Skip to content

Maryland

Tractor Blockade Shuts Down Clear-Cutting At Dominion Compressor Site

March 13, 2018 Anne Meador, Dcmediagroup.us , , , ,
A Maryland woman parked a tractor at the gate of the proposed site of a compressor station in Charles County and locked herself to the steering wheel before dawn Monday morning, preventing workers from entering. Kelly Canavan–with assistance from her sister, her son, a local resident and two environmental activists equipped with protest signs–attempted to delay clear-cutting of trees on the Dominion-owned site before a crucial permit hearing the following day. It was the fourth day of tree-felling to clear a total of 13 acres. The blockade started at 6:30 am with the tractor rumbling down the narrow road, turning around and re-positioning in the short driveway in the midst of a bucolic setting of trees, gurgling stream and pink-tinted dawn. Canavan slipped her arms into a lockbox device with tight sleeves which secured her to the tractor. At least a dozen officers and nine vehicles were dispatched from the Charles County Sheriff’s Department.

Potomac Pipeline Fight Zeroes In On Maryland Governor

February 17, 2018 By Anne Meador, Dcmediagroup.us ,
Annapolis, Md. — Those opposed to gas infrastructure in Maryland have stepped up their campaign to influence Gov. Larry Hogan, and he may be feeling the pressure. About 250 people rallied on Lawyer’s Mall in front of the Maryland Statehouse on the evening of February 15, then surrounded the Governor’s Mansion with signs, candles and light boards spelling out “Hogan, No Potomac Pipeline.” A bagpiper played and circled the mansion as protesters yelled, “No Potomac Pipeline!” Many rally speakers warned about dangers posed by TransCanada’s Eastern Panhandle Expansion–the 3.3-mile pipeline that would traverse Maryland and bore underneath the Potomac River—and the Mountaineer Gas pipeline it would connect to in West Virginia. One by one they called on Hogan to stop the project.

Maryland Promised TransCanada Superficial Review Of Pipeline Permit

February 14, 2018 By Anne Meador, Dcmediagroup.us , ,
Environmental groups are questioning the good faith of a Maryland state agency tasked with the permitting of a proposed gas pipeline which would cross underneath the Potomac River, saying it made a decision to greenlight the project before the application was even submitted. Potomac Riverkeeper Network accuses the Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) of misleading the public and abdicating its responsibility to scrutinize the full impacts of the Eastern Panhandle Expansion, the Potomac crossing in particular. What’s more, they believe the agency may have colluded with TransCanada, the company proposing to build the 3.3-mile pipeline, to pre-determine a positive outcome for the permit. Upper Potomac Riverkeeper Brent Walls says MDE has failed to be transparent from the start and now believes the agency may have intentionally deceived them.

Potomac Pipeline: Hundreds Turn Out For Water Permit Hearing

December 21, 2017 Anne Meador, dcmediagroup.us , , ,
A Maryland state agency will continue hearing testimony on the permitting of a TransCanada pipeline at a later date to allow dozens of people to speak who weren’t able to on December 19 because of time constraints. The Maryland Department of the Environment is weighing whether to grant oil and gas giant TransCanada Corp. a wetlands and waterways permit for the Eastern Panhandle Expansion, also known as the Potomac Pipeline. Time and place have not yet been confirmed for the continuation of the hearing, but dates in January have been considered, according to Paul Busam, MDE project manager for the permit application. The location will probably be at the MDE offices in Baltimore. Busam did not comment on whether the continuation would delay the agency’s decision on the permit, now March 15.

S. African Poet Helping Maryland Church Protect Historic Black Cemetery

November 13, 2017 Andrew Bossone, pbs.org , ,
By Andrew Bossone for PBS NewsHour - Shauna Sorrells, a spokesperson for the county’s housing opportunities commission, said the county knew when it drew up design plans for the parking lot that a cemetery existed in the area, but “had no notion that there were human remains on the site.” The county passed a bill at the end of October to maintain records of burial sites for the first time. Tucked beside large commercial and residential developments, the Macedonia church barely holds a few dozen in its chapel. The church, founded in 1920, is the last reminder that an upscale neighborhood today was once a rural community of African-Americans who purchased parcels of land after slavery was abolished. As big buildings went up, church members and historians have testimony that bulldozers moved the bodies in the graveyard and covered them with what is now a gravel parking lot and tree-lined hill. “It’s just like it was a town, and a big gust of wind came and just leveled it to the ground,” said Harvey Matthews, who grew up in the community and has been a member of the church for 51 years. “Everything else was gone. Bulldozed away. You see all the industry out here, the buildings. All that came in. So that’s how they got rid of it. Kids [born after 1970] don’t know anything about a little black colony being here. But there was a black community here.”

Law Blocks Maryland From Giving Contracts To Businesses Backing BDS

November 2, 2017 Bill Hughes, baltimorepostexaminer.com , , ,
By Bill Hughes for Baltimore POst-Examiner - Larry Hogan was elected in 2014 as governor of Maryland. It was no easy task, as Republicans are a minority in the state. Bob Ehrlich, another Republican, also had served one term from 2003-2007. But before Ehrlich, you have to go back to 1967, when Spiro T. Agnew won and served from 1967-69. In his early days in office, Hogan came off as a reasonable, reflective politico. He had unusually high numbers in the polls. Hogan, despite being a Republican, even signed a bill banning fracking in the state. Voters also admired him for the way he fought back against a cancer that threatened his life. But, like Donald Trump, Hogan, is now playing fast and loose with Executive Orders. On October 23, 2017, surrounded in the State House by members of the Israel Lobby, he signed an Executive Order blocking Maryland from awarding contracts to businesses that support boycotts of Israel. Michael Brown, writing for “Popular Resistance,” on Oct. 26: “Activists in Maryland have twice beaten back efforts to pass such an anti-BDS measure through the state legislature.” Is Hogan trying to do an end run around the legislature by using the powers of his office? Keep in mind, he is acting on behalf of the interest of a foreign power – Israel – which he didn’t mention in his remarks.

Maryland Governor Reveals “I Haven’t Been Listening”

October 25, 2017 Staff, www.wearecovepoint.org , , ,
By Staff of We Are Cove Point - For 18 weeks in a row now, We Are Cove Point has been holding rallies at the governor’s mansion in Annapolis to demand Maryland Governor Larry Hogan order a safety study for the fracked gas export terminal Dominion is building in the Cove Point neighborhood of Lusby in Southern Maryland. Each Monday at noon, we hold signs, pass out flyers and talk to passersby about the need for the governor to order this study, called a quantitative risk assessment. The governor is the only person who can order this study. This has been a continuation of a bigger campaign that’s stretched back into the administration of former Governor Martin O’Malley. Every once in a while, we catch Governor Hogan walking outside of his mansion. Yesterday was one of those days, and one member of We Are Cove Point had a very illuminating dialogue with him. We were walking around the state house during an event, handing out flyers and talking with people, when someone from We Are Cove Point spotted Governor Hogan and a few of his guards moving between the state house and the governor’s mansion.

Marylanders And West Virginians Unite Against Pipeline

October 17, 2017 John Zangas and Anne Meador, www.dcmediagroup.us , ,
By John Zangas and Anne Meador for DC Media Group - Shepherdstown, W.Va. — Three hundred and fifty people spanned the James Rumsey bridge between Shepherdstown, W.Va., and Sharpsburg, Md. on Saturday to draw attention to TransCanada’s plan to drill under the Potomac River and lay a gas pipeline. Holding hands across the entire width of the Potomac River and symbolically connecting the shores of West Virginia and Maryland, the action was a display of unity and resolve to resist gas companies and their backers in elected office. After singing “this land is our land” and reading an indigenous people’s prayer, they threw flowers into the river below. “Hands Across the Potomac” was organized by Chesapeake Climate Action Network, Eastern Panhandle Protectors, Potomac Riverkeepers, Waterkeepers Chesapeake, Sierra Club Maryland Chapter, local farmers and concerned residents in the area. They are all urging Maryland Governor Larry Hogan to reject the project in keeping with the fracking ban legislation he signed last spring. Environmentalists have joined with local farmers in a growing regional resistance to the project which they say threatens drinking water for over six million downstream, including those in the Washington metropolitan area who depend on the Potomac.

WV & MD Unite To Oppose Potomac Pipeline

October 16, 2017 Staff, www.chesapeakeclimate.org , , ,
By Staff of CCAN - SHARPSBURG, MD- On Saturday, October 14, hundreds of concerned West Virginia and Maryland residents joined hands over a key Potomac River bridge to send a powerful message urging Governor Hogan stop TransCanada from building a fracked-gas pipeline underneath the treasured river. Click here for a photo album on Flickr and here for videos on Twitter. The group of elected leaders, environmental and social justice advocates, landowners and concerned citizens stood hand-in hand to span the James Rumsey Bridge over the Potomac River in Western Maryland. By connecting the Maryland side of the river to West Virginia, the group showed that they stand as a united front in protesting this pipeline. Patricia Kesecker, West Virginia landowner who is currently being sued by Mountaineer Gas, said: “when you have put your blood, sweat and tears into the land for almost 50 years and someone can come and take it against your wishes, that is heartbreaking. When the judge granted Mountaineer Gas the right to our property, she not only robbed us, but she also robbed our children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren of their heritage.” The pipeline is being proposed by TransCanada, the company infamous for pushing the Keystone XL Pipeline, and Mountaineer Gas. It would ship fracked gas from Pennsylvania to West Virginia, passing through the town of Hancock, Maryland and underneath the Potomac River. This pipeline would not benefit Marylanders in any way, yet it would pose a grave threat to their drinking water and deepen dependence on dirty fossil fuels for years to come.

Student Organizers Win Transgender Equality Battle In Maryland

October 12, 2017 Tod Perry, www.education.good.is , ,
By Tod Perry for Good Education - The group’s efforts led the school board to vote 5 to 1 to allow transgender students to use the bathrooms and locker rooms that fit with their identity. They can also participate in sports that align with their gender identity as well. Children who are uncomfortable with the new policy are provided with non-stigmatizing alternatives such as privacy curtains or changes to their locker room schedules. “I see it as one of the most comprehensive transgender student policies in the country,” Jabari Lyles, executive director of GLSEN Maryland, a group that advocates for LGBTQ students, told The Washington Post. The policy took effect over summer vacation is already facing a legal challenge. A lawsuit was filed in August on behalf of the mother of a 15-year-old student who feels the policy makes her unsafe and that she’s humiliated to undress in front of the “opposite sex.” The suit was filed by Dan Cox, a Republican candidate for the Maryland House of Delegates in 2018. To show support for their transgender classmates, students have started a social media campaign #IAmFrederick.

Marylanders Oppose Dominion’s Request To Pollute More

October 5, 2017 Staff, www.wearecovepoint.org , , , ,
By Staff of We Are Cove Point - LUSBY, MD — The public showed up in force last night to urge the Maryland Public Service Commission (PSC) to reject Dominion Energy’s application to increase the pollution that would enter the air surrounding its fracked gas export terminal and liquefaction plant that is being built in the Cove Point neighborhood of Lusby, Maryland. For three hours, speaker after speaker gave the lone PSC representative on the stage an earful, telling the regulatory agency exactly how they felt about the prospect of living with even more pollution than they’re currently facing. This public comment hearing was part of an application process in which Dominion is asking the PSC to remove the restriction to emit no more than 2.53 tons per year of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), as well as to use more generators in the power plant aspect of the facility. Dominion is requesting to have no numeric VOC limit and instead use a program where it would detect and repair excessive VOC leaks on its own schedule. In Dominion’s filings for its 2014 PSC permit, the company said it would have 15,000 valves, gauges, fittings, inspection ports and other connections that would be associated with fugitive VOC emissions.

Anti-Racism Protest Shines ‘Stop The Hate’ Messages On State House

September 4, 2017 E.B. Furgurson III, www.capitalgazette.com , ,
By E.B. Furgurson III for Capital Gazette - It was art as protest, or vice versa, as a handful of activists lit up the Maryland State House in Annapolis on Friday night with anti-racism messages. The night sky and the facades of the oldest state house in the country were emblazoned with “Disable White Supremacy,” “Alt-Right is Wrong” and “Stop the Hate,” projected using stage theater lights powered by a small rented generator. It was like 21st-century tech meets “This Little Light of Mine,” the church spiritual reworked into a civil rights anthem during the height of the movement for equality 50 years ago. The effort was led by Phil Ateto, of Glen Burnie, a volunteer with the Backbone Campaign, an organization that spearheads and teaches creative protest techniques, like the projection stunt or mass kayak gatherings for water-related issues. He has been involved with the Backbone Campaign for about five years, he said Friday night as he was adjusting focus on the State House. “It’s a good way to get into good trouble,” he said. “We know we have to be the change we want to see. And doing it by engaging in nonviolent direct action, artistic action.” The Backbone Campaign, divided up into a network of smaller groups called Solidarity Brigades, held similar projection protests across the country Friday in cities from Seattle to San Diego and Atlanta to Toledo, Ohio.

Roger Taney Statue Removed From State House Overnight

August 19, 2017 Pamela Wood and Erin Cox, www.baltimoresun.com , ,
By Pamela Wood and Erin Cox for The Baltimore Sun - Under the cover of night, a work crew removed the statue of former Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger B. Taney, taking down the author of the infamous Dred Scott decision from his 145-year prominent perch in Annapolis. Cheers erupted from a few dozen onlookers as the hulking bronze statute of Taney was lifted from its pedestal on the State House front lawn just before 2 a.m., clipping tree branches on its path to a waiting truck bed. It’s the latest monument linked to the Confederate era to be removed from a public square since white nationalists rallied in Charlottesville, Va., last weekend. State officials have been under mounting pressure to take down the Taney statue. Republican Gov. Larry Hogan reversed his stance on the matter this week. His shift provided enough votes for the four-member State House Trust on Wednesday to approve removing the monument. Hogan’s spokesman, Doug Mayer, said the state decided to quietly and swiftly remove Taney’s statue overnight “as a matter of public safety.” The granite pedestal that supported the Taney statue since 1872 temporarily remains in place, surrounded by green plywood and guarded around the clock by two officers.

Dozens Return To Rally At State House For Safety Study

July 4, 2017 Staff, www.wearecovepoint.org , , ,
By Staff of We Are Cove Point - On Monday July 3, 2017, a few dozen people gathered again outside the State House in Annapolis to urge Governor Hogan not to turn his back on the people of Southern Maryland. A week and a half ago, Governor Hogan’s office finally responded to our request for a safety study, known formally as a Quantitative Risk Assessment or QRA, for the gas refinery, power plant and export terminal being built by Virginia-based Dominion Energy in the neighborhood of Cove Point with a resounding, “No.” The news has been a great disappointment to say the least, but We Are Cove Point and allies are not giving up the fight. Given the gas explosion yesterday in Lancaster, PA that shredded an entire house beyond recognition, killing one man and injuring three people, anxiety levels ran high at the rally today. If one small gas pipe can destroy a house, damage surrounding homes and be felt miles away, the thought of what a 410,000 gallon tank of propane and other large tanks of chemicals to be stored in Cove Point could do is terrifying. A group of five, including Jeff Dixon who lives close to the facility, Craig Stevens, an anti-fracking activist from Pennsylvania and Dr. Margaret Flowers of Baltimore, a resident of Annapolis and a resident of North Beach, went into the State House to deliver a letter to the Governor asking that he reconsider his refusal to order a safety study.

 A Lynching On The University Of Maryland Campus

May 26, 2017  Dave Zirin, www.thenation.com , ,
By Dave Zirin for The Nation - Richard Collins III was about to graduate from Bowie State University on Tuesday. He was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the US Army. He was airborne certified. He was a son, a friend, and active in his church. To Sean Urbanski, a University of Maryland student, he was black. At around 3 am on Saturday, May 20, Collins waited for an Uber ride along with two friends who were students at UMD at an on-campus bus stop. Urbanski walked up to them, and, according to witnesses, said, “Step left, step left if you know what’s best for you.” Collins simply replied, “No.” He stood his ground. Urbanski then stabbed him in the chest and fled the scene. Collins died at the hospital. Make no mistake about it—this was a lynching, a lynching committed by a UMD student. A lynching 10 minutes from my damn house. Urbanski, as has been widely reported, is a member of a racist Facebook group called “Alt-Reich: Nation.” But that’s also not all he is. He’s a college student who grew up in the leafy suburban environs of Severna Park, Maryland. He hung out at Adele H. Stamp Student Union, studied at McKeldin Library, and wore his Baltimore Ravens gear around campus. He was not an interloper or an outsider. He is a homegrown terrorist who grew out of the soil of this college campus
«123456789»
assetto corsa mods

Urgent End Of Year Fundraising Campaign

Online donations are back! Keep independent media alive. 

Due to the attacks on our fiscal sponsor, we were unable to raise funds online for nearly two years.  As the bills pile up, your help is needed now to cover the monthly costs of operating Popular Resistance.

Donate Here

Urgent End Of Year Fundraising Campaign

Online donations are back! 

Keep independent media alive. 

Due to the attacks on our fiscal sponsor, we were unable to raise funds online for nearly two years.  As the bills pile up, your help is needed now to cover the monthly costs of operating Popular Resistance.

Donate Here
Sign Up To Our Daily Digest

Independent media outlets are being suppressed and dropped by corporations like Google, Facebook and Twitter. Sign up for our daily email digest before it’s too late so you don’t miss the latest movement news.