Californians worried about local governments abusing their powers of eminent domain can rejoice in the news that the Protect Our Homes Act has officially qualified to appear on this November's ballot. The Secretary of State's office announced Tuesday that it had verified 683,712 of about 1 million signatures for the initiative, which would protect individuals and small-business owners from having their land seized and transferred to other private holders. (snip) From 1998 to 2003, California seized 223 properties for private development projects on the theory that the properties were "blighted," a requirement for using eminent domain. Most of these were...