By The Indypendent Staff

Plans for natural gas drilling in New York State have been widely criticized as dangerous and environmentally irresponsible. Now, the proposal for drilling in the state has come to a head. Jessica Lee reports, “For more than a year, a swelling movement of landowners, politicians, individuals and environmental organizations has been pressuring New York State to strongly regulate — or even ban — a natural gas drilling process that could wreak havoc on the environment.”

Opposing them are big energy companies throwing around hundreds of millions of dollars to snap up land leases in the state so they can tap huge natural gas reserves thousands of feet underground.

At stake are freshwater sources for millions of people in Philadelphia, New York and the countryside, as well as watersheds that replenish environmental treasures from the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River to the Delaware River and Chesapeake Bay.

The issue has now come to a head. After the state released a much-awaited environmental impact statement, opponents blasted it as incomplete and said it was unacceptable that only 60 days were allotted for public comment.”

For more, click on the link below to, “Drilling Deep Into Controversy.” Also included in this issue: a review of two exhibits at the New York Historical Society on John Brown and Abraham Lincoln; reports on how homeless shelters in New York City are at capacity and on legislation on the table to provide paid sick days to all New York workers; and an on-the-ground analysis of public sector strikes in Puerto Rico. For more, see below!

Drilling Deep Into Controversy || The Boom || Cough Up the Sick Days || Homeless Shelters at Capacity || Tenants’ Voice: Tenants Get an Edge || Hate Crime Collision || Right Wing Radio Rage || Paterson’s Proposed CUNY Cuts Prompt Protests || It’s Time to Cross That Bridge || Community Calendar || Reader Comments || The People’s Lawyer: Money as Speech || Puerto Rico Strikes || Rethinkin’ Lincoln || Three Windows Into the Same Room: Documenting the Global Economic Crisis || The Beautiful Struggle: A Review of Revolutionary Suicide

Keywords: News, Class, Global, Government, Economy, Human Rights, Health, Culture, Media, Activism, Education, Housing & Development, Civil Rights,