A one-year contract with Douglas County School District’s classified staff is expected to be approved at the Feb. 9 school board meeting.

The union ratified the agreement on Saturday.

It calls for a 2.68 percent increase retroactive to July 1 and the district will not pay for longevity or step increases for this school year. Other changes to personal, sick and long-term leave are included in the contract.

Going forward DCSD will be implementing interest based bargaining.

“It’s a nontraditional type of bargaining where you come together to talk about the interests of the organization rather than management versus the employee groups,” Superintendent Teri White told Lake Tahoe News.

Carson City uses this method. The goal is that it is a more amicable process with better outcomes for all involved, including students.

District staff with representatives from the three bargaining units went through training on this method two weeks ago. This spring the process will be implemented.

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Notes: 

The school board meets Feb.9 at 3:30pm at the airport training center in Minden.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report

By Ellen Knickmeyer, AP

A state analysis warns that some sectors hit hardest by California’s drought may still need help long after the current dry spell ends.

The report Friday by the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office singles out Central Valley communities that will need years of state assistance getting new sources of drinking water, after drought and overuse that dried local wells.

Analysts say the state’s native fish species also may need years of extra state support to save some of them from extinction.

The report in all notes more than $3 billion in drought-response programs by 13 state agencies. It urges the state to study the success of the state efforts in this drought to better manage future ones.

The North Tahoe Public Utility District is exploring a potential public-private partnership with Laulima Development to renovate and manage the North Tahoe Event Center in an attempt to become financially stable.

Three public meetings in February and March are planned to discuss the potential partnership and to solicit community input.

“As a whole the district is in a strong position financially, but we continue to face challenges with the recreation department,” said Duane Whitelaw, general manager of the district, said in a statement. “If this project proves feasible, it could bring a new building to Kings Beach that the community can be proud of, and continue to access, without our taxpayers shouldering the burden of the cost of the ongoing operation and maintenance and anticipated necessary upgrades.”

Laulima Development is in escrow on the Ferrari Crown Motel in Kings Beach. The idea is for Laulima to manage the center as an asset for its guests while also making it available for public and community events.

There will be a  public workshop Feb. 18 from 6 to 7:30pm at the center, the district’s Recreation and Parks Commission will meet Feb. 25 25 at 5:30pm at the center, and the NTPUD board workshop will be in March.

By George Avalos, Bay Area News Group

SAN BRUNO — State regulators, alarmed by a non-stop leak of a gas well in Southern California, have issued emergency regulations and orders for inspections of all gas wells in California, including those owned by PG&E, which said Sunday that it is in compliance with most of the new rules.

The inspections will include wells in three gas storage centers owned and operated by PG&E, all in Northern California.

“These regulations are in effect immediately and require all gas storage companies to complete enhanced inspections and testing at every gas well in California,” said Ken Harris, state oil and gas supervisor with the California Department of Conservation.

Read the whole story

By Jennifer Robison, Las Vegas Review-Journal

Nevada’s lukewarm income recovery turned hot in 2015.

After nearly a decade bringing up the nation’s rear in personal-income growth, the Silver State shot to No. 3 for gains in 2015, according to a new report from the Pew Charitable Trusts.

Personal income matters because federal agencies use the number to allocate funding for social services, while state governments check it to set budgets. But personal income is an important private-sector measure too: Growing incomes put more money into consumers’ pockets for spending that spurs the broader economy, Gordon said.

Read the whole story

By Amy Quinton, Capital Public Radio

A new federal study takes an in-depth look at how climate change will affect the Truckee River Basin. The Basin includes the Truckee and Carson Rivers, Pyramid Lake and Lake Tahoe.

The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation study says temperatures are expected to increase up to 5 degrees by the end of the 21st century. Arlan Nickel with the Bureau says precipitation will change from snow to rain and reservoirs will have to operate differently.

Read the whole story

A heap of twisted metal blocks all lanes of Highway 88 on Feb. 6. Photo/Provided

Ice and rocks contributed to area highways being shutdown at times on Saturday.

A 16-car accident on Highway 88 the morning of Feb. 6 resulted in only one person being transported to Barton Memorial Hospital.

Although there hasn’t been any new snow for a few days, where the pileup occurred is a notoriously icy section. It was at the Caples Lake spillway.

“These cars were wrecked. A few were on their side, one on its roof and the rest were scattered,” Steve Pevenage with Lake Valley Fire Protection District told Lake Tahoe News.

He said it was lucky that everyone was going slowly enough that more people were not injured.

Highway 50 was partially blocked on Saturday night after a boulder fell onto the roadway at Cave Rock.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report

By Howard Stutz, Las Vegas Review-Journal

The Carolina Panthers didn’t exist and Peyton Manning was in high school when Congress halted expansion of legal sports wagering in the U.S. in 1992.

The Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act allowed Nevada’s sports book industry to continue along with small stakes sports wagering in Oregon, Delaware and Montana.

As for stopping illegal sports betting, the 24-year-old law has been an abysmal failure. Unregulated sports gambling has grown, expanded and thrived.

The American Gaming Association estimates U.S. citizens illegally wagered $149 billion on sports last year through off-shore betting websites and illegal bookmakers.

Read the whole story

Comments are being taken on NV Energy’s proposal to replace the electrical transmission line that runs from Foothill Road in the Carson Valley to Tramway Drive near Heavenly Mountain Resort.

The draft environmental assessment analyzes the proposed replacement of the transmission line that serves the Kingsbury substation, which provides electricity to Heavenly Mountain Resort and the surrounding Kingsbury Grade area.

The existing transmission line was constructed in 1956 and has experienced multiple outages due to aging equipment, vegetation and weather related events.  The proposed improvements would reduce the likelihood of power outages associated with high winds, downed trees, wildfires and snow loading and would provide a reliable transmission line that meets current state and federal electricity regulations and safety standards.

Project work could begin this year.

The draft EA is available online. Comments are due March 4.

By Trevon Milliard, Reno Gazette-Journal

Gov. Brian Sandoval approved an emergency regulation on Friday easing Nevada’s teacher licensing requirements so that public schools – facing about 1,000 open positions this year – will have an easier time at hiring.

The regulation change, recently permitted under the federal Every Student Succeeds Act, allows the state to grant temporary one-year licenses to out-of-state teachers while they meet Nevada-specific standards.

These teachers may also be recent graduates with teaching degrees, but also need time to meet state requirements.

Read the whole story