After years of false starts and stumbles, the federal government has renewed its commitment to the troubled California Bay-Delta Program, breathing new life into the ambitious effort to fix the troubled centerpiece of the state's water system.

A final rundown of city- and county-level ballot measures from all over the state.

The day after he was elected to a second term, President Bush conducted a press conference in which he highlighted four issues as the cornerstones of his second-term domestic policy agenda: tort reform, education, the tax code, and Social Security. This list is hardly surprising. But for the planning and development community in California, the list is notable for what is lacking: environmental policy.

The environmental review of a proposed mining reclamation plan need not consider the impacts of the actual mining, the Third District Court of Appeal has concluded.

The Fifth District Court of Appeal has published its opinion in which the court invalidated the Castaic Lake Water Agency's urban water management plan.

The First District Court of Appeal has refused to excuse a citizens group's failure to comply with a California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) procedural requirement, and has upheld dismissal of a lawsuit.

An environmental study of a rock quarry proposed in northern San Diego County has survived a second court challenge.

The City of Sausalito's lawsuit over a development plan for the former Fort Baker Army base at the north end of the Golden Gate Bridge is headed back to district court.

The City of Orange's strategy for enhancing its downtown ambiance received a sharp rebuke from the Fourth District Court of Appeal.

One year ago, a series of wildfires wrought an unprecedented level of destruction in Southern California, and many experts believe that fires of similar magnitude could strike again. In the year since the fires, government agencies have approved a variety of measures in hopes of reducing damage by future fires, but it does not appear that broad changes in land use planning are part of those fire-safe measures.

At first blush, the 108th Congress might not seem a welcoming venue for legislation expanding the nation's wilderness system. Majority control in both the House and Senate lies with Republican lawmakers whose attitude toward initiatives backed by environmentalists has ranged from indifference to hostility.

Any comparison between Cal Poly Pomona and a hermit crab is likely to be met with skepticism. It is absurd to suggest that a 1,050-acre university campus in Los Angeles County has anything in common with a crustacean scuttling across the ocean floor. Except for one thing, that is: Both the university and the deep-sea creature want to set up housekeeping in structures left behind by others.

Stockton's inland shipping port is poised to triple its capacity if port officials can stave off a lawsuit filed by environmentalists and port neighbors. At issue is a plan to enlarge the port by 1,400 acres of land on the San Joaquin River that the Stockton Port District acquired from the federal government three years ago.

Oakland might be famous for having "no there there," but maybe no place is more sorely lacking a "there" than the San Fernando Valley. A team of architects and other professionals who are working with business boosters, however, hope to give the San Fernando Valley the city center it has never had.