Incline Village schools are on a two-hour delay Thursday morning because of a power outage and slick roads.

The National Weather Service in Reno has issue a flood watch for South Lake Tahoe, Stateline, Incline Village, Truckee, Portola, Susanville, Bridgeport, Mammoth Lakes, Sparks, Gardnerville, and Virginia City through Nov. 16 at 10pm.

“Periods of moderate to heavy rain will continue today as an atmospheric river system moves through the region,” weather officials said.

A winter storm warning for the region is in effect until 4am Nov. 17.

“Plan on difficult travel conditions. Expect damage to trees and power lines as well. Additional snow
accumulations of 1 to 3 feet above 7,500 feet. Accumulations below 7,500 feet are more uncertain due to variations in snow levels today, but accumulations up to 6 inches are possible this morning near 6,500 feet, with 6 to 12 inches between 6,500 and 7,500 feet,” the Weather Service said.For road conditions, click on the state icons on the home page of Lake Tahoe News.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report

By Susan Wood

In a matter of minutes, the Douglas County Planning Commission took a 15-year concept and paved the way for more lakefront property to be sold at Stateline – a rarity in Tahoe that could be a reflection of a flourishing housing market.

The first of three phases of the Tahoe Beach Club condominium project envisioned in 2002 had called for 46 units where the Tahoe Shores Mobile Home Park once sat at the end of Kahle Drive.

While anticipating the county Board of Commissioners will accept planning’s recommendation in December to change the tentative map, the Beach Club is set for the number of units to increase to 101 in the current phase. The total number of 143 as well as the footprint of the project approved by the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency did not change with the Nov. 14 Planning Commission approval.

This plan revision is “something that can be done at staff level,” TRPA spokesman Tom Lotshaw pointed out.

Sales have been robust – with 37 of those first 46 one- to six-bedroom units already under contract with owners. Albeit considered a technicality in satisfying a Nevada Real Estate Division rule, the tentative map change allows more of two- to four-bedroom units to be built sooner. The units span from about 1,100- to 4,000-square-feet.

Tahoe Beach Club will be high-end housing designed as second homes.

More than $80 million in sales have been racked up since the whole-ownership condo concept started selling at $1.3 million and up. The overall 13-building project broke ground in August 2016. Looking ahead, owners are expected to occupy the five structures in the first and second phases by next fall, with reservations on Phase 2 opening near Thanksgiving, project developer Tom Castaneda told Lake Tahoe News on Wednesday.

The nearly 20-acre project also lists a clubhouse with athletic amenities, a swimming pool and stormwater treatment facilities. Two acres have been set aside for a stream environment zone. Scenic enhancements include the burying of power lines.

The project has come a long way since Castaneda and co-developer Bob Mecay invested in the property – one which may define location, location, location.

The land transformation brought a flurry of controversy to Douglas County over a decade ago because low-income residents were displaced and well aware of the bargain they had in the haven nestled between the pristine Nevada Beach on one side and the swank Edgewood Tahoe Golf Course on the other.

In looking back, Castaneda said he was glad the development team got through that process. Meeting after meeting was filled with crying residents. But a lot has happened since then. Some of the changes are reflective of a blossoming economy.

For one thing, Edgewood erected a hotel along the lake’s South Shore, complete with a patio and restaurant overlooking the lake.

Castaneda commended Edgewood for the development and sees no competition there when asked if having lakefront rooms in the same neighborhood deters his sales in any way. 

“I think they’ve done a wonderful job. The location is el primo, but it’s a whole different thing. Do you want to live in a hotel room or do you want to own a piece of real estate? And, you can’t leave a hotel room as a legacy for your kids,” he said, adding: “There are a lot of reasons to wanna own in Lake Tahoe. It’s a lifestyle, and we’re creating a lifestyle.”

The entire length of Kahle Drive is expected to be overhauled in what planners call a complete street. Douglas County commissioners have an item on their agenda today about that project. They meet this afternoon in Stateline.

The Joint Polar Satellite System 1 spacecraft is designed to ensure accurate weather forecasting. Photo/NOAA

By William Harwood, CBS News

The current three- to seven-day forecasts Americans have come to rely on for planning everything from weekend picnics to hurricane evacuations rely heavily on constant updates from satellites that orbit Earth’s poles measuring temperature, moisture and a host of other variables that define the planet’s ever-changing weather.

Early Tuesday, NASA launched the first of four state-of-the-art polar orbiters for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, a $1.6 billion weather satellite that will monitor the entire planet as it rotates below, feeding computer models the data they need to make increasingly accurate predictions.

Forecasters and climatologists say it is difficult to overstate the importance of the new satellite, which will join a once experimental and now aging weather station already in polar orbit to ensure uninterrupted service.

Read the whole story

By Kathryn Reed

El Dorado County sheriff’s officials believe one of the bodies recovered recently from Fallen Leaf Lake is that of a woman who took her life after her son drowned in the same lake.

David Ward was 21 when the boat he was fishing in capsized. His buddy made it to shore, but Ward’s body was never found. This was in 1996.

Five years later his mother left a suicide note saying she was “going to join her son,” according to the Reno Gazette-Journal.

The Wisconsin-based search company Bruce’s Legacy found the woman’s body this summer, but EDSO officials were keeping the discovery under wraps until they could put all the pieces together. However, a positive ID has still not been confirmed.

EDSO specifically asked the company to stay in town after they’d been on Lake Tahoe for another rescue to help find the mother and son. Only the woman’s body was located on that search in August.

“The body was recovered from the lake and sent to the Sacramento County Coroner for an autopsy. DNA samples were sent to the California Department of Justice Crime Lab for identification. There was no indication of foul play. We have not received the results of the DNA testing,” EDSO said in a Nov. 15 press release.

Bruce’s Legacy was back at Fallen Leaf last month in hopes of finding Ward. Instead, on Oct. 27 they found a man’s body with an anchor tied to one leg.

“The body looked to have been in the lake for many years. It was apparent that we had located a body that we had not known of prior to his recovery. This is an ongoing investigation and it is not known if this is a case of homicide or suicide,” the press release said.

That body was also sent to Sacramento for an autopsy, and DNA sample to the crime lab.

Ward’s body remains missing.

At its deepest, Fallen Leaf is 415 feet.

Bruce’s Legacy in August recovered the body of Pham Dan Vu Thanh just north of Emerald Bay. He had gone kayaking by himself on June 8 from D.L. Bliss State Park and was never heard from again. They also recovered the body of UNR football player Marc Ma in July, about one year after he went missing on the West Shore.

Keith Cormican and Beth Darth through the nonprofit Bruce’s Legacy travel the United States with a 22-foot Hewescraft boat in search of people who are presumed to have drowned.

Parole was denied this month for a man convicted of murdering his 14-year-old stepson in 1985.

Robert Kaser shot his wife and two stepsons with a .45 Cal semi-automatic handgun at their home in Placerville.

Ehren died from his wounds three days after the Aug. 17 melee. Myles, age 12, and his mother, Priscilla, survived.

El Dorado County Assistant District Attorney Joe Alexander and the surviving victims and Ehren’s family appeared at the State Board of Prison Terms hearing. Alexander argued that Kaser had not adequately addressed his anger issues and that Kaser’s repeated claim that the shooting was the only act of violence he ever committed was untrue. Alexander presented the board with multiple examples of other acts of violence that Kaser committed prior to the murder, including proof of his threatening behavior toward co-workers and prior acts of violence directed at juveniles. The surviving victims and family of Ehren argued that Kaser was still a danger to them, and that he had never shown remorse or taken responsibility for the crime he committed. The board was also provided with more than 100 letters in opposition of his release.

The board denied Kaser’s request for parole, citing his lack of insight into the reasons why he committed the murder, as well as his lack of rehabilitative efforts in the area of anger management and domestic violence. Kaser will be reconsidered for parole in three years.

This was the eighth time he has been denied parole.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report

By Nanette Asimov, San Francisco Chronicle

The problem with California’s public colleges and universities is not in the quality of their academic offerings — it’s that the schools don’t do enough to help students find affordable places to live, according to a new statewide survey about higher education.

That’s the view of a large majority of Californians — 85 percent — who participated in the Public Policy Institute of California’s annual survey of attitudes on the state’s public higher-education systems.

Most of the 1,703 residents who answered questions in English or Spanish by phone last month said they like the quality of education provided by community colleges, California State University and the University of California — more than 63 percent in each case.

Read the whole story

By Climate Central/Kaiser Health News
 
SANTA ROSA — As the deadliest fires in California history swept through leafy neighborhoods here, Kathleen Sarmento fled her home in the dark, drove to an evacuation center and began setting up a medical triage unit. Patients with burns and other severe injuries were dispatched to hospitals. She set about treating many people whose symptoms resulted from exposure to polluted air and heavy smoke.

“People were coming in with headaches. I had one. My eyes were burning,” said Sarmento, the director of nursing at Santa Rosa Community Health, which provides health care for those who cannot afford it. But respiratory problems – coughs and shortness of breath – were among the biggest risks. “We made sure everyone had a mask.”

More than half of the evacuees at the shelter that October night were elderly, some from nursing homes who needed oxygen 24/7. Sarmento scrambled to find regulators for oxygen tanks that were otherwise useless. It was a chaotic night – but what came to worry her most were the weeks and months ahead.

Read the whole story

By Christopher Cadelago, Sacramento Bee

California could one day be uninhabitable. Fire. Heat. Floods. Infestation. Disease. Suffering.

Scientists have for years warned about the ravaging consequences of a warming planet. Decamping for the 23rd session of the Conference of the Parties to the U.N. Convention on Climate Change, California academics and political leaders were mulling how to better deploy the distressing projections to give unwary citizens a better understanding of what’s at stake and compel them to see the wisdom of embracing sustainability.

“This is bad stuff. It doesn’t get any worse,” Gov. Jerry Brown lamented to scientists, religious and political leaders in Europe ahead of the conference. “The threat is profound. It will alter human civilization. It’s not decades away. It’s closer than you think,” the Democratic governor added later.

Read the whole story

A South Lake Tahoe man is in custody after allegedly shooting a gun Sunday at the Tahoe Beach Retreat.

Timothy Althouse, 30, faces an assault with a firearm on a person. He has posted the $75,000 bail.

Timothy Althouse

The incident occurred Nov. 12 at about 2:40am just after a concert at the South Lake Tahoe hotel. Officers received multiple reports of a gun being fired.

According to officers, an employee of Beach Retreat followed the suspect to the parking lot of CVS, which is where officers located Althouse.

Officers said the targeted victim, who was not hit by gunfire, and the suspect know each other. What led to the altercation is not known. How many shots were fired has not been released. At this time it is not believed that anyone was hit.

Officers located a loaded .40-caliber semi-automatic handgun near where the suspect was contacted. The firearm was reported as missing to the Redding Police Department in 2015, according to authorities.

Anyone with information is asked to call the South Lake Tahoe Police Department at 530.542.6100, or to remain anonymous, Lake Tahoe Secret Witness at 530.541.6800.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report

Don Ashton

El Dorado County Chief Administrative Officer Don Ashton is doing a good job, according to his five bosses, aka the Board of Supervisors.

This month they gave him a raise that will be effective Jan. 1. At that time he will be making $227,676 a year, while today he is making $214,926 annually. The electeds also extended his contract for another four years.

Supervisors also agreed to give appointed department heads a 4.6 percent raise effective the first of the year. Elected departments will receive a raise Jan. 1, 2019.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report