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Alameda attorney E. Clement Shute, Jr., was appointed today by California Gov. Edmund G. Brown, Jr. to the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency Governing Board.

Shute is a founding partner of Shute, Mihaly & Weinberger LLP where he has represented numerous environmental organizations, including the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, since 1980, according to the governor's office.

Previously, Shute was a deputy and assistant attorney general for the California Attorney General’s Office from 1964 to 1980 and was in charge of the Environment and Consumer Protection Section from 1975 to 1980.

By Sean Whaley/Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – A bill to create a website where Nevadans could learn how to protect themselves from consumer fraud was received favorably today by an Assembly committee.

CARSON CITY – A bill to create a website where Nevadans could learn how to protect themselves from consumer fraud was received favorably today by an Assembly committee.

By the California Department of Fish and Game
Scientists working on the recovery of endangered coho salmon in northern California appreciate success even if it comes in small doses.

Field biologists from the California Department of Fish and Game (DFG) are reporting the largest number of coho returning to spawn in Sonoma County tributaries of the Russian River in more than a decade. 

Here's an good read from Nevada Appeal political writer Geoff Dornan regarding a bill that would yank the state from the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency.

S.B. 271 was introduced on March 18, by State Senators John Lee, D-North Las Vegas, and James Settelmeyer, R-Gardnerville with joint Assembly sponsors Pat Hickey, R-Reno, Randy Kirner, R-Reno and Kelly Kite, R-Minden. Click here to read the story and here to read the bill.

CARSON CITY — Bethany Drysdale, who has promoted Nevada's tourism attractions for more than five years for the Nevada Commission on Tourism will head the Public Relations department beginning April 23, Lt. Gov. Brian Krolicki announced this week.

Drysdale has served as Public Relations specialist for NCOT since October 2005. She succeeds Chris Chrystal, who is retiring as manager April 22 after a 48-year career in news reporting and public relations that included 13 years with the Commission.

The Tahoe Regional Planning Agency has updated its hours effective April 4, and with the change includes closing the front office on Tuesdays, officials announced in a press statement today.

Front counter services exist for customers to submit permit applications and get project and property information. The updated schedule reflects the Agency's commitment to customer service following a recent reorganization and staff reduction, the statement said.

By Sean Whaley / Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – Gov. Brian Sandoval today signed a bill requiring funeral directors to report to the Office of Veterans’ Services if they obtain possession of unclaimed human remains they know or reasonably believe to be that of a veteran.
Sandoval signed Assembly Bill 124 in a ceremony before a full house of veterans at the Kit Carson VFW Post 3726 in the capital.
Gov. Brian Sandoval talks with veteran Robert Primeaux following a bill signing ceremony today. Photo by Cathleen Allison/NevadaPhotoSource.com

By Andrew Doughman / Nevada News Bureau
Despite upgrading Nevada’s outlook from negative to stable, the credit rating agency Moody’s downgraded Nevada’s credit rating to Aa2 from Aa1.
The rationale behind the adjustment involves Nevada’s Legislature. Moody’s cited the two-thirds supermajority required to raise taxes as a negative in Nevada.

CARSON CITY – A legal analysis provided to the skilled nursing home industry regarding a proposed Medicaid rate reduction to cover the cost of caring for Nevada’s seniors says the cuts would be a violation of federal law.
The analysis says the proposed reductions of $20 per Medicaid resident per day are being proposed in Gov. Brian Sandoval’s budget, “purely as a means to alleviate the budgetary crisis.”

By Sean Whaley / Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – Representatives of Nevada’s skilled nursing home industry say up to five facilities could close and 700 beds lost if a proposal in Gov. Brian Sandoval’s budget to cut the Medicaid reimbursement rate by $20 a day per patient comes to pass.
The closures would result in well-paid medical professionals being laid off and joining the ranks of Nevada’s already sizable population of unemployed, industry officials say.

A bill entered into the Nevada Legislature would withdrawal the state from the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency compact.

S.B. 271 was introduced on March 18, by State Senators John Lee, D-North Las Vegas, and James Settelmeyer, R-Gardnerville with joint Assembly sponsors Pat Hickey, R-Reno, Randy Kirner, R-Reno and Kelly Kite, R-Minden. The bill has been moved to the Committee on Government Affairs.

Click here to read the bill.

By the Nevada Department of Wildlife
Sometime in mid-March the Nevada Department of Wildlife (NDOW) will release the last load of rainbow trout for the agency’s annual stocking season at Lake Mead and Lake Mohave.

But unlike years past, the release of these final truckloads of fish will mark more than the end of a trout stocking season.

They will mark the end of an era, the end of NDOW trout stocking efforts along the Lower Colorado River.

Courtesy of GrandViewOutdoors.com
Alaska wildlife officials said last Tuesday that they were appalled the federal government rejected their plan to kill wolves to protect caribou on a remote Aleutian Island.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) announced this week it would not sign off on the state killing seven wolves in the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge on Unimak Island.

News Release — The Nevada Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) and the Nevada Department of Public Safety — Division of Emergency Management (DPS-DEM) are collectively working to address the public’s concerns surrounding the potential impact to the State of Nevada and the rest of the United States from the Japanese nuclear reactor crisis.

Eric Matus, Radiation Physicist for the Nevada State Health Division, has compiled an overview of information addressing the concerns and speculation that continue to linger.

The Tahoe Regional Planning Agency’s General Counsel Nicole Rinke resigned from her post today, according to an agency news release.

“We are grateful for Nicole’s four years of extraordinary service to TRPA and the Lake Tahoe Basin.” said Norma Santiago, TRPA Governing Board Chair, “On behalf of the Board, I’d like to thank Nicole for the energy and expertise she brought to the General Counsel position during a time in the Agency’s history when legal challenges are becoming more frequent and complex.”

(U.S. Department of Justice Press Release)
WASHINGTON – Teresa Kelly, a former operations supervisor in Colonial Bank’s Mortgage Warehouse Lending Division (MWLD), pleaded guilty today to conspiring to commit bank, wire and securities fraud for her role in a fraud scheme that contributed to the failures of Colonial Bank and Taylor, Bean & Whitaker (TBW).

Colonial Bank had a branch on Stewart Street in Carson City, that now sits vacant.

PRESS RELEASE — The League to Save Lake Tahoe is voicing its opposition to the size and scale of a large hotel project on Tahoe's North Shore called Boulder Bay, which is slated for a final vote before the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency on March 23.

The project violates the intent of the bi-state Tahoe Regional Planning Compact, which is a Congressionally-approved agreement between California and Nevada to strongly protect Lake Tahoe from the increasing urbanization that is threatening the region's environmental values.

By Sean Whaley / Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford has requested emergency legislation to conduct a performance audit of the revenue collection functions of the Department of Taxation following questions last week about the thoroughness of the agency’s review of mining tax payments.

(Updated at 2:12 p.m. on March 14, 2011 to include new comments from Sandoval Administration)
CARSON CITY – Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford has requested emergency legislation to conduct a performance audit of the revenue collection functions of the Department of Taxation following questions last week about the thoroughness of the agency’s review of mining tax payments.

Courtesy of GrandViewOutdoors.com
Republican governors and members of Congress vowed Tuesday to fight an Obama administration plan to make millions of acres of undeveloped land in the West eligible for federal wilderness protection. The GOP officials said the plan would circumvent Congress's authority and could be used to declare a vast swath of public land off-limits to oil-and-gas drilling.

CARSON CITY – A state lawmaker testified today that the federal government’s unfunded mandates on issues such as clean air, clean water and flood zones are imposing costs on Nevada taxpayers without authority or justification.

The Nevada Threat Analysis Center (NTAC) seeks information on unsolved Nevada rural county female homicides and missing person cases.

By Sean Whaley / Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – Nevada state Sen. Joe Hardy today introduced a bill to require the transportation department to develop a privately-financed toll road as a bypass around Boulder City.

Courtesy of GrandViewOutdoors.com
Ice fishermen in Iowa are having one of the best seasons in years.
From the northern portion of the state to the Mississippi River in our backyard, people are drilling holes in the ice and pulling in fish almost as fast as they can bait their hooks.

Joe Larscheid, Chief of Fisheries for the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, said the banner year is no accident.

CARSON CITY – Gov. Brian Sandoval said today he had productive meetings in Washington, DC, including talks with federal officials about clearing the way for permits to be approved so mining companies can expand and hire more workers.
Sandoval said there are several permits awaiting action that mining officials have told him could lead to the creation of 1,000 high-paying jobs in rural Nevada.
Creating jobs in Nevada is Sandoval’s top priority as governor. Nevada has the highest unemployment rate in the nation and ranks first in home foreclosures as well.

By the California Department of Fish and Game
The public is invited to testify at an upcoming public meeting about salmon populations and the 2011 ocean and river salmon fisheries.

The 2011 Salmon Information Meeting, sponsored by the California Department of Fish and Game (DFG), will be held March 1 from 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. at the Sonoma County Water Agency Building located at 404 Aviation Boulevard in Santa Rosa.

By GrandViewOutdoors.com
A federal agency has announced $23 million to protect grasslands in Wyoming, Colorado and Montana for sage grouse, a chicken-sized bird whose males are known for flashy mating displays.

It would be offered as matching funds, with state, local and tribal governments or non-government agencies providing the other $23 million.

By GrandViewOutdoors.com

Some Idaho hunters who prefer to mount all-terrain vehicles to pursue their big-game quarry are chafing at Department of Fish and Game restrictions on where they can ride.

Under current hunting regulations, the state requires armed hunters who head out onto public land in about a third of Idaho's 99 hunting units to stick to established roads, while keeping away from off-road vehicle or jeep trails and areas that are otherwise open to unarmed recreational ATV riders.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOTDn2A7hcY

For more than a year, the lack of firm details about the Nugget Project has been a major source of frustration to those trying to get their heads around this undertaking.

Without real numbers or plans, those arguing for or against struggled with hitting the moving target that is this project.

But that target just got a whole lot more stationary, as Carson City Manager Larry Werner released a 100+ page feasibility report (attached below) for the Board of Supervisors to use this week when a decision is made on whether to move forward with the project.