The City Council will discuss Tuesday a new version of a permitting program that became part of the recent debate over the Nestlé’s company’s move to Sacramento. The city shuttered its Facilities Permit Program Oct. 27 to investigate whether the program breaks laws. City Attorney Eileen Teichert declared recently that the FPP was being used illegally because the city was not directing builders to obtain formal building permits before starting construction work, according to David Kwong, the city’s acting planning division director. The previous version of the FPP offered businesses -- those that worked with the city on an ongoing basis -- a way to receive quick approval for tenant improv

Standing outside of a Sacramento medical cannabis dispensary, you might detect something in the air. No, it's not secondhand THC vapor — public medicating is prohibited in the county. What you sense is a shift in perspective. Public pressure is building for the legalization and regulation of one of the oldest cash crops in America: the plants of genus Cannabis. The US federal government has held since 1970 that cannabis is a danger to public health and safety and listed the annual flowering herb under US code as having "high potential for abuse" and "no accepted medical potential." "A lot of people are thinking that federal drug laws are arbitrary and now we're starting to see the transl

Medical cannabis in California wouldn't be what it is today if it wasn't for Ryan Landers. The Sacramento activist helped to develop the laws, policies and realities of medical marijuana in a career of activism that spans more than a decade. He was there to help roll Proposition 215 into motion in 1996 and had a significant hand in crafting SB 420 in 2003. "I live the cause," he said. "When I'm not out testifying or counseling or negotiating for the cause, I'm just home and sick." He's a 15-year survivor of HIV/AIDS, a personal fact that he doesn't usually publicize partly due to prior experience. Landers, now 37, became a member of Californians for Compassionate Use in 1995. CCU is the

The Sacramento County Public Law Library (SCPLL) is the new home to the Civil Self Help Center which was formerly located in the Sacramento Superior Court. The Civil Self Help Center provides self represented litigant’s FREE legal advice and information on a variety of civil issues including but not limited to responding to a breach of contract complaint, name change, discovery requests, and much more. The center came about through a partnership with SCPLL, the Sacramento Superior Court and the Voluntary Legal Services Program of the Sacramento County Bar Association. SCPLL contracts with VLSP to staff the CSHC. VLSP staff consists of a staff attorney and two paralegals. SCPLL staff work

Cloned cannabis plants at Canna Care Munching on a herbal brownie at El Camino Wellness Center, AAMC state director Ryan Landers explained how tricky and self-conflicting medicinal cannabis laws are. "In Sacramento County, publicly smoking medicinal cannabis is considered ten 10 times worse than just smoking weed," he said. Landers has been a medicinal cannabis activist for over 15 years and has worked extensively in drafting legislation and law enforcement plans for the new dimension of legal medicine. He works with patients and patients' rights groups, lobbies and national advocacy groups. If weed was legal expertise, he'd be "the guy on the corner." Regarding the legal gap betwe

The news that the Sacramento Police Department will receive $9.5 million in federal stimulus dollars means that the department’s specialized units may eventually receive a boost in staffing, according to department spokesman Sgt. Norm Leong. The department announced earlier this week that it had been selected to receive federal money under the Recovery Act Funding to Support Law Enforcement program. The money will be used to pay the base salary of 35 officers for three years, Sacramento Police Officers Association President Brent Meyer said. Meyer said he was “ecstatic” about the federal money, noting that the department thought it might have to lay off 67 police officers earlier this ye

 The AP is reporting that a pair of college students have proposed a ballot measure that will replace the word "marriage" with the term "domestic partnership" in all state laws.   Secretary of State Debra Bowen said today that supporters can begin collecting the 700,000 signatures to get the measure on the ballot.  Domestic partnerships will retain all the rights of marriage, and all couples will be eligable for domestic partnership, regardless of sexual orientation.   Is this a good or bad idea?  Please express yourself.

  A common scenario for a Sacramento bicycle messenger: I enter an elevator in one of the taller office buildings downtown. A thirty-something man in a very expensive suit and glistening hair enters with me, holding a laptop case and perhaps a Starbucks grande et cetera (cliché, but very true). A few seconds into the ride to the 23rd floor he turns to me with a smirk and says, “You a runner? A court runner?” I glance back and say, “Sort of. I do a lot of court filings, but I work for an independent company rather than a law office. I’m just a general messenger.” Despite the obvious clues (bike gloves, heavy-duty shoulder bag, short-bill cycling cap, some grease on my right calf), he asks,