NORTHERN CALIFORNIA – Fire officials said Wednesday night that the Sawmill fire is nearly at full containment.

The fire reached 90-percent containment on Wednesday, with the size estimate increased to 1,609 acres, Cal Fire said.

The Sawmill fire has been burning in rugged terrain 10 miles east of Cloverdale since late Sunday morning. Cal Fire said the cause remains under investigation.

No structures have been burned, but the fire resulted in some evacuations of nearby homes as well as at  The Geysers geothermal steamfield, with those evacuation orders lifted earlier this week, as Lake County News has reported.

Firefighters continued with mop up and perimeter patrol on Wednesday, according to Cal Fire.

Approximately 241 firefighters – along with 17 fire engines, four fire crews and four water tenders – remained assigned to the incident on Wednesday, Cal Fire 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.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The 26th annual Konocti Challenge cycling event is set to occur this Saturday, Oct. 1.

This event, produced by the Rotary Club of Lakeport, brings in hundreds of cyclists and their guests to participate in this very unique and fun event.

“This is an amazing event for our community and we are excited to bring all of these folks to our beautiful area,” said Konocti Challenge Ride Director and Lakeport Rotarian Jennifer Strong. “This is a great opportunity for us to show off the incredible assets we have and to encourage these cyclists to come back other times during the year.”

The ride is stage from the Skylark Shores Resort in Lakeport with the festivities beginning on Friday afternoon with a wine tasting and rider packet pickup from 4 to 7 p.m.

The ride takes off from the Skylark on Saturday at 7 a.m. with cyclists traveling around the lake with four different routes to choose from.

The 20-mile and 40-mile routes travel through Scotts Valley and to Kelseyville.

The 65- and 100-mile routes circle Clear Lake with the 100 mile route traveling to Middletown and up and over Cobb Mountain.

The ride route maps can be found at www.konoctichallenge.com .

The ride brings in hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Lake County community with hotels filled, restaurants filled and the shops and wineries seeing many visitors.

The ride is highly regarded as one of the best in the state as was apparent with their recent Cycle CA! Magazine Awards for the Best Metric Century of 2014 and the 2015 Excellence in Service Award.

There's still time for interested riders to register to participate.

Go to www.konoctichallenge.com or register at the event on Friday afternoon or Saturday morning.

There are also still volunteer opportunities available. Send a message to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. if you are interested in helping.  

A new bill signed this week will make it easier for the wrongfully convicted in California to prove their innocence and be released from prison.

On Wednesday, Gov. Jerry Brown signed Senate Bill 1134 into law.

This bill, authored by Democratic Senator Mark Leno and Republican Senator Joel Anderson, makes it easier for wrongfully convicted people in California to use new evidence to prove their innocence.

Supporters of the legislation say that, for far too long, Californians convicted and imprisoned for crimes they did not commit have struggled, and most often failed, to prove their innocence because the standard of proof, “points unerringly to innocence,” was so hard to meet.
 
SB 1134 enacts a standard of proof that innocent people, with strong new evidence of innocence, can meet.

Under the new law, wrongfully convicted individuals must prove that, had the new evidence been available at the original trial, they more likely than not would have been acquitted of the crime. This standard is comparable to standards in 43 other states and is still difficult to meet, but is fair.
 
The bill received unanimous bipartisan support in both the Senate and Assembly. Legislators on both sides of the aisle recognize the injustice of wrongful convictions and the immeasurable harm to innocent people when their freedom is taken away.

This new law gives innocent people in California a better chance to regain their freedom and gives a fallible system a better chance to remedy mistakes.
 
“We are proud that a strong bipartisan coalition of Republicans and Democrats committed to ensuring that wrongfully convicted people have viable legal remedies to prove their innocence,” said Hadar Harris, executive director of the Northern California Innocence Project, or NCIP, at Santa Clara University School of Law.
 
NCIP, the California Innocence Project at California Western School of Law in San Diego, Loyola Law School’s Project for the Innocent and the ACLU co-sponsored the bill.
 
“For many years California has been the most difficult place in the United States to bring a new evidence claim on behalf of innocent clients,” said Professor Justin Brooks, director of California Innocence Project. “Finally, we have a standard where the courts can reverse a conviction based on new evidence that would have led to an acquittal had it been introduced at trial. This law makes sense, has bipartisan support, is consistent with the new evidence standards across the United States, and will save taxpayers the cost of housing innocent people in prison.”
 
NCIP, the California Innocence Project and Project for the Innocent fight to free innocent people who have been wrongfully convicted and incarcerated in California.

Since 1999, California-based innocence organizations have helped 44 innocent people regain their freedom; these individuals collectively spent more than 530 years in prison.

Among that group is Luther Ed Jones Jr., who was released in February after spending 20 years behind bars after being wrongfully convicted in Lake County, as Lake County News has reported.

The Northern California Innocence Project assisted Jones' attorney, Angela Carter, in applying to the state for compensation for his incarceration. This summer he received $936,880 as a result of those efforts.

NCIP represents clients with cases in the 48 northern counties of California. The California Innocence Project represents clients with cases in the 10 southern counties, including Los Angeles County. Project for the Innocent represents clients with cases in various counties but focuses on cases in Los Angeles County.

KELSEYVILLE, Calif. – U.S. Rep. Mike Thompson (CA-05) will hold a town hall meeting for servicemembers, veterans and their families on Wednesday, Oct. 5.

The town hall will take place from 6 to 8 p.m. at Kelseyville High School, 5480 Main St.

At the town hall, there will be an open discussion on the issues facing veterans and military families today, and attendees will have the opportunity to ask a panel of experts questions on any veteran-related issue.

Thompson is himself a veteran, having served during the Vietnam War.

To RSVP, or if you have any additional questions, please call Thompson’s district office at 707-226-9898 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

Thompson represents California’s Fifth Congressional District, which includes all or part of Contra Costa, Lake, Napa, Solano and Sonoma counties.

NORTHERN CALIFORNIA – Firefighters made more significant progress on the Sawmill fire in Sonoma County on Tuesday.

The 1,500-acre fire, burning since Sunday morning 10 miles east of Cloverdale, reached the 75-percent containment mark as of Tuesday evening, according to Cal Fire.

Cal Fire said firefighters on Tuesday continued to mop up and patrol the fire perimeter.

At the same time, Cal Fire began to demobilize and reassign resources, reducing the ranks of firefighters by about 300 personnel.

Total resources assigned on Tuesday night included 717 firefighting personnel, 55 fire engines, 22 fire crews, eight water tenders, four helicopters and four dozers.

There is still no word of the fire's cause, which Cal Fire said remains under investigation.

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.