Opinions & Editorials

Sun Jan 7 18:58:14 2001 -- Save the Pine Mountain Settlement School from strip-mining

7 January 2001
Trevor Sanders

The Pine Mountain Settlement School and the Kentucky Resources Council have filed a petition asking the state of Kentucky to declare 5,226 acres surrounding the school unsuitable for any new permits for any type of strip mining. Yesterday, I went to a Kentuckians For The Commonwealth meeting in Frankfort, and they decided to intervene in the struggle to save the Pine Mountain Settlement School from the effects of nearby strip-mining. While the KFTC chapter in Harlan County, and surrounding KFTC chapters, will be deeply involved in this struggle, they have asked KFTC chapters across the state to help as much as they can because the window of opportunity in order to save the school is less than three months - the campaign to save Black Mountain lasted nine months. I think that
Kentucky Student/Youth Progressive Network, and other student environmental/progressive organizations across the state, should get involved in this struggle, as well. Thus, I encourage everyone to pass on the following information to their groups.

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What is Pine Mountain Settlement School?

-An environmental education center located in Harlan County, Kentucky, annually serving 3,000 students from
Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, and other states.

-A study and retreat center providing adult environmental education trhough a series of weekend and summer programs.

-A community center coordinating a baseball league, summer camps, and tutorial programs for community children as well as clubs, social activities, and classes for local adults.

-A 700-acre campus, with 16 buildings contributing to
designation as a National Historic Landmark, with over 20 staff positions, continuously providing a payroll since 1913 in a county with chronically high unemployment.

-A place widely regarded as one of the most beautiful and soul-satisfying combinations of architecture and natural environment anywhere.

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What is a Lands Unsuitable for Mining petition?

In 1977, the United States Congress passed a law regulating surface (strip) mining. In that law, Congress clearly stated that some land is unsuitable for mining: "Coal surface mining involves certain hazards and ... in some circumstances ... should give way to competing uses of higher benefit." Two of the Congressional criteria for designating lands unsuitable for mining are strip-mining operations which will 1) affect fragile or historic lands or 2) result in a substantial loss or reduction of long-range productivity of water supplies.

Citizens can petition the state (which has primacy over the federal government in issuing permits for strip mines) to declare land unsuitable for mining. The state then rules on whether or not it is apporopriate for the proposed land to be declared unsuitable.

Fragile lands are defined as containing natural, ecologic, scientific, or aesthetic resources that could be significantly damaged by surface coal mining operations. Examples include palentological sites, critical habitats for threatened species of animals or plants, environmental corridors containing a concentration of ecologic and aesthetic features, and areas of recreational value due to high environmental quality.

Historic lands are defined as containing historic, cultural, scientific resources. Examples of historic lands include properties listed on national register of historic places, national historic landmarks, archaeological sites.

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Why is Pine Mountain filing a petition?

There are a number of mountaintop removal strip mines near Pine Mountain Settlement School. Mountaintop removal mining is currently taking place within sight and hearing distance of the campus. A potential amendment to an existing strip mine would extend mountaintop removal strip mining to Pine Mountain Settlement School's property line.

Surface mining potentially jeopardizes the continued
existence of Pine Mountain Settlement School. Visiting groups who provide financial support for the school will be disinclined to return to an area whose educational value has been degraded due to the mining, and where the safety of school children could be placed directly at risk due to mining impacts.

Strip-minig could damage waterways used for environmental education and drinking water. Active surface coal mines have the potential to contribute as much as 48,000 tons of sediment annually per square mile of active mine, as compared with 24 tons of annual sediment yield from forested lands. Increased sedimentation will adversely affect life in the streams, interfering with the use of the stream for environmental education. Mining at an already-permitted mining operation has already interfered with the water quality of one stream flowing through the school property which is an integral component of the environmental education curriculum.

Blasting could damage Pine Mountain's Congressionally-protected buidlings. The entire campus of the Pine Mountain Settlement School, including the structures and their relationship to the natural environment, have been declared by the U.S. Secretary of the Interior a National Historic Landmark, the highest designation that is offered
under federal law for historic sites. The standards for controlling blasting were developed for modern structures, and do not protect structures built of traditional materials like those at Pine Mountain. The impact of vibrations from mine blasting and mine-related equipment may damage the structual integrity of the historic buildings, such as the Chapel, widely considered the best example of fine Italian stone masonry in eastern Kentucky. Blasting from mining could render these buildings
uninhabitable.

Strip-mining could result in a loss or reduction in the school's water supply. The source of water for the school is a spring which originates on Pine Mountain in Harlan County. The Settlement School Spring has been awarded Wellhead Protection Program designation, and has been an adequate souce of high quality water for the school operations and for consumption since 1913. Surface coal mining operations within the petitioned area could damage the long-range availability of water supply to the school.

Strip-mining could hurt the environmental education program at Pine Mountain. Significant Native American discoveries have been made at a prehistoric rock shelter located on the school property. The shelter is used extensively as part of the outdoor education curriculum. Blasting on the ridge above the rock shelter could jeopardize the safety of students and staff using the rock shelter, and could damage a significant archaeological site. A coal company has
submitted a permit application to mine directly above the Native American rock shelter. Hiking on school property would be compromised by noise and light pollution and blasting impacts. The use of headwater streams for water ecology classes is an integral component of the environmental education curriculum, and one of those streams, Issac's Creek, has already been compromised by violation of water quality limitations from mining operations.

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If the state will permit strip mines adjacent to National Historic Landmarks and environmental education centers like Pine Mountain Settlement School, what won't they permit?

State mining officials will hold a public hearing on Pine Mountain Settlement School's petition February 26th and 27th at 6:30 P.M. at James A. Cawood High School in Harlan, Kentucky. Everyone supporting Pine Mountain School's petition should write a letter to the two people most responsible for making a decision on the petition:

Governor Paul Patton
700 Capitol Avenue
Frankfort, KY 40601

Secretary James Bickford
Kentucky Natural Resources
& Environmental Protection Cabinet
Frankfort, KY 40601

Letters to newspaper editors are also encourage.
Please send copies of all letters to:

Pine Mountain Settlement School
36 Highway 510
Bledsoe, KY 40810
(606) 558-3571

For more information contact Pine Mountain Settlement
School or visit the following websites:
https://www.kih.net
https://www.kyrc.org

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Kentuckians For The Commonwealth
P.O. Box 1450
London, KY 40743-1450
phone: (606) 878-2161
fax: (606) 878-5714

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Wed Dec 13 17:42:25 2000 -- Votescam Website

December 13, 2000
Craig Stehr

www.votescam.com

Wed Dec 13 01:15:54 2000 -- Justice Scalia, voter fraud in Florida, and the Republicans.

December 12, 2000
Craig Stehr

Read "Votescam", published by Victoria Press, 1993, which concerns Justice Scalia's dismissal of a lawsuit against the Republicans over voting fraud in Florida, during a previous presidential election. His action moved him politically ahead of his former law teacher Bork, and subsequently he was nominated by the Republicans for the Supreme Court!

Thu Dec 7 20:36:13 2000 -- Whoops- n18 photos

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Thu Dec 7 20:28:19 2000 -- n18 photos

12/7/00
Mystery punk

My apologies for the disorganization of the photos. The order of the pictures are in reverse in the news section and in the most recent submission there is one photo which is connect to events earlier in the day concerning the arrest of the Indymedia reporter and the legal advisor. The photo's of the arrest of the girl on fountain square go in the following sequence. There was a march to the square. When some people went west on the square, the cops, which were gradually increasing their numbers- obviously with intent to trap us in and do mass arrests. The zip ties and the arrest bus that crept alongside of protestor on the square testify to that. Not to mention, a mounted cop got upity, when I thought of leaving the escalating situation via jumping onto 5th st. from the landing I walked on. People sought to escape another likely gassing situation when cops arrested a girl who merely walked up to her boyfriend who did nothing, I hear except touch a horses face.I wound up going up the steps where I photographed the girl being arrested. Then, they pepper sprayed the crowd. I tried to capture this in the photo with the cops facing toward the atm in the background. This photo, incidentally shows some numbers identifying the cops or their unit. Magnify the photos for the best detail. Note the couple fleeing on the right side of the picture. One shot shows the crowd confronting the cops after people were gushed with pep spray. In this photo notice the gun pointed by the officer in the top of the photograph. Also, you,ll notice atleast one of the cops in the second row is armed with a large black pepper spray container. Apologies for screwing up your news wire section. E-mail me at tlvdatsi@fiberia.com if you want duplicate original photos for legal purposes.

Mon Dec 4 04:22:10 2000 -- cincinnati law

D04, 04:42

so. the cincinnati police cracked down oppressively on the peaceful TABD protests, but they still allow the klan to erect a cross with little to no police presence? the TABD protesters had permits too, eh?!

doesn't take a genius to see where this city's priorities are. looks like the TABD named the right price for the "queen city."

Wed Nov 22 22:06:53 2000 -- Damn! We've been spotted!

Louisville
Derick Hill

Corporate America's complete separation from reality is all too evident in this bit of mail we received.

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-----

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Wed Nov 22 02:02:57 2000 -- Red November, Black November: a tribute to the Black Bloc at N16.

11/22/00
Ralph Chaplin + friends.

Red November, black November.
Bleak November, black and red;
Hallowed month of Labor's martyrs,
Labor's heroes, Labor's dead.
Labor's hope and wrath and sorrow-
Red the promise, black the threat;
Who are we to not remember?
Who are we to dare forget!

Black and red the colors blended,
Black and red the pledge we made;
Red, until the fight is ended,
Black, until the debt is paid.
August Spies and Albert Parsons
With Joe Hill and all the rest.
Who are we to not remember?
Who are we to dare forget!

Black the flag and black the mask,
Red the hearts that beat as one;
Spur us to this better task,
Like rays of light from autumn's sun.
Red November, black November,
Red the promise, black the threat;
Who are we to not remember?
Who are we to dare forget!

Mon Nov 20 22:37:17 2000 -- Charlie Watches Over Us

November 20
Chris Specht

I attended the Cincinnati City Council meeting this afternoon. I felt kind of odd when mayor Charlie Luken said he watched the cable access broadcast of some of the protest video that some of us recorded. He said he could see from the video that the police acted professionally. As someone pointed out later, the video that ran on cable access two nights in a row were from Friday's march and before. The real conflict with the police started during Saturday's rally and march.

What really bothered me about the meeting was councilman Mike DeWine's smirking. He said that he really didn't understand what the protesters were protesting and went on smirking. He did everything to ignore the speakers who came to share their concern with the way the protest was handled. The abuse of democracy in this town knows no bounds.

Mon Nov 20 17:39:51 2000 -- TABD numbers

Pop

John-
With all due respect, your number estimates are ridiculous. Just looking at the
photos on this site, it is obvious that there were at least 1000+
people in the streets on Friday, possibly more couting stragglers.
I'm not sure what you are basing your estimates on, but if any numbers
are misleading, it's your 300-350 estimate, etc. Mainstream media and police
almost always underestimate significantly, so I would hope people
have learned by now to never trust their numbers.

-Pop