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  <atom:title type="html">KFTC Blog</atom:title>
  <atom:subtitle></atom:subtitle>

  <atom:updated>2010-09-02T09:34:21-04:00</atom:updated>

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    <atom:entry>

      <atom:title>Northern Kentucky Chapter Rocks Festival!</atom:title>

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&lt;p&gt;Our&lt;a class="external-link" href="../our-work/chapters/northern-kentucky"&gt; newest chapter&lt;/a&gt;, located in the most northern part of our state, had an interesting&amp;nbsp; weekend last week, decided to take an opportunity to table at a music festival in northern Kentucky. The festival is located at the l&lt;a class="external-link" href="http://www.na-motorsports.com/Tracks/KY/ThornHill.html#TrackFacts"&gt;ongest continuing operating drag strip in the country&lt;/a&gt;, and is a diverse collection of self-described &lt;a class="external-link" href="http://www.whisperingbeard.com/Beardo.html"&gt;beardos&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Many, due to the nature of the festival, the feel of the music, and the sense of community, have dubbed the festival a yearly "Woodstock in Morningview", although members felt that perhaps "Bluegrass Bonnaroo" was a more appropriate nick name for the &lt;a class="external-link" href="http://www.whisperingbeard.com/"&gt;Whispering Beard Festival&lt;/a&gt;. Regardless though, this was a curious crowd that brought in people from all over the state.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align="center"&gt;&lt;a title="gR1-22A by Kentuckians For The Commonwealth, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/kftcphotos/4949654312/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4103/4949654312_4504d2926b_m.jpg" alt="gR1-22A" height="162" width="240" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The Northern Kentucky chapter used this event as a chance to let people the destruction of Mountain Top Removal, giving away buttons that said I Love Mountains and Stop Mountaintop Removal, selling KFTC t-shirts, books about the destructive practice, and cds.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;All weekend members were talking to beardos (some familiar with our work, some not), and running into members from all over the state. There were members from Whitesburg set up talking about their &lt;a class="external-link" href="http://www.reverbnation.com/brettratliffmusic"&gt;music &lt;/a&gt;and &lt;a class="external-link" href="http://www.haywoodart.com/"&gt;art&lt;/a&gt;, and directing their customers to our booth about some of the issues facing Eastern Kentucky. There were other members who came up by chance and picked up unscheduled shifts at the booth, and directed as many of their friends over as possible.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Each member had their own approach. Some waited as people came by to look at the signs asking people to stop mountain top removal, some stopped people to hand them buttons, some pointed people to a map detailing the overlap between poverty and strip mining, and still some stopped any willing to show&amp;nbsp; the photographs showing the destruction of paradise. As member Scott Goebel told many prospective members, "Are you familiar with the John Denver song 'Almost Heaven, West Virginia?' Well, here's a picture of a home where people thought they had Almost Heaven, and ended up with Almost Level."&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align="center"&gt;
&lt;a title="gR1-20A by Kentuckians For The Commonwealth, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/kftcphotos/4949653530/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4073/4949653530_623cfce3fd_m.jpg" alt="gR1-20A" height="162" width="240" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;By the end of the weekend the Northern Kentucky chapter recruited 25 new members, raised over $250, and put over 90 people in touch with our great organization. Here, surrounded by good bands, friendly faces, and a number of beards, the Northern Kentucky chapter found fertile ground to begin growing new power.&lt;/p&gt;

          ]]>
      </atom:content>

      <atom:author>
        <atom:name>Joe Gallenstein</atom:name>
      </atom:author>

      <atom:published>2010-09-02T09:34:21-04:00</atom:published>

      <atom:updated>2010-09-02T09:34:21-04:00</atom:updated>

      
        <atom:category term="MTR"/>
      
      
        <atom:category term="New Power"/>
      
      
        <atom:category term="renewable energy"/>
      
      
        <atom:category term="Social Event"/>
      
      
        <atom:category term="Northern Kentucky"/>
      

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      <atom:title>Appalchian Leaders' Training a Success</atom:title>

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&lt;p&gt;By Mary Love&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Jefferson County Chapter member&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;On August 13-15 a first-ever Community Leader Training Weekend took place at Camp Virgil Tate north of Charleston WV. The training was planned and conducted by the Alliance for Appalachia, of which KFTC is a member. Seventy-four folks participated from KY (15), TN (15), VA, (16) WV (17), PA (3), NC (2), DC (2), OH (1), and even one each from Colorado and California!&amp;nbsp; &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Workshops included Community Organizing, Talkin’ SMCRA (led by Kevin Pentz), Facilitation, Economic Transition, Conflict Resolution, Youth Organizing, Pathway Away from Coal, and many more. The film Deep Down was also shown. There was plenty of time for conversation, campfires, great fellowship, and sharing, too.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;This was a great opportunity to learn more about how to improve our organizations and develop our leaders. I hope that this is just the beginning of similar training events conducted by the Alliance!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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      </atom:content>

      <atom:author>
        <atom:name>Nancy Reinhart</atom:name>
      </atom:author>

      <atom:published>2010-09-02T09:06:47-04:00</atom:published>

      <atom:updated>2010-09-02T09:07:15-04:00</atom:updated>

      
        <atom:category term="Ally Event"/>
      
      
        <atom:category term="Canary Project"/>
      
      
        <atom:category term="Appalachian Transition"/>
      
      
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      <atom:title>UK KFTC's first meeting of the academic year!</atom:title>

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&lt;div align="center"&gt;&lt;a title="UKKFTCCropped by Kentuckians For The Commonwealth, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/kftcphotos/4950208422/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4150/4950208422_716f5bcedd_z.jpg" alt="UKKFTCCropped" height="161" width="520" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;After &lt;a class="external-link" href="archive/2010/08/27/uk-kftc-starts-the-semester"&gt;hitting the ground running last week&lt;/a&gt; with a voter registration table on the first day of classes, tabling at the student involvement fair, and posting flyers on campus, tonight was the first UK KFTC meeting of the 2010-2011 academic year.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p class="image-right"&gt;&lt;a title="gIMG_4903 by Kentuckians For The Commonwealth, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/kftcphotos/4950207734/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4081/4950207734_78ac3cc5cd_m.jpg" alt="gIMG_4903" height="180" width="240" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Nearly all of the active UK KFTC leaders of last year have graduated, are taking a semester abroad, or have had to step back because of heavy school or work obligations, but new UK KFTC leader Callie Thomas has really stepped up to recruit new activists and to revive the organization on campus.&amp;nbsp; It's paid off with a dozen students coming out to this first meeting.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The group spent some time getting to know each other, learning about KFTC, and brainstorming ideas of things they might be able to accomplish this semester.&amp;nbsp; Ideas included film showings, voter registration activities, and campaigns to raise awareness of CSAs, locally created goods, and Farmers Markets.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;We recruited three new KFTC members at the meeting and scheduled a campus Voter Registration tabling for next week on Thursday, September 9th from 11am to 3pm outside near the Journalism building.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;blockquote&gt;
&lt;p&gt;"I hope to live in Kentucky for my whole life.&amp;nbsp; It's worth it to fight to make it the best possible place for all of us" &amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp; - Callie Thomas&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/blockquote&gt;
&lt;p&gt;UK KFTC meet every Wednesday at 7pm in UK Student Center room 111.&amp;nbsp; All UK students interested in our work are encouraged to attend!&lt;/p&gt;

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      </atom:content>

      <atom:author>
        <atom:name>Dave Newton</atom:name>
      </atom:author>

      <atom:published>2010-09-01T21:48:52-04:00</atom:published>

      <atom:updated>2010-09-02T08:42:39-04:00</atom:updated>

      
        <atom:category term="Voter Empowerment"/>
      
      
        <atom:category term="UK"/>
      
      
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    <atom:entry>

      <atom:title>Brace yourself. It's a furlough week.</atom:title>

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&lt;p&gt;&lt;img class="image-right image-inline" src="../images-1/closed.jpg/image_preview" alt="closed" height="274" width="304" /&gt;Expect long lines at the DMV on Tuesday.&amp;nbsp; This week marks the first week that many state workers are on "furlough"--fancy language for being out of work for a day so that the state can cut their pay.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Meanwhile, national experts called out Kentucky for the severity of our underfunding of the retirement accounts for 84,000 state workers.&amp;nbsp; The Kentucky Employees Retirement System has a $6 billion shortfall, largely because we haven't been making the recommended deposits into that account for the last several years.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Both the furloughs and the shaming from national experts about the state of our pension systems are two of the impacts of our leaders' neglect of our outdated tax structure.&amp;nbsp; Kentucky deserves better.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div style="text-align: left;"&gt;Read more about the pensions &lt;a class="external-link" href="http://www.kentucky.com/2010/08/30/1413221/kentucky-pension-fund-troubled.html#ixzz0y7pyJ1jQ"&gt;here, from the Herald-Leader&lt;/a&gt;, and &lt;a class="external-link" href="http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20100829/NEWS0101/308300006/Key+Kentucky+state+worker+pension+fund+in+distress"&gt;here from the Courier-Journal&lt;/a&gt;.&amp;nbsp; And you can read more about the pay cuts to state workers in either of those.&lt;/div&gt;

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      <atom:author>
        <atom:name>Jessica Hays</atom:name>
      </atom:author>

      <atom:published>2010-08-30T17:23:12-04:00</atom:published>

      <atom:updated>2010-08-30T17:23:12-04:00</atom:updated>

      
        <atom:category term="Economic Justice"/>
      

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      <atom:title>Voter Empowerment at the Kentucky Theatre!</atom:title>

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&lt;p class="image-right"&gt;&lt;a title="Tabling at Rocky Horror Picture Show!  by Kentuckians For The Commonwealth, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/kftcphotos/4942990522/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4095/4942990522_186c857ecc_m.jpg" alt="Tabling at Rocky Horror Picture Show! " height="180" width="240" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;On Saturday night, the folks at the Kentucky Theatre were nice enough to let us set up a table for their monthly showing of &lt;em&gt;Rocky Horror Picture Show&lt;/em&gt;. The showing coincided with a free movie night for University of Kentucky students, making it a great opportunity to register some voters. Central Kentucky members registered voters, collected voting rights postcards, and handed out invitations to KFTC meetings to folks dressed in all of their Rocky Horror glory. We invited a number of students out to the UK campus meetings and had a great conversation with a man who is working to get his voting rights back.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Later on in the week, we will be continuing this great work at the Transit Center on Thursday and at the North Lexington wedding of Tanya Ferguson and Christian Torp on Saturday. Hope to see y'all there!&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

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      <atom:author>
        <atom:name>Brittany Hunsaker</atom:name>
      </atom:author>

      <atom:published>2010-08-30T16:05:14-04:00</atom:published>

      <atom:updated>2010-08-30T17:13:28-04:00</atom:updated>

      
        <atom:category term="Restoration of Voting Rights"/>
      
      
        <atom:category term="Voter Empowerment"/>
      
      
        <atom:category term="Central Kentucky"/>
      

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    <atom:entry>

      <atom:title>Voter Guides Coming Together Soon - We need your help</atom:title>

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      <atom:id>8ae3be40c4496675b304063590ae3172</atom:id>
      

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&lt;p class="image-right"&gt;&lt;a title="gIMG_3833 by Kentuckians For The Commonwealth, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/kftcphotos/4613065360/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3306/4613065360_9f290f74de_m.jpg" alt="gIMG_3833" height="180" width="240" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;We're starting to get some responses from candidates sending in their answers to the the KFTC Candidate Survey, which we will publish in a few weeks in our Voter Guide (50,000 copies strong) and on &lt;a class="external-link" href="http://www.kentuckyelection.org"&gt;www.KentuckyElection.org&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It's a key part of our voter education campaign - asking candidates to make statements on issues and to relay those answers word-for-word to KFTC members and friends and anyone else looking for the information to help inform their votes and to make the democratic process possible.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;We'll then have a strong statewide phone bank to follow-up with all of these people to make sure they're all set to vote.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;We've sent surveys to all federal-level Kentucky candidates (US Senate race and candidates for all six Congressional races), plus many local state legislative, county, or city government races (check with your local organizer to find out what races we're producing voter guides for in your community).&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;As always, it has proven to be very difficult to get candidates to respond to our non-partisan candidate questions, which is why we need YOUR help this week.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;If you are at events where any of these candidates are, ask them if they've responded to the KFTC Candidate Survey yet - or even contact the campaigns by phone or email to tell them that responding to this questionnaire is important to you as a voter.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;We'll continue to follow-up with "official" KFTC phone calls and emails to the campaigns to encourage them to respond, but KFTC's strength, as always, resides in our membership so any action you can take to help would be very valuable.&lt;/p&gt;

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      </atom:content>

      <atom:author>
        <atom:name>Dave Newton</atom:name>
      </atom:author>

      <atom:published>2010-08-29T18:38:09-04:00</atom:published>

      <atom:updated>2010-08-29T18:38:09-04:00</atom:updated>

      
        <atom:category term="Voter Empowerment"/>
      

    </atom:entry>

  
  

    <atom:entry>

      <atom:title>An Empowering Union</atom:title>

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&lt;p class="image-right"&gt;&lt;img class="image-inline" src="../Members/dave/TanyaandChristian.jpg/image_preview" alt="TanyaandChristianstory" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;A North Lexington couple is using the grand occasion of their wedding next weekend to share good fortune, food, and a little voter empowerment with everyone in their community.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Christian Torp and Tanya Ferguson, both KFTC members, expect to feed about 800 people at their wedding, to which everyone in their neighborhood is invited.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;KFTC will be there to register voters and to talk to people about our campaign to restore voting rights to former felons who have served their debt to society.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;If you'd like to volunteer to help us table and canvass this unique community event, let us know.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Also, &lt;a class="external-link" href="http://www.lex18.com/news/bride-groom-help-the-hungry"&gt;click here for the LEX18 news story&lt;/a&gt; about the wedding that they ran yesterday.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align="center"&gt;_______________________________________________________&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;8/30 Update&lt;/strong&gt; - Merlene Davis also did a great story about Christian and Tayna.&amp;nbsp; &lt;a class="external-link" href="http://www.kentucky.com/2010/08/30/1413535/merlene-davis-couples-wedding.html"&gt;Check out the link here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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      </atom:content>

      <atom:author>
        <atom:name>Dave Newton</atom:name>
      </atom:author>

      <atom:published>2010-08-27T19:15:02-04:00</atom:published>

      <atom:updated>2010-09-01T22:06:02-04:00</atom:updated>

      
        <atom:category term="Voter Empowerment"/>
      
      
        <atom:category term="Central Kentucky"/>
      

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    <atom:entry>

      <atom:title>Benham &amp; Lynch tell DMRE Enough is Enough! </atom:title>

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&lt;p&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;"&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Our
water is worth more than that coal!” &lt;/strong&gt;Bennie Massey said to the
Kentucky Department of Mining and Reclamation Enforcement (DMRE) at
Wednesday's hearing on the proposed strip mine for Benham &amp;amp;
Lynch, Harlan County.  Bennie, Lynch's longest running city council
member, joined 20 of his neighbors and friends in Middlesboro at the
DMRE to speak out against the&amp;nbsp;500-acre
strip mine that will threaten the community's drinking water.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p class="image-left"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4135/4930983242_2aebeef160_m.jpg" alt="null" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Allies
from around the state supported these brave communities by &lt;a class="external-link" href="archive/2010/08/26/enough-is-enough"&gt;answering
a KFTC call to action made last week to contact KY Dept. of Natural
Resources Commissioner Carl Campbell&lt;/a&gt;&lt;a class="external-link" href="archive/2010/08/26/enough-is-enough"&gt;,
telling him that enough is enough&lt;/a&gt;, respect the plans and concerns of
local residents and give priority to protecting the communities'
assets.
 Upon request from several residents at the hearing, the deadline for
these comments has been extended.  &lt;a class="external-link" href="http://kftc.e-actionmax.com/takeaction.asp?aaid=4856"&gt;Click here to take action.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div class="pullquote"&gt;"I
come from a coal mining family. My dad, brothers, uncles, husband.
I'm not here to talk against those working men. They're turning us
against each other. If you love water, you're against coal.  Well,
I'm not!  Those miners can make their way.  There are other mines. 
I've lived in Lynch my whole life and I want to live out the rest of
my life here. We can't live here like this!" -Diane Marceli&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="pullquote"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="pullquote"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Along with water, residents of Benham and Lynch expressed several other fears about the proposed mine. &lt;strong&gt;“Mountains can't be destroyed and then expected to hold back water,”&lt;/strong&gt; one woman explained after reading aloud an article about Pike County residents of Harless Creek suing a coal company for extreme flooding damage. “I have flood insurance right now and I live up on a mountain.”&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;Stanley Sturgill (below) added, "I don't wanna be blasted out of bed every morning by those machines."&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4101/4930982670_b2bc26c461_m.jpg" alt="null" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

          ]]>
      </atom:content>

      <atom:author>
        <atom:name>Tanya Turner</atom:name>
      </atom:author>

      <atom:published>2010-08-27T16:38:11-04:00</atom:published>

      <atom:updated>2010-08-27T16:38:11-04:00</atom:updated>

      
        <atom:category term="MTR"/>
      
      
        <atom:category term="Canary Project"/>
      
      
        <atom:category term="Eastern Kentucky"/>
      
      
        <atom:category term="EKY"/>
      
      
        <atom:category term="Harlan County"/>
      

    </atom:entry>

  
  

    <atom:entry>

      <atom:title>UK KFTC Starts the Semester</atom:title>

      <atom:link rel="alternate" type="text/html"
                 href="http://www.kftc.org/blog/archive/2010/08/27/uk-kftc-starts-the-semester">
        http://plone.org/
      </atom:link>

      <atom:id>c68cb2cac4ad061a9f9ce7baa83b8e22</atom:id>
      

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&lt;p class="image-right"&gt;&lt;a title="gIMG_4897 by Kentuckians For The Commonwealth, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/kftcphotos/4929782225/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4139/4929782225_e4cba19f64_m.jpg" alt="gIMG_4897" height="180" width="240" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;On Wednesday, University of Kentucky KFTC members were on campus tabling in honor of the first day of classes. We registered a total of 76 voters on their way to and from class! We invited folks out to the first meeting of the semester on September 1st. UK KFTC will meet every Wednesday at 7pm in the Student Center.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align="center"&gt;&lt;a title="UK KFTC at the Student Involvement Fair by Kentuckians For The Commonwealth, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/kftcphotos/4932347708/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4139/4932347708_65035c6989_m.jpg" alt="UK KFTC at the Student Involvement Fair" height="180" width="240" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;On Thursday, UK KFTC President Callie Thomas and volunteers tabled at the Student Involvement Fair. Alongside other campus organizations, we talked to students about what our organization does and handed information about our issue campaigns.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;We're expecting a great turnout for the first meeting and a productive year for UK KFTC!&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

          ]]>
      </atom:content>

      <atom:author>
        <atom:name>Brittany Hunsaker</atom:name>
      </atom:author>

      <atom:published>2010-08-27T11:43:19-04:00</atom:published>

      <atom:updated>2010-08-27T19:15:46-04:00</atom:updated>

      
        <atom:category term="Voter Empowerment"/>
      
      
        <atom:category term="UK"/>
      
      
        <atom:category term="Central Kentucky"/>
      

    </atom:entry>

  
  

    <atom:entry>

      <atom:title>Enough is Enough!</atom:title>

      <atom:link rel="alternate" type="text/html"
                 href="http://www.kftc.org/blog/archive/2010/08/26/enough-is-enough">
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      <atom:id>0787b8a9fdf5681cf1e1db98aec3661f</atom:id>
      

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&lt;table align="right"&gt;
&lt;tbody&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td&gt;&lt;a title="Carl Shoupe at Portal 31 by Kentuckians For The Commonwealth, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/kftcphotos/3429175978/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3643/3429175978_b31b87fea0_m.jpg" alt="Carl Shoupe at Portal 31" height="180" width="240" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td style="text-align: right;"&gt;Portal 31&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;/tbody&gt;
&lt;/table&gt;
&lt;p&gt; Residents of Benham and Lynch in Harlan County are creating a new future of their communities. They are asking for support to help stop another proposal to strip away the communities' assets and their hopes for the future.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p class="callout"&gt;  &lt;em&gt;“Our little communities of Benham and Lynch have a lot of potential.  The Portal 31 Exhibition Coal Mine, Lynch Depot, Benham Theater, the Schoolhouse Inn, and the Kentucky Coal Mining Museum are all part of our history and heritage.  We are planning to rehab the Old Restaurant and Old Fire Station, near Portal 31. We can continue to build tourism if we protect these facilities and the beauty of our mountains” &lt;/em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;– Stanley Sturgill  &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;  This area also boasts the highest peak in the state (Black Mountain), great quality drinking water, and local development plans that can be a showcase for the rest of the state.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;  That is, if they can keep coal companies from destroying everything.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt; Residents are now challenging the &lt;strong&gt;fifth&lt;/strong&gt; pending coal mining permit application that puts all their present and future plans at risk. The latest is a 500-acre strip mining proposal that would come very close to historic buildings in Lynch.   The company, Nally &amp;amp; Hamilton, has caused KFTC members numerous problems over the years.  The strip mining on the other side of the mountain from Benham and Lynch destroyed Elmer Lloyd’s pond three years ago and contributed to additional problems last week.  Check out his story here.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt; Harlan chapter members recently filed, with the help of &lt;a class="external-link" href="http://www.kyrc.org/"&gt;Kentucky Resources Council&lt;/a&gt;, that an area including these 500 acres be declared Unsuitable for Mining.  But Benham and Lynch residents must also fight for this individual permit to be denied while the larger petition proceeds for the viewshed and watershed be declared unsuitable for mining.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;  Their future and their children and grandchildren’s future depend on the right decisions.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt; Click the "act now" button below to send an email to the Kentucky Department of Natural Resources Commissioner Carl Campbell, telling him that enough is enough.  Respect the plans and concerns of local residents and give priority to protecting the communities' assets.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt; &lt;strong&gt;You are encouraged to submit comments by 4 p.m. on Thursday, September 2 &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;(this is an extension from the original deadline). &lt;/em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;   &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt; Thanks for helping and making a difference.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align="center"&gt;&lt;a class="external-link" href="http://kftc.e-actionmax.com/takeaction.asp?aaid=4856"&gt;&lt;img src="http://kftc.e-actionmax.com/images/d/nav_actionalerts.gif" alt="Act Now" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;!-- fwd-warn-start --&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

          ]]>
      </atom:content>

      <atom:author>
        <atom:name>jerry</atom:name>
      </atom:author>

      <atom:published>2010-08-26T15:05:20-04:00</atom:published>

      <atom:updated>2010-08-26T15:05:20-04:00</atom:updated>

      
        <atom:category term="MTR"/>
      
      
        <atom:category term="Canary Project"/>
      
      
        <atom:category term="featured"/>
      
      
        <atom:category term="Harlan County"/>
      
      
        <atom:category term="Eastern Kentucky"/>
      

    </atom:entry>

  
  

    <atom:entry>

      <atom:title>Attention electricians, plumbers, HVAC contractors</atom:title>

      <atom:link rel="alternate" type="text/html"
                 href="http://www.kftc.org/blog/archive/2010/08/26/attention-electricians-plumbers-hvac-contractors">
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      </atom:link>

      <atom:id>cd68da0b965a543c71db6c9b7e1ff9f1</atom:id>
      

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          <![CDATA[
          
&lt;h3&gt;Join MACED and water heating and space heating experts to learn the latest in energy efficiency at a free Lunch and Learn on September 2 in Paintsville.&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;div&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;&lt;img class="image-right" src="../images-1/blog/E3.png/image_preview" alt="E3 logo 8.26.10" /&gt;Electricians, plumbers, HVAC contractors, solar installers, energy managers, and operations teams are welcome.&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"&gt;
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p class="callout"&gt;Location:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;blockquote class="webkit-indent-blockquote"&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Kentucky Highlands Entrepreneur Center&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;120 Scott Perry Drive&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Paintsville, KY 41240&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;p class="callout"&gt;Time, Date:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Thursday, September 2, 2010&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p class="callout"&gt;Topics:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;ul style="list-style-type: square;"&gt;&lt;li&gt;Heat pump technology&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Geo-exchange waste heat recovery&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Gas condensing technology&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Tankless water heating systems for water and hydronic space heating applications&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Solar water heating systems&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;p class="callout"&gt;Speakers:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Angela Nagler (General Electric)&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Bob Peck (WaterFurnace)&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Gary Bryant (Dealers LP)&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;David Hall (Rinnai)&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Joshua Bills (MACED)&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;For more information or to reserve your seat, contact Elizabeth Graves at 859-986-2373.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

          ]]>
      </atom:content>

      <atom:author>
        <atom:name>Amy Hogg</atom:name>
      </atom:author>

      <atom:published>2010-08-26T10:28:29-04:00</atom:published>

      <atom:updated>2010-08-26T10:28:29-04:00</atom:updated>

      
        <atom:category term="Energy efficiency"/>
      

    </atom:entry>

  
  

    <atom:entry>

      <atom:title>KFTC describes Renew East Kentucky in Solutions </atom:title>

      <atom:link rel="alternate" type="text/html"
                 href="http://www.kftc.org/blog/archive/2010/08/24/kftc-describes-new-power-in-solutions-article">
        http://plone.org/
      </atom:link>

      <atom:id>a6da34fbce2d9a574fabdb7bef1bd904</atom:id>
      

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&lt;p&gt;&lt;!--StartFragment--&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Check out &lt;a class="external-link" href="http://www.thesolutionsjournal.com/node/683"&gt;this
article&lt;/a&gt; by KFTC’s own Sara Pennington and Randy Wilson (pictured below) in the latest issue of the
journal &lt;em&gt;Solutions, &lt;/em&gt;which&lt;em&gt; &lt;/em&gt;focuses on the future of Appalachia.&amp;nbsp;&lt;img class="image-right" src="../images-1/blog/randypic.jpg/image_preview" alt="Randy Wilson" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Pennington
is a KFTC organizer, and Wilson is a long-time KFTC member and fifth-generation
Appalachian who lives in Clay County.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Read about a plan called&amp;nbsp;&lt;strong&gt;Renew East Kentucky&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;that would create thousands of jobs and help the region transition to a more diverse economy.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"&gt;&lt;/span&gt;Renew East Kentucky&lt;/strong&gt; would be a five-year
energy efficiency and renewable energy initiative to retool and expand the
local workforce, build up local initiatives already in place, and more
aggressively implement solutions to address the region’s infrastructure and
economic challenges.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Why does
Wilson think &lt;strong&gt;Renew East Kentucky&lt;/strong&gt; is a good idea? “We need options in energy,
and we need options in work,” he said.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Wilson is
doing an oral history project in coal-producing communities, and he’s finding
that lots of folks are ready for change. Like John Craft, who mined coal in
Eastern Kentucky for 20 years. As the article describes, Craft sees coal
production declining and envisions a sustainable economy built on clean energy
like wind, solar and micro-hydro.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Renew East
Kentucky&lt;/strong&gt; is a chance to use the infrastructure we already have – rural electric
cooperatives – to transition to a clean energy economy and create thousands of
new jobs. Because the co-ops are member-run, real people at the local level
would lead this transition and the new jobs would be the kind we need – clean
and sustainable.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;“The word is
power,” Wilson said. “Giving people power to make choices.”&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;

&lt;!--EndFragment--&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

          ]]>
      </atom:content>

      <atom:author>
        <atom:name>Amy Hogg</atom:name>
      </atom:author>

      <atom:published>2010-08-24T14:34:45-04:00</atom:published>

      <atom:updated>2010-08-24T14:34:45-04:00</atom:updated>

      
        <atom:category term="New Power"/>
      
      
        <atom:category term="Renew East Kentucky"/>
      

    </atom:entry>

  
  

    <atom:entry>

      <atom:title>The People Behind Coal in Colombia and Kentucky - post 3</atom:title>

      <atom:link rel="alternate" type="text/html"
                 href="http://www.kftc.org/blog/archive/2010/08/24/the-people-behind-coal-in-colombia-and-kentucky-post-3">
        http://plone.org/
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      <atom:id>f5ca93b15cc3a55a062d5a39ac7b0c2d</atom:id>
      

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&lt;p&gt;Our goal was to explore the connections between the impacts of the coal industry in Kentucky and Colombia. An important part of the exchange and the high point for many was a celebration of culture and an exchange of the things that people in both places love about where they are from.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;A delegation of 5 from Kentucky - including 3 KFTC members and 2 staff
- participated in this Witness for Peace trip, which was focused on
"The People Behind the Coal in Appalachia and Colombia&lt;span class="highlightedSearchTerm"&gt;&lt;/span&gt;."
The exchange began with a tour of mountain communities impacted by coal mining in Eastern Kentucky. From July 19th to July 26th, the group traveled on to Colombia. We spent the week learning about the impacts of the coal industry on
Colombian communities in a northern coastal region called Cesar.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;In a village called Tamaquito, we sat under a cool canopy of trees in mud huts with palm thatched roofs. KFTC member Randy Wilson took a moment of space to do some pickin' for the villagers. People were immediately at ease, and the space filled with laughter and song.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;iframe src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/14394084?title=0&amp;amp;byline=0&amp;amp;color=ca6a28" frameborder="0" height="345" width="460"&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="http://vimeo.com/14394084"&gt;Randy Wilson's Banjo in Tamaquito, Colombia&lt;/a&gt; from &lt;a href="http://vimeo.com/kftc"&gt;Kentuckians For The Commonwealth&lt;/a&gt; on &lt;a href="http://vimeo.com"&gt;Vimeo&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The villagers then performed a dance for us where the women, covered from head to ankle in flaming red capes, circled the open ground to the sound of a drum. Then one woman was joined by one man and they twirled together in an intense circle, rounding one another and bumping shoulders.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;img class="image-inline image-inline" src="../images-1/blog/IMG_6879.JPG/image_preview" alt="Tamaquito Dance" height="274" width="182" /&gt;&lt;img class="image-inline image-inline" src="../images-1/blog/IMG_6853.JPG/image_preview" alt="Tamaquito Drummer" height="272" width="180" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;After the dance, the villagers fed us a rich meal of marinated rice and goat meat. We talked as much as we could with them and played with the children who ran all around us. It started to rain and we quieted, sitting under the shade and listening to the sounds of the drops in this beautiful little village. With only one solar panel in the village, no one went inside their homes during this pleasant afternoon rain, but sat watching, experiencing it instead.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;When we asked the villagers what they loved about the place they call home, several of them smiled. One said, “When the sun sets and night falls it is dark, we know where we are. We are not lost. Once, we lived in peace here.”&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Tamaquito is being forcibly displaced from their land by a coal mining company. We're losing communities and cultures like them around the world at a rapid clip, due to our driving demand to consume. As Randy Wilson said, "The very people who know how to live sustainably, who figured this out long, long ago, are being displaced by a society whose principles and policy don’t have a clue."&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The hope we can find is in communities standing together to learn from one another and to protect the values, the culture and the possibilities of transition that still remain here in Kentucky and abroad.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;To learn more about the issues and the trip, plan to attend KFTC’s Annual Meeting and participate in a multi-media presentation about the trip.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

          ]]>
      </atom:content>

      <atom:author>
        <atom:name>Nancy Reinhart</atom:name>
      </atom:author>

      <atom:published>2010-08-24T11:54:28-04:00</atom:published>

      <atom:updated>2010-08-24T21:50:37-04:00</atom:updated>

      
        <atom:category term="New Power"/>
      
      
        <atom:category term="Energy"/>
      
      
        <atom:category term="Eastern Kentucky"/>
      
      
        <atom:category term="EKY"/>
      
      
        <atom:category term="Colombia"/>
      

    </atom:entry>

  
  

    <atom:entry>

      <atom:title>Harlan County Fish Pond Hit Again by Mining</atom:title>

      <atom:link rel="alternate" type="text/html"
                 href="http://www.kftc.org/blog/archive/2010/08/23/harlan-county-fish-pond-hit-again-by-mining">
        http://plone.org/
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      <atom:id>48455a1a2b52ddd964a5011649ad9f11</atom:id>
      

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&lt;p&gt;Nearly three years ago, Elmer Lloyd
began a journey for justice on his property in Cumberland, KY after
the Nalley &amp;amp; Hamilton owned strip mine above his home completely
devastated his family's fish pond.  Excessive drainage of toxins,
sediment, and mud killed hundreds of fish and nearly filled in the
entire pond, as shown by video footage &lt;a class="external-link" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhXaAY12W2s"&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.  Years of
lawyers, inspectors, court battles, and coal company lies, ended in
Elmer having to settle with the company.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div align="center"&gt;&lt;a title="Elmer's pond damage 8.19.10 by Kentuckians For The Commonwealth, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/kftcphotos/4920305909/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4094/4920305909_90b1322a22.jpg" alt="Elmer's pond damage 8.19.10" height="375" width="500" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;p&gt;“I fully believed there were enough
laws to protect my property.  Boy was I wrong.” Elmer, disabled
underground coal miner, says of the tragedy.  This past November
Elmer received his small settlement and began a new journey to
restore his pond.  Since then he has spent nearly three thousand
dollars on the restoration.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Late last week, the site above Elmer's home,
now considered “reclaimed”, released another slide of silt and
mud into his pond.  “We had some rain, but the stream coming off
Pine Mountain [onto my property] was crystal clear.  The stream
running off that strip job was thick mud running right into my pond.”&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Inspectors came out but were resistant
to give Elmer any information.  They told Elmer they would be in
touch about the water samples they took, and they couldn't write a
violation if the company was in compliance.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;“They probably won't give them an off
permit violation because of all the mess I made about it the last
time.  They know I won't shut up about it and I'll stay right on
'em.”&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Elmer is hopeful that this incident
isn't as detrimental, although still very damaging.  He is yet to
find any dead fish, but it will take some work to fix it.  If his
pond takes a couple similar hits to this one, it will be right back
to the destroyed state it was three years ago.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;blockquote class="webkit-indent-blockquote"&gt;
&lt;p&gt;A lot of people around here have
serious damage to their homes and property, but are scared to talk
about it because them or their families work in the mines. I'm just a
drop in the bucket, but I don't care to tell about it.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/blockquote&gt;

          ]]>
      </atom:content>

      <atom:author>
        <atom:name>Tanya Turner</atom:name>
      </atom:author>

      <atom:published>2010-08-23T18:27:54-04:00</atom:published>

      <atom:updated>2010-08-23T18:50:43-04:00</atom:updated>

      
        <atom:category term="MTR"/>
      
      
        <atom:category term="Canary Project"/>
      
      
        <atom:category term="Eastern Kentucky"/>
      
      
        <atom:category term="EKY"/>
      
      
        <atom:category term="Harlan County"/>
      

    </atom:entry>

  
  

    <atom:entry>

      <atom:title>Weekend Voter Work at the East End Reunion</atom:title>

      <atom:link rel="alternate" type="text/html"
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      </atom:link>

      <atom:id>840839c5960b85b23b29124d94c84c13</atom:id>
      

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&lt;p class="image-right"&gt;&lt;a title="IMG_4887 by Kentuckians For The Commonwealth, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/kftcphotos/4921486328/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4121/4921486328_e7a75de6b9_m.jpg" alt="IMG_4887" height="180" width="240" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;KFTC members Janet Tucker and Tayna Fogle took turns this past weekend visiting the East End Reunion in Lexington, registering voters and talking about restoration of voting rights for former felons.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The day started out slow, but by 7 p.m., the event had attracted many hundreds of participants.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Tayna Fogle returned with over 100 postcards filled out, calling on our legislators to restore voting rights to all former felons who have served their debt to society.&amp;nbsp; She also took the opportunity to take the microphone and do a little mass education about the issue.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;"It was so much fun," Tayna said.&amp;nbsp; "We met a lot of people who are really with us that night."&lt;/p&gt;

          ]]>
      </atom:content>

      <atom:author>
        <atom:name>Dave Newton</atom:name>
      </atom:author>

      <atom:published>2010-08-23T17:06:21-04:00</atom:published>

      <atom:updated>2010-08-23T21:38:57-04:00</atom:updated>

      
        <atom:category term="Restoration of Voting Rights"/>
      
      
        <atom:category term="Voter Empowerment"/>
      
      
        <atom:category term="Central Kentucky"/>
      

    </atom:entry>

  

</atom:feed>
