legislation

More money is headed to preserve and restore Lake Tahoe. In Washington Wednesday the U.S. Senate passed its $415 million version of 2015's Lake Tahoe Restoration Act by a vote of 95-3.

The money for Lake Tahoe is part of the $10 billion Water Resources Development Act of 2016.

This is the first time the funding legislation to reauthorize the Lake Tahoe Restoration Act has cleared the full Senate even though its has succeeded at the committee level several times.

The Tahoe Regional Planning Agency Governing Board on Wednesday recognized the extraordinary, lifelong contributions of Coe Swobe. Swobe is considered the “father of TRPA” for his bipartisan work to create the agency and its mission to conserve and restore Lake Tahoe’s environment. Swobe died on May 26, 2016 at age 87.

As a Nevada State Senator, Swobe brokered the landmark 1969 agreement between then Nevada Gov. Paul Laxalt and then California Gov. Ronald Reagan and the two state legislatures to create TRPA and the nation’s first environmental bi-state compact.

In a representative democracy, the system the United States supposedly has, the policy making is controlled by the representatives elected by the people. The idea behind representative democracy is that people will elect representatives that will serve their best interest. However, in the United States the funding for election campaigns is provided by large corporations, banks, and a handful of wealthy individuals that results in the election of representatives who serve the best interests of the large corporations, banks, and wealthy individuals.

At Lake Tahoe, we know our natural resources are one of our most valuable assets, and that’s why we have worked for decades to conserve and restore them. The natural wonders of the Jewel of the Sierra and the opportunities they afford are why we live here, and why millions of visitors travel here to enjoy the Tahoe Basin each year.

The Lake Tahoe Restoration Act of 2015, a bipartisan bill sponsored by Nevada Sen. Dean Heller, passed the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works on Wednesday.

The legislation, created alongside senators Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., Harry Reid, D-Nevada and Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., provides federal, state, and local partners important tools to reduce wildfire threats, improve water clarity, jumpstart innovative infrastructure projects, and combat invasive species.

BE PREPARED FOR 2016 with new employment laws for California & Nevada!

Get caught up on the new employment laws and understand how they impact you and your business. Join your fellow Chamber members at these two informative sessions that will present highlights of new legislation and case law updates, including new wage and hour laws, for both California and Nevada.

CALIFORNIA SESSION: 9:00am - 10:30am

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The Nevada Department of Transportation is urging residents to help protect water quality by preventing and reporting illicit drainage and discharge onto state roads and transportation facilities.

Illicit discharge is anything entering a roadway drainage system that is not natural stormwater. Pesticides, construction dirt or materials, as well as materials from neighboring properties and roadway runoff containing fertilizers, vehicle oil and chemicals are examples.

Editors Note: This is a reprint of an article that appeared in the San Francisco Examiner. Those of us who live in El Dorado County already knew this secret, but it is now out!

It may be gold (and God and gun) country, but visitors are beginning to satisfy other tastes in the Hangtown hills, from apple orchards, farm-side vacation respites and outdoor excursions to wines without an extra layer of price or pretense.

Vast areas of California's Central Valley are sinking faster than in the past as massive amounts of groundwater are pumped during the historic drought, state officials said Wednesday, citing new research by NASA scientists.

The data shows the ground is sinking nearly two inches each month in some places, putting roads, bridges and vital canals that deliver water throughout the state at growing risk of damage.

History shows time and time again our greatest accomplishments at Lake Tahoe are achieved when people work together. In the past, Tahoe was known as a place where unproductive interactions between stakeholders led to a stunning decay in our environment and our economic vitality, creating a region that seemed frozen in time.

We face major environmental challenges at Tahoe, including the uncertainties of climate change. And as Albert Einstein said, “We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.”

The controversial bill that would give California one of the country's strictest vaccination laws headed on Monday to Gov. Jerry Brown's desk, with supporters urging him to sign it and opponents promising to stand vigil around the clock to convince him to veto it.

On Monday, a majority of the California state Senate again passed Senate Bill 277, incendiary legislation that would require almost all schoolchildren to be fully vaccinated in order to attend public or private school, regardless of their parents' personal or religious beliefs.

The only exception would be for medical reasons.

California took the first step June 5 to regulate its nearly 20-year-old medical marijuana industry, one that lawmakers said currently resembles something out of the “wild, wild West.”

AB266 merges what were two competing bills and attempts to set up state regulations that will pass muster with the federal Department of Justice. It was one of dozens of pieces of legislation advancing through the Legislature Thursday as lawmakers faced a Friday deadline to move bills out of their house of origin.

The City of South Lake Tahoe wants to hear opinions and concerns from the public on city matters. In order to hear from the people who cannot make City Council meetings they have created "eComment."

This new way to collect comments on agenda items was unveiled this weekend and is now in place, just in time for the June 2nd council meeting.

Unpaid traffic fines and mushrooming fees have left 4.2 million Californians with suspended driver’s licenses — more than one-sixth of the licenses issued statewide — with poor people the hardest-hit, according to a newly published study that criticizes policies that take drivers off the road because of debts they can’t pay.

BE PREPARED FOR 2015 with new employments laws for California & Nevada

Get caught up on the new employment laws and understand how they impact you and your business. Join your fellow Chamber members at these two informative sessions that will present highlights of new legislation and case law updates, including new wage and hour laws, for both California and Nevada.

CALIFORNIA SESSION 9:00am - 10:30am

Location

In this photo can you tell which candies are made from marijuana and which ones are made with sugar and sold in all stores? The answer will be later in the story.

With marijuana now legal in many states, issues are arising that may have been overlooked in the eagerness to make marijuana legal.

Marijuana (cannabis) candies are hitting the market like a storm, and more people are now ending up in the E.R., or even dead, after ingesting them as well as brownies and cookies made from cannabis.

The partnership between California and Nevada that created the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency turns 45 years old today, marking nearly a half-century of progress in the protection and restoration of Lake Tahoe and its treasured environment.

President Richard Nixon signed the Bi-State Compact creating TRPA on Thursday, December 18, 1969. Nixon’s signature followed the compact’s ratification by Congress and its approval by both states’ legislatures and former governors Ronald Reagan in California and Paul Laxalt in Nevada.

Tahoe Chamber has a long history of Representing Business to Government via advocating for policies that provide a fair and predictable process for businesses of any size. This process is guided by our Government Affairs Committee (GAC), the
board, the Chamber CEO and our Government Affairs Liaison.

Author and Sierra Nevada Native, Gary D. Noy, returns with his newest book, "Sierra Stories: Tales of Dreamers, Schemers, Bigots, and Rogues." This interesting collection highlights unusual or lesser-known stories of the Sierra Nevada experience with the focus of this presentation being the Yosemite Valley Grant Act of 1864, which brought the valley under government control and is considered the beginning of the California State Park system.  This year is the 150th anniversary of that event. The legislation was introduced by an El Dorado County resident, John Conness.

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Proactive forest management activities can reduce high-severity fire by up to 75%, save up to three times the cost of fighting forest fires and bring added benefits to people, water and wildlife according to a study released today.

In an effort to keep bicyclists safer on Nevada roads, the Nevada Highway Patrol (NHP) has joined forces with the Nevada Department of Transportation (NDOT) in a SHARE THE ROAD campaign. They will be stepping up enforcement to ensure that motor vehicles are sharing the roads with the bicyclists and reducing the accidents between the two.

Spring is here which means Nevadans will be taking to the road to get some exercise and soak up some sun, so you will begin to see more people biking along the roads in Nevada.

The County of El Dorado and the Judges of the Superior Court of California, County of El Dorado, are pleased to announce that Brian Richart has accepted appointment as El Dorado County’s new Chief Probation Officer. A unique position under California law, the Chief Probation Officer is appointed by the judges of the Superior Court, with the Board of Supervisors setting the salary and benefit levels. Due to the importance of this position, the Superior Court worked collaboratively with the Sheriff’s Department and county officials to select the best possible candidate.

El Dorado County Sheriff's Department Captain Randy Pershon has been appointed to the Judicial Council Collaborative Justice Courts Advisory Committee. This committee makes recommendations improving the processing of cases in drug courts, domestic violence courts, peer courts, and other community-based treatment courts. They also propose rules, standards, and forms; reviews and recommends legislation; identifies potential funding sources; oversees the treatment court grant process; and acts on assignments referred to it by the Judicial Council.

It has been 17 years since President Bill Clinton and Vice President Al Gore stood on the shores of Lake Tahoe and issued a challenge. They urged the frequently fractious perspectives in the region to come together in support of the restoration of Lake Tahoe.