This article by Chauncey Ross appeared in the Indiana Gazette on March 6th, 2020 PITTSBURGH — A state appeals court has turned aside an appeal by Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection and left standing a home rule charter adopted by a northern Indiana County municipality in a bid to control its own local environment. The [...]
This article by Tom Henry was published in The Blade on February 27th, 2019. The Lake Erie Bill of Rights was invalidated Thursday night by U.S. District Judge Jack Zouhary, who said in an eight-page ruling that his decision was “not a close call” because he believes the citizen-led referendum — though approved by [...]
This article by Tom Henry appeared in the Toledo Blade on January 28th, 2019. A downtown Toledo courtroom was filled to capacity Tuesday when U.S. District Judge Jack Zouhary heard arguments for two hours over whether Toledo’s Lake Erie Bill of Rights is constitutional or not. A ruling is expected at a later date. The plaintiffs, [...]
This article by Chauncey Ross was published in the Indiana Gazette on October 5th, 2019. PITTSBURGH — Six years after a plan for a drilling waste-disposal injection well was first revealed in northern Indiana County and after area residents banded together against it, lawyers waged another battle Friday in Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court. The dispute centers [...]
The news story by the Media News Group appeared in the Daily Local News on October 4th, 2019. EXTON — State Rep. Danielle Friel Otten, D-155th Dist., has announced a proposal for an amendment to the Pennsylvania constitution. Otten’s amendment, H.B. 1813, would allow municipal governments to enact laws protecting the health and safety of [...]
This article by Tom Henry appeared in The Toledo Blade on June 22nd, 2019. The so-called “rights of nature” movement that led to the high-profile Lake Erie Bill of Rights in Toledo has now moved west over to Williams County in the form of an effort aimed at limiting water withdrawals from the Michindoh Aquifer. The Williams County Alliance, [...]
Reflections on Community Rights from Rural America is a monthly column by CR activist and organizer Curt Hubatch. Curt is an unschooling father of two young children and one young adult. Currently he works as a substitute rural letter carrier for the USPS. He lives in a cordwood house that he built with his wife, [...]
This article by Jim Provance appeared in The Toledo Blade on June 11th, 2019. COLUMBUS — The Ohio Senate on Tuesday put its first stamp on the state’s next two-year budget by calling for the investment of $172 million into the health of Lake Erie and other Ohio waterways while also maneuvering to make toothless [...]
Dozens of concerned Monroe County, Wisconsin, residents are mobilizing to convince their county government that it's wasting its time spending months drafting a frac sand mine regulation when what the overwhelming majority of the county's residents want is a locally enforceable Community Rights frac sand mine ban ordinance. In fact, the group has already successfully [...]
This article by Steve Rundio appeared in the LaCrosse Tribune on May 22, 2019. SPARTA—A group of Monroe County residents is asking the county for a moratorium on sand mining. Two dozes sand mining opponents appeared at the county’s Sanitation, Zoning and Forestry Committee May 20 to develop an ordinance that bans any new sand [...]
