This past November over 100 people, most of them women from throughout central Appalachia, came together in downtown Harlan, KY, for “Mountain Women Mean Business.” The gathering was organized by local businesswomen and community leaders who recognized that, despite the downturn in the coal economy, new businesses were popping up in Harlan and across the […]
Citizens from six states traveled to Washington D.C. in late November 2018, to urge their legislators to uphold the fees supporting the Black Lung Disability Trust Fund, and to pass the Reclaim Act. One in 5 miners in our region have Black Lung, and that rate has doubled in the past decade. And yet, as […]
In Kentucky, West Virginia, and Ohio, weak or nonexistent state policies make it harder for residents and businesses to afford to install a solar system and make it less likely that the region will attract jobs and economic benefits associated with this fast-growing industry. And as electricity bills continue to shoot up, boosting the ability […]
Across Appalachia, communities are experimenting with ways to develop sustainable agriculture as a business sector and to increase access to nutritious foods. WMMT recently reported on the opening of the CANE (Community Agriculture and Nutritional Enterprises) industrial kitchen in Letcher County which is designed to do just that. In the months since its opening, CANE […]
