• Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, famous for almost never asking a question from the bench since his appointment in 1991, making him the longest-serving justice currently on the court, apparently has no problem speaking off the bench. Thomas, Britney Lane Kubisch (a former Supreme Court law clerk of his) and the incoming president of Pepperdine James Gash held a public conversation on stage to a group of more than 1,000.
• The Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy and its wholly owned subsidiary, the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority, were apparently busy at work bringing in truckloads of dirt on a large project which Joe Edmiston is developing above Puerco Road. Malibu has been waiting in vain for the Environmental Impact Report (EIR) for the project but that does not seem to have slowed Edmiston down.
• After five years, and an enormous amount of public input and vast amounts of money spent to design various amenities like a pool, a recreation center and additional ballfields, the new city council of Malibu just decided to end the Malibu Bluffs Park land swap and walked away from the deal. The city gets back its lightly used Charmlee Park at the far western end of Malibu and gives up 83 acres of prime centrally located acreage at and around Bluffs Park. The no nothing, no never, no anything, anywhere political party emerged triumphant on this one.
