by Mosie Welch

Hearing scheduled On Wednesday November 1, at 6:00pm at the Ohio Statehouse in Columbus.  The Ohio bi-partisan congressional redistricting working group will  be taking testimony again in room 313 at the Statehouse.  Testimony from voters and from those collecting Fair Districts petitions signatures is important.  Your personal story about how gerrymandering has affected your district matters.  If you are collecting signatures and  have conversations with people while collecting signatures, tell them why people are signing and what concerns resonate with the Ohio voters you meet. If anyone wants to attend, we can meet up and go together contact Mosie at mosie5838@gmail.com
 
More information on the November 1 hearing:  http://www.fairdistrictsohio.org/blog/action-alert-join-us-at-the-ohio-statehouse-to-support-fair-districts
 
What can you do if you can’t attend the hearing?
SEND written comments:  If you cannot make it to the state house in Columbus to testify, you can still send comments Per Fair Districts: Put it in writing and email to kirk.schuring@statehouse.gov with cc to justin.zielinski@statehouse.gov
 
KEEP Collecting signatures: our efforts have forced the hands of Ohio legislators to put together their own redistricting plan because they KNOW the Fair District – Fair Election Ohio Ballot Initiative will get on the ballot and pass.
 
What to say in Testimony:  I went to Columbus to hear the testimony given to the Ohio congressional redistricting work group on October 26 to hear the testimony; very educational and inspiring.    One reason the working group exists is because they KNOW we will get the Fair Districts Ballot Initiative ON the ballot in 2018 and it WILL pass.  The volunteer outpouring for this ballot initiative is FAR greater than any other in the history of Ohio.  That was mentioned in the testimony.  Here is a link to the testimony if you would like to review it.
​http://www.ohiochannel.org/video/ohio-channel-presents-congressional-redistricting-working-group-10-26-2017
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Thank you for all of your efforts to date: you are making it known that Ohio values democracy.

Slay that Gerrymander!

Press release from the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF)
​Tisch O'Dell tisch@celdf.org

HB 463 – corporate state legislation to block citizen initiative – struck by Court 
BOWLING GREEN, OHIO:  Today, the Ohio Supreme Court affirmed the right of Bowling Green residents to vote, ordering their first-in-the-state Right to Climate charter amendment on the November ballot. 
 
The Wood County Board of Elections (BOE) approved the measure for the ballot last month. One resident challenged the decision, arguing in part that the substance of the initiative was unconstitutional and, under HB 463 should be kept off the ballot. HB 463 was adopted by the people’s legislators last December. The legislators granted BOEs broad authority to keep measures off the ballot based on content, making it difficult for residents to propose legislation that challenges unjust law.
 
The Ohio Supreme Court would have none of it, striking HB 463 down as a violation of the separation of powers, and ordering the charter amendment on the ballot. The Court stated, "To the extent that [HB 463] authorizes and requires boards of elections to make substantive, preenactment legal evaluations, it violates the separation-of-powers doctrine and is unconstitutional."
 
The charter amendment emerged out of Bowling Green residents’ growing alarm when they learned of the proposed Nexus pipeline threatening their City’s water supply. Students and residents joined together to work with the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF) to draft their charter amendment, which asserts the community’s right to a healthy climate, and bans the pipeline as a violation of that right. 
 
Brad Holmes, a Bowling Green University student, celebrated the decision. “When the people rise up and take action to stop climate change, state actors and their corporate allies invent laws such as HB 463 to stop us. The corporate state has one aim: resource extraction and profits, regardless of the cost to people, communities, and nature. We, in Bowling Green, are challenging them, and today the Ohio Supreme Court called out HB 463 for what it is: unconstitutional. The Court upheld our rights. We, the People, will vote on our own measure.”
 
As environmental threats and social injustices grow across Ohio, communities are advancing Community Rights initiatives to protect themselves and challenge efforts to force harms into their communities. In response, the state of Ohio has been attempting to crack down on democratic rights, including in Athens and Medina Counties. There, residents have advanced county charter proposals that included bans on fracking infrastructure and waste disposal. Both County BOEs blocked the measures this summer. Last month, in Youngstown, the Mahoning County BOE blocked two charter amendments from the ballot. 
 
Lisa Kochheiser, member of the local community group in Bowling Green, stated, “Our neighbors in Youngstown, and in Medina and Athens Counties, were denied their right to vote this fall. We have not forgotten them. And in the days ahead we are campaigning not just for Bowling Green, but for all of Ohio. We are a part of a growing Community Rights movement, asserting our rights to clean air, water, and our right to govern the places where we live!”
 
Bowling Green petitioners’ attorney Terry Lodge added, "We have political operatives appointed to Boards of Elections by Secretary of State Jon Husted. Those operatives act as ‘goalies’ to thwart the right of the people to decide at the ballot box. We will continue to argue that BOEs have no authority to shut down citizen initiatives based on the content of those initiatives.”
 
 Ohio Communities Part of Growing Movement Ohio residents are advancing Community Rights as part of the broader Community Rights Movement building across the United States. As the Movement builds, so are efforts to block the right to initiative – such as in Tacoma, WA – and so grows communities’ determination to preserve that right.
 
Local communities and state Community Rights Networks are partnering with CELDF to advance and protect fundamental democratic and environmental rights. They are working with CELDF to establish Community Rights and the Rights of Nature in law, and prohibit extraction, fracking, factory farming, water privatization, and other industrial activities as violations of those rights. Communities are joining together within and across states, working with CELDF to advance systemic change - recognizing our existing system of law and governance as inherently undemocratic and unsustainable.

Additional InformationFor additional information regarding petitioning communities, contact CELDF at info@celdf.org. To learn about the Ohio Community Rights Network, visit ohiocrn.org. To learn about the Community Rights Movement, visit www.celdf.org.  

Residents of Medina County are concerned about the toxins that will be emitted by the NEXUS Pipeline (Wadsworth) Compressor Station every 32 hours.  Please see photo about how one family has been affected by a similar compressor station and a photo of a compressor station in Wayne County in the link below.  Funds are needed to provide air monitoring since the Ohio EPA will not be monitoring.
Please help circulate.

Thank you,
Kathie Jones
Sustainable Medina County
Ohio Community Rights Network
https://www.gofundme.com/monitoring

Medina County Together, Unity Fest 2017 Volunteer Sign-up. 
​Please follow the link for a description of the event and to sign up to volunteer!
http://www.signupgenius.com/go/4090c4dafab2da3fd0-medin

Mosie Welch

Corinne Sacksteder

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​Time has come to call Senator Portman, again, and let him know our opinion on the latest attempt to repeal the Affordable Healthcare Act. The bill named after its sponsors Senators Graham, Cassidy, Heller, and Johnson, is hatched out of urgency: the Senate would not be able to vote a reconciliation bill (with a 51 vote majority) after the end of the fiscal year, September 30th, weeks before the CBO could evaluate its impact on healthcare benefits and also the healthcare industry.

​Under its terms, states would receive and manage block grants from the federal government. Medicaid would become a capped program funded per capita starting in 2020. Medicaid expansion would phase out by 2027 and cost sharing subsidies would disappear in 2020. Employer and individual mandates would no longer be enforced. States would apply for waivers under the condition that “they must have adequate and affordable coverage for pre-existing conditions” affecting the definition and coverage of essential health benefits and  the determination of premiums depending on age.

Ohio Governor John Kasich has already co-signed a bipartisan letter opposing this bill and urging the Senate to consider pursuing the bipartisan effort initiated by Chairman Lamar Alexander and Ranking Member Patty Murray of the Health, Education, Labor and Pension Committee for a comprehensive reform of the healthcare system.

Senator Portman has indicated that he will support this latest healthcare bill! 
Call his offices at these numbers and tell him to vote NO.
D.C.: 202-224-3353, Cleveland: 216-522-7095, Columbus: 614-469-6774
Cincinnati:513-684-3265, Toledo:419-259-3895






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