At the Lake: Lake Tahoe bill to help redevelopment dies

A Nevada bill with four amendments attached that would have raised the motel room tax set in the Tahoe Township of Douglas County died in the Senate late Tuesday.

The 2 percent hike of the rate set at 10 percent would have in essence been allowed to go over the state line to California to fund other earmarks outside the Silver State.

Douglas County had pledged up to $15 million of that money to go into the proposed $410 million convention center complex expected to start work next month.

California may need Nevada's help again. A parking analysis conducted by the city for South Lake Tahoe's revised $410 million convention center project has determined insufficient parking along the Stateline casino corridor " but that's if the perfect storm of summer events occurs.

Construction of the 11.5-acre project between Highway 50, Friday, Cedar, Stateline avenues is set to begin as early as next week. The project is anchored by an entertainment venue that could seat up to 4,400 people. But a sellout could result in a shortfall of at least 900 parking spaces. The deficit may require use of the city's parking garage on Heavenly Village Way or an agreement with the casinos to use their parking.

Could the burial site of a possible Zodiac victim, missing since 1970 after a night shift at a Stateline casino, be identified by a retired Air Force satellite manager living in Morgan Hill?

Clifton Calvez, primarily using the Internet, believes he knows the exact spot in the Lake Tahoe Basin where Donna Lass is buried. Authorities have not ignored him and are waiting for the snow to melt.

New tools will allow the U.S. Forest Service to digitally display the relative threats of wildfire to specific Lake Tahoe neighborhoods and forests at a public meeting next week.

Forest Service staff members are in the midst of designing and scheduling fuels and vegetation treatments, known as the Stewardship and Fireshed Assessment process, which will result in a detailed 10-year program of work outlining the hazardous fuels management practices to be employed around the Lake Tahoe Basin.