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TRUCKEE, Calif. - Facing an influx of tourists during the Governor's Regional Stay-at-Home order just as South Lake Tahoe has seen, the Town of Truckee Council unanimously passed an urgency ordinance Tuesday night to protect the public's health. Any hotel, motel or vacation home rental in use during the Stay-at-Home order can now face the revoking, suspension or denial of their Tourist Occupancy Certificate.

The Stay-at-Home order states lodging properties are to not be rented to anyone except essential workers in order to help slow the spread of COVID-19.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - Paying it forward has spread quickly through the South Lake Tahoe community this holiday season, and now the City is joining in to help those in need while at the same time helping out small locally-owned restaurants.

The “Pay It Forward” initiative involves community members and organizations contributing money to open tabs at local restaurants. It’s a program that helps those in need and helps support the restaurants when they need it the most.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - Bank of the West's South Lake Tahoe branch has had to close temporarily due to a staffing shortage. A representative at the bank's branch in Carson City said it is a COVID-related closure and some staff has been in quarantine as they await test results. This has been a problem at many area banks since the pandemic started.

Once staff can be assembled to reopen safely, expect the doors to the branch at 2161 Lake Tahoe Boulevard to open once again.

Christmas started early for this guy once the pandemic hit. I put my Christmas lights up over the 4th of July and for a short while started watching Christmas movies too to try and get that feel-good feeling happening. Okay, I also did it because I wanted to watch movies where no one was wearing a mask and hugging one another without fear of being exposed. I’ve always enjoyed movies for their pure escapism and who doesn’t want to escape what we’ve been through already ya know? I also like being wrapped around a movie completely.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - A cold front will bring a chance of snow showers and winds to the Lake Tahoe Basin Monday night into Tuesday, with another chance on Christmas Day and next weekend. While there are no major storms on the horizon, any precipitation is welcome at this time.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - Due to an internal issue at El Dorado County there will be no updates on figures Friday. They are reporting 90 new cases but no other information is available. Figures provided on Monday will include Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday.

We can tell you there are currently 25 COVID-19 patients hospitalized in the county with 9 of them in the ICU at Barton and Marshall. According to the State's website, 11 of the non-ICU patients and 3 of the ICU patients are in Barton, with 14/6 at Marshall. There are currently no suspected cases at Barton.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - Barton Health has begun the process of inoculating its frontline healthcare workers at the South Lake Tahoe hospital. The first 500 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine were received from the State of California Thursday.

Doses received during the vaccine rollout in Phase 1a have been specifically allocated for healthcare workers and hospital Skilled Nursing Facility residents, under California’s tiered vaccination plan.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - El Dorado County health officers announced 93 residents have tested positive for COVID-19 since yesterday. Of those, 27 are in El Dorado Hills, 20 in Cameron Park/Shingle Springs/Rescue, 13 in Greater Placerville, 4 in Diamond Springs/El Dorado, 0 in Pollock Pines/Camino/Kyburz, 2 in North County, 4 in South County, 0 in Lake Tahoe region. The pending address confirmation count is 45.

One of those new cases, 11 are under the age of 18, 30 are aged 18-49, 33 are aged 50-64, and 19 aged 65 or older.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - The snow is still falling this morning so totals are not yet available, but as ski resorts opened they were reporting 3"-4" with more coming. Temperatures were too high for snow at midnight, but they have since dropped allowing snow to start falling.

The Winter Storm Advisory expires at 10:00 a.m.

Use caution on roads around Lake Tahoe as there are controls on all of them. Here are those controls as of 9:00 a.m.:

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SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - First responders in South Lake Tahoe have been dealing with an antiquated public safety communications system for years but that is about to change. On Tuesday, City Council approved the funds needed to fix the system with much more than a band-aid.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - During the city council meeting on Tuesday, funds were approved to further assist the community during the pandemic.

LAKE TAHOE, Calif./Nev. - The new Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit Deputy Forest Supervisor Danelle D. Harrison is our guest columnist and looks back, and ahead, to the health of Lake Tahoe

Looking Back

December is a special time of year when our thoughts turn to family and friends, and communities come together to celebrate the season. It also marks the end of the year. And what a year it was. Together, we experienced unprecedented events including a record-breaking wildland fire year in the Pacific Southwest Region.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - Lake Tahoe area ski resorts are reporting 10"-17" of snow in the last 24 hours. Even though the snow has stopped, roads are still snow covered and plowing operations are under way.

The road conditions at 9:15 a.m. Monday:

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Chains Required, All Vehicles Except 4-Wheel Drive with Snow Tires - on US-50 from mile post 58.0 in El Dorado County to mile post 70.6 in El Dorado County in California.

Chains Required, All Vehicles Except 4-Wheel Drive with Snow Tires - on US-50 from mile post 0.0 in Douglas County to mile post 0.5 in Douglas County in Nevada.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - El Dorado County health officers announced 126 residents have tested positive for COVID-19 since yesterday. Of those, 14 are in El Dorado Hills, 22 in Cameron Park/Shingle Springs/Rescue, 31 in Greater Placerville, 2 in Diamond Springs/El Dorado, 17 in Pollock Pines/Camino/Kyburz, 6 in North County, -1 in South County, 23 in Lake Tahoe region. There are 12 of the new cases awaiting address confirmation, and the pending address confirmation count is now 105.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - With a minimum three-week long Stay-at-Home order going into effect on December 10 at 11:59 p.m. there are new rules that affect South Lake Tahoe visitors and residents.

The Sacramento Region, of which South Lake Tahoe and El Dorado County are part of, has dropped below 15 percent availability in the ICUs across the region, prompting the new order. More than thirty million people in California now fall under the order after a deadly surge of the coronavirus has crossed the state.

It was the first year the Lucky Beaver Bar and Burger at Stateline held a toy drive for the South Shore, and it was a big success with organizer Dreu Murin saying over $10,000 worth of toys donated to children in the community.

Christmas Cheer, the South Lake Tahoe nonprofit that helps feed locals in need all year was also in need of toys to help bring joy during such trying times. Tom Davis of Christmas Cheer joined up with Murin and other community members to organize the event which brought toys from far and wide to Lake Tahoe on December 6.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - El Dorado Public Health is working to reduce the backlog in positive results from the weekend and believes that the case count published today, 12/7/2020, is an undercount of at least 150 cases. The state database shows the weekend new case count could much higher. Each day we post the figures released by El Dorado County health officials,

Eric Michael Berg tragically and unexpectedly passed on Sunday, November 29, 2020 at the age of 32. The severity and duration of his addiction to alcohol was almost entirely hidden from his friends and family. He passed just hours before family intended to bring him to a medical detoxification facility.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - El Dorado County health officials say another 87 residents have tested positive for COVID-19 since yesterday. Of those, 32 are in El Dorado Hills, 23 in Cameron Park/Shingle Springs/Rescue, 14 in Greater Placerville, 1 in Diamond Springs/El Dorado, 3 in Pollock Pines/Camino/Kyburz, 2 in North County, 3 in South County, 11 in Lake Tahoe region. There are two less awaiting address confirmation, awaiting address confirmation for 8.

One of those new cases, seven are under the age of 18, 46 are aged 18-49, 20 are aged 50-64, and 14 aged 65 or older.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - El Dorado County health officials say another 98 residents have tested positive for COVID-19 since yesterday. Of those, 16 are in El Dorado Hills, 19 in Cameron Park/Shingle Springs/Rescue, 24 in Greater Placerville, 8 in Diamond Springs/El Dorado, 9 in Pollock Pines/Camino/Kyburz, 7 in North County, 2 in South County, 12 in Lake Tahoe region. There is one less awaiting address confirmation, awaiting address confirmation for 10.

One of those new cases, six are under the age of 18, 50 are aged 18-49, 23 are aged 50-64, and 19 aged 65 or older.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - South Lake Tahoe Fire Rescue (SLTFR) will once again roll its decorated fire engine this holiday season! They announced earlier this week the long standing tradition of the truck going through neighborhoods with Santa on board would not happen due to safety concerns of the pandemic.

SLTFR announced Thursday they wanted to clarify the statement given to South Tahoe Now.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - El Dorado County health officials say another 56 residents have tested positive for COVID-19 since yesterday. Of those, 7 are in El Dorado Hills, 14 in Cameron Park/Shingle Springs/Rescue, 4 in Greater Placerville, 1 in Diamond Springs/El Dorado, 4 in Pollock Pines/Camino/Kyburz, 8 in North County, 1 in South County, 20 in Lake Tahoe region. There are three less awaiting address confirmation, awaiting address confirmation for 9.

One of those new cases, eight are under the age of 18, 27 are aged 18-49, eight are aged 50-64, and 13 aged 65 or older.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - El Dorado County health officials say another 35 residents have tested positive for COVID-19 since yesterday. Of those, 15 are in El Dorado Hills, 4 in Cameron Park/Shingle Springs/Rescue, 1 in Greater Placerville, 2 in Diamond Springs/El Dorado, 1 in Pollock Pines/Camino/Kyburz, 13 in Lake Tahoe region. There is one less awaiting address confirmation, awaiting address confirmation for 12.

One of those new cases, one is under the age of 18, 26 are aged 18-49, seven are aged 50-64, and one aged 65 or older.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - There is a new mayor in town. During its December 1 meeting, City Council unanimously voted in current Mayor Pro Tem Tamara Wallace as mayor and Devin Middlebrook as mayor pro tem.

To start off the Tuesday meeting, City Clerk Sue Blankenship swore in the two newest members to the council after November's election. Cristi Creegan and John Friedrich each began their four-year terms after being sworn in as councilmembers.

Both Wallace and Middlebrook have been on the council for two years, along with Councilmember Cody Bass.