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Dec 1, 2014

Susquehanna, Vol. 17, Issue 3

Susquehanna, Vol. 17, Issue 3

This year, an unprecedented number of communities and grassroots groups contacted us for help to protect the places where they live. Collectively, they’ve decided that they’re no longer willing to accept the status quo.

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Jun 1, 2014

Susquehanna, Vol. 17, Issue 2

Susquehanna, Vol. 17, Issue 2

On June 3rd, the Grant Township Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to adopt a Community Bill of Rights Ordinance prohibiting
the disposal of fracking waste material into injection wells.

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Mar 1, 2014

Susquehanna, Vol. 17, Issue 1

Susquehanna, Vol. 17, Issue 1

In 2013, the residents of Lafayette, CO, approved a Community Bill
of Rights to their City’s Charter that banned commercial oil and gas extraction within the City, while removing corporate “rights” and state preemptive authority.

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Sep 1, 2013

Susquehanna, Vol. 15, Issue 3

Susquehanna, Vol. 15, Issue 3

This has been the busiest year ever for the Community Environmental Legal
Defense Fund (CELDF), as we’ve seen our work expand across the country and internationally.

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Jun 1, 2013

Susquehanna, Vol. 15, Issue 2

Susquehanna, Vol. 15, Issue 2

On May 19, 2013, residents from several regions of New Hampshire gathered at the Barnstead Town Hall to seat the Board of Directors of the New Hampshire Community Rights Network (NHCRN). At that meeting, they signed The Barnstead Declaration, calling for state level changes in law that recognize the right to local self-government and the Rights of Nature.

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Mar 1, 2013

Susquehanna, Vol. 15, Issue 1

Susquehanna, Vol. 15, Issue 1

In a landmark decision on March 20, 2013, Judge O’Dell-Seneca cited sections of the 1776 Pennsylvania Constitution in support of her contention that
corporations were never intended to be constitutionally protected “persons.”

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Sep 1, 2012

Susquehanna, Vol. 14, Issue 3

Susquehanna, Vol. 14, Issue 3

In April, I found myself sitting in an office in Kathmandu, Nepal with the former Prime Minister of Nepal, discussing whether CELDF’s work – of recognizing enforceable rights for nature – should become part of the country’s new Constitution.

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Jun 1, 2012

Susquehanna, Vol. 14, Issue 2

Susquehanna, Vol. 14, Issue 2

Members of Community Rights Activists of Ferguson Township (CRAFT) in
Centre County, Pennsylvania, have been circulating petitions to place a question on the ballot for Township residents to vote on a proposed Community
Bill of Rights in November.

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Mar 1, 2012

Susquehanna, Vol. 14, Issue 1

Susquehanna, Vol. 14, Issue 1

The Pennsylvania Legislature recently adopted Act 13 of 2012 (House Bill 1950) to accelerate the extraction of natural gas from the Marcellus Shale deposit underlying much of Pennsylvania.

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Sep 1, 2011

Susquehanna, Vol. 13, Issue 3

Susquehanna, Vol. 13, Issue 3

What a year it’s been.
I’m writing this note at 30,000 feet over southern Oregon on my way
to speak at the annual Bioneers Conference in southern California,
which draws over 3,000 attendees each year.

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Jun 1, 2011

Susquehanna, Vol. 13, Issue 2

Susquehanna, Vol. 13, Issue 2

How do we say “No more!” ask community members and local officials facing the daunting spread of natural gas drilling. “How do we
assert our rights to local self-governance?” As the number of gas wells
in Pennsylvania grows each week, concern is mounting and citizens
want to know how to stop the drilling and protect their community.

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Mar 1, 2011

Susquehanna, Vol. 13, Issue 1

Susquehanna, Vol. 13, Issue 1

Exploding gas wells, flaming faucets, lost land value, floating fish,
radioactive road de-icers, roadside dumping of toxic waste…the evidence that our communities are being turned into resource colonies of
gas drilling corporations is everywhere.

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Dec 1, 2010

Susquehanna, Vol. 12, Issue 4

Susquehanna, Vol. 12, Issue 4

Along with our new nationally syndicated radio show, our role as coconvenor of the new Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature, our work in Ireland and Ecuador, and the formation of our Pennsylvania Community Rights Network and its call for a new State Constitution, the Legal Defense Fund continues to blaze the path towards community sustainability through local democracy.

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Sep 1, 2010

Susquehanna, Vol. 12, Issue 3

Susquehanna, Vol. 12, Issue 3

It was in 2007 that Tamaqua Borough Council Member Cathy
Miorelli informed Tom Gerhart, Chair of the Packer Township Board of Supervisors, that 33 truckloads of New Jersey sewage sludge were dumped on a field about 75 yards from the Still Creek reservoir, which lies in Packer Township, Carbon County, Pennsylvania.

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Jun 1, 2010

Susquehanna, Vol. 12, Issue 2

Susquehanna, Vol. 12, Issue 2

According to polling numbers, more than 80% of Americans
think that the U.S. Supreme Court’s 5 to 4 ruling in the
Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission case stinks.

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Mar 1, 2010

Susquehanna, Vol. 12, Issue 1

Susquehanna, Vol. 12, Issue 1

There is widespread sentiment that our state of New
Hampshire gives towns a wide berth for local initiatives that
pass at Town Meeting. The people who have grown up here
believe in the independence of small government.

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Dec 1, 2009

Susquehanna, Vol. 11, Issue 4

Susquehanna, Vol. 11, Issue 4

Happy 15th anniversary to the Legal Defense Fund!
Begun in a spare bedroom in a house in rural Pennsylvania,
the work of the Legal Defense Fund has now spread to half of
the states in the country, with over a hundred municipalities
in Pennsylvania, Virginia, New Hampshire, and Maine adopting Legal Defense Fund ordinances.

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Sep 1, 2009

Susquehanna, Vol. 11, Issue 3

Susquehanna, Vol. 11, Issue 3

Earlier this year, the Community Environmental Legal
Defense Fund began working with a community group in
Cheltenham Township, Pennsylvania, called We the People of
Cheltenham. The group’s mission is to assert the “right of the
people in our communities to determine the future livability
and sustainability of Cheltenham.”

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