By Christopher Ingraham, Washington Post

A central idea of the war on drugs has always been that loosening restrictions on drug use — by decriminalizing it, or allowing medical use, or legalizing some drugs completely, or even simply discussing legalization — will “send the wrong message” to kids and lead to increased teen drug use and all the problems associated therewith.

But particularly in the realm of marijuana policy, the evidence has repeatedly shown this notion to be inaccurate. After all, 20 states have passed decriminalization measures. And since 1996, 34 states have passed some sort of medical marijuana bill. But, according to two studies published in the past month, teen use of marijuana has fallen over that same period.

“Despite considerable changes in state marijuana policies over the past 15 years, marijuana use among high school students has largely declined,” concludes one of the papers, published in Drug and Alcohol Dependence.

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By J.D. Morris, Las Vegas Sun

Coming soon to Nevada casinos: slot machines that feel a lot like arcade or video games. The Nevada Gaming Commission recently approved regulations for skill-based slot machines in an effort to help the casino industry appeal to younger, more technologically savvy customers.

The regulations create three categories: traditional chance games, skill games in which a player’s ability determines the outcome, and hybrid games in which a combination of chance and skill affect the result.

The skill-based rules have been in the works for months, after the state Legislature approved a bill directing regulators to encourage “innovative, alternative and advanced technology” in casino games. The measure was pushed for by the Association of Gaming Equipment Manufacturers, which represents slot machine companies.

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The Truckee Donner PUD is going to install two public access charging stations in Truckee.

One station will be located at the Truckee Train Depot and there will be a second station at the Pioneer Commerce Center located just north of Interstate 80. Each of the two locations will have two, Level 2 charging stations.

The greater Truckee area has seen a dramatic increase in plug-in electric vehicles in the last few years. In addition, the California Energy Commission has recently made a significant investment in the region with a $200,000 grant to the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency to produce a Tahoe-Truckee PEV Readiness Plan.

The Level 2 charging stations are being provided by Greenlots using CMI/EVSE charging equipment. The charging stations will require payment using either credit card or a charging app on a smartphone.

TDPUD will be offering free charging for the first month of operation. They should open in November.

By Kathryn Reed         

INCLINE VILLAGE – Technology is continuing to bring clarity to the seismic world, though not yet to the extent where temblors can be predicted.

LiDAR provides images and data that otherwise could not be ascertained or would take an exhorbitant amount of time to collect.

“It has immediate scientific value for tectonic analysis and mapping,” Courtney Brailo explained at a talk earlier this month at the Tahoe Environmental Research Center in Incline Village. “We can measure change as it happens.”

Seismic activity is normal throughout the Sierra. Map/UNR Seismology Lab

Brailo is a UNR graduate student working at the Nevada Seismological Lab.

By using LiDAR the lab has been able to document known faults and has discovered ones in the region that were previously unknown.

LiDAR uses lasers and GPS. It can be used on land or underwater. There is satellite, aerial, terrestrial and mobile scanning LiDAR.

Brailo explained how filters could get rid of vegetation on the ground, allowing scientists to get a better view of the terrain via the LiDAR method. This can provide better information at times than being in the field, especially because it is accurate up to centimeters.

“We are seeing things we’ve never seen before. We can see bare earth in Alpine terrain,” she said.

Brailo added, “We can scan 1,000 kilometers a day. It’s quick compared to other standards.”

The UNR lab has been using LiDAR since 2005. In 2010, it was used to map the entire Lake Tahoe Basin – including the faults on the South Shore as well as at Mount Rose. Today, Brailo is focusing more on the greater Reno area. Through her work corrections have been made to previously documented faults and she has documented a new one.

Having baseline data helps scientists measure change going forward. This includes movement in the faults, measuring offset drainage and what the plates look like.

LiDAR can also be used to help engineers and government entities know where it might be more or less dangerous to build based on potential seismic activity. Digital elevation models can be created. Fire crews have used LiDAR to map tree density. It can be used on buildings. It’s the technology that was tapped a few years ago to make sure the space shuttle could be trucked through the streets of Southern California.

By Jason Blevins, Denver Post

Booming season pass sales and an expanding foot print in the West’s top ski destination states of Colorado, Utah and California are helping Vail Resorts thrive despite fickle snowfall.

North America’s largest resort operator on Monday reported $1.4 billion in revenue for its fiscal 2015 year, up 11.6 percent from the previous year. This is the sixth time in the last decade that Vail’s revenues have topped $1 billion.

Almost all of the 2015 revenue came from on-mountain and lodging operations, despite the worst winter on record in California, where Vail operates three resorts. Vail’s earnings from resort revenue — defined as lodging and mountain earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, or EBITDA — climbed 36 percent to $365.8 million.

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By Powder

Erik Roner, father, husband and beloved member of the action-sports community, has tragically died after a parachuting accident this morning in Squaw Valley.

Erik Roner died Sept. 28 parachuting at Squaw Valley. Photo/ Nitro Circus

As a member of a small four-man team of parachuters jumping as part of the opening ceremonies of the fourth annual Squaw Valley Institute Celebrity Golf Tournament, Roner descended into the drop zone but was off target and hit a large tree.

According to witnesses, Roner was suspended by his chute 25-30 feet off the ground for at least 40 minutes until emergency crews could reach him. He was then transported to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead. Cause of death is still unknown.

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A Homewood man was cited Sept. 25 for allegedly furnishing alcoholic beverages to a minor.

South Lake Tahoe police officers on Friday conducted a decoy shoulder tap operation in the Emerald Bay Road-Lake Tahoe Boulevard area to see if businesses were selling booze to under age people.

Under the program a minor under the direct supervision of a peace officer will stand outside a liquor or convenience store and ask patrons to buy them alcohol.  The minor indicates in some way he or she is underage and cannot purchase the alcohol.

If found guilty, Mark Finlaysn, 38, faces a minimum $1,000 fine and 24 hours of community service. Officials have not provide the business where he works.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report

By Harriet Baskas, CNBC

Gerda Stoof was delighted last week to be looking up at the 60-foot-tall stone faces of Mount Rushmore National Memorial near Keystone, South Dakota. She and her husband made a pit stop on their drive home from visiting new twin grandchildren in Ontario.

“I’ve heard about this all my life and have always wanted to see it,” said Stoof, a native of Alberta, Canada. They were unaware that if they’d shown up a week later, the gates to the site of the iconic granite sculpture may have been locked.

That’s because if Oct. 1 rolls around without the nation’s lawmakers settling a budget for the new fiscal year, there may be a partial government shutdown that would affect the nation’s more than 400 national parks and historic sites—including federal agencies that support tourism.

If there is a partial shutdown, it would cost the U.S. travel sector at least $185 million per day in lost economic output, U.S. Travel Association economists estimate. That could also lead to the loss of 530,000 travel-related jobs due to temporary layoffs, reduced wages and fewer hours worked.

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By Associated Press

UNR plans to accept more than 2,000 boxes of documents chronicling Sen. Harry Reid’s decades-long career in Washington.

The university already has about 30 boxes of documents from Reid’s time as a congressman. But it’s expecting hundreds more, along with three terabytes of digital information, when Reid’s Senate career ends in 2017.

The Las Vegas Review-Journal first reported the donation.

Library officials at the school say the collection will help illuminate major political decisions over the years, including the response to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and the passage of Obamacare.

Most of the collection is now in government storage lockers in Maryland. Officials say a portion of the documents will remain confidential until at least 15 years after Reid retires.

By Nicholas Bakalar, New York Times

Childhood exposure to indoor insecticides is associated with an increased risk for certain childhood cancers, a new study has found.

Researchers reviewed 16 studies of children exposed to indoor pesticides, including professional pest control services, indoor flea foggers, flea and tick pet collars, and various ready-to-use roach and ant sprays. The analysis, in Pediatrics, included 7,400 cancer cases matched with 9,437 healthy control subjects.

Exposure to indoor, but not outdoor, residential insecticides was associated with a 47 percent increased risk for childhood leukemia and a 43 percent increased risk for childhood lymphomas. Outdoor pesticides used as weed killers were associated with a 26 percent increased risk for brain tumors.

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