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Nov 1, 2011
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 WiresOct 31, 2011
Oct 11, 2011
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 GrassrootsOct 5, 2011
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 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 28, 2011
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.
Read More | UncategorizedSep 28, 2011
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.
Read More | UncategorizedSep 28, 2011
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.
Read More | UncategorizedSep 28, 2011
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.
Read More | UncategorizedSep 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 13, 2011
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 WiresSep 13, 2011
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 WiresSep 12, 2011
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 WiresSep 11, 2011
Aug 31, 2011
This is not just about newly unlimited corporate campaign contributions; it is about direct corporate decision-making in our communities.
Read More | UncategorizedAug 30, 2011
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.
Read More | UncategorizedAug 30, 2011
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 WiresAug 16, 2011
Envision Spokane’s Brad Read on the “Community Bill of Rights” Initiative.
Read More | UncategorizedAug 5, 2011
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.
Read More | UncategorizedJul 25, 2011
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 WiresMay 3, 2011
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.
Read More | UncategorizedMay 3, 2011
Rights of Nature panel at Global Alliance for Rights of Nature, San Francisco.
Read More | UncategorizedApr 22, 2011
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 GrassrootsFeb 23, 2011
Feb 19, 2011
The Marcellus Shale Water Project.
Read More | UncategorizedFeb 9, 2011
On February 9th, 2011 Buffalo, NY became the first municipality in New York State to ban hydraulic fracking.
Read More | UncategorizedJan 25, 2011
Why 1 in 3 Children is Chronically Ill, and Wild Weather and Media Silence on Climate Connections.
Read More | UncategorizedJan 25, 2011
Net Neutrality – Corporate Control of the Internet. And drilling Ohio. This week on Democracy Matters Radio.
Read More | UncategorizedJan 13, 2011
Gloucester, MA, residents insist local water must stay in local hands. City Council takes a step towards making sure that happens.
Read More | UncategorizedJan 10, 2011
Bailing out corporations, but not communities – a federal double standard? And Mora County, NM – community rights vs. fracking. This week on Democracy Matters Radio.
Read More | UncategorizedJan 10, 2011
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.
Read More | UncategorizedJan 5, 2011
Net Neutrality – Corporate Control of the Internet. And drilling Ohio. This week on Democracy Matters Radio.
Read More | UncategorizedJan 4, 2011
Pittsburgh City Councilman Doug Shields headlines our “Best of 2010” interviews on Democracy Matters
Read More | UncategorizedDec 29, 2010
Marcellus Shale Awareness Group to meet Jan. 5
Read More | UncategorizedDec 22, 2010
http://youtu.be/Eb2sMhhc1gM
Read More | UncategorizedDec 21, 2010
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
Read More | UncategorizedDec 20, 2010
Derrick Jensen headlines our “Best of 2010” interviews on this special holiday week edition of Democracy Matters
Read More | UncategorizedDec 16, 2010
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.
Read More | UncategorizedDec 14, 2010
Plain Township, Ohio is considering adoption of a local measure modeled on the Pittsburgh / Buffalo gas drilling ordinance.
Read More | UncategorizedDec 6, 2010
“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
Read More | UncategorizedDec 5, 2010
Dec 1, 2010
“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
Read More | UncategorizedNov 21, 2010
“Democracy Matters” Podcast for Thanksgiving Week: The mythology of Thanksgiving and an interview with CELDF Organizer Chad Nicholson
Read More | UncategorizedNov 18, 2010
Pittsburgh is the first major U.S. city to adopt a rights-based ordinance that includes the legal rights for nature.
Read More | UncategorizedNov 17, 2010
“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
Read More | UncategorizedNov 16, 2010
Today, the Pittsburgh City Council unanimously adopted an ordinance banning corporations from conducting shale gas drilling in the city.
Read More | Community Wires, Press Releases & Blogs, Success StoryNov 15, 2010
This process is not as predictably safe as the industry would allow us to believe.
Read More | UncategorizedNov 10, 2010
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 | UncategorizedNov 10, 2010
“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.”
Read More | Uncategorized