Posted by: Jerry Hardt on May 20, 2012
Gov. Steve Beshear has been cozying up with big coal executives even more than usual in the last year.
A story this morning by Tom Loftus in The Courier-Journal revealed that Don Blankenship, the former CEO of Massey Energy who was in charge when 29 miners were killed at the Upper Big Branch Mine in 2010, was was part of the governor's Derby Day entourage this year.
Posted by: Dave Newton on May 19, 2012
Our friends at the Scott County/ Georgetown chapter of the NAACP held their annual banquet last night, bringing out many great friends of social justice organizing and local politicians including Charlie Hoffman and Congressman Ben Chandler.
Over 100 people participated overall and proceeds of the event went to the local NAACP scholarship fund.
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
