If approved and built, this pipeline, Keystone XL, would carry one of the most carbon-intensive sources of oil on the planet.

For the next 24 hours, The Climate Reality Project is joining with 350.org, MoveOn, League of Conservation Voters, Patagonia, Sierra Club, Energy Action Coalition and others to garner 500,000 signatures in a community-wide effort against the pipeline. Bill McKibben of 350.org will be on The Colbert Report tonight and will update the world on our progress — so sign now, and then pass it on. We’ve come together before to stop production of this dangerous pollutant — and with your help, we can do it again:

Join me in telling the U.S. Senate to say NO to one of the most carbon-intensive oils on the planet:

http://forms.climaterealityproject.org/keystone

If you care about the climate, you have to care about stopping this dangerous pollutant and the pipeline that carries it. After extensive research, the EPA estimates that annual carbon pollution from the Keystone XL pipeline could be at least 82% higher than average crude refined in America — if not more.

What does that number really mean? That’s the same amount of pollution as adding 4.8 million cars to our roads: an additional 27 million metric tons of carbon pollution.

Instead of pouring money into the production of more dirty oil, we need to work with Canada to invest in clean energy and energy efficiency. Clean energy is already the fastest growing industry in the U.S. and one of the fastest growing industries around the world.

It doesn’t matter where you live, or if the pipeline crosses into your home state. An increase of carbon pollution anywhere leads to climate change everywhere.

I just returned from an expedition to the Antarctic Peninsula, where the temperature has risen by over 8 degrees in the last 60 years. And more than that, the glacial retreat caused by this temperature increase means sea level is rising and dangerous changes are happening around the globe. To put it simply: it means we are all living on thin ice.

Take a minute and sign this important petition and tell the Senate to say NO to Keystone XL:

http://forms.climaterealityproject.org/keystone

Thanks,

Al Gore
Founder and Chairman
The Climate Reality Project

Wednesday, February 15, 2012 • 5:45 pm – 7pm
Hosted by Mayor Comitta, Council VP Cassandra Jones, and Interns of West Chester University
Council Chambers: West Chester Borough Hall
401 E. Gay Street, West Chester

Come join us as we celebrate Black History Month in WC! The evening will consist of pizza and refreshments ($2 donation suggested), music, and readings.  We will also be showing the 19th Annual Martin Luther King, Jr. video, produced at WCU: starring WCU and Bayard Rustin HS students.

Please stay for the Borough Council Meeting that is to follow the event at 7pm and become more acquainted with West Chester and your community at a local level!

You’re invited! Please click on the invitation to see more details and to RSVP.

WC Borough Committee Members,

It is my pleasure to announce that our own Cassandra Jones will be seeking the endorsement of the Chester County Democratic Committee as a candidate for the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, District 156.

We are fortunate to have her running in this important race against Dan Truitt. Please join me in wishing Cassandra well as she begins this new chapter.

And, Cassandra, on behalf of the West Chester Democratic Committee, may I offer you our full support and enthusiasm.  Please let us know how we can help!

Gas companies employing a form of drilling known as “hydrofracking” have contaminated PA’s water supply with benzene, toluene, formaldehyde and other dangerous contaminants in the process; dumped under-treated wastewater in rivers and streams from the Monongahela to Neshaminy Creek.

The drilling happening across Pennsylvania will continue to affect our environment as long as Pennsylvania allows gas companies to drill wherever they want. At this point, our Governor wants to take away a local municipality’s right to create zoning ordinances to curb fracking activity, and the legislature refuses to impose an impact fee on the gas industry to help pay for future environmental consequences. So once again, taxpayers will be left with the clean-up bill.

That’s why I signed a petition to The Pennsylvania State House, The Pennsylvania State Senate, and Governor Tom Corbett.

Will you sign this petition?

Please click and sign now:

http://signon.org/sign/demand-a-moratorium-on-1?source=s.em.mt&r_by=2033857

Thanks!
Barb
Barbara McIlvaine Smith

West Chester Mayor Carolyn Comitta released a copy of the legal brief filed as part of a petition to the State Supreme Court via e-mail Tuesday. Mayor Comitta will testify before the Supreme Court on Monday Jan. 23.

Recently, the Pennsylvania Legislature approved a plan that would redraw the lines for the state’s legislative districts. According to this new plan the Borough of West Chester would be split between two districts.

Currently, West Chester borough resides in one district.

The brief, prepared by attorney Sam Stretton, argues that the new redistricting plan for West Chester violates the state constitution….

keep reading and download the legal submission at West Chester Patch

Dear Neighbors:

Attached you will find the Brief that has been filed in our challenge to the recent state house redistricting/splitting of the Borough of West Chester.

There are eleven parties in this legal petition including the Mayor, and Borough Council President, Holly Brown. The parties include residents from Democratic, Republican and Independent parties.

No tax dollars are being used to fund this appeal. Expenses are either being donated, or paid for by the Democratic Party.

The appeal will be heard before the State Supreme Court in Harrisburg on January 23rd. West Chester Attorney, Sam Stretton, is the attorney representing the parties and has donated his time to prepare this Brief. He is also representing the parties in the Borough of Phoenixville appeal of their redistricting.

I will be in attendance at the hearing in support of our petition, along with several others. The hearings are public and all are welcome to attend.

Borough Council voted unanimously to urge the State Reapportionement Commission to keep the Borough in one house district. Council and the Mayor and many others believe that the splitting of the Borough of West Chester into two state house legislative districts (instead of being totally in one, the 156th) is a violation of the state constitution, is an act of racial discrimination, and is generally not in the best interest of the residents of the Borough of West Chester, and the residents of the municipalities for whom West Chester serves as an urban service hub. Details can be found in the Brief attached here.

Please understand that the Borough will remain “the Borough” and will not be divided for local governance in any way. Borough Council will serve the people of West Chester as they always have and Borough government will remain the same. The split is solely between state legislative house districts – with the residents of the northern half of West Chester served by one state representative, and the residents living in the southern half of the Borough served by another house representative who represents primarily Delaware County (again, details in Brief).

If you have any questions please feel free to email me any time. We will keep you informed of the proceedings and the eventual outcome of our challenge.

Best regards,
Carolyn

Carolyn T. Comitta
Mayor of West Chester

download: West Chester Election Challenge to Reapportionment Plan (Supreme Court Brief)

West Chester Mayor Carolyn Comitta spoke with members of the Pennsylvania redistricting committee the day before Thanksgiving to ask the committee to reconsider splitting West Chester into two legislative districts.

Currently, the whole borough resides in legislative district 156. The new plan would split the borough between 156 and 160, and it would even split West Chester University where some dorm buildings would be in 156 and others would be in 160.

The new district line would also put half of the borough into the same district that mostly represents Delaware County even though West Chester shares no borders with communities in Delaware County.

View video at West Chester Patch

The north side of Union Street in West Chester, left, will now be part of the 156th District in the state House, while the south side will be part of the 160th District. Redistricting has split the borough into two districts. Staff photo by Tom Hope

The Pennsylvania state House and Senate seats for the next election cycle were finalized on Monday and despite opposition from local officials West Chester remains split between two representatives.

The 1st, 2nd, 6th and 7th wards will be a part of the 156th District, which previously encompassed the entire borough and is currently represented by Republican Dan Truitt. The 3rd, 4th and 5th wards will now be part of the 160th District, a seat held by Republican Stephen Barrar. The legislative districts are final pending any legal challenges that can be filed in the courts.

West Chester Mayor Carolyn Comitta and representatives from East Bradford and West Chester University testified before the legislative redistricting committee in Harrisburg in November, urging members to keep the borough and East Bradford as whole municipalities within a single district. East Bradford has also been split between the 156th and 160th.

Most of West Chester University will be part of the 160th, which is predominantly in Delaware County.

“It would be an anomaly for half of the borough, the seat of Chester County, to be moved to a Delaware County district,” Comitta said at the redistricting hearings last month. “It is certainly not a good idea to split a county seat, especially one that is an urban center providing a myriad of essential services for the region.”…

read more at Daily Local News

Councilman Jim Jones will step down from West Chester Borough Council at the end of December.

You’ve probably met Jim Jones. He’s a familiar presence around town. He wears glasses, taller than you’d expect. The man knows everything.

“I’ve knocked on every door in the borough at least three times,” Jones said. “I don’t think there’s a door I haven’t touched.”

One round of knocking came when he ran for mayor. The next round came when Jones took it upon himself to hand count every parking spot in the borough.

He has a mantra: “No one else will do it. I’ll do it.”

It continues: “Somebody’s got to clean the toilet.”

At the end of December, Jones will step down from borough council, and he plans on slowing down.

After he came to West Chester in the fall of 1992 to work at the university no one saw him for the first two years he was here.

“I was getting the handle on a new job,” said Jones, who besides everything else is also a professor of history at West Chester University. “But then I got that all squared away, and I wanted to see what was up with my neighbors.”

That simple “what’s up” quickly spiraled into committee appointments, board nominations and elected offices. In 14 years, Jones has served his neighborhood association, the library board, the planning commission, the zoning hearing board and most recently borough council.

“I’ve always been someone who gets involved,” Jones said. “There’s a job that needed to be done. I did it, and I learned a lot of stuff.”

Dr. Jones is in the knowledge business, both gaining it and dispensing it. He speaks German and French fluently, and at one time he could also speak two native African languages.

“I’m most proud of my education,” Jones said. “Not just all the stuff I’ve learned, but also the way I learned it.”

Jones’ non-government resume reads like something out of some epic American novel.

He was a migrant worker in Europe while he was trying to hitchhike across the world. He was also a bus driver, a motorcycle mechanic, and he also spent time in the Peace Corps in rural villages in Swaziland in Africa.

“My rule of thumb for any job is that I had to do it for two years,” Jones said. “There were a lot of jobs where that last year was really hard to get through.”

Jones has served on borough council for four years, a kind of capstone to everything else he’s done for the borough.

“My first West Chester experience was I went down to this old-timey Woolworth’s where Iron Hill is now to have coffee with a guy whose apartment I wanted to rent. That’s been the biggest change, the whole revitalization. West Chester’s always been a nice place to live, but now it’s become really desirable.”