APIEL Environmental Law Conference in Knoxville, TN Oct 20-23

Attend the 2nd annual Appalachian Public Interest Environmental Law Conference http://www.apiel.org/

University of Tennessee College of Law
Knoxville, Tennessee
October 20th-23th 2011

Register Today for APIEL--  https://sites.google.com/site/apielconference/registration
Lawyers can get CLE credits

Sign up for the APIEL email listserve-- https://lists.riseup.net/www/info/apielinfo

Propose a Workshop---- https://sites.google.com/site/apielconference/2011-workshop-proposal-application

You are invited to submit your panel and workshop proposal for the 2011 annual APIEL conference. Join APIEL in addressing our region's most pressing ecological crises, as well as the underlying laws, policies and institutional dynamics that have enabled these issues to occur.
We would like to receive proposals from lawyers, grassroots community organizers, activists, scientists, and policy makers. Panel and workshop formats can range from lecture-style presentations to skills trainings, field trips, collaborative sessions and more.
Submission Deadline is August 1, 2011

What is the APIEL conference?
APIEL is designed to unite activists, attorneys, students, scientists and concerned citizens working for environmental justice throughout Appalachian and surrounding states. The weekend conference will feature a series of workshops and dialogues led by activists, lawyers and scientists with the goal of exchanging information, sharing skills, and fostering collaboration between the grassroots, the bar, and future lawyers and policy-makers. Workshops will address the region's most pressing ecological problems, as well as the underlying laws, policies and institutional dynamics that have enabled these issues to occur.

Topics include:
**Longwall Coal Mining
**Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining and strip mining
**Economic diversification in coalfield communities
**Air and water pollution monitoring
**Coal combustion waste and coal plants
**Appalachian History and Broadform Deed
**Chemical weapons disposal
**The precautionary principle
**Forest protection and ecological restoration
**Know Your Rights for activists
**Land ownership and land reform.
**Oil and Gas Extraction issues

APIEL is an opportunity for activists, lawyers, students and scientists to learn from each other and to reach across state and regional lines to meet and network with others who share common interests and goals. It is an opportunity for community organizations to build their long-term capacity by networking more lawyers, researchers and students.

APIEL is modeled on the Public Interest Environmental Law Conference (PIELC) established in Eugene, Oregon, where once a year lawyers, law students, activists, scientists, funders, and media come from around the planet to be a part of the nation's leading annual environmental law convergence.
For questions email:  apielconference@yahoo.com
Or Call (865) 257-4029
FAX- 1-888-201-1104

Write: APIEL CONFERENCE
POB 20363
Knoxville, Tennessee
37920

Please join us as we continue to strengthen and build community for the Eastern United States' forces of public interest environmental law, science and policy. See more at http://www.apiel.org/, and please pass it on!

Mountain Justice Training Camp May 20-27 Letcher County, Kentucky www.mountainjustice.org

Coal mining is happening in the following states across the country and threatens nearly 38 states across the country.  Mountain Justice has been honing a skill set that we have effectively used to work against the coal industry here in Appalachia and many of these tactics apply to all coal mines including surface and underground mines. 

Coal Mining states

Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, New Mexico, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, Wyoming

Check out the following links for more info about coal mining in the US.   

http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/coal/quarterly/html/t2p01p1.html

Coal is found in thirty-eight states, and nearly one-eighth of the country lies over coal beds.

http://www.coaleducation.org/lessons/MII/doc3.htm

http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/1996/of96-092/Comp/main.gif

As the campaign to stop mountaintop removal gains national awareness, we have more and more opportunities for folks to help out. We've got a job for every interest, skill set and time commitment! We invite you to spend the summer working with one of our ally groups or to work with us in your hometown throughout the year!

Mountain Justice training camp is an opportunity for veteran and novice activist to build the skills and vision needed to abolish mountaintop removal and build vibrant, healthy, self-reliant communities. We ask that you attend camp with the intention of using these skills either working with allies in Appalachia or working on this issue in your hometown. The registration process will help you develop a plan for how you will use this training. Training camp is a time for training, strategizing, bonding, service and action for people living both within and outside of the coalfields, for people of all races, for youth and elders, and anyone in between.

Mountain Justice Training Camp May 20-27 Letcher County, Kentucky  www.mountainjustice.org

 Heartwood’s 21st Annual Forest Council: Energy! May 27-30, 2011 at Camp Ahistadi in Southwestern Virginia. http://www.heartwood.org/forest-council/  

March on Blair Mountain: June 5-11To register for the march, visit http://www.appalachiarising.org/register/
If you would want to get involved with organizing, visit  http://www.appalachiarising.org/getinvolved/  For up to the minute information, visit http://www.friendsofblairmountain.org/ 

Realizing that we ought to model independence from coal, camp will be off the grid this year!
We're so excited to be off the grid, but for Mountain Justice, a sustainable community is more than some solar panels and rainwater barrels. It's about the people that defend what they love, the people who work to create sustainable communities, and the nourishing relationships between them. Our focus on sustainability will mean building a strong and diverse organizing community that works on both resistance and solutions.

Trainings and Discussions
This year camp will feature themed training days. Themes will include, Community Organizing, Non-violent Direct Action, Science and SMCRA, and Alternative Economies. Check back for more information about the schedule.  Some workshops being covered will include:

• community organizing
• air and water monitoring
• administrative and legal avenues to stop MTR
• media work
• direct action and civil resistance
• alternative economies
• sustainable livelihoods
• and a lot more!

Trainings will be collaborative as possible, so come open minded and willing to actively participate. If you want to facilitate a workshop, please let us know! Our hope is to continue to build a broad community to sustain, guide and nourish us as we all continue working to abolish surface mining and rebuild economically self-sufficient communities in Appalachia.

No community is sustainable without fun, dancing, bonfires and Appalachian mountain music! So bring your instruments, dancing shoes and high spirits, we'll be celebrating the ways of life we're fighting to preserve!

Register Now!

www.mountainjustice.org

Mega corporations should meet same tax requirements as small, local businesses

By Phil Schoggen

Tennessee law has long required the state’s online shoppers to pay our very high Tennessee sales tax on Internet-purchased goods just like they pay when shopping at bricks-and-mortar stores in the state.  However, the law is ineffective — enforcement by the Department of Revenue has been minimal, and many are unaware of their obligation or simply choose to ignore it. The law also requires online vendors to collect and remit the state sales tax when the vendor operates a physical facility in Tennessee.  The state loses up to $365 million a year in revenue from non-compliance with the law.

Amazon is currently in the news because it is building facilities in Tennessee.  But Amazon wants Tennessee to grant it a waiver that would free it of that obligation to collect and submit Tennessee sales tax, despite the considerable incentives and tax breaks the online giant already received from the state as part of its recruitment deal — free land, job-training assistance and more than $12 million in property tax breaks.

Quite understandably, Tennessee bricks-and-mortar businesses are complaining. They have been collecting and remitting the sales tax for years, often losing business to online and out-of-state retailers because the Tennessee sales tax is the highest in the nation.  Online vendors are major competitors, often selling the same kinds of articles on which local businesses have to remit sales taxes — many communities have seen locally owned businesses close their doors because they can’t compete with online sellers, leading to job loss and disinvestment in many Tennessee neighborhoods. 

Local business owners are now speaking out to say they feel Amazon, now physically located in the state, must be required to collect and remit the same sales taxes they do.  Otherwise, online vendors have a most unfair advantage, almost 10 percent of each sale, over the bricks-and-mortar vendors. In addition, the state should improve its collection of the sales tax on all out-of-state and online sales.

For years, this has been the position of Tennesseans for Fair Taxation (TFT), an organization that advocates revenue-generating measures to replace cuts in important and much-needed state services. The Out-of-State Sales Tax bill would bring in up to $365 million to the state by improving collection of online and out-of-state sales taxes. The bill is one of several TFT has proposed, and collectively TFT’s tax modernization proposals could generate up to $1 billion in new state revenue while still giving most Tennesseans a tax cut.

The legislature and previous administrations have been slow to hold consumers and online vendors responsible for their obligation, and are now slow to require Amazon, with a physical presence in the state, to the same standards other businesses are held to. This apparently stems from a misled belief that following the law will harm industry recruitment to the state. Economic data and research show that corporations perpetuate this myth to use it as leverage in getting the best deals for locating facilities, but that it is actually low on the list of criteria for locating to a state. Online retailers can certainly afford to collect the sales tax — as small businesses closed their doors during the recession, Amazon’s annual profits, for example, almost doubled in 2008 and 2009, reaching $24 billion.

TFT's position is that while it is important to attract new companies to Tennessee, it should not be accomplished by placing local businesses at a serious disadvantage. Noting the lost revenue to untaxed online sales, $12 billion nationwide, many states are now pursuing sales tax collection from online and out-of-state vendors, and Tennessee should do the same. A groundswell of small business owners are now speaking out seeking support from legislators on the issue, and TFT stands with them — the state needs the revenue, and our small business owners need the playing field to be leveled.

KIM Collective holds weekly meetings Tues @ 6PM

Hello Media Activists,
You are invited to attend the weekly meetings of the new Knoxville Independent Media (KIM) Collective every Tuesday @ 6PM upstairs at Barley's Taproom located at 200 East Jackson Street in the Old City, Knoxville, TN.  We will discuss new article ideas, submissions, and other business the collective deems necessary.  You can also join our email listserve by sending a request to knoxvilleindependentmedia@gmail.com Alright we look forward to working with you soon.  Till then, KIM Collective

Knoxville Independent Media Collective is publishing

Hello East Tennessee,
The KIM collective is looking for writers, photographers, film makers, artists, and others to create original content to be published on this blog. Check out our website at http://www.knoxvilleindependentmedia.weebly.com/  If you are would like to submit content or would like to be involved in the KIM Collective send an email to knoxvilleindependentmedia@gmail.com 
Thanks for your time and effort, KIM Collective
****Note-- While we aim for the least amount of censorship possible the KIM Collective reserves the right to publish or remove content as we see fit.****