News From the Community Rights Movement

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Jan 16, 2017

Daily Camera: Merrily Mazza: Why we need a Lafayette Climate Bill of Rights

Daily Camera: Merrily Mazza: Why we need a Lafayette Climate Bill of Rights

Lafaytte, CO, City Councilwoman Merrily Mazza co-sponsors the Lafayette Climate Bill of Rights and Protections, calling for nonviolent civil disobedience to end unjust laws under the corporate state.

Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots

Jan 15, 2017

Guest Blog: American Propaganda

Guest Blog: American Propaganda

Propaganda is key to controlling our political landscape. Media literacy is crucial to our social activism – we must understand the elite’s control of mass media and how it distorts reality if we are going to stop the corporate state.

Read More | Press Releases & Blogs

Jan 15, 2017

Blog: Matters of State Concern: The Tyranny of Preemption

Blog: Matters of State Concern: The Tyranny of Preemption

The corporate state justifies obliterating local democracy through claims to be protecting the interests of residents across the state. We can no longer tolerate this tyranny.

Read More | Press Releases & Blogs

Jan 14, 2017

Kane Republican: Motion to intervene filed in Highland Twp. case

Kane Republican: Motion to intervene filed in Highland Twp. case

While Seneca Resources tries to force a frack wastewater injection well into Highland Twp, PA, a second time, residents and the Crystal Spring Ecosystem fight back, filing for intervenor status in a federal lawsuit.

Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots

Jan 14, 2017

Akron Beacon Journal: LTE – Right to Local Control

Akron Beacon Journal: LTE – Right to Local Control

The Ohio legislature adopted HB 463, further stripping communities of local control. Portage County residents speak out, vowing they will press forward with a county-wide rights-based charter.

Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots

Jan 13, 2017

PR: Ecosystem and Residents File Motion to Intervene In Federal Lawsuit

PR: Ecosystem and Residents File Motion to Intervene In Federal Lawsuit

Crystal Spring Ecosystem and residents of Highland Township, PA, filed to intervene in a lawsuit today. Parties are fighting to block Seneca Resources’ plans to site a frack wastewater injection well in the Township as a violation of their Home Rule Charter.

Read More | Community Wires, Press Releases & Blogs

Jan 8, 2017

Akron Beacon Journal: How lame ducks narrowed the right of Ohioans to take issues to the ballot

Akron Beacon Journal: How lame ducks narrowed the right of Ohioans to take issues to the ballot

The editorial board speaks out against the Ohio legislature’s stripping residents of their right to initiative.

Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots

Jan 8, 2017

Blog: Relying on Undemocratic Mechanisms to Achieve “Democracy”

Blog: Relying on Undemocratic Mechanisms to Achieve “Democracy”

Our system to elect the President is undemocratic – and so are efforts to use the electoral college to block President-elect Trump on inauguration day. We need systemic change if we are going to realize a democracy.

Read More | Press Releases & Blogs

Jan 7, 2017

Blog: From Standing Rock to Million Women March and Beyond…if There is One

Blog: From Standing Rock to Million Women March and Beyond…if There is One

From North Dakota to Washington, D.C., people are gathering to protect water, air, and soil, and to make a stand for justice and equality. What’s next?

Read More | Press Releases & Blogs

Jan 6, 2017

Kane Republican: Former water/sewer board is back in Highland

Kane Republican: Former water/sewer board is back in Highland

Highland Township Supervisors in Highland, PA, abandon their efforts to illegitimately remove the Water Authority board. Highland residents are fighting to protect themselves from an injection well, while their Supervisors ally with the fracking industry.

Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots

Jan 5, 2017

Community Rights Lane County Receives 2016 Community Service Award

Community Rights Lane County Receives 2016 Community Service Award

Community Rights Lane County is the recipient of the Eugene Springfield Solidarity Network (ESSN) 2016 Community Service Award for their “faithful and dedicated service in the fight against injustice.” Congratulations!

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

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

From Waterville to Youngstown: A Tale of Two Ohio Cities Fighting to Protect Themselves

From Waterville to Youngstown: A Tale of Two Ohio Cities Fighting to Protect Themselves

Waterville, OH, residents adopt a Community Bill of Rights Charter Amendment banning Spectra Energy’s pipeline and compressor station. Youngstown residents are a beacon, refusing to give up Community Rights no matter how much they are outspent.

Read More | Uncategorized

Dec 1, 2016

Raising the Stakes in Grant Township, PA

Raising the Stakes in Grant Township, PA

The oil and gas industry in Pennsylvania threatens to criminalize elected officials protecting their communities from fracking activities. Grant Township Supervisors are undaunted and refuse to back down from stopping an injection well siting.

Read More | Uncategorized

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

Doug Shields from We the People 2.0 – The Second American Revolution

Doug Shields from We the People 2.0 – The Second American Revolution

Former Pittsburgh City Council President Doug Shields, featured in We the People 2.0, refuses to fold to the oil and gas industry, standing his ground to protect the City he loves.

Read More | Uncategorized

Oct 19, 2016

Cathy Miorelli from We the People 2.0 – The Second American Revolution

Cathy Miorelli from We the People 2.0 – The Second American Revolution

Facing legal and political intimidation tactics aimed at silencing her, Cathy Miorelli refused – and led the way to advance Community Rights in Tamaqua, PA. Miorelli is featured in We the People 2.0.

Read More | Uncategorized

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