News

KELSEYVILLE, Calif. – A crash late Monday afternoon resulted in major injuries.

The solo-vehicle collision was reported shortly before 4 p.m. in the 9200 block of Konocti Bay Road at Sequoia, according to the California Highway Patrol.

The rollover crash resulted in the driver being ejected from the vehicle, according to reports from the scene.

REACH air ambulance transported the crash victim to Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital, officials reported.

The CHP reported that it was seeking a blood draw from the driver in the crash.

Follow Lake County News on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LakeCoNews , on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lake-County-News/143156775604?ref=mf and on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/user/LakeCoNews .

KELSEYVILLE, Calif. – The Clear Lake Office of the California Highway Patrol is asking for the community's help in locating the suspect in a hit-and-run last week.

The incident occurred just before 4 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 29, on Point Lakeview Road in Kelseyville, the CHP reported.

A dark gray – almost black – compact Volkswagen, model year ranging between 1999 and 2005, hit a vehicle driven by a woman who had her 10-year-old child with her, according to the report. The woman sustained minor injuries.

The CHP said that, during the crash, the Volkswagen's driver's side mirror was broken off and the vehicle may have sustained damage to other portions of the driver's side.

The driver of the Volkswagen fled the scene without rendering assistance, the CHP said.

Anyone with information as to the whereabouts of this vehicle, its driver or both should call CHP Officer Rob Hearn, 707-279-0103.

Follow Lake County News on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LakeCoNews , on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lake-County-News/143156775604?ref=mf and on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/user/LakeCoNews .

LAYTONVILLE, Calif. – A suspect fatally shot in a home invasion robbery last week has been identified, and two of his alleged accomplices have been arrested.

Timothy Burger, 21, of Sacramento died after being shot in a fire fight in a home in Laytonville, according to a Monday report from Capt. Kurt Smallcomb of the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office.

The incident in which Burger died occurred at a residence on Steele Lane in Laytonville on Oct. 30, as Lake County News has reported.

Officials said the alleged home invasion was believed to have been linked to marijuana cultivation taking place at the residence.

Smallcomb said two other suspects in the case have been taken into custody.

A few hours after the incident on Oct. 30, two Mendocino County Sheriff's deputies, assisted by a Cal Fire officer, located 18-year-old Tyrone Bell and 19-year-old Christopher Shinn, both of Sacramento, walking south of Laytonville, Smallcomb said.

Detectives interviewed Bell and Shinn and subsequently arrested them, he said.

The men were booked into the Mendocino County Jail on charges of murder, conspiracy and robbery, with bail for each set at $250,000, according to Smallcomb.

An autopsy was scheduled to take place on Burger Monday. Smallcomb said the results would be released at a later date.

Also on Monday, Smallcomb reported that investigators were able to identify the suspect alleged to have shot a 19-year-old Laytonville man in an Oct. 28 confrontation that also was said to be connected to marijuana cultivation.

Leberado Lopez Ramirez, 35, a transient who is believed to have connections both to Oregon and Northern California, is alleged to have shot William Graves on Oct. 28 in or around the Bell Springs Road Area north of Laytonville, Smallcomb said.

Smallcomb said deputies learned that Graves and Ramirez – who were engaged in a marijuana operation – allegedly got into an altercation, with the result being that Graves was shot in the face.

On Oct. 29 detectives were able to identify Ramirez as the suspect who allegedly shot Graves, who Smallcomb said remains hospitalized.

Smallcomb said Ramirez still remains at large, and the investigation is continuing.

Follow Lake County News on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LakeCoNews , on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lake-County-News/143156775604?ref=mf and on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/user/LakeCoNews .

NAPA COUNTY, Calif. – Investigators are looking at the cause of an early morning fire on Sunday that destroyed a structure that a witness said was a drug lab.

At 4:42 a.m. Sunday Napa County, Calistoga and St. Helena City fire departments were dispatched to a fire in the 100 block of Petrified Forest Road in unincorporated Napa County, according to Pete Muñoa, Cal Fire battalion chief and Napa County fire marshal.

He said the 911 caller reported a fire with explosions in the backyard of a residence.

Fire department units arrived to find a well involved structure approximately 400 square feet in size, according to Muñoa.

Muñoa said a witness stated to fire personnel at scene that they believed the structure to be a drug lab.

This statement accompanied with the earlier report of explosions forced crews to take a defensive attack on the fire to limit their exposure to possible hazardous materials, he said.

Investigators from the Napa County Fire Marshal’s Office in conjunction with the Napa County Sheriff’s Office are investigating the blaze, Muñoa said.

Follow Lake County News on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LakeCoNews , on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lake-County-News/143156775604?ref=mf and on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/user/LakeCoNews .

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Nearly one in four stars similar to the sun may host planets as small as Earth, according to a new study funded by NASA and the University of California.

The study is the most extensive and sensitive planetary census of its kind. Astronomers used the W.M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii for five years to search 166 sun-like stars near our solar system for planets of various sizes, ranging from three to 1,000 times the mass of Earth.

All of the planets in the study orbit close to their stars. The results show more small planets than large ones, indicating small planets are more prevalent in our Milky Way galaxy.

“We studied planets of many masses – like counting boulders, rocks and pebbles in a canyon – and found more rocks than boulders, and more pebbles than rocks. Our ground-based technology can't see the grains of sand, the Earth-size planets, but we can estimate their numbers,” said Andrew Howard of the University of California, Berkeley, lead author of the study.

“Earth-size planets in our galaxy are like grains of sand sprinkled on a beach – they are everywhere,” Howard said.

The study is in the Oct. 29 issue of the journal Science.

The research provides a tantalizing clue that potentially habitable planets also could be common. These hypothesized Earth-size worlds would orbit farther away from their stars, where conditions could be favorable for life. NASA's Kepler spacecraft also is surveying sun-like stars for planets and is expected to find the first true Earth-like planets in the next few years.

Howard and his planet-hunting team, which includes principal investigator Geoff Marcy, also of the University of California, Berkeley, looked for planets within 80-light-years of Earth, using the radial velocity, or “wobble,” technique.

They measured the numbers of planets falling into five groups, ranging from 1,000 times the mass of Earth, or about three times the mass of Jupiter, down to three times the mass of Earth.

The search was confined to planets orbiting close to their stars – within 0.25 astronomical units, or a quarter of the distance between our sun and Earth.

A distinct trend jumped out of the data: smaller planets outnumber larger ones. Only 1.6 percent of stars were found to host giant planets orbiting close in.

That includes the three highest-mass planet groups in the study, or planets comparable to Saturn and Jupiter.

About 6.5 percent of stars were found to have intermediate-mass planets, with 10 to 30 times the mass of Earth – planets the size of Neptune and Uranus. And 11.8 percent had the so-called “super-Earths,” weighing in at only three to 10 times the mass of Earth.

“During planet formation, small bodies similar to asteroids and comets stick together, eventually growing to Earth-size and beyond. Not all of the planets grow large enough to become giant planets like Saturn and Jupiter,” Howard said. “It's natural for lots of these building blocks, the small planets, to be left over in this process.”

The astronomers extrapolated from these survey data to estimate that 23 percent of sun-like stars in our galaxy host even smaller planets, the Earth-sized ones, orbiting in the hot zone close to a star.

“This is the statistical fruit of years of planet-hunting work,” said Marcy. “The data tell us that our galaxy, with its roughly 200 billion stars, has at least 46 billion Earth-size planets, and that's not counting Earth-size planets that orbit farther away from their stars in the habitable zone.”

The findings challenge a key prediction of some theories of planet formation. Models predict a planet “desert” in the hot-zone region close to stars, or a drop in the numbers of planets with masses less than 30 times that of Earth.

This desert was thought to arise because most planets form in the cool, outer region of solar systems, and only the giant planets were thought to migrate in significant numbers into the hot inner region. The new study finds a surplus of close-in, small planets where theories had predicted a scarcity.

“We are at the cusp of understanding the frequency of Earth-sized planets among planetary systems in the solar neighborhood,” said Mario R. Perez, Keck program scientist at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “This work is part of a key NASA science program and will stimulate new theories to explain the significance and impact of these findings.”

For information about exoplanets and NASA's planet-finding program, visit http://planetquest.jpl.nasa.gov .

Follow Lake County News on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LakeCoNews , on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lake-County-News/143156775604?ref=mf and on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/user/LakeCoNews .

 

 

LOWER LAKE, Calif. – Adding to the growing list of affordable and relaxed wineries that are putting the Red Hills American Viticultural Area and all of Lake County high on the wine aficionado’s list, Vigilance Winery & Vineyards opened with much fanfare on Saturday, Oct. 30.

Located on Point Lakeview Road, in the highly-acclaimed Red Hills AVA just up the road from Gregory Graham Winery, Vigilance is Clay and Margarita Shannon's second Lake County tasting room.

“We want to share this beautiful site with everyone,” said Clay Shannon, gesturing with his arm over the expansive vineyards that wend downhill to Anderson Marsh, where Shannon visualizes kayaks launching to explore the abundant wildlife and birding opportunities, leading to Clear Lake beyond.

This vision for Vigilance includes turning the refurbished ranch house – which now serves as the tasting room with stunning views of the vineyards and marsh, complete with American white pelicans wheeling skyward in the distance – to a bed and breakfast which will welcome all.

“We want to capture an old-world experience,” Shannon explained. “Where families, couples, everyone, can experience the natural beauty and clean air here.”

At the same time, they hope to give visitors the chance to relax, enjoy local foods – including the grassfed beef and lamb Shannon raises– play cards at one of the picnic tables under the apple trees or in the olive orchard, or also be able to enjoy a family-friendly movie on a large outdoor screen during warm summer nights.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Of course, sampling the many wines offered at Vigilance is something else one can enjoy here – or just sipping a lemonade. Shannon's overriding vision, he said, is to offer more good things to the world, which includes access to the outdoors via horseback, mountain bike, hiking and kayaking.

“We want this to be a place for people to connect,” Shannon said, “with each other, with nature, with the outdoors – all in a comfortable and welcoming setting.”

At the Vigilance grand opening on Saturday, Congressman Mike Thompson, co-chair of the Congressional Wine Caucus and representative for Lake County, welcomed guests and noted that Shannon brings more to the community than he takes away, giving a nod to Shannon's continuing effort to support the community.

“We're trying hard and spending a few dollars at it,” by buying and contracting locally as much as he can, Shannon explained.

District 3 Supervisor Denise Rushing, who was also in attendance for the grand opening, said she was impressed with Shannon's continuing dedication to support the communities in Lake County.

“He is a model of local business support,” Rushing said of Shannon, whose first tasting room in Lake County, under his Shannon Ridge label, is located in her district in Clearlake Oaks, in a refurbished schoolhouse on East Highway 20.

In addition to hiring locally, Shannon also donates locally, and recently donated materials for the natural building project under way at Clarks Island in Clearlake Oaks.

The name of the label, Vigilance, comes from the temperament of their two Maremma sheepdogs, who vigilantly oversee the sheep that help tend the vineyards and assist the Shannons in their sustainable practice of winegrape growing.

Besides, Shannon said of Vigilance, “It's a cool name, too.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

Winemaker Mike Woods was dubbed the “King of Cab” at last years' Lake County People's Choice Awards, an event where professionals narrow the field of Lake County-branded wines and the “people” vote in a blind taste test naming the winners.

Woods not only oversees the production of all varietals of wines produced under Clay and Margarita Shannon's three labels – Shannon Ridge, Vigilance and Cross Springs – he also produces award-winning wines under his own Shed Horn Cellars label.

At their grand opening party, organized by Linda Shields, who handles “whatever else needs doing” for the three labels, Vigilance offered a Sauvignon Blanc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cimarron – which is a multi-layered blend of Zinfandel, Syrah, Petite Sirah, Barbera, Mourvedre and Tempranillo – as well as single-vineyard Shannon Ridge labels of Roussanne, Viognier, Riesling, Barbera and Cabernet Sauvignon.

“All of the grapes for all of our wines are sustainably produced,” said Sales Manager Joey Luiz, “and everything is Lake County grown.”

Although production of their wines occur in Lake, it also occurs in Sonoma and Mendocino counties, according to Wood, as Shannon has no production facilities of their own here, but that hasn't been an issue.

And Lake County wine lovers – here and elsewhere – will love what the Shannons are sustainably producing here now, “and for generations to come,” Thompson remarked, which is in alignment with the rising future of Lake County.

“We will offer a safe place for friends and family to have a little peace,” Shannon noted.

If his little slice of paradise at Vigilance is any testament to the burgeoning local food and wine scene – paired with plans for amazing outdoor opportunities in Lake County – he just be might be on to something big.

Visit Vigilance online at www.vigilancewinery.com/.

E-mail Terre Logsdon 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 Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lake-County-News/143156775604?ref=mf and on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/user/LakeCoNews .