Almost 50 people filled the Appalshop theater last night to commemorate the 40 year anniversary of the Buffalo Creek disaster in West Virginia.  Appalshop film maker and long time Letcher Chapter member, Mimi Pickering, showed her films The Buffalo Creek Flood: An Act of Man and Buffalo Creek Revisited, a look back at the community 10 years later.  

The tragedy is described as follows on the Appalshop website:

On February 26, 1972, a coal-waste dam owned by the Pittston Company collapsed at the head of a crowded hollow in southern West Virginia. A wall of sludge, debris, and water tore through the valley below, leaving in its wake 125 dead and 4,000 homeless. Interviews with survivors, representatives of union and citizen’s groups, and officials of the Pittston Company are juxtaposed with actual footage of the flood and scenes of the ensuing devastation. As reasons for the disaster are sought out and examined, evidence mounts that company officials knew of the hazard in advance of the flood, and that the dam was in violation of state and federal regulations. The Pittston Company, however, continued to deny any wrongdoing, maintaining that the disaster was an ’an act of God.’

Mimi shared some of her experiences making both films and traveling to screen the films across the country.  She said "people in other regions of the country are shocked to hear about this for the first time and see what people went through." 

The first film featured images of the nearby communities directly after the disaster and the obstacles they faced, testimonies from those who experienced it, as well as reactions of company and government officials.  Mimi said she hopes the film "shows the resilience of mountain people".

After discussions at the January Letcher Chapter meeting, members Elizabeth Sanders and Sylvia Ryerson worked to organize and advertise the event, complete with a WMMT radio community calendar announcement.  Over a dozen Letcher Chapter members attended the event, along with friends, neighbors, and friendly strangers.  

 Tonight, WMMT will continue the commemoration with a 'Buffalo Creek' Mountain Talk from 6 - 7 pm, featuring Mimi, Jack Spadaro, and others.  Stream WMMT live here, and learn more about the Buffalo Creek films here. 

More than 60 citizen lobbyists came to Frankfort on Tuesday to talk to legislators about the promise of clean energy.

The Clean Energy Lobby Day was hosted by the Kentucky Sustainable Energy Alliance (KySEA), a coalition of 52 organizations working to pass clean energy policy that would stem rising energy rates and create thousands of new jobs. In addition to grassroots organizations like KFTC, a founding member, KySEA includes small businesses, faith communities, housing groups, and even individuals.

Meeting with more than 50 different legislators, participants discussed House Bill 167, the Clean Energy Opportunity Act. Sponsored by Rep. Mary Lou Marzian, the bill would establish benchmarks for increasing the use of renewable energy and energy efficiency in Kentucky over the next ten years. It would also establish payment rates for renewable energy to encourage renewable energy industries to locate in Kentucky and create new jobs.

Many surrounding states have already passed such measures, and new jobs in clean energy are going to Ohio and North Carolina instead of Kentucky.

EKU students John Bowers and Emily Justus lobbied for the first time. Justus, a native of Pike County, said she came to Frankfort to “show our support and learn about the whole process.”

Bowers of Berea said, “I’m very much for clean energy. I think that’s the wave of the future and the direction we need to go.”

The Clean Energy Opportunity Act is assigned to the House Tourism, Development and Energy Committee. One strategy of the lobby day was to press for the bill to get a hearing, and we learned today that our efforts were successful. The bill will get a hearing in committee in the next few weeks!

Today is the last day the U.S. EPA is accepting comments on a proposed rule change that would weaken efforts to clean up the skies in national parks, including Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky.

The proposal would let coal-burning power plants in 28 states use a weaker air pollution emissions standard. In short, the EPA wants to allows power plants in those states to use the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule (CSAPR) to improve natural visibility conditions in Class I areas rather than the source-specific Best Available Retrofit Technology (BART).

An analysis by the National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA) concluded that, "While the emission trading program created by CSAPR will result in significant air quality benefits for many eastern states, it will not require some of the most egregious polluters of iconic Class 1 national landscapes to clean up their pollution to the same level that would be required under BART."

One of the Kentucky coal-burning plants that would get off the hook is the R.D. Green plant in Webster County, whose emissions are impacting air quality in Mammoth Cave park.

"Unless EPA's proposed exemption is dropped, the RD Green coal plant will emit at least 243% more nitrogen oxides … than the best pollution controls would allow," the NPCA report states. "These pollutants are directly linked to poor air quality in these places and cause serious health damage in addition to hazy skies."

ACTION: You can sign on to a letter to EPA opposing this change, provided through Credo Action, by clicking here.

RESOURCES

• Cleaning Up the Haze report by the National Parks Conservation Association
• 2008 NCPA report Dark Horizons naming Mammoth Cave as one of the top 10 national parks most at risk from coal-burning power plant pollution
  
• EPA regulatory notice for BART rule exemption
  

Tomorrow (Tuesday) at 11:30 a.m., a state Senate committee might vote on a bill that would make remove the obligation for phone carriers to provide service to people in Kentucky's rural communities. This would include 911 services.

Letcher County member Mimi Pickering says, "This bill harms not only rural people living in remote areas but all low-income folks, those on fixed–incomes, and seniors who could lose the option of having a lower cost telephone line that is regulated by the PSC."

Kentucky Resources Council opposes SB 135, and has suggested that people call in to the Legislative Message Line at 1-800-372-7181. Tell them that you want to leave a message for the "Members of the Senate Committee on Economic Development, Tourism, and Labor," for your own state senator, and for "Senate leadership." Ask them to reject SB 135, and to reaffirm the importance to Kentuckians of access to dependable, affordable, basic telephone service.

You can find more information about KRC's stance here on their website.

And here is an analysis from the Rural Assembly Broadband Policy Group:

The Rural Assembly's Rural Broadband Policy Group believes that access to basic telephone service is a non-negotiable necessity for all Americans, particularly for folks in rural and remote communities.

A harmful bill is before the Kentucky Legislature this week that threatens rural Kentuckians' basic telephone service, including 911 emergency service.  Senate Bill 135 would remove the obligation of AT&T, Windstream, and Cincinnati Bell to provide service to the most remote areas of the state. The committee could vote as early as Tuesday the 28th.

Basic telephone service is sometimes the only point of access for rural communities across the country.   As rural constituents, we ask you to express your concern over the negative impact that SB 135 will have on rural, remote, and poor communities in Kentucky, especially at a time when poverty rates are statistically high, jobs are scarce, and Kentuckians cannot afford to lose yet another resource.
 
We are extremely worried that SB 135 will:

• Leave low-income and fixed-income Kentuckians without access to basic phone service, including 911-emergency service.
• Leave customers at the mercy of a utility and its affiliated companies to raise the price for basic service in an area where no other competitor exists.
• Allow possible "redlining" of poor and remote communities where providing service is more costly or higher-maintenance.
• Strip the Public Service Commission of its authority to protect costumers by investigating complaints regarding basic telephone service quality.
• Carriers could decide to abandon or retire their wirelines, resulting in loss of access to vulnerable customers by the competitors.
  

You can help us STOP this legislation by taking action. Call the Legislative Message Line at 1-800-372-7181 and leave a message for the "Committee on Economic Development, Tourism, and Labor" plus your own Senator.  

While KFTC has not had the opportunity to taken a position on SB 135, it seems likely that this bill would impact several of the communities where our members live.

The committee meeting is at 11:30 in the morning, so call in first thing if you want to weigh in!

Last summer Pallavi Podapati, of Hazard, worked with the Perry and surrounding KFTC chapters on several adventures, from a listening project across several eastern Kentucky counties to capturing the March on Blair Mountain, WV in photographs.  She is currently a pre-med student at the University of Pennsylvania and very active in local Philadelphia community campaigns to encourage banks and corporations to de-fund mountaintop removal in Appalachia and invest in mountain communities. 

This Wednesday, Feb. 29 starting at 12:00 noon, Pallavi is a featured speaker, with others like George Lackey, at a new "Green Your Money" Initiative Kickoff event for her organizing efforts in her home community of Hazard and her current community of Philadelphia.  We look forward to having Pallavi back in Hazard this summer! You can stream the event live here.

The Northern Kentucky KFTC Chapter is proud that this Wednesday they will be the 'Charity of the Month' at Oakbrook Cafe in Burlington, Kentucky! In recognition of KFTC's work to help register and inform voters across northern Kentucky, the restaurant and bar has selected the chapter to receive 10 percent of all proceeds sold on Wednesday February 29th. 

Northern Kentucky members are excited about this possibility to support a local business, raise awareness about our work, and also to raise some funds to continue our work both here and across the state.

To celebrate the honor, one member has taken it upon himself to host a team trivia show at the Oakbrook Cafe that night about Kentucky. Teams who participate can win gift cards of $15, $10, $5, or a single dollar to the restaurant if they come in 1st, 2nd, 3rd, or last place. 

Oakbrook Cafe will be open from 11 AM til 1 AM, and there will be KFTC members there all day. If you can, we hope you can stop by!

Exciting and final news today about legislative redistricting in the Kentucky Legislature:

Kentucky high court blocks use of newly-drawn legislative districts

By Jack Brammer jbrammer@herald-leader.com 

FRANKFORT — The Kentucky Supreme Court has blocked implementation of the newly drawn boundaries for state legislative districts, a move that will keep Democratic Sen. Kathy Stein’s district in Lexington. 

In a two-page order issued a few hours after hearing oral arguments in the case Friday morning, the state’s highest court upheld Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd’s ruling that this year’s redistricting was unconstitutional...

For the full Herald-Leader story, click here.

So that's that.  The undemocratic and partisan redistricting plans pushed by Democratic House leadership and Republican Senate leadership have been unanimously deemed unconstitutional by the Kentucky Supreme Court. 

We'll keep our old districts for this year's election and the legislature will have to come up with new, and legal redistricting for future years.  Hopefully they'll be less greedy and more likely to listen to the wishes of the people this time.

The ultimate victory was in the courts, but KFTC successfully mobilized people throughout the state on this issue over the last month, organizing two rallies, a successful campaign to ask the Lexington City Council to pass a resolution against the redistricting, had numerous meetings with legislators, wrote letters to the editor and used social media to great effect in raising awareness around a redistricting process that our elected leaders largely tried to slip past the people quietly and quickly. 

Congratulations.  It looks like good government and reason won the day and we should take a moment to celebrate that. 

The Northern Kentucky chapter of Kentuckians for the Commonwealth, along with the Northern Kentucky Sierra Club, has long been interested in issues around hillside development. The two organizations, seeing a common purpose, began working together several months ago, and are putting together a film festival and speaker event that will talk about how Northern Kentucky and the state handles land development that will be held Sunday March 4th at 2 pm at the Erlanger Branch of the Kenton County Public Library.

This event, which is thanks in large part to the tireless efforts of members like Ruth Bamberger, JoAnn and Paul  Schwartz, Ann Hicks, Melinda Simonds, Rick Traud, and so many more, will feature clips from award winning films like Kilowatt Ours, Architecture to Zucchini, A Passion for Sustainability, and The Mountaintop Removal Road Show to highlight the need for sustainability, the importance of incorporating natural beauty in development, the need to understand the soil quality in your community, and the impact development has on water.

To really tie these films together the two groups also will have several speakers discussing local concerns with development. Eric Russo, the Executive Director of the Hillside Trust, will talk about the strength of the land in Northern Kentucky, and what over developing an area can mean to the people living in the surrounding communities; Tim Guilfoile, the National Deputy Director of Sierra Club's Water Sentinels Project, will talk about the importance of water quality to people living in Northern Kentucky, and the impact and problems these conditions may have; and several representatives of the Lewisburg Neighborhood Association of Covington, Kentucky will talk about the problems their community has faced due to the added developments around them, and will have a question and answer period with attendees.

Both organizations are looking forward to this event, and hope to raise awareness about the need for more sustainable and joint planning across the communities in Northern Kentucky.

Members at our 2011 Voting Rights Lobby Day

For years, our bill to restore voting rights to most former felons who have served their debt to society has passed the House by a wide margin, but has not been allowed to even come up for discussion in the Senate.

This year, the bill has just been assigned to a new committee, Senate Judiciary, chaired by Senator Tom Jensen.

This is an exciting opportunity for us because Sen. Jensen and many other senators on that committee have expressed support for HB 70 in the past.

But we need to show an out-pouring of public support to make sure they understand that Kentuckians support voting rights legislation and to make sure we finally get a hearing for the bill.

We know that many of you called Senate Leadership about this bill just earlier this week, but it's critical that we generate a lot of calls to members of the Senate Judiciary Committee as soon as possible.

Take Action

Call the Legislative Message Line (1-800-372-7181) and leave a message for the "Senate Judiciary Committee" plus your own Senator.  (Click here if you're not sure who your senator is)

The Message Line is open until 6 p.m. tonight (7 a.m.-11 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 7 a.m.-6 p.m. on Friday)

Message: "Please support House Bill 70."

If you know senators on the Judiciary Committee or if you are in their district, it would be especially useful for them to also get a personal letter, call, or email from you. Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee are:

Sen. Tom Jensen [Chair]
Sen. Katie Stine [Vice Chair]
Sen. Perry B. Clark
Sen. Carroll Gibson
Sen. Ray S. Jones
Sen. Jerry P. Rhoads
Sen. John Schickel
Sen. Dan "Malano" Seum
Sen. Brandon Smith
Sen. Robert Stivers
Sen. Robin L. Webb

It's also now less than two weeks until the March 8th Voting Rights Lobby Day and Rally in Frankfort. Please register today if you plan on attending and spread the word!

(adapted from an announcement at www.courts.ky.gov)

The Supreme Court of Kentucky will convene later this morning (Friday, Feb. 24) in Frankfort to hear oral arguments about the constitutionality of the General Assembly’s redrawing of state legislative districts. Proceedings are open to the public and will begin at 10 a.m. EST in the Supreme Court Courtroom, located on the second floor of the state Capitol at 700 Capitol Ave.

The public may also observe oral arguments online via the Supreme Court live stream. 

For more information about the case, visit www.courts.ky.gov

For a backlog of KFTC Blog updates on the redistricting issue, click here