Church and cities finally agree on plan
The fight over Cottonwood Christian Center has apparently reached a conclusion after five years. The large California church had its land seized by the city of Cyprus to build a Costco. Cottonwood sued, then agreed to sell the land for a profit—and the right to build on a nearby golf course.

That plan created another challenge, this time from the nearby city of Los Alamitos, which said the new location would create serious traffic problems.

Now, the Los Angeles Times reports, it looks like Cypress, Los Alamitos, and Cottonwood have all finally settled their differences, and everyone seems to be happy.

Activists try to recall school trustees who opposed transgender law
A group of mothers and teachers are trying to recall Westminster School District trustees Judy Ahrens and Blossie Marquez-Woodcock, the Los Angeles Times reports. They're chiefly upset for the trustees' discrimination policy seemingly at odds with California law. While state law recently extended discrimination protections to include "transgender" students, the Westminster policy states, "perception of the alleged victim is not relevant to the determination of gender." Ahrens, Marquez-Woodcock, and a third trustee called the state law immoral. But the activists say their recall effort isn't just based on that vote.

"The gender issue was such an emotional one for people, and we're not going to change anyone's mind on it," Louise MacIntyre, who's leading the effort, told the paper. "It brought all this to the surface, but it has come and gone. The issue now is: What are they going to be voting on in the future?"

But the activists are unlikely to succeed, the paper suggests. "There is always an enormous amount of passion at the beginning [of recall efforts], because people are angry," Orange County's assistant registrar of voters says. "But then they go out for signatures and lose momentum. They don't understand what a huge undertaking it is."

Related Elsewhere:

Suggest links and stories by sending e-mail to weblog@christianitytoday.com

What is Weblog?

Check out Books & Culture's weekly weblog, Content & Context.

See our past Weblog updates:

May 28 | 26 | 25 | 24
May 21 | 20 | 19 | 18 | 17
May 14b | 14a | 13 | 12 | 11 | 10
May 7 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3
April 30 | 29 | 28 | 27 | 26
April 23 | 22 | 21 | 20 | 19
and more, back to November 1999

Weblog
Launched in 1999, Christianity Today’s Weblog was not just one of the first religion-oriented weblogs, but one of the first published by a media organization. (Hence its rather bland title.) Mostly compiled by then-online editor Ted Olsen, Weblog rounded up religion news and opinion pieces from publications around the world. As Christianity Today’s website grew, it launched other blogs. Olsen took on management responsibilities, and the Weblog feature as such was mothballed. But CT’s efforts to round up important news and opinion from around the web continues, especially on our Gleanings feature.
Ted Olsen
Ted Olsen is Christianity Today's executive editor. He wrote the magazine's Weblog—a collection of news and opinion articles from mainstream news sources around the world—from 1999 to 2006. In 2004, the magazine launched Weblog in Print, which looks for unexpected connections and trends in articles appearing in the mainstream press. The column was later renamed "Tidings" and ran until 2007.
Previous Weblog Columns: