Some First Amendment experts believed ABC had a winning case, in part, because of a high hurdle for public officials to prove defamation.

Critics say the auto-deleting of messages allows officials to skirt the California Public Records Act and the city’s own document retention policies.

The Greenleaf Promenade grew out of a smaller pilot project that was scuttled by the pandemic, according to city officials.

That quake hit so close to shore that officials said they had only a matter of minutes to decide whether to an issue a warning.

Election officials are required to notify those voters and give them an opportunity to fix the error.