By Betty Dotson-Lewis

BioFuels and Energy | Main Street Economics | Racing for 2012

10/09/2012

With less demand for coal and fewer jobs for miners, the Appalachian coalfields need a Presidential candidate who can help the region build a new way of life. So far, neither party has supported policies that will help the coal miner.

BioFuels and Energy | Health

John, Cecil and Black Lung

07/19/2012

The most valuable piece of equipment in a coalminer’s house is the portable oxygen tank.

Cool Places

A Town, Activism and Anne Braden

07/15/2012

There is something about Whitesburg, in far Eastern Kentucky, that encourages activism. So I was happy to go there in early June to watch a new documentary about Anne Braden and her role in the Civil Rights Movement.

BioFuels and Energy | Main Street Economics

Layoffs Hit the Eastern Coalfields

07/05/2012

Evidently coalminers’ wives have a lot more faith in God than they do their Congressmen or the coal operators.

Arts and Culture | People to Know

Everett Lilly: 'A True Life'

05/10/2012

'Me and Bea were not from Kentucky so we called our music plain American Folk Country Music...It is about something, isn’t it? If you sing it you are singing about something that really happened.'

Education

The Heartbreak of a Closed School

01/27/2012

The school at Canvas was never much to look at, but it was the heart of the community. Now we know that consolidating schools not only failed communities, it failed education, too.

Arts and Culture

Keep It Rural — What's That Mean?

08/26/2011

It says "Keep It Rural" there in the Yonder logo. But what the heck does that mean? I need your help, readers.

BioFuels and Energy

Mine Disaster Started With Company Culture

05/27/2011

The report on the April 2010 mine disaster at the Upper Big Branch Mine was just issued. It says a corporate coal culture helped lead to the deaths of 29 coal miners.