Tag Archives: Virginia

‘BIG Victory for PA Voters’: US Supreme Court Denies GOP Bid to Block Thousands of Ballots

“This is a win for democracy and the rule of law,” said one ACLU attorney. “The bottom line is that voters deserve to have their voices heard.”

By Jessica Corbett. Published 11-1-2024 by Common Dreams

After allowing Virginia Republicans’ voter registration purge earlier this week, the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday rejected a GOP effort to block thousands of ballots for the November 5 election from being counted in the key swing state of Pennsylvania.

Democratic elections lawyer and Democracy Docket founder Mark Elias called the decision “a BIG victory for PA voters.”

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‘Dark Omen’: Supreme Court Allows Virginia Voter Purge Just Days Before Election

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Although eligible voters can still participate thanks to same-day registration, critics called the decision “outrageous.”

By Jessica Corbett. Published 10-30-2024 by Common Dreams

Democracy defenders responded with alarm on Wednesday to a decision from the U.S. Supreme Court’s right-wing majority allowing Virginia to resume its purge of state voter registration rolls while early voting is underway for next Tuesday’s election.

Stand Up America managing director of policy and political affairs Brett Edkins framed the court’s decision as a gift to former Republican President Donald Trump, who appointed half of the conservative justices and is facing Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris in the November 5 contest for the White House.

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Concerns Raised About Toxic Exposure in Aftermath of Helene Floodwaters

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“All of these rivers should be treated as hazmat sites,” a local official in western North Carolina said.

By Edward Carver. Published 10-5-2024 by Common Dreams

*Flooded area resulting from Hurricane Helene. Photo: Florida Fish and Wildlife/flickr/CC*

Local officials, academic researchers, and volunteer responders have raised concerns about chemical and biological contamination brought by the floodwaters of Hurricane Helene in the southeastern U.S. last week, which potentially threaten the safety not only of drinking water but also the quality of soil—leading experts to call for tighter regulations on stored pollutants.

Helene struck Florida as a Category 4 hurricane on September 26 and swept through a number of states in the days that followed. Most of the damage came from extreme rainfall that triggered flooding. The storm killed at least 232 people.

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Climate Movement Says ‘Hurricane Helene Must Be a Wake-Up Call’

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“To those insisting that, ‘This is not the time!’ to have those other conversations, I say: This is exactly when we need to be having them,” said one climate scientist.

By Jessica Corbett. Published 9-29-2024 by Common Dreams

*Flood waters reach almost to the roof of this building in Biltmore Forest, North Carolina. Photo: Josh Griffith/X*

As emergency crews have worked through the weekend to rescue people and restore essential services across several southeastern U.S. states, green groups in recent days have pointed to the death and damage from Hurricane Helene as just the latest evidence of the need for sweeping action on the climate emergency.

Helene made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane with 140 mph winds in Florida’s Big Bend region late Thursday, then left a path of destruction across hundreds of miles of Georgia, the Carolinas, and Tennessee. As of early Sunday, at least 64 people are confirmed dead—including at least two people in Virginia—though that figure is expected to rise.

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Southeast Abortion Clinic Wait Times Soared After Florida Ban

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Before the ban, the average Florida resident lived 20 miles from a clinic and would need to wait five days to access an abortion; after the ban, the driving distance jumped to 590 miles and the wait time to almost 14 days.

By Olivia Rosane. Published 5-24-2024 by Common Dreams

*Abortion rights supporters rallied in Lake Eola Park, Florida, on April 13, 2024. (Photo: ACLU of Florida/X)*

Wait times have increased at 30% of the abortion clinics in the states closest to Florida its draconian six-week abortion ban went into effect on May 1.

The data comes from a survey carried out by Middlebury University economics professor Caitlin Myers and her undergraduate students, which was reported by The Washington Post on Friday.

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‘Hard-Won Movement Victory’: MVP Extension in NC Halved

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“Mountain Valley Pipeline and its Southgate extension have been poorly conceived from the beginning, but today some of the communities in harm’s way can breathe easier,” said one campaigner.

By Jessica Corbett Published 12-30-2023 by Common Dreams

*Photo: Anne_Way_Bernard/Oil Change International*

Frontline critics of the Mountain Valley Pipeline celebrated after Equitrans Midstream revealed Friday in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing that the distance of the proposed Southgate extension project has been cut in half.

The partially completed MVP project—long delayed by legal battles until congressional Republicans and President Joe Biden included language to fast-track it in a debt limit deal earlier this year—is set to cross 303 miles of Virginia and West Virginia.

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Groups ‘Extremely Disappointed’ by Ruling But Vow to Keep Fighting Mountain Valley Pipeline

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“It is clear to us that the top levers of power in this country do not serve the good of the people of Appalachia, who they have continued to sacrifice for the whims of a corrupt, reckless fossil fuel corporation,” said one activist.

By Jessica Corbett Published 8-11=2023 by Common Dreams

The Mountain Valley Pipeline. Photo: NRDC

Local and national climate campaigns on Friday expressed disappointment over an appellate court’s dismissal of challenges to a partially built fracked gas pipeline in West Virginia and Virginia but pledged to continue their efforts to kill the project.

Citing a section of the debt ceiling law that President Joe Biden negotiated with congressional Republicans this spring, a three-judge panel from the mountain-valley-pipeline-dismissal dismissed cases in which green groups challenged the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Endangered Species Act approvals for the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) as well as the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management’s authorizations for the Jefferson National Forest.

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‘A Win for All Living Beings’: Appeals Court Tosses Mountain Valley Pipeline Permit

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The ruling, said one organizer, “uplifts the tireless efforts of every single coalition member and volunteer fighting to protect land, water, and people.”

By Jessica Corbett Published 4-4-2023 by Common Dreams

The Mountain Valley Pipeline. Photo: NRDC

A U.S. appellate court panel on Monday unanimously struck down a key water permit for the Mountain Valley Pipeline, a nearly completed fracked gas project long opposed by people living along the over-300-mile route through Virginia and West Virginia.

Three judges from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit vacated a Clean Water Act certification from the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (WVDEP), without which the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers cannot allow ongoing MVP construction at stream and wetland crossings

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Developers Found Graves in the Virginia Woods. Authorities Then Helped Erase the Historic Black Cemetery

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The cemetery’s disappearance cleared the way for the expansion of a Microsoft data center, despite layers of federal and state regulations nominally intended to protect culturally significant sites.

by Seth Freed Wessler. Published 12-16-2022 by ProPublica

Microsoft’s Boydton Data Center in Mecklenburg County. Photo: Data Center Knowledge

ProPublica is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative newsroom. Sign up for The Big Story newsletter to receive stories like this one in your inbox.

Nobody working to bring a $346 million Microsoft project to rural Virginia expected to find graves in the woods. But in a cluster of yucca plants and cedar that needed to be cleared, surveyors happened upon a cemetery. The largest of the stones bore the name Stephen Moseley, “died December 3, 1930,” in a layer of cracking plaster. Another stone, in near perfect condition and engraved with a branch on the top, belonged to Stephen’s toddler son, Fred, who died in 1906.

“This is not as bad as it sounds,” an engineering consultant wrote in March 2014 to Microsoft and to an official in Mecklenburg County, Virginia, who was helping clear hurdles for the project — an expansion of a massive data center. “We should be able to relocate these graves.” Continue reading →

Walkouts Underway in Virginia Against Youngkin’s Attack on Trans Students

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“It is shameful to pin your political hopes on your willingness to harm an already marginalized group of kids,” said one critic of the Republican governor’s plan to roll back transgender students’ rights.

By Brett Wilkins Published 9-27-2022 by Common Dreams

Virginia students participate in a September 27, 2022 commonwealth-wide walkout in protest of a proposed rollback of transgender student rights by Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin. (Photo: Pride Liberation Project/Twitter)

Thousands of high school students walked out of classrooms across Virginia on Tuesday to protest a plan by Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin that critics say aims to repress transgender youth amid growing nationwide GOP-led attacks on LGBTQ+ rights.

Chanting “trans rights are human rights,” “DOE, let us be,” and other slogans, students at scores of schools took part in demonstrations calling for the rejection of model Virginia Department of Education policies proposed earlier this month by Youngkin that, if approved, would force schools to categorize pupils according to scientifically dubious notions of “biological sex.” Continue reading →

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Tag Archives: Virginia

Developers Found Graves in the Virginia Woods. Authorities Then Helped Erase the Historic Black Cemetery

The cemetery’s disappearance cleared the way for the expansion of a Microsoft data center, despite layers of federal and state regulations nominally intended to protect culturally significant sites.

“This is a win for democracy and the rule of law,” said one ACLU attorney. “The bottom line is that voters deserve to have their voices heard.”

Although eligible voters can still participate thanks to same-day registration, critics called the decision “outrageous.”

“All of these rivers should be treated as hazmat sites,” a local official in western North Carolina said.

“To those insisting that, ‘This is not the time!’ to have those other conversations, I say: This is *exactly* when we need to be having them,” said one climate scientist.

Before the ban, the average Florida resident lived 20 miles from a clinic and would need to wait five days to access an abortion; after the ban, the driving distance jumped to 590 miles and the wait time to almost 14 days.

“Mountain Valley Pipeline and its Southgate extension have been poorly conceived from the beginning, but today some of the communities in harm’s way can breathe easier,” said one campaigner.

“It is clear to us that the top levers of power in this country do not serve the good of the people of Appalachia, who they have continued to sacrifice for the whims of a corrupt, reckless fossil fuel corporation,” said one activist.

The ruling, said one organizer, “uplifts the tireless efforts of every single coalition member and volunteer fighting to protect land, water, and people.”

The cemetery’s disappearance cleared the way for the expansion of a Microsoft data center, despite layers of federal and state regulations nominally intended to protect culturally significant sites.

“It is shameful to pin your political hopes on your willingness to harm an already marginalized group of kids,” said one critic of the Republican governor’s plan to roll back transgender students’ rights.

“To those insisting that, ‘This is not the time!’ to have those other conversations, I say: This is exactly when we need to be having them,” said one climate scientist.