At the Lake: Man indicted in teen sex sting

A 50-year-old Las Vegas man who allegedly traveled from Las Vegas to South Lake Tahoe to meet a 13-year-old girl he encountered on the Internet was indicted Thursday by a federal grand jury in Sacramento.

Raymond Benjamin Pedroza was charged with attempting to commit lewd acts with a minor female and traveling in interstate commerce with the intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct with a minor female.

If found guilty, he faces a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison.

Pedroza was actually talking to an adult decoy in talking to the 13-year-old girl via Yahoo! and MySpace.

He was arrested April 5 near Motel 6 and Carrows restaurant along Lake Tahoe Boulevard when he approached a 13-year-old decoy. Members of the FBI, South Lake Tahoe Police Department and El Dorado County Sheriff's Department conducted the investigation.

Assistant United States Attorney Michelle Rodriguez praised the efforts of law enforcement. Pedroza, if convicted, will join a handful of visitors or residents of South Lake Tahoe who have recently been nabbed by authorities and charged with possession of child pornography or attempting to have sex with a minor.

Still, Rodriguez doesn't think South Lake Tahoe is a haven for child predators but said the image of it being a resort community has a romantic appeal "even for pedophiles."

Pedroza will make his first appearance in federal court Friday.

"Fortunately for the greater South Lake Tahoe community, FBI agents and South Lake Tahoe police officers are working with concerned South Lake Tahoe residents to aggressively investigate and apprehend child predators," Rodriguez said.

STATELINE " Maybe it's true that money changes everything.

Harrah's Entertainment based in Las Vegas has invested $34 million in capital improvements for the Stateline casino pair with construction due in time for Lake Tahoe's busiest season.

Come summer, big-time rollers will notice more of an appeal to upscale players on the casino floor as the high limit poker area is being expanded beyond a wall certain to raise the decibel level and excitement.

"We wanted to create a demand for the high-end player," spokesman John Packer said, while strolling the floor. The precursor to the casino's investment in its property began with the threat of nearby Indian gaming near Placerville and remained as an ongoing pledge to turn Lake Tahoe into the place for the destination traveler. This is defined as a vacationer who spends longer amounts of time at the destination.

And Harrah's would like to roll out the carpet.

The casino has gutted the 17th floor to match the rooms on its 16th story with $1.7 million suites that can span 4,200 square feet with a private bar, dining room, bedrooms and extraordinary amenities in the bathroom.

"It's just like home " or somebody else's," Packer quipped.

A dedicated elevator and internal stairwell takes guests between the two floors and provides the "hotel within a hotel" feel for the more upscale.

Harrah's is also opening the summer with open arms "starting with a revamped hotel lobby and down the hall the Essentials gift shop and Park Place Jewelry that will carry the likes of Louis Vuitton and Cartier.

It's also spending $7 million on a Cantonese restaurant set across from the Special Events Center called Gi Fu Loh, meaning the gathering of luck.

Luck may be what one of the main courses needs. A ceiling-to-floor glass fish tank will feature lobster and crab that allows diners to pull out their fresh gourmet dish for the night. There will also be a wine-rack closet, noodle bar, drinking bar and private dining room with stained-glass chandeliers going in the latter two areas.

Construction superintendent Ted Griffin of Penta in Reno has completed a lot of work for casinos competing by keeping up with the Joneses on the remodeling race.

Harveys is a part of that race as well. The casino has added on a slew of retail offerings in the last few months. Tahoe Gifts, which is staffed internally, opened in March. Close to the wafting aroma of Cinnabon, Bijoux Terner " which resembles an airport gift shop " touts all items under $10. A floral shop is due to open at the end of the month.

Outside Harveys, a parking lot venue with feature a big-name lineup of entertainment acts this summer.

The Tahoe Regional Planning Agency reports positive results with the release of its five-year Threshold Evaluation Report on the state of the Lake Tahoe's clarity and health.

Positive results, yet with one key bit of information missing " last year's lake depth clarity.

"You look at the report and wonder, 'Where's the beef?'" said Sierra Club spokesman Michael Donahoe of last year's secchi depth, absent in the report.

Secchi depth is a way scientists measure clarity by sinking a white disk in the lake and measuring the depth at which it is last seen.

TRPA officials said they expected the 2006 lake depth to be released in early summer, but noted it will probably be lower than in years past because of the year's unseasonably wet and late winter.

"Our expectation is going to be that it's lower," said TRPA Communications Chief Julie Regan. "After big runoff events it's going to be lower, but it's just one of 36 indicators."

While agency officials note 21 of 36 indicators and standards used to measure the lake's clarity are moving in a "positive direction," environmental representatives are concerned about the lake's overall health trend.

"Lake clarity is down from 100 feet back in 1968," said League to Save Lake Tahoe Program Coordinator Carl Young. "It's hovering around 70 to 73 feet now. Science modeling shows lake clarity can be restored with a 30 to 40 percent reduction in pollutants.

"We need to make advances to accelerate to that goal."

Young's reference was to a study by Dr. Geoff Schadlow, a researcher at UC Davis, released last fall that showed what kind of pollutant reduction would be needed to get clarity back to '60s levels and current TMDL standards.

TMDL stands for Total Daily Maximum Load and it is the maximum amount of a pollutant that can be discharged into a water body and still maintain water-quality standards.

TRPA officials said current efforts are being steeped to reach the goal.

"We are setting short-term priorities, growing awareness of the BMPs and really accelerating completion of BMPs in this season and encouraging more partnerships versus one parcel at a time," Regan said of best management practices, or methods used to prevent or reduce pollution resulting from an activity like building. "Expanding a watershed approach to BMPS " getting more bang for the buck.

"The other key is moving the Environmental Improvement Program (EIP) into the next phase. We're looking at what kind of restoration work needs to happen, that's a big focus on the short-term."

Environmentalists agreed that paying close attention to small projects will help, but one noted in the time that a 20-year basinwide plan (Pathway 2007) is coming to fruition, the "bigger picture" of what it takes to embellish the lake's health needs to be seen.

"We're getting information that we need to reduce pollutants 30 to 40 percent to reach our clarity goals," Sierra Club's Donahoe said. "I don't see us taking that scientific data seriously yet. We shouldn't be approving large developments now. We know we need to reduce pollutants going into the lake, from all different sources of pollution.

"To willy-nilly approve land disturbance without an overall approach to where we're going to get the reductions we need " it cuts off our options."