Free Republic

When the president of the United States advises big business to stay clear of resort areas such as Las Vegas for their conventions, big business takes that to mean places like Reno and Lake Tahoe as well. The result? Big business in these convention towns begin to fail, and fail big. With the overall national economy in peril, tourism is down across-the-board. And convention business, long being the life blood of these areas, becomes even more vital to the survival to these resort areas. Today another resort's future just got a little more bleak, as did the future of...

Medical marijuana dispensary raided at Tahoe The Associated Press Published: Saturday, Jan. 24, 2009 SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. -- Federal agents have raided a medical marijuana dispensary at South Lake Tahoe. Five agents from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency were joined by local and federal authorities when they served a search warrant Thursday on Patient to Patient Collective. DEA Special Agent Gordon Taylor says agents seized between five and 10 pounds of processed marijuana and a small amount of U.S. currency from the dispensary. Taylor declined to release additional details on the raid, saying the dispensary is part of an...

<p>WASHINGTON, (AP) -- Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., has broken her ankle and will skip next week's Democratic National Convention.</p> <p>Feinstein, who was one of Hillary Rodham Clinton's top supporters, was to have chaired California's delegation to the convention in Denver.</p>

(01-28) 12:52 PST LAKE TAHOE -- The president of a San Francisco green technology company was killed while skiing at the Homewood Ski Resort near Lake Tahoe, authorities said today. Tyler A. Palmer, 37, was found unresponsive at the base of a tree about 1:52 p.m. Sunday, the Placer County Sheriff's Department said. Skiers found Palmer on the Hobbit Land ski run, head-first in the well of a tree. Hobbit Land is a black diamond run, signifying it is for advanced skiers, according to the resort's Web site. Medics tried to revive Palmer, without success, and he was pronounced dead...

A federal grand jury has indicted an Incline Village woman for allegedly hiring a crew to cut down three large pine trees up to a century old on U.S. Forest Service land at Lake Tahoe.58-year-old Patricia Vincent was indicted by the grand jury in Reno last week on two charges, including theft of government property. If convicted, she faces up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine for each count.The three ponderosa pine trees from 80 to 100 years old were growing on a national forest lot the Forest Service had designated as environmentally sensitive as part of...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (CBS) ― A broken levee has caused a flooding which stranded as many as 4,000 residents in Truckee, Calif., a community on I-80 northwest of Lake Tahoe. Some of the people on the Nevada side of the state line were trying to evacuate, reports CBS affiliate KTVN-TV in Reno. The storm that pummeled California with gale-force winds and heavy rains was forecast to drop a thick blanket of snow on the Sierra Nevada on Saturday and keep thousands of people from their homes in mudslide-prone areas. A major highway crossing the Sierra Nevada between Nevada and Northern California...

RENO, Nev. – If everything lines up just right, the Sierra Nevada and Lake Tahoe ski resorts could be in for some rough but welcome weather in the days ahead. The National Weather Service has issued a special weather statement for the region beginning Thursday through the weekend. Forecasters on Monday predicted snow totals in the range of 5 to 10 feet along the Sierra crest, with about 2 feet around Lake Tahoe. Three storm systems are approaching the region and forecasters said they will be accompanied by strong winds that could create blizzard conditions. Rain is likely at first...

Group considers food drops to draw bears away from developed areas at Lake Tahoe By Associated Press Article Launched: 09/02/2007 03:25:15 PM PDT TRUCKEE - A sharp increase in bear-human conflicts this summer is prompting a bear advocacy group to consider backcountry food drops for the animals at Lake Tahoe. Ann Bryant, executive director of the Lake Tahoe-based BEAR League, said her group is seeking permission from the California Department of Fish and Game to use food to lure bears away from developed areas. A lack of precipitation has led to a shortage of natural food, forcing bruins into towns...

MEYERS, Calif. A 23-member commission will examine whether bureaucratic delays and government mistakes contributed to a devastating South Lake Tahoe wildfire last June that generated fierce criticism from local residents. "Where there is gridlock today, tomorrow we need to have effective, efficient policies in place for the protection of homes," Nevada Gov. Jim Gibbons said as he and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced their plan Wednesday. The California-Nevada Tahoe Basin Fire Commission will review land-use and other regulations affecting the Lake Tahoe basin in an attempt to prevent another catastrophic wildfire from striking the region. The Angora fire, started by...

Sacramento — ANOTHER natural disaster, another lesson. But not the predictable lesson. Not the tired, nagging lecture about people who insist on living in the trees and on the bluffs, at the edge of the surf and along the riverbanks, asking for what they get. That situation's not going to change, no matter the finger-wagging. People are too drawn to the beauty and the lifestyles. There's too much money to be made by developers. And too many campaign dollars to be paid politicians who make decisions on land use. No, the lesson from the Tahoe wildfire is this: There's no...

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - Residents awoke to smoke-free sky Friday as officials announced they had turned the corner in fighting a wildfire that destroyed 254 buildings and threatened thousands more in this resort community. After a second straight day of mild winds allowed firefighters to surround the blaze, U.S. Forest Service commanders said they planned to reduce their force by one-fourth and allow residents to inspect the wreckage for the first time. "Firefighters came in this morning and felt even more comfortable about the approaching containment of this fire," incident commander Rich Hawkins said. "I'm feeling pretty good about...

Calm chokes Tahoe blaze Lack of winds helps crews regain initiative By John Simerman, MEDIANEWS STAFF Article Last Updated: 06/28/2007 03:35:33 AM PDT SOUTH LAKE TAHOE — The famously crisp blue skies above this mountain lake retreat made a strong if tentative return Wednesday as still air confounded dire wind warnings and helped fire crews cinch a grip on the 3,100-acre Angora fire. The blaze, which a day earlier had jumped containment lines, raged up against homes and forced frantic evacuations from several neighborhoods, never threatened those lines Wednesday. Forecasts had predicted northeast winds above 30 mph, drawing anxious words from...

Resurgent Tahoe fire ignites chaos, panicBy John Simerman, MEDIANEWS STAFF Article Last Updated: 06/27/2007 04:27:24 AM PDTSOUTH LAKE TAHOE — Firefighters battling the northernmost edge of the Angora fire ravaging the South Lake Tahoe area lost control of a back burn Tuesday afternoon, which jumped over Highway 89 and forced evacuations of several neighborhoods. The Tahoe Basin's worst fire in a century bolted northeast into a subdivision about sixmiles southwest of the Stateline casinos, within a mile of the lake itself, sparking evacuations of a popular village and an enclave of pricey, waterfront homes. The marching flames ignited a scene of...

MEYERS, Calif. - Efforts to tame a raging wildfire that has destroyed some 200 homes near Lake Tahoe suffered a setback Tuesday when a backfire set by firefighters to control the blaze jumped a fireline, forcing a new round of evacuations, authorities said. Firefighters were working to protect a development outside South Lake Tahoe when the blaze expanded, prompting the evacuation of a 300-home subdivision. Authorities also issued a voluntary evacuation order for a pricey waterfront subdivision on the lake, officials said. About 2,000 people evacuated, according to South Lake Tahoe Police Lt. Martin Hale. "It's a fairly populated area,"...

Global Warming and Environmentalists Blamed for Lake Tahoe Wildfires Posted by Noel Sheppard on June 26, 2007 - 11:35. Depending on which newspaper you read Tuesday morning, the wildfires in the Lake Tahoe region of California and Nevada were either caused by global warming or environmentalists. I kid you not. In Northern California, just a few hours from the devastation, the number one paper in the region, the San Francisco Chronicle, chose to blame the fires on overdevelopment in Tahoe, and, of course, global warming (emphasis added): From Gold Rush clear-cutters to modern home-builders, people have brought changes to the...

The mood of the crowd jammed into the meeting room was angry. Many had lost their homes to the forest fire that swept through the Sierra Nevada just south of Lake Tahoe. They said they were angry at bureaucrats and environmentalists who made cutting of trees and clearing of land difficult. There was always too much red tape, they said, and now it was too late. In all, a crowd of nearly 2,000 people descended on the South Tahoe Middle School auditorium Monday night, wanting to be heard in the face of their losses. And if there was an...

Jun 25, 2007 7:21 am US/EasternCalif. Wildfire Burns 2,000 Acres, 165 Homes(AP) MEYERS, Calif. A wind-driven wildfire destroyed at least 165 homes and other structures and scorched 2,000 acres acres just southwest of Lake Tahoe, a spokesman for the El Dorado County Sheriff's Department said Sunday. Sheriff's Lt. Kevin House said the fire is less than 5 percent contained and has more than 500 homes in its path, but no injuries or deaths have been reported. The cause of the fire is still unknown. "This thing is raging out of control, and there's no estimate as to when that may...

A wildfire is raging out of control near South Lake Tahoe. The Angora Fire is burning near North Upper Truckee Road. That is near the Tahoe Paradise Subdivision. So far, the fire has burned more than 500 acres and is spreading rapidly due to strong winds. 50 homes have been burned by the fire so far and more are threatened. An evacuation center has been set up at the South Lake Tahoe Recreation Center. That's near the ice arena. The whole area along Upper Truckee Road is evacuated. Highway 50 is closed at Lake Tahoe Boulevard. Firefighters are attacking this...

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A woman who once broke into former Beatles guitarist George Harrison's Hawaii home has been found dead in California, the victim of a murder-suicide, a police officer said on Sunday. Cristin Keleher, 34, made headlines in December 1999 by entering Harrison's Maui estate and then cooking herself a frozen pizza and helping herself to a root beer. After she did her laundry and called her mother, she was found by the security staff and charged with burglary. She had apparently been stalking Harrison for months. On December 19 of this year police in Truckee near California's...

A fault line beneath Lake Tahoe could rupture at any time and unleash a massive earthquake that triggers an underwater landslide and sends 30-foot waves crashing into nearby parks, campgrounds, homes and marinas, researchers said. Such an event along the West Tahoe Fault, the biggest of Lake Tahoe's three geologic faults, could also send waves over a dam that regulates water flow into the Truckee River, according to research presented last week at a meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco. The West Tahoe Fault, which skirts the lake's western shore and runs through Fallen Leaf Lake and...