federal

Captain Joe Duffy of the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office (DCSO) has announced his candidacy for Sheriff of Douglas County, a job currently held by Sheriff Ron Pierini who has announced he will retire after being in the position since 1997.

The community is warmly invited to a trio of free artist receptions and exhibit openings at Lake Tahoe Community College on Thursday, Jan. 18 from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.. Come and enjoy the art along with free refreshments with your fellow art lovers.

Kirkwood Mountain Resort has been fined $754,732 after their snow removal practices resulted in asphalt pavement grindings to get into drainages that flow into Kirkwood Creek and Kirkwood Meadows during the winter of 2015-16.

The financial settlement was with the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board over the alleged violations of the federal Clean Water Act, the Board announced on December 28.

The rural mountain lifestyle we all enjoy at Lake Tahoe is not isolated from the major urban areas nearby. On a typical holiday weekend, the Tahoe Basin turns into a recreation thoroughfare as tens of thousands of day and overnight visitors who sustain our local economy drive up from the San Francisco Bay Area, Sacramento, and Reno.

The El Dorado County Sheriff's Department joined forces with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and El Dorado County District Attorney's Office in conducting "Victim Centered," to identify human trafficking victims and suspects.

They began the investigation by looking into escort/ dating sites on the internet and those ads coming from El Dorado Hills, Cameron Park and Placerville. The main purpose of the investigation was to identify the human trafficking victims who are being prostituted and to identify the suspects who are pimping and trafficking these victims in El Dorado County.

Dr. Devendra I. Patel, aka Devendrakumar I. Patel, 58, of Elko, Nev., was arrested Tuesday on 39 charges of unlawful distribution of prescriptions opioids and Medicaid fraud.

Patel is charged with 36-counts of distribution of controlled substances such as oxycodone and hydrocodone, and three-counts of health care fraud. He is a cardiologist at his medical practice, Northeastern Nevada Cardiology. The statutory maximum penalty for distribution of a controlled substance is 10 years in prison and the maximum penalty for health care fraud is 10 years in prison.

The South Lake Tahoe Police Department has received multiple reports regarding a phone scam to local residents. Callers are identifying themselves to potential victims as an employee of the IRS (Internal Revenue Service). These phony IRS Agents inform the victim they have a warrant for their arrest or owe taxes. This is a scam. Callers claiming to be from the IRS tell intended victims they must pay using a pre-paid debit card, credit cards or wire transfer. The scammers threaten those who refuse to pay with arrest, deportation or loss of a business or driver’s license.

Plans for the next phase of a multi-agency project to connect North Lake Tahoe to South Lake Tahoe along State Route 28 with a Class 1 shared-use pathway are underway, and the U.S. Forest Service Lake Tahoe Basin Management is seeking public input.

Dr. Robert Rand, whose pain pill prescribing practices led to the death of at least one patient and helped fuel a rampant pill mill run out of the Jones West Ford dealership, was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison on Monday.

In handing down the sentence, Judge Miranda Du said doctors like Rand, who show ignorance and a reckless disregard for life, are fueling addiction and illegal distribution of pain pills.

"Doctors like Dr. Rand...are enablers and contribute to the opioid crisis in this community," Du said.

Cub Scout Pack 592 of South Lake Tahoe held their fifth annual Police and Fire Night at St. Theresa’s Grace Hall on November 14.

Scouts were able to see first-hand the tools and techniques that first responders use to keep the community safe and how they work together when someone needs help.

The updated Sierra Boulevard Complete Streets Project was presented to the community Thursday night, with changes incorporated after input from the public at their first meeting August 17, 2017.

Funded by grants, the .6 mile stretch of Sierra Boulevard starting at Highway 50 will have Class 1 and Class 2 bike lanes, parallel parking spots, reduced lane size, lighted sidewalks, underground utilities, landscaping, crosswalks and water quality improvements.

It's just 100 days until the 2018 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games and United Airlines has announced their lineup of Team USA athletes who will represent them in PyeongChang, South Korea.

"New Spirit of United" is their campaign as the US Olympic Committee's official airline.

Jamie Anderson of Meyers/South Lake Tahoe is one of the six athletes chosen who " embody United's core values of flying together and working as one unified team towards success".

It’s that time again. The Battle Born state celebrates its admission to the United States on the last Friday of October, with the annual Nevada Day parade on Saturday. New this year is a ‘Passport to Downtown’ event on Friday. Also new this year is the one-night-only curated art show, Capital Collage, on Friday night featuring over 20 diverse artists and organizations.

The heartbreaking fires in Northern California’s wine country this month have upended hundreds of thousands of people’s lives. In just over one week, the fires across Northern California burned more than 220,000 acres, destroyed 6,000 buildings, and killed more than 40 people. Our hearts go out to our neighbors in Napa, Sonoma, and Mendocino counties.

Have you heard, or seen, military helicopters around South Lake Tahoe the last few days? The U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Miramar is conducting training using the MV-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft at the Lake Tahoe Airport from October 11 until at least October 18.

At first, their plans were to station 12 aircraft at the airport until October 30, so final training plans may have changed. They will also be using a meeting room and hangar at the airport for training purposes.

Overnight fire conditions were very active on several fronts forcing additional
evacuations across Northern California. Firefighters are battling 22 large
wildfires that have burned nearly 170,000 acres. Firefighters are bracing for
the winds to shift this evening and increase in speed. 17 people are confirmed
to have died in the wildfires this week. 11 people alone died in the Tubbs Fire,
making it the 6th deadliest fire in our state’s history.
While damage assessment continues on all the fires, it is estimated that at

The fall prescribed fire program in the Lake Tahoe Basin will return in early October, weather permitting, according to the Tahoe Fire and Fuels Team (TFFT). The first areas to be burned have not been announced.

TFFT is made up of local, state and federal fire and land management agencies in the Lake Tahoe Basin.

he Tahoe Regional Planning Agency (TRPA) on Wednesday recognized 15 exceptional projects completed in 2016 with Best in Basin awards.

Now in its 27th year, TRPA’s Best in Basin awards program each year showcases projects around the lake that demonstrate exceptional planning, implementation, and compatibility with Tahoe’s natural environment and communities.

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.

Almost five years after a 15-year-old El Dorado High School student died after ingesting a designer drug, a Camino man has been indicted by a federal grand jury for his death.

Elijah Lee Richter, 26, is charged with knowingly and intentionally distributing 25i-nBOME, the drug that killed Alejandro Nunez Avila in a Pollock Pines home on on September 8, 2012.

Richter had been arrested at the time with Jesse Howard Roberts, then 21. Roberts has already convicted in the case and sentenced to six years. He currently is listed as being an inmate at Mule Creek State Prison in Ione, Calif.

The 2017 pine nut harvest season kicks off on lands managed by the Nevada Bureau of Land Management and Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest. Both agencies are working together to ensure the public is safely harvesting pine nuts and aware of the regulations.

The length of the pine nut harvest season varies depending on crop quality and seasonal weather conditions. It is generally September to late October when pine nuts are available for harvest.

There are now an estimated 102 million dead trees in California, creating unhealthy forests that are prone to major and catastrophic wildfires. Even though funds are being allocated to remove many of them, where will that timber go?
For now, there aren’t many options because of what has transpired from the government since 1968.

In that year the Secretaries of Agriculture and Interior issued orders restricting the volume of timber that could be harvested from Federal lands in the West. It was updated in 1969 to limit the total harvested to 350-million-board-feet.

Today at the 21st annual Lake Tahoe Summit, the creation of a new partnership of state, federal, environmental, industry, and research representatives working together to protect Lake Tahoe and the surrounding central Sierra Nevada was announced. The effort, the Tahoe-Central Sierra Initiative, is focused on restoring the health and resilience of the area’s forests and watersheds. It builds on the legacy of work that has been done to “Keep Tahoe Blue,” and a variety of activities already underway in the Central Sierra landscape.

Work to rebuild State Highway 89 along the West Shore of Lake Tahoe from Tahoma just north of Granlibakken Road in Tahoe City is now complete, Caltrans announced today. It also came in $8,000,000 under budget.

Construction on the project started in 2012 when a contractor for Southwest Gas began relocating gas lines that were in conflict with the new drainage systems to be built. That work was completed in 2014. Caltrans’ contractor, Road and Highway Builders, began drainage work in 2013 and started roadwork in 2014.