By David Leonhardt, New York Times

The behavior gap between rich and poor children, starting at very early ages, is now a well-known piece of social science. Entering kindergarten, high-income children not only know more words and can read better than poorer children but they also have longer attention spans, better-controlled tempers and more sensitivity to other children.

All of which makes the comparisons between boys and girls in the same categories fairly striking: The gap in behavioral skills between young girls and boys is even bigger than the gap between rich and poor.

By kindergarten, girls are substantially more attentive, better behaved, more sensitive, more persistent, more flexible and more independent than boys, according to a new paper from Third Way, a Washington research group. The gap grows over the course of elementary school and feeds into academic gaps between the sexes. By eighth grade, 48 percent of girls receive a mix of A’s and B’s or better. Only 31 percent of boys do.

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Enough El Dorado County employees are so unhappy with their work environment it prompted the Board of Supervisors to launch an investigation.

Non-equal employment opportunity violations will be looked into.

Sixty-three percent of the staff participated in the cultural assessment survey conducted by Van Dermyden Maddux Law Corporation. Out of the 1,228 current and former employees who participated, 474 provided information beyond what was asked. A substantial number of comments raised concerns of “bullying, harassment, and retaliation” as well as concerns of nepotism, referring to the “good ol’ boy network.”

Only one-third believes the harassment policy is understood and adhered to.

Supervisors had a special meeting this week to go over the results from the survey that was taken this year.

The glimmer of good in the survey is 60 percent of respondents are generally satisfied with their job. The following departments had satisfaction rates higher than average: Air Quality Management District (100 percent); Risk Management (100 percent); Clerk of the Board (100 percent); Elections (100 percent); Library (92 percent); Auditor Controller’s Office (92 percent); Assessor’s Office (78 percent); Veteran Affairs (75 percent); and County Counsel (86 percent).

On the flip side, 17.5 percent of county employees were “dissatisfied” with their employment. The following departments each had dissatisfaction rates higher than average: Information Technology (41 percent); Probation Field (32 percent); Public Defender (26.5 percent); Sheriff’s Office (23.5 percent); Community Development Agency (22 percent).

Managers are a problem for 378 of the survey takers – the highest complaint. Employees believe retaliation would occur if they filed a complaint.

One person wrote, “Depending on who the complaint is against is a factor whether action will be taken or not.” Another said, “Things often do not stay confidential.”

More than one-quarter of the workforce is actively planning to leave.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report

South Lake Tahoe police officers have released photos from the surveillance video of the four suspects in the April 29 burglary at Simpson’s Jewelers.

The full story is here.

Nineteen people on the South Shore face charges from an April 30 undercover sting by the the California Contractors State License Board and Nevada State Contractors Board.

Dubbed Border Blitz, it  snared 11 people on the California side for illegal contracting charges and eight in Nevada. Three caught in Nevada are licensed contractors in California.

The stings were at a single-family home near the junction of highways 50 and 89 junction and at a condominium in Stateline. Investigators from CSLB’s Statewide Investigative Fraud Team and NSCB posed as homeowners seeking bids for various projects that included exterior painting, deck work, landscaping, and other tasks requiring general “B” building contractor skills.

According to investigators, those cited after giving bids in California were issued notices to appear in El Dorado County Superior Court. The eight Nevada suspects are scheduled to answer charges in Lake Tahoe Justice Court.

All 11 suspects cited in California face misdemeanor charges of contracting without a license. Home improvement and construction jobs in California valued at $500 or more (combined labor and material costs) must be conducted by a company or person with a CSLB-issued license. Nine of the 11 were also cited on a misdemeanor charge of illegal advertising. California law requires contractors to place their license number in all print, broadcast, and online advertisements. Those without a license can advertise for jobs valued at less than $500, but the ad must state that they are not a licensed contractor.

Nevada’s threshold for licensed contracting work is $1,000. All eight suspects caught in Stateline were cited for contracting without a license, and seven of them face an additional charge of advertising without a license. In Nevada, advertising contracting services without a license is illegal.

Here are the names of those cited:

 — Lake Tahoe News staff report

By Tony Biasotti, Columbia Journalism Review

It’s been a routine for generations of legal beat reporters: Every weekday afternoon, at courthouses across the United States, a reporter steps behind the records counter and thumbs through the lawsuits filed that day, looking for news.

This custom is endangered, though, and not just because files have moved online, or because there aren’t as many legal beat reporters as there used to be. Many state courts now keep new civil cases out of sight of the press and public for days, and sometimes even weeks, after they’re filed.

“It’s a nationwide plague,” said Bill Girdner, the founder and editor of Courthouse News Service.

But now, a federal trial court in California will have to determine whether the standard delays at a local courthouse are permissible—after a higher court ruled that Girdner’s complaints raise First Amendment concerns.

Based in Pasadena, Courthouse News is a wire service that specializes in civil litigation and covers the courts for both its own website and around 3,000 subscribers, including the Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, and other major news organizations.

In 2011, Courthouse News sued the Superior Court of Ventura Count after the court stopped letting the newswire’s local correspondent see every new civil suit on the day it was filed. A federal judge dismissed the case. But Courthouse News appealed, and on April 7 a panel of three Ninth Circuit judges ruled that the trial court had to hear the case.

Circuit Judge Kim McLane Wardlaw’s opinion said the case “presents an important First Amendment question” and thus should be heard in federal court.

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By Mike Gorrell, Salt Lake Tribune

The CEOs of Park City Mountain Resort and Vail Resorts are engaging in a public war of words that parallels the high-profile lawsuit between the Park City-area ski giants.

John Cumming from Powdr Corp., PCMR’s parent company, fired the latest shot Friday in response to two letters sent in the past three weeks by Vail Chief Executive Rob Katz. Like Katz’s letters, Cumming’s answer was shared with the news media.

“Your letters,” Cumming wrote Katz, “are part of a transparent plan to pressure me and my company into agreeing to a Vail takeover” of PCMR. It will never happen, he added. “We won’t cave in, and we won’t agree to a Vail takeover that would deprive our guests and our community of all the benefits offered by three resorts that compete with each other.”

Cumming was referring to Park City’s three ski areas: Deer Valley Resort, along with PCMR and Canyons Resort, which Vail operates on a long-term contract for Talisker Corp.

In California, Powder owns Boreal; Vail owns Heavenly, Northstar and Kirkwood.

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By Peter Hecht, Sacramento Bee

Taking the witness stand in defense of her husband, the wife of El Dorado County Supervisor Ray Nutting testified Thursday that the embattled supervisor didn’t solicit county employees to bail himself out of jail.

Jennifer Nutting’s testimony in the politically charged case challenged the prosecution’s assertion that her husband violated state laws by borrowing money from people working for his office or government agency.

The El Dorado supervisor faces felony and misdemeanor political malfeasance charges related to state grant money he took for clearing brush on his family ranch. Prosecutors allege that he failed to properly disclose more than $70,000 in state income, and that he committed further offenses by asking county government workers to help bail him out of jail last year.

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A check of sex offenders to make sure they were complying with the law led to four arrests in South Lake Tahoe on April 29.

Officers went to six residences and made contact with four people. All four were arrested.

Gary Meyer, 68, on charges of not living at his registered address. This is a felony. Charles Langley, 47, faces felony charges of possessing prescription pills and methamphetamine, as well as a misdemeanor charge of possessing a meth pipe. Merlin Griffiths, 28, was taken into custody on a misdemeanor charge of unlawful possession of weapons and a misdemeanor violation of probation.

During the search of another sex registrant’s residence, who was not violating any laws, 31-year-old Jose Mariscal allegedly attempted to obstruct officers from completing the search. Mariscal was arrested on charges of misdemeanor resisting, delaying or obstructing officers.

Officers said the compliance checks prompted two additional sex offenders to report to the SLTPD to update their information.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report

By Kathryn Reed

PHILLIPS STATION – Soft, dry soil. It makes measuring snow rather easy. There is none.

The last snow survey of the season by the Department of Water Resources on May 1 turned up no snow at the field next to the entrance of Sierra-at-Tahoe and little snow at the other surveys.

Statewide the water content is at 18 percent of average.

“We need well above average to replace the reservoir storage,” Frank Gehrke with the DWR said of next winter. And predictions of an El Nino are no guarantee it will bring the much-needed moisture.

Frank Gehrke with the Department of Water Resources stands in dirt for the final snow survey of the season. Photo/Kathryn Reed

The dismal snowpack means the runoff, which is usually robust in May, will be more like a trickle. That in turn means the reservoirs downstream are not going to be replenished.

Those reservoirs are what irrigates much of California’s farmland and provide a substantial amount of the drinking water for the state.

Lake Oroville in Butte County is at 53 percent of its 3.5 million acre-foot capacity and is normally at 65 percent this time of year. Shasta Lake north of Redding is at 53 percent of its 4.5 million acre-foot capacity when it should be at 61 percent.

Watersheds at lower elevations are already dry. This has fire personnel throughout the state and much of the West on edge.

“It’s going to be quite serious,” Gehrke said of the threat of fire.

He added, “There is some evidence of tree mortality because of the past two years.” Gehrke said. He expects to see more of that as weather heats up and the state enters its third summer of drought.

And while the state is experiencing a bit of a heat wave this week, no records are expected to be set in the Lake Tahoe Basin. The record high for May 1 in South Lake Tahoe is 78 degrees, set in 1978. The forecast high for today is 73 degrees. Tahoe City’s record high for Thursday is 74, set in 1947. The high there is expected in the upper 60s.

For May 2, the South Lake Tahoe record is 73 degrees set in 2004; forecast is for 71.

By the weekend temps will cool down, with Saturday being in the upper 60s and Sunday in the low 60s, according to the National Weather Service in Reno. Highs will be in the low 50s next week with a 10 to 30 percent of precipitation. If snow falls, it will be at the upper elevations and is not expected to impact travel.

While people are starting to irrigate, the state is launching the Californians Don’t Waste outdoor water campaign.

On April 30 DWR released a report showing that throughout California groundwater resources are at historically low levels.

Key findings of the report include:

• Groundwater levels have decreased in nearly all areas of the state since spring 2013, and more notably since spring 2010.

• The greatest concentration of recently deepened wells is in the fractured bedrock foothill areas of Nevada, Placer, and El Dorado counties.

• The Kaweah and Kings sub basins have the greatest numbers of deepened wells in an alluvial groundwater basin.

• Of California’s 515 alluvial groundwater basins, 169 are fully or partially monitored under the California Statewide Groundwater Elevation Monitoring (CASGEM) program as of April 15.

• Forty of 126 High and Medium priority basins are not monitored under CASGEM as of April 15. There are significant CASGEM groundwater monitoring data gaps in the Sacramento, San Joaquin River, Tulare Lake, Central Coast, and South Lahontan hydrologic regions.

• Several areas of the state lack a current groundwater management plan that addresses all related requirements of the California Water Code.

Boomtown is now 50-years-old and has had  $20 million in renovations. Photos/LTN

By Kathryn Reed

VERDI – Owners of Boomtown casino have taken an aging property and revamped it a bit.

The property off Interstate 80 on the outskirts of Reno turns 50 this year.

M1 Gaming bought the 318-room hotel, and casino with 15 table games and 560 slot machines from Pinnacle Entertainment in June 2012 for $12 million. Since that time, $20 million in upgrades have been made.

When M1, owned by Dean Dilullo, Edward Anthony St. John Jr. and Edward Anthony St. John III, purchased the casino they labeled Boomtown “highly distressed”.

Rooms are modern and standard.

The casino opened with Reno Mayor Bob Cashell as the owner. He was honored last week at a dinner at the property. He sold it in the 1980s.

Today the property has more life to it than it had in recent years. Money has been spent on new restaurants, bars, slots, table games, sportsbook, poker and keno.

The Guitar Bar has live entertainment every night. The carpet in the casino area – all 40,000 square feet – is new. The sportsbook has wall-to-wall televisions and more comfortable, softer seats.

There is a VIP area with new machines and private bathrooms.

Bistro 2100 is a new restaurant; serving three meals a day. The owners kept the legendary All-You-Can-Eat Lobster Buffet. While there are multiple places to eat, not all are open every night.

The owners have also returned music to Boomtown, with headliners whose heyday was mostly in the 1970s and 1980s – like Brian Howe from Bad Company, Collin Raye and Larry Gatlin. Most performers play two shows for one night.

The Fun Center has games that have nothing to do with gambling.

What sets this casino apart from many is the size of its arcade. In fact, it’s called a Fun Center. A great aspect is that no alcohol or smoking is allowed in this area. It’s designed for big and little kids.

The Old West façade is still intact.

While the rooms look like they have been spruced up a bit, the dankness of the hallways and scuffed up carpet and walls could use some attention to make it more appealing.

Boomtown once was a truckers’ haven because it meant not having to find a spot to park their rig in Reno or having to be off the interstate. Those days are about to return.

Last June on a 5-1 vote the Reno City Council agreed the Boomtown truck stop could be resurrected. It will have to be in a different location because Cabela’s occupies the parcel where the old stop was located. The new one will be on about 14 acres to the west of Cabela’s.