Election staffer Laura Hobbs has successfully appealed a temporary restraining order, allowing a controversial ballot measure she helped champion to move forward. If approved by Shasta voters, the measure would amend the county’s charter to implement local election practices that would violate state and national law.

(Subscription required) A federal judge sentenced a former Laguna Niguel man to more than seven years in prison after a jury found he sent violent threats against the Orange County Superior Court judge who presided over his family law case.

Div. Six of this district’s Court of Appeal yesterday highlighted the limited role of appellate courts in reviewing a trial judge’s denial of mental health diversion to a defendant seeking to avoid criminal sanctions by seeking treatment for a diagnosed disorder that he says was a “significant factor” in his commission of the charged offense.

A state appeals court has once again yanked mental health diversion away from Job Uriah Taylor, the Santa Monica man accused of launching a burst of racially motivated attacks in March 2023, sending his case back on track toward a potential life sentence.