Two Truckee residents have been arrested in connection with a string of burglaries.

A trailer full of new bikes was stolen from the front yard of a local shop owner on Nov. 21. It was located that evening near Alder Creek Road in Truckee.

Lisandro Rangel, 25, was subsequently arrested on charges of theft and possession of the stolen property. Rangel was also on parole for burglary and had an outstanding felony warrant out of Oregon. Truckee police officers said when he was arrested Rangel was in possession of methamphetamine, drug paraphernalia, and burglary tools.

All of the stolen bicycles were positively identified by the bicycle shop owner as belonging to him. The next day a Nevada County sheriff’s deputy located several more stolen bicycles still in boxes off of Prosser Dam Road.  These bicycles were also positively identified by the bicycle shop owner as belonging to him and returned to the owner.

During the investigation, officers developed additional information on other possible thefts in the area. On Dec. 1 officers served a search warrant at an apartment, locating numerous pieces of stolen property from recent auto and residential burglaries that have occurred locally. The owners of the recovered property have been identified and contacted.

Claudia Chavez, 27, was taken into custody on charges of several felonies including burglary, possession of stolen property and possession of a dangerous weapon.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report

By Matt Stevens, Los Angeles Times

For the first time since California’s emergency drought rules took effect, the state failed to reduce its monthly water consumption by 25 percent, regulators said Tuesday.

The state cut its urban water use in October by 22.2 percent, compared with the same month in 2013, officials said.

That effort fell below the 26.1 percent savings in September and marks the only month that Californians have fallen short of their target since compliance became mandatory in June.

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By Kathryn Reed

Proponents to incorporate Olympic Valley have given up the fight to do so.

“All eight members of our board voted unanimously to withdraw our petition. Given the impasse with LAFCO combined with opposition by Placer County, plus stiff and heavily funded opposition from Squaw Valley Ski Holdings, we saw no way to continue moving forward,” Fred Ilfeld, board chair of Incorporate Olympic Valley (IOV), said in a statement Dec. 1.

The process to incorporate started in spring 2013. It was a reaction to the large-scale development proposed at the base of Squaw Valley ski resort, and a desire to have a louder voice and control in matters that affected the residents. The county seat is Auburn – where supervisors make the decisions.

Squaw Valley Ski Holdings, a subsidiary of KSL Capital Partners, runs Squaw Valley and Alpine Meadows ski resorts as well as the village at Squaw. In 2012, the company proposed a massive overhaul of the village that would include more housing, a water park and other features that residents balked at. Those plans have since been scaled back.

The company has spent at least a half a million dollars to stop incorporation.

“The decision by IOV to withdraw their petition for incorporation is a step in the right direction for the future of Olympic Valley. Creating a new town would have been a risky proposition, not just for the people and businesses of Olympic Valley, but for the community of North Lake Tahoe. We now have the opportunity to move forward in a positive way, and to work together as a cohesive community to maintain our mountain culture and have a dialogue on how we can join together in tackling some of the challenges and concerns that prompted this initiative,” Andy Wirth,president and CEO of Squaw Valley Ski Holdings and representative of Save Olympic Valley, said in a statement.

About 1,000 people live in what would have been the city of Olympic Valley. IOV wanted to take the issue of incorporation to the voters. There are about 560 registered voters.

Backers believe they have the financial wherewithal to be a viable city, citing data from the sate Controllers Office. However, the Placer County LAFCO board had to OK the idea before it could go to voters. That office has been adamantly against incorporation.

“Although IOV has suggested that the proposed town of Olympic Valley would be financially viable, the facts simply did not support that conclusion,” said Matthew Newman, co-founder of Blue Sky Consulting Group. “In their effort to show that the town could work financially, IOV proposed to capture all of the benefits of development in the form of higher tax revenues while simultaneously seeking to avoid the increased costs that new development would bring in the form of increased law enforcement services and more work for planners and the community development department.”

While this latest round is over, the larger fight for greater representation is not.

“Although the petition withdrawal marks the end of the current chapter of the incorporation effort, it introduces the possibility of the next chapter of community building and regional self-governance,” organizers said in a press release. “Hopes and expectations remain high that a broader community effort will compel Placer County to address the needs of North Tahoe region and respond to the call for more local input and autonomy. In this regard, IOV board members are open to sharing their recent experience with their neighbors and to exploring such a possibility for regional self-determination.”

By Bob Egelko, San Francisco Chronicle

Spanking one’s child does not amount to abuse that warrants judicial intervention, at least as long as the child is not seriously injured or endangered, a state appeals court has ruled.

California law authorizes “reasonable methods of parental discipline,” which can include “reasonable and age-appropriate spanking to the buttocks,” the Second District Court of Appeal in Los Angeles said Tuesday.

The court told a Juvenile Court judge to reconsider the case of a Los Angeles County woman who was ordered to undergo parental education and counseling after spanking her two young sons with her hand and a shoe.

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By Sarah Heise, KCRA-TV

A father and his five children were rescued by the California Highway Patrol after becoming stranded in a wooded and snowy area of El Dorado County for hours, according to officers.

The family of six went on an off-road excursion about 8am Nov. 29 in the Ice House Reservoir area, but realized they were lost soon after.

The Elk Grove father named Ed called the CHP about 2:30pm and told them that his pickup truck had begun sliding toward a cliff, and that he had been holding the brake pedal with both feet for some time to prevent it from going over the edge, the CHP said.

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The tree removal project in 2011 at Lake Christopher in South Lake Tahoe got caught up the fire safe council money debacle. Photo/LTN file

By Anne Knowles

CARSON CITY — Despite efforts by the Nevada Legislature to press the federal government for money, fire districts, contractors and some homeowners in the Lake Tahoe Basin remain unpaid for $3.4 million in fuels reduction work completed as long ago as 2010.

“It’s been over half a decade. It is absolutely absurd, just unbelievable what’s going on,” Nevada state Sen. James Settelmeyer, R-Minden, said Monday during a meeting of the Legislature’s interim committee that oversees the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency and Marlette Lake Water System.

The fuels reduction work was to be paid for through grants from the U.S. Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service administered by the Nevada Fire Safe Council.

But starting in 2010 the NVSFC became slow to pay contractors and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Office of Inspector General investigated the group after receiving a tip in July 2011. Lake Tahoe News broke the story that summer.

The OIG released a report in January 2012 saying it found that the NVFSC inappropriately deposited money from multiple grants into a single bank account and recommended that all funds be frozen until NVSFC performed audits and demonstrated it was acting properly.

Eventually, NVSFC filed for bankruptcy and its case remains mired in the courts.

Michael Brown, fire chief for the North Lake Tahoe Fire District, testified at the Nov. 30 committee meeting saying that the fire chiefs of the Lake Tahoe Basin conducted their own investigation and found that NVSFC had used USFS money to pay for BLM-funded projects.

“No criminal activity was ever uncovered by the audits and investigations. They co-mingled the funds and paid out with grants that should have been paid out with other grants,” Brown told the committee.

The fire districts and the money owed each include Lake Valley Fire Protection District, $248,759; Meeks Bay Fire Protection District, $403,378; North Lake Tahoe Fire Protection District, $635,118; North Tahoe Fire Protection District, $379,666; and Tahoe Douglas Fire Protection District, $386,440.

More than a dozen contractors are owed, most for between $10,000 and $20,000 and one, Kimball Tree Service of South Lake Tahoe, for $100,015.

“We’ll survive,” said Brown, referring to the fire districts. “It’s the contractors not surviving. I got two calls just last week asking about the payments. One is out of business and the other is just hanging on.”

Still, the fire districts have suffered, too. Brown told Lake Tahoe News that while his firefighting and emergency response team is holding steady at 52 employees, he has had to reduce his fuels reduction team from 60 workers to 36.

During this year’s legislative session, the Nevada Legislature passed Assembly Joint Resolution 3, urging Congress to facilitate the release of the money.

The committee passed a motion Monday to send a letter to the state’s congressional delegation to update the interim committee on the funds.

“I support the letter,” Assemblywoman Robin Titus, R-Wellington, said. “But I am concerned sending letters is an exercise in futility.”

Stateline casinos were in sync October with state gaming numbers – both losers compared to the previous year.

Local revenue was down 3 percent compared to 2014.

Nevada casinos brought in more than $887.5 million, which was down 2.85 percent from a year ago.

North Shore casinos were up 2.85 percent.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report

By Jen Skerritt, BloombergBusiness

The U.S. and Canada have for decades fought over the lumber trade. Now Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is about to be initiated into the knotty world of timber relations, specifically regarding glossy magazine paper.

Four Canadian companies — Catalyst Paper Corp., J.D. Irving Ltd., Port Hawkesbury Paper LP, Resolute Forest Products Inc. — say they plan to fight a U.S. decision in July to impose import tariffs of as much as 20 percent on specialty paper, which is also used in newspaper inserts.

The dispute comes amid a rise in the number of trade cases launched by U.S. manufacturers on everything from steel to paper as the greenback has surged. Countries hit with duties include Australia, Portugal and Indonesia.

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An El Dorado County woman woke up in bed about 1:15am Saturday to find a man pointing a handgun a her. He demanded money and pot.

“When the gunman found the marijuana, he had the female go into the living room where she was bound by the gunman and a male accomplice. While tied up, the victim noticed a third male in her house,” sheriff’s deputies said in a press release.

The home invasion robbery occurred in the 3000 block of Winter Creek Road in Mount Aukum.

The victim was able to get loose to call her husband after the suspects left.

The suspects are described as:

• The gunman: Hispanic male, adult, clean shaven in his late 20s, wearing a grey beanie, a plain grey sweat shirt and blue jeans.
• The accomplice: A male with a small build, wearing a red ski mask, black sweat shirt, blue jeans, black tennis shoes with a silver stripe on the side.
• The third male: A male with a small build wearing a black ski mask, black sweat shirt, and blue jeans.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report

It’s so cold in Tahoe icicles aren’t even melting. Photo/LTN

By Kathryn Reed

Furnaces may be in overdrive and woodpiles dwindling because of the cold in Lake Tahoe, but no records are being set.

The low Sunday in South Lake Tahoe was 0 degrees. The record for Nov. 29 is minus 9 set in 2010. On Nov. 28 the low was minus 1, while the record from 1972 is minus 2.

In Tahoe City, Sunday’s low of 6 missed tying the record by two degrees. That 4-degree record was set on Nov. 29, 1975. The Nov. 28 low was 7; the record of 5 was established in 1975.

“Last week we had that cold storm go through and it just lingered around for a few days. We haven’t been able to warm up because partly the snow cover and lack of wind, and no warm air mass,” meteorologist Mark Deutschendorf with the National Weather Service in Reno told Lake Tahoe News.

While the forecast is far from a heat wave, Monday’s overnight low in South Lake is expected to be 19 degrees. Daytime highs will be in the 40s, with Wednesday reaching the 50s before the next storm blows in on Thursday.

Deutschendorf called it a “quick shot of winter”, with typical December temps returning for the weekend.

The late Thursday-early Friday system is expected to drop 2 to 4 inches of snow at lake level, with 6-12 inches at higher elevations.