Not safe to have children in mountain homeland

Member Ivy Brashear has long thought about raising her children in her eastern Kentucky homeland.  After a recent study added to the growing volumes of evidence showing the correlation of increased health problems problems, including birth defects, in areas where radical strip mining is poisoning the land, air and water, she is now forced to reconsider that lifelong dream.

And she wonders why coal operators and many elected officials seem so indifferent to the consequences of their actions.

Her reflections were printed in the Lexington Herald-Leader on Saturday. Read them here.