A Kings Beach man was killed in a head-on collision last weekend near Northstar.

California Highway Patrol officers said Christopher Anderson, 35, was going north on Highway 267 on Jan. 13 at 7am when his vehicle was struck head-on. The alpine race coach at Northstar was pronounced dead at the scene.

Edgar Delgado, 21, of Tahoe Vista, authorities said, was intoxicated when he drifted across the center line and crashed into Anderson’s vehicle. He was taken to Renown Medical Center in Reno with non-life threatening injuries. Charges are pending.

Officers said prior to the head-on crash, Delgado had sideswiped another vehicle.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report

By Ryan Sabalow, Sacramento Bee

The millions of trees that died in the Sierra Nevada during California’s five-year drought may have actually helped the state’s water supply once the historic dry spell finally ended, according to a study.

Scientists led by UC Merced’s Sierra Nevada Research Institute examined how much water was being absorbed by plant life in 1 million acres of Sierra forest along the watershed that feeds into the Kings River east of Fresno. The study, published Friday in the journal Scientific Reports, spanned the years before, during and after the drought, which officially ended last year.

Federal forestry officials estimate that during that time, more than 100 million trees in the central and southern Sierra died before the drought ended.

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By Regina Garcia Cano, AP

Nevada’s largest casinos turned a profit for the second fiscal year in a row and finally broke the revenue record set in 2007 before the recession affected the operators’ books, according to a state report released Friday.

The largest casinos in the state reported income of $1.6 billion from total revenue of $26.2 billion during the fiscal year that ended June 30, data from the Nevada Gaming Control Board show. The reported income from 272 casinos was 59 percent higher compared with the previous fiscal year, while revenue was up 3.7 percent.

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A Berkeley woman crossing the street in Incline Village on Jan. 12 died after being struck by a vehicle.

Roza Mostava, 78, was in a crosswalk crossing Village Boulevard at Lakeshore Boulevard at 5:37pm when she was hit.  

The driver of the vehicle immediately stopped and rendered aid. It does not appear drugs and/or alcohol were a factor for the driver in the accident, according to Washoe County sheriff’s investigators.

Mostava was transferred to Renown Medical Center in Reno where she died.

The investigation is on-going.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report

By Mick Akers, Las Vegas Sun

Touting the success of the autonomous shuttle operating in downtown Las Vegas, Gov. Brian Sandoval says the future is now in Nevada.

Sandoval spoke Friday to more than 20 governors during the National Governors Association’s Transportation Innovation Summit at the Hilton Lake Las Vegas Resort in Henderson.

The driverless shuttle began in November in the Innovation District in downtown Las Vegas. It has already transported more than 10,000 passengers on the 0.6-mile fixed route. An estimated 100,000 passengers are expected to ride on the shuttle during the yearlong pilot program, Sandoval said.

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By Chris Kudialis, Las Vegas Sun

U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions wasn’t joking when he said he believed marijuana use in the U.S. “should be minimized.”

On Jan. 4, the Department of Justice head rescinded Obama-era guidelines — most notably the Cole and Wilkinson memorandums — that provided marijuana-legal states an opportunity to operate their respective industries without federal interference as long as the state’s industries abided by certain rules, like keeping cannabis out of the hands of children, gangs and motor vehicle drivers.

Without those memos — which were not legal documents, but rather internal guidance policies for Justice officials in enforcing federal laws — marijuana-legal states are vulnerable to being shut down by the feds, experts and industry members said.

But what would a federal crackdown on cannabis look like? In Nevada, it would mean the loss of as many as 7,000 jobs and more than $5 million in monthly state tax revenue, said Riana Durrett of the Nevada Dispensary Association.

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By Amelia Pak-Harvey, Las Vegas Review-Journal 

Two hundred and fifty dollars.

That figure – the amount that teachers can deduct from their taxes for classroom expenses – drew lots of attention in late 2017 when one of two dueling federal tax bills threatened to eliminate it. Ultimately the tax bill signed into law by President Donald Trump in December spared the deduction.

But there’s more to the new tax code that impacts education — both the good and the bad.

For one, families can now use 529 plans to pay for private K-12 tuition. Those plans, originally only for college expenses, allow parents to save money in an investment account where earnings are tax-free.

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By Michael R. Blood, AP

Most Californians with an urge to smoke a joint will enter the state’s legal marijuana marketplace through a single doorway — at a retail shop.

But out of view of those day-to-day sales, the state is ushering in a sprawling, untested system to move pot from place to place that will also serve as a collection point for taxes, a gateway for testing and a packaging center for the plant’s fragrant buds.

The so-called marijuana distributor is a kind of skeleton connecting the state’s emerging industry of growers, sellers and manufacturers. It’s envisioned as a vast back office where the grunt work of keeping track of cannabis and getting it from farms to store shelves will take place.

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The lake level may finally be kissed with measurable snow after weeks of Mother Nature flirting with winter.

The National Weather Service in Reno has issued a winter storm watch for the greater Lake Tahoe area for the 24-hour period starting Thursday afternoon.

The snow level is expected to drop to 4,500 feet, where up to 6 inches of snow is possible. Between 6 and 12 inches is expected above 6,500 feet, and 1 to 2 feet above that elevation.

The wind will be picking ufp, with ridge gusts potentially topping 100 mph.

The weather system will likely start with rain at the lake.

In addition to the moisture, the temperature will drop significantly. Thursday’s high is expected to be 51 degrees in South Lake Tahoe, while Friday’s could be 29 degrees. Overnight lows will dip into the teens.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report

Tahoe Township Justice of the Peace Richard Glasson will be serving a fourth six-year term.

First elected in 2000, Glasson has not faced an opponent in the three elections since then.

Jan. 12 was the final day to file for the seat.

The other Douglas County judgeship is being contested because Justice of the Peace Tom Perkins is not seeking re-election. 

Attorneys Cassandra Jones and Erik Levin filed for the East Fork Township position. This judgeship covers Douglas County outside Lake Tahoe. With only two candidates, voters will make their decision in November.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report