Below:
Tonight and May
19: Tune in to CNN's Anderson Cooper 360
Word has just come in that CNN's
Anderson Cooper 360 show will air a segment on coal and the
presidential campaign tonight.
CNN has been in West Virginia this week, shooting footage for a couple of
segments on the election, mountaintop removal and coal. Our good
friends at
SouthWings took a CNN crew on a flyover of mountaintop removal
sites, and the news crew talked with OVEC volunteer Chuck Nelson,
Appalachian Voices director Mary Ann Hitt and the
mayor of
Beckley. Our understanding is that
Anderson Cooper 360 will air one segment tonight, focusing on
the presidential campaign and coal, and another on May 19,
focusing on mountaintop removal. So please watch for these segments--with the understanding that pre-taped
news segments can be bumped by other, breaking news.
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May 12:
West Virginia Public Broadcasting to Air Segment on Selenium
Pollution
No matter where you live, you can tune in (on the
air or
online) to
West
Virginia Public Radio at 7:30 a.m. Monday, May 12 to hear a
story on selenium pollution from mountaintop removal operations.
Hear interviews with, among others, OVEC members and
West Virginia
Highlands Conservancy mining chair Cindy Rank. The
Charleston Gazette recently reported on
the issue and our lawsuit.
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"Burning the
Future" on Sundance Channel May 13
At 9:30 p.m. on Tuesday, May 13--primary election day in West
Virginia--please tune in to the Sundance Channel for the
national television premiere of "Burning
the Future: Coal in America." The documentary features,
among others, OVEC volunteers Donetta Blankenship and B.I. Sammons,
OVEC board member Larry Gibson, our organizer Maria Gunnoe and
Coal River Mountain
Watch volunteer Bo Webb. The film airs as part of Sundance
Channel's weekly show "The
Green," which is a diverse block of environmentally-themed
programming that combines heavy issues with snapshots of success
stories around the globe.
For other
times the documentary will air on Sundance Channel, click
here.
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Postponed
Items and May 13 Massey Energy Webcast
Several items we mentioned in our last action alert have been
postponed. The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals moved oral arguments
in our major lawsuit about mountaintop removal from May 13 to
sometime in September. The
rolling fast for peace in the coalfields has therefore been
delayed and we are working on a new summer date for our
de-escalation / non-violence training. We will keep you posted here
and on our website's
calendar page. Massey Energy's annual
stockholders' meeting is still on for May 13, though, and you can
listen to it on the
Internet. Don't be surprised if an OVEC
booklet ends up in stockholders' hands...
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May 11 to May 17: Appalshop Film 'Sludge' to
Air on Kentucky TV
Watch for OVEC members in
Appalshop's
documentary film "Sludge," which will
air four times in May across the Commonwealth on Kentucky
Educational Television's (KET) Kentucky Channel. Shortly after
midnight on October 11, 2000, a coal sludge pond in Martin County,
Kentucky, broke through an underground mine, propelling 306 million
gallons of sludge down two tributaries of the Tug Fork River into
the Big Sandy. The Martin County sludge spill killed all aquatic
life along 30 miles of river, damaged municipal water systems, and
caused millions of dollars in property damage.
Appalshop filmmaker Robert Salyer follows the government agencies and
community members through their clean up efforts and their attempts to
understand the causes of a disaster thirty times larger than the Exxon
Valdez oil spill. Filmed over four years, the documentary chronicles the
aftermath of the disaster, the Mine Safety and Health Administration
"whistleblower" case of
Jack Spadaro, and the looming threat of
coal
sludge dams throughout the Appalachian mountains.
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More Events
Upcoming events near and far include the
Mountain Justice Summer Training Camp and
Heartwood's
Forest Council. Many more events are listed on our
online calendar.
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