In what has been called a David versus Goliath victory, the California Supreme Court ruled Thursday in favor of Gov. Jerry Brown’s plan to disband redevelopment agencies in California, and opponents of redevelopment in Sacramento wasted no time to celebrate the success. “After years of opposition to redevelopment activities, the abuse of government power and confiscation of property for private use, our day finally came,” Moe Mohanna, a local real estate developer, said Tuesday. The California Supreme Court ruled Thursday to uphold the redevelopment “elimination” bill, but struck down the bill that would have allowed agencies to make “continuation payments” to stay in business. The two

The future of state redevelopment agencies is in the hands of the courts now, but in the meantime, a partial stay has been issued giving those agencies a reprieve from making required payments to the state to keep redevelopment going. The California Supreme Court agreed to hear a petition filed in July challenging the constitutionality of recent legislation eliminating redevelopment agencies unless they pay the state to continue operating, it was announced Thursday. The announcement comes on the heels of a new Sacramento city ordinance establishing an agreement to make the required payments to the state to maintain redevelopment activity. The ordinance states, however, that the payments

Lisa Gorden and JDD Doran-Jammer, both blind, trailed behind the crowd of people marching around the Capitol, echoing their chants “Hey hey, ho ho, discrimination has got to go.” Although they are not gay and said marching with crowds is difficult given their physical disposition, the two friends joined in Tuesday’s rally against the California Supreme Court’s upholding of Proposition 8. “I’m just real sad and mad about the Prop. 8 decision. It just seemed important to come out in the heat and support this,” Gorden said. “We have plenty of noise to follow.” Gorden and Doran-Jammer were two of an estimated 2,000 who appeared at Tuesday’s rally, organized by Equality Action NOW, which ref