Bulldozers at Your Doorstep

You Can Move Your Team to Another City. But Good Luck with the Stadium.

So, the Oakland A’s are moving out of Oakland to Las Vegas.  The team’s owner also owns a half-interest in the in the Oakland Coliseum.  This is not good for the City of Oakland since he could block the future redevelopment of one of Oakland’s most valuable parcels. Meanwhile, Oakland officials, who want to see new housing and commercial development on the Coliseum property, in January entered into an exclusive negotiating agreement with African American Sports and Entertainment Group to eventually sell it the city’s half-interest in the site. AASEG… read more

May 11, 2023

The Dodgers May Have Stolen More Than Second Base.

The New York Times wrote a story on May 7, 2023, “The Land Beneath This Stadium Was Theirs.  They Want It Back.” The article written by Jesus Jimenz states: Long before the Dodgers won their first World Series at Dodger Stadium in 1963 and Sandy Koufax tossed the team’s first perfect game in 1965, the land the ballpark was built on was home to hundreds of families living in communities called Palo Verde, La Loma and Bishop. Those neighborhoods and their residents were displaced in the 1950s by the city… read more

May 9, 2023

Iowa Court Denys the Right to Enter Land for Surveys. What Does This Mean for New York?

The Des Moines Register reported that a Clay County district judge ruled that a state law allowing pipeline companies to survey property owners’ land without permission is unconstitutional, delivering a victory to landowners who have been battling against proposed carbon capture pipeline projects. The ruling came after Navigator CO2 Ventures sued Martin Koenig last year, saying he had repeatedly blocked the Omaha, Nebraska, company from surveying his land near Sioux Rapids in northwest Iowa. Navigator, one of three companies that want to build a carbon capture pipeline across Iowa, said… read more

May 4, 2023

No Choo-Choo for Only One Person

Sparta, Georgia land owners have teamed up with the Institute for Justice to challenge a private railroad’s attempt to take their land by eminent domain for a rail spur that would benefit one private business. The Institute’s web page provides detailed information of the case, and we quote their release here: A private railroad company does not get to exercise the government’s power of eminent domain for the benefit of a private business. But in one small town in Georgia, that’s exactly what a railroad company is attempting to do…. read more

May 2, 2023

Another Look at Waters of the United States

On October 18, 2022, we wrote about Sackett v U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, ____ US ____ (No. 21-454). We wrote, the question presented in Petitioners’ brief is, “Did the Ninth Circuit set forth the proper test for determining whether wetlands are ‘waters of the United States’ under the Clean Water Act, 33 U.S.C. Sec. 1362(7)?” The logic of the designation is difficult to follow.  The property is across the street from Priest Lake, Idaho.  The lake is navigable water.  There is no water path from the lake to the Petitioners’… read more