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Newsletters
Jun 29, 2017
Athens County, OH, residents submit signatures to place a community rights county charter on the November ballot. The charter bans fracking activities as a violation of rights.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsJun 29, 2017
Asheville, NC, residents recognize sustainability is illegal under our structure of law and governance – and are taking steps to challenge that structure and create renewable energy systems using Community Rights.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsJun 29, 2017
Facing the Nexus pipeline to transport fracked gas, Medina County, OH, residents turn in petitions to place a rights-based county charter on the ballot. The measure protects environmental and democratic rights, and bans pipelines.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsJun 29, 2017
Moving beyond protest, many New Hampshire communities are taking action to reclaim their democratic rights and protect their communities from harm by establishing Community Bills of Rights.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsJun 26, 2017
An hour long documentary revealing the threat of unsustainable development to the Great Bay and surrounding communities. CELDF’s Michelle Sanborn explores the systemic barriers we face to protect our communities, and how the NHCRN and CELDF are supporting communities to overcome them and realize sustainability.
Read More | UncategorizedJun 25, 2017
Youngstown, OH, residents advance two rights-based measures to protect their water and their elections. Community members are gathering signatures for the November ballot.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsJun 22, 2017
Community rights advocates in Lincoln County stand firm on their right to be free from aerially sprayed pesticides. They are fighting to protect Lincoln residents’ rights-based ban of the practice, adopted in May.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsJun 19, 2017
Rights of nature has shifted from theory to practice over the last decade, being realized in legal doctrines in U.S. communities and in countries around the world.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots, Success StoryJun 16, 2017
Our communities are threatened by unwanted development, and our democracy is in crisis. This is what we can do: join together and protect ourselves and the places we live using community rights.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots, Success StoryJun 15, 2017
Lincoln County, OR, residents recently adopted the nation’s first countywide ban on aerially-sprayed pesticides. They’re celebrating their win – and preparing to defend their law as it is challenged by industry.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsJun 14, 2017
Changing our relationship with nature in part means changing our language. It means shifting away from talking about nature as an object, to recognizing nature as alive – and how we are in relationship.
Read More | News from the GrassrootsJun 10, 2017
Don’t be fooled – the Democratic Party is as supportive of oil and gas as the Republican Party. The answer isn’t in our party electeds, but in ourselves. It’s time to take action and govern ourselves in the places where we live.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsJun 1, 2017
The Paris Accords are not our salvation. Pulling out may be the best thing to happen if we’re actually going to take action to build a real climate movement.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsMay 31, 2017
The Ohio Community Rights Network is supporting communities across the state to advance their right to local community self-government, and to protect people and ecosystems from corporate harms.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsMay 31, 2017
Lincoln County, OR, residents, facing decades of pesticide use by the timber industry, adopt the first ban of the practice as a violation of environmental and democratic rights.
Read More | Community Wires, Press Releases & Blogs, Success StoryMay 31, 2017
Aerial spraying of pesticides is banned by Lincoln County, OR, voters. Residents elevate the rights of communities over corporate “rights” as they protect themselves from the timber industry.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots, Success StoryMay 30, 2017
Water market approaches are problematic – including keeping us in a commodity framework for ecosystems. Rights of nature, however, is a powerful legal paradigm, and is growing around the world.
Read More | News from the GrassrootsMay 26, 2017
Using citizen initiative, two Oregon communities fight to protect themselves from the timber and oil/gas industry, and secure their democratic and environmental rights.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsMay 22, 2017
Rolling Stone Magazine covers the story of Grant Township, PA, where the residents are working with CELDF to protect themselves from PGE’s fracking injection well. In the process, together, we’re pioneering a new legal framework for rights.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsMay 18, 2017
Grant Township, PA, is being sued by their own Dept of Environmental Protection to force in a fracking wastewater injection well. CELDF filed a countersuit on behalf of the Township, asserting the DEP is violating the rights of the community and the Charter.
Read More | Community Wires, Press Releases & BlogsMay 17, 2017
Two community rights measures were on the Oregon ballot this week to stop corporate harms, and more coming down the pipe. Growing numbers of Oregon residents are using community rights to protect themselves and assert democratic rights.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsMay 17, 2017
CELDF’s Community Organizer Chad Nicholson is interviewed about We the People 2.0, exploring how communities across the U.S. are fighting corporate harms and asserting their democratic and environmental rights.
Read More | UncategorizedMay 17, 2017
A Community Bill of Rights by the people of Lincoln Co, OR, is just ahead at the polls. Residents are fighting for their democratic and environmental rights to protect themselves from toxic aerial spraying of pesticides.
Read More | Community Wires, Press Releases & Blogs, Success StoryMay 15, 2017
As election day approaches, a foreign corporation and its allies spend over $1 million to defeat a local rights-based measure banning a massive LNG export terminal.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsMay 15, 2017
A Canadian company attempting to force in a LNG export terminal and pipeline in Coos County, OR, irks residents, who are voting on a community rights ordinance banning the project tomorrow.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsMay 13, 2017
Corporate interests pour funds into defeating a Coos County, OR, community rights measure. The citizen’s initiative bans the Jordan Cove LNG export project as a violation of environmental and democratic rights.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsMay 11, 2017
Cliff Wilmeng calls for Boulder County, CO, commissioners to stop politicking and start protecting; stop colluding by doing nothing and start acting courageously by enacting community rights.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsMay 8, 2017
Veresen Corporation spends more than $300,000 to defeat Coos County, OR’s, community rights campaign. If adopted, the initiative would stop the Jordan Cove LNG export terminal. Residents are fighting to protect their environmental rights.
Read More | UncategorizedMay 8, 2017
Coos County, OR, residents fight for their right to decide on an LNG export project through the ballot, using community rights.
Read More | Community WiresMay 5, 2017
Seneca Resources attempts to force a frack wastewater injection well in Highland Township, PA, against the will of the people. Residents request support from Elk County Commissioners in their fight.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsMay 4, 2017
Reversing course from mainstream views of nature as property, Colombia’s Constitutional Court finds the Atrato River is a rights-bearing entity – a necessary step to protect life on earth.
Read More | Community Wires, Press Releases & Blogs, Success StoryMay 4, 2017
Members of the New Hampshire legislature took advantage of a spring blizzard, attempting to undermine direct democracy.
Read More | Press Releases & BlogsMay 3, 2017
A Colombian court recognizes the rights of the Atrato River to exist and flourish, ordering the end of illegal mining and the use of toxins in extracting minerals.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots, Success StoryMay 3, 2017
The 1% drive for a constitutional convention, advancing their own corporate interests. But we don’t need a convention. We need a whole new constitution.
Read More | Press Releases & BlogsMay 1, 2017
Ohio counties exercise their right to protect themselves from fracking activities using community rights. Residents begin gathering signatures for county charter initiatives, aiming for the November ballot.
Read More | Community Wires, Press Releases & BlogsApr 30, 2017
Youngstown, OH, residents launch a free and fair election bill of rights initiative for the November ballot. The measure would allow only city residents to make campaign contributions, and caps the contribution amount.
Read More | Community Wires, Press Releases & BlogsApr 27, 2017
We watch as Highland residents fight to protect their water, the oil and gas industry attack, and the people’s own state government and PA Department of Environmental Protection back industry.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsApr 25, 2017
Oregon court protects the people’s right to initiative, rejecting the Secretary of State’s effort to block the people’s rights-based state constitutional amendment from the ballot.
Read More | Community Wires, Press Releases & Blogs, Success StoryApr 24, 2017
The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection holds “listening hearings” for feedback from communities, while it sues two townships fighting the oil and gas industry.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsApr 23, 2017
Athens County, OH, residents pursue third-year effort to advance community rights and ban fracking activities in the face of continued state efforts to block them.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsApr 21, 2017
The battle against big money is on in Coos County, OR. With support for industry coming from the White House, Coos residents are up against an all out propaganda war as they fight to protect their community from an LNG export terminal.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsApr 20, 2017
Oil and gas industry donates more than $300,000 to defeat Coos County, OR, residents’ Right to a Sustainable Energy Future Ordinance.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsApr 19, 2017
The first steps towards recognizing the rights of rivers to exist and flourish are taken in New Zealand and India, advancing the growing movement to recognize the rights of nature.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots, Success StoryApr 17, 2017
The story of one small community’s fierce fight against the oil and gas industry, using community rights with CELDF and spearheading a movement.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsApr 15, 2017
Highland Township, PA’s, Water Authority files to intervene in a federal lawsuit to protect the community’s right to water. Township Supervisors are attempting to give away that right and allow a frack wastewater injection well.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsApr 10, 2017
Residents of Grant and Highland Townships, PA, continue the fight to protect themselves from a frack wastewater injection well. Joining the fight against them: the PA DEP, which has sued the townships for protecting themselves.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsApr 10, 2017
Community rights advocates in Grant Township, PA, continue their stand to protect their water from a frack wastewater injection well.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsApr 8, 2017
From India, Ecuador, and Bolivia, to communities in the U.S., growing numbers of people are advancing nature’s rights and protecting ecosystems.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots, Success StoryApr 7, 2017
More than 50 people attend the Communities Rising Tour in Medina County, OH, discussing what needs to happen to protect themselves from the proposed Nexus pipeline.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the GrassrootsApr 7, 2017
The OH/PA Communities Rising Tour stops in Medina County, OH, where residents face the Nexus pipeline and are organizing using Community Rights to stop it.
Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots