Posted by: Lisa Abbott on May 17, 2012
About 20 KFTC members from 10 counties met in Prestonsburg last week for a training about ways to use community organizing and community science to enforce the Clean Water Act and protect the health of their communities.
"Knowledge is power," noted one participant from Magoffin County. "Water testing is a good way to get other people involved. To be honest, lots of people don't pay much attention to so-called experts. But information they get from their neighbors holds more water."
Posted by: Laura Read on May 17, 2012
Louisville Loves Mountains has officially kicked off, welcome y'all!
We're here in Louisville, KY to spread the word that our state and our people deserve better (and know better) than to destroy our biodiversity and sell our quality of life away to King Coal! Our mountains are precious and so are the people who inhabit them. It's not just our history, heritage, and environment at stake; it's our health, jobs, legislation, resources, and future energy solutions that we need to work to protect and grow. Please join us in a city-style hootenanny to raise awareness of the fact that we all live downstream!
Posted by: Jerry Hardt on May 17, 2012
Several KFTC members participated in a powerful program last week to draw attention to the connections between what is happening to the land and people in Central Appalachia and related conditions throughout the world.
They shared testimony with other women from the region about the health, economic, community and environmental impacts of coal at the Central Appalachian Women's Tribunal on Climate Justice. The event took place May 10 in Charleston, West Virginia.
Posted by: Nancy Reinhart on May 16, 2012
KFTC members held signs, displayed homemade art hats and had conversations about climate change during this year's Kentucky Derby on May 5th, 2012. They were acting in concert with organization 350.org during it's international "Connect the Dots: Showing the Human Face of Climate Change" event. The goal was to communicate the connection between the extreme weather the world is experiencing and climate change.
Posted by: Dave Newton on May 16, 2012
There was an interesting Associated Press piece earlier this month about Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell's push to restore voting rights to former felons who have served their debt to society.
Virginia, like Kentucky, is one of four states that takes the right to vote away from all former felons for the rest of their lives even after they've served their debt to society.
Posted by: Tanya Turner on May 15, 2012
Students and professors from Transylvania University in Lexington spent a week at Camp Blanton in Harlan County earlier this month. During their time, they connected with KFTC leaders from all over Harlan, Letcher and Perry counties to learn about the land, culture and people of east Kentucky and beyond. They also spent some time in our Whitesburg KFTC office to screen our 30th anniversary film, I Was There: The first 30 years of KFTC. Below are photos from their experience.
Posted by: Ondine Quinn on May 14, 2012
The Central Kentucky chapter has been making the rounds within the Lexington city council to talk to local officials about KFTC's restoration of voting rights for former felons campaign and to encourage them to publicly support voting rights for all people.
KFTC has been working very hard during the last several years within the general assembly to gain traction on HB70 - a bill that would automatically restore voting rights to non-violent offenders once they've served their time. Each year more progress has been made, but chapter members wanted something they could focus on locally and outside of the general assembly that could educate people about the need for this legislation if Kentucky can ever expect to have a healthy and working democracy.
Posted by: Ondine Quinn on May 14, 2012
Posted by: Jerry Hardt on May 13, 2012
KFTC members joined in congratulating, thanking and celebrating with the Appalachian Citizens Law Center this past weekend as ACLC celebrated its 10th anniversary.
"ACLC is a great asset to the region, for all the people and organizations who struggle against the consequences and causes of irresponsible coal extraction and processing," said KFTC Chairperson Steve Boyce.
Posted by: Dave Newton on May 13, 2012
By this point, most of our members and other friends should have received a copy of KFTC's Voter Guide in the mail. In all, we printed 17,162 and mailed most of them. We'll be passing out the last of the remaining 2,000 at various community events over the next 8 days.
In addition to the statewide Congressional race guide, we have inserts for Louisville, Lexington, Northern Kentucky, and Georgetown covering various local races.
And www.KentuckyElection.org has gotten over 5,000 page views in recent days and has all of the same information from our Voter Guides, plus voting locations and a few late responses from candidates. Please check it out and share it widely with friends through email and social networking sites like Facebook.
