Alex Darocy Photography

Today on Earth Day, April 22, members of San Benito Rising will submit nearly 4,000 petition signatures to the San Benito County elections office in order to qualify a local initiative to ban fracking and other extreme oil extraction methods for the November 2014 ballot. Since March 21, San Benito residents have been collecting signatures to ban fracking in their county, and volunteers secured twice the number required to qualify the initiative in less than two weeks. The five original proponents of the initiative will deliver the signatures this afternoon in Hollister using Native American baskets. This will be preceded by a short Earth Day ceremony lead by Ann Marie Sayers, a local Ohlone tribal leader, and one of the original proponents of the initiative. San Benito Rising has organized the local ban on fracking in order to "protect local groundwater, residents’ health, agriculture and tourism," the group stated in a press release. The initiative, if approved by vote...

On April 27 community members in Hollister gathered in solidarity with the Idle No More movement and First Nations people. Organizers of the gathering asked supporters to, "join the Communities of hollister as we gather with songs and prayers in solidarity with our Northern Brothers and Sisters and all Indigenous People." "When we are coming out here today it is very important to make an awareness about respecting Mother Earth and protecting her, you know, she's getting raped everyday," one of the women who organized the gathering said.  "People think that she's going to be there forever, but she's not, if we don't protect her today and tomorrow and in the future we won't have a future. Our future generations won't have Earth, or water, or air, or land to grow anything...if we look everyday we see how polluted the air is...we cant even drink water in the rivers."  She emphasized that, "all nations are in thi...