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Jun 9, 2021
Clara Township residents voted overwhelmingly to create a Home Rule Government Study Commission made up of seven elected Township residents.
Read More | News, Press ReleasesAug 21, 2019
It’s not enough to have Home Rule as state legislators continue to strip rights of local self-government from communities across the state. It’s time to change state constitutions to recognize the authority of communities to protect their own health, safety, and welfare.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsSep 15, 2016
Highland Township, PA, residents put the pressure on their supervisors. The local electeds voted yesterday to try to stop the people’s Home Rule charter initiative in the Common Pleas Court. The charter includes a ban on fracking wastewater injection wells.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsSep 13, 2016
Highland Township, PA’s, residents move a step closer to voting on their own Home Rule Charter proposal in November. Their solicitors are trying to block the measure. Residents are fighting a frack waste injection well, using their right to local community self-government.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsSep 13, 2016
The Elk County, PA, Board of Elections is advised to place the people’s proposed Home Rule Charter measure on the November ballot. Residents face a frack wastewater injection well, which would be banned if the Charter is adopted.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsSep 12, 2016
Board of Elections sides with residents as Highland Township, PA, supervisors try to keep the people’s Home Rule Charter initiative off the ballot. Residents are fighting a frack wastewater injection well through their right to local community self-government.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsSep 9, 2016
After rescinding an ordinance banning frack wastewater injection wells, Highland Township, PA, supervisors and solicitor further betray residents fighting to protect themselves: they attempt to remove the people’s rights-based Home Rule charter from the November ballot.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsAug 8, 2016
CELDF’s Chad Nicholson and Grant Township resident Stacy Long are interviewed on Law and Disorder radio. Grant residents adopted an ordinance legalizing civil disobedience to protect themselves from an injection well.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsJul 31, 2016
The Home Rule Study Commission in Highland Township, PA, is holding a public hearing Sunday. The commissioners may recommend drafting a charter to govern the Township, and would seek input from residents on content. The Charter will likely contain a bill of rights.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsJul 31, 2016
The Home Rule Study Commission in Highland Township, PA, held a public meeting Sunday to share information about drafting a Home Rule Charter. The Charter, if adopted in November, would recognize and protect the rights of residents to make governing decisions.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsJul 27, 2016
Highland Township, PA, residents begin drafting a Home Rule Charter. They consult with Grant Township, where last November residents overwhelmingly adopted a new, rights-based charter that included a ban on frack wastewater injection wells.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsJul 9, 2016
Highland Township, PA’s, government study commission issues its report: their existing governing structure allows a few people to make decisions that belong to the many. It’s time for a Home Rule form of government, allowing the community to make the governing decisions.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsJun 24, 2016
When municipal interests and Home Rule powers come into conflict with state preemption, communities are losing. It will take community rights and a people’s movement to change it.
Read More | News from the GrassrootsJun 24, 2016
Highland Township, PA, residents review their governing code, finding it insufficient to meet the needs of the community because it places corporate “rights” over community rights. They are drafting a Home Rule charter that elevates communities over corporations.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsMay 25, 2016
Highland Township, PA’s Home Rule Study Commission was voted in last month. Last night, they held their first meeting to begin consideration of becoming a Home Rule township, retaining CELDF as legal counsel.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsApr 27, 2016
Residents of Highland Township, PA, vote “yes” to consider a Home Rule form of government as they work for local community decision-making. The Township is fighting for their right to protect their community from a frack wastewater injection well.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsApr 26, 2016
As Highland Township, PA, residents fight to keep out a frack wastewater injection well, tonight they voted “yes” to form a study commission to consider a Home Rule form of government, which could expand local control.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots, Success StoryMar 31, 2016
CELDF’s Thomas Linzey speaks to Highland Township, PA, residents on their fight to protect their community from a frack wastewater injection well. Highland residents are considering a Community Rights Home Rule charter.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsMar 27, 2016
Highland Township, PA, residents consider pursuing a Community Rights Home Rule Charter to protect themselves from Seneca Resources’ proposed injection well.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsFeb 27, 2016
Highland Township, PA, residents to vote on home rule as a tool to advance community rights and protect themselves from a fracking wastewater injection well. Seneca Resources Corporation is claiming a corporate “right” to site the well.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsOct 31, 2015
Grant Township, PA, residents will vote this week on becoming a home rule township through a rights-based charter. The charter establishes the residents’ rights to clean air, water, and local self-government, and bans frack wastewater injection wells.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsSep 12, 2015
An Ohio appellate court refuses to place a community rights county charter initiative on the ballot for residents of Meigs County. Residents are appealing.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsAug 25, 2015
Forty-three states in the U.S. either constitutionally or statutorily allow for Municipal Home Rule.
Read More |Aug 19, 2015
A state constitution is the governing document of a U.S. state, like as the United States Constitution is the governing document of the United States. Then, a county charter can rightly be compared to a constitution at the local level. It spells out the powers, duties and structures of government and the rights of county citizens.
Read More | Community WiresAug 12, 2014
Boulder County, CO, resident urges support for advancing communities’ rights over corporate claimed “rights” through Home Rule local self-governance.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsJul 10, 2014
Boulder County, CO, residents gather signatures to place an initiative on the November ballot. The measure is the first step in creating a Community Rights Home Rule Charter for the County that would elevate communities’ rights over corporate claimed “rights.”
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsAug 6, 2012
The home rule fight over natural gas drilling has come to Ohio.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsAug 4, 2014
The Boulder County Community Rights Network in Colorado has gathered more than 10,000 signatures to place a home rule charter question on the ballot for May 2015. Residents are considering a home rule form of government to advance Community Rights and protect themselves from fracking.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsJul 25, 2014
The Boulder County Community Rights Network in Colorado gathers signatures to create a Home Rule Charter Commission, intending to enact a Home Rule Charter built on a Community Bill of Rights that would codify Boulder County’s right to ban fracking and other harmful activities.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsDec 11, 2016
Regardless of our political affiliations, the Supreme Court claims enormous power over our lives. How does this body of government have the authority to restrict rights of “we the people,” while expanding rights of corporations and property?
Read More | Press Releases & BlogsNov 8, 2016
Highland Township, PA, voters step up their fight to protect themselves from a frack wastewater injection well, adopting a rights-based Home Rule Charter banning the well, 55% to 45%.
Read More | Community Wires, Press Releases & Blogs, Success StoryAug 15, 2016
Highland Township Supervisors overturn their rights-based fracking wastewater injection well ban. They file a consent decree to allow an injection well, and receive approval by a federal judge. Residents vow to fight back and protect their community.
Read More | Community Wires, Press Releases & BlogsSep 16, 2015
The Ohio Supreme Court rules in favor of the democratic rights of citizens, and against the Ohio Secretary of State’s claimed “unfettered authority” to block the people’s right to initiative.
Read More | Community Wires, Press Releases & Blogs, Success StoryJul 31, 2015
Our Mission Our mission is to build sustainable communities by assisting people to assert their right to local self-government and the rights of nature. News from the Grassroots Video format more your style? Our Videos are a great introduction to big ideas and concepts tackled by the Community Rights Movement! Check out our Fast Facts,… Read more »
Read More |Mar 17, 2021
Clara Township residents move forward with a Home Rule Charter initiative to protect vital waterways and assert the democratic rights of the community. Nearly half of all registered voters have signed on in support of the measure. Roulette Oil and Gas LLC (ROGC) applied for a Class II Injection Well Permit.
Read More | Chemical Trespass, Community Rights, Issues, Press ReleasesOct 16, 2019
The people’s own Department of Environmental Protection in Pennsylvania sues Grant Township to overturn a democratically enacted Home Rule charter that includes a ban on fracking wastewater injection wells. This was their day in court.
Read More | Community Wires, Press Releases & BlogsOct 2, 2017
Highland Township, PA, residents plan enforcement of their Home Rule Charter banning a frack wastewater injection well as judiciary sides with Seneca Resources Corporation.
Read More | Community Wires, Press Releases & BlogsMar 29, 2017
The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection sues Townships with Community Rights Home Rule Charters to force in fracking injection wells.
Read More | Community Wires, Press Releases & BlogsJan 13, 2017
Crystal Spring Ecosystem and residents of Highland Township, PA, filed to intervene in a lawsuit today. Parties are fighting to block Seneca Resources’ plans to site a frack wastewater injection well in the Township as a violation of their Home Rule Charter.
Read More | Community Wires, Press Releases & BlogsNov 7, 2016
As Highland Township, PA, residents prefer to vote on their rights-based Home Rule Charter to protect themselves against a frack wastewater injection well, Seneca Resources funds anti-Charter flyers to sway voters.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsAug 31, 2015
Community Bills of Rights (CBOR) come in a variety of forms, including municipal or county ordinances, home rule charters, charter amendments, state legislation, and state constitutional amendments. The community decides which form to use, depending largely upon the types of local government and the tools for exercising local government allowed by your state constitution.
Read More | Press Releases & BlogsAug 27, 2015
YOUNGSTOWN, OH: A week following Ohio Secretary of State John Husted’s ruling which stripped residents in three counties of their right to vote on Home Rule Charter initiatives, the Mahoning County Board of Elections voted to do the same to Youngstown residents. The Board refused to place a proposed Charter Amendment on the November ballot, even though all requirements for qualifying the amendment to the ballot were met, and the Board’s own attorney advised placing the amendment onto the ballot.
Read More | Community WiresAug 12, 2015
MEIGS COUNTY, OH: Frustrated by the efforts of the Meigs County Commissioners to keep residents’ community rights county charter initiative off the November ballot, the Meigs County Home Rule Committee (MCHRC) has sued the Commissioners to force the measure on to the ballot.
Read More | Community WiresAug 12, 2015
On November 8, 2011, the residents of State College voted overwhelmingly—72%—to amend their Home Rule Charter to include a Community Bill of Rights.
Read More | Community WiresNov 8, 2011
By a vote of 72% in favor, the people of the Borough of State College, home of Penn State University, adopted an amendment to their home rule charter that constitutionalizes a Local Bill of Rights, and protects those rights by prohibiting natural gas extraction and associated activities.
Read More | Community WiresOct 4, 2011
Washington County Judge Paul Pozonsky turned down a request by Peters Township Council to bar a referendum question from appearing on the ballot in November that, if approved by the voters, would create a local Bill of Rights and ban fracking. Judge Pozonsky ruled that the court lacks jurisdiction to impose an injunction against the proposed home rule charter amendment, and that allowing the voters to approve or deny the adoption of the amendment did not create an immediate harm to the township.
Read More | Community WiresSep 14, 2011
With less than two months to go before the Nov. 8 general election, it’s still unclear whether a referendum on a home rule charter amendment will make its way onto the ballot in Peters Township.
Read More | Community WiresSep 13, 2011
Peters Township Council voted unanimously Monday to let a Washington County Court judge determine whether a referendum on a home rule-charter amendment seeking to ban natural gas drilling in the municipality is legal and can appear on the ballot in November. About 2,400 registered township voters signed a petition presented Aug. 8 to Washington County Director of Elections Larry Spahr seeking the referendum on a home rule-charter amendment.
Read More | Community WiresSep 17, 2024
Feature photo by Samuel Regan-Asante on Unsplash Opposing harmful industrial projects – like mines, aerial pesticide spraying, factory farms, or toxic waste disposal facilities – is scary and difficult work. Feeling this fear and confronting the difficulty of the work, it is tempting to cling to false, but comforting beliefs that the communities we belong to… Read more »
Read More | BlogsMar 27, 2024
Testimony of a Community Organizer CELDF’s Consulting Director, Tish O’Dell, submitted her testimony, “Am I an Activist?” to the 2024 Spring Activism Peace Chronicle publication. Tish has been involved in community rights and Rights of Nature work starting in her own community of Broadview Heights, Ohio, which led to the adoption of Ohio’s first Home… Read more »
Read More | Blogs, Chemical Trespass, Community Rights, Democratic Rights, Extraction & Pollution, Rights of Nature, Water Privitization