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SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, CALIF. - A violation of a restraining order in South Lake Tahoe Monday afternoon led to an hours-long standoff, closed off neighborhoods and subsequent arrest of a man with a long history of violence.

On Monday, January 22, at about 4:30 p.m., the South Lake Tahoe Police Department (SLTPD) received a call that Brandon Bannowski, 25, had violated a Restraining Order and allegedly entered the home of his ex-girlfriend, threatened her with a baseball bat and choked her.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, CALIF. - El Dorado County Sheriff's Office responds to calls throughout the county. The following are calls that only pertain to the South Shore. There may be some missing calls due to sheriff's logs not being completed at time of story.

Some of those recently added to last week's log:

12/27

7:04 p.m. - Theft - Crystal Air Dr - A MALE SUBJECT ATTEMPTED TO BOOK A VACATION HOME RENTAL VIA AN AD ON THE INTERNET. IT WAS LATER LEARNED THE AD WAS A SCAM.

12/28

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, CALIF. - Lake Tahoe Community College (LTCC) is one of just a handful of educational providers in the state to win a $500,000 grant from the California Apprenticeship Initiative (CAI) to help build and launch culinary pre-apprenticeship programs in South Lake Tahoe. LTCC was recently notified of the award, which will be used to help better prepare South Lake Tahoe’s workforce and to improve local residents’ ability to secure in-demand jobs and progress to higher-wage careers in the Tahoe Basin.

What is currently six portable buildings at the Al Tahoe school site could be a new home for the Boys & Girls Club of Lake Tahoe (BGCLT). That is the idea Jude Wood presented to the school board Tuesday night.

Wood, the BGCLT Executive Director, spoke in front of the Lake Tahoe Unified School District's Trustees, giving them a look into a proposed partnership and future facility use agreement with the District with a new Clubhouse built on District owned property. The Club would fully fund the new building.

17 large wildfires that started in the past 24 hours continue to burn across California and have burned over 115,000 acres. The winds that fanned these fires Sunday night and Monday morning have decreased significantly, but local winds and dry conditions continue to pose a challenge. With the decrease in the winds combined with cooler weather, firefighters made good progress overnight. Sheriff officials have confirmed that 11 people have died as a result of the wildfires in Sonoma, Mendocino, Napa and Yuba counties.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. – The Barton Foundation is delighted to announce the appointment of Troy Matthews as its new Executive Director.

Matthews’ commitment to serving his community is exhibited through his involvement and leadership in multiple organizations including Tahoe Regional Young Professionals, the South Tahoe Drug Free Coalition, Progress for Tahoe, El Dorado County Housing Task Force, LTCC Theater Arts Task Force, Leadership Lake Tahoe, and serving on the Lake Tahoe Unified School District School Board.

Lake Tahoe is known around the world for its crystal-clear water. For several decades, Tahoe’s clarity, which measured more than 100 feet in 1968, was declining each year because of stormwater pollution from poorly planned development and the lingering effects of historical activities such as cattle grazing and logging.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, CALIF. - El Dorado County Sheriff's Office responds to calls throughout the county. The following are calls that only pertain to the South Shore. There may be some missing calls due to sheriff's logs not being completed at time of story.

8/13

4:45 a.m. - Possession - James Ave - A SMALL CONTAINER OF COCAINE WAS FOUND IN THE PRISONER AREA OF AN EDSO PATROL VEHICLE. THE COCAINE WAS BOOKED AS EVIDENCE.

Vail Resorts CEO Rob Katz announced today that his company has committed to zero net emissions by 2030, zero waste to landfill by 2030 and zero net operating impact to forests and habitat.

"Everything we do at Vail Resorts is driven by the spectacular natural environments where our employees, guests and communities live, work and play," Katz said in a press release. "The environment – and our stakeholders’ passion for it – is our business, and we have a special obligation to protect it."

The 28th annual American Century Championship celebrity golf tournament is launching a new app that will enable users to follow players live throughout this week, July 11-16.

The free app is available for both iPhones and androids and called "American Century Championship."

The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) El Dorado County launched a new website that will provide users with a better experience with more information on mental health events, meetings, programs and research.

NAMI is dedicated to mental health awareness and improving the quality of life for people with mental illness and their families through support, education, and advocacy.

As the first responders and Meyers community are honored for their resiliency and efforts during the June 24, 2007 Angora Fire, another side of the story was behind the newspaper pages and camera lenses.

Ten years ago was a different time for news, and local online news sources such as South Tahoe Now did not exist, nor was there social media forum one could rely on for local news and updates.

A South Lake Tahoe man was arrested Monday after allegedly attempting to carjack a local woman's BMW.

Imagine the year 1860 with vast wilderness and wide-open plains between Missouri and California. You're one of the chosen riders on top of a horse with a mochila strapped on your saddle, navigating along the trail where unknown dangers lay ahead.

You're not on leisure trip, you're one of a team of young men traveling 1,966 miles in ten days on horseback, delivering mail to and from the West.

The Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) didn't give South Tahoe High and the Lake Tahoe Unified School District (LTUSD) the results expected after a WASC accreditation team visited South Lake Tahoe in the Spring of 2016.

Instead of an expected six-year term they received a two-year accreditation which goes through June of 2018. On March 19 and 20 of that year a team of educators will return to the campus and evaluate recommended changes.

As we celebrate Earth Day this April, let’s remember how important environmental stewardship is to the health of Lake Tahoe, and how important our individual actions are.

Over the last two decades, public, private, and nonprofit partners have made significant progress conserving and restoring Lake Tahoe’s environment through the Environmental Improvement Program.

What does recreational cannabis mean for the Lake Tahoe community? A chance to discuss the passage of California's Proposition 64 and Nevada's Question 2 will be held on Wednesday, April 19 at the Tahoe Beach Retreat Conference Center from 6:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.

This will be an installment of the Tahoe Regional Young Professionals (TRYP) Town Hall Series that focuses on bringing the community together for civic discussions.

As a national treasure offering world-class recreation opportunities, Lake Tahoe is one of the most popular outdoor destinations in Northern California and Nevada. And sometimes, being popular has its challenges.

Tahoe’s limited roadways become congested during times of peak visitation, when thousands of people who live in nearby metropolitan areas get in their cars to drive up to our small mountain communities. Suddenly, a road system designed for 55,000 residents must handle four to five times that many cars on an average busy day.

SR-89 at Emerald Bay may open Saturday after crews have made significant progress on clearing away snow from last week's storm as well as snow and debris 20 feet high from a slide that fell onto the highway at Vikingsholm.

Meanwhile, one lane of U.S. Highway 50 remains open in each direction at Bridal Veil Falls while emergency work continues on a major slipout that destroyed the #2 westbound lane and also impacted the #1 lane. Work there is also expected to take several months for the design and construction of a new retaining wall to stabilize the slope.

9:30 p.m. update:
Portola: Trees fell on primary line; crews on site making repairs; most customers should be restored by 10 pm.
River Road/Silver Creek/Fir Crags Road/Hwy 89. Avalanche danger and weather conditions prohibiting crews from accessing damage; customers should plan on multi-day outage. We hope to access Weds morning.
Ward Canyon: broken pole; estimate most customers restored by 10 pm.

Caltrans has opened SR-89 along the west shore of Lake Tahoe, enabling motorists to travel between the north and south end of the lake without having a multi-hour detour.

Highway 50 at Logan Creek on the east shore is still closed due to an unstable hillside above the road.

Lake Tahoe Community College stands with the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office and its Board of Governors in strongly supporting the values and benefits of diversity and inclusion; not just on college campuses, but in towns and cities large and small across the country. The current White House administration’s recent executive orders regarding immigration, the building of a border wall, and its rhetoric regarding Dream Act students has caused widespread concern among California’s community college students.

Twenty-five years ago, I finished my graduate work in Oregon and moved to Northern Nevada for a planning position at TRPA. Having spent a large part of my youth hiking and camping at Tahoe and in the Sierra, the move felt like coming home.

Liberty Utilities announced significant progress was made today in getting power restored to several areas that remained without power since a powerful storm hit the Sierra Nevada this week.

With the use of helicopters and additional crews coming in from outside areas, lines are being repaired.

Although access to the power line that feeds the Floriston/Portola area presented a significant challenge, Liberty was able to restore power about 5:30 p.m. Saturday. Most of the Tahoma area has been restored with the rest of the West Shore expected to be back online in 24 hours or so.