For the central and Southern California populations, this is a very poor decisions with almost no scientific basis. So it is possible that this could end up in court again.

In the past 10 to 12 years, Wal-Mart has gone from really not being involved in grocery at all to being the biggest player in the grocery industry.

Expanded fire suppression efforts may be the only way to save these species from extinction, ... The good news is that fire suppression should also benefit nearby human residents.

They work hard and will continue to work hard even though they were just formed this summer,

It's definitely something that is a trend in the here and now. And three years ago, if you had asked me that question, I would have said that we would have to wait and see how this was going to go.

It's an unfortunate commentary on the willingness of this administration to undermine the Endangered Species Act. Despite its small size this toad needs a lot of land to complete its life cycle.

It seems like the (Bush) administration is very out of step with the concern that the public feels for protecting nature,

This means that the commission is supporting the position of the environmental groups and the communities who have claimed all along that the application was incomplete and would have subverted due process. Environmental groups and communities will celebrate this as a first victory against this unnecessary project.

They overemphasized speculative economic harm to development while totally disregarding the real economic benefits of habitat protection.

This is a decision that was long overdue. It's taken this many years for the government to act, and it's still not done.