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Jan 5, 2017

Daily Camera: Lafayette considers legalizing civil disobedience against fracking operations

Daily Camera: Lafayette considers legalizing civil disobedience against fracking operations

City Council in Lafayette, CO, advances a Climate Bill of Rights and Protections ordinance that legalizes nonviolent direct action to protect against oil and gas drilling.

Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots

Jan 4, 2017

PR: Cease and Desist Letter Issued to Highland Township Supervisors

PR: Cease and Desist Letter Issued to Highland Township Supervisors

Highland Township, PA, supervisors concede they don’t have the authority to remove the Township’s Water Authority Board after receiving a cease and desist letter. Supervisors have been harassing the Board as the community fights an injection well.

Read More | Community Wires, Press Releases & Blogs

Jan 3, 2017

94.1 KPFA: Community and Ecosystem Rights

94.1 KPFA: Community and Ecosystem Rights

CELDF’s Thomas Linzey discusses how people are able to protect and preserve the places they call home – especially when governments fail to do so.

Read More | News from the Grassroots

Dec 29, 2016

PR: Lafayette, CO, Residents Introduce Climate Bill of Rights and Protections

PR: Lafayette, CO, Residents Introduce Climate Bill of Rights and Protections

Lafayette, CO, residents introduce a law codifying the right to a healthy climate, and protecting and enforcing that right through non-violent direct action.

Read More | Community Wires, Press Releases & Blogs

Dec 29, 2016

Yes! Magazine: As a Trump Administration Fast Approaches, Cities and Towns Gear Up for Political Resistance

Yes! Magazine: As a Trump Administration Fast Approaches, Cities and Towns Gear Up for Political Resistance

Community Bills of Rights are a tool to protect rights at the local level, such as Barnstead, NH’s prohibition on religious identification requirements, and Grant Township, PA’s, ban fracking activities to protect clean air and water.

Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots

Dec 27, 2016

Community Rights Paper #15 – Stopping Climate Change: The Slow Train to Nowhere

Community Rights Paper #15 – Stopping Climate Change: The Slow Train to Nowhere

The Paris Agreement will not stop climate change – most experts agree on that. What will? Only we, in our communities, can achieve the changes necessary to protect our communities and the planet.

Read More | Press Releases & Blogs

Dec 26, 2016

The World: Local control can replace 19th-century energy thinking

The World: Local control can replace 19th-century energy thinking

Coos County, OR, residents aim to transform their community through Community Rights, democratizing energy development and creating sustainability. They’re willing to challenge unjust laws to do so.

Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots

Dec 22, 2016

Oberlin News-Tribune: We must oppose unjust laws

Oberlin News-Tribune: We must oppose unjust laws

An Oberlin, OH, resident urges resistance to unjust laws forcing the Nexus pipeline into the City. It is a call for courage and to follow in the footsteps of prior rights-based movements, such as the Abolitionists, Suffragists, and Civil Rights Movement.

Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots

Dec 20, 2016

Community Rights Paper #14: Democratic Rights Matter

Community Rights Paper #14: Democratic Rights Matter

There is a corporate state crack down on communities governing themselves and taking action to protect future generations. The crack down is evidence that these communities’ strategies are working, and striking at the power wielded against people and nature.

Read More | Community Wires, Press Releases & Blogs

Dec 13, 2016

Yes! Magazine: A Healthier Democracy Starts Right Where You Live

Yes! Magazine: A Healthier Democracy Starts Right Where You Live

A review of Tree Media’s documentary on CELDF’s work in communities across the country: We the People 2.0 – The Second American Revolution.

Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots

Dec 11, 2016

Blog: U.S. Ruled by 9-Headed Monarch: What We Didn’t Learn in School about the Supreme Court

Blog: U.S. Ruled by 9-Headed Monarch: What We Didn’t Learn in School about the Supreme Court

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 & Blogs

Dec 9, 2016

Yes! Magazine: A Last Resort That Might Work: Small Town Votes In Community Bill of Rights to Ban Fracking

Yes! Magazine: A Last Resort That Might Work: Small Town Votes In Community Bill of Rights to Ban Fracking

The story of Waterville, OH, residents, taking their health and safety into their own hands, and banning Spectra Energy’s Nexus pipeline as a violation of rights.

Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots, Success Story

Dec 6, 2016

Sentinel-Tribune: By unanimous vote, BG council rejects easement for Nexus pipeline project

Sentinel-Tribune: By unanimous vote, BG council rejects easement for Nexus pipeline project

A huge crowd of residents from Bowling Green and beyond gather to show their overwhelming support of City Council members to vote against an easement for the Nexus pipeline. Council did so unanimously.

Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots, Success Story

Dec 6, 2016

Blog: Fracking Resistance in the UK

Blog: Fracking Resistance in the UK

The British are fighting to protect their communities from fracking, as we are in the U.S. We share a common history: the claimed rights of property exceed the rights of human and natural communities. People are fighting to change it.

Read More | Press Releases & Blogs

Dec 2, 2016

Ryan Talbott Joins CELDF Board of Directors

Ryan Talbott Joins CELDF Board of Directors

Ryan Talbott, an environmental lawyer, joins the Board of Directors of CELDF.

Read More | Press Releases & Blogs

Dec 1, 2016

2016: A Year in Review

2016: A Year in Review

What an amazing year – from Pennsylvania, Ohio, and New Hampshire, to Washington and Oregon, people are growing Community Rights and protecting their communities from corporate harms. Your support makes our work possible!

Read More | Press Releases & Blogs

Dec 1, 2016

Harper’s Magazine: Class Takeover

Harper’s Magazine: Class Takeover

It’s not just water that’s privatized and stripped from local control. Youngstown, OH’s education system has been seized from the public and put into private hands. What happens in Youngstown will happen to us. What are we going to do about it?

Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots

Nov 29, 2016

Blog: The Police State Policing Police. How’s That Been Working for You?

Blog: The Police State Policing Police. How’s That Been Working for You?

We live in a corporatized police state. Violence to protect property and suppress people is condoned by the power elite. Rather than pleading for the system to reform itself, we must dismantle it and build anew.

Read More | Press Releases & Blogs

Nov 27, 2016

The Blade: B.G. council to decide on pipeline offer

The Blade: B.G. council to decide on pipeline offer

About 100 people attended a Bowling Green, OH, City Council meeting. Residents urged council members to refuse easement access to Spectra Energy for a pipeline to cut through the City, including members of OHCRN.

Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots

Nov 19, 2016

Blog: Propertied Privilege Trumps Democracy

Blog: Propertied Privilege Trumps Democracy

Upset with the Electoral College and disturbed by the implications of who was elected President? Let’s look a little deeper and see what’s really going on – and how our “democratic” system is doing exactly what it was engineered to do.

Read More | Press Releases & Blogs

Nov 18, 2016

The Gazette: “We the People 2.0” documentary shows similar struggles to opposition to NEXUS pipeline

The Gazette: “We the People 2.0” documentary shows similar struggles to opposition to NEXUS pipeline

The Nexus Pipeline threatens Medina County, OH, residents. Medina residents gather to watch We the People 2.0, a documentary about communities across the U.S. facing similar battles, and using Community Rights to fight back.

Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots

Nov 12, 2016

Blog: Government Checks and Balances, and the Trump Suit

Blog: Government Checks and Balances, and the Trump Suit

Trump ideology is poised to take over all three branches of government. And yet the fundamental and powerful principal of government’s purpose – to protect the health, safety, and welfare of we, the people – remains, and is realized through the right to local community self-government.

Read More | Press Releases & Blogs

Nov 8, 2016

PR: Highland Township Bans Injection Wells, Rebukes Corporate Rule

PR: Highland Township Bans Injection Wells, Rebukes Corporate Rule

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 Story

Nov 8, 2016

PR: Youngstown Residents: Unshakable Determination as They Look Ahead to Next Community Bill of Rights

PR: Youngstown Residents: Unshakable Determination as They Look Ahead to Next Community Bill of Rights

The might of the oil and gas industry and its allies were out in force, outspending residents enormously in today’s election to defeat the people’s Community Bill of Rights banning fracking. While the measure was defeated, the people are not.

Read More | Community Wires, Press Releases & Blogs

Nov 8, 2016

PR: Waterville Residents Ban Pipelines and Compressor Stations through Adopting Community Bill of Rights

PR: Waterville Residents Ban Pipelines and Compressor Stations through Adopting Community Bill of Rights

Waterville, OH, residents make clear the Nexus pipeline and compressor station will not cut through their community, overwhelmingly adopting a Community Bill of Rights Charter Amendment banning fracking related activities.

Read More | Community Wires, Press Releases & Blogs, Success Story

Nov 7, 2016

Kane Republican: Township referendum question causes ad campaign onslaught

Kane Republican: Township referendum question causes ad campaign onslaught

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 Grassroots

Nov 6, 2016

CELDF Blog: From Absurd and Far-Fetched to Inalienable

CELDF Blog: From Absurd and Far-Fetched to Inalienable

As the predictable self-destruction of this culture of deceit and greed proceeds and accelerates, CELDF’s recommendations for change will become less “far-fetched” and “absurd.” They will at last seem inevitable and unavoidable.

Read More | Press Releases & Blogs

Nov 4, 2016

The Investigative Fund: Big Oil and Gas Take Aim at Ballot Initiative Process in Colorado

The Investigative Fund: Big Oil and Gas Take Aim at Ballot Initiative Process in Colorado

In Colorado and Ohio, the oil and gas industry maneuvers to keep citizen initiatives threatening fracking off the ballot. In Colorado, the industry has advanced a measure to make future initiatives even more difficult for residents to move forward.

Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots

Oct 30, 2016

Salon: What’s not being voted on this November: Local democracy is being squashed from coast to coast

Salon: What’s not being voted on this November: Local democracy is being squashed from coast to coast

Simon Davis-Cohen reveals escalating efforts to quash We the People from exercising our right to initiative. From fracking and water protection, to minimum wage and police reform, the corporate state is cracking down.

Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots

Oct 25, 2016

The Gazette: NEXUS route changes, concerns discussed

The Gazette: NEXUS route changes, concerns discussed

While the Nexus pipeline has been re-routed, it’s simply sacrificing another community in Medina County, Ohio. Residents meet to learn what’s happening and what they can do about it.

Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots

Oct 23, 2016

The Blade: Protect children by passing issue 3

The Blade: Protect children by passing issue 3

In a letter-to-the-editor, Waterville resident urges support for the community’s rights-based initiative banning the Nexus pipeline and compressor station, and exercising their right to democratic self-government.

Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots

Oct 21, 2016

Truthout: Democracy Deferred: Ohio Removes Anti-Fracking Measures From County Ballots

Truthout: Democracy Deferred: Ohio Removes Anti-Fracking Measures From County Ballots

In Ohio and elsewhere, when democracy threatens the oil and gas industry, those occupying our legal and governing structures take liberty in interpreting the law on industry’s behalf. The result: democratic suppression and an open door to frack.

Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots

Oct 21, 2016

The Blade: Nexus is a bad deal for Waterville

The Blade: Nexus is a bad deal for Waterville

A Waterville, OH, residents speaks up on a compressor station: “If our political leaders will not protect our children, then we the people must pass our own law to protect Waterville.” Residents are voting on a Community Bill of Rights in November.

Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots

Oct 19, 2016

Ed “Flash” Ferenc on America’s Work Force Radio Interviews CELDF’s Tish O’Dell

Ed “Flash” Ferenc on America’s Work Force Radio Interviews CELDF’s Tish O’Dell

CELDF’s Tish O’Dell speaks up on American’s Workforce Radio regarding using Community Rights to create the environmentally, economically, and socially sustainable communities we envisions. Begins 44 minutes in.

Read More | Community Wires

Oct 16, 2016

The New Political: Athens anti-fracking charter welcomes Tish O’Dell for fundraiser

The New Political: Athens anti-fracking charter welcomes Tish O’Dell for fundraiser

Athens County, OH, residents issue a call to action for next steps in their work to protect against fracking activities. The Athens County Community Bill of Rights group held a fundraiser with guest speaker Tish O’Dell, from CELDF.

Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots

Oct 13, 2016

Mongabay: Nature’s right to exist gets a boost from key organizations

Mongabay: Nature’s right to exist gets a boost from key organizations

As growing numbers of communities adopt Community Bills of Rights recognizing the Rights of Nature, countries, the United Nations, and NGOs advance Rights of Nature as well. The human right to a healthy environment cannot be separated from rights of ecosystems.

Read More | News from the Grassroots

Oct 13, 2016

Courier Express: Study commission asks to be sued, request granted by the court

Courier Express: Study commission asks to be sued, request granted by the court

An Elk County, PA, judge rules in favor of the Highland County Government Study Commission to intervene in a lawsuit filed by their own Supervisors to keep a Charter measure off the November ballot.

Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots

Oct 13, 2016

PR: Highland Township Government Study Commission Wins Motion to Intervene

PR: Highland Township Government Study Commission Wins Motion to Intervene

Highland Township Government Study Commission wins their motion to intervene in a lawsuit brought on by Township Supervisors determined to keep the Commission’s Charter off the November ballot. Residents are fighting a frack waste injection well, using their right to local self-government.

Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots

Oct 9, 2016

Vindy.com: Youngstown voters will consider 6 charter amendments on fall ballot

Vindy.com: Youngstown voters will consider 6 charter amendments on fall ballot

Youngstown, OH, voters will vote for a sixth time on a Community Bill of Rights banning fracking activities within the City. Residents promise to bring the measure forward again if it does not pass, because of the threat to local water sources and climate change.

Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots

Oct 7, 2016

Press Release: Lincoln County Residents to Vote on Clean Air and Water in May 2017

Press Release: Lincoln County Residents to Vote on Clean Air and Water in May 2017

Lincoln County, OR, residents qualify their Community Bill of Rights ordinance banning toxic aerial spraying for the May 2017 ballot.

Read More | Community Wires, Press Releases & Blogs

Oct 7, 2016

The Laconia Daily Sun: A small number of corporations control our energy-delivery chain

The Laconia Daily Sun: A small number of corporations control our energy-delivery chain

What is sustainable? Purported “green” and “renewables” are anything but – particularly when they’re run by a small number of corporations. Truly sustainable means truly renewable, and it means the people affected by energy governing decisions are the ones who make them.

Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots

Oct 7, 2016

Movement Rights Blog: Ponca Nation Considers Rights of Nature Fracking & Injection Ban

Movement Rights Blog: Ponca Nation Considers Rights of Nature Fracking & Injection Ban

As the corporate state continues to support fracking activities, the Ponka Nation vows to protect the land and people from harm using Rights of Nature and banning fracking waste injection wells.

Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots

Oct 5, 2016

CELDF Statement: When Protecting Our Communities Becomes Criminal Activity

CELDF Statement: When Protecting Our Communities Becomes Criminal Activity

Oil and gas industry threatens criminal lawsuits against local elected officials taking a stand to protect their communities’ health, safety, and welfare. In Grant Township, PA, Township Supervisors are undeterred, vowing to continue their fight to protect their water from frack waste.

Read More | Community Wires, Press Releases & Blogs

Oct 4, 2016

In These Times: Ho-Chunk Nation of Wisconsin Becomes First to Add Rights of Nature to Tribal Constitution

In These Times: Ho-Chunk Nation of Wisconsin Becomes First to Add Rights of Nature to Tribal Constitution

Recognizing the Rights of Nature in law is a growing strategy used by indigenous and non-indigenous communities across the U.S. and internationally to protect communities from environmental harm. The Ho-Chunk Nation is the first tribal nation to vote on amending their constitution with the Rights of Nature.

Read More | News from the Grassroots, Success Story

Oct 4, 2016

Common Dreams: Fracking Industry’s New Plan? Prosecute Those Who Push Drilling Bans

Common Dreams: Fracking Industry’s New Plan? Prosecute Those Who Push Drilling Bans

As communities seek to protect themselves from toxic drilling, Pennsylvania industry group mulls statute to deter such ordinances.

Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots

Oct 3, 2016

Allied News: Shale waste insights

Allied News: Shale waste insights

Residents in Wilmington, PA, gathered to hear a panel discussion on fracking threats. Panelists included Grant Township Supervisor Stacy Long, describing tactics used by the gas industry to intimidate residents into accepting an injection well. Residents refuse to submit and are fighting back.

Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots

Sep 30, 2016

The Register-Guard: Retired Eugene attorney sues Lane County over controversial initiatives

The Register-Guard: Retired Eugene attorney sues Lane County over controversial initiatives

Lane County, OR, residents advancing Community Rights initiatives banning aerial pesticide spraying and GMOs face further efforts to block their measures from the ballot.

Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots

Sep 30, 2016

Jacobin: Democracy at Every Level

Jacobin: Democracy at Every Level

Federal and state governments strip local control to benefit commerce – at the cost of our communities. If we want to put people before profits, we must fight for democracy in the places where we live.

Read More | News from the Grassroots

Sep 26, 2016

The Post: Athens County anti-fracking charter determined ‘invalid’ by Ohio Supreme Court

The Post: Athens County anti-fracking charter determined ‘invalid’ by Ohio Supreme Court

Athens County, OH, residents’ frustration grows as the corporate state refuses to recognize their authority to vote on their own county charter measures. Residents face threats to their water, air, and soil from fracking wastewater injection wells, and were using charters to ban them.

Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots

Sep 21, 2016

The Bradford Era: Appeal filed in Seneca versus Highland Township case

The Bradford Era: Appeal filed in Seneca versus Highland Township case

A U.S. District Magistrate Judge refused to allow community or ecosystem intervention in the Highland Township, PA, case, where communities are fighting to stop a frack wastewater injection well. CELDF files an appeal on their behalf to the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.

Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots