The U.S. Forest Service is warning South Shore residents that a bobcat had been seen multiple times in the Saw Mill Pond, Dundee Circle, North Upper Truckee, Washoe Meadows State Park, Echo Lake areas.

The agency has yet to verify the credibility of a March 1 report of a mountain lion with a cub in the area of Sawmill Road and Lake Tahoe Boulevard.

Spring weather tends to bring these animals out more where they are seen.

The Forest Service has more information online about staying safe in mountain lion habitat.

By Jenny Kane, Reno Gazette-Journal

While Burning Man and Pershing County officials settled a lawsuit over First Amendment rights and money three years ago, the matter finally and officially has been settled in a federal appellate court.

In the decision released by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday, Chief Judge Sidney Thomas struck down the previous 2014 ruling of District Court Judge Robert Jones, whom Thomas chastised for rejecting the parties’ settlement in the first place.

Jones called the settlement “illegal, unenforceable and absurd” at the time. He erred because the court’s jurisdiction had expired and because Jones ignored “the parties’ clear intentions to resolve the matter,” Thomas wrote in the decision.

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By Ian Whitaker, Las Vegas Sun

Late last year higher education officials controversially voted to merge campus police at two Reno colleges with the UNR police department.

Then, last month, administrators proposed centralizing the Nevada System of Higher Education’s registration system. At that same meeting, the Board of Regents reaffirmed their vision for a strong, single system to oversee higher education in Nevada.

Now, system officials are considering whether the UNLV police department should take over enforcement duties for the College of Southern Nevada and Nevada State College.

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By Richard N. Velotta, Las Vegas Review-Journal

BEATTY – Gov. Brian Sandoval rolled up to a new electric car charging station here in an electric Ford Focus emblazoned with a Nevada Department of Transportation logo and plugged into a charging port like he had done it a thousand times.

“See,” he said to an approving crowd. “It’s so easy even I can do it.”

And with that, Sandoval kicked off a new chapter in his “New Nevada” tech program, dedicating the first state-sponsored electric car charging station in rural Nevada.

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By Erica Goode, New York Times

Invasive species are bad news, or so goes the conventional wisdom, encouraged by persistent warnings from biologists about the dangers of foreign animals and plants moving into new territories.

Conservation organizations bill alien species as the foremost threat to native wildlife. Cities rip out exotic trees and shrubs in favor of indigenous varieties. And governments spend millions on efforts to head off or eradicate biological invaders.

“I think the dominant paradigm in the field is still a ‘when in doubt, kill them’ sort of attitude,” said Dov Sax, an associate professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at Brown University.

But a growing number of scientists are challenging this view, arguing that not all invasive species are destructive; some, they contend, are even beneficial. The assumption that what hails from elsewhere is inherently bad, these researchers say, rests more on xenophobia than on science.

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Property ownership change means tenants on Harrison Avenue in South Lake Tahoe must move. Photo/LTN

By Kathryn Reed

Harrison Avenue in South Lake Tahoe is about to be transformed again.

This time it will be the building that houses South Tahoe Stand Up Paddle and Rude Brothers Bagels. Locals John Cefalu and Mike McKeen closed escrow on the property last month and are in the process of renovating the building.

Renovation also means displacing the tenants.

“Because of the requirements the city has and building codes we are going to have to go through with some extensive demolition,” Cefalu told Lake Tahoe News. Plus, the building will need sprinklers put in.

All of this work can’t be done while tenants are in the building.

Rude Brothers got the news last week and has until the end of the month to move out. The paddleboard company is moving to the back of the building on a month-to-month lease that is valid through the summer season.

Lisa and Jim Gosh have owned the bagel shop for more than a dozen years, while the business has been in that location for more than 20. (Steve Rude started the business.)

“Right now Jim and Lisa are looking for a new location,” shop manager Andrea Reber told Lake Tahoe News. “We need a lot of room.”

She said with all of the equipment it will be hard to find the right place. Large mixers are in the back for making the bagels every day, even the cream cheese is made on location.

Chris Brackett, owner of the SUP shop, had hoped to purchase the property, but he said he lost the bidding war.

Bob Koser was Brackett’s original landlord. He passed away in November 2014. They had known each other since Brackett was a kid. For six years he managed the property for Koser.

Koser left the building to Small Victories Ministries in Illinois with the idea the organization would have sustained income through the rents, Brackett said. That clearly didn’t happen. The group instead sold the property to the highest bidder – the Cefalu-McKeen partnership.

“We will make it work. We will just have to,” Brackett said of working out of the smaller space in the back and not having a street front location. Long-term, though, he is considering all of his options.

Cefalu said he isn’t sure if the current tenants would be asked back. It depends on what the exact designs are. Dave Goldman has been hired as the architect.

The building is so old is must go through the historic site review as mandated by the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency.

Cefalu described it as more like blight than historic. He remembers the front of the building being here when he came to the lake in 1957. The back was added on since then.

The apartment on the second floor has been demolished.

“I did verify that a demolition permit has been issued but it is only for interior demo work. We do not have any submittals that indicate how the space will be reconditioned or what it will be. We also do not have any applications for exterior changes,” Hilary Roverud, deputy director of development services with the city, told Lake Tahoe News.

Cefalu said the goal is to begin the substantive work on April 1 and be done by Aug. 1.

“We hope it will be an amenity and improve the appearance of the whole area with what I’ve done and what we intend to do,” Cefalu said. “There is still a lot more work to be done with other properties. I hope it becomes contagious with the other properties nearby that need improvement.”

Cefalu owns the Globin Building with the laundry facilities out front. McKeen owns the building occupied by Pinnacle realty.

The fully clothed body of David Mark Flynn was recovered near Timber Cove Pier on Feb. 29.

The cause of death is undetermined pending toxicology reports, according to the El Dorado County Sheriff’s Department.

Flynn, 53, was a resident of South Lake Tahoe.

The police department told Lake Tahoe News there were no outward signs of trauma.

The surface temperature of the lake this time of year is usually between 40 and 50 degrees.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report

By Chris Kudialis, Las Vegas Sun

Reclining leather seats, a 42-inch television screen and stencils of bright red marijuana leaves illuminate the back of 420 Tours’ sport utility vehicle. The SUV, along with a 30-foot bus, are used by Nevada’s first cannabis tour company, which takes people looking for a medical marijuana card and legal pot from street corner to dispensary in less than an hour.

Using the app EaseMD, 420 Tours founder Drew Gennuso connects pre-screened passengers who have a California ID or U.S. passport with a California doctor, live over video chat, in the back seat of the “Cannabus” SUV. The patients, frequently picked up on the Strip, describe their symptoms, receive a doctor’s recommendation printed on the spot and are taken to a Las Vegas dispensary of their choice.

Nearly three years after landmark legislation legalized medical marijuana dispensaries in Nevada, patients and licensed business owners remain trapped in a grueling application process that keeps legal pot unattainable to many in the state.

And while Nevada patients and retailers stumble through the state’s red tape, entrepreneurs are cashing in on Nevada’s reciprocity laws, which allow out-of-state patients to play here by their own states’ more lenient rules.

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By Kathryn Reed

While the discussion was about a parade policy, the spectacle was more like a middle school play yard filled with prepubescent teens squabbling over something so inane that no rational adult would understand the significance of the banter.

And, yet, the people doing the bickering were the five elected members of the South Lake Tahoe City Council and the city manager, with the city attorney seeming to be the reluctant referee.

South Lake Tahoe City Councilwoman JoAnn Conner asked for the parade policy to be on the agenda. She organizes parades through her business Golden Bear Events.

In the city’s 50-year history, there has never been the need for a parade policy. No one, according to city staff, has wanted such a policy except for Conner. Staff said no one has complained that there isn’t one, nor has anyone filed any sort of grievance about how things have been handled, nor have they required clarification regarding the permit that must be obtained to put on a parade.

A handful of parades go through the city each year – the homecoming parade for South Tahoe High School, Slow Rollers bike parade, Conner has put on a Fourth of July parade since 2012 and she does one for Christmas Cheer, and there are random other ones such as the Olympic celebration and Jaycee Lee Dugard’s return.

Conner has wanted city resources – like police and fire – to be in her parade, as well as officers to provide an escort.

Police Chief Brian Uhler explained that several factors are considered when deciding if a police escort is required. The size of the parade is one, as is the route, time of day, day of week and other criteria. He said the limited number of vehicles Conner had last July 4 did not warrant an escort.

City Manager Nancy Kerry, when not being interrupted, tried to explain that no city resources could be in a parade organized by a city council member.

Conner vehemently and repeatedly insisted she makes no money from the parades, but instead produces them as a fundraiser either for veterans or Christmas Cheer. She claims the Fair Political Practices Commission has ruled there is no conflict because there is no financial benefit to her. She said the letter is in her file. The city told Lake Tahoe News it does not keep files on council members.

While Conner’s bank account may not have a positive cash flow from the parades, she is collecting money from participants. She is then able to write a check from her business to the designated charities; the tax write-off would be a benefit. She can also curry political favor such as votes by putting on these parades with city resources. That is the rub, and the type of conflict that the FPPC has not weighed in on. She also has her business name on all promotional material.

It is highly unusual for an elected official to even be participating in a discussion about the business they are in when it is an agenda item. For example, Councilman Tom Davis recuses himself on a regular basis regarding vacation rentals because of his stake in Tahoe Keys Resort.

Councilman Hal Cole took issue with the year then-Councilwomen Brooke Laine and Angela Swanson were not invited to be in the Fourth of July parade. Conner blamed it on the veterans not wanting them. Davis said he spoke with board members of the American Legion and they had no idea what Conner was talking about.

At the end of the meeting March 1, the motion was made to adopt the policy as presented and for the city to put on a Fourth of July parade. This passed with a 4-1 vote; Conner in the minority.

She nearly went ballistic when Davis proposed the idea of the city putting on the parade. But it was his idea long before she started putting on her parade. Those two went at it verbally.

Conner was adamant the action was all about taking work away from a local business. Cole reminded Conner that she said she doesn’t make money off the events, and therefore said it wasn’t taking business away.

Conner said in a good year she makes $200 to $300 for the veterans. Cole and Davis said they would ensure the veterans are compensated, and would help them raise money.

Councilman Austin Sass said there is nothing stopping Conner or anyone else from putting on a parade in addition to the city’s.

By Rebecca Klein, Huffington Post

The seeds of the achievement gap in science are planted before a child has ever set foot in an elementary school, according to a new study.

The new report out this month looks to explain why white, upper-class eighth-graders tend to perform much better in science than their low-income and minority peers.

Unfortunately, the answer involves a series of factors beyond any child’s control. By the time they enter kindergarten, white, affluent students already have a much larger general knowledge of science than their minority classmates, the study shows. This gap follows white and black students beyond elementary school to middle school, where more affluent students substantially outperform their peers on measures of science achievement.

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