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CLEARLAKE OAKS, Calif. – A Lucerne woman was injured and had to be lifeflighted out of the county on Thursday after her vehicle went into the lake.
Christine Koschei, 41, was injured in the Thursday afternoon crash on Highway 20 near Island Drive, according to the California Highway Patrol.
CHP Officer Kory Reynolds said Friday that Koschei was driving a Ford Explorer with 46-year-old Stephanie Curtis-Kyle and a 6-year-old girl riding as passengers.
The vehicle went off the highway and into Clear Lake. Reynolds said investigators were not sure what led to the vehicle going into the water.
Koschei suffered major injuries and was flown out of the county, the CHP reported.
Her vehicle was recovered from the lake through the use of the Northshore Dive Team's heavy duty air bags, which lift sunken vehicles.
The Lake County Sheriff's Office's Marine Patrol then towed the vehicle to a spot along the lakeshore where it could be removed.
Email Elizabeth Larson at
The mottled landscape pictured above that shows the impact crater Tycho is among the most violent-looking places on our moon.
Astronomers didn't aim NASA's Hubble Space Telescope to study Tycho, however. The image was taken in preparation to observe the transit of Venus across the sun's face June 5-6.
Hubble cannot look at the sun directly, so astronomers are planning to point the telescope at the Earth's moon, using it as a mirror to capture reflected sunlight and isolate the small fraction of the light that passes through Venus' atmosphere.
Imprinted on that small amount of light are the fingerprints of the planet’s atmospheric makeup.
These observations will mimic a technique that is already being used to sample the atmospheres of giant planets outside our solar system passing in front of their stars. In the case of the Venus transit observations, astronomers already know the chemical makeup of Venus' atmosphere, and that it does not show signs of life on the planet.
But the Venus transit will be used to test whether this technique will have a chance of detecting the very faint fingerprints of an Earth-like planet, even one that might be habitable for life, outside our solar system that similarly transits its own star.
Venus is an excellent proxy because it is similar in size and mass to our planet.
The astronomers will use an arsenal of Hubble instruments – the Advanced Camera for Surveys, Wide Field Camera 3 and Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph – to view the transit in a range of wavelengths, from ultraviolet to near-infrared light.
During the transit, Hubble will snap images and perform spectroscopy, dividing the sunlight into its constituent colors, which could yield information about the makeup of Venus' atmosphere.
Hubble will observe the moon for seven hours, before, during, and after the transit so the astronomers can compare the data.
Astronomers need the long observation because they are looking for extremely faint spectral signatures. Only 1/100,000th of the sunlight will filter through Venus' atmosphere and be reflected off the moon.
The image above, taken with Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys, reveals lunar features as small as roughly 560 feet (170 meters) across.
The large "bulls-eye" near the top of the picture is the impact crater, caused by an asteroid strike about 100 million years ago.
The bright trails radiating from the crater were formed by material ejected from the impact area during the asteroid collision.
Tycho is about 50 miles (80 kilometers) wide and is circled by a rim of material rising almost 3 miles (5 kilometers) above the crater floor. The image measures 430 miles (700 kilometers) across, which is slightly larger than New Mexico.
Because the astronomers only have one shot at observing the transit, they had to carefully plan how the study would be carried out. Part of their planning included the test observations of the moon, made on Jan. 11, 2012, as shown in the release image.
Hubble will need to be locked onto the same location on the moon for more than seven hours, the transit's duration.
For roughly 40 minutes of each 96-minute orbit of Hubble around the Earth, the Earth occults Hubble's view of the moon.
So, during the test observations, the astronomers wanted to make sure they could point Hubble to precisely the same target area.
This is the last time this century sky watchers can view Venus passing in front of the sun. The next transit won't happen until 2117. Venus transits occur in pairs, separated by eight years. The last event was witnessed in 2004.
The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between NASA and the European Space Agency. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., manages the telescope.
The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, Md., conducts Hubble science operations. STScI is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., in Washington, D.C.
For images and more information about Hubble’s view of the Moon and the Venus transit, visit http://hubblesite.org/news/2012/22 .
For more information about the Hubble Space Telescope, visit http://www.nasa.gov/hubble .
Cheryl Grundy works for the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, Md.
NORTH COAST, Calif. – Mendocino County authorities issued an alert Friday night for a missing Redwood Valley woman who allegedly failed to return her children to their father and subsequently threatened violence against them.
Kyleen Ann Cornell, 39, is being sought by authorities.
Cornell failed to return her four children per the custody agreement on Thursday afternoon, according to the report.
Since then, Cornell has reportedly stated that she has no intention of returning the children to their father and allegedly has made threats of physical violence against the children, according to the alert.
Authorities believe that Cornell, who is bipolar, has not taken her medication.
The children are Leona Marie Cornell, age 4, described as a white female with blonde hair and blue eyes; McIntyre A. Cornell, 8, a white male with brown hair and blue eyes; Inanna E. Peters, 12, a Hispanic female with black hair and brown eyes; and Sydney M. Peters, 16, a white male, 5 feet 11 inches tall, 155 pounds, with brown hair and green eyes.
Cornell is described as a white female adult, 5 feet 8 inches tall, 145 pounds, with brown hair and green eyes.
Her vehicle is a green 2000 Honda Odyssey, with the license plate 4LKE167.
Anyone with information on Cornell is asked to call the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office at 707-463-4086.
CLEARLAKE, Calif. – A crash Thursday afternoon saw a vehicle go into Clearlake, with one person being lifeflighted to a regional trauma center.
The afternoon crash was reported on Highway 20 near Island Drive, according to the California Highway Patrol. Full details of what occurred were not immediately available.
CHP, Northshore Fire, the Lake County Sheriff's Office and California Fish and Game responded to the scene.
CHP Officer Brian Engle said one person was flown by air ambulance out of the area.
A juvenile also was involved but not injured, according to the CHP.
The Northshore Dive Team used newly acquired air bags to lift the vehicle, which was then towed to shore by a boat from the Lake County Sheriff's Office's Marine Patrol.
The incident was cleared shortly before 5:30 p.m., according to radio reports.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The Miss Lake County Scholarship Program and Pageant, an official preliminary pageant to Miss California and Miss America, is in the process of recruiting contestants to participate in this year's pageant.
The pageant will be held on Saturday, Aug. 4, in the Soper-Reese Community Theatre, 275 S. Main St., Lakeport.
The program has scheduled two upcoming orientation sessions.
The first will be held on Saturday, May 26, from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m., at the CPS Country Air Properties office, 901 S. Main St. in Lakeport. The second will take place on Sunday, June 3, from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. at the same location.
Potential contestants need only attend one session. If they are unable to attend either session, contact pageant organizers to schedule another time to meet.
The scholarship program is open to all young women who live, work or attend school in Lake County.
The Teen program is open to ages 13-16 and the Miss Program is open to ages 17-24.
Parents are invited to attend the orientation sessions with their daughters. All areas of the competition will be covered, which includes talent, lifestyle and fitness, evening wear, on-stage question, and private interview. Academic achievement and community service are also considered in a contestant’s overall evaluation.
Rehearsals will start in early July, and will be held twice a week, on Wednesday and Sunday.
Even if this is your first year competing, you will have a lot of fun and meet some great girls. Volunteer committee members are there to support and mentor contestants throughout the program.
There also is a Princess Program for girls ages 6 to 12. This program is a great way to introduce the girls to the Miss America program. They participate in community events with the teen and miss contestants and will be introduced and “crowned” on stage at the August pageant.
Community members who would like to join the program also are being recruited.
For more information, contact Executive Director Sandra Orchid by email at
CLEARLAKE, Calif. – Officials from the city of Clearlake and the county of Lake are investigating an issue at a Lakeshore Drive property involving an offensive odor that was first reported over the weekend.
Clearlake City Manager Joan Phillipe reported Thursday that the city received a call Sunday advising of an offensive odor coming from a property located on Lakeshore Drive in the “Parks” area.
Initial investigation isolated the location where the smell was coming from and testing did not reveal any hazardous material, Phillipe said.
She said further evaluation Thursday morning resulted when an individual had an adverse reaction to the odor.
Taking a precautionary position, personnel from the Clearlake Police Department, Lake County Fire Protection District, Lake County Environmental Health and Lake County Air Quality along with other city staff met and determined that the vacant lot should be secured, Phillipe said.
As a result, Phillipe said they covered the ground with plastic to contain the odor.
Soil samples have been taken in an attempt to determine what may be the cause of the odor, according to Phillipe.
She said the property owner has been notified of their responsibility to clean the property immediately.