Use AML Funds to Reclaim, Rebuild

Most folks living in central Appalachia would agree that we need to create a new economy to counter the coal industry’s decline. But the question becomes how? Coalfields residents came together several years ago to propose the RECLAIM Act, federal legislation that would more rapidly release money from the $2.5 billion Abandoned Mine Lands Trust […]

Sarah Smarsh, Ken Ward on Rural Realities

Sarah Smarsh, author of the bestseller “Heartland: A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth,” and Ken Ward, Jr., investigative journalist for the Charleston Gazette-Mail and recipient of the 2018 MacArthur “Genius” Award, share a conversation about media misrepresentations of rural people, and what they see as the real […]

Hopes Rise With New RECLAIM Act

Over the past 6 years residents of coal-impacted communities and supporters across the country have urged Congress to pass the RECLAIM Act, which would invest $1 billion on an accelerated clean up of land and water harmed by abandoned mines, and provide a catalyst for economic development on those sites. This radio report highlights Congressional […]

KVEC Proposes a Region’s Way Forward

Kentucky Valley Educational Cooperative Executive Director Jeff Hawkins and staff members Dessie Bowling and Bernadette Carpenter describe proposals put forward by KVEC school districts to better serve disadvantaged rural students and improve the economy in Appalachian Kentucky. Recommendations come from “A Region’s Way Forward,” a call to action for achieving learner equity and school centered […]