A California appellate court this week ruled Sonoma County failed to comply with the state’s bedrock environmental law when officials in 2023 amended the local ordinance regulating approval of new well permits outside city limits. The ruling means the county will likely have to devote closer study to the impact of its amended ordinance on imperiled species like salmon and steelhead trout in the Russian River watershed.

Members of the Commission on Judicial Appointments will meet today in San Francisco to consider the nomination of Court of Appeal Associate Justice Tari Cody of this district’s Court of Appeal Div. Six as presiding justice of the Ventura-based panel on which she now sits and the proposed elevation of Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Nicholas Daum as a justice of this district’s Div. Four.

(Subscription required) Tari Cody, Nicholas Daum, Sonny Sandhu and Charles Adams will be some of Gov. Gavin Newsom's final appointments to the state's appellate courts.

The California Supreme Court has scheduled oral arguments for Monday, Aug. 24, in two cases stemming from the sheriff’s seizure earlier this year of ballots cast by Riverside County voters in November’s Proposition 50 special election, which redrew the state’s congressional districts to favor Democrats.