From the Louisville Courier-Journal, by Stephenie Steitzer and  Tom Loftus

790 felons can vote again

FRANKFORT, Ky. — Gov. Steve Beshear has restored the voting rights of 790 felons after streamlining the process implemented by his predecessor, Ernie Fletcher. Beshear said in March that he was eliminating steps Fletcher imposed, including requiring felons to obtain three recommendations and to write a letter saying why they deserved to have their rights restored.

"As governor, I have re-instituted the process that previous governors — with the exception of Gov. Fletcher — had used to restore felons' rights," Beshear said.

Those rights include the right to vote and to run for public office, said Les Fugate, spokesman for Secretary of State Trey Grayson.

The restoration does not erase convicts' records or permit them to own weapons.

Fletcher restored the rights of 1,098 felons during his four years as governor, according to Grayson's office.

That compares to 7,254 convicts who had their rights restored under former Gov. Paul Patton — the first governor in modern times to serve two terms — and 1,536 under former Gov. Brereton Jones.

Beshear said his policy still requires confirmation that a felon has fulfilled all sentencing requirements. In addition, he is extending to 30 days, from 15, the time given prosecutors to object.

"So far 56 applicants have been turned down based on the input from prosecutors," he said. "At the same time, those whose rights have been restored have served their time and paid their debt to society."

Franklin County Commonwealth's Attorney Larry Cleveland said he doesn't oppose restoring the rights of offenders who have "served their time and re-entered society and (are) working and leaving their old life behind."

that seems to try to play on people's fears of former felons. 

We encourage members to take this opportunity to  write letters to the editor in response to either stories!

Mining hurts Kentuckians' quality of life

In Pike County, Clintwood Elkhorn Mining has self-reported to the Army Corps of Engineers that it had mined through two streams and constructed two sediment ponds without having a permit. As a result, water on Millers Creek above Fishtrap Lake, the source of drinking water for Pikeville and much of Pike County, was affected.

Despite this, Bill Caylor, president of the Kentucky Coal Association, says he doubts there is any validity to Kentuckians for the Commonwealth's and Sierra Club's allegations.

I invite Caylor and the media to visit the site with members of the community, who won't drink their home water, won't eat fish they catch in Fishtrap Lake and have been and are being affected by the destructive and desperate act of mountaintop removal mining.

Caylor can sit in his office in Lexington and continue to close his mind, but the people who live with this every day would like to open his eyes and the eyes of people who live downstream and want to protect their drinking water.

John Cleveland

Sierra Club organizer

Blackey

Big Coal wins again

I guess coal companies have won again. In this year's legislative session, the "stream saver" bill was voted down. Actions like this keep showing coal companies they are above the law.

I guess they can keep destroying the mountains, murdering animals and poisoning our streams with no law to stop them and no government agency to police them.

Do you think Kentucky Coal Association President Bill Caylor will ever admit what mountaintop-removal mining really does to the environment? According to him, it is the best thing for the mountains.

Our politicians are afraid to vote against the coal industry because they fear angering too many of their voters and not getting re-elected, even though they know what they are doing is wrong and should be against the law.

Larry Wilder

Pineville

A Letter to the Editor and an article worth noting, both underscoring the irresponsibility of the current budget.  Below is a member's call for tax reform that offers access to higher ed, and an article that shows how chronic underfunding of the Cabinent of Health and Family Services has compromised our ability to protect some of the state's most vulnerable. 

Amar Shah's Letter to the Editor in yesterday's Courier-Journal.  Shah is among the U of L students building support for affordable higher education.

Taxes and tuition

"Crit Luallen's opinion piece on the exorbitant costs of higher education in Kentucky could not be any more relevant. As she notes, Kentucky is among the least educated states in the nation and desperately must catch up. Luallen reports that tuition at our four-year institutions have risen by 96 percent over the past six years, forcing a massive decrease in enrollment. These tuition increases can be attributed to, at least in part, a refusal of our state government to raise the revenue badly needed to support higher education.

Luallen's figures demonstrate that the shortchanging of public higher education in Kentucky has been an ongoing trend, but our current governor and legislature must do everything in their power to reverse it. Simply put, raising revenue means raising taxes.

In this state, the wealthiest pay a smaller proportion of their income in taxes than do those who are merely eking out a living. In the end, it is the students who pay, in the form of sky-high tuition, as universities look for ways to shore up their budgets.

As a student at the University of Louisville, I challenge the readers of this newspaper to quit harking to the fear-mongering of anti-tax rhetoric and admit that the only way to an educated Kentucky is through economic justice and tax reform. Only when the state government has the guts to raise taxes on the wealthy will our public universities secure the funding necessary to ensure that higher education is affordable for all."

AMAR SHAH
Student
University of Louisville
Louisville 40217

And here is an article in the Herald-Leader about the effects of chronically underfunding the state wards, which care for the 2500 Kentucky adults who are unable to care for themselves.  Notice the incredible caseloads pointed out (and bolded) in the excerpt below:

Luallen said in an interview that the problems are not indicative of the quality of the employees hired by the state to handle guardianship cases.

      'These are committed, caring workers who are doing the best they can.' The problem, she said, is that there are too few of them.

A national study issued in 2005 recommended a ratio of one worker per 20 wards.  As of last year, Kentucky averaged one case manager for each 58 wards, the audit found. Since then, caseloads have increased to an average of one worker per 61 wards.

All this, and the Senate President isn't convinced that anyone is being cut to the bone.  These pieces, along with all the other calls for strengthening our investments our commonwealth, are cases for more inclusive, more participatory government, with elected officials who truly represent Kentuckians.  What are your thoughts? 

Wednesday's edition of the Courier-Journal contained several letters expressing support for the Stream Saver bill and outrage at the destruction occurring in the mountains.  Also included was a letter from a fifth grader from Crestwood Elementary School who lamented the recent defeat of the bill:

Disappointed class

My fifth grade class in Crestwood is very disappointed that House Bill 164 (Stream Saver Bill) has not been passed. The Stream Saver Bill got voted on, but one vote changed it all. It lost.

My class said, "At least we made a difference." I think HB 164 should have passed because it would have saved our future and protected Appalachia's history and the wonderful people in Eastern Kentucky. The polluted water from coal slurry, and the mountains and homes that are being destroyed by mountaintop removal, must be stopped.

Next year, hopefully, we go at it again and try to save Kentucky's streams.

BRIANNE GOLDBERG

Fifth grade student
Crestwood Elementary School
Oldham County public schools
Crestwood, Ky. 40014

As we celebrate Black History Month, I see interesting parallels between the great civil rights struggles of the 1950s and 1960s and today's struggle against mountaintop-removal mining in Appalachia.

The documentary film Briars in the Cotton Patch explores what happened at Koinonia, a communal farm founded in 1942 in Americus, Ga, during the early days of the civil rights movement.

Koinonia was a peaceful "experiment in Christian living" founded by a courageous, gentle white activist named Clarence Jordan. At Koinonia, blacks and whites worked and lived as equals.

At first, the white residents of Sumter County, Georgia ignored the communal farmers as harmless and slightly weird people with strange ideas. But following the U.S. Supreme Court's 1954 ruling in Brown vs. Board of Education, the fear of integration, escalated by the Ku Klux Klan's hate-mongering, led to violent attacks against the farm.

Buildings were bombed, houses were strafed with gun fire, and fruit and nut trees were chopped down. Community leaders organized an economic boycott of Koinonia, and a store that broke the boycott was bombed.

Amazingly, the farmers endured the threats and the terrorism, and Koinonia survived and grew.

In the late 1960s, under the leadership of Jordan and newcomers Millard and Linda Fuller, Koinonia began building homes for the area's poor black residents. Eventually it became the inspiration for Habitat for Humanity, which today has its headquarters in Americus and is one of Sumter County's largest employers.

One of the most interesting parts of the documentary is footage of today's white residents of Americus equivocating and making excuses for their actions and bigotry during the civil rights struggle. Their eyes shift and dart as they try to explain how they once allowed white terrorists to live among them.

Yes, they knew about the bombings and shootings, but of course, they weren't involved. A reporter for the Americus News said that he thought it was in the community's best long-term interest to minimize reporting of the violent attacks on Koinonia. In the 1960s, the president of the chamber of commerce in Americus asked Koinonia to leave "for the good of the community."

In the film, the chamber president states his regret, admitting, "I didn't have any guts at the time."

All this was pitiful and somewhat embarrassing to watch, but it made me think about the documentary films that will be made 20 years from now about the campaign we are waging to protect the people and culture of Appalachia from utter destruction.

One day we will look back with horror at photos of exploded mountains, just as we look upon the photographs of civil rights leaders being blasted with fire hoses. We will revile the people who put corporate profits ahead of the life-support systems this planet provides.

So who will be the heroes and villains of these future films about mountaintop removal?

Instead of Sheriff "Bull" Conner and the White Citizens Council, we will have the spokesmen for the Friends of Coal and International Coal Group. Instead of Alabama Gov. George Wallace, we will have U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.

But who will be the heroes? Kayford Mountain Keeper Larry Gibson? Maybe Judy Bonds of Coal River Mountain Watch and Teri Blanton of Kentuckians for the Commonwealth.

Only time will tell. And there is still plenty of room in the anti-mountaintop removal movement for heroic leaders.

Want to make the world a better place? Want to end injustice and discrimination? Want to help right a grievous wrong? Join the movement to end mountaintop-removal mining -- and make history.

With a single AP photo and a two sentence caption, the Lexington Herald-Leader appeared uninterested in reporting on our I Love Mountains Day rally.  The paper has since been flooded with calls and letters criticizing their  poor coverage of this important event.  Eleven of these letters were published in Saturday's editorial page.

Clean water matters

The Herald-Leader can cover every aspect of meaningless news but can't provide adequate coverage of an important issue to all Kentuckians: clean water.

There was a rally in Frankfort on Feb. 14 in support of the "Stream Saver Bill," but there was no news story in the Herald-Leader. More than 1,200 Kentucky citizens and taxpayers who actually want to protect Kentucky's water attended, but the Herald-Leader seems only interested in covering meaningless stuff.

Having clean water and protecting against a water shortage should be more important issues to Kentuckians than deciding what to buy their sweeties for Valentine's Day.

What is wrong with the Herald-Leader? Has it been bought, as legislators in Frankfort have?

Clean water and air matter, not profits for coal mining executives and their bought flunkies.

Linda Sizemore
Richmond

Disappointed in paper

The Herald-Leader's lack of significant coverage of the large rally on the ice-covered steps of the state Capitol on Valentine's Day is very disappointing.

Attempts by legislators to ignore such input from citizens trying to get a hearing on the "Stream Saver Bill" may be attributed to their being in bed with surface-mining interests. I hope the Herald-Leader is not subject to the same sordid connections.

Maybe the rally was too peaceful and friendly. Civil disobedience or a few arrests might have made better news copy.

John Payne
Berea

Publish Berry's speech

What a shame that the Herald-Leader did not see fit to give more attention to the huge rally that took place in Frankfort on Valentine's Day. More than 1,200 people from all over the state came to protest mountaintop-removal in Eastern Kentucky.

Kentucky author Wendell Berry gave a wonderful speech, which, at the very least, deserved publication in the paper. People from Eastern Kentucky were there to testify to the devastating effects of mountaintop removal, which is ruining their drinking water and turning their beautiful land into a horrible moonscape.

I'm disappointed that the Herald-Leader did not provide more enlightening coverage of this vital issue.

Dianne Shuntich
Richmond

In the past few days the issues we work on have been featured pretty prominent in the news.

The Courier-Journal published an article on a legal battle around the expansion of a mountaintop removal/valley fill site in Leslie County and on the issue of MTR more generally.  It mentions Kentuckians For The Commonwealth, the Stream Saver Bill, and our I Love Mountains Day rally.  It is a really good article by James Bruggers with lots of good supplementary information and photos.

Also in The Courier-Journal recently was an editorial decrying the potential effects of proposed budget cuts on state services and the lack of leadership being shown by state legislators in solving this problem.

Finally, this weekend the Lexington Herald-Leader published several letters to the editor by KFTC members and others supporting HB 262, our Tax Justice legislation, which would make our tax system more fair and raise additional revenue for state services.  You can read the letters on the KEJA blog.

State can't wait any longer for tax reforms

By Jim Wayne

Op-Ed in the Lexington Herald-Leader

The Consensus Forecasting Group anticipates that Kentucky is facing a staggering $900 million shortfall in the next biennium. The ramifications for our citizens living with this financial hole in our budget are too unpleasant to imagine.

But imagine we must. This problem will not drift into the shadows. Our citizens are concerned and raising their voices to make sure we, the leaders with the power, act to protect our children, our sick, our college students, our elderly, our transportation systems, our prisons, our law enforcement officers, our environment and our citizens with mental retardation, addictions and mental illnesses, as well as other areas of our lives touched by the state budget.

Our hour has come. For years, as predicted by James Fox in his 2001 study of our inadequate, outdated and unjust tax system, we knew, or should have known, that today we would be facing a nearly $1 billion crisis. He told us then, and Gov. Paul Patton, in his last year in office, presented us with a sound solution. But we ignored Fox, and we ignored Patton.

We can no longer ignore the reality. No short-term solution will solve our problem. Today we present a proposal many of you have seen before. You may choose to ignore it, as Fox's and Patton's were ignored. I pray legislators will instead study it, improve it if they can and, with the boldness and leadership needed, support it.

Read the complete Op-Ed in the Lexington Herald-Leader Here.

Author and KFTC member Erik Reece penned an op-ed for the Courier-Journal on December 30th looking at 2007 as the year we've come to acknowledge as a country the myriad of global environmental problems we face.

2007: year of recognition

By Erik Reece
Special to The Courier-Journal

I believe 2007 will be remembered as the year that brought the future into focus. It will be remembered as a moment of clarity when, as Americans, we finally realized we can no longer doubt or delay action on our global environmental crisis.

In 2007, the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, along with Al Gore, won the Nobel Peace Prize. And to further settle the argument over global warming, researchers also learned last year that the Arctic ice cap is melting much faster than they had thought. Thirteen hundred scientists, working under the aegis of the U.N.'s Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, found that over half of the world's ecosystem services -- clean air, fresh water, disease resistance -- are not functioning at sustainable levels. And geologists concluded that last year the world hit the highest level of oil -- 87 million barrels a day -- that we will ever extract from the earth. From here, it is literally all down hill; there will always be less oil, and it will be much harder to reach. Finally, 2007 was the year that the phrase "ecological footprint" entered the popular lexicon. While the world's average ecological footprint stands at 5.5 acres of resources for each person on the planet, the average American's footprint has swelled to 23.5 acres, four times the sustainable level.

Thus it is my hope, far from an easy hope, that 2007 will be remembered as the year in which we finally came to realize that, as a country and as a species, we cannot remain on our current course of convenience, affluence and accumulation.

Continue reading...

And today, KFTC member and co-chair of the Bluegrass Sierra Club conservation committee, Rick Clewett, wrote an op-ed in today's Lexington Herald-Leader looking at the challenges faced by many of those who live near large strip mining sites.

Coal mines' neighbors live, sleep in fear

E. Kentuckians have endured enough

By Rick Clewett

Many of us will go to bed tonight with every reason to think that we will have a good night's sleep and that the world we wake up to tomorrow will be substantially the same as the world as we experienced it today.

Sure, we may wake up in the night because of a stray pain or take a while to go to sleep because we have to let go of the stress of a hard day. But we do not expect to be awakened during the night by the sound of blasting or the noise of large, overloaded trucks barreling down the road in front of our houses.

We do not take into our dreams a huge, steeply angled valley fill looming over our houses. We are not endangered by a huge pile of dirt, rock and, too often, trees bulldozed off the mountain over the last three months so that coal could be removed in the cheapest, quickest way. Nothing will break loose and threaten to bury us while we sleep.

We do not stay awake fretting that the slurry pond at the bottom of the fill is leaking at a rate of 5 gallons a minute, and that its restraining wall may some day give way, flooding our narrow valley, as has happened in recent years in Martin County and elsewhere.

Continue reading here...

            By Wendell Berry

With my son and David Maehr, a member of the University of Kentucky's Forestry Department, I recently paid a visit to Pioneer Forest, which is to the south of its headquarters in Salem, Mo.

Pioneer Forest consists of various tracts, totaling about 40,000 acres purchased by Leo Drey, mostly in the early 1950s. Most of the tracts at the time of purchase had been severely degraded by bad logging. From the beginning of Drey's tenure, Pioneer has been a commercial forest, continuously logged. There are seven "active timber sales" in various stages of work.

The difference between this and nearly all other commercial forests, and what makes this one worth going to see, is that for the last half century, by Drey's prescription, Pioneer Forest has been sustainably managed.

Sustainable, like organic and natural, has become an empty word, useful mainly for misrepresentation in marketing. But I have looked closely at examples of sustainable forestry in Wisconsin, Ohio, Virginia and Missouri, and those particular examples make sustainable again a respectable adjective.

Sustainability, in forestry, rests on the single principle of keeping the forest ecologically intact. That is to say that, after logging, the forest remains an "uneven-aged stand" of trees in their natural diversity of species and sizes, and the canopy remains unbroken except for scattered small openings that allow for natural regeneration.

                     For the complete Op-Ed in the Herald-Leader, click here.