In the News

Context and Background Whether a Name Image Likeness (NIL) payment is tied to legitimate commercial activity or functions as indirect compensation for athletic participation, retention, or recruiting value matters, especially in light of the recent Playfly – University of Nebraska arbitration decision. This ruling provides a practical roadmap for…

Summary: For lead agencies, the message is that local land-use authority remains intact, but the administrative record must show that the agency—not the developer alone—evaluated the resource, consulted appropriately, adopted enforceable mitigation, and considered Tribal cultural significance on its own terms. Recently proposed legislation, SB …

Disaster recovery and rural resilience projects often stall for reasons that have little to do with need. Authority is assumed rather than confirmed, land access remains unresolved, procurement is handled too late, reimbursement timing is misunderstood, and permitting is not scheduled early enough. In too many cases, an urgent need never becomes an…

On June 2, 2026, the residents of Monterey Park, California, used their ballots to overwhelmingly oppose the prospect of a data center project ever being constructed in their city. Measure NDC (Community Act Prohibiting Data Centers) was endorsed by 88.1% of the City’s eligible voters as of the date of this article.  The Measure requires the…

In Bair v. Department of Transportation (“Bair II”), the First District Court of Appeal held that opponents of Caltrans’ proposed modifications to a one-mile stretch of Highway 101 through Richardson Grove State Park in Humbolt County could not continue relitigating their California Environmental Quality Act (“CEQA”) claims following disc…

In Department of Water Resources Cases, the Third District Court of Appeal addressed whether the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) may obtain court-authorized entry onto private property to conduct environmental, cultural, and geotechnical investigations before a water project is fully authorized and funded. The dispute arose from DWR�…