Projects

AEG's proposed football stadium in downtown Los Angeles was the kind of job-creating development that needed to move forward, even if that meant passing special-case legislation to help it along. The legislation, which expedites the legal process for lawsuits challenging the project on environmental grounds, won our support because quick action was required and because it didn't let AEG off the hook for adhering to the California Environmental Quality Act, including an environmental impact report.

WASHINGTON - Barbara Boxer has long been one of the Senate's environmental champions, racking up perfect scores for each of the last five years on the League of Conservation Voters' report card on key votes. But the Californian now finds herself on the opposite side of an issue from her usual environmental allies and some of her fellow Democrats. Environmentalists are upset because she is pushing legislation that would impose deadlines for environmental reviews of water projects, a move they see as "tilting the scales" toward rushed approvals.

Does California's signature environmental law protect the state's air, water and wilderness by acting as a check on runaway projects proposed by overzealous developers? Or does it encourage baseless lawsuits that unfairly delay and even derail worthwhile projects that could provide badly needed jobs and housing for Californians? Actually, it does both. The 43-year-old California Environmental Quality Act, passed to inform and empower the public, requires developers to disclose the environmental effects of their projects in detailed reports and to mitigate any harm caused.

The Sickels Group of San Diego has named Patrick J. Gravitt vice president of industrial development. Gravitt will be responsible for market identification, site acquisition, financing, marketing and leasing and the development of industrial projects throughout the Southland. James J. Foreman has joined Kilroy Industries as senior industrial marketing executive. Foreman will focus on marketing and leasing the El Segundo-based company's industrial and research and development properties.

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa picked a familiar face to become his deputy mayor for transportation Tuesday, moving Borja Leon from his current post as associate director of transportation into the new job. Leon was responsible for overseeing the mayor's participation in the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and implementing the mayor's agenda there. He provided public policy advice to MTA's board and watched over major infrastructure projects in the city and L.A. County, according to a news release from the mayor's office.

Marc Duvoisin, a veteran editor who has overseen multiple award-winning projects at The Los Angeles Times, was named managing editor of the newspaper Thursday. Duvoisin fills a position left vacant since December, when Davan Maharaj was promoted to editor. "In his 10-plus years at Spring Street, Marc has had a guiding hand in some of the finest journalism we've published. He's shown an ability to bring together diverse newsroom disciplines to make our most ambitious work shine," Maharaj said.

Don Grady Now a noted composer, he played Robbie on the series and was a member of the group Yellow Balloon that had a hit song of the same name in 1967. Stanley Livingston The older brother of Barry Livingston, he played Chip on "My Three Sons. " Among his post-series credits is 1995's "Attack of the 60 Foot Centerfolds. " Tim Considine The former star of "The Mickey Mouse Club" series "The Adventures of Spin and Marty," Considine played Mike from 1960 to 1965.

The second edition of Santa Monica's nocturnal art festival, called Glow 2010 this year, will be up and running beginning Saturday evening, and if it's anything like the inaugural version, expect a little company as you stroll the waterfront array of installations and performance art. Last time, the Glow festival drew 200,000 visitors. "It's amazing to do a first-time art event and get that kind of crowd," says Jessica Cusick, cultural affairs manager for the city, the event's organizer.

Legislators got the right result by the wrong process when they approved an expedited judicial review for AEG's much-discussed downtown Los Angeles football stadium. The project is too important, and the state's system for reviewing such projects too flawed, to allow procedure to stand in the way of progress. Nevertheless, it's bad policy to offer special treatment to certain projects; it raises questions of favoritism and corruption to have the Legislature engage proposals one at a time rather than passing laws that apply equally to all. That's why the next business of this Legislature needs to be a comprehensive review of the California Environmental Quality Act. Now more than 30 years old, CEQA is the mainstay of the state's vaunted environmental protection regime.

Plans for a massive expansion of clean energy in California are being jeopardized by federal foot-dragging, according to state officials who say that more than 20 nearly shovel-ready solar and wind projects are being held up by the U.S. Department of Energy. Seven major solar-mirror projects — enough to provide power to 3 million Southern California homes — along with plans for at least a dozen wind-turbine and solar-panel complexes have been cleared or almost cleared by state authorities and the U.S. Department of Interior.