By Heather Somerville, San Jose Mercury News

PLEASANTON — Safeway profits slid in the first quarter this year as the supermarket chain began to fully see the financial loss of selling hundreds of stores in Chicago and Canada.

Safeway’s lackluster earnings for the first three months of the year show how dramatically the grocer has scaled back its operations in an effort to compete with regional grocery companies that are eating away at the market share.

The consolidation has also primed Safeway for its merger with Albertsons, which is expected to be complete by the end of the year. The merger is part of an estimated $9.4 billion deal orchestrated by New York private equity firm Cerberus, which owns Albertsons and bought Safeway last month, and plans to combine the two to create the nation’s second-largest supermarket conglomerate.

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Kingsbury Grade is expected to reopen by 2:45pm Thursday after being closed for a couple hours because of an accident.

Two SUVs collided head-on at an angle about halfway down the Carson Valley side.

The two drivers were taken by air ambulance to Renown Medical Center in Reno with moderate injuries.

Further details, including names of those involved, were not immediately available from the Nevada Highway Patrol.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report

By Rory Carroll, Reuters

With California facing its worst drought in a century, state officials have fast-tracked first-in-the-nation water efficiency standards for new toilets, urinals and faucets, an action expected to save about 8.2 billion gallons of water the first year while cutting energy use and greenhouse gas emissions.

The draft standards, released late last week, would prohibit the sale of appliances in California that do not meet proposed standards, which are expected to go into effect in 2016.

The standards would require that toilets use no more than 1.28 gallons per flush instead of the current limit of 1.6 gallons per flush.

They would limit urinals to a half a gallon of water per flush, half of what is currently allowed.

Lavatory faucets would have a maximum water use level of 1.5 gallons per minute under the proposed standards, down from the current limit of 2.2 gallons per minute.

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Police are trying to locate Timothy Duran.

Updated April 24 2:50pm:

Timothy Duran has been located and is safe.

—-

A 24-year-old South Lake Tahoe man has been missing since the afternoon of April 22.

Timothy Duran has no history of being a danger to anyone, but is on medication for mental health purposes and can become confused without them, according to South Lake Tahoe police officers. Duran’s mother is his caretaker, and reports that he has not likely been taking his medication for a few days.

Duran has a history of occasionally wandering away for a few days at a time, but usually remains within the Tahoe area. In the past, Duran has been known to wander in the woods and along roadways. He will occasionally hitchhike or frequent local drinking establishments.

Duran is Caucasian, 5-foot-10, 135 pounds, with brown collar-length wavy hair and a short beard/mustache.

Anyone seeing Duran should call 911.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report

By Kathryn Reed

South Tahoe High School is nothing like it was eight years ago. And that’s a good thing.

While it took many people – including the voters of the school district – to help transform the school, it was the leadership of Principal Ivone Larson that led the charge.

Larson has known for some time this would be her last year at the helm of STHS. What she found out April 22 is the board agreed to hire her as assistant superintendent of secondary curriculum and instruction, career technical education. This is a part-time position.

Ivone Larson had a special pink hard hat to wear during all the construction at STHS. Photo/LTN file

“Ivone is an incredible visionary. She has certainly been a gifted grant writer. We’re hoping she will continue to bring needed funds into our district,” Lake Tahoe Unified School District board President Wendy David told Lake Tahoe News. “She has been a relationship builder. She is passionate about the opportunities we can give our kids.”

Larson said part of her accomplishments are luck – like being in the right place at the right time. But the truth is if she had not had the vision or grant writing skills, the improvements to the school site would not be what they are. She helped the district secure millions of dollars beyond what the voters approved that went into transforming STHS from a rundown old school to a state-of-the-art center of education.

“I’ve had the ride of a lifetime,” Larson told Lake Tahoe News of her experience these last eight years. She said she has grown professionally and personally.

The next chapter will build on what she has been doing. It will also take some weight off Superintendent Jim Tarwater, especially as the state increases its mandates on local districts.

LTUSD has not had an assistant superintendent since Barbara Davis left in August 2005. And she was full time. At the end of the 2010-11 school year Tarwater also took over many of the human resources duties when the director’s position was eliminated.

“The board has been interested in putting back into our administrative budget a position that could really be of help to Dr. Tarwater,” David said.

More money is likely to be flowing to LTUSD from Sacramento in the next eight years because of the makeup of students, class-size reduction and career technical education.

“We are transforming education and that will take a lot of people at every single level of education,” Larson said.

She calls the changes “the most revolutionary things I’ve seen in California education.”

Funding, Common Core and assessment accountability are the big changes. LTUSD is in the process of implementing the Local Control Funding Formula, Local Control Accountability Plan, Common Core, and the Smarter Balance Assessments – all state requirements.

“The cool thing about it is it includes the voice of everybody,” Larson said.

While she is excited about the next step, she is already realizing leaving South Tahoe High is going to be more difficult than she expected.

“It’s harder than I thought,” Larson said. And while she will still be around, she said, “It won’t be that day-to-day with the kids.”

But her motto is, “Dream big and it can happen.”

Now the district is in recruiting mode for a principal at STHS.

Money is starting to flow to candidates who are running for office in the June 3 primary.

Candidates had to file their first donation/expense form on March 24. The next one is due May 24. If they receive more than $1,000 they have to fill out a separate form within 24 hours.

All donations of $100 or more must be reported.

Lake Tahoe News took a look at what candidates for District 5 supervisor are collecting and spending.

Angela Swanson

She has raised $2,500, all from family. Swanson has put in $1,000 of her own money, and her husband has contributed $750.

Swanson has spent $1,600 on fundraising services, graphics and meeting space.

Teresa Piper

She has been given $1,450 in cash and $1,842.05 in in-kind services, like signs. The largest single donation was $350 from Larry Hennick of Pollock Pines.

Kevin Brown

He has received $9,185.59 in cash and has spent almost half of it.

Brown received $1,000 from Douglas Veerkamp, a major construction business owner and brother of El Dorado County Supervisor Brian Veerkamp.

His biggest expenses were the filing fee and for a campaign website.

Geri Grego

She has received $3,290 in cash. The largest cash contributor is Daniel Norem ($1,000). He is an executive vice president with Adams & Associates in Reno.

A donation listed as “other” came from A&A Service Inc. in Concord for $2,000.

She has spent $1,000 in radio advertising.

Sue Novasel

She has raised $2,800. The bulk of that – $1,000 – is from her husband’s business partner, Dick Schwarte, and another $1,000 from Laborers Local 185 PAC in Sacramento.

Novasel’s husband, Bob, has loaned the campaign $10,000.

Novasel has spent $2,000 on campaign consulting fees with the Frank Ford Company in Auburn.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report

By Paul Takahashi, Las Vegas Sun

Three years after Nevada adopted the Common Core State Standards, proponents and critics faced off in a 10-hour legislative showdown over whether the new academic benchmarks will help or hurt students in the Silver State.

For months, dozens of concerned citizens and parents have been protesting the Common Core at legislative committee hearings on education, prompting lawmakers to devote one of its meetings to debate the pros and cons of the new standards.

The Common Core, which has been adopted by 44 states nationally, was developed by a panel of academics convened by governors and state school superintendents to replace a hodgepodge of state standards.

The national standards represent one of the most significant changes in American education — one that is transforming textbooks, teacher training and testing.

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By Kathryn Reed

Nearly 34 years after Richard Swanson was murdered, the killer has been convicted.

On April 23, the eight-woman, four-man jury found Andrew Sanford guilty on all counts.

In all likelihood Sanford, 52, will be spending the rest of his life in prison.

Swanson was 16 when he was murdered Aug. 14, 1980, while he worked at the former Shell gas station at the Y in South Lake Tahoe. He was bound with duct tape and left to die of asphyxiation. He had also been beaten.

Sanford lived in town at the time, but left a few days after the murder.

“I think it’s a long, long time in coming to try to get some measure of justice for the family,” El Dorado County District Attorney Vern Pierson told Lake Tahoe News. “For us it happened 34 years ago. For them, it’s like it happened yesterday.”

Ronald and Sharon Swanson, Richard’s parents, were in the Placerville courtroom every day listening to witness after witness describe what they remembered, the details of how their son was murdered, the autopsy and finally the arrest of Sanford.

It wasn’t until 2012 that Sanford was arrested and charged in the Swanson case.

From this killing the local Secret Witness program was formed. The seed money was always to go to the person who helped solve the Swanson murder.

By Kathryn Reed

After much discontent from parents, Lake Tahoe Unified School District listened. It was decided Tuesday that Tahoe Valley Elementary School would house the transitional kindergarten program starting in the fall.

At the March 29 school board meeting staff had proposed the program be at the defunct Al Tahoe school site.

Having it at Tahoe Valley means the little ones will be able take part in schoolwide events like Tahoe Arts Project assemblies. They will also be part of a real school.

In addition, Principal Christina Grubbs has a background in early childhood education.

LTUSD has had what it calls preppie K for a number of years. Transitional kindergarten, or TK, is similar. It’s just that now the state is requiring as of this fall for districts to have TK.

While all the questions and concerns of parents have yet to be addressed, some fears were dispelled at the April 22 meeting. Of the five people who spoke that night, four were parents who will have kids in the program next school year.

Busing, hours of the program, how the kids will be divided and what happens after school were all topics that were brought up.

Class will start at 9:10am, just like the rest of the school. This makes it less stressful for everyone. The exact end time has not been determined, but 1:30pm is likely.

Grubbs said going longer is not beneficial for most kids. For some kids, it’s naptime after lunch.

“If you push them through the sleep time, in some cases their learning decreases by 70 percent,” Grubbs told the board.

These kids will have their own bus to and from school so they are not mixed with big kids.

“We don’t let a kid off the bus unless there is an adult to greet them,” Grubbs said. No adult, then the child is brought back to the school.

Students can even be dropped off at day care centers.

Even though they may be going to one of the other three elementary schools for regular K the following year, all the TK students will be mixed together.

“We felt it better to mix the kids. A heterogeneous grouping is vital. It’s vital for the social and emotional piece,” Grubbs said.

Tarwater said after school programs can be worked out in the future.

There will be no more than 24 students in a class. This is so the district does not jeopardize its $1.2 million class-size reduction subsidy from the state.

Tahoe Valley will receive a half million dollar sprucing up this summer. This will include new playground equipment, additional equipment moving over from Bijou Community School, paint, carpet, changes to the entrance and improved drop-off lanes.

Even though the Horizon is closed and it is going to be transformed into Park Tahoe, not all the permits are in hand.

The owners — brothers Jon and David Park — are still seeking the necessary permits from Douglas County to do the work they desire.

One permit that is in hand is a demo permit. This is to tear down the porte cochere — or overhang for the valet area.

Douglas County is reviewing the building permit application to remodel the gaming floor area and renovate hotel rooms.

The Stateline hotel-casino is going to become a Hard Rock-themed property. About $40 million is being spent on the remodel.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report