[The news briefs have been edited as noted below.]

San Diego Climate Plan Ruling Ordered Published
On November 24, the Fourth Appellate District's Division 1 issued a publication order for its October ruling rejecting San Diego's climate plan. That same day the same division issued its major decision rejecting the EIR for the San Diego Association of Governments' regional transportation plan. The effect was to give value as precedent to two cases that impose stricter greenhouse gas reduction standards on local and regional planners.

Kruger Nominated To Fill State Supreme Court Vacancy
Governor Jerry Brown has nominated Leondra Kruger, a senior Justice Department lawyer noted as a rising star, to fill the vacancy on the California Supreme Court created by the retirement of Justice Joyce Kennard. Kruger has argued a dozen cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, most prominently in Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. EEOC, a 2012 case on the interaction of a religious employer's prerogatives with an employee's disability rights. Kruger has seldom taken positions on land use issues as an attorney, but as a Harvard undergraduate she had a front-row seat for the demise of Massachusetts rent control per a November 1994 statewide vote and she clerked for U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens, a former city attorney who often sided with government agencies on land use and property rights issues. Originally from Pasadena, she was editor of the Yale Law Journal, clerked for D.C. Circuit Judge David S. Tatel as well as Stevens, served briefly as a visiting professor at the University of Chicago, and worked with the firms of Jenner & Block and Wilmer, Cutler, Pickering, Hale & Dorr before joining the Justice Department.

Migratory Bird Survey Removed From San Jose General Plan Agenda
San Jose came close to approving a general plan amendment that would have required surveys of birds during the mid-year nesting season before any trees could be removed or disturbed. But the San Jose Mercury News reports the item was removed from a November 18 council agenda by "a last-minute decision." Planner Whitney Berry told the paper the plan was worked out with environmental, development/construction and Fish and Wildlife representatives in hopes of streamlining CEQA review. The paper says developers "expressed concerns" that it would slow development -- and then on November 14, current mayor Chuck Reed, mayor-elect Sam Liccardo, and Councilwoman Rose Herrera prepared a critical memo on the proposal, saying it amounted to "precluding construction for seven months of the year." The amendment was expected to resurface in revised form in 2015.

It's Still Not Over In El Dorado County
This November, El Dorado County voters defeated three slow-growth measures and the Placerville Roundabout Menace. [That is, as a reader has asked us to clarify, an anti-roundabout measure passed.] The roundabout may have been knocked flat -- but there are more slow-growth initiatives where the last three came from. The Sacramento Bee reports the Board of Supervisors had held back two measures for further study, but has now agreed to place them on the June 2016 ballot. Both measures are directed against new subdivisions. One would prohibit subdivisions that lack sufficient access to water supplies. The other would protect views and areas near farmland.

Long Beach Preparing For Freeway Removal Project
The Long Beach City Council is expected to approve a contract December 2 with the Mel�ndrez firm of Los Angeles for planning and conceptual design services on the Terminal Island Freeway Transition Plan. The Longbeachize blog says it's a big step in moving forward on plans to remove a large section of the Terminal Island freeway, with accompanying plans to approve quality of life in the "park poor" area of West Long Beach. (Item via Streetsblog LA.)

Does Mayor Of Benicia Have To Stop Commenting on Oil Trains?
[As of 12/5/14 this item has been edited in response to a contact from Mayor Patterson.]

Should a mayor have to stop talking about a public issue for fear of showing bias on the subject? The question has come up in Benicia, where the Valero Refining Co. has proposed to bring crude oil by train to its refinery in the city.

The Sacramento Bee reports Mayor Elizabeth Patterson of Benicia has disclosed that when she frequently commented on safety issues involving oil trains, the city attorney "advised her to stop talking about the oil trains and sending out mass emails containing articles and other information, and to recuse herself from voting when it came before the council".

Patterson's comments on oil train safety have included "E-Alert" messages. In a recent email, she wrote regarding these messages: "What I do is repost national, regional and local stories about rail safety. My job is to affirm public, health, safety and welfare and to keep my constituents informed about these issues. No opinion is expressed." Her other public comments have included an op-ed in the San Francisco Chronicle last March calling on Governor Jerry Brown to issue an executive order on safety in the transport of petroleum products.

The Council agreed on November 18 to waive its attorney-client privilege and release an opinion issued last summer that was the apparent source of the advice: it came from a city-retained outside attorney, Michael Jenkins of Jenkins & Hogin. A community Web site opposed to the oil trains, the Benicia Independent, has posted a copy of Jenkins' opinion. Jenkins wrote in part, "This is a close case. The evidence I have reviewed can be interpreted to suggest a probability of bias on the part of the Mayor." At issue is the prospect that Patterson would take on a quasi-judicial role in helping to adjudicate Valero's permit application for the oil train project, in which case the company would have a due process right to a hearing before a disinterested authority. In a more recent post on the Benicia Independent site, Patterson protested that Jenkins had reviewed her "E-Alert" statements selectively and that her own attorney had advised her differently.

Benicia Approves Housing Element Update
In separate November 18 City Council action, the city of Benicia voted to revise its housing element and to adopt an ordinance for transitional housing supportive housing and "emergency shelters", amid concern from Council member Marilyn Bardet that hazardous industrial materials might exist in the Arsenal historic district, which was identified as a site for transitional housing and shelters. For details see the Benicia Herald and the Council's November 18 agenda.