U.S. District Judge Virginia Phillips of Riverside ordered the U.S. military to "immediately halt all discharges of openly gay personnel under 'don't ask, don't tell,' a policy she declared unconstitutional last month." Phillips, according to reports, said that "expert testimony and studies from other nations with different policies found no evidence that allowing gays to serve reduced military effectiveness." Which: duh. [Chron] more ›

More time is being wasted over in Berkeley over those damn oak trees. This time the Berkeley City Council voted last night that they it "will not seek a stay of a judge's order allowing UC Berkeley's athletic center project to proceed," according to CBS 5. Good. Also, many of the protesters, who awesomely are starting to view themselves as Christ-like figures as of late, held a small rally outside Berkeley City Hall last night. And this is our favorite quote from one of the pro-oak grovists: more ›

While police have tried to starve and cutoff supplies to the few remaining protesters up in the UCB oak grove, another tree-sitter was arrested yesterday afternoon at around 5 p.m. Performing yoga exercises on the median strip on Piedmont Avenue in front of the grove of trees, it seems, police arrested someone going by the moniker "Redwood." According to university spokesperson Dan Mogulof, the protester came along "very quietly." more ›

UCB's plans to mow down an oak grove and put up a sports training facility were put on hold. It seems a judge halted the plans until "the university can prove the project would not violate state earthquake-safety laws, a judge ruled Wednesday," says the Gate. The university, though, thinks it's a rule in their favor, keeping "their plan alive, arguing that the center would not violate state law because it would not touch any fault lines." more ›

When did San Diego become so...? more ›

California Supreme Court Judge Chief Justice Ronald George tells the fine folks over at KTVU that last week's overturning to the state same-sex marriage ban, which will then make gay marriage legal in California, was one of his "toughest" rulings yet. Toughest? Hmm, considering all the many cases he's come across, we find it difficult to that a ruling making it legal for Bruce and Geoffrey to register at Crate & Barrel would be there at the top, stress-wise. more ›

Today a federal judge told the prosecutors to "re-craft its perjury case against Barry Bonds." The judge on the Bonds case, Susan Illston, claims that they "improperly lumped multiple alleged offenses into each of four counts of its indictment of the former Giants star." Whoops. Illston slammed the Bonds indictment, which was handed up last November, as "duplicitous." According to the Chron: more ›

After a 10-month protest atop an oak grove next to Memorial Stadium, a judge ruled on Monday that UC Berkeley can now start removing up-in-a-tree protesters, as well as their ground support, even if police can't identify the protesters by name. Alameda County Superior Court Judge Richard Keller amended his ruling from a month ago. At that time, his decree gave authorities the power to strip the environmental activists off of the UC-owned land,... more ›