By Kathryn Reed

St. Theresa School is being reincarnated into Lake Tahoe Catholic Academy when it opens Sept. 2.

“The diocese will not control the direct day-to-day operation of LTCA, but instead we’ll focus on maintaining a Catholic identity within the school, as well as our adherence to the principles of Catholic education,” Malin Kennedy, spokeswoman for the academy, told Lake Tahoe News.

Lake Tahoe News first reported in June that St. Theresa would be closing. Declining enrollment at the K-8 South Lake Tahoe school has been an issue for years. There were just more than 50 students last school year.

St. Theresa Catholic Church will continue to have a school operating next door.

The academy, like St. Theresa’s, will be preschool-8. It will operate in the same buildings. Differences are that it will not be overseen by Sacramento Diocese and it will not be an official Catholic school.

“STS simply was not successful as defined by the Sacramento Diocese enrollment numbers and financial stability model,” Kennedy said. “But STS was consistently successful in its mission to educate successful, well-rounded students. High school valedictorians and community leaders have graduated from STS.”

Anne Flice, who had been principal at St. Theresa, will be the interim principal at the academy as well as director of education. Allison Monroe is president of the academy. There is also a board of directors.

“Many duties of the principal will be co-managed with the president – specifically, curriculum development, recruitment and fundraising, and public relations,” Kennedy said.

The division of labor will have Flice being responsible for improved academics, with a focus on science and math, while Monroe’s job is more about fundraising and recruitment.

“We still believe that a small private faith-based school is critical to the South Lake Tahoe education community. We have a dedicated group of parents and educators, a Catholic parish, and an entire community that will support our goals,” Kennedy said.

The academy came about from parents and teachers not wanting to let the Catholic school model die. They, with other community members, created Lake Tahoe Catholic Academy.

“I truly believe in this school and I’m an atheist. It not only was a strong positive influence on my son’s life, but it made quite a positive impact on me and my ex-wife as well,” Toogee Sielsch told Lake Tahoe News. “I volunteered on average 200 to 300 hours a year when Ian was a student and I still help out where I can.”

All faiths are welcome.

Enrollment applications will be available in the next week. Lake Tahoe Catholic Academy may be reached at 530.208.7657.

There is no estimated time when power will be restored to thousands of South Shore Liberty Utilities customers.

Two circuits are out in Meyers that is affecting South Lake Tahoe, too.

Nevada Energy customers are also in the dark, except those with generators.

“This storm is wide spread,” Randy Kelly told Lake Tahoe News.

All of South Lake Tahoe, Meyers and Alpine County Liberty customers are in the dark.

By Henry Brean, Las Vegas Review-Journal

On lonely highways from Pahrump to the state capital, you can still find signs of a rare and controversial business as old as the mining camps that helped put Nevada on the map. Just follow the trademark spinning red lights.

While recent decades have seen casinos sprout from coast to coast, Nevada still holds the distinction as the only state where brothels are legal.

Lately, though, this regulated version of the world’s oldest profession seems a little long in the tooth.

“There’s just nothing that’s really working for this unique little industry,” said George Flint, longtime lobbyist for the Nevada Brothel Owners Association. “I hesitate to say this, but I think legal, regulated sex for sale is on its way out.”

The culprit isn’t moral opposition or government interference, although U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid did call for an end to legal brothels during a speech to state lawmakers in 2011. What’s really killing the houses is unfettered competition from illegal prostitution set loose on the Internet and the Strip, Flint said.

Clark County is one of five Nevada counties that prohibits brothels, and it is the only one barred from the practice by state law. But thanks to an endless barrage of handbills, mobile billboards and phone-book ads promising women on demand, many tourists — and a fair number of locals — are under the mistaken impression that prostitution is legal everywhere in the state, not merely at approved establishments far from its largest cities.

Flint said legalization is the only viable way to curb the rampant illegal sex trade in Las Vegas — a billion-dollar criminal enterprise he said the Strip resorts seem content to ignore or tacitly encourage in the name of customer service.

Replace “the exploiters and the pimps” with some legal, closely regulated bordellos, he said, and the county could bring in as much as $500 million in annual tax revenue while helping to curb crime, disease and the victimization of underage girls.

Read the whole story

By Jaime Hayden, KRNV-TV 

A new federal earthquake map is shaking things up a bit for about one-third of the United States, including Nevada. The U.S. Geologic Survey updated its national seismic hazard maps for the first time since 2008.

Nevada is one of 16 states considered to have the highest risk for earthquakes. So there is a 2 percent chance our state could experience very intense shaking over a 50-year lifespan.

But experts say Northern Nevada’s risk has not changed much in the last decade.

“A couple iteration’s ago, this map showed us a lot of changes in our Reno, Carson, Tahoe area, so we’ve kind of settled down on that hazard,” said Nevada Seismological Laboratory Director Graham Kent.

Read the whole story

A fire July 20 burns part of Mountain Mike’s T-shirt shop. Photo/Provided

A fire at Mountain Mike’s T-shirt shop in South Lake Tahoe early this morning forced the evacuation of some people staying at the Highland Inn.

South Lake Tahoe Fire Chief Jeff Meston told Lake Tahoe News the fire likely started in the air conditioning unit of the store and then spread inside. He said the fire was knocked down quickly.

Investigators will continue to work the scene to determine the exact cause. The extent of damage or dollar amount are not yet known.

The fire that started before 7am July 20 sent smoke into some of the hotel rooms. Those guests are expected to be able to return to their room later this morning. No one from the hotel was available for comment.

Highway 50 was closed in both directions. It is expected to reopen by 7:40am.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report

By Yesenia Amaro, Las Vegas Review-Journal

Children in the juvenile justice system often face different competency issues than adults in the criminal system.

But Nevada currently lacks a statute to address competency issues among juveniles. Officials have used adult criminal procedures as a guide instead, said Susan Roske, an attorney with the Clark County juvenile public defender’s office.

The juvenile competency issue is drawing attention nationwide because the reasons children are incompetent for the purposes of court proceedings often differ from those that arise in adult cases, she said on Thursday.

There are limited rules and procedures under the general provisions of juvenile justice in the state, she said. Roske and Jo Lee Wickes, the chief deputy district attorney who supervises the juvenile division in Washoe County, both led a juvenile competency sub­committee of the Commission on Statewide Juvenile Justice Reform. The commission recently finalized a proposed statute for juvenile competency.

Read the whole story

By Margot Roosevelt, Orange County Register

After a long, slow recovery, California last month finally regained all the jobs lost during the recession, powered by fast growth in the Bay Area and a steady hiring pace in Los Angeles, Orange County and the Inland Empire.

The state’s unemployment rate, adjusted for seasonal changes, notched down to 7.4 percent from 7.6 percent last month and from 9 percent a year earlier, according to state employment officials.

National joblessness stood at 6.1 percent in June.

“Everybody is moving forward,” said Robert Kleinhenz, an economist at the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp., a nonprofit research group.

But he called the monthly numbers from California “a bittersweet report,” given that wages are barely keeping pace with inflation. “Until we see stronger gains in incomes, we won’t see breakout spending on part of consumers … to bring the economy forward.”

Read the whole story

A 6-year-old male black bear was put down Friday by Nevada Department of Wildlife officials becuase it had killed livestock in Genoa.

On April 29, a bear killed four goats inside an enclosure in Genoa. A trap was set and a bear was caught, but it could not be determined if the bear that had been captured had killed the livestock.

Because a positive identification of the offending bear could not be made, the bear in the trap, wearing ear tag Yellow No. 43 was taken to an area about 80 miles south of Gardnerville for release.

The bear first received it identifying ear tag in March 2013 when it was captured near a lambing area in Jacks Valley.

Yellow No. 43 returned to Genoa this past week, punched a hole in the side of a small barn and entered the enclosure, killing two goats, according to NDOW.

This bear was caught in a NDOW trap July 18 and then euthanized.

By Denny Walsh and Sam Stanton, Sacramento Bee

For the 30 or 40 Mexican laborers looking for work, the pitch seemed too good to be true.

They would receive temporary work visas to get into the United States, then be driven to Northern California forests to trim trees at $16.47 an hour.

The jobs would include rent-free accommodations in trailers at the work sites, where they would be protected from the elements and fed during their 40-hour workweeks. They then would be transported back to Mexico after nine months of tree trimming.

The alleged, 2-year-old agreement between the workers in Hidalgo, Mexico, and an Oakley, Idaho, firm called Pure Forest LLP is outlined in federal court documents filed in Sacramento and unsealed Tuesday.

The documents – search warrant affidavits compiled by investigators from the departments of Homeland Security and Labor – reveal a criminal probe unearthing evidence that the men allegedly ended up as virtual prisoners in forests north of Sacramento, where authorities contend they were forced to work seven days a week, sleep in tents on the ground, subsist on rotten food for which they were charged as much as $120 a week, and left to drink tainted water from a nearby creek.

When the workers complained about conditions, foremen for Pure Forest, who were allegedly armed with pistols, “threatened to shoot workers in the head and leave them in the woods if they did not work harder,” according to one affidavit filed in federal court in February and unsealed this week.

Lawyers for the owners of Pure Forest sharply dispute the allegations, saying they are untrue, came from “a few disgruntled former employees” and ballooned into a federal probe in which the company is cooperating.

Authorities have executed search warrants for a residence in Garden Valley in El Dorado County and a Yahoo email account tied to Pure Forest. The documents indicate that investigators are looking into possible violations of federal laws against forced labor, trafficking via fraud, mail fraud, wire fraud, and fraudulent foreign labor contracting.

At a campsite in El Dorado County, the affidavit says workers recalled that they were working for Owen Wadsworth, who provided little food for them.

“Due to a lack of food, the workers went fishing in a nearby river, but Owen Wadsworth advised them that they could get fined for fishing without a license,” according to the affidavit.

The Wadsworths’ attorneys contend such claims are fantasy.

Read the whole story

Three Incline Village residents are accused of starting the fire this week at La Casona restaurant in Incline.

Ramon Mendoza Valdez, 20, and two juveniles have been arrested on charges related to an arson and graffiti incident that occurred July 16.

Ramon Mendoza Valdez

“After the fire was extinguished, investigators found evidence of arson at the scene,” Washoe County Undersheriff Tim Kuzanek said in a press release. “The North Lake Tahoe Fire Protection District worked with our patrol division to conduct a joint arson investigation which identified Ramon Valdez as the primary suspect.”

Valdez was arrested on two counts of arson in the first degree, one count of arson in the third degree, along with charges of graffiti and contributing to the delinquency of a minor.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report