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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

State lawmakers approved few pieces of substantial land use legislation before adjourning for the year in September. Nearly all of the high-profile proposals became two-year bills, meaning they will be revived in some form after the Legislature returns in January.

A federal appeals court has lifted an injunction against a City of Los Angeles billboard inspection fee, finding that the billboard companies that opposed the fee are unlikely to win a First Amendment lawsuit.

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.

A divided panel of federal judges has upheld an Arizona state law that requires adult-oriented businesses to shut down at 1 a.m.

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

Development at Playa Vista, the controversial project on Los Angeles's West Side, is proceeding even though the project is getting smaller. During the same week in September that Playa Vista hosted an official grand opening, Gov. Gray Davis said he would sign a bill to spend $25 million of state bond money to partially purchase 193 acres at Playa Vista for habitat restoration and open space.

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.

In a lawsuit over the siting of a Seattle area transit line, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that a Department of Transportation environmental justice regulation cannot be enforced in court under the Federal Civil Rights Act.