By Marcella Corona, Reno Gazette-Journal

Reno-Tahoe International Airport officials and travelers say they’re concerned over longer security lines – a recent nationwide phenomenon.

On average, it takes about 10 minutes to clear through the Transportation Security Administration checkpoint in Reno, spokesman Brian Kulpin said Tuesday. But lately, it’s taken longer, he said.

Travelers have complained about the TSA lines on social media, and an influx of travelers this month hasn’t helped.

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By Kathryn Reed

Some Lake Tahoe employers aren’t satisfied with the applicant pool, which is why a group of people has come together to address that problem.

The Lake Tahoe Adult Education Consortium was initiated by Lake Tahoe Community College and Lake Tahoe Unified School District a couple years ago, and has morphed into a broader working group of more than two dozen organizations with a mission to create the resources to build a work force that will cater to the needs of local employers.

One of the subcommittees is Hospitality, Tourism, Recreation and Retail – HTRR. Those are the four main employment areas on the South Shore.

“They are looking at what the training needs are of this industry sector and then will work to determine what combination of resources can best address those needs,” B Gorman, CEO of Lake Tahoe South Shore Chamber of Commerce, told Lake Tahoe News. “The concept is to leverage and refine existing resources to meet needs that are purportedly not currently being met.”

Lake Tahoe Community College has hired a director of adult education to coordinate the specialized curriculum. Classes won’t be the normal quarter-long classes. Many may not involve credits. Some could be taught at the workplace.

“We will do some work force English, a lot with customer service, soft skills like timeliness, work ethic, communication, team work, can they write a coherent sentence, can they speak well. Then we will do technical training,” Virginia Berry, LTCC dean of Career Tech Education, told Lake Tahoe News. “We hear from employers they will teach technical skills, but they need someone to show up on a powder day.”

Classes will be aimed at showing people the relationship between those soft skills and being able to move up the ladder. Berry called it “wage progression.” The training isn’t just intended to get the first job, but to give them the skills that could get the person promoted.

Michael Ward with HighBar Global Consulting has been facilitating the meetings with the larger group. He shared with members that in 2015 the hourly wages needed in South Lake Tahoe to sustain an individual or family are:

·      1 adult: $9.95

·      1 adult, 1 child: $20.73

·      1 adult, 2 kids: $24.34

·      1 adult, 3 kids: $30.98

·      2 adults: $15.10

·      2 adults, 1 kid: $18.81

·      2 adults, 2 kids: $20.17

·      2 adults, 3 kids: $24.99.

The goal is to have classes launched no later than this fall.

Managers will have a set of classes, too.

“I believe this will do more for the South Lake Tahoe area than anything the college has done in a long time – getting adult education up and running to train the adult work force,” LTCC President Kindred Murillo told Lake Tahoe News. “To me, it’s a game changer for South Lake Tahoe.”

The consortium initially was awarded a grant from the state to start the planning process. Another grant — $750,000 for each of the next three years – was secured from the state to implement the program. Alpine County received $75,000, which is being wrapped into the larger grant and is allowing those residents to participate.

Seventy-one groups in the state were awarded the funding that is to be spent on high school diplomas, English learners, basic skills, adult workforce needs, career technical education, pre-apprenticeship, or adults with disabilities.

“Lake Tahoe Community College is building adult education programs to support community and workforce development through education. Certificates and degrees designed for fast-tracked career advancement and job readiness are being developed in collaboration with local hospitality, tourism, recreation and retail employers as well as community service organizations,” Berry said. “These grant funded programs will offer free and low-cost courses to address the needs of a diverse population of adult learners with LTCC as the hub of programs being offered on campus and at offsite locations with regional partners.”

While there are various adult ed classes throughout the community, the college will now serve as the hub. This is intended to better get people to where they need to go and to develop the classes that are lacking. Non-credit classes mean undocumented residents will be able to take them.

The Restaurant Industry Group has been brought in to look at the college’s culinary arts program to see what can be changed so those obtaining their certificate have the skills to start work. There has been criticism too many culinary classes are geared toward the home cook and not the potential kitchen worker.

At South Tahoe High School the Get Focused, Stay Focused initiative was launched this school year. This is to get freshman to start thinking about a 10-year plan for their lives and how to get there. It has been met with a lukewarm response from parents and students.

Still, the goal is get people better prepared at an earlier age.

“Here on the South Shore when we did our member survey last autumn 27.5 percent of respondents stated that workforce was their No. 1 concern at their business. That said, I rarely speak to a business where this isn’t a part of the dialogue,” Gorman said.

Business walks on the South Shore occurred Tuesday and Wednesday, with the North Shore ones taking place next month. People are being asked what they need to be successful for the next decade.

That information will be used by this group, as well as incorporated into a larger action plan that the Tahoe Prosperity Center expects to release in the fall.

By Megan Messerly, Las Vegas Sun

From the race to replace Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid to the battle for control of the Nevada Legislature, the 2016 election in Nevada will offer far more than a choice of presidential candidates.

While many of the campaigns have been in the works for months, the opening of the filing window for candidates in Nevada on Monday marked the official start to primary season. Candidates for nonjudicial offices have until Friday to file for office.

The higher-profile races in Nevada include competition for Reid’s seat, which he’s vacating by retiring after five terms, and a slew of Nevada Senate and Assembly positions that Democrats are fighting to regain after Republicans gained majorities in both chambers during 2014.

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An off-duty CalFire firefighter died Sunday from injuries she sustained in a car crash near Truckee.

Kristin Jane Snook, 35, of Los Gatos was involved in a five-vehicle pile-up at 6:35pm March 11 on Highway 89 between Truckee and Squaw Valley.

According the California Highway Patrol, Snook lost control of the vehicle, crossed into oncoming traffic, struck a Ford F150 pickup head-on, which sent her vehicle back to the southbound lane, where it was hit by three other vehicles.

Snook died at Renown Regional Medical Center in Reno two days later.

Two other people sustained minor injuries.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report

Three women were arrested at a Stateline casino this month on charges of prostitution.

Brenda Mary Fee, 51, of South Lake Tahoe, Claudia Lizbeth Bernal, 23, of Incline Village, and Monique Marie Lopez, 30, of Sparks were apprehended March 12.

“They are escorts. There is no company associated with them,” Sgt. Pat Brooks with Douglas County Sheriff’s Department told Lake Tahoe News. “The legitimate ones are regulated,” he said of escort services.

Prostitution is legal in parts of Nevada, but not Douglas County.

The department’s Street Enforcement Team and TRINET task force conducted the sting operation.

“DCSET investigators were on scene at an undisclosed Stateline casino hotel room when the female escort arrived to perform her services. The female escort was detained after offering sexual services for money,” investigators said in a statement.

The location of the arrest is not being released for investigative reasons, Brooks said.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report

Phillip and Nancy Garrido are in prison for the abduction of Jaycee Lee Dugard.

By Bay City News Service
 
A divided U.S. appeals court on Tuesday dismissed a lawsuit filed by kidnapping victim Jaycee Lee Dugard against the federal government for failing to supervise her captor when he was on parole from another kidnapping in the years before she was abducted.

A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said by a 2-1 vote that Dugard could not sue over the alleged failure to supervise Phillip Garrido in the three years before she was kidnapped in 1991 because she was not a “specifically identifiable victim” at the time.

Dugard’s lawsuit claimed that if federal parole officials had supervised Garrido properly, they would have revoked his parole and sent him back to prison for numerous instances of drug use and other violations, thus making him unable to kidnap her.

Dugard, now 35, was kidnapped at age 11 by Phillip and Nancy Garrido on the morning of June 10, 1991, as she walked to a school bus stop outside her home in Meyers.

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Rates at Bijou Golf Course are likely going up this summer. Photo/LTN file

By Kathryn Reed

It can cost more to file an appeal with the city of South Lake Tahoe than what the original fee or fine was. The City Council wants to change that policy.

At Tuesday’s meeting the four (Councilman Hal Cole was out of town) directed staff to bring back a code amendment that would redefine how appeals are handled. This includes the possibility of having the appeal fee reduced or abolished if the applicant were to “win” their case. Appeal fees might also have more of a sliding scale based on what the original fee was.

Hilary Roverud, assistant director of Community Development, said a couple appeals a year is normal, but none has come forward since the price was raised last year to $3,000.

This was all part of a larger discussion March 15 about the master fee schedule. Annually the council reviews the fees. A vote on the fees will be at the next meeting.

Going forward the fees will be tied to a consumer price index, which is currently at 1.0318 percent.

“We recommend not changing the recreation fees at this time,” Mark Carlson, assistant city manager, told the council. He said this is because of the condition of the facilities and based on participation. If the rec center is overhauled, that would be the time to look at a different fee structure, he said.

However, it will cost more to play a round of golf at Bijou Golf Course. The fee for nine holes will be $18 instead of $15. Going down, though, is the price of a season pass for youth.

While staff proposed keeping the campground fees the same, Councilman Tom Davis successfully lobbied his colleagues to consider raising them for summer 2017. This will be discussed further when the whole schedule comes back for a vote.

His reasoning is that if it sells out each year, even with conditions less than ideal, the demand is such that people will pay a few more dollars per night. He wants that added revenue dedicated for campground improvements. It is estimated the needed upgrades just to the bathrooms would cost $1 million.

The city has been hesitant to make substantive improvements to Campground by the Lake because the land is owned by El Dorado County and negotiations are under way regarding that parcel’s future.

Davis left the room while the remaining three discussed airport hangar fees because he rents one.

The assistant city manager said the city is significantly below market when it comes to the cost to rent a hangar for non-aviation use. The goal is to get the price to 75 cents per square foot. The first increase will be to get the cost halfway there.

Carlson said the city is likely to need a couple more hangars for transient aircraft. If the added expense for people using them for storage doesn’t get them to leave, it’s possible the city will have to ask some people to move.

—–

    In other news:

·      Councilman Austin Sass is looking into having a debate or forum between proponents of the loop road and those who are against it, namely the people seeking to put it on the ballot.

·      Mid-year budget adjustments were approved.

·      Chad Donnelly, SnowGlobe producer, was granted $4,500 in reimbursement for the additional transit for this past year’s music festival. The council denied his request for $9,231.40 for garbage disposal. The vote was 3-1, with Councilwoman JoAnn Conner believing the city gives him enough already, especially with the three-day event generating more cash via additional ticket sales.

By Matthew Seeman, KRNV-TV

Search and rescue crews on Monday rescued a couple who became stranded in rural back country near Castle Peak, according to California Highway Patrol.

The Nevada County Sheriff’s Office asked CHP Helicopter 20 to perform a search and rescue at about 4:30pm March 14, CHP said in a statement.

A couple had called 911 for help near Castle Peak north of Interstate 80.

Read the whole story

By Heather Long and Patrick Gillpesie, CNN Money

The rise of Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders, many say, is a reflection of the anger in America today.
In numerous polls, voters say America’s economy is their No. 1 issue. They believe the middle class is dying, trade is killing U.S. jobs and that their kids won’t have a chance to get ahead.

There’s some rationale behind their claims.

“The American worker is being left behind,” says David Workman Sr. He’s “almost 70” and a registered Republican, but he says he’ll vote for Sanders. If Sanders doesn’t make it to November, he’ll support Trump.

Trump polls well across the board, but he does best with white men who don’t have a college degree and make under $50,000 a year. Sanders also polls best with whites, especially middle class whites.

Read the whole story

By Seth Borenstein, AP

Climate science has progressed so much that experts can accurately detect global warming’s fingerprints on certain extreme weather events, such as a heat wave, according to a high-level scientific advisory panel.

For years scientists have given almost a rote response to the question of whether an instance of weird weather was from global warming, insisting that they can’t attribute any single event to climate change. But “the science has advanced to the point that this is no longer true as an unqualified blanket statement,” the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine reported.

Starting in 2004, dozens of complex peer-reviewed studies found the odds of some extreme events – but by no means all – were goosed by man-made climate change. This new field of finding global warming fingerprints is scientifically valid, the academies said in a 163-page report released Friday. The private non-profit has advised the government on complex, science-oriented issues since the days of President Abraham Lincoln.

When it comes to heat waves, droughts, heavy rain and some other events, scientists who do rigorous research can say whether they was more likely or more severe because of man-made global warming, said academies report chairman David Titley, a Pennsylvania State University meteorology professor. And that matters.

“While we plan for climate, we live in weather,” Titley, a retired Navy admiral, said in an interview. “These extremes are making climate real when in fact they are attributable to climate change.”

Not all weird weather can be blamed with any degree of certainty on global warming, according to the report.

“For a certain class and type of event there is a human fingerprint,” said report co-author Marshall Shepherd, a University of Georgia meteorology professor. The report says there is “high confidence” in studies looking for climate change connections between extreme hot and cold temperatures, such as the Russian heat wave of 2010. There’s medium confidence in efforts trying to attribute droughts and extreme rainfall.

Hurricanes and other tropical cyclones, wildfires and severe thunderstorms are on the low end of the confidence range, the report found.

In some cases heat and lack of rain combine and the studies find a viable connection to global warming, such as in the recent four-year California drought and the drought that hit Syria and neighbors, Titley said.

“The fog of uncertainty that obscured the human role in individual events is finally lifting,” said Princeton University Professor Michael Oppenheimer. He wasn’t part of the study, but is on the board of Climate Central, which manages a large climate attribution project.

Good attribution studies are based on what Titley calls a “three-legged stool” of observational records of decades of past events, detailed understanding of the physics that cause the weird weather itself, and sophisticated computer models that simulate the chances of the extreme event if there were no man-made, heat-trapping gases warming the atmosphere.

“It’s just like an autopsy,” said Martin Hoerling, a National Oceanic Atmospheric and Administration research meteorologist who has conducted several attribution studies, finding a climate change connection in some events and not finding a link in others. “We’re following the data wherever it goes.”

Titley said attribution studies are “based in physical science and statistics that don’t value Republicans or Democrats. The ice just melts. This has nothing to do with politics.”

These studies don’t say an event was 100 percent caused by climate change. They usually say chances were increased by a certain fraction.

Katharine Hayhoe, a Texas Tech climate scientist who wasn’t part of the study, praised the work: It is “very important to clarify to people how no event is black or white: No individual weather event can be said to be ‘solely’ human nor ‘solely’ natural any more. They are somewhere on the sliding scale between.”

But other scientists don’t like the idea of looking at single events.

Climate change caused by man “has fingerprints in every weather event we experience today,” wrote Oklahoma University meteorology professor Jason Furtado, who wasn’t part of the study. “Disentangling the contribution of climate change with natural variability for a single event is not fruitful or currently possible in my opinion.”

Eventually, Titley hopes, the science of climate change fingerprint detecting will advance so that meteorologists can make testable forecasts of a certain number of extreme events in a season.