Lake Tahoe area ski resorts contributed to Vail Resorts’ fiscal year being one of extreme positive cash flow.

Net income was $210.6 million for fiscal 2017, an increase of 40.6 percent compared to 2016.

The Broomfield, Colo.-based company operates Heavenly Mountain Resort, Kirkwood Mountain Resort and Northstar in California. On Sept. 28 it released results for its fourth quarter and fiscal year that ended July 31.

“Tahoe also experienced significant growth, achieving record revenues in all lines of business as the region benefited from another year of good conditions,” CEO Rob Katz said in a statement.

Things are looking good going into this winter. Season pass sales through Sept. 24 increased approximately 17 percent in units and 23 percent in dollars compared to a year ago.

There was a drop in skier visits at the Vail-owned Colorado resorts last season. However, numbers were up at the rest of the company’s properties. Company-wide, skier visits topped 12 million, an increase of 20.1 percent over the previous season.

The addition of Whistler in British Colombia, Canada, and the continued interest in Park City are adding to the increase in all numbers. Stowe in Vermont will be part of this coming season’s numbers.

Summer was a mixed bag.

“Our U.S. summer business continued to grow with the launch of Epic Discovery at Breckenridge this summer although results in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2017 were below expectations, primarily as a result of a delayed opening for Breckenridge’s new activities due to late snowfall and the Heavenly Coaster being closed this summer due to damage from the significant snowfall in Tahoe this past winter,” Katz said. “As our summer business continues to mature, we expect to continue improving and developing our operational consistency and our pricing and promotion to make the most of the already existing summer visitation at our resorts.”

— Lake Tahoe News staff report

By Sarah Litz, Reno Gazette-Journal

Nevada was ranked as the state with the second-highest rate of women murdered by men, a report from the Violence Policy Center said. 

Alaska was ranked the highest. Other states in the top 10 include Louisiana, Tennessee, South Carolina, Arkansas, Kansas, Kentucky, Texas, New Mexico and Missouri.

The annual report, “When Men Murder Women,” is a state-by-state analysis of homicides involving one female murder victim and one male offender. The latest report looks at the most recent data set from 2015.

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By Matt Weiser, Water Deeply
 
Mountain meadows are starting to get some respect. For over a century, meadows were the first alpine environments targeted for development, grazing and farming, because they tend to be flat and packed with rich soil and nutritious plants. But we’re starting to understand that meadows have a much more important role to play for society at large.

Meadows, it turns out, are water banks. As winter snows melt, the runoff flows into meadows, where deep organic soil holds the moisture like a sponge and then releases it slowly. This helps minimize downstream flooding during spring. Meadows release that runoff over a longer period, helping stretch valuable water supplies through the long, dry summer months.

Efforts are underway to restore meadows, which have lost some of their water-holding ability as they’ve been compacted and eroded by grazing, logging and other activity. Unfortunately, a new threat has emerged: climate change.

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By John Myers, Los Angeles Times

Backing an effort for California to claim a bigger share of the attention from presidential candidates, Gov. Jerry Brown has signed a bill moving the state’s primary elections to early March.

Brown’s decision, announced without fanfare on Wednesday, means the state will hold its presidential primary on March 3, 2020. It’s a reversal from a decision he made in 2011 to push the state’s primary elections back until June, after years of trying — and failing — to entice major candidates to bring their campaigns to California instead of smaller, more rural states.

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Lake Valley firefighters respond to a blaze Sept. 27 at Echo Lake. Photo/LVFPD

A resident at an Echo Lake cabin is lucky to be alive after escaping the burning building early Wednesday.

The occupant woke up about 5:50am Sept. 27 to find smoke filling the two-story cabin.

The structure was fully engulfed with flames when Lake Valley firefighters arrived. They had to use a boat from the marina to reach the cabin on the North Shore. CalFire assisted them.

The resident was able to escape without injury.

The cause of the fire is under investigation.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report

Christopher Calder

A Bay Area man is going to prison for stabbing his friend at Harveys in 2014.

Christopher Calder, 33, of San Francisco stabbed Timon Sung of Novato in the abdomen after the two had been arguing about the level of noise in their hotel room.

Calder’s attorney had hoped his client would be able to go to a drug and alcohol rehab program. The judge said five years in prison better fit the crime.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report

By Angela Hart, Sacramento Bee

California lawmakers this year took historic action to address what one housing economist says is the state’s most serious problem: unaffordability.

“Over the past 30 years, we’ve made it very difficult to build new housing and wages have not kept pace with the rising cost of house prices or rents, to the point it has grown into a crisis. It’s the single biggest problem California faces,” said Ken Rosen, a professor at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business and chair of the Fisher Center for Real Estate and Urban Economics. “If we don’t solve this problem, the economic impacts over the next five to 10 years will be devastating.

“Companies will move out. Young people won’t be able to afford to stay here. As people retire, they’ll move, and California will no longer be the Golden State,” Rosen said.

Democrats in the Legislature – and one Republican – have advanced to Gov. Jerry Brown a package of housing bills that seek to stem the bleeding. Through a spokesperson, Brown said he supports each of the 15 bills, which provide new funding for low-income housing development, seek to lower the cost of construction, fast-track building and restrict the ability of cities and counties to block new development.

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By Maura Dolan, Los Angeles Times
 
Federal law enforcement began investigating California’s courts seven years ago after receiving complaints that two Korean-speaking women in Los Angeles had been denied court interpreters.

Courts in other states also were examined and faulted. Along with California, they began working to comply with U.S civil rights law, which bars discrimination based on national origin. Failure to act meant the possible loss of federal money.

But nowhere has the task been so challenging as in California, the most linguistically diverse state in the nation.

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Former South Lake Tahoe resident Ty Robben could be going to prison for seven years after being found guilty of making threats to area officials.

Ty Robben

Robben spearheaded protests against the local police department in early 2013 and made his opinions known at City Council meetings. He had websites and Facebook pages touting police corruption.

But he crossed a line and his actions were in fact harassment.

On Sept. 25 he was found guilty in Sacramento County Superior Court of eight felonies involving threats and attempted threats against El Dorado County judges, a lieutenant from the South Lake Tahoe Police Department, an investigator from the State Bar, the city attorney from South Lake Tahoe, and a local attorney who represented the defendant on a misdemeanor appeal.

All the El Dorado County judges had recused themselves.

“The city of South Lake Tahoe is pleased that justice has been served in this case. The jury verdict is a credit to law enforcement and the District Attorney’s Office,” South Lake Tahoe City Attorney Tom Watson told Lake Tahoe News.

The California Tahoe Conservancy board this month awarded more than $3 million in Proposition 1 funds for eight projects to improve the Lake Tahoe Basin’s forests, lake clarity, and water quality.

The projects approved for funding include:

·         Aquatic Invasive Species program planning, Tahoe Resource Conservation District $862,000: To evaluate new techniques for controlling aquatic invasive plants and plan for future AIS control efforts.

·         Control of the invasive Mysis shrimp to recover lake clarity and ecosystem health, UC Davis, $390,081: To plan and test a strategy to reduce the abundance of nonnative Mysis shrimp, which damage Lake Tahoe’s food web and harm lake clarity.

·         Lake Tahoe West Restoration partnership, National Forest Foundation, $398,750: To plan for large-landscape, multi-jurisdictional forest health, water quality, and restoration projects on nearly 60,000 acres on the West Shore.

·         Tahoe City Caltrans maintenance yard relocation, Tahoe Transportation District, $354,000: To evaluate the feasibility of relocating the Tahoe City Caltrans maintenance yard, which sits on environmentally sensitive land on the banks of the Truckee River, to a more appropriate location.

·         Polaris Creek and wetland restoration, feasibility study, Tahoe RCD, $282,000: To explore the feasibility of restoring Polaris Creek and adjacent wetlands near Dollar Point on the North Shore.

·         Country Club Heights erosion control project, El Dorado County, $250,000: To construct water quality improvements in several areas of Meyers to enhance wildlife habitat, increase groundwater recharge, and improve water quality.

·         Country Club Heights erosion control project, Phase 3, El Dorado County, $250,000: To plan for future storm water improvements that will improve water quality in areas of Meyers that discharge directly into the Upper Truckee River.

·         Bijou Park Creek restoration priority acquisition, South Lake Tahoe, $572,250: To acquire and restore one environmentally sensitive urban parcel as part of the city’s effort to restore the Bijou Park Creek watershed.