By: Ocean Robbins, 12/05/2013

Photo Credit: Lightspring/Shuttersock.com

On November 22, Coca-Cola completed its acquisition of Zico Coconut Water. The company now owns a string of beverage brands marketed to people who like natural foods, including not just Zico but also Honest Tea, Odwalla, Simply Orange, and Vitamin Water.

By: Jacob Chamberlain, 12/05/2013

Following major Election Day victories for anti-fracking campaigners in Colorado last month when four cities voted to ban the controversial oil and gas drilling technique, fossil fuel industry players have refused to accept defeat and are initiating legal battles that could potentially see those voter-approved referendums overturned. As Al Jazeera-America reports, the Colorado Oil and Gas Association (COGA) filed a lawsuit this week against the towns of Lafayette and Fort Collins, arguing that voters violated a state law they say protects the fracking industry when they passed their respective referendums. “It's not a surprise that the Colorado Oil & Gas Association would take this position,” Laurie Kadrich, director of community development and neighborhood services for the city of Fort Collins, told Bloomberg. “As a city, we have a responsibility to defend the voter-approved ordinance, so we’ll be looking into the contents of the lawsuit and we’ll respond appropriately,” Kadrich said.

For more on this story visit www.commondreams.org

By: RT.com, 12/03/2013

US energy giant Chevron has resumed its search for shale gas in north-eastern Romania after hundreds of riot police reportedly brutally removed a bunch of villagers who had been camping out at the site protesting the company’s plan. Back in October, Chevron suspended its plans to drill an exploration well for shale gas in the village of Pungesti – which is believed to be sitting on vast reserves of the valuable natural resource. To prevent Chevron from moving on with the drilling, Pungesti villagers set up a camp in a privately-owned field next to the site where the well was planned to be installed.

For about six weeks the strategy seemed to work, but that changed Monday when Romanian riot police, gendarmes and firemen mobilized forces to break the protesters’ resistance. According to media reports, law enforcers descended on the area early in the morning. Using police and Chevron vehicles, they blocked the road linking the village with the city of Vaslui, and surrounded the protesters camp. 

By: Texas Sharon, 12/02/2013

According to comments made by Mark Grawe, Chief Operating Officer at EagleRidge Energy (EagleRidge), Denton, Texas residents who object to his company’s reckless operations way too close to their homes, schools and parks are terrorists worthy of inclusion on the Department of Homeland Security’s watch list.

It’s shocking to think that young families, pregnant women and retirees who don’t want to live next to a heavy industrial plant that will decrease their property value, diminish their quality of life and emit hazardous air pollutants that compromise their health would be considered terrorists. But what is more shocking is that Grawe has inside information about who is on the DHS watch list!

For more information visit: www.popularresistance.org