Vol. 18 No. 10 Oct 2003

Despite a budget deficit so large that it triggered the first gubernatorial recall in California history, the administration of Gov. Gray Davis has shown scant interest in stimulating the economy. But with the chaos in Sacramento – and the fact that elected officials have a smaller and smaller role to play in actually shaping the state’s budget – it may be that no California governor can devise an effective economic development strategy.

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A decade of litigation over the status of the northern goshawk has apparently concluded with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upholding the Fish & Wildlife Service’s decision not to place the bird on the endangered species list.

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The City of San Jose Redevelopment Agency cannot use its power of eminent domain to escape from a contract that gave a company an exclusive right to negotiate a development agreement, the Sixth District Court of Appeal has ruled.

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The connection in people’s minds between air pollution and urban development is getting stronger in Fresno.

This summer, the City of Fresno settled a lawsuit filed by clean air advocates over the city’s general plan. The city agreed to take a number of steps to encourage development that is less automobile-dependent than past projects, and the city committed $1 million to the effort.

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California’s judicial system uses a fast-track approach to bring cases to trial quickly, but the state’s plans to repair the aging courthouses in which trials are conducted are on a slow track. It is a case of maintenance deferred, leading to decrepit courtrooms and unsafe, seismically unfit buildings.

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Negative reaction to Riverside County’s integrated planning effort is spurring an incorporation movement in Menifee Valley, on Interstate 215 about 30 miles south of Riverside.

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In a victory for the owners of senior water rights, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that the operators of the Central Valley Project (CVP), in times of water shortage, could reduce a larger proportion of water from the two districts than from other entities with older water rights and separate contracts.

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Opponents of a power plant near Blythe may proceed with a lawsuit that had been thrown out for being filed too late.

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An outwardly conventional apartment complex in Orange County does not clamor for attention in the same way as an architectural milestone like Frank Gehry’s Walt Disney Concert Hall in downtown Los Angeles. But it might be that the suburban apartments, easily overlooked, will have a greater long-term impact on average Californians than L.A.’s spectacular new icon.

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This summer, another huge ice shelf broke off the north polar ice cap and began drifting out to sea. The event made world news because it added to the mounting, tangible evidence of a phenomenon that the Bush administration ignores but that California’s government cannot afford to dismiss: Climate change.

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