“A unified, functioning bi-state agency is the best thing for the health and well-being of Lake Tahoe and the community at large,” said Senator Gaines. “I’m pleased to see that cooler minds have prevailed on both sides of the border and political spectrum and encourage my colleagues in the California and Nevada legislatures to pass these amended bills without hesitation.”

As amended, Nevada’s Senate Bill 229 would remove the state’s proposed change to the voting structure of the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency’s (TRPA) Governing Board. It would also keep in place the following two changes to the Compact set forth in SB 271:

Requiring the TRPA take economic considerations into account when implementing the Regional Plan Update
Requiring the plaintiffs in any action challenging the Regional Plan Update to bear the burden of proof.

These two items are amendments to the Compact requiring a joint letter to Congress seeking approval.

Additional provisions outlined in SB 229 would require that:

Both states agree to cooperate and fully implement the new Regional Plan Update adopted by the TRPA in December 2012;
Both states would reaffirm that either state may withdraw from the Compact;

Nevada would repeal the provisions in SB 271 that establish a deadline for Nevada to withdraw from the compact and change the TRPA voting structure; and
California drops the proposal in SB 630 that would re-establish the California TRPA, which existed before TRPA was formed, because California would no longer need a back-up plan in the event Nevada were to withdraw.

Nevada’s Senate Bill 229 (as amended) may be considered by the Nevada Assembly Government Affairs Committee on May 15. Amendments to California’s Senate Bill 630 will mirror the Nevada language.

“As South Lake Tahoe’s representative in the State Assembly, I’m glad that both California and Nevada stakeholders have agreed to come together to move the goals of Lake Tahoe forward,” said Assemblyman Frank Bigelow. “I’m committed to working together with all parties to find solutions for South Lake Tahoe.”

“Lake Tahoe is of invaluable economic and intrinsic benefit to both California and Nevada, and it is promising that a path forward exists to strengthen the forty-year compact between our two states.” Said Assemblyman Gordon.

Senator Ted Gaines represents the 1st Senate District, which includes all or parts of Alpine, Amador, Calaveras, El Dorado, Lassen, Modoc, Mono, Nevada, Placer, Plumas, Sacramento and Sierra counties.

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The pursuit continued eastbound into the Truckee CHP area where additional officers entered the pursuit. The CHP continued to pursue the fleeing vehicle eastbound over Donner Summit. As the pursuit continued the fleeing BMW spontaneously exited at Donner Pass Road then drove aver the over-crossing and re-entered 1-80 westbound. CHP continued to pursue the fleeing suspect back over Donner Summit. As the fleeing suspect approached Soda Springs in excess of 100 mph he entered a coned off #1 lane closure where the California Conservation Corps were working. For reasons related to construction vehicles and workers within the closure, the fleeing suspect made an aggressive turning movement to the right in order to exit the coned closure. The suspect then lost control of the BMW. The BMW began to rotate back across the roadway to the left where it collided with a dirt embankment and overturned several times. As the BMW overturned it struck two CCC workers as they attempted to get out of the way. As a result of the collision the BMW driver was pronounced deceased at the scene.

The injured CCC workers were taken to area hospitals

Today, seven years after the real estate bubble burst, triggering the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression and costing millions of responsible Americans their jobs and their homes, our housing market is healing. Sales are up. Foreclosures are down. Construction is expanding. And thanks to rising home prices over the past year, 1.7 million more families have been able to come up for air, because they’re no longer underwater on their mortgages.

From the day I took office, I’ve made it a priority to help responsible homeowners and prevent the kind of recklessness that helped cause this crisis in the first place.

My housing plan has already helped more than two million people refinance their mortgages, and they’re saving an average of $3000 per year.

My new consumer watchdog agency is moving forward on protections like a simpler, shorter mortgage form that will help to keep hard-working families from getting ripped off.

But we’ve got more work to do. We’ve got more responsible homeowners to help – folks who have never missed a mortgage payment, but aren’t allowed to refinance; working families who have done everything right, but still owe more on their homes than they’re worth.

Last week, I nominated a man named Mel Watt to take on these challenges as the head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency. Mel’s represented the people of North Carolina in Congress for 20 years, and in that time, he helped lead efforts to put in place rules of the road that protect consumers from dishonest mortgage lenders, and give responsible Americans the chance to own their own home. He’s the right person for the job, and that’s why Congress should do its job, and confirm him without delay.

And they shouldn’t stop there. As I said before, more than two million Americans have already refinanced at today’s low rates, but we can do a lot better than that. I’ve called on Congress to give every responsible homeowner the chance to refinance, and with it, the opportunity to save $3,000 a year. That’s like a $3,000 tax cut. And if you’re one of the millions of Americans who could take advantage of that, you should ask your representative in Congress why they won’t act on it.

Our economy and our housing market are poised for progress – but we could do so much more if we work together. More good jobs. Greater security for middle-class families. A sense that your hard work is rewarded. That’s what I’m fighting for – and that’s what I’m going to keep fighting for as long as I hold this office.

Thank you. And have a great weekend.

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On Friday, we learned that our businesses created another 176,000 jobs last month.  That’s 2.2 million new jobs over the past year, and 6.8 million new jobs over the past 38 months.

But as I’ve said before, I won’t be satisfied until everyone who wants a job can find one. So I’m going to keep doing everything I can and going everywhere I need to go to help our businesses create jobs.

Now, one of the best ways to grow our economy is to sell more goods and services Made in America to the rest of the world.  That includes our neighbors to the south.

Right now, over 40 percent of our exports go to the Americas.  And those exports are growing faster than our trade with the rest of the world.  That’s why I visited Latin America this week – to work with leaders to deepen our economic ties and expand trade between our nations.

In Mexico, I also talked about immigration reform, because that’s an important issue that affects both our countries.

The truth is, right now, our border with Mexico is more secure than it’s been in years.  We’ve put more boots on that border than at any time in our history, and illegal crossings are down by nearly 80 percent from their peak in 2000.  But we’ve got more to do – not just to secure the border but to fix an immigration system that is badly broken.

In recent weeks, we’ve seen a commonsense immigration reform bill introduced in the Senate.  This bill is a compromise, which means that nobody got everything they wanted – including me.  But it’s largely consistent with the principles I’ve laid out from the beginning.

It would continue to strengthen security at our borders and hold employers more accountable if they knowingly hire undocumented workers.

It would provide a pathway to earned citizenship for the 11 million individuals who are already in this country illegally.

And it would modernize our legal immigration system so that we’re able to reunite families and attract the highly-skilled entrepreneurs and engineers who will help create good paying jobs and grow our economy.

These are all commonsense steps that the majority of Americans support.  So there’s no reason that immigration reform can’t become a reality this year.

In the meantime, I’ll keep working with our neighbors on our common security and our common prosperity.  Millions of Americans earn a living right now because of the trade between our nations.  And after this week, I’m as confident as ever that we can build on our shared heritage and values to open more markets for American businesses and create more jobs for American workers.

Thanks and have a great weekend.

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The following mobile microchipping clinics have been scheduled for May, 2013. Pet owners are asked to bring their dogs properly leashed and their cats in appropriate cat carriers:

Tuesday, May 7, 12 noon to 4:00 p.m.
Scolari’s parking lot, 1300 Disc Dr., Sparks

Saturday, May 18, 8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
Walk for Animals, Sparks Marina, Sparks

Tuesday, May 21, 12 noon to 4:00 p.m.
Washoe County Senior Services, 1155 East 9th St., Reno

These mobile microchipping clinics are part of a year-long campaign by Regional Animal Services to provide free microchips for all Washoe County pet owners. Funding for the microchips used in the mobile clinics is provided by Maddie’s Fund®.

Through January of 2014, free microchips will also be available from Regional Animal Services located at 2825-A Longley Lane. Hours are 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Monday through Friday (excluding holidays).

For information about Regional Animal Services’ free microchipping campaign, visit WashoeAnimals.com.

The Washoe County Sheriff’s Office celebrated 150 years of proud service and community partnership in 2011. Sheriff Michael Haley is the 25th person elected to serve as the Sheriff of Washoe County. His office continues to be the only full service public safety agency operating within northern Nevada and is responsible for operating the consolidated detention facility, regional crime lab, Northern Nevada Counter Terrorism Center, Internet Crimes against Children Task Force, court security, service of civil process, traditional street patrols and Regional Animal Services.

But two months ago, Congress allowed a series of automatic budget cuts to fall across the federal government that would do the opposite. In Washington-speak, these cuts were called the “sequester.” It was a bad idea then. And as the country saw this week, it’s a bad idea now.

Because of these reckless cuts, there are parents whose kids just got kicked out of Head Start programs scrambling for a solution. There are seniors who depend on programs like Meals on Wheels to live independently looking for help. There are military communities – families that have already sacrificed enough – coping under new strains. All because of these cuts.

This week, the sequester hurt travelers, who were stuck for hours in airports and on planes, and rightly frustrated by it. And, maybe because they fly home each weekend, the Members of Congress who insisted these cuts take hold finally realized that they actually apply to them too.

Republicans claimed victory when the sequester first took effect, and now they’ve decided it was a bad idea all along. Well, first, they should look at their own budget. If the cuts they propose were applied across the board, the FAA would suffer cuts three times deeper.

So Congress passed a temporary fix. A Band-Aid. But these cuts are scheduled to keep falling across other parts of the government that provide vital services for the American people. And we can’t just keep putting Band-Aids on every cut. It’s not a responsible way to govern. There is only one way to truly fix the sequester: by replacing it before it causes further damage.

A couple weeks ago, I put forward a budget that replaces the next several years of these dumb cuts with smarter cuts; reforms our tax code to close wasteful special interest loopholes; and invests in things like education, research, and manufacturing that will create new jobs right now.

So I hope Members of Congress will find the same sense of urgency and bipartisan cooperation to help the families still in the crosshairs of these cuts. They may not feel the pain felt by kids kicked off Head Start, or the 750,000 Americans projected to lose their jobs because of these cuts, or the long-term unemployed who will be further hurt by them. But that pain is real.

The American people worked too hard, for too long, rebuilding from one economic crisis just to see your elected officials keep causing more. Our economy is growing. Our deficits are shrinking. We’re creating jobs on a consistent basis. But we need to do more to help middle-class families get ahead, and give more folks a chance to earn their way into the middle class. And we can, if we work together. That’s what you expect. That’s what I’m going to work every single day to help deliver. Thank you.

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