Helping to solve Lake Tahoe’s microplastics problem
INCLINE VILLAGE, Nev. - Lake Tahoe has big problems that are in small plastic pieces. To support efforts to reduce plastic waste, students from environmental clubs at four high schools in the region partnered with staff from local nonprofits to learn about plastic reduction programs and how they can help Take Care of Lake Tahoe. On Earth Day 2021 their efforts, which began in the fall of 2019, came to fruition when the CEO of Raley’s agreed to create lasting, sustainable changes at their stores.
When the initiative began in 2019, students from North Tahoe High School, Truckee High School, Incline High School, and South Tahoe High School learned about the prolific microplastics problem impacting Lake Tahoe from UC Davis Tahoe Environmental Research Center (TERC) AmeriCorps member Elise Matera and staff members at Sierra Watershed Education Partnerships (SWEP) and the Tahoe Water Suppliers Association
Novel Coronavirus In Nevada: Tuesday, May 4, 2021
6:00 p.m. | May 4, 2021
Nevada’s COVID-19 Vaccination Rate Still Declining
The COVID-19 vaccination rate in Nevada is still slowing down.
The state is vaccinating an average of fewer than 14,000 people per day, over the last two weeks. For comparison, Nevada was administering a 14-day rolling average of nearly 25,000 shots per day in mid-April.
The state has administered more than 1.9 million shots. Nearly 46% of Nevadans over 16 have received their first shot and roughly a third have completed vaccination.
There are currently 388 Nevadans hospitalized for confirmed or suspected COVID-19.
The state’s test positivity rate has remained steady at 5.7% for about a week.
By Justin Scacco | Special to The Union
An additional eight positive cases of COVID-19 have been reported at Truckee High School, bringing the total number of confirmed active cases to 32.
Tahoe Truckee Unified School District sent a letter out to parents Monday evening, providing an update on the amount of new confirmed cases of COVID-19, which increased from 24 last Friday to 32 on Monday.
Truckee High is now seven cases away from triggering rules that would require the entire school to transition to distance learning. Currently, the metric used for school closures is based on if the total number of positive cases reaches 5% of the staff and student population within a 14-day period. If Truckee were to reach 39 active cases, all extracurricular activities would be temporarily suspended, and the school would only reopen after receiving clearance from Nevada County Public Health.
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In another dramatic sign of how rapidly California is recovering from COVID-19, the state recorded its lowest hospitalization rate since the first few weeks of the pandemic, according to data reviewed by The Times.
But over the last three months, COVID-19 has receded rapidly across the region, allowing a massive reopening of the economy and the hope for a return to some kind of normal by the summer.
California is now at the bottom of the nation when it comes to coronavirus case rates. On Tuesday, Los Angeles County progressed into the least-restrictive tier of California’s color-coded closure system, clearing the way for the nation’s most populous county to reopen its economy to the widest extent currently possible.