has been suffering from drought since 2012. Some areas have had record rain, and snowpack across the Sierra Nevada is close to 200 percent of normal.

But several years of widespread, deeply dry conditions have extracted a toll on the state that will take more than one wet season to fix. In some cases, the landscape may be forever altered.

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