Because of insufficient evidence, Artest was not prosecuted on the dog incident. However, he pleaded no contest to the domestic violence charge and accepted a nine-day work-release program, 100 hours of community service and three years of informal probation.
The Artest family has since moved to Indiana, where his 4-year-old daughter is being treated for a cancerous tumor on her kidney.
County sues commissioner
Former Placer County Planning Commission member Michelle Ollar-Burris made headlines as she was investigated for her land dealings, ousted from her county post and then sued by the county.
The lawsuit, filed in November, alleges that Ollar-Burris violated state planning law by working with a group of other investors to repeatedly sell and split properties, creating de facto subdivisions without going through the county's review process.
Ollar-Burris maintains that she did not violate any laws.
Interchange project starts
Construction on Rocklin's $25 million project to widen, lengthen and heighten the Interstate 80 interchange at Sierra College Boulevard broke ground in March.
Touted as the city's biggest road project to date, the new interchange was designed to improve safety and traffic flow.
Once completed, it also will also open up Rocklin's freeway corridor for commercial development and some single-family homes.
The project includes widening the interchange bridge from two lanes to five, as well as adding bicycle lanes.
The bridge also will be longer to accommodate the future I-80 widening, and higher to allow big-rig trucks to pass underneath.
Construction is scheduled to be completed in August.
Road sales tax effort slows
Placer County Transportation Planning Agency officials backed off a plan to place a half-cent sales tax increase on the November 2008 ballot, saying polls showed not enough voters would support it.
The sales tax boost for transportation would have raised more than $1 billion over 30 years for road projects including Placer Parkway, connecting Highway 65 in Roseville to Highways 70 and 99 in Sutter County.
The tax measure would need 67 percent of the vote to pass.
Conservation plan backed
Placer County began moving forward in January on a plan to preserve 50,000 to 60,000 acres in western Placer County. The plan has drawn criticism from some land owners who claim their property rights will be taken away from them.
County spokeswoman Anita Yoder said the conservation plan continues to be "a work in progress" as officials try to establish a map that would be satisfactory to most or all of the parties involved.
Angora fire's aftermath
After the devastating Angora fire in neighboring El Dorado County, Placer County supervisors in July agreed to explore new measures to help prevent such blazes in the north Tahoe area.
Supervisor Bruce Kranz said the county should have an ordinance delineating the need for residents in areas of high fire risk to clear a "defensible space" around their homes.
The Angora fire, which began June 24, destroyed more than 250 homes in South Lake Tahoe.
Private college in forefront
Drexel University in Philadelphia emerged as the top candidate to bring a 6,000-student college campus to the Roseville area.
Drexel is interested in a 600- acre site west of the city, and the parcel would be donated by the family of Sacramento developer Angelo K. Tsakopoulos.
The acreage would be part of an overall 1,100-acre donation. A housing development would be established on the other 500 acres. Residential units totaling 2,300 are being considered.
The money raised through sale of the acreage to a developer or developers would be given to Drexel as an endowment for construction of the campus.
Lincoln movie theater
In October, Lincoln Planning Commission members approved plans for a 100,000-square-foot retail center that will bring the city its first multiplex movie theater.
Ferrari Pavilion by retail developer Opus West Corp. includes a 14-screen, 1,900-seat cineplex operated by North American Cinemas, based in Santa Rosa.
The new movie theater is scheduled to open in December 2008.
Call The Bee's Art Campos, (916) 773-2825. Coverage by Niesha Lofing and Mary Lynne Vellinga contributed to this report.
