Court Rejects State’s Attempt to Disqualify Sacramento & Stockton’s Lawyers in Delta Tunnel Fight On March 27, 2026, Sacramento Superior Court Judge Stephen Acquisto denied the California Department of Water Resources' motion to disqualify Somach Simmons & Dunn, the law firm that has represented the County of Sacramento, City of Stockton, and other local agencies in Delta Conveyance litigation since 2007. DWR's motion, supported by some 5,000 pages of filings, argued that attorney Casey Shorrock's prior work on a 2020 Initial Study/Mitigated Negative Declaration (IS/MND) for geotechnical investigations created a disqualifying conflict of interest.

Court Rejects State’s Attempt to Disqualify Sacramento & Stockton’s Lawyers in Delta Tunnel Fight

On March 27, 2026, Sacramento Superior Court Judge Stephen Acquisto denied the California Department of Water Resources' motion to disqualify Somach Simmons & Dunn, the law firm that has represented…

U.N. experts demand Israel release prominent Gaza doctor after reports of 'severe torture' Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, who has been in Israeli detention since December 2024, is in a "dire" health condition, United Nations experts warned as they called for his immediate release.

U.N. experts demand Israel release prominent Gaza doctor after reports of 'severe torture' flip.it/UCtoEO

This is. And thou art. There is no safety. There is no end. The word must be heard in silence. There must be darkness to see the stars. The dance is always danced above the hollow place, above the terrible abyss.

Why the Ridge Keeps Coming Back: The Structural Shift Behind Western Heat Domes Part 2: The leading mode of North American winter circulation has changed, and March 2026 is what the new mode produces In Part 1, I described the diabatic engine behind March 2026's record-shattering western heat dome: upstream precipitation in the Pacific Northwest released latent heat that amplified an extraordinary ridge over the interior West. That post explained the mechanism. This one asks a different question: why does the ridges keep forming?

Why the Ridge Keeps Coming Back: The Structural Shift Behind Western Heat Domes

Part 2: The leading mode of North American winter circulation has changed, and March 2026 is what the new mode produces In Part 1, I described the diabatic engine behind March 2026's record-shattering western heat…

Why the Ridge Keeps Coming Back: The Structural Shift Behind Western Heat Domes Part 2: The leading mode of North American winter circulation has changed, and March 2026 is what the new mode produces In Part 1, I described the diabatic engine behind March 2026's record-shattering western heat dome: upstream precipitation in the Pacific Northwest released latent heat that amplified an extraordinary ridge over the interior West. That post explained the mechanism. This one asks a different question: why does the ridges keep forming?

Why the Ridge Keeps Coming Back: The Structural Shift Behind Western Heat Domes

Part 2: The leading mode of North American winter circulation has changed, and March 2026 is what the new mode produces In Part 1, I described the diabatic engine behind March 2026's record-shattering western heat…

The Diabatic Engine Behind March 2026’s Record-Shattering Western Heat Dome And why the same mechanism that built the 2021 Pacific Northwest heat dome is doing it again, in early spring As I write this in mid-March 2026, the western United States is in the grip of a heat wave that has no precedent in the cool-season observational record. Downtown Los Angeles hit 92°F last Thursday. Phoenix is on track for its earliest 100°F day ever, beating the previous record by more than a week.

The Diabatic Engine Behind March 2026’s Record-Shattering Western Heat Dome

AI really can help education: controlled experiment found a GPT-4o powered tutor that personalized problems for students raised final test scores by .15 SD "equivalent to as much as six to nine months of additional schooling by some estimates—without increasing instruction time or teacher workload"

in stillness,

abide.

be
nowhere else but
here.

This Saturday, March 7:

Join one of the Stand Up For Science rallies across the country.

Find one near you at:
fight2win.standupforscience.net/Rallies-2026/

In RVA? Join us at noon at the Capitol Square Bell Tower — corner of 9th and Franklin:
fight2win.standupforscience.net/Richmond-March/

The first US Cabinet happened in 1789.

Back atcha!

Yes.

Jennifer @JenYetAgain@beige.party in 2017 a popular twitter game was to type a partial phrase then see what your phone auto-completes it with. this proved so popular that it is now the only business model in the US. Feb 9, 2026 at 4:35:18PM Boosted by 968: Favourited by 1324:

mom they’re roasting the US economy on mastodon again

The EU moves to kill infinite scrolling Brussels is going head-to-head with social media platforms to change addictive design.

Doom scrolling is doomed

Stretched Thin: Protestant Attorneys Face Overlapping Delta Conveyance Project Hearings The week of February 23-27 presents attorneys representing Delta communities with an impossible calendar. The State Water Board's Delta Conveyance Project water rights hearing has added February 23, 24, and 25 as hearing days. The Delta Stewardship Council has scheduled its appeal hearing on DWR's certification of consistency with the Delta Plan for February 26 and 27—and has required that parties appear in person.

Stretched Thin: Protestant Attorneys Face Overlapping Delta Conveyance Project Hearings

The week of February 23-27 presents attorneys representing Delta communities with an impossible calendar. The State Water Board's Delta Conveyance Project water rights hearing has added February 23, 24, and 25…

DWR’s Selective Conflict: It Applies in Court, But Not Before the Agencies On Monday, February 9, 2026, Administrative Hearing Officer Nicole Kuenzi denied Somach Simmons & Dunn's motion to stay the Delta Conveyance Project water rights hearing pending resolution of DWR's disqualification motion in Sacramento Superior Court. The hearing will continue as scheduled, with most of the protestants' rebuttal case likely to conclude before the March 20 court hearing on DWR's motion.

DWR’s Selective Conflict: It Applies in Court, But Not Before the Agencies

On Monday, February 9, 2026, Administrative Hearing Officer Nicole Kuenzi denied Somach Simmons & Dunn's motion to stay the Delta Conveyance Project water rights hearing pending resolution of DWR's disqualification motion…

Court Grants Stay in Delta Conveyance CEQA Cases — Judge Questions DWR’s Position Sacramento County Superior Court Judge Stephen Acquisto today granted Somach Simmons & Dunn’s motion to stay the consolidated Delta Conveyance Project CEQA cases through March 27, 2026. He set a hearing on DWR’s motion to disqualify the firm as counsel for Sacramento County and the City of Stockton for March 20, 2026. From the bench, the judge described the potential disqualification as “monumental.” He indicated that he understood how severely it would impact Somach’s clients: local governments representing approximately two million Delta-area residents who have relied on the firm’s representation in Delta Conveyance matters since 2007.

Court Grants Stay in Delta Conveyance CEQA Cases — Judge Questions DWR’s Position

Sacramento County Superior Court Judge Stephen Acquisto today granted Somach Simmons & Dunn’s motion to stay the consolidated Delta Conveyance Project CEQA cases through March 27, 2026. He set a hearing on DWR’s…

State Tries to Sideline Sacramento & Stockton’s Lawyers — Court Hears Stay Request On January 23, 2026, the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) filed a motion in Sacramento County Superior Court seeking to disqualify the law firm of Somach Simmons & Dunn, longtime counsel for the County of Sacramento, the City of Stockton, in three of the ten consolidated cases challenging DWR’s approvals of the Delta Conveyance Project. Somach has represented these local governments on Delta matters since 2007.

State Tries to Sideline Sacramento & Stockton’s Lawyers — Court Hears Stay Request

On January 23, 2026, the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) filed a motion in Sacramento County Superior Court seeking to disqualify the law firm of Somach Simmons & Dunn, longtime counsel for the County…

In a new article over at Carbon Brief, I explore why the past three years – 2023, 2024, and 2025 – have been exceptionally warm. The main culprits turn out to be a combination of El Nino and internal variability, declining aerosols, and a strong solar cycle: www.carbonbrief.org/...

Response to Jay Lund’s “Nine California Water Rites” Jay Lund published a clever satire of California water rhetoric today, and he’s right that policy-based evidence-making occurs in our water debates. I worked with Jay and other Delta Independ…

Response to Jay Lund’s “Nine California Water Rites”

Jay Lund published a clever satire of California water rhetoric today, and he's right that policy-based evidence-making occurs in our water debates.

But Jay's framing misses something critical…

cah2oresearch.com/2025/12/01/r...

As the 2025 Atlantic hurricane season ends, the future of forecasting is AI Meteorologists are surprised that the weather model that did the best job forecasting hurricanes this year was a new one, introduced by Google. AI may be the beginning of a new era of forecasting.

Meteorologists are surprised that the weather model that did the best job forecasting hurricanes this year was a new one, introduced by Google. AI may be the beginning of a new era of forecasting. n.pr/49MFa1M

If you’re interested in why the #Antarctic overturning circulation is very likely closer to a tipping point than the #AMOC, I touch on the topic in this 10 minute talk presented virtually today at #COP30. Starts at approx. 20 min mark.

Short 🧵. Several folks routinely do a great job updating global mean temperature comparisons between observations & different model generations, which shows their impressive skill, but I think as a public communication tool downplays the explanatory and predictive power of climate science 1/

What an awesome thread!

September 2025 was the third warmest on record in the Berkeley Earth dataset. But this downplays how anomalous it was; without 2023 and 2024 this year would have been well above any prior records and well above the long-term trend:

In that moment Ged understood the singing of the bird, and the language of the water falling in the basin of the fountain, and the shape of the clouds, and the beginning and end of the wind that stirred the leaves.

Sigh.

Chinese freighter halves EU delivery time on maiden Arctic voyage to UK A Chinese container ship has completed a pioneering journey through the Arctic to a UK port, state-run news agency Xinhua reported, cutting in half the usual transit time for the electric vehicles and solar panels aboard destined for Europe.

Welp. The Arctic now has a shipping route. www.reuters.com/sustainabili...

📢 Submissions are now open for the U.S. Climate Collection, a joint @theAGU + @ametsoc initiative.

This special collection will publish U.S.-focused climate assessment science that’s free to read, ensuring rigorous, accessible science informs decisions for years to come.

🔗 buff.ly/1tHUSLC