The Appalachian Voice
Magnificent Cherokee
Marilou Awiakta | Writing Culture, Gender…Atoms By Jared Schultz “I am a Cherokee-Appalachian woman who grew up with the atom,” writer Marilou Awiakta stated as we discussed her work and mission as a poet, storyteller and essayist. The seventh generation of her family, Awiakta grew up in Oak Ridge, Tenn., a federal center for nuclear…
Read MoreHeroic Environmentalists
Ann Pickel Harris | Safety Is the Tie That Binds By Sarah Vig The truth will out, as Shakespeare says, and in Tennessee, Ann Harris is around to help it along. Harris, 71, has become something of a mentor for whistleblowers and a well-known source of information and guidance on nuclear and advocacy issues since…
Read MoreNew Coal Dust Regs Aimed at Black Lung Disease Resurgence
Story by Bill Kovarik An alarming rise in new cases of black lung disease inspired new Mine Safety and Health Administration regulations announced this fall by the Obama Administration. The new regulations come 15 years after occupational safety and disease control agencies recommended a tightening of standards. They also come seven years after the Bush…
Read MoreA Coal Miner’s Health
Short term gains and long term loss Story and photo by D.A. Hawkins Coal mining is dangerous work. Spend any length of time talking with a group of underground coal miners and you are sure to hear “war stories” about close calls with severe injury or even death. Every aspect of the job requires a…
Read MoreTwo years after the coal ash disaster: Class action lawsuits target TVA and others
Story by Bill Kovarik Lawsuits against the Tennessee Valley Authority are continuing in the wake of the coal ash disaster two years ago. Currently, 58 lawsuits against TVA have been consolidated into a class action suit alleging various health, economic and environmental damages from the collapse of a poorly-built dam and release of one billion…
Read MoreCoal Ash: One Woman’s Fight To Save A Community
Story by Jillian Randel Elisa Young walked to the front of the room, slammed down a jar of blackberry ginger crepe syrup and a ziploc bag of coal ash in front of the three Environmental Protection Agency government officials. “Think about the blackberries growing in the unlined coal ash ditches of Meigs County when you…
Read MoreCombating A Culture of Substance Abuse in Appalachia
Story by Jared Schultz At the Grandfather Home for Children in Watauga County, N.C., evidence of the devastation that addiction can wreak on families and communities resides in the residents, some as young as infants. One baby, less than a year old, went through a multi-week detox process when he first arrived—his mother had shared…
Read MoreHealth Fairs & Clinics: Neighbors Healing Neighbors
Story by Jeff Deal While the U.S. Congress wrestled with the question of uninsured Americans, many Appalachian residents were without health insurance in 2008 and 2009. According to the U.S. Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey, the number of insured residents in the region ranges between one out of every five people in Georgia to one…
Read MoreHealth Report
An End-of-the-Decade Checkup on the Wellbeing of Our Region Story by Parker Stevens and Jeff Deal How much money would you take in exchange for 40 years of your life? $1 million? $1 billion? Would any sum of money be sufficient to replace the years with your family and friends, the laughter and the love…
Read MoreAfter The Hoopla: What The 2010 Elections Mean for Mountaintop Removal
Story by J.W. Randolph & Bill Kovarik The mid-term elections this November will have mixed results for efforts to end mountaintop removal coal mining, with Republicans gaining control of the U.S. House of Representatives for the next two years and Democrats retaining leadership in the U.S. Senate. House of Representatives The Clean Water Protection Act…
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