By Tim Dahlberg, AP

There’s a brand new sports bar at Monmouth Park with televisions hanging from nearly every available rafter.

Mostly empty now except on racing weekends at the horse track little more than an hour from Manhattan, it may not stay empty long. Depending on how a judge rules, it could soon become the first fully functioning — and fully legal — sports book in the country outside of Nevada.

The William Hill Race and Sports Bar would become the William Hill Race and Sports Book. And that could be a game changer for anyone in New Jersey who likes to have a little action on their favorite team.

“We’re built out and ready to go,” said Joe Asher, who heads operations for betting giant William Hill U.S. “This is a very sizeable market.”

Of that, there is little doubt. There’s no shortage of sports fans in the New Jersey/New York area, and bookmakers believe they will line up from opening day on with fistfuls of cash to wager on games.

Asher says that if sports betting is allowed in New Jersey it could dwarf the $3.6 billion that was wagered legally on sports last year in Nevada, opening up an entire new industry on the East Coast. It might even help rescue Atlantic City casinos that are struggling to attract customers in the wake of casino expansion around the country.

New Jersey residents want it, voting overwhelmingly in 2011 to permit sports betting at race tracks and casinos. Gov. Chris Christie signed a bill into law approving sports betting, only to see it derailed in court because it conflicts with federal law.

But now the issue is back before a federal judge, and all bets are off. An end-run around the federal prohibition of sports betting in all but four states is once again in play.

And the sharp guys from Vegas are poised, ready to jump in when they get the word.

“I believe the New Jersey market once fully up and going would be at least three times the Nevada market,” Asher said. “This is an area with some of the most storied franchises in American sports where billions of dollars are already bet on sports illegally.”

Unfortunately for would-be bettors, not everyone is enamored with the idea of sports betting. They’re stuck in the past, still believing that betting on sports draws undesirables and is somehow a threat to the integrity of the games themselves. They don’t understand that it’s a lot easier to monitor betting trends in legal books than with an illegal bookmaker operating out of a corner bar.

There are some signs that even that may be changing. Daily fantasy sports wagering is exploding online thanks to a loophole in the federal law, and looks very similar to sports betting.

The NFL, meanwhile, holds games every year in London where there are betting parlors on every block offering a line on the action. And last month NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said at a business conference that he was not opposed to the idea of sports betting and expected his league to participate in it at some point

“Obviously we read with great interest Commissioner Silver’s comments,” said Asher, whose company runs more than 100 locations in Nevada and 2,400 shops in the United Kingdom. “I hope that signals a re-evaluation of what is obviously a mindset that does not comport with 21st Century reality.”

For now, though, the NBA and the other major sports leagues are lining up against betting in New Jersey. Lawyers for the four leagues and the NCAA will argue Oct. 31 before U.S. District Judge Michael Shipp that the injunction he issued last year upholding the ban should stay in place despite Christie’s announcement that the state would not be involved in regulating the betting.

Should the door open in New Jersey, though, other states will surely follow, much the way they did when Atlantic City became the first place outside of Las Vegas to legalize casino gambling. The online market could explode, much like it is in Nevada where 36 percent of William Hill’s handle comes through bets on its mobile app.

Right now all they’re selling at the sports bar at Monmouth are food and drinks. Betting is limited to the expected finishing position of the horses on the track.

It might not be long, though, before you can order an NFL three-teamer to go with that trifecta on the ponies.

To the community,

On Sept. 22, Bread & Broth volunteers and the sponsor volunteer crew from Heavenly Mountain Resort served a beef and mushroom stroganoff dinner to the 124 guests that arrived at St. Theresa Church’s Grace Hall. As the number of individuals needing assistance increases, Bread & Broth is able to continue to provide two weekly meals due to the support of our generous community members.

B&B’s Monday full course dinners are mainly funded through its Adopt A Day of Nourishment program and its Friday soup and pasta meals served at the Lake Tahoe Community Presbyterian Church are funded by money donated by anonymous donors and funds collected through B&B donor jars located in businesses throughout South Lake Tahoe and Stateline.

Heavenly Mountain Resort through the Vail Echo Foundation has been an Adopt A Day sponsor since the inception of the program and generously sponsors an AAD every month. This month Cathie Rahbeck, regional manager for Vail Resorts Retail, and Mike Berberich, Jennifer Story and Marcie Canale, managers from Heavenly Sports store locations, were the helpful AAD sponsor crewmembers.

“We enjoyed having the opportunity to serve our community,” said Story. “The experience was both fun and rewarding. We look forward to volunteering again to help those less fortunate.”

B&B would like to recognize the important role that Heavenly Mountain Resort and its employees play in the success of B&B’s program of feeding the needy.

Carol Gerard, Bread & Broth

 By KXTV

A person was killed in a head-on crash in Pollock Pines Saturday afternoon.

The two vehicles crashed just after noon on Mormon Emigrant Trail, south of Sly Park Road, the California Highway Patrol said.

Read the whole story

By Amber Phillips, Las Vegas Sun

Congress can be a lot like high school.

There are the popular kids (often the lawmakers in front of TV cameras), the hanger-oners (often the lobbyists trying to befriend said lawmakers) the nerds (often the policy-wonk staffers) and the misfits (often the journalists trying to keep up with it all).

So it’s no surprise that Washington, D.C., is obsessed with rankings beyond poll numbers and money raised. There’s the 50 Most Beautiful in Congress list produced every year by Capitol Hill newspaper, The Hill. Another Capitol Hill newspaper, CQ Roll Call, also annually ranks the 50 richest members of Congress.

Nevada Democrat Harry Reid tops the charts for some of the most unflattering superlatives. In the 2014 ranking that came out this week, staffers ranked the Senate majority leader as “one of the two meanest senators,” “worst speaker” and “most partisan” in the Senate.

Read the whole story

By Karen Kaplan, Los Angeles Times

Americans are living longer than ever before, government data show.

A typical toddler born in 2012 can expect to live 78.8 years — a new record, according to a report published Wednesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That’s 36.5 days longer than in 2011.

Adults who were 65 in 2012 could expect to live an additional 19.3 years, on average, the report said. That’s also 36.5 days longer than in 2011.

These gains in life expectancy are the result of small but steady decreases in Americans’ age-adjusted death rate (a statistic that controls for the age distribution of the population as a whole).

Read the whole story

Tahoe National Forest will host two public open houses in October to discuss the forest roads system and look at the relationship between roads and various resource impacts.

The open houses are part of engaging the public in Subpart A of the U.S. Forest Service’s 2005 Travel Management Rule. Subpart A is an analysis of the forest’s road system.

Open houses are:

Oct. 22 4-7pm – Sierraville District Ranger Station, 317 South Lincoln St., Sierraville.
Oct. 28 4-7pm – Tahoe National Forest Office, 631 Coyote St., Nevada City.

Resource specialists have gathered data and developed maps, which will be shared at the open houses.

For more information on Subpart A and the Tahoe National Forest’s Travel Analysis, go online.

Kingsbury General Improvement District’s board is having a public hearing Oct. 21 regarding the sale of bonds.

The board at its September meeting approved the intent to issue the bonds. The bonds are not to exceed $6 million. The money will be spent on improving the water system.

The 6pm meeting will be at 169 Highway 50, Stateline.

The University of California is co-hosting a workshop for El Dorado and Amador county residents titled Recovering from Wildfire: Resources for Private Landowners.

The workshop will be at the Pleasant Valley Grange on Oct. 24 from 9am-4pm.

The workshop objectives are to increase understanding of the role of wildfire in forest development and change, post-fire issues and treatment options, and to provide information on post-fire treatment cost-share programs, tax issues and professional assistance for post-fire treatments for private landowners.

This workshop is focused on the needs of private forest landowners affected by the Sand and King fires, but also for residents interested in the future of forests after wildfire, staff and decision-makers with state, local, federal and tribal agencies concerned with forest management, defensible space, and water quality.

Details and registration may be found online. For additional information, contact Susie Kocher at 530.542.2571 or sdkocher@ucanr.edu.

By Kathryn Reed

Paying for the more than 6,000 feet of lineal water line Lukins Brothers Water Company put in doesn’t stop with the contractor’s last bill.

The South Lake Tahoe company’s liability insurance went up 60 percent because of those lines.

In the last two years Lukins has put in 6,000 lineal feet of 12-inch line, 450 feet of 6-inch line and 16 fire hydrants. This gives 40 percent of the 963 customers adequate fire protection.

Lukins has been upgrading its water line to meet fire suppression standards. Photo/LTN file

Because there was a cost savings of $200,000 the contractor will be back out in the spring to start on phase two. This is enough money for at least another 500 lineal feet of 12-inch line and two more fire hydrants.

This $2 million project is being paid for with a $15 to $25 surcharge that the 963 ratepayers started seeing on their bills this year. The California Public Utility Commission guarantees the loan will be repaid via the 20-year surcharge.

But bills may be even higher if the small private water company gets its way. It has asked the state PUC to raise rates by 53.9 percent, or $283,546.19 a year.

This will increase the average flat rate residential bill by $19.43 per month, so the quarterly bill becomes $167.52.

“It focuses on your operating expenses,” Jen Lukins, who runs the company, said of the rate increase. “No one is paying less for power, gas, fuel or insurance than they did 10 years ago.”

She said the CPUC looks at several years of data to determine what it deems to be reasonable ratepayer costs.

“The cost of producing water is going up; the cost to comply with state regulations is going up,” Lukins said.

She said there are only so many places the company can cut back.

Some of the money raised would go to replacing the 1982 truck that doesn’t have a heater and is barely running.

The last increase of this nature was in 2009. Lukins had asked for a 66.7 percent increase and was granted 36.03 percent. Before that rates went up in 2000.

Lukins said she would prefer more gradual increases, but how the state handles the requests it would be impossible to do so annually or every couple years.

“If we don’t get it, it means budget cuts, operating on a tighter budget, less improvements to the water system, not installing meters, continuing with old equipment and not being able to make upgrades,” Lukins said. “We are not trying to be extravagant.”

—-

Notes:

• There will be a meeting before the CPUC about the rate increase on Oct. 27 at 6pm at Lake Tahoe Airport.

• Protests to the rate increase are due Oct. 23. They must be sent to the CPUC at water_division@cpuc.ca.gov and to Lukins Water Co. at 2031 West Way, South Lake Tahoe, CA 96150.

• A copy of Lukins’ filing with the CPUC is available for review at the company’s office on West Way. The request was filed in June.

To the community,

The California State Association of Counties is honored to recognize Alpine County in our 2014 Challenge Awards program, which recognizes the most innovative, cost-effective programs developed by our 58 counties.

In March of this year, Alpine County and the Washoe Tribe created an unprecedented memorandum of understanding in order to provide child welfare services to families of the Washoe. Having this agreement in place allows the Alpine County Child Welfare Social Worker to work with all children and families within the county. This ensures that everyone can receive the full, comprehensive child welfare services available in California.

Congratulations to the county’s Board of Supervisors and Health and Human Services staff for developing this program. Innovation is alive and well in Alpine County.

Sincerely,

Matt Cate, CSAC executive director

LTN note: Alpine County Health & Human Services has won two awards in the last three months, one from the National Association of Counties and another from the California State Association of Counties.