News Stories: Local

Columbus charter review: Will changes make citizen ballot initiatives nearly impossible?

By Bill Bush on May 11, 2022 in The Columbus Dispatch. A group that has unsuccessfully tried four times to get a citizen initiative on the Columbus ballot to ban injection wells from fracking within the city limits says it learned long ago that the city's rules discourage putting such issues directly before voters. At [...]

By |2022-05-12T12:35:38-07:00May 16th, 2022|News Stories: Local|

Minnesotans push for ‘Prove it First’ Law

The following description comes from the Prove-it-First campaign page. Commonsense Protection for the Boundary Waters & Lake Superior Copper-sulfide mining is the greatest threat to Minnesota’s clean water in decades. Before a copper-sulfide mine in Minnesota could be permitted, the Prove It First Law would require independent scientific proof that a copper-sulfide mine has operated [...]

By |2021-07-27T22:15:54-07:00July 30th, 2021|News Stories: Local|

South Portland, Maine wins pipeline lawsuit over local clean air rule

The Portland Pipe Line Corp. dropped its fight against the city's Clear Skies Ordinance, ending a more than 6-year battle in federal courts. This article by Kelley Bouchard was published July 15, 2021 in Portland Press Herald. SOUTH PORTLAND — The city has prevailed in the lawsuit brought by the Portland Pipe Line Corp., ending more [...]

By |2021-07-19T14:57:41-07:00July 19th, 2021|News Stories: Local|

How Natural Gas Propaganda Made it into Elementary Classrooms in Deep Blue America

The following story is an example of a corporation exploiting children with marketing disquised as educational material. It's an old trick and one we should not put up with. In defense of the propaganda, the company's media relations manager "wrote in an email that the booklets were created to raise awareness about natural gas safety [...]

By |2021-05-24T14:44:35-07:00May 24th, 2021|News Stories: Local|

Second Amendment Sanctuaries Facing 1st Court Test in Oregon

"The Community Rights movement is all about local communities claiming the right to pass local ordinances that protect a community’s health, safety and welfare, regardless of whether such a law violates state or federal preemption or corporate constitutional so-called “rights.” Here’s a current example of a very conservative Oregon county trying to pass a law [...]

By |2021-05-18T16:27:41-07:00May 18th, 2021|News Stories: Local|

Poisons vs. Local Say on Public Health to be Heard by the Oregon’s Court of Appeals

The day has finally arrived when Lincoln County Community Rights has its day in court, to challenge the judge’s overruling of their CR ordinance last year. See below for links to both their pre-court info session and their court hearing listen-live link. ~Paul Cienfuegos, CRUS Founding Director Oral arguments on Lincoln County’s 2017 Ban of [...]

‘The Fossil Fuel Industry Is Terrified’

Gas Company Sues to Destroy Small Town's Rights of Nature Law. "PGE throwing another lawsuit at us to try to bring us to heel, when our community has overwhelmingly said 'hell no' multiple times." Published by Common Dreams, December 15, 2020, by Jessica Corbett, staff writer.   In a clear signal of how the fossil [...]

By |2020-12-15T15:59:53-08:00December 17th, 2020|News Stories: Local, Rights of Nature|

‘Protect Us’: Colorado High School Students Post Video Pleading With Local Authorities to Ban Fracking

"We shouldn't be afraid for our health when we step outside our own houses," says one of the students in the video. Published by Common Dreams on Tuesday, December 01, 2020 by Brett Wilkins, staff writer. Students at a Colorado high school on Monday published a poignant video pleading with local authorities to ban a [...]

Minneapolis City Council Resolution “Declaring the intent to create a transformative new model for cultivating safety in our city.”

On June 12th, 2020, the Minneapolis City Council made history, passing a Resolution (12 to 0) declaring its intent to entirely dismantle the police dept of that city, and rebuild something new from the ground up that does a much better job of protecting the safety of all of its community members. It is a [...]

By |2020-06-24T10:29:12-07:00June 23rd, 2020|News Stories: Local, Uncategorized|

SC cities’ stay-at-home orders during coronavirus are likely illegal, AG says

Paul Cienfuegos, Community Rights US Founder and Director, was recently contacted by a Community Rights colleague directly effected by the state government's reaction to local municipalities attempting to protect their constituent's health, safety and welfare in parts of South Carolina. This contact is what led us to the news story below. Here is what Paul [...]

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