We’ve been following the mess that is the Supreme Court ruling on the controversy over the Navy’s use of sonar (which ought to be in all caps because it’s an acronym, but whatever) technology off the Southern California coastline, which is harmful to marine life (you can check our last post on the issue here, where we learn the Supreme Court ruled for the Navy).

But, apparently, the issue hadn’t been fully resolved, and today we learn from the Washington Post that the Navy and environmentalists have settled another lawsuit. From the article:

The Navy said Saturday the deal reached with the Natural Resources Defense Council and other groups requires it to continue to research how sonar affects whales and other marine mammals. It doesn’t require sailors to adopt additional measures to protect the animals when they use sonar.

So, basically, this agreement sticks to the Supreme Court ruling saying sonar is allowable, but gives slight concessions to environmentalists in that the Navy will continue to figure out the specific harms done to marine life through the exercises, thus hopefully finding a way to avoid those harms.

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Arnold Schwarzenegger’s commute via private jet between his mansion in Los Angeles and the state capitol in Sacramento may soon be coming to an end. The city of Santa Monica voted this past March 25th to ban large jets from the municipal airport the Governor has been using for his commute. But apparently the city resolution hasn’t been enough to deter Schwarzengger’s and others planes from continuing to use the airport, so the matter will be sent before a Federal Judge in a court case scheduled to begin May 15th.

Schwarzenegger’s brother-in-law, Bobby Shriver, a Santa Monica city councilman who was one of the unanimous votes for the resolution said, “These guys aren’t listening so we have to lift the conversation to a different level”.

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