By Associated Press

A state audit says parolees in rural Nevada weren’t required to get as frequent supervision as their urban counterparts.

Lawmakers discussed the Division of Parole and Probation during a Tuesday meeting.

Auditors found parole officers were required to make home visits to sex offenders in Reno and Las Vegas every 60 to 90 days. But there was no such requirement for home visits in rural areas, including Carson City.

Division Chief Natalie Wood said rural officers prioritized their parolees each month and exercised discretion on whether they needed a home visit.

But she also said staffing shortages and long distances to parolees’ homes made it hard to conduct frequent checks.

The audit covered July 2013 to March 2015. Wood says rural visiting standards are now on par with urban standards.

Dion Jermaine Vaccaro

Dion Jermaine Vaccaro, 26, is sitting in an Oklahoma City jail cell waiting extradition to South Lake Tahoe on a murder warrant.

He is one of five people in custody accused of killing an Amador County man during a drug deal gone bad in January.

Tevarez Lopez, 33, Domenic  Randolph, 22, Tristan Batten, 18, and Harvest Davidson, 20, have also been charged with the murder of 40-year-old Dennis Wright. Wright was gunned down in the parking lot of the Beverly Lodge on Jan. 30, later dying at Barton Memorial Hospital.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report

By Julie Johnson, Santa Rosa Press Democrat

Investigators suspect a 27-year-old Rohnert Park man missing for 10 days was the victim of an unprovoked, deadly attack at a remote Mendocino County marijuana farm where he and his suspected killer were paid laborers.

Joshua Richard Ruoff

The body of Timothy William Sweeting has not been found, but Mendocino County sheriff’s officials said an eyewitness account of the killing, a bloody crime scene and other evidence were enough for a judge to sign an arrest warrant that sent detectives across the country to New Hampshire, where his alleged assailant had fled.

Joshua Richard Ruoff, 30, of South Lake Tahoe left Covelo in a rented U-Haul on May 18 — hours before a 911 caller told dispatchers a violent attack had occurred at a property in the remote community where Highway 162 ends in Mendocino County, Capt. Greg Van Patten said.

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By Steve Reilly, USA Today

Mossack Fonseca, the focus of the Panama Papers leak, is far from the only company mass-producing shell companies in secrecy-friendly states like Wyoming, Nevada and Delaware.

A USA Today examination of the limited records that are available — some states are making corporate records increasingly invisible — shows that Mossack Fonseca registered less than 2 percent of the Nevada “companies” that are linked to addresses outside the United States. A similar review of Wyoming’s more secretive records shows that just 24 of more than 2,000 foreign-based businesses registered since 1990 were created by Mossack Fonseca’s Wyoming branch.

The states have become willing partners in the lucrative front-company business that generates millions of dollars in revenue for the government.

Indeed, the review of corporate-registration data shows there are more than 50 firms in Nevada that have registered as many or more different companies than Mossack Fonseca, and many with bundles of businesses tracing back to shared addresses in places from Panama to islands off the European coast.

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By Associated Press

State auditors say groups paid to educate people about Nevada’s health insurance exchange often didn’t give adequate proof that they did the outreach they billed for.

Lawmakers reviewed findings Tuesday on the Silver State Health Insurance Exchange, which pays $4 million each year to groups that do marketing, outreach and enrollment assistance for the exchange.

Auditors say nine “navigator” organizations billed for thousands of hours and said they attended hundreds of events between May and October 2015, but could only provide documentation for attending a fraction of those events and didn’t adequately explain what they did for much of the time.

Exchange officials say accountability measures for the navigator organizations have been ramped up.

There were about 88,000 people enrolled in the health insurance exchange as of earlier this year.

By Jill Colvin and Ellen Knickmeyer, AP

FRESNO — Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump told California voters Friday that he can solve their water crisis, declaring, “There is no drought.”

California is, in fact, in midst of a drought. Last year capped the state’s driest four-year period in its history, with record low rainfall and snow.

Speaking at a rally in Fresno, Trump accused state officials of denying water to Central Valley farmers so they can send it out to sea “to protect a certain kind of three-inch fish.”

“We’re going to solve your water problem. You have a water problem that is so insane. It is so ridiculous where they’re taking the water and shoving it out to sea,” Trump said at a rally that drew thousands.

The comments came a day after Trump outlined an energy policy plan that relies heavily on expanding U.S. fossil fuel exploration and reducing environmental regulations.

He held a pair of rallies Friday in Fresno and San Diego as he closed a campaign swing through the west, drawing vocal crowds of protesters, many carrying signs critical of Trump’s plan to wall off the U.S. border with Mexico.

About a thousand Trump foes demonstrated outside San Diego’s convention center as Trump spoke inside to an enthusiastic crowd of supporters packed in tight. Police said they made about a dozen arrests, including one man who climbed a railing separating protesters from officers. His arrest led protesters to spray water and throw empty plastic bottles at police.
In another tense exchange, police shoved back demonstrators to separate them from Trump supporters when they left the center after the rally.

Officers in riot gear declared the gathering outside the convention center unlawful after shouting matches erupted and people began hurling trash at each other.

Inside, the mood was far less charged, as Trump took repeated jabs at Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton. He also went on defense against negative media stories and an ongoing lawsuit against his now-defunct Trump University.

“I’m getting railroaded by a legal system,” Trump complained.

In Fresno, Trump said he’d spent 30 minutes before his rally meeting with more than 50 farmers who complained to him about their struggles.

“They don’t understand — nobody understands it,” he said, declaring at one point: “There is no drought. They turn the water out into the ocean.”

Trump appeared to be referring to disputes over water that runs from the Sacramento River to the San Francisco Bay and then to the ocean. Some farmers want more of that flow captured and diverted to them.

Politically influential rural water districts and well-off corporate farmers in and around California’s Central Valley have been pushing back against longstanding federal laws protecting endangered fish and other species, saying federal efforts to make sure endangered native fish have enough water is short-changing farmers of the water they want and need for crops.

Water authorities say they can’t do it because of the water rights of those upstream of the farmers, and because of the minimum-water allowances needed by endangered species in the bay and by wildlife in general.

The 3-inch Delta smelt is a native California fish on the brink of extinction. The smelt has become an emblem in the state’s battles over environmental laws and water distribution.
The farm lobby, a heavyweight player in California’s water wars, also is seeking federal and state approval for billions of dollars in new water tunnels, dams and other projects.

Trump promised that, if he’s elected, he would put their interests first. “If I win, believe me, we’re going to start opening up the water so that you can have your farmers survive,” he said.

California is the country’s No. 1 agriculture producer. The state’s drought is raising the stakes in water disputes among farmers, cities and towns, and environmental interests.

A count by the Associated Press found Thursday that Trump has reached the required number of delegates to officially clinch the Republican nomination.

Associated Press writer Scott Smith contributed to this report.

Two people were hurt when a mattress caught fire. Photo/Provided

An electrical short caught a mattress on fire Friday at a South Lake Tahoe hotel.

Two people staying in the room at the Sky Lake Lodge were taken to Barton Memorial Hospital with minor injuries.

The fire was contained to that one room.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report

By Ivana Kottasova, CNN Money
 
The world is flooded with plastic garbage.

There will be more plastic than fish in terms of weight in the world’s oceans by 2050, the World Economic Forum warned.

Plastic has become one of the world’s most popular materials, combining amazing functionality and very low production costs. Its use has increased twentyfold in the past 50 years and is expected to double again in the next 20 years.

Almost everybody in the world comes into contact with it — over a quarter of all plastic is used for packaging, the most popular use of the material.

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By Christopher Cadelago, Sacramento Bee

With recreational marijuana headed for the fall ballot, a new poll finds that 60 percent of likely voters support the concept of legitimizing the drug in California.

The Public Policy Institute of California, in a poll out Wednesday, looked at the general popularity of other issues expected on the Nov. 8 ballot.

A majority of likely voters, 67 percent, back boosting the tax on tobacco purchases to fund healthcare programs. Separately, 58 percent support extending income taxes on annual earnings exceeding $250,000 for a dozen years to pay for schools and healthcare.

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By Seth A. Richardson, Reno Gazette-Journal

Several legislative races in Northern Nevada have hauled in more than $500,000 combined in campaign cash as the June 14 primary nears.

Competitive races in and near Washoe County drew large sums of contributions, according to campaign finance filings from the secretary of state’s office.

Four seats – three in the Assembly and one in the Senate – accounted for nearly $560,000.

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