Written by Contributing Writers

AVMountainBorder-frontporch1

Contributing Writers

Oak Ridge Funding is Secure; Waste Cleanup Remains Uncertain

Tennessee regulators, communities and grassroots groups have yet to resolve a dispute with federal agencies on how to handle hazardous waste at a superfund site in Oak Ridge, Tenn.

A dispute between federal agencies and Tennessee regulators over how to handle hazardous waste at a superfund site in Oak Ridge, Tenn.,

Read More

Multi-State Healthcare Merger Draws Months-Long Protest

When a Kingsport, Tenn., hospital merged with Ballad Health, the monopoly healthcare provider drastically cut back the hospital’s services – sparking a months-long 24/7 protest.

Read More
person by tree

Giants of the Smokies

Exploring the old-growth forest at Albright Grove.

Read More

Play Bears Witness to Knoxville’s Red Summer, 100 Years Later

“Red Summer,” a performance by The Carpetbag Theatre, Inc., highlights an episode of racial violence in Knoxville, Tenn., that occurred after a Black man was falsely accused of murder in 1919.

Read More
looney ridge surface mine

Idle Lands

Republished from Ohio Valley ReSource: A legal loophole allows coal mines, like those owned by the Justice family, to sit idle for years instead of being reclaimed in a timely manner.

Read More
headstone

Ancestors: Honoring the Past Through Work in Black Cemeteries

Writer Terran Sparkle Young describes her experience as a Black American learning about her family’s history and a local overgrown cemetery.

Read More
man holding apple

A Tale of Orchards Past

Apple aficionado Tom Brown has dedicated more than 20 years of his life to saving Appalachia’s forgotten heirloom apples.

Read More
kudzu

Tangled Up in Kudzu

The story behind the highly invasive vine that is creeping across the Southeast, and what can be done to stop it.

Read More

Tribal Governments Dispute Proposed Casino

The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians claims that a federal bill allowing the Catawba Indian Nation to build a casino in North Carolina is “a modern day land-grab” of Cherokee aboriginal lands, while the Catawba argue that they have rights to the land.

Read More

EPA Rejects Proposed Oak Ridge Landfill

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency rejected a controversial landfill in Oak Ridge, Tenn., that was to contain low-level radioactive and mixed waste from a federal laboratory and security complex.

Read More