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Virginia

Equal Rights Amendment Achieves Two-Thirds Of States, As Virginia Votes For Equality

The ERA Coalition is celebrating an historic victory. The Equal Rights Amendment is about to clear its final Constitutional hurdle as Virginia becomes the 38th state to ratify it, now that both the Senate and the House of Delegates have passed identical bills to be formalized in an upcoming procedural vote. As we mark the 100th anniversary of American women winning the right to vote, we can also celebrate the success of the nearly 100 year-long quest for constitutional equality.

Pipeline Fighter Blocks Mountain Valley Pipeline Construction

Montgomery County, VA — Yesterday, pipeline fighter Phillip Flagg locked himself in the path of the Mountain Valley Pipeline near Elliston, VA. MVP has been clearing and grading this section of the pipeline’s path in preparation to lay pipe. Phillip laid his body in the easement and locked his body to an underground concrete blockade directly in the path of the pipeline. His action stopped MVP work at the site for 7 hours, preventing the company’s progression towards the nearby Yellow Finch tree sits. Around 5:30 pm, Phillip was extracted from his blockade and arrested.

Virginia’s Controversial Pipelines Face Protests And Legal Hurdles

FLOYD — Warm weather has brought renewed activity to the Mountain Valley Pipeline in western Virginia, but the project and its equally contentious sibling, the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, still face unresolved legal and regulatory hurdles that leave their completion uncertain. This year has seen new protests on the ground, as well as an escalation in charges against protesters. A man who chained himself to a piece of pipeline equipment in West Virginia last month was charged with threats of terrorist acts, marking the first time a pipeline protester has been charged with a felony.

The Atlantic Coast Pipeline: Another Boondoggle In Virginia

Two pipelines– the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) and the Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP)—earmarked for construction in Virginia have been the source of massive controversy. In a previous CounterPunch article I discussed the MVP, saving the equally controversial ACP for this article. The ACP is a 42-inch fracked-natural gas pipeline that would run about 600 miles/970 km from West Virginia through Virginia before terminating in eastern North Carolina.

“We Have Stopped It For Another Year”: MVP Tree-Sit Hits Over 156 Days

Today marks 156 days since the beginning of the Yellow Finch tree sits, and a lot has changed since then. The forest around us has undergone seasonal changes, the trees have shed their leaves, and animals have become dormant for the winter months. The tree sits have endured a hurricane, snowstorms, high winds, and below freezing temperatures. But thanks to the tree sits, this hillside has been able to experience another winter, and another chance at rebirth come springtime. Thanks to the tree sits, there is currently one less forest degraded and destroyed for profit, one less forest ecosystem suffering from fragmented habitat and biodiversity loss. Thanks to the tree sits, there is still a thriving, functioning forest on the hillside above Yellow Finch Lane in Elliston, Va.

Cop Suspended After Anti-Fascists Expose His Affinity For White Nationalist Group

The Facebook account for a Virginia police sergeant shows connections to a “neo-Volkisch” white nationalist group. A Virginia police sergeant has been suspended after his apparent affinity for a neo-pagan white nationalist group was exposed by local anti-fascist activists. Sgt. Robert Stamm, 36, was placed on paid administrative leave Wednesday, according to a statement from the Virginia Division of Capitol Police, the law enforcement agency tasked with policing the state Capitol grounds in Richmond. The department said it was “made aware early Wednesday of a possible violation of division policy” by Stamm.

Virginia Teachers Protest Low Pay At Capitol Rally

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Virginia teachers demanded higher pay and better working conditions during a rally Monday at the state Capitol, as educators look to match the success of similar teacher protests movements around the country. Thousands of teachers and supporters from around the state urged state lawmakers to make education spending a higher priority or risk losing their seats in elections later this year. Teachers said that years of stagnant pay, overcrowded classrooms, and inadequate supplies have led to a breaking point.

Virginia Officials Reject Dominion IRP And ACP Construction Halted

Today the Virginia State Corporation Commission issued an order rejecting Dominion Energy’s Integrated Resource Plan, which lays out the utility’s plans for meeting energy needs for years to come in Virginia. This is the first time the Virginia SCC has ever outright rejected a plan from the energy company. Also today, Dominion in contending with a Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals order to stay a key permit of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline has now temporarily shut down construction on the entire project.

“Pumpkins Not Pipelines”: Activists Stage Halloween Parade Outside The Governor’s Office

Richmond residents from Broad Street to North 9th were witness to a parade of costumed protesters Wednesday, warning of “a place where the air is so polluted it causes headaches, nosebleeds and illness. A place where your water is the color of toxic mud.” “On this Halloween day, you may think we are giving the details of a horror story,” said Stacy Lovelace of the Virginia Pipeline Resisters, speaking through a megaphone. “But sadly this is, and will be, the reality for those along the path of the Mountain Valley and Atlantic Coast Pipelines.” The activists marshaled outside the Governor’s Office at the Virginia State Capitol, as they have every week since early February, in protest of the Northam administration’s continued approval of the Mountain Valley (MVP) and Atlantic Coast Pipelines (ACP).

Virginians Show The Real Face Of Poverty

On a recent night in Richmond, Virginia, speaker after speaker came forward to talk about the multidimensional reality of poverty. The setting was a hearing held by the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival. “I’ve been working for years as a professional and I don’t earn a living wage,” said Joyce Barnes, a home health care worker based in Richmond. “It hurts. It hurts so much.” She described how she gets no sick days or vacation days, and can’t take a day off to spend with her grandchildren. She owes a hospital thousands of dollars for medical bills even though she now has insurance. “Don’t be fooled by a false narrative about us,” added Abbie Arevalo-Herrera...

Federal Court Throws Out Another Key ACP Permit

Richmond, VA — The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals today threw out the National Park Service’s permit for the Atlantic Coast Pipeline in a case argued by the Southern Environmental Law Center on behalf of the Sierra Club, Defenders of Wildlife and the Virginia Wilderness Committee. The Court also issued its opinion regarding a Fish and Wildlife permit that it vacated earlier. “This is an example of what happens when dangerous projects are pushed through based on politics rather than science,” said Southern Environmental Law Center attorney DJ Gerken. “This pipeline project was flawed from the start and Dominion and Duke’s pressure tactics to avoid laws that protect our public lands, water and wildlife are now coming to light.” The ruling entered by a panel of three judges means that if ACP developers continue construction on the 600-mile route from West Virginia, through Virginia and in North Carolina, they will be operating without two crucial federal permits.

Virginia State Senator In Rare Support By Politician For Assange

As a military officer, I was trained to strictly observe security protocols.  So when I first heard of WikiLeaks and Julian Assange, I was instinctively critical.  But upon reading his released documents, I saw how Julian gave people accurate insights into the inner workings of their own government. Government “of the People” cannot flourish beneath a suffocating cloak of secrecy.  And secrecy is often aimed, not at protecting us from enemies abroad, but at deceiving us about the dark machinations of our own government.  The most consequential secrets are those used to conceal steps taken to establish predicates for future wars—unwarranted conflicts that seem to roll off an endless assembly line.  No-fly zones, bombings, sanctions, false flags, blockades, mercenaries, bloodthirsty terrorists have all become stock in trade.  Sanctions destabilize our targets through hunger and suffering.

#AbolishICE: Protesters Call Out ‘Profiteers’ And Localities Working With ICE In Virginia

About a hundred people protested at the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) field office in Fairfax County, Va. today, saying that the agency inflicts violence on immigrant families and communities. They demanded that Members of Congress cut off funding for ICE and U.S. Customs and Border Patrol and revert the money back to their communities. They also accused Delegate Alphonso Lopez, a state elected official, of profiting off of a Virginia detention center and charged that certain Virginia counties were collaborating with ICE in the harassment and incarceration of immigrants. This protest follows many others around the country at ICE facilities. Intense outrage has erupted since it was revealed that children have been ripped from their parents at borders and held separately from them as part of the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” policy.

Court Orders Mountain Valley Pipeline To Stop Construction

Under section 404 of the Clean Water Act, the Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) is charged with issuing a permit for the pipeline’s stream crossings that allows the project’s builders to trench through the bottom of those streams, including the Greenbrier, Elk, and Gauley rivers, and fill the crossings with dirt during construction of the pipeline. The permit issued to the Mountain Valley Pipeline by the Corps is commonly known as a “nationwide permit 12,” which takes a one-size-fits-all approach. The MVP is a 300-mile-long, 42-inch pipeline requiring a 125-foot right of way construction zone that would cross streams, rivers and other waters in West Virginia and Virginia more than 1,000 times. Because MVP’s own documents shows it cannot meet the conditions required under the nationwide 404 permit in West Virginia...

Pipeline Outrage Is A Human Issue, Not A Political Issue

The fight against pipelines can unite progressives and libertarians, city folk and country folk. I almost cried at a press conference, watching a mother and her grown daughter explain the dramatic lengths they’d gone through to protect their property in Southwest Virginia’s Bent Mountain from the Mountain Valley pipeline. If the pipeline is constructed, it will transport fracked natural gas from West Virginia to Virginia and perhaps North Carolina. Much to the Terrys’ outrage, their land is on the route — and eminent domain is forcing them to allow their land and trees to be destroyed, including a 100-year-old apple orchard. The pipeline will also cross their creek 23 times, threatening both erosion and groundwater pollution.

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