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From left, Tonya Patterson and Ronald Mishler, both of Kelseyville, Calif., were arrested on Thursday, July 14, 2011, on drug-related charges following a warrant search. Lake County Jail photos.

KELSEYVILLE, Calif. – The service of a search warrant by the Sheriff’s Narcotics Task Force on Thursday afternoon has resulted in two arrests and the seizure of approximately one ounce of methamphetamine.

Arrested were 39-year-old Tonya Raynell Patterson of Kelseyville 46-year-old Walter Ronald Mishler, both of Kelseyville, according to Capt. James Bauman of the Lake County Sheriff's Office.

On July 13, narcotics agents secured a search warrant for Patterson's person, home and vehicles.

On Thursday, July 14, at approximately 3 p.m., detectives served the warrant at Patterson’s Wheeler Drive home in Kelseyville with the assistance of the Sheriff’s Special Enforcement Detail, Bauman said.

When narcotics detectives announced themselves at the door to the home, they received no response, according to Bauman.

As detectives entered the home through the unlocked front door, a suspect fled out of the home through a rear sliding door but was detained in the back yard by Special Enforcement Detail deputies. Bauman said the man was later identified as Mishler, who was determined to be under the influence of a controlled substance and arrested. Patterson was not located in the home.

Bauman said that when detectives entered the home, they located a police scanner actively monitoring the sheriff’s primary radio frequency in the master bedroom.

He said a search of that same bedroom revealed approximately one ounce of methamphetamine packaged for sales in several individual bags beneath a night stand. Several glass “meth” pipes, digital scales, and other items of methamphetamine sales paraphernalia were also found in the bedroom. Several more “meth” pipes were located in various locations throughout the house.

Mishler was transported to the Lake County Hill Road Correctional Facility for booking. He was charged with possession of a controlled substance, possession of a controlled substance for sales, possession of narcotics paraphernalia, and being under the influence of a controlled substance.

Bail was set at $10,000, jail records indicated Mishler later posted bail and was released.

Shortly after narcotics detectives left Patterson's home on Wheeler Drive, she was located by a Special Enforcement Detail deputy in her vehicle on Big Valley Road in Finley, Bauman said.

She too, was arrested for the controlled substances and paraphernalia found in her home, and for being under the influence of a controlled substance, according to Bauman.

He said Patterson was subsequently booked at the Lake County Hill Road Correctional Facility for possession of a controlled substance, possession of narcotics paraphernalia, and being under the influence of a controlled substance.

Her bail was set at $10,000; she also later posted bail and was released, jail records indicated.

The Lake County Sheriff’s Narcotics Task Force can be reached through its anonymous tip line at 707-263-3663.

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Moviegoers line up for Harry Potter at the Lakeport Cinema 5 in Lakeport, Calif., on Thursday, July 14, 2011. Photo by Gary McAuley.

LAKEPORT, Calif. – The last installment of the “Harry Potter” film series opened at midnight Friday, and the highly anticipated event proved a hot ticket at the local theater.

Hundreds were lined up Thursday evening outside of the Lakeport Cinemas 5 for the opening of the eighth and final movie in the series, the second part of “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” which the theater is showing in 3D.

A special reshowing of the first part of “Deathly Hallows” took place earlier in the evening before the new movie debuted at midnight.

Some avid fans of the series that follows the story of a boy wizard even came in costume.

Employees at the theater estimated close to 500 people came to see parts one and two of the “Deathly Hallows.”

The line of Harry Potter fans stretched across the front of the Lakeport Cinema 5 in Lakeport, Calif., on Thursday, July 14, 2011. Photo by Gary McAuley.

CLEARLAKE, Calif. – Christmas is still months away, but this Saturday's “Christmas in July” is thinking ahead and offering a fun event in the summer sun in an effort to help benefit the community's children.

The event will be held from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, July 16, at the Lake County Youth Center, located at 4750 Golf Ave. in Clearlake.

The Lake County Youth Center and Toys for Tots are putting on the event to support both the youth center's renovations and the Christmas toy giveaway to benefit local children in need.

Clearlake Mayor Joyce Overton, one of the event's organizers, said so far 25 vendors have signed up, there will be three vans to collect donations of unwrapped toys, numerous raffle items, food – from hot dogs to chicken dinners and pork sandwiches – and live music, a daylong basketball tournament with cash prizes and more.

The street in front of the youth center will be closed to accommodate the festivities, she said.

Other offerings include a motorcycle run and the chance for children to talk to Santa.

Overton said one of the goals is to get a head start on gathering toys for the Christmas toy giveaway that, in years past, has been organized by the Lake County Community Action Agency, which closed earlier this year citing a myriad of fiscal issues.

“I didn't want to see it go away on our end of the lake,” Overton said of the toy drive, adding that they're trying to get a head start on the work of collecting toys.

Another part of the effort is raising the estimated $30,000 needed to renovate the youth center, which needs new windows, new flooring and a new kitchen, the latter being the most expensive part, Overton said.

So far, Overton estimates she has about $3,500 pledged toward the youth center's planned upgrades. Labor is being donated for the effort, but materials and funds are still needed.

The youth center and the community's safe house for homeless teens were both under the aegis of the Lake County Community Action Agency, Overton said. They're now overseen by the Lake Community Pride Foundation.

For more information on donating to the youth center's renovations, contact Overton at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

E-mail Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow Lake County News on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LakeCoNews, on Tumblr at www.lakeconews.tumblr.com, on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lake-County-News/143156775604?ref=mf and on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/user/LakeCoNews.

NASA's Dawn spacecraft obtained this image of giant asteroid Vesta on July 9, 2011, from a distance of about 26,000 miles (41,000 kilometers). Each pixel in the image corresponds to roughly 2.4 miles (3.8 kilometers). Photo courtesy of NASA.

On Friday, July 15, NASA's ion-propelled Dawn probe will become the first spacecraft to enter orbit around a main-belt asteroid.

Dawn will orbit Vesta for one Earth-year, studying the giant space rock at close range to help scientists understand the earliest chapter of our solar system's history.

As Dawn approaches Vesta, surface details are coming into focus, as seen in a recent image taken from a distance of about 26,000 miles (41,000 kilometers).

Engineers expect the spacecraft to be captured into orbit at approximately 10 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time Friday, July 15.

They expect to hear from the spacecraft and confirm that it performed as planned during a scheduled communications pass that starts at approximately 11:30 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time on Saturday, July 16.

When Vesta captures Dawn into its orbit, engineers estimate there will be approximately 9,900 miles (16,000 kilometers) between them. At that point, the spacecraft and asteroid will be approximately 117 million miles (188 million kilometers) from Earth.

“It has taken nearly four years to get to this point,” said Robert Mase, Dawn project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. “Our latest tests and check-outs show that Dawn is right on target and performing normally.”

Engineers have been subtly shaping Dawn's trajectory for years to match Vesta's orbit around the sun.

Unlike other missions, where dramatic propulsive burns put spacecraft into orbit around a planet, Dawn will ease up next to Vesta. Then the asteroid's gravity will capture the spacecraft into orbit.

However, until Dawn nears Vesta and makes accurate measurements, the asteroid's mass and gravity will only be estimates.

The Dawn team will refine the exact moment of orbit capture over the next few days.

Launched in September 2007, Dawn will depart for its second destination, the dwarf planet Ceres, in July 2012. The spacecraft will be the first to orbit two bodies in our solar system.

Dr. Tony Phillips works for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

SACRAMENTO – California's governor is appealing the denial of a major disaster declaration for numerous California counties hit by storms earlier this year.

In a letter to President Barack Obama dated July 13, Gov. Jerry Brown asked that his request for a major federal disaster declaration – which the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) denied – be reconsidered.

“I respectfully seek your favorable consideration of this appeal and request that you declare a major disaster for California as a result of the March storm system event,” he wrote.

Current estimates of the damage caused by the storm now exceed $51 million, Brown's office said.

Brown's request for a presidential major disaster declaration was made on April 22, and denied by FEMA on June 21, the Governor's Office reported.

Brown said he made the request because of the results of a severe storm system that struck California between March 15 and March 27.

The governor's letter said the March storm system's precipitation levels indicate it was the third-wettest storm event in 90 years.

He's asking Obama to grant his request for public assistance and direct federal assistance for the significantly-impacted counties, as well as statewide Hazard Mitigation Grant Program funding.

The impacted counties where Brown had declared states of emergency include Alameda, Amador, Butte, Contra Costa, Del Norte, Humboldt, Madera, Mariposa, Mendocino, Monterey, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz, Sierra, Stanislaus, Sutter, Trinity, Tuolumne and Ventura counties. Marin County was added to the list on Wednesday.

Brown's letter pointed out that California has suffered multiple disasters in the last 18 months due to severe winter storms, flooding, mudslides, fires, drought, heavy rains and earthquakes.

He told the president that the storms have had “significant and overwhelming” impacts at the local level, adding, “the fierce storm system stressed California’s mutual aid system and exhausted local resources in many areas of the state.” One example, Del Norte County completely exhausted its road department resources.

FEMA’s denial letter stated its opinion that the storm incident was comprised of three separate storms but Brown said that the National Weather Service and the California Department of Water Resources have concluded that the series of severe winter storms was part of the same parent intense low-pressure system.

CHICO, Calif. – Thanks to a DNA match, an arrest has been made in connection with a 2003 case in which a woman was held at knife point and sexually assaulted in Chico.

On Thursday morning, detectives with the Chico Police Department located 58-year-old Glenn Leland Simpson in Paradise and arrested him for multiple sexual assault-related charges, according to Lt. Mike O'Brien.

O'Brien said that on Aug. 11, 2003, a 25-year-old woman was held at knife point and sexually assaulted in her Normal Avenue home by a then-unknown assailant.

Evidence from the scene was submitted to the California Department of Justice's Bureau of Forensic Services, and eventually searched against the Combined DNA Index System database, O'Brien said. However, at that time, the results were negative.

The case was vigorously investigated by lead Det. Matt Madden, but remained unsolved for nearly eight years, O'Brien said.

O'Brien explained that the Chico Police Department recently received information from the California Department of Justice's Bureau of Forensic Services regarding a National DNA Index System match involving the case.

The DNA match involved the case evidence and Simpson, who O'Brien said had been ordered to provide a DNA sample pursuant to a marijuana-related conviction in the state of Utah.

Chico Police Detectives determined that Simpson resided in the town of Paradise and, after consultation with the Butte County District Attorney's Office, an arrest and search warrant was obtained for Simpson regarding this sexual assault, O'Brien said.

Simpson is being held in the Butte County Jail with bail set at $400,000, O'Brien said.

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