fire destroys two hundred fifty homes and buildings were splays and a half a century says south lake tahoe mer at least two hundred fifty homes are now buildings have been destroyed in towers worst fire and a half a century according to south lake tahoe is m kathy lovell this is the worst fire i can recall level said it is just shows you the power of this it's absolutely heartbreaking we've got lake valley fire fighters who are fire fighting the fire and who have lost their own homes as of nine fifty p m last night firefighters are were concerned about those schools apparently flames were seen near the school some firefighters were dousing hotspots and trees around the schools putting to witnesses the fire appears to be moving on a path of the school and continues to burn out of control moving in a northerly direction towards the city according to u s forest fire and camino interagency command center county supervisor n san diego who represents the taco district drive said eldorado county has issued a proclamation f emergency which is the first step towards getting a proclamation from the governor the state proclamation would get a motion state funding for cleanup from the disaster no injuries have been reported the burned homes are in the mule deer road mount rainier clearview and lake tahoe boulevard areas the fire is at least seven hundred fifty acres in fact the last i read was  twenty five hundred acres said u s forest service public information officer todd chapman the when has died down from earlier today when it got swept thirty five miles an hour temperatures will be a big factor  overnight bailey the agency is fire chief incident commander for lake tahoe said high winds were hampering the fire crews in the battle against a fast moving blaze the blaze is in the upper and gora creek drainage about five miles south of south lake tahoe property evacuations of the lake resorts and hundreds of homes in the northern upper truckee road area of paradise located near south lake tahoe authorities  say on the phone we've just got a notice to evacuate said gloria hill dig your lakes resort to smoke it's getting pretty thick it's probably two miles away and we're hoping it won't reach here they definitely having problems with the winds up there linda curran of the communal interagency dispatch center in california the fire as a rapid rate of spread because of the winds at least six air tankers and to our fish were assisting more than four hundred firefighters on the ground however the wind has been a problem to have air craft in the air jackie fake of u s forest service said the fire believed to be caused by human activity was reported to fourteen p m sunday and the u s forest service land its huge smoke plume can be seen for miles around reno tahoe area the entire truckee area is under evacuation as the fire is growing rapidly towards upper truckee road near taco paradise structures are either on fire or threatening threatened and evacuations are under way residents in the saw mill pond area and gardner mountain areas have been told to be prepared to be evacuated well it's are closed to north upper truck highway fifty all the way to lake tahoe boulevard authorities are learning residents of gardner mountain to be prepared for evacuation people have been ordered waited are told that they can go to south lake tahoe recreation center and rufus allen boulevard the lake tahoe senior center at three thousand and fifty lake tahoe boulevard in south middle school the command post for the firefighters was moved to lake tahoe airport reporter susan wood said one far far told her that twenty to thirty homes have been destroyed from his vantage point three fires are single tenuously underway two of the fires appear to have been spawned by the initial fire people have been driving frantically out of the area and others are running on foot a motorcycle rider was seen getting off his bike and putting out a fire on a bank which reported one man screamed i've put out three fires already outside agencies have been called to help  tahoe boulevard is believed to ad for the fire may have caused it according to police dispatch reports a tall daily tribune photographer reports fires growing with plumes of smoke growing hundreds of feet in the air the fire can be seen from carson valley who lives in coyote ridge sprinted down northern upper truckee towards the wise saying there's not much for you much you can witness amanda fed a mare's residen visible from the highway fifteen north of columns of brown and white smoke billowing out over the base of traffic control there in effect no way fifty in meyer's to make way for the large volume of vehicles leaving northern upper truckee road and another local story rural chase ends in an arrest state park rangers how a forty year old nevada city man at gunpoint friday afternoon after he led them on a high speed chase through san juan ridge area and then refused to get out of his car according to nevada county sheriff's office paul ward switzer was arrested friday for allegedly making terrorist threats and assault and battery evading arrest and resisting a peace officer according to south yuba state parks lieutenant jeremy state park rangers pursuing switzer in connection with an alleged assault and battery that took place purdon crossing on thursday after rangers spotted switzer he led them on the road to mother truckers on talor crossing road very locked himself in his car and refused to get out and tell real law enforcement officers arrived according to nevada custody by the rangers switzer was booked it wayne brown correctional facility law enforcement officials are still investigating the incident and additional charges may be filed according to in another story local it grass valley man faces up to five years in prison after pleading guilty to a firearms charge in federal court in sacramento on friday according to the u s attorney's office joshua d packard when he was arrested according to rodriguez packard was caught with a loaded ruger nine millimeter semiautomatic pistol a loaded magazine for the pistol and five inch folding knife april twenty seven charged by a federal grand jury being a felon in possession of a firearm according to federal court documents packard had previously had previous felony convictions an event accounting for gran possessing a controlled substance and evading a police officer the u s attorney's office credited this case to be cooperation between nevada city and grass valley police departments and the nevada county's district attorney's office and the f b i packard will remain in custody until his sentencing in august thirty first and now your favorite part of our program the police  her route she noticed the truck again on saturday officers advised her to call them the next time the truck trails her at two o eight p m a caller from the three hundred block of carroll drive reported that property was stolen from the house while she was on vacation at three fifty four p m a caller from the south highway forty nine at smith road reported that someone in a green toyota sedan threw a cigarette from a car window officers advise c h p on sunday at three thirty a m a caller from the two hundred block of dorothy drive reported hearing strange reiki noises outside of her apartment office checked the area and found it the noise was caused by water from the sprinkler hitting the caller's front door county sheriff's office saturday one twenty two p m a caller from there were ten thousand block one hundred thousand block of harmony ridge road reported that a dog was pinned under a motorhome animal control responded and took to enter dog to a veter from a car left unlocked in the driveway at seven fifty nine pm a caller from the twenty two hundred thousand block of you bet road reported his neighbors pit bull had just attacked his wife nine forty four p m a caller from the fire blotter the grass valley fire department responded to sixty one calls for service during the period including those responded to as part of a joint operation relationship but never had accounted consolidated fire just and the  of an assault near wall street after gave the p d and secured the scene fire and ambulance personnel were cleared to move in from stage and make patient contact after accessing the patient for injuries the victim refused treatment and was not transport directed the second engine to standby i'm prepared for hazardous material release scenario if need arose investigative unit then tried to locate where and if any hazardous condition existed with the use of a gas detector after a thorough search blotter are fictitious scientific scientists describe giant penguins giant penguins as tall as five feet and what is now peru more than forty million years ago much earlier than they had reached warmer areas until about ten million years ago now researchers report in this week's online edition of proceedings of the national academy of science but they have found remains of two types of penguins in peru that dated forty million years ago one of them was a five foot giant with a long sharp beak paleontologist julia clarke assistant professor of marine earth and atmospheric sciences in northern carolina state university said she it was surprised that the new find this is the same age as the earliest penguins from south america the only other record from the continent of that age is from southernmost tip of the cot the new findings indicate they reached equitorial regions much earlier than anyone previously thought the big bird is larger than any penguin known today and the third largest known to have ever lived it is particularly unusual as such a large penguin to have been living in a warm climate she noted in most cases the larger individuals of a species are among related species are correlated with cooler climes and higher latitude the because the large penguin looks remarkably speer like but the researchers don't no it's exact three hundred style the second new species was approximately the same size as a living penguin two and a half feet to three feet tall and nearly represents a very early part of penguin in evolutionary history through its searches said the research was funded by the national science foundation office of international science and engineering and the national geographic society and now another story out of kentucky one dad and sixty six hurt in a bus crash near bowling green kentucky have bus carrying people home from a family reunion crashed on an interstate in southern kentucky early monday while passengers were asleep killing one person and injuring sixty six others official said police said it appeared the driver had dozed off state police troopers steve vai said the bus veered off the right side of the highway struck an earthen embank and stopped when it ran into a concrete bridge pillar the woman who died was ejected from the bus he said most of the injured were taken to the medical center in bowling green with some taken to other hospitals for the injuries were critical said randy faith bruckner director of emergency medical services at the medical center later monday bender built university medical center spokesman jerry jones said nashville the nashville tennessee hospital had five patients from the bus wreck one adult and one child were in critical condition and three adults were in stable condition the bus had been rented by a family returning to alabama from a reunion in around the vehicle it said that there were sixty five passengers and two drivers on the bus most everyone was asleep on the bus at the time of the crash no other vehicles were involved said there was no earlier early indication of possible criminal charges but nine hundred eighty seven bus crash near forty two mile marker on interstate sixty five about seventy five miles north of nashville two passenger passing motorists stopped and helped the people off the bus after the crash when it did not immediately return calls seeking additional comment the company had a satisfactory safety rating when it was last reviewed in march  to the us department of transportation it had not reported any of the accidents or injuries in the last two years kentucky state police dept five the woman who died as carrie walton seventy one alabama the passengers included about forty members of the jackson family from cork line alabama and several town officials said cynthia case don't city clerk in the west alabama community of six hundred and thirty people robin was a very lovely person stone said she was a wonderful mother grandmother and her family was the most important thing to her the driver abraham parker sixty three also a birmingham of birmingham was in a critical condition at vanderbilt university medical center state police said it family member who wasn't able to go to the reunion but shondra jackson said her husband was on his way from for clinton to one of the kentucky hospitals were in tears injured were taken and others were trying to arrange this red sea resort is series of messages released by militants underline gaza's term one hamas linked militants holding an israeli soldier for the past year released an audio tape of him urging israel to strike a deal with for d on muslims to attack american and israeli interests in support of the group and its speech all mart also promised to improve freedom of movement of the palestinian population in the west bank substantially and reopen trade hamas has effectively split the palestinians between how much control gaza strip and the west bank run by western backed obvious emergency government there of when the palestinians are pressed israeli israel to israel israel to quickly snap up their it is to make peace progress with to boost his legitimacy and swing the palestinian support his way all of us officials have called for a lifting of roadblocks and other it heavy security measures in the west bank but they say are suffering suffocating this palestinians well mark did not promise an immediate resumption but said the step he was taking aimed at leading to such holding five hundred fifty million dollars in frozen funds but the cabinet decision did not say how much of this money would be released or when israeli freeze on the money rendered past palestinian government unable to pay full salaries to government employees causing a hardship to an already impoverished territories the hope is that the meeting in egypt could lead to more in depth international efforts to prod peace talks that broke down amid violence in two thousand and one at the same time momentum is going for the outgoing british prime minister tony blair to be named as the international envoy for the middle east the financial times newspaper reported monday that the quartet members had agreed to confirm his appointment at their jerusalem