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It has been 18 years since Sonny Bono, a California congressman and entertainer who had performed at Lake Tahoe, died in a skiing accident at Heavenly Mountain Resort.

Bono was 62 when he set out skiing on that Monday morning, January 5, 1998. He was first reported missing at 4:30 p.m. In hopes that he left the mountain without telling anyone, Bono was paged in each of the Stateline casinos.

Round two of Councilwoman JoAnn Conner versus the City of South Lake Tahoe and City Manager Nancy Kerry was originally on the court docket for Monday, but it didn't happen and the next court date has yet to be set.

3:00 p.m. update 1/5/16: Well, the storm had another surge and chain controls are back up over Echo from three miles east of Kyburz to Meyers and on 80 from one mile east of Baxter to the Donner Lake interchange.

220 p.m. update 1/5/16: Chain controls over Echo Summit (Hwy 50) and Donner Pass (I80) have been lifted.

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Chain controls have been up through the Sierra Nevada for most of the day as snows passes over the region.

Two good news stories out of Squaw Valley Alpine Meadows today.

First, they are now offering a season pass to all active duty military in exchange for a $25 donation to the “Military to the Mountains” program, a partnership between Squaw Valley Alpine Meadows, High Fives Foundation, Achieve Tahoe (formerly Disabled Sports USA Far West) and Adaptive Training Foundation.

A Douglas County man is in jail this morning after allegedly battering his wife and strangling her, shooting off a gun inside their home and resisting arrest on Monday, January 5, 2016.

At 11:10 p.m., deputies from the Douglas County Sheriff's Office responded to a 911 call from a home in the 1300 block of Banner Drive in the Gardnerville Ranchos neighborhood. A woman had called, saying she had been battered and strangled by her husband.

The Caltrans Avalanche Team was at Echo Summit Monday for a routine test on their Gazex system which is in place on the mountain.

A message went out on twitter for those that follow @TahoeRoads, advising people of a loud bang that would happen. "if you hear a loud bang in a few minutes, it's not NYE again," the tweet said. "Caltrans testing avalanche control cannon off Hwy 50."

There is a video attached to this story that shows a demonstration on how this sytem works for avalanche control. The chambers of the Gazex remotely shoot compressed air into the snow.

The Tahoe Douglas Fire Protection District is holding a blood drive on Monday, January 18 from noon to 5:30 p.m.

FACTS & FIGURES
* A single car accident victim can require as many as 100 pints of blood.
* More then 40,000 pints of blood are transfused daily in the United States.
* 1 in 7 people entering the hospital will need blood.
* Patients who use the most blood are people being treated for: cancer, undergoing orthopedic surgeries, undergoing organ and marrow transplants, being treated or inherited blood disorders and undergoing cardiovascular surgeries.

Location

The following is the ski, snowboard and weather report for Monay, January 4, 2016 for South Lake Tahoe brought to you by Lake Tahoe SkiBum.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE - A chair fell from Heavenly Mountain Resort's North Bowl chairlift today, resulting in 65 people being stranded for two hours before being evacuated from the lift.

Just before 11 a.m. on January 3, 2016, the unoccupied chair fell off the cable and the lift was immediately shut down.

Lara Miller of South Lake Tahoe was among those stranded on the chairlift. She said the resort's ski patrol checked on the stranded skiers during the two hour ordeal.

There’s nothing like having a hearty and tasty meat loaf dinner to make you feel like you’re eating at home. Thanks to the “Adopt A Day of Nourishment” sponsor MontBleu Resort Casino & Spa and our hardworking Bread & Broth volunteer cooks, that is exactly what B&B’s dinner guests enjoyed at the December 28 Monday evening dinner. The meat loaf was a big hit and despite big “first servings” portions, when “second serving” was announced, many diners returned for a second helping.

When the clock struck midnight on New Year’s Day, Rogelio Castañeda and a very pregnant Margarita García gave a New Year’s toast with a glass of champagne and a glass of apple cider, respectively. Three hours later, after a brief slumber, Margarita woke up in labor.

The couple headed to Barton Family Birthing Center and at 6:36 p.m. on January 1, Jeremy Nicolas Castañeda García was born. Jeremy weighed seven pounds, eleven ounces and was 20.5 inches long. He was named after Margarita’s mother Geremia, who passed away when Margarita was young.

The National Weather Service in Reno says that an active winter weather pattern will be returning to the Lake Tahoe region next week as several winter systems are poised to impact the Sierra and western Nevada every one to two days beginning Monday and possibly lasting into next weekend.

As usual, the South Lake Tahoe Police Department bolstered our patrol staffing to meet the emergency response needs of our crowded City during the New Year celebration period. There were squads of officers patrolling the state line area, the Snow Globe festival and extra officers were also assigned to work patrol throughout the City. South Lake Tahoe was quite full with holiday revelers, and the number of calls for emergency police responses was consistent with recent past years. We are pleased to report there was a decrease in arrests as compared to last year.

Are you prepared for an emergency? The City of South Lake Tahoe has developed a 12 month emergency preparedness tool to help you prepare.

As part of the City's continued initiative to increase communications, we will be offering a 12 part monthly series throughout the year highlighting emergency preparedness. Use these tools to prepare yourself for an emergency. More information is available in the City’s website at www.cityofslt.us/emergency

Emergency Preparedness—Month 1 - CREATE A FAMILY DISASTER PLAN

Thank you John Durst for your video coverage of the New Year's revelers along the casino corridor on the South Shore.

An estimated 5,000 to 10,000 people lined the route waiting for the road to close just before midnight.

Link to video HERE.

The following is the ski, snowboard and weather report for Friday, January 1, 2016 for South Lake Tahoe brought to you by Lake Tahoe SkiBum.

Weather - It's a cold one this morning with a temperature reading of -7 at 7 a.m. South Lake Tahoe will have a high of 23 and a low tonight of 8. Today: Mostly sunny, with a high near 23. East wind around 10 mph. Tonight: Partly cloudy, with a low around 8. East wind around 5 mph becoming southwest after midnight.

If you live in Nevada, chances are you felt an earthquake in 2015. The University of Nevada, Reno's Seismological Laboratory said there were 17,500 earthquakes in the state during the year, 231 of those recently in south Reno.

South Tahoe High graduate Graham Kent in the director of the Nevada Seismological Lab. "While the Reno shaking is fresh in our minds, what's really bumping the number up from the background rates is the energetic sequence in far northwestern Nevada, the Sheldon sequence," he said.

The fifth annual Lake Tahoe Home and Garden Show will be held Friday, April 22, 2016, from 4:00 pm to 7:30 pm, and Saturday, April 23, 2016, from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm.

The show will return to the Recreation Complex at 1080 Rufus Allen Blvd. in South Lake Tahoe. Admission is free, and all attendees will receive a free ticket for a door prize drawing. The popular show attracts over a thousand attendees during the two days, and offers free give-a-ways, food, activities for the family, and vendors

4:30 p.m. update 12/31/15:

The woman who was a focus of a search in South Lake Tahoe on Thursday was found by Douglas County Sheriff's Search and Rescue.

At 3:30 p.m., April Torres was located on the roof top of Edgewood Tahoe Golf Resort. She has been transported to Barton Hospital. Her medical condition is unknown.

MontBleu surveillance employees spent the day searching through their films and the last time she was seen on film was when she left the casino on foot and went to the corner of the Loop Road and Highway 50.

The investigation continues.

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South Lake Tahoe is host to Operation Sierra Storm each year, a leading national weather conference that brings together those that report the weather with South Lake Tahoe activities and top climate scientists.

The three-day conference runs from January 6-9, 2016 and the public has the opportunity to attend the Friday sessions that feature California State Sen. Pro Tem Kevin de León and Alexander (Sasha) Gershunov, Research Meteorologist for Climate, Atmospheric Science and Physical Oceanography at Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

For many years, the Rotary Club of South Lake Tahoe has given away a car during their annual Great Car Raffle, but that tradition has come to an end.

Club President Dave Jinkens announced Wednesday that the raffle doesn't raise the money needed to give away almost $50,000 annually to the community through scholarships, donations and grants.

There are two reasons Jinkens said the club had to abandon the raffle. After buying a car and covering the cost of the raffle, proceeds weren't what they once were and they've had to start dipping into reserves to meet donation requests.

The first snowpack survey of the season was taken Wednesday in Phillips, showing the snowpack us at 136% of average with a water content of 16.3 inches.

"This is encouraging but not where we'd like to be," said Frank Gehkre, the Chief Snow Surveyor for the California Department of Water Resources. "This is clearly much better than last year at this time."

One year ago the survey showed the snowpack at 47% of average.

There is snow on the ground and a chill in the air, perfect conditions for the thousands of music fans in South Lake Tahoe for SnowGlobe 2015.

Lines of young men and women, some dressed in costume or wearing wild hats, eagerly awaited the begin of the three day music festival. Anticipation had been growing for weeks as the social media hype was on.

It's been three years since 19-year-old Alyssa Byrne from Petaluma, Calif., died after attending New Year's Eve SnowGlobe Music Festival becoming separated from her friends. Her body was found off Pioneer Trail between Black Bart Avenue and Al Tahoe Boulevard on January 4, 2013.