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Nov 1, 2011

StateCollege.com: State College Council Members Fight Environmental Proposal, Cite Procedural Concerns

StateCollege.com: State College Council Members Fight Environmental Proposal, Cite Procedural Concerns

With a week left before Election Day, a State College Borough Council majority has begun lobbying against a proposed borough-charter amendment. The amendment would add an environmental bill of rights and a ban on commercial natural-gas drilling to the borough charter, the municipality’s governing document. Groundswell PA, a local environmental-advocacy group, has led the charge for the amendment.

Read More | Community Wires

Oct 31, 2011

The Next Step: Beyond Sustainable Agriculture

The Next Step: Beyond Sustainable Agriculture

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Oct 11, 2011

Turning Occupation into Lasting Change

Turning Occupation into Lasting Change

If the Occupy movement is to succeed over time, it must follow the lead of community rights building efforts that have begun work to dismantle the body of law that perpetually subordinates people, communities, and nature to wealthy corporate minorities.

Read More | News from the Grassroots

Oct 5, 2011

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Natural gas drilling ban remains on Peters ballot

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Natural gas drilling ban remains on Peters ballot

Peters officials do not plan to challenge a judge’s decision to allow a controversial referendum question on the ballot for the Nov. 8 general election that, if passed, would prohibit new natural gas extraction and likely spur lawsuits over access to Marcellus Shale deposits…. Washington County Common Pleas Judge Paul Pozonsky Monday dismissed an attempt by the township to block the referendum. In a brief order, the judge wrote that he could not act before the election because there was no “immediate harm caused by the presence of the measure on the ballot.”

Read More | Community Wires

Oct 4, 2011

CELDF Press Release: “Peters Township Citizens Prevail: Local Bill of Rights and Fracking Ban to Appear on Ballot”

CELDF Press Release: “Peters Township Citizens Prevail: Local Bill of Rights and Fracking Ban to Appear on Ballot”

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 Wires

Sep 28, 2011

Envision Spokane: Worker Rights, Not Corporate Employer Rights

Envision Spokane: Worker Rights, Not Corporate Employer Rights

Cross the threshold into a private workplace and POOF!, your constitutional rights disappear. It’s true. Gone go your First, Fourth, Fifth, and Fourteenth Amendment rights, but not so for corporate employers.

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Sep 28, 2011

Envision Spokane: River Rights, Not Corporate Polluter Rights

Envision Spokane: River Rights, Not Corporate Polluter Rights

Prop. 1 would establish the highest protections for the River and Aquifer – recognizing their rights to exist; it then provides for us – as Spokane residents – the ability to enforce those rights.

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Sep 28, 2011

Envision Spokane: Neighborhood Rights, Not Corporate Developer Rights

Envision Spokane: Neighborhood Rights, Not Corporate Developer Rights

Today, corporate developers have more rights than our neighborhoods. Prop. 1 would require developers to obtain neighborhood approval for zoning changes involving significant development. It means residents, not developers, would have the final say.

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Sep 28, 2011

Envision Spokane: Community Rights, not Corporate Rights

Envision Spokane: Community Rights, not Corporate Rights

It is time to reign in corporation so that they serve people, not the other way around. In Spokane, corporations are given the same legal rights as naturally born people even though there is nothing natural about them. Combine corporate legal rights with enormous corporate wealth and all of us naturally born people lose our ability to create communities that reflect our values.

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Sep 14, 2011

Observer-Reporter: Unclear if referendum will make PT ballot in election

Observer-Reporter: Unclear if referendum will make PT ballot in election

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 Wires

Sep 13, 2011

The Almanac: PT advances gas referendum

The Almanac: PT advances gas referendum

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 Wires

Sep 13, 2011

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Peters council heads to court to block shale referendum

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Peters council heads to court to block shale referendum

A lawyer representing Peters council is expected to be in Washington County court this morning in an attempt to block a voter referendum on whether to ban natural gas drilling. “In my opinion, it’s patently illegal,” said solicitor William Johnson. The referendum, which is slated to appear on the Nov. 8 ballot, asks Peters voters whether to ban gas drilling and hydraulic fracturing — or fracking — of the Marcellus Shale, and other natural gas extraction activities.

Read More | Community Wires

Sep 13, 2011

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Judge to rule on Peters drilling referendum

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Judge to rule on Peters drilling referendum

A Washington County judge has set a Sept. 28 hearing for arguments over whether to block a voter referendum on natural gas drilling in Peters. At a brief hearing this morning, Judge Paul Pozonsky said he will try to make a decision about a petition from Peters Solicitor William Johnson before the first week in October, when absentee ballots for the general election are to be printed and mailed.

Read More | Community Wires

Sep 12, 2011

The Raw Story: Penn. township challenges fracking with ballot initiative

The Raw Story: Penn. township challenges fracking with ballot initiative

A small township in western Pennsylvania is fighting back against fracking and attempting to write a ban on the practice into their local Bill of Rights, but they may be thwarted by their own town council. Peters Township in Washington County, population 21,213, is home to the Peters Township Marcellus Shale Awareness Group, an activism group formed after residents viewed Josh Fox’s anti-fracking documentary “GasLand.” PTMSA collected 2,422 signatures to place their Home Rule Charter amendment on the ballot on November 8 of this year, asking the question below.

Read More | Community Wires

Sep 11, 2011

Our Inalienable Rights to Freedom

Our Inalienable Rights to Freedom

Mora County, NM, Faces Fracking.

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Aug 31, 2011

Why Local Communities Need to Assert Their Inalienable Rights to Self-Government

Why Local Communities Need to Assert Their Inalienable Rights to Self-Government

This is not just about newly unlimited corporate campaign contributions; it is about direct corporate decision-making in our communities.

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Aug 30, 2011

CELDF: The Real Frackasaurus Coloring Book

CELDF: The Real Frackasaurus Coloring Book

On November 15, 2010, South Fayette Township in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania passed a zoning ordinance regulating the location of oil and gas extraction activities in the municipality.

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Aug 30, 2011

StateCollege.com: Proposed Gas-Drilling Ban, Environmental-Rights Question Set for State College Ballot

StateCollege.com: Proposed Gas-Drilling Ban, Environmental-Rights Question Set for State College Ballot

State College voters will decide Nov. 8 on a proposed borough-charter amendment — an amendment that would ban commercial gas drilling and establish environmental rights within borough limits. Elections-board members voted 3-0 Friday to include the referendum item as part of the borough’s general-election ballot. Earlier this summer, just more than 1,000 borough residents signed a petition to qualify the proposal for placement as a referendum item.

Read More | Community Wires

Aug 16, 2011

Envision Spokane Successfully Qualifies Initiative to the Ballot

Envision Spokane Successfully Qualifies Initiative to the Ballot

Envision Spokane’s Brad Read on the “Community Bill of Rights” Initiative.

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Aug 5, 2011

CELDF’s Ben Price on Local Self Governance and Rights of Nature (Parts 1 through 3)

CELDF’s Ben Price on Local Self Governance and Rights of Nature (Parts 1 through 3)

CELDF Projects Director Ben Prices talks with Simon Kaiwai of New Zealand, sharing knowledge of how communities have overcome such things as fracking, mining, water rights, human rights, GE, GMO, corporate personhood and unwanted state plans for their local environment.

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Jul 25, 2011

State College: As Anti-Drilling Push Unfolds, Penn State Campus Could Land in No-Drill Zone

State College: As Anti-Drilling Push Unfolds, Penn State Campus Could Land in No-Drill Zone

For generations, Braden Crooks’ family has maintained a farm in Clarion County, in western Pennsylvania. Its lifeblood, as with so many other homesteads in that rural expanse of Pennsylvania, is its well water. “If we don’t have the well water, we can’t live there,” Crooks explained to me last week. “That’s very direct — very personal.” That direct, personal connection is helping to drive his leadership of Groundswell PA, the new environmental-advocacy group that Crooks, a 2011 Penn State landscape-architecture graduate, founded. We’ve written before about Groundswell, whose most immediate goal is to place, on State College general-election ballot for November, a voter referendum on an environmental bill of rights.

Read More | Community Wires

May 3, 2011

Pachamama Hosts Global Alliance for Rights of Nature in San Francisco

Pachamama Hosts Global Alliance for Rights of Nature in San Francisco

The Rights of Nature, The Case for a Universal Declaration on the Rights of Mother Earth. Co-produced by Global Exchange, the Council of Canadians, The Pachamama Alliance, and Fundación Pachamama.

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May 3, 2011

Pachamama Hosts Global Alliance for Rights of Nature in San Francisco

Pachamama Hosts Global Alliance for Rights of Nature in San Francisco

Rights of Nature panel at Global Alliance for Rights of Nature, San Francisco.

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Apr 22, 2011

Wired: Giving Nature Its Own Rights Might Avert Future Oil Disasters

Wired: Giving Nature Its Own Rights Might Avert Future Oil Disasters

Considering the rights of ecosystems dates to 1972 with Christopher Stone, and has evolved today to local laws establishing Rights of Nature as a means to protect against destructive activities.

Read More | News from the Grassroots

Feb 23, 2011

Oil Giant Gets a Shelling

Oil Giant Gets a Shelling

David Versus Goliath Off the Irish Coast.

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Feb 19, 2011

Sabrina Artel’s Trailer Talk: The Marcellus Shale Water Project

Sabrina Artel’s Trailer Talk: The Marcellus Shale Water Project

The Marcellus Shale Water Project.

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Feb 9, 2011

Buffalo NY Bans Fracking

Buffalo NY Bans Fracking

On February 9th, 2011 Buffalo, NY became the first municipality in New York State to ban hydraulic fracking.

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Jan 25, 2011

Taking on Corporations and Giving Rights to Nature

Taking on Corporations and Giving Rights to Nature

Why 1 in 3 Children is Chronically Ill, and Wild Weather and Media Silence on Climate Connections.

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Jan 25, 2011

Democracy Matters Radio

Democracy Matters Radio

Net Neutrality – Corporate Control of the Internet. And drilling Ohio. This week on Democracy Matters Radio.

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Jan 13, 2011

Cape Ann Beacon: Gloucester moves to protect its water supply

Cape Ann Beacon: Gloucester moves to protect its water supply

Gloucester, MA, residents insist local water must stay in local hands. City Council takes a step towards making sure that happens.

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Jan 10, 2011

Democracy Matters

Democracy Matters

Bailing out corporations, but not communities – a federal double standard? And Mora County, NM – community rights vs. fracking. This week on Democracy Matters Radio.

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Jan 10, 2011

‘Fracking’ issue tests citizens’ authority

‘Fracking’ issue tests citizens’ authority

Plain Township, Canton and other public officials currently face a direct human and environmental assault on their communities over “fracking” — vertical and horizontal gas drilling.

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Jan 5, 2011

Democracy Matters Radio

Democracy Matters Radio

Net Neutrality – Corporate Control of the Internet. And drilling Ohio. This week on Democracy Matters Radio.

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Jan 4, 2011

Democracy Matters

Democracy Matters

Pittsburgh City Councilman Doug Shields headlines our “Best of 2010” interviews on Democracy Matters

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Dec 29, 2010

Peters Twp, Washington County PA

Peters Twp, Washington County PA

Marcellus Shale Awareness Group to meet Jan. 5

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Dec 22, 2010

Mayor of Nevada City, CA Invites You to Democracy School

Mayor of Nevada City, CA Invites You to Democracy School

http://youtu.be/Eb2sMhhc1gM

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Dec 21, 2010

CELDF on the Radio

CELDF on the Radio

When is a Repeal not a Repeal – A look at Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell and other acts of Congress, and a sneak peak at Democracy School … Listen to CELDF on the Radio – “Democracy Matters” Podcast

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Dec 20, 2010

Democracy Matters

Democracy Matters

Derrick Jensen headlines our “Best of 2010” interviews on this special holiday week edition of Democracy Matters

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Dec 16, 2010

The Farm Bureau – Factory Farm Champion, From 60 Minutes 2000. Part 1 and 2

The Farm Bureau – Factory Farm Champion, From 60 Minutes 2000. Part 1 and 2

While the Farm Bureau touts itself as a non-profit organization representing the interests of the small family farmer, in fact, it is a lobbying arm for corporate agri-business and beyond. Watch these segments of 60 Minutes to learn more.

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Dec 14, 2010

Citizen Speaks Up for Community Self-Government, Plain Township, OH – 12-14-10

Citizen Speaks Up for Community Self-Government, Plain Township, OH – 12-14-10

Plain Township, Ohio is considering adoption of a local measure modeled on the Pittsburgh / Buffalo gas drilling ordinance.

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Dec 6, 2010

CELDF on the Radio

CELDF on the Radio

“Democracy Matters” Podcast for the week of Dec 6: Featuring Part I of our interview with Professor Christopher Stone, author of “Should Trees Have Standing?” on Rights of Nature

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Dec 5, 2010

Does Nature have Rights?

Does Nature have Rights?

Thoughts on Democracy School

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Dec 1, 2010

CELDF on the Radio

CELDF on the Radio

“Democracy Matters” Podcast for Dec. 1: Energy – when will we stop conducting activism – such as advocating for “responsible drilling” – when we know it destroys communities; and Envision Spokane president Brad Read

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Nov 21, 2010

CELDF on the Radio

CELDF on the Radio

“Democracy Matters” Podcast for Thanksgiving Week: The mythology of Thanksgiving and an interview with CELDF Organizer Chad Nicholson

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Nov 18, 2010

Holy Frack! Pittsburgh Bans Gas Drilling Through Rights-based Ordinance

Holy Frack! Pittsburgh Bans Gas Drilling Through Rights-based Ordinance

Pittsburgh is the first major U.S. city to adopt a rights-based ordinance that includes the legal rights for nature.

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Nov 17, 2010

CELDF on the Radio

CELDF on the Radio

“Democracy Matters” Podcast for Nov. 17 – with Part II of our interview with Pittsburgh City Councilman Doug Shields on the city’s ordinance banning corporations from natural gas drilling

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Nov 15, 2010

Lehman Denies People’s Right to Get Action on Gas Drilling

Lehman Denies People’s Right to Get Action on Gas Drilling

This process is not as predictably safe as the industry would allow us to believe.

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Nov 10, 2010

CELDF Says it is Ready For Fight.

CELDF Says it is Ready For Fight.

As Pittsburgh City Council debated the merits of a bill that would ban future drilling in the Marcellus Shale formation within the city limits, it became clear that some members were curious how much it would cost to defend the bill in a court of law.

Read More | Uncategorized

Nov 10, 2010

Shale gas can pollute the air, too…But Marcellus companies might even profit from preventive measures

Shale gas can pollute the air, too…But Marcellus companies might even profit from preventive measures

“Drilling opponents and supporters can all agree that if Marcellus Shale development proceeds, it should happen in a manner that protects workers, the environment and communities.”

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