LAKEPORT, Calif. – A Lakeport woman involved in a solo-vehicle crash late Thursday night that knocked out power and caused a small fire was arrested for driving under the influence.

Marcela Espinoza Perez, estimated to be in her mid 20s, was the driver in the crash, according to Sgt. Saul Bernal of the California Highway Patrol's Clear Lake Area office.

Bernal said Espinoza Perez was traveling by herself in a 2005 PT Cruiser, heading eastbound on Soda Bay Road near Waldo Lane. She was driving at an undetermined speed in a 50-mile-per-hour zone when the wreck occurred.

Espinoza Perez was unable to manage a curve in the roadway, went off the road, hit some signage and struck a utility pole, Bernal said.

Reports from the scene said the crash knocked down power lines, trapped Espinoza Perez in the car and started a small fire in a field nearby.

Espinoza Perez sustained minor injuries and was flown to Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital, Bernal said.

Bernal said alcohol was determined to be involved and Espinoza Perez was placed under arrest.

On Friday afternoon there was another vehicle crash on Soda Bay Road – near Konocti Bay Road – involving a utility pole.

Bernal did not have full details on the incident, but said the road had been closed for several hours as AT&T worked to make repairs.

He said about 300 feet of phone line was across the roadway in the wake of the crash, which involved a Jeep hitting a pole.

County roads staff and AT&T had been on scene Friday afternoon helping with traffic control, Bernal said.

Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.

LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Lake County Library has announced public availability of thousands of movies, television shows, music albums, eBooks, audiobooks and comics, all available for mobile and online access through a new partnership with hoopla digital, www.hoopladigital.com .

Lake County Library card holders can download the free hoopla digital mobile app on their Android or IOS device or visit www.hoopladigital.com to begin enjoying thousands of titles – from major Hollywood studios, record companies and publishers – available to borrow 24/7, for instant streaming or temporary downloading to their smartphones, tablets and computers.

"The library is trying to make it as convenient as possible for people here in Lake County to get the content they want in the format they prefer," said County Librarian Christopher Veach.

Veach said hoopla digital allows patrons “instant access to a huge variety of titles and is a wonderful addition to what we already offer in print and online."

“With hoopla digital, it is our mission to empower the evolution of public libraries while helping them to meet the needs of the mobile generation. We’ve worked for years to create a best-in-breed service that is fun, fast and reliable. And we continue to secure content deals to expand our offering of popular and niche movies, TV shows, music, eBooks, audiobooks and Comics,” said Jeff Jankowski founder and owner of hoopla digital.

Library officials said hoopla digital is a category-creating service that partners with public libraries across North America to provide online and mobile access to thousands of movies, TV shows, music, eBooks, audiobooks and comics.

With hoopla digital, patrons can borrow, instantly stream and download free dynamic content with a valid library card. All content is accessible via hoopla digital’s mobile app and online at www.hoopladigital.com .  It is a service of Midwest Tape – a trusted partner to public libraries for over 25 years.

The Lake County Library is on the Internet at http://library.lakecountyca.gov and Facebook at www.facebook.com/LakeCountyLibrary .

Jan Cook works for the Lake County Library.

LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Lake County Registrar of Voters Office reported Friday that thousands of ballots are still to be counted in the weeks ahead as the official election canvass takes place.

Approximately 7,919 ballots remain to be counted, according to Registrar of Voters Diane Fridley.

Statewide, as of the end of business on Friday, the California Secretary of State's Office said 2.4 million ballots are yet to be processed for the presidential primary.

Thousands of vote-by-mail or absentee ballots were mailed out to Lake County voters early in May. Beginning on May 17, Fridley and her staff began processing the absentees returned to the elections office on a rolling basis.

Fridley said absentees that arrived at her office by June 1 were added to the precinct ballots cast on Tuesday, making up the preliminary vote count.

However, as is customary, thousands of ballots – primarily absentees but also provisionals – still remain to be counted, she reported.

Still to be tallied are those absentee ballots that were mailed in as late as Tuesday and had to arrive in Fridley's office no later than Friday to be counted, according to Fridley.

Fridley said the breakdown of the remaining 7,919 ballots to be counted is as follows:

– Vote-by-mail ballots returned by mail and received between June 2 and June 7: 4,144.
– Vote-by-mail ballots returned by mail from military and overseas voters: 64.
– Vote-by-mail ballots received at the elections office counter between June 2 and June 7: 730.
– Vote-by-mail ballots dropped off at the polls on Election Day: 1,722.
– Vote-by-mail ballots postmarked on or before June 7 and received by June 10: 426.
– Provisional ballots: 833.

Fridley explained that provisional ballots may be entirely counted, partially counted or not counted.

After the election has been certified, provisional voters may contact the Registrar of Voters Office at 707-263-2372 to find out if their vote was counted and, if not, why it was not counted.

Fridley also offered a breakdown of ballots remaining to be counted by supervisorial district and Measure U, the Kelseyville Unified School District's bond measure:

– Supervisorial District 1: 1,813.
– Supervisorial Districts 2 and 3: 2,339.
– Supervisorial District 4: 1,912.
– Supervisorial District 5: 1,855.
– School Bond Measure “U”: 1,753.

The 7,919 ballots that remain to be counted surpasses the numbers reported in the previous two primaries of note – the June 2014 primary, which has 6,053 still to be counted during the official canvass, and the June 2010 primary, which had 3,766 absentees and provisionals that had not been counted on election night, as Lake County News has reported.

For comparison, the recent numbers also are higher than the November 2014 election, which included supervisorial and other county races, when 5,536 ballots were counted during the canvass; and the 4,500 ballots that were tallied in the canvass in November 2010. A comparative count for November 2012 wasn't immediately available.

Once the count is final, the overall voter turnout picture is expected to significantly improve. The preliminary turnout estimate was 27.6 percent.

Fridley's office has 28 days during the official canvass period to finalize the count and certify the election results to the state.

Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.

Scientists using radar data from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) have found a record of the most recent Martian ice age recorded in the planet's north polar ice cap.

The new results agree with previous models that indicate a glacial period ended about 400,000 years ago, as well as predictions about how much ice would have been accumulated at the poles since then.

The results, published in the May 27 issue of the journal Science, help refine models of the Red Planet's past and future climate by allowing scientists to determine how ice moves between the poles and mid-latitudes, and in what volumes.

Mars has bright polar caps of ice that are easily visible from telescopes on Earth. A seasonal cover of carbon-dioxide ice and snow is observed to advance and retreat over the poles during the Martian year.

During summertime in the planet's north, the remaining northern polar cap is all water ice; the southern cap is water ice as well, but remains covered by a relatively thin layer of carbon dioxide ice even in southern summertime.

But Mars also undergoes variations in its tilt and the shape of its orbit over hundreds of thousands of years. These changes cause substantial shifts in the planet's climate, including ice ages. Earth has similar, but less variable, phases called Milankovitch cycles.

Scientists use data from MRO's Shallow Subsurface Radar (SHARAD) to produce images called radargrams that are like vertical slices though the layers of ice and dust that comprise the Martian polar ice deposits. For the new study, researchers analyzed hundreds of such images to look for variations in the layer properties.

The researchers identified a boundary in the ice that extends across the entire north polar cap. Above the boundary, the layers accumulated very quickly and uniformly, compared with the layers below them.

“The layers in the upper few hundred meters display features that indicate a period of erosion, followed by a period of rapid accumulation that is still occurring today,” said planetary scientist Isaac Smith, the study's lead author. Smith led the work while at Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado, but is now at the Planetary Science Institute in Tucson, Arizona.

On Earth, ice ages take hold when the polar regions and high latitudes become cooler than average for thousands of years, causing glaciers to grow toward the mid-latitudes. In contrast, the Martian variety occurs when – as a result of the planet's increased tilt – its poles become warmer than lower latitudes. During these periods, the polar caps retreat and water vapor migrates toward the equator, forming ground ice and glaciers at mid-latitudes. As the warm polar period ends, polar ice begins accumulating again, while ice is lost from mid-latitudes.

This retreat and regrowth of polar ice is exactly what Smith and colleagues see in the record revealed by the SHARAD radar images.

An increase in polar ice following a mid-latitude ice age is also expected from climate models that show how ice moves around based on Mars' orbital properties, especially its tilt. These models predict the last Martian ice age ended about 400,000 years ago, as the poles began to cool relative to the equator. Models suggest that since then, the polar deposits would have thickened by about 980 feet.

The upper unit identified by Smith and colleagues reaches a maximum thickness of 1,050 feet across the polar cap, which is equivalent to a 2-foot-thick global layer of ice. That is essentially the same as model predictions made by other researchers in 2003 and 2007.

“This suggests that we have indeed identified the record of the most recent Martian glacial period and the regrowth of the polar ice since then. Using these measurements, we can improve our understanding of how much water is moving between the poles and other latitudes, helping to improve our understanding of the Martian climate,” Smith said.

After 10 years in orbit, Mars Reconnaissance and its six science instruments are still in excellent shape.

“The longevity of the mission has enabled more thorough and improved radar coverage of the Martian poles,” said Richard Zurek, the mission's project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California. “Our long life in orbit and powerful 3-D analysis tools are allowing scientists to unravel Mars' past climate history.”

The Italian Space Agency provided the SHARAD instrument on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and Sapienza University of Rome leads its operations. JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. Lockheed Martin Space Systems of Denver built the orbiter and supports its operations.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The 2016 Lake County Wine Awards Competition hosted by the Lake County Winery Association at Langtry Estate wrapped up on Thursday, with 10 professional wine judges tasting 129 wines during the two-day competition.

At the end of the judging, six wines were awarded the coveted Sweepstakes awards, the “best of the best” red, white, pink and dessert wines. 
 
Gregory Graham 2015 Sauvignon Blanc was named the White Sweepstake winner. The wine is made with winegrapes from the Windrem Vineyard in the Big Valley District AVA, an area in Lake County known for producing stellar Sauvignon Blanc winegrapes and wines.
 
The judges selected two wines for the Red Sweepstake. The Obsidian Ridge 2013 Cabernet Sauvignon shared the honors with Steele Stymie 2012 Merlot. The Obsidian Ridge label is produced by Tricycle Wine Partners in Sonoma County with vineyards located in the Red Hills Lake County AVA. Steele Stymie is well known Lake County winemaker Jed Steele’s premium label.
 
Cache Creek Vineyards took home the Pink Sweepstake award for their 2014 Rose. The Specialty / Dessert Sweepstake was also a tie with Chacewater Winery & Olive Mill receiving the award for their 2015 Bartolucci Vineyards Muscat Canelli and Gregory Graham earning the same award for his 2014 Bartolucci Vineyards Moscato del Fresco.
 
When asked for her reaction to the Competition, Deborah Parker Wong, member of the 2016 judges panel and Northern California editor for The Tasting Panel Magazine noted, “I’ve never been prouder of the winegrowers and producers in Lake County than I was on Thursday morning when we sat down to survey the work we had done the day before.” 

Lake County’s Stephanie Green echoed Wong’s sentiments. “The winemakers and the farmers truly worked together bringing out the truest of our Terroir in each region. What an incredible tasting competition making it easy to give gold medals that were well deserved but making it extremely difficult to choose sweepstakes and best of class.”
 
The judges’ thoughts supported the comments from the Lake County wine industry.

“Over the past couple of years, we have seen an impressive jump in the caliber of wines made from Lake County fruit, and that showed again at this year’s competition,” said Debra Sommerfield, president of Lake County Winegrape Growers. “Winemakers have come to know that grapes grown in this high-elevation region deliver consistent quality and excellent color and phenolics that contribute an intensity and distinct flavor profile to their wines.”
 
Sommerfield added, “It’s wonderful to see how many of the award-winners were made with grapes from some of our region’s most prized vineyards. Congratulations to the winemakers for crafting such impressive wines and the winegrowers for producing such high-quality grapes.”
 
Lake County Winery Association Executive Director Terry Dereniuk agreed with Sommerfield’s comments. “It was exciting to hear the judges talk about how good the wines were again this year. The competition results continue to highlight the quality that you get when you purchase Lake County wines.” 

The full results of the competition will be available online at www.lakecowineawards.org by June 24.

The panel of 10 judges drawn from the wine industry, education, and media convened on Wednesday to blind taste and evaluate the wines using the West Coast style of judging.

Judging this year were Carl Brandhorst, president of Atlantic Seaboard Wine Association, Fairfax, Va.; John Buechsenstein, wine educator/sensory evaluator, The Culinary Institute of America and UC Davis; Martha Dunne, author "Wait, What Do You Mean?" Asperger's Tell & Show, Sacramento; and Mike Dunne, contributing wine columnist, the Sacramento Bee.

Also on the panel were Rick Fraga, wine education / hospitality at Martinelli Winery, Windsor; Stephanie Green, sommelier and wine educator, Kelseyville; Ellen Landis, Wine journalist/certified sommelier/wine educator, Vancouver, Wash.; Ken Landis, chef and former owner of Landis Shores Oceanfront Inn, Vancouver; Tom Simoneau, KSRO Wine Guy, and owner of Simoneau Vineyards, Healdsburg; and Deborah Parker Wong, Northern California editor, Tasting Panel Magazine, San Francisco.

The public will have an opportunity to taste the Gold medal winners during the People’s Choice Wine Tasting on July 30 from 3 to 6 p.m. at Moore Family Winery in Kelseyville.

The event will open with a blind tasting of Lake County wines entered by the wineries. Participants will be invited to experience wine like the professionals as they test their palates to select the People’s Choice. 

The afternoon will include a food and wine pairing demonstration by Chic le Chef, olive oil tasting with local producers, and dancing to music provided by Grand Slam DJ’s. For information and tickets go to www.lakecountywineries.org .

2016 Lake County Wine Competition winners by LakeCoNews

KELSEYVILLE, Calif. – A search is continuing on Clear Lake for a man who went missing while sailing on Tuesday evening.

Lt. Steve Brooks of the Lake County Sheriff's Office said the Sheriff's Marine Patrol is continuing its work to locate Mike Haberski, who is believed to have drowned.

Shortly before 7:30 p.m. Tuesday Lake County Central Dispatch sent firefighters to the area of Konocti Bay for a water rescue. Authorities had received a report of an overturned sailboat in the water with a male in the water who was attempting to swim with no life jacket.

Northshore Fire's fire rescue boat from Clearlake Oaks responded along with the Sheriff's Marine Patrol and Kelseyville Fire, according to reports from the scene.

When firefighters and deputies arrived, they reported over the air that they found the sailboat not overturned but adrift about 300 yards offshore, in the middle of Konocti Bay, with no one on board.

The search continued later into the night before being called off, based on radio reports. The fire boat was released shortly before 9 p.m. due to dark conditions after conducting an “intense search” in the area.

Brooks said it's believed that Haberski may have fallen overboard while out sailing.

He said the Marine Patrol is continuing to search for Haberski during daylight hours using side scan sonar.

“We can't put divers in due to visibility,” he said.

As of Thursday evening, Haberski still had not been found, Brooks said.

Haberski is the third person to be the subject of a water search in less than two weeks.

On May 28, 74-year-old James Michael Leale of San Jose and Clearlake Park disappeared into the lake following a boat accident near Anderson Island, with his body found by the dive team two days later.

Then on June 2 Walter Hoertkorn, 69, of Kelseyville was swimming in Clear Lake in the Kelseyville area when a witness saw him begin to struggle and go underwater. His body was found later that day.

Brooks, who has worked with the sheriff's office for more than two decades, said he doesn't remember this many drownings happening in such a short length of time on Clear Lake before.

Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.