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100 Days in Appalachia Coverage of Tucker County Power Plant Wins Report for America Award
Reporter Laura Harbert Allen’s coverage of the debate surrounding a proposed power plant in Tucker County, West Virginia, has been honored by Report for America. The nonprofit that places reporters in ...
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Big Tech Comes to Tucker County, WV
Pamela Moe was reading the paper in late March when she spotted a public notice from a company she’d never heard of. Fundamental Data, a Virginia-based company, had applied for a permit from West ...
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Reclaiming and Revitalizing Resources in West Virginia’s Southern Coalfields
*Note: this is the second of two stories on how faith and community leaders are working together to address clean water and healthy food infrastructure in McDowell County, W.Va. Read part one here.
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In West Virginia’s Southern Coalfields, a Grassroots ‘Jubilee’
On a late spring day in 2022, Rev. Brad Davis was riding along the twisting roads of McDowell County, West Virginia. Davis was soon to start his current job pastoring five United Methodist churches ...
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‘They’re All Damaged.’ Despite Progress, West Virginia is Still Failing to Get Foster Kids the Mental Health Help They Need
This story was originally published by Mountain State Spotlight. Get stories like this delivered to your email inbox once a week; sign up for the free newsletter at ...
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‘An Ecosystem of Dysfunction:’ West Virginia Still Has a Child Welfare Worker Shortage, and It’s Taking a Toll on Foster Kids and Families
This story was originally published by Mountain State Spotlight. Get stories like this delivered to your email inbox once a week; sign up for the free newsletter at ...
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Tyler Childers’ Appalachia: How the Country Singer Challenges our Relationships with Addiction and Religion
The first time I heard Tyler Childers’ voice I was riding in the passenger seat of a 15-year-old car late at night through the back roads of West Virginia. It was 2019, and I was 17 years old. And ...
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Front Porch Politics: JD Vance, Tim Walz, and Appalachian masculinity.
From an attempted assassination and an historic withdrawal from the race, the 2024 election has already had more twists and turns than an Aaron Sorkin screenplay. I should be forgiven, then, for how ...
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Front Porch Politics: One survivor recounts his harrowing escape from Impact Plastics
“I made my peace with God. I was going to die.” As the muddy waters of the Nolichucky River exploded around him, covering the parking lot of Impact Plastics and making the only road in and out of the ...
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Appalachia Was a Spiritual Center of Election Denial in 2020. Some in the Region Are Already Calling on God to Intervene in This Year’s Presidential Election.
Less than a week after the 2020 presidential election, Dutch Sheets, a leading figure in the New Apostolic Reformation, or NAR, a rapidly growing far-right charismatic Christian movement led by ...
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Appalachia’s Young Voters Could Impact the 2024 Election
James Staley, 28, spends evenings knocking on doors and canvassing for Down Home North Carolina. The nonpartisan but left-leaning nonprofit is dedicated to building power among poor and working-class ...
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The Green Smelter: Century Aluminum Promises Kentucky’s Next Big Economic Boost, But with Some Risk
In the 1980s, in the United States, coal and aluminum production were each thriving industries. The production of primary aluminum depended, at that time, on plentiful, inexpensive coal – and the rich ...