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Are some bears just born to be bad? Or do they learn from other bears that raid garbage cans, break into cars and homes and eventually have to be killed because they’ve lost their fear of humans?

Scientists have researched this classic debate over “nature” and “nurture” among black bears for decades, from Yosemite National Park in the Sierra to central Florida and the Adirondacks in upstate New York.

A Sacramento County man accused of kidnapping a Vallejo woman in March allegedly confessed to the crime in a recorded jailhouse interview and said he did it alone, according to an FBI affidavit filed in federal court.

Matthew Muller, 38, of Orangevale, is charged with kidnapping physical therapist Denise Hoskins at the Vallejo home she shared with her boyfriend on March 23 and keeping her captive for two days before dropping her off near her mother's house in Huntington Beach.

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 press time and the story will be updated when provided.

8/23

5:17 a.m. - Vacation Rental Noise Violation - Cold Creek Ct - REPORT DOCUMENTS THE RESPONSE TO A VHR REGARDING A NOISE COMPLAINT.

Union Mine High School sophomores Nick Brown and Justin Schwartz had just finished leading their junior varsity football team to a 27-8 win over Foothill High School on Friday night when people noticed something wasn’t quite right.

Then Brown passed out, said El Dorado Union High School District Superintendent Stephen Wehr.

The two were rushed to the emergency care, Brown to Sutter Roseville Medical Center and Schwartz to Kaiser Permanente Roseville Medical Center, according to Wehr.

A multi-sport expedition that took participants from mountain top to mountain top, up rocks and into the lake and along rivers has wrapped up in South Lake Tahoe. Eleven teams with four members each spent the past several days running, biking, orienteering, mountain climbing, kayaking over 520 miles of some of the world's most beautiful terrain.

A Contra Costa Sheriff's deputy who died trying to rescue his friend who he believed was struggling in choppy Lake Tahoe waters earlier this month died from drowning, an El Dorado County Sheriff's official said Wednesday.

The preliminary autopsy report determined Carlos Francies, 30, of Sacramento, drowned on Aug. 13, according to the El Dorado coroner's office. A final report is weeks away, the department said.

El Dorado County Superintendent of Schools Jeremy Meyers was booked and released from El Dorado County Jail on Saturday, a condition of his sentencing for driving under the influence in June.

Meyers’ attorney, Paul Zappettini, said Meyers was cited June 9 for driving under the influence of alcohol. He appeared in court Aug. 10 and received a five-day alternative sentence, which was served as house arrest, Zappettini said. He also was fined and faces suspension of his driver’s license. As a condition of his sentence, Meyers also was required to be booked at the El Dorado County jail.

A problem-causing black bear that wildlife officials said was becoming increasingly dangerous was killed Tuesday in Incline Village.

The bear, a 9-year-old, 450-pound male, was captured Monday night or early Tuesday morning, tranquilized and subsequently euthanized with drugs, said Chris Healy, spokesman for the Nevada Department of Wildlife.

The bear was determined to be the same one that had been raiding trash, breaking into cars and knocking over fences in the area and was killed as a threat to public safety, Healy said.

The first major historical art survey of Lake Tahoe and the Sierra’s infamous Donner Pass takes an ambitious trip through two centuries, highlighting the roles of Native Americans and railroad barons and the tourists and scientists trying to halt the loss of clarity in the azure waters.

“Tahoe: A Visual History” opened Saturday at the Nevada Museum of Art, featuring more than 400 objects by 175 painters, photographers, architects, basket weavers and sculptors. Arranged chronologically for the most part, it combines culturally and historically significant creations with contemporary works.

Three Americans, all with ties to the Sacramento area, helped stop a potential terror attack. On a train from Amsterdam to Paris, they subdued a man with an automatic weapon.

One serves in the Air Force, another recently served in Afghanistan in the National Guard, another is studying physical therapy in California - and all three Americans are being hailed as heroes for tackling and disarming a gunman they happened to encounter on a high-speed train between Amsterdam and Paris.

A Carson City teenager died Saturday after authorities were called to Sand Harbor at Lake Tahoe for an accident on the water. Carson City Sheriff Ken Furlong confirmed the victim is a 15-year-old Carson High School student.

The teen’s name has not been released. A chaplain from Carson City has notified the parents, said Furlong. The teen died after he was taken to a Reno hospital after emergency crews were called to Sand Harbor at around noon Saturday. Washoe County authorities would not confirm if it was a possible drowning.

A new smartphone app encourages Lake Tahoe beach-goers of all ages to help scientists better understand conditions around the lake.

The year was 1946. The President was Harry S. Truman, "It's a Wonderful Life" was in the theaters and a stamp cost three cents. It was also the year the Tahoe Trout Farm opened in South Lake Tahoe.

This business, located off of Lake Tahoe Blvd on Blue Lake Avenue, was the topic of the South Lake Tahoe Planning Commission's meeting on August 13.

In an effort to "Clean Up Highway 50," the City's sign ordinance is meant to get rid of the blight and unattractive signage that visitors and locals see each day they travel the main artery through town.

More than 10,000 acres of scenic meadows, forests and trout streams in the Sierra Nevada 10 miles west of Lake Tahoe have been preserved in a deal in which environmentalists hope to prove that thinning out overgrown forests can increase California's water supply.

The Northern Sierra Partnership, an environmental group based in Palo Alto and founded by longtime Silicon Valley leaders Jim and Becky Morgan, joined with the Nature Conservancy and the American River Conservancy to buy the land for $10.1 million from Simorg West Forests, a timber company based in Atlanta.

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 press time and the story will be updated when provided.

8/9

3:30 p.m. - Search and Rescue call to Dardanelles Lake - SEARCH AND RESCUE INITIATED FOR AN INJURED 15-YEAR-OLD-FEMALE HIKER AT DARDANELLES LAKE.

8/10

No reported calls

8/11

After the passing of the $55 million Lake Tahoe Community College General Bond, known as Measure F in November, the next step was to sell the bonds.

On August 6, 2015, $19 million of Series A bonds were sold at a much better rate than anyone expected. When the market opened at 7 a.m. PST, investors were ready to jump on these bonds and it only took two hours to sell them, and waiting in the wings were another $54.4 million in orders.

The biggest single investor was State Farm Insurance who bought about 25% of the bonds or, $4.7 million.

Officials at Yosemite National Park said Friday they will temporarily close a popular campsite after two squirrels died of plague in the area.

Tuolumne Meadows Campground will close from noon Monday through noon Friday so authorities can treat the area with a flea-killing insecticide. Campers had their reservations canceled at the 304-site campground so the insecticide can be sprayed into rodent "burrow holes," the California Department of Health said Friday.

Plague is carried by rodents and is spread by fleas, but transmission between people is rare.

The Friends of the Library, in partnership with the Lake Tahoe Historical Society, is excited to welcome back author, Mary Jo Sonntag. Her new presentation answers questions about the early pioneers to our area: What was pioneer life really like? What diseases did pioneers experience?

Her award-winning book, "Write, If You Live to Get There" tells the true story of her ancestor’s westward migration from Vermont to Tahoe through a series of family letters spanning more than 120 years. Interesting, informative and open to all.

Book sale and signing to follow.

Location

Author Mojie Crigler will be reading from her new book, Get Me Through Tomorrow: A Sister's Memoir of Brain Injury and Revival, tonight at Bona Fide Books in Meyers at 7 p.m.

A passenger who died in a Sunday night vehicle crash has been identified by the El Dorado County Sheriff’s Office as 33-year-old Rachelle Piparo of Georgetown.

Piparo was riding in the front seat of a pickup and was killed when driver Joseph Piparo, 33, rolled the vehicle and flatbed trailer it was towing east of Georgetown.

Joseph Piparo, of Georgetown, was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence and booked into El Dorado County Jail.

Perched around a secluded campfire in the Rocky Mountains, Glenn Martin jerked forward, said, "Ow," and died. The wayward bullet that struck him in the national forest has campers and other users calling for changes in recreational shooting policy.

Martin, 60, died July 3 in the Pike & San Isabel National Forest, 30 miles southwest of Denver. The 3.1-million-acre forest holds the record for the most gun-related violations reported in the country, a review of federal records by the USA TODAY Media Network shows.

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 press time and the story will be updated when provided.

8/2

8:26 a.m. - Possession of Marijuana for Sale - Third Street - 24-YEAR-OLD MALE SUBJECT ARRESTED FOR TRANSPORTATION AND POSSESSION OF MARIJUANA FOR SALES.

Mysterious booms have plagued the residents of El Dorado County in California for some time now. While some have speculated what the cause of these booms has been, it's remained a mystery until now.

Residents have reported that the booms aren't as crisp as a gunshot, and instead sound more like an aerial bomb. A few have speculated that it could be the result of work occurring in an underground mine.

A fight between two inmates Tuesday at the Warm Springs Correctional Center in Carson City resulted in one of the prisoners being flown by Care Flight to a Reno hospital after he was shot by guards with rubber pellets, according to the Nevada Department of Corrections. Six others were injured.