Updated: 7:05pm Jan. 2

El Dorado County search and rescue crews located an injured skier and his dog above Echo Lakes on Wednesday.

“He blew out his knee skiing Echo Peak behind Angora Lake and called his girlfriend,” sheriff’s Lt. Pete Van Arnum told Lake Tahoe News.

Peter Brumis, 36, of South Lake Tahoe and his dog were airlifted out of the area about 6pm Jan. 2.

California Highway Patrol Officer Mark Flores was lowered from the helicopter to get to Brumis. The helicopter could not land because of the remote location, steep terrain, deep snow and high avalanche conditions.

Brumis was located at an elevation of 8,400 feet in deep snow.

The helicopter then landed in the wide spot at Sawmill Road and Lake Tahoe Boulevard.

That intersection on the edge of South Lake Tahoe was being used as a staging area for law enforcement, so traffic on Wednesday night was backed up in both directions.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report

By Franco Ordonez and Casey Conley, McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON — With millions of baby boomers reaching retirement age, fears are mounting of the economic impact if they follow the pattern of previous generations by curbing spending and draining Social Security and Medicare benefits.

But the 78 million boomers – born from 1946 to 1964 – have always broken the mold in terms of setting trends, and some investors and business and community leaders see their retirement as no different. They see an unprecedented, multi-billion-dollar opportunity to offer new products and services to an active demographic group that’s expected to live longer than previous generations.

When Elizabeth Reighard started her fitness training business in Myrtle Beach, S.C., four years ago, most of her students were in their mid-30s. But now her client list is made up mainly of boomers, such as Mary Smith, 58, who hired Reighard to help her “keep up with the grandkids.”

The demand for fitness trainers such as Reighard is expected to jump 24 percent over the next decade, largely because of baby boomers who want to stay healthy longer, according to the Department of Labor’s Occupational Outlook Handbook released in March.

“I’m seeing it more and more. Seniors know they have to be in better shape to have less aches and pains,” said Reighard, who’s also a boomer. “Yeah, we’re getting older, but our bodies feel good. … I look in the mirror and I might look 51, but I feel 25.”

The Census Bureau projects that Americans 65 and older will make up 19 percent of the population by 2030.

Community and business leaders in places such as the coastal towns of Myrtle Beach, Hilton Head and Bluffton, S.C., are looking to the growing retirement community to help rekindle local economies. They’re rethinking sporting and shopping developments, as well as art centers, to attract on-the-go retirees looking for an array of easily accessible activities.

On the labor front, the health care industry is the most obvious benefactor of a longer-living active community. Demand for home health aides is expected to grow 70 percent over the next decade, according to the Department of Labor.

Demand also will be high in less obvious fields, such as for architects, who will be called on to build senior-friendly communities; financial advisers, to help boomers plan their retirements; recreation workers, who’ll lead boomer-tailored excursions; and job trainers, who’ll teach the new workers called on to replace retirees.

“It’s only in Washington that 100 million people are viewed as an unaffordable cost and financial burden,” said Jody Holtzman, a senior vice president at AARP. “In the private sector, 100 million people are called a market and an opportunity.”

Concern about a drain on entitlements from retiring baby boomers has increased as talks intensify over avoiding the fiscal cliff. Boomers have been depicted as the elephant in the room. The Congressional Budget Office warned in June of a shortfall for entitlement programs, as aging boomers would consume a “significant and sustained” share of benefits from Social Security, Medicare and long-term-care services financed by Medicaid, the health care program for the poor.

Those projections fail to take into account that boomers are expected to work longer and they’ve never followed in the footsteps of previous generations, said Matt Thornhill, an author of “Boomer Consumer,” a book that examines marketing to the baby boomer generation.

Boomers have broken the mold during each stage of their lives, Thornhill said. When they were hungry babies and busy parents needed practical ways to feed them, Gerber put strained peas in a jar and became a billion-dollar company. The parents of boomers moved their families out to the suburbs and bought fancy homes stocked with modern appliances. Much of it was paid for with credit cards, which previously didn’t exist.

“We became the generation of consumption and personal gratification,” Thornhill said. “Boomers are not going to spend at all like the prior generations did at 65. They’re going to spend at boomer levels. And there’s millions more of them.”

Jeet Singh, who helped develop e-commerce software used by online retailers such as Best Buy and J. Crew, said retirees hadn’t been treated with respect in terms of offering them well-designed high-quality products that meet their needs without announcing their ages.

“You just can’t fight the numbers,” said Singh, a co-founder of Redstar Ventures and previously Art Technology Group. “All these people are out there. They have needs. Whether it’s what they eat, what they buy, where they shop, how they vacation. And I’m not even talking about health care, which is in itself a massive market.”

In Myrtle Beach, community leaders see opportunity in boomers’ wealth and desire for independent lifestyles. The 65 and older population in Horry County grew 56 percent from 2000 to 2010 and it now makes up 17 percent of the county, according to census data. Brad Dean, the head of the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce, expects a “tidal wave” of boomers coming to t for the weather, the beach and an array of sporting and entertainment activities.

He said boomers were the leading purchasers of homes after the real estate crash.

“We think we’re on the cusp of a large influx of baby boomers,” Dean said. “But already, in the last 18 months, we’ve seen a steady number of baby boomers either relocating to the market or reinvesting in the market. They’re one of the few generations who had enough wealth to be able to do that.”

A year ago, Myrtle Beach financial manager Aaron Slatton got two or three calls a week from retirees. Now the owner of Grand Strand Retirement Solutions receives two or three calls a day from boomers seeking advice on how to stretch their retirement savings.

Jennifer Jones-Poore, a co-owner of Express Watersports in Myrtle Beach, said that about half of her off-season customers were boomers who wanted to scuba-dive, parasail or kayak.

“It’s encouraging when you have a 65-year-old come in here and he can out-swim you,” she said.

The town of Hilton Head Island has no official plan or tactics in place to attract boomers, but Mayor Drew Laughlin is exploring ways to stoke the community’s struggling arts hub and bring a University of South Carolina Beaufort satellite campus to the island. He said retirees wanted cultural and educational amenities in addition to sandy beaches, golf and tennis.

The nearby town of Bluffton has grown more than 800 percent in the past decade, largely from empty nesters and retirees. William Court, of Court Atkins Architects, is among the local architects who are designing custom-built, high-end homes for retirees. Many of the new homes are one story, but others may be designed with elevators and wider doors to accommodate wheelchairs.

People want to know, “ ‘How can I stay in this house as long as possible? What things can we do in the design process that will make this house more accessible … for the long term?’” he said.

Twenty percent of Beaufort County, which encompasses Hilton Head and Bluffton, is 65 or older. Their population grew 76 percent from 2000 to 2010.

Sam Farber created Oxo Good Grips in 1990 when he noticed that his wife had trouble holding kitchen tools because of arthritis, according to the company’s history. Farber saw a business opportunity in creating more comfortable cooking tools. Oxo now makes more than 850 products that appeal across generations.

Holtzman of AARP likes to share that story when he’s trying to inspire new entrepreneurs. He’s met with hundreds of venture capitalists, encouraging them to ask one additional question when entrepreneurs approach them seeking startup money: “What’s your 50-plus plan?”

“The one question a startup doesn’t want to get from its board of directors is this one: ‘Why did you leave money on the table by ignoring a market of 100 million people with $3.5 trillion to spend?’ there are” he said.

For now, the biomass facility on the North Shore is stalled.

Two weeks after the Placer County Planning Commission approved the conditional use permit and certified the final environmental impact report, the Center for Biological Diversity filed an appeal.

The appeal will be on before the Board of Supervisors by the end of March.

The environmental group believes greenhouse emissions from the project could harm the forest.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report

By Michael J. Mishak, Los Angeles Times

SACRAMENTO — When Gov. Jerry Brown spoke to a crowd of beaming environmentalists and renewable energy advocates at the launch of a solar farm last year, he turned heads by praising another form of fuel: oil.

It was a surprising pivot from the man credited with helping to usher in the modern environmental movement as California’s governor nearly four decades ago.

Back then, Brown enacted the nation’s first energy-efficiency standards, signed strict anti-smog laws and blocked offshore drilling. But in his return engagement as California’s chief executive, he has eased key regulations for oil companies, capped wildfire liability for timber companies and relaxed the state’s landmark environmental law.

That strain of pragmatism has run throughout Brown’s current governorship — and flummoxed many allies — and nowhere is it more apparent than on the issue of the environment.

As the state forges ahead with an ambitious program to combat global warming by penalizing major polluters, Brown has said he also wants to unshackle development and create jobs by overhauling California’s signature environmental law. And although he signed legislation requiring the state to get a third of its power from renewable energy sources, he is supporting the oil industry’s push for more drilling.

Brown’s spokesman, Gil Duran, compared the approach to that of President Obama, who has touted what he calls an “all of the above” energy strategy.

“You have to pursue renewable energy — and California is leading the way — but you also have to have balance and common sense,” Duran said.

Business leaders say Brown’s moves are those of a chief executive who knows how to spur growth in a sluggish economy. Oil companies, timber firms and other business interests typically friendly to Republicans rewarded the Democratic governor’s efforts by donating millions of dollars to his successful fall campaign to raise taxes.

Environmentalists say Brown’s actions undercut his own efforts to dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions over the next decade and imperil the state’s standing as a leader on climate change.

“He likes renewable energy. We think that’s great,” said Kathryn Phillips, director of Sierra Club California. “But it makes no sense for somebody who cares as much about greenhouse gas reduction as he does to be bending to the will of the oil industry or bending to the will of a private massive clear-cutter.”

In 2011, when the oil industry complained that environmental scrutiny had slowed the permitting of drilling projects, the governor fired his top two regulators and appointed replacements who agreed to speed approvals. He said the regulators had needlessly held up routine permits, and the projects represented jobs and revenue.

Brown also pushed hard for legislation to limit the legal liability of timber companies in cases of wildfires caused by their practices.

Echoing the timber industry’s concerns, the administration said the bill would prevent prosecutors from seeking “excessive damages” — payouts several times larger than the value of the damaged land. Federal authorities said the measure could make it more difficult to secure money to pay for recovery from destructive blazes.

In a nod to conservationists, the bill Brown ultimately signed also imposed a 1% tax on lumber sales to fund restoration efforts and oversight of the industry.

“He’s balancing the practical needs of California with his philosophy on finding alternative sources of energy,” said Allan Zaremberg, president of the California Chamber of Commerce. “Whether you agree with him or not, he’s trying to find that balance.”

Activists and industry both are preparing for key fights this year.

Hoping to boost the state’s economy, Brown has signaled his desire to loosen the California Environmental Quality Act — the same law he used as attorney general to pressure cities and counties to comply with the global warming law.

The measure requires developers to go through a lengthy public process detailing their projects’ potential environmental effects and how those would be mitigated. Business groups have long complained that activists, labor unions — even corporate competitors — abuse the law by filing frivolous lawsuits to delay and kill development.

In 2011 Brown heard their call and signed bills to help a football stadium proposed for downtown Los Angeles and other major projects avoid drawn-out CEQA litigation. “There are too many damn regulations,” he said at a signing ceremony.

Brown, who as Oakland mayor tried to have the city’s downtown exempted from CEQA, wants to further limit environmental challenges to projects such as California’s high-speed rail system.

“CEQA is the safety net for the air we breathe and the water we drink,” said Kassie Siegel, a lawyer for the Center for Biological Diversity. “If CEQA exemptions are a way for people to make a quick buck, we’ll all regret them in the end.”

Environmental groups and the energy industry are also concerned about the administration’s proposed rules for hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” a controversial drilling process that could help unlock billions of barrels of oil buried deep in California shale.

Although recently drafted regulations would require energy companies to disclose for the first time what chemicals they pump underground to break apart rock and release crude, the proposed rules would also allow firms to claim trade secrets and withhold information they consider proprietary.

Environmentalists and public health advocates have raised safety questions over the hundreds of chemicals that are typically used — many of them known carcinogens. And they fear the trade-secret provision could undermine the presumed intent of the regulations: disclosure.

Oil companies say the technology is safe and argue that such a clause is necessary to protect their competitive advantage.

Speaking to reporters after the November election, Brown said his actions would be guided by a simple question: “Do we have the right rules in place?”

“We are going to calibrate our regulations,” he said, “to ensure that they encourage jobs as well as protect other aspects of public interest such as environment, health and good working conditions.”

By Rich Miller and Michelle Jamrisko, Bloomberg

Rising income inequality is starting to hit home for many American households as they run short of places to reach for a few extra bucks.

As the gap between the rich and poor widened over the last three decades, families at the bottom found ways to deal with the squeeze on earnings. Housewives joined the workforce. Husbands took second jobs and labored longer hours. Homeowners tapped into the rising value of their properties to borrow money to spend.

Those strategies finally may have run their course as women’s participation in the labor force has peaked and the bursting of the house-price bubble has left many Americans underwater on their mortgages.

The result has been a downsizing of expectations. By almost two to one — 64 percent to 33 percent — Americans say the U.S. no longer offers everyone an equal chance to get ahead, according to the latest Bloomberg National Poll. The lack of faith is especially pronounced among those making less than $50,000 a year, with close to three-quarters in the Dec. 6-9 survey saying the economy is unfair.

Read the whole story

By Kathryn Reed

“It’s up to the council and community, but my recommendation will be to encourage this to become an annual event.”

That is what South Lake Tahoe City Manager Nancy Kerry told Lake Tahoe News less than 24 hours after the three-day music festival SnowGlobe came to a close.

“I think this event is a great example of what a group of community and city leaders can do when they put their efforts toward a common goal. Our common goal was not to bring the event back, but instead was to determine whether or not we could find acceptable solutions to the organizers, the community, those most upset or impacted by the event,” Kerry said. “That goal remained the focus this past year. A huge thanks goes to the community members who decided to more than say they didn’t like something, those who got involved said they would invest of their own time to work with the city and organizers to determine if an acceptable solution could be found. They got involved and focused not on what they didn’t agree with or didn’t like but instead invested their energies in helping to find solutions.”

Chromeo rings in the New Year at SnowGlobe in S. Tahoe. Photos/Bron Fong

A year ago the complaints were practically nonstop during the event because the bass from the techno acts had residents unable to enjoy their own homes – walls shook, turning up the TV didn’t solve the problem and angst stayed with those most affected for the last year.

While the music could be heard on occasion outside the event boundaries during the Dec. 29-31 event, it was not constant.

The city set up a phone line just for SnowGlobe related issues. It barely rang.

“I have had a lot of good feedback, no complaints and just a few minor issues have arisen. In the scheme of things it has been pretty successful,” LTCC President Kindred Murillo told Lake Tahoe News.

Like last year, the event was on the community ball fields next to Lake Tahoe Community College.

This year the college strived to capitalize on the thousands of music fans on campus – hoping to show them that while South Lake Tahoe can be fun, it also can be a place to get a higher education.

The college set up a Facebook page specifically for SnowGlobe, handed out postcards with info, and had booths inside and outside the venue.

Fireworks light up the dark, icy night New Year’s Eve.

Murillo spent her New Year’s Eve with the more than 12,000 attendees.

Chad Donnelly, who put on SnowGlobe, did not return a call so the exact number of tickets sold is not known.

The city says about 9,000 attended Saturday night, Sunday was a sell-out crowd of 13,000 and as of 8pm New Year’s Eve, 12,000 had gone through the gates.

When people entered they were frisked and offered the chance to dump any contraband in the amnesty bins. Police Chief Brian Uhler said less was collected this year compared to last year, but as of Tuesday night officers had not gone through it.

There was one arrest Saturday and one Monday – one for alleged theft, the other for allegedly possessing a controlled substance. (South Tahoe police arrested three people on charges of being drunk in public at the Stateline area on New Year’s Eve; where city officials said the crowd was much smaller than years past.)

While uniformed officers were at SnowGlobe, including a K9 unit, undercover officers, event security and undercover Alcohol Beverage Control inspectors were walking the area.

SnowGlobe security kicked a few people out, but why and how many has not been released.

Laidback Luke entertains thousands Dec. 31 at SnowGlobe.

Transportation was the biggest complaint – especially the first day. Event organizers contracted with a private bus company to bring people to the campus and deliver them back to the casino area. BlueGo was paid by SnowGlobe to run more buses, too.

“The long-term impacts of having 15,000 or so attendees come and experience South Lake Tahoe at a festival and doing so annually will likely result in tremendous marketing of the community and encouraging many of these attendees to either move here to go to college, move here later, or return to visit here year after year,” Kerry said.

By Monday, or sooner, the goal is to have LTCC not look like such a mega-event ever took place. That’s when winter quarter starts.

The main stage started to be broken down New Year’s morning after the fireworks put an exclamation point to the end of the three-day event.

In the coming days and weeks Kerry will speak with city employees, college officials and organizers for a bit of a debriefing. Meeting with those involved took place throughout the event to make sure everyone was on the same page.

While a $50,000 deposit had been secured by the city from organizers, it’s too soon to know if it will be fully refunded.

“This time, we all kept a focus on the big idea of bringing events to the community that will generate revenue for local businesses, promote the natural environment and encourage long-term connections to South Lake Tahoe,” Kerry said.

Fourteen people celebrating New Year’s Eve in the Stateline casino area were arrested by Douglas County sheriff’s deputies.

Charges included assault, domestic battery, disorderly conduct, minor consuming alcohol and civil protective custody. One person was issued a citation and released.

The Nevada side of Highway 50 was closed from 11pm to 1am so people could meander. The sheriff’s department has not released the number of people in the area, but had been expecting 60,000.

The various law enforcement and support agencies included Nevada Highway Patrol, South Lake Tahoe Police Department, El Dorado County Sheriff’s Office, California Highway Patrol, FBI, Douglas County Communications Center, Nevada Department of Transportation and Caltrans.

 — Lake Tahoe News staff report

By Mary Jo Pitzl, Arizona Republic

PHOENIX — “Vote early and vote often” is a laugh line politicians often invoke as they make a pitch for people’s support.

But it’s no laughing matter to a half-dozen former Arizonans, who have been prosecuted for voting twice in past elections.

Thanks to a data-sharing agreement among 20 states, Arizona can cross-reference its voter data with other states and ferret out people who vote more than once in the same election cycle.

In 2008, the Interstate Voter Registration Crosscheck Program snared four cases involving six people who voted for president in both Arizona and in another state. Earlier this year, Arizona Secretary of State Ken Bennett said the program had found 10 people who appeared to have voted twice in the 2010 election. Those cases are still under investigation, and the voters face possible prosecution. Work has not begun on cross-referencing voting information from the 2012 elections.

Records from the 2008 cases show the offending parties entered plea deals that left them with misdemeanor charges on their records.

Under the crosscheck program, started in Kansas, states agree to share voter information, including name, address, birth date, whether the individual voted in a given year and the voter’s identification number, Bennett said. The data is sent to a secure server located in Arkansas. The Kansas secretary of state then runs a program to cross-reference the information, identifies any duplicate voting, and, if appropriate, shares that with the states where the multiple voting occurred.

So far, the program has resulted in few prosecutions compared with the millions of votes cast. Kansas reported three cases in 2008 referred to prosecution; four others were successfully prosecuted in Arizona.

In 2010, the program produced 11 instances of possible double voting involving Kansas and another state; in Arizona, the Secretary of State’s Office said there are nine cases under way involving possible double voting in 2010.

Bennett himself has called such cases “rare” and said the penalties that state attorneys win can serve as a deterrent to anyone who thinks they might slip under the electoral radar.

Rodney Paul Jones was stunned when he was accused of a felony for attempting to vote illegally, said his attorney, Clark Derrick.

Jones was shuttling between the Phoenix-area and Colorado Springs, Colo., where he was doing work for the U.S. Air Force Academy. Court records show between December 2005 and August 2008, he registered to vote in Maricopa County, Ariz., and El Paso County, Colo., where the academy is located.

He got a mail-in ballot from Maricopa County and cast it in the November 2008 presidential election. He also cast a ballot in November 2008 in Colorado. Court records list Jones as a resident of Monument, Colo.

Jones initially pleaded not guilty, citing his heavy travel between Colorado and Arizona, and the confusion of the appearance of an early ballot at the Arizona home his wife maintained. But he changed his plea to guilty of a misdemeanor.

A Maricopa County Superior Court judge last year sentenced him to 50 hours of community service, levied a $4,600 fine and put him on one month unsupervised probation.

Derrick said the charge was out of character for Jones, whom he called a responsible person who worried the charge would imperil his employment. (It didn’t.)

In another case, Peter Canova III voted by mail in Arizona’s Republican presidential primary in January 2008, records filed in Maricopa County Superior Court show. He then voted in the fall general election, casting a ballot in Maricopa County and also in Douglas County, Nev.

Like her husband, Gina Thi Canova voted in Arizona’s January 2008 presidential-preference election, as well as voting in November 2008 in Arizona and Nevada. She then continued to vote in other Arizona elections, including Arizona’s August 2010 primary election. She also voted in Nevada’s June 2010 primary election, records show.

The Canovas’ original felony charges were reduced to misdemeanor charges of attempted illegal voting. Peter was sentenced to 200 hours of community service, fined $9,200 (payable to Arizona) and put on two years of unsupervised probation. Gina has a stiffer penalty, given her more robust voting history: 300 hours of community service and a $13,800 fine.

Records show the Canovas now live in Nevada. They could not be reached.

More than 275 traffic stops were made by Nevada Highway Patrol troopers on Northern Nevada highways from 7pm New Year’s Eve until 5 this morning.

Seven motorists, or roughly 3 percent, were arrested on charges of driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

Other calls for service during that same time involved assisting 14 motorists whose vehicles had broken down along the highway and five automobile crashes. Three of those crashes involved minor injuries and were in the Reno-Sparks area while two others happened in the Carson-Tahoe-Minden areas and were property damage only.

Part of our highway safety efforts this holiday focused on crosswalk violations during several shifts over the past three days.Troopers were watchful for pedestrians who were jaywalking as well as for motorists who would not yield to those on foot attempting to cross the roadway at many intersections in the Reno-Sparks, Carson City and Lake Tahoe areas. The results of this directed enforcement activity will be available later this week.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report

Placer County planning commissioners in late December approved a conditional use permit and certified the environmental impact report for a proposed biomass facility between Tahoe City and Truckee.

The project includes a 2 megawatt facility that will use woody biomass from the surrounding forests to create energy.

The project will be located on county owned property at the Cabin Creek materials recycling facility off Highway 89 near the Placer/Nevada county border. The facility will use gasification technology to convert the biomass material into a synthesis gas, which would then be used as fuel for an internal combustion engine/generator that would produce electricity.

An 11,000-square foot building would be built to house the power generating and emissions control equipment and a 1-acre fuel storage area.

Biomass currently being removed from surrounding U.S. Forest Service, state and private land for wildfire fuel reduction efforts would be taken to this facility.

Instead of burning the material it would be converted into gas, which in turn will power an internal combustion engine that would turn turbines to produce electricity.

 — Lake Tahoe News staff report