A judge Thursday “moved to dismiss a lawsuit” accusing the city of Sacramento of handing the NBA Kings a “secret subsidy” in the just-approved deal for the new downtown arena, according to Dale Kasler of the SACRAMENTO BEE. But Jeffrey Anderson and Patrick Soluri, the two lawyers behind the lawsuit, said that they “will forge ahead with their legal case anyway.” The lawyers also are trying to "spearhead a voter referendum to overturn" the $477M arena project (SACRAMENTO BEE, 5/23). Meanwhile, a SACRAMENTO BEE editorial looked at the next steps in the arena's development, and stated Kings President Chris Granger and the ownership group have “shown themselves to be accessible” so far in the process and that policy “served them well and should continue.” The new arena deal includes six digital billboards, and the editorial states the city “was right not to throw out its billboard policy altogether," but instead just “bend it to allow these electronic signs on city-owned land near freeways.” Now, city officials “must do whatever they can to limit future digital billboards." The editorial: “We want this deal to pencil out for the city and the Kings, but not by turning Sacramento into a garishly lit urban landscape like Los Angeles or Las Vegas” (SACRAMENTO BEE, 5/22).
