By Alexei Koseff, Sacramento Bee

Citrus Heights police Officer Wesley Herman recently arrested a parolee carrying stolen jewelry and a deceased man’s identification card.

If the property were valued at more than $950, the case was a felony that would let him take the man into custody. If not, it was a misdemeanor and he’d get a citation.

The first words out of his mouth, Herman said, were, “Am I going to jail?”

It’s been nine months since California voters approved a ballot measure reducing charges for some nonviolent drug and property crimes, and Herman says repeat offenders are getting savvy about the new limits of the law.

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By Sandra Chereb, Las Vegas Review-Journal

CARSON CITY — State officials are dimming the lights and preparing to phase out an ambitious but short-lived program initially intended to help people stay in their homes as Nevada’s housing market crumbled and home values plummeted during the Great Recession.

The Nevada Home Retention Program set a lofty goal of acquiring 4,600 discounted mortgages of distressed properties over a seven-year period with the intent of helping homeowners refinance and stay afloat.

Nevada lawmakers in 2013 appropriated $49 million for the effort, and another $100 million was made available as needed through federal funds and a loan from the state housing division.

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By Bill Lindelof, Sacramento Bee

A pilot program by the California Lottery in which gamblers can buy lottery tickets at gas pumps is being embraced by players, but the convenience raises concerns for an anti-gambling group.

“Play at the Pump” lets motorists buy up to $20 worth of Quick Pick tickets when they pay with a credit or debit card at the gas pump. The program – which started about a year ago in Roseville – has spread to 86 other locations in the region and Southern California. The plan is to expand to about 100 stations. Only California and North Carolina have the option, but other states are considering it.

Customers appear to like the convenience of paying for the Powerball, Mega Millions and SuperLotto Plus draw games without walking inside a gas station mart. Other stations want to come on board, said lottery spokesman Alex Traverso.

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An updated Lake Tahoe Basin Community Wildfire Protection Plan will be presented to the public during the Lake Tahoe Environmental Summit on Aug. 24.

This plan was collaboratively developed by the 18 member organizations of the Tahoe Fire and Fuels Team and is the culmination of a three-year effort.

At last year’s Lake Tahoe Summit, the TFFT presented the updated Lake Tahoe Basin Multi-jurisdictional Fuel Reduction and Wildfire Prevention Strategy, which provides a strategic framework for how land managers and the public work together to lessen the risk of loss from wildland fire. Officials say the strategy can be thought of as a business plan and agreement between the public and Tahoe agencies.

The plan is more than 500 pages, including tables and maps. The Healthy Forest Restoration Act of 2003 created the concept of Community Wildfire Protection Plans. Prior to that time, fire planning was done by federal and state land managers, generally without a partner in the local community, because few community groups addressed fire hazard specifically.

In 2004, the Nevada Fire Safe Council, Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, U.S. Forest Service, state agencies and local fire agencies produced Community Wildfire Protection Plans that served as the primary planning tool for fuels reduction projects around the Tahoe basin.

The updated Community Wildfire Protection Plan goals are to:

·         Create fire-adapted communities:  The plan provides mitigation strategies and community-driven action plans to help create communities where citizens are engaged and active in preparing for wildfire. It facilitates interagency cooperation and strengthens communication and support between agencies and the public.

·         Restore and maintain fire-resilient landscapes: The plan provides prioritized locations for fuel reduction treatments to enable land managers to effectively work across jurisdictions and address risks to ecosystems and communities at a landscape scale.

·         Provide effective and efficient wildfire response:  The plan provides strategic treatments on the landscape that will facilitate safer and more successful suppression.  This plan provides for tracking, reporting, and sharing of both fuel reduction accomplishments and homeowner/community initiatives.

            A firefighter working in a remote area between the Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit and the Eldorado National Forest has died.

            He was struck by a tree about 5:30pm on Aug. 8.

            The name of the firefighter has not been released pending notification of family.

         This is the second firefighter to die this summer in California. David Ruhle, 38, of the Black Hills National Forest in South Dakota was on the Frog Fire in the Modoc National Forest when he was found deceased Aug. 31.

The Tahoe area death was announced just before midnight Aug. 9. The firefighter had been taken to Lake Tahoe Airport. At 7:09pm Saturday Calstar nurses were called over to perform CPR on him.

The fallen firefighter was on a new blaze called the Sierra Fire. There are no details about the fire other than reports it is burning near Sierra-at-Tahoe.

                  A second firefighter who was also injured in the incident has been treated and released.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report

A Truckee man wanted on domestic violence and other charges was arrested Aug. 8.

Corbin Nunnally, 30, was wanted for his possible involvement in several felonies including domestic violence, kidnapping, child endangerment and robbery.

Corbin Nunnally

Truckee officers tried to apprehend Nunnally at the Gateway shopping center on Donner Pass Road on Aug. 6

Truckee PD received information from the Reno Police Department that Nunnally had boarded a bus headed to the Sacramento area. In conjunction with the Reno PD, surveillance was established on the bus and law enforcement followed the bus to California.  The Truckee Police Department and California Highway Patrol conducted a traffic stop on the bus on Interstate 80 near Hirschdale Road.

Nunnally was taken into custody without incident. He was booked in to the jail in Truckee on charges of kidnapping, dissuading a victim from reporting a crime with threats, burglary, child endangerment and criminal threats.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report

By Henry K. Lee, San Francisco Chronicle

The U.S. Forest Service issued a report Wednesday saying that for the first time in its history it was spending more than half of its $5 billion annual budget battling wildfires, and the toll will only get bigger in years to come

With the increased emphasis on fighting fires, programs that help prevent blazes, such as forest restoration and watershed and landscape management, will continue to suffer, Forest Service officials said.

The report suggested that instead of treating catastrophic wildfires “as a normal agency expense, we must treat them more like other natural disasters, such as tornadoes and hurricanes.”

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Smoke for the past couple days has been drifting in and out of the Lake Tahoe Basin from fires burning in Northern California.

Local fire officials believe with the winds being out of the west on Saturday that mostly likely the current haze is from the Rocky Fire. It has burned nearly 70,000 acres in the Lake County area, which is above Napa County.

There are fires burning in the Sierra, Shasta-Trinity and Sequoia national forests.

A small fire is also burning in Blue Canyon off Interstate 80.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report

First responders take an injured cyclist to the air ambulance. Photo/Provided

A 70-year-old man was airlifted to Renown Medical Center in Reno today after crashing his bike near Tahoe Paradise Park.

The cyclist, whose name and hometown have not been released, was riding near the Upper Truckee River when he struck a tree. He was not wearing a helmet.

He was taken out of area July 8 about 12:15pm by Lake Valley Fire personnel and then airlifted by Calstar from Tahoe Paradise Golf Course with life threatening injuries.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report

Washoe County inmates clean the graffiti off the church. Photo/Provided

Washoe County sheriff’s deputies are looking for the person who painted graffiti on the St. Patrick’s Episcopal Church in Incline Village.

The vandalism occurred between 8pm Aug. 5 and 8am Aug. 6.

The suspect, or suspects, painted graffiti on the church building and a car that was parked on church property. Letters mounted to the front of the church were also stolen.

The FBI is involved and is also investigating a series of church vandalisms that occurred on Easter Sunday in Incline Village.

Anyone who may have information about this incident is asked to contact the Washoe County Sheriff’s Office at 775.832.4107, or Secret Witness at 775.322.4900.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report