NewsTrust - All Rated Stories

U.S. District Attorney Goodwin: Alpha "not a life, it's not a being, it can't go to jail."

Wed, 07 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

The Writing Corner - By Beth Wellington - Dec. 07 (Opinion) - Montcoal, WV. 3:27 PM on Monday, April 5, 2010. It was the worst U.S. coal-mining disaster in nearly 40 years. Twenty months ago, just across the river from Coal River Mountain on Cherry Pond Mountain near its mountaintop removal mine, Massey Energy's underground mine at Upper Big Branch exploded.

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Fracking Caused the Virginia Earthquake, NOT!

Wed, 31 Aug 2011 00:00:00 -0700

The Writing Corner - By Beth Wellington - Aug. 31 (Interview) - Hurricane Irene, and before that Virginia's August 23 5.8 earthquake with its epicenter only eleven miles as the crow flies, from Dominion Energy's North Anna nuclear plant in Virginia. That date, with life imitating art, the Twitterverse and other social media, spread news of a faster than the quake itself. Unfortunately, the same media also spread misinformation, attributing the quake to fracking. The culprits included Alternet, Open Salon, OpEdNews, and the blog of the author (Stuart Jeanne Bramhall), The Most Revolutionary Act. And it spread from there.

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The Earthquake and North Anna

Wed, 24 Aug 2011 00:00:00 -0700

The Writing Corner - By Beth Wellington - Aug. 24 (Opinion) - I already knew that nuclear power presented problems with waste disposal and potential terrorism. Now I know about earthquakes.

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More MTR Madness

Wed, 17 Aug 2011 00:00:00 -0700

The Writing Corner - By Beth Wellington - Aug. 17 (Opinion) - Soledad O'Brien's piece on mountaintop removal is now up online with the troubling title, "Steady job or healthy environment: What would you choose?" How about both? The mono-economy of coal is not exactly a sustainable development plan, despite what the industry would have you believe.

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Is Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg Tone Deaf About Privacy?

Wed, 15 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0700

The Writing Corner - By Beth Wellington - Jun. 15 (Opinion) - Remember the uproar when Facebook made your list of friends, pages you are a fan of, gender, geographic region and networks publicly available to everyone? Now, the social networking behemoth has silently enabled facial recognition software without your permission under the rather benign tag "Suggest photos of me to friends." Even if you choose to disable the option, Facebook still will have the technical ability to connect your name with your image.

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Half a loaf: the FCC's Weak Rule on Net Neutrality

Wed, 22 Dec 2010 00:00:00 -0800

The Writing Corner - By Beth Wellington - Dec. 22 (Opinion) - My take: the new rule is another example of the Democrats' "half a loaf" thinking and falls short of pledges by President Obama and his administration to protect the Internet against phone and cable gatekeepers.

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The foreclosure crisis won't go away easily

Wed, 08 Dec 2010 00:00:00 -0800

The Writing Corner - By Beth Wellington - Dec. 08 (Opinion) - This past week saw much coverage of the 1 December loan disclosures from the Federal Reserve, as required by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. The act--so named because it was sponsored by Representative Barney Frank (Democrat, Massachusetts) and shepherded by Senator Chris Dodd (Democrat, Connecticut)--was signed into law on 21 July by President Obama, as a legislative response to the last two years' economic meltdown engendered by the sub-prime mortgage debacle. Less reported was the 1 December hearing Dodd held on mortgage servicing – the latest place where fraud has surfaced. Servicers, now regulated under the Dodd-Frank Act, calculate principal and interest, collect payments from the mortgagor, act as an escrow agent and foreclose in the event of default.

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Fighting the battle of Blair Mountain

Mon, 22 Nov 2010 00:00:00 -0800

The Guardian - By Beth Wellington - Nov. 22 (Opinion) - The struggle to conserve from stripmining the historic site of a labour struggle in West Virginia could not be more symbolic. Last week, with Massey Energy under siege from federal safety officials , yet still proposing to stripmine the site of the Battle of Blair Mountain , I recalled standing on battlefields at Gettysburg and Manassas, haunted as the landscape somehow revealed what had once happened there.

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The murky business of electioneering

Wed, 10 Nov 2010 00:00:00 -0800

The Guardian - By Beth Wellington - Nov. 10 (Opinion) - Beth Wellington: The tragic irony of Russ Feingold losing in Wisconsin was that the very corporate funding he'd helped outlaw brought him down

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Deepwater drilling: risks and consequences

Wed, 13 Oct 2010 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - By Beth Wellington - Oct. 13 (Opinion) - What if, as in Hungary's red sludge disaster, oil executives faced possible prosecution for spills that result in loss of life?

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Appalachia rises as mining razes mountains

Thu, 07 Oct 2010 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - By Beth Wellington - Oct. 07 (Opinion) - It's time government woke up and stopped Big Coal trashing our land with its obscene mountaintop-removal mining I've always loved the song Peter and Gordon recorded in the 60s, " Land of Oden ", about a mountain 10,000 miles high and square: Once every million years A little bird comes winging, Sharpens his beak And quickly disappears. And when that mountain, it wears away Then, to eternity will be one single day. On 25 September in Washington, DC, I read to folks preparing to rally, march and sit in during the Appalachia Rising protest the following Monday. My poem " Looking Out Over An Abyss in Boone County " includes the line "mountains should abide." Big Coal has decided against almost-eternity for Central Appalachia. Ours is a war zone. To get at thin seams of coal, Massey and others detonate fertiliser and diesel fuel – the same materials used to build truck bombs. They destroy up to 1,000 vertical feet , dump the resulting rubble into valleys: hauling it away ...

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PBS: Can you say "unlevel playing field?"

Fri, 16 Jul 2010 00:00:00 -0700

The Writing Corner - By Beth Wellington - Jul. 16 (Opinion) - In reading Alessandra Stanley's July 12 column, "Mr. Secretary, This Is Your Life (in Plenty of Detail) I thought of the PBS handling of the film Coal Country v.s. that of the tribute to George Schultz. At the time that PBS pulled the plug on airing Coal Country, citing its Sierra Club funding, I wondered whether Board member Sharon Rockefeller (wife of the big coal lovin' WV Senator) had played any role.

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Are Electric Co-ops All So Different?

Wed, 30 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

The Writing Corner - By Beth Wellington - Sep. 30 (Opinion) - The Old Dominion Electric Cooperative argues it is different than commercial utilities because it adheres to the "Seven Cooperative Principles," the last of which is Concern for Community—While focusing on members needs, cooperatives work for the sustainable development of their communities through policy. But sustainable development evidently includes forging ahead in its efforts to build yet another coal fired plant in Virginia at a time when utilities in other states are abandoning such efforts. The proposed Cyprus Creek Power Station, currently slated to cost $6 billion, will add additional mercury, nitrogen and other emissions harmful to the Tidewater region's waterways and air.

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The Failure of Empathy

Tue, 18 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

The Writing Corner - By Beth Wellington - Aug. 18 (Opinion) - American G.I., Alyssa Peterson, who committed suicide after refusing to torture Iraqi prisoners. "The official probe of her death would later note that earlier she had been "reprimanded" for showing "empathy" for the prisoners. One of the most moving parts of the report, in fact, is this: "She said that she did not know how to be two people; she ... could not be one person in the cage and another outside the wire.""

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How will Roberts Rule on Clean Water?

Mon, 12 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0800

The Writing Corner - By Beth Wellington - Jan. 12 (Opinion) - In the mining case being argued today, the Army Corps of Engineers granted a permit for a gold mine north of Juneau, Alaska, to Coeur Alaska which allows the company to deposit mine tailings into Lower Slate Lake after raising the level of the lake by building a long earthen dam. Turner writes, All agree that the tailings, fill or otherwise, would kill nearly all life in the lake. Coeur and the Corps insist that once the ore has been exhausted they’ll restore the lake to its former glory and where have we heard that before. According to Martin's post today, when a mining company attorney told the court that an Alaskan lake would be better off in the long run Justice David Souter described that logic as "Orwellian."

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Foreshadowing the Bush Legacy on Coal

Thu, 08 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0800

The Writing Corner - By Beth Wellington - Jan. 08 (Opinion) - To assess what has been handed down from his [George W. Bush] eight years in office is doable. To write about what will last long- term is harder. One exception, though, comes to mind: here in Appalachian, we face a permanent hole in our vistas (and our lives) in the wake of so-called mountaintop removal mining (MTR). So-called because I prefer to call it Mountain Range Destruction. This type of mining pulverizes whole mountains for their underlying coal and dumps the resulting toxin-laden rubble in headwater streams.

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New FBI Guidelines: More COINTELPRO?

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700

The Writing Corner - By Beth Wellington - Sep. 04 (Special Report) - [Disclosure: author is a NewsTrust staff member. The portion quoting Jeanne Roberts was added after her review and hence there is no reference to her relationship to the piece in her review.] At 9:30 a.m. on September 17, the Senate Judiciary Committee will be hearing from Robert S. Mueller, III, Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the wake of complaints. I wait, wondering, what, if anything, will come out of this hearing--how much further will we erode our Constitution and how much further will we descend from our proclamation in our national anthem that we live in the "Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave."

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The Big Tent in Denver

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0700

The Writing Corner - By Beth Wellington - Aug. 28 (Opinion) - [Disclosure: The is a post from the blog of a NewsTrust staff member.] It seems some of the more serious conversation on the future of the Democratic party in Denver this week--at least the progressive wing--might be taking place, not at the Convention or its associated events, but over at the Big Tent, a "new media center created by local organizations, national blogs, Digg, Google and YouTube."

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Ecoterrorism, not

Thu, 31 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0700

The Writing Corner - By Beth Wellington - Jul. 31 (Opinion) - [DISCLOSURE: This piece is from the private blog of a NewsTrust staff member] But Blue Ridge Earth First! activists as eco-terrorists? Five folks who blockaded Dominion Resources for a couple of hours on June 30 after that company had succeeded in convincing the State to let it build a new coal fired electric plant, which will serve to accelerate the blowing of of mountains? Another five who held signs and banners and disbanded upon request and still got arrested and have agreed to performing 200 hours of unpaid labor for the City of Richmond hundreds of miles from their homes? Another two, who did who held the signs and disbanded, but are asking for a trial? Just who are the eco-terrorists here? Those who engage in civil disobedience and are willing to take their punishment or those who perpetrate the destruction of our mountains and our way of life?

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Filibuster Threats Stops Energy Votes...Again

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0700

The Writing Corner - By Beth Wellington - Jun. 12 (Opinion) - What's causing the "pain at the pumps?" Like me, you may have read the oil companies and the Bush Administration's arguments that demand from China and India is responsible. You may have read analysts who suggest that tax abatement on carbon fuel v.s renewables has stymied the latter's competitiveness. On June 6, the Washington Post's David Cho brought up another possibility( DISCLOSURE: Author is member of NewsTrust's staff)

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McCain's Health Plan embraces troubled model

Thu, 05 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0700

The Writing Corner - By Beth Wellington - Jun. 05 (Opinion) - Although the Journal would be expected to be sympathetic to Mr. McCain, it actually pointed out that the plan has more problems than those of his Democratic rivals. While all would continue to rely on insurance companies to shore up the system, McCain proposes a federally funded [Disclosure: the author is a NewsTrust staff member]

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Cap and trade: "inefficent and ineffective"

Wed, 07 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700

The Writing Corner - By Beth Wellington - May. 07 (Opinion) - Over the weekend, Laurie Williams and Allan Zabel, two Oakland, CA EPA attorneys, speaking as private citizens, sent an open letter to every member of Congress indicating that the cap and trade approach, such as espoused in the Lieberman-Warner America's Climate Security Act of 2007 (S. 2191), would be "inherently inferior to a carbon tax."

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Mr. McCain goes to Inez (KY) and tells us what women need

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0700

The Writing Corner - By Beth Wellington - Apr. 30 (Opinion) - April 23, the press covered Senator John McCain's stop in Inez, KY on his "It's Time for Action" campaign tour, seeking to emphasize his attention to powerless in our country. As he campaigned in rural eastern Kentucky, where poverty is worse among women than men, McCain suggested what women need is education and training while talking about Ms. Ledbetter's case and the law before Congress to address a Supreme Court decision which reversed an award in her favor on the grounds that she did not sue within six months of the first discriminatory paycheck.

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The Pennsylvania Presidential Primary

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0700

The Writing Corner - By Beth Wellington - Apr. 23 (News Analysis) - Yesterday, McCain senior adviser Mark McKinnon told USA Today reporter David Jackson, We're for anything that keeps it going. Jackson added that Senior McCain adviser Mark Salter smiled while saying, we don't want to intrude on their process. We want them to carefully deliberate their choices. All this probably leaves the Republicans hopeful that either Democrat will emerge as damaged goods come the Convention. And, meanwhile, it also leaves many of us tired.

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So where does McCain stand on the issues?

Fri, 01 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0800

The Writing Corner - By Beth Wellington - Feb. 01 (Opinion) - With news that McCain's candidacy is off life-support with wins in NH, SC and FL, and his attractiveness to some independents (v.s his status as an anathema for some conservative Republicans), I reckoned it was time to look at where he stands on the issues.

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