New Virginia law protects farmers from meddling local officials

Thanks to a grassroots outcry against injustice, Virginia lawmakers passed a new law, signed by Gov. Terry McAuliffe, that protects family farmers from encroachment by local governments. Martha Boneta had been barred by her county government from selling produce, fined for hosting a birthday party, and threatened with the loss of her entire farm. Environmental groups and county governments provided the major opposition to the bill.

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|2014-03-27T21:47:15-04:00March 27th, 2014|Comments Off on New Virginia law protects farmers from meddling local officials

Landowner fights Virginia county over right to host overnight hunting guest

Isle of Wight County (Virginia) officials decided to play rough with a local farmer whose "crime" was kindness to a disabled friend who wanted to go hunting. County goons swarmed in and declared the presence of his friend's RV made his farm an unauthorized "campground.' Landowner Joseph Ferguson then called the Rutherford Institute for help. The case is pending.

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|2014-02-15T17:11:25-05:00February 15th, 2014|8 Comments

Landowner fights Virginia county over right to host overnight hunting guest

In yet another example of a busy-body local government harassing a law-abiding citizen, officials in Isle of Wight County, Virginia are trying to prohibit a farmer from allowing a disabled friend to stay overnight on his property in an RV.

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|2014-02-14T11:23:23-05:00January 22nd, 2014|Comments Off on Landowner fights Virginia county over right to host overnight hunting guest

The fracking fight escalates

So a few cities in Colorado and far-left Oberlin, Ohio, have passed fracking bans -- but do they dare pass bans on the sale and use of gasoline made from fracked oil, or of natural gas recovered via this controversial process? Thank goodness existing law protects citizens of single towns from being hoodwinked by activists into at least some very bad policy decisions. Yeah, we once got people to sign a petition banning dihydrogen monoxide as a dangerous substance!

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|2013-11-19T10:11:16-05:00November 19th, 2013|Comments Off on The fracking fight escalates

Strengthening property rights protects endangered fish

Can strengthening private property rights help protect our streams, rivers and endangered species? Well if the Upper Colorado River Basin is any example, the answer is “yes.”

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|2012-11-13T15:13:29-05:00September 17th, 2012|Comments Off on Strengthening property rights protects endangered fish

Are city planners out-SMART-ing themselves?

By Charles Battig, M.D.The editors of the American Planning Association published a paper refuting many of the unfounded claims for “smart growth.” The APA has its own trademarked version: “Growing Smart.” It is to the credit of the APA that it published a paper that refutes a number of the un-proved tenets of this building block of governmental planning at all levels. In the official abstract of this paper, “Growing Cities Sustainably,” in the May edition of the Journal of the American Planning Association, the authors note: “It is commonly asserted that so-called compact development is the urban form most able [...]

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|2012-09-16T22:32:13-04:00July 31st, 2012|Comments Off on Are city planners out-SMART-ing themselves?

Right to farm under assault in Virginia

A new small business near Virginia’s picturesque Shenandoah Valley is threatened with extinction at the hands of county officials who are determined to twist the law in order to snuff out a local agricultural enterprise.

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|2012-11-13T15:57:29-05:00July 10th, 2012|2 Comments

Feds evicting mobile homes at North Dakota lake

For over half a century, picturesque Lake Tschida in southwestern North Dakota has been the destination of choice for residents of nearby communities to spend warm summer weekends with friends and family.  In this semiarid part of the Northern Plains, where recreational lakes are few and far between, the reservoir has attracted cabins and mobile homes, whose owners lease lakefront parcels of land from the Bureau of Reclamation.  But if the bureau has its way, an arrangement that has worked well for decades will be cast aside, with the owners of all 114 mobile homes being told to pack up and [...]

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|2012-05-29T09:46:32-04:00May 29th, 2012|Comments Off on Feds evicting mobile homes at North Dakota lake

Supreme Court rebukes EPA in landmark property rights case

By Dr. Jeff EdgensProperty rights in America are sinking to the bottom of a regulatory swamp. The biggest threat to property rights is unchallenged bureaucratic decisions that command property owners to do the bidding of the EPA while not allowing those citizens the opportunity to be heard. One couple caught in this legal quagmire is Mike and Chantell Sackett, of Priest Lake, Idaho, where they bought property in 2008 to build the home of their dreams. They secured all of the necessary permits and began work to fill the land and to prepare the site for the construction of their lake [...]

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|2012-03-23T07:27:02-04:00March 23rd, 2012|Comments Off on Supreme Court rebukes EPA in landmark property rights case

Sustainable development: latest tool for expanding EPA’s empire

Determined to concentrate power in the hands of largely unaccountable bureaucrats in Washington, Obama administration officials have devised a new scheme to justify expanding the regulatory reach of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

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|2013-10-17T09:44:07-04:00February 27th, 2012|2 Comments

Karen Moreau on battle in New York over natural gas drilling

A friend of CFACT, Karen Moreau—president of the Foundation for Land & Liberty—appeared on Fox Business recently to discuss the how the ban on natural gas production is hurting land owners and farmers in the state.

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|2012-10-25T12:27:59-04:00January 24th, 2012|Comments Off on Karen Moreau on battle in New York over natural gas drilling

Deep Green Resistance: Occupy (and more) till civilization falls

By Duggan Flanakin (reviewer)The central theme of Deep Green Resistance, written by Aric McBay, Lierre Keith, and Derrick Jensen (author of Endgame), is simple. To save the planet, its wildlife and some of its people, the enlightened few must rise up in resistance – not to reform, but rather to totally tear down the corporate capitalist economic system, and even civilization itself as we know it.   Jensen presents his thesis in the book's preface. "The dominant culture – civilization – is killing the planet, and it is long past time for those of us who care about life on earth to [...]

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|2012-09-16T22:32:44-04:00December 27th, 2011|Comments Off on Deep Green Resistance: Occupy (and more) till civilization falls

Idaho wetlands case before the Supreme Court

In one of the most closely watched wetlands cases to come before the U.S. Supreme Court in decades, Mike and Chantell Sackett are facing off against the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) over whether the couple has been denied due process by the agency. The Sacketts’ efforts to build a home in a residential neighborhood near Bonners Ferry, Idaho have been thwarted by EPA, which demands the couple apply for a federal wetlands-development permit under the Clean Water Act (CWA).The half-acre lot the Sacketts purchased for their home in 2007 is located near, but not adjacent to, picturesque Priest Lake in northern [...]

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|2011-10-04T00:00:00-04:00October 4th, 2011|Comments Off on Idaho wetlands case before the Supreme Court

American resources – for American jobs, revenue and prosperity

A frequent refrain during budget and debt ceiling debates is that we need revenue enhancement: higher tax rates, reduced deductions, eliminated credits. But doing this, especially amid today’s massively expanding regulations, will kill more jobs and further reduce government revenues.There is a better way. Huge revenue sources are literally under our noses, or more precisely our feet.America is blessed with vast oil, gas, coal, uranium, rare earth and other natural resource riches – to compliment our ultimate resource: the creative, competitive, innovative spirit of our people.Finding and developing these resources would generate millions of jobs and billions, even trillions, in new [...]

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|2012-10-25T12:15:32-04:00August 15th, 2011|Comments Off on American resources – for American jobs, revenue and prosperity

Virginia eyes eminent domain reform

Six years after the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its highly controversial Kelo v. City of New London decision, efforts to reign in the power of eminent domain continue to roll across the nation.In February, a Senate panel in Virginia narrowly approved a proposal to amend the state Constitution to redefine what is considered public use of private property. The measure, sponsored by Delegate Johnny Joannou (D-Portsmouth) would also compensate home and business owners at a level near market value for the loss of their property through eminent domain.Joannou told the Virginia Statehouse News (Feb. 15) that his bill would protect [...]

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|2011-04-05T00:00:00-04:00April 5th, 2011|Comments Off on Virginia eyes eminent domain reform
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