A judge on Wednesday refused to block construction of three new storage silos at a Santa Rosa asphalt plant. Sonoma County Superior Court Judge Elliot Daum denied a request by neighbors to halt construction of the 82-foot-high silos at the BoDean asphalt plant north of Railroad Square.

A Sonoma County jury may get to decide a case that has far-reaching implications for thousands of in-home caregivers throughout California. The key issue in a civil lawsuit filed by a local caregiver is who qualifies as her employer — the client who receives care through the Sonoma County’s In-Home Supportive Services program or the county itself, or both.

A Sonoma County judge has struck down the approval for a controversial rock quarry west of Cotati, saying key parts of the environmental impact report were inadequate. The final ruling, issued Thursday by Judge Elliot Daum, could derail the project by requiring the county and quarry developer John Barella to conduct a new environmental report, or overhaul large parts of the existing one. Opponents of the 70-acre Roblar Road quarry, including neighbors and environmentalists, welcomed the decision.

A Sonoma County judge has sided with key points in a lawsuit challenging approval of the controversial Roblar Road rock quarry, a move that could derail the project west of Cotati. A split county Board of Supervisors approved the 70-acre project in late 2010 over the objections of a group of neighbors and others concerned about environmental impacts. They sued the county and quarry developer John Barella, claiming safeguards needed to address those impacts were not sufficiently studied or spelled out in the county’s environmental report.

A Sonoma County judge’s ruling effectively dismisses one of three lawsuits filed to stop a rock quarry on Roblar Road west of Cotati. Neighbors of quarry developer John Barella had sued him and the county open space district, challenging Barella’s right to use adjoining property to establish a preserve for the endangered tiger salamander.

A Sonoma County judge Tuesday sided with rock quarry opponents in a challenge over their free legal counsel. In a tentative ruling, Judge Elliot Daum denied a motion from quarry owner John Barella to disqualify a law firm representing quarry opponents. The firm had also represented Basin Street Properties, a real estate group in which Barella is the single largest investor.

The city has won the first round in its legal fight to preserve bicycle access through a gated community near Oakmont. Sonoma County Superior Court Judge Elliot Daum has ruled that the city’s case can proceed against the Village at Wild Oak neighborhood.

Sonoma County’s first woman district attorney, Jill Ravitch, was sworn in Sunday in a ceremony that summoned images of such barrier breakers as Jackie Robinson and Rosie the Riveter. She renewed her campaign pledge to be a hands-on leader and good listener. And she’s already making changes in the management team, promoting one supporter to serve as her chief deputy DA and demoting a prosecutor who backed her opponent, Stephan Passalacqua.