Four coal ash waste impoundments in West Virginia recently made the EPA's “high hazardous potential” list. The issue gained national attention in December, when a coal ash impoundment in Tennessee broke and sent millions of gallons of polluted waters into rivers.
As James Clements (l) begins his first week as the 23rd President of West Virginia University, he is promising to increase the research coming out of WVU, raise faculty salaries so they equal those at similar universities, and improve student graduation and retention rates. Clements will be the fourth president to lead the university in the last two years, after former President Michael Garrison resigned over a degree scandal involving Gov. Joe Manchin’s daughter, Heather Bresch. Clements talks the issues facing WVU.
Thirty-two people, including some famous names (pictured, Daryl Hannah), were arrested last week at a mountaintop removal protest in Raleigh County, WV. Some of the ammunition used by mining protesters came from a new study which tries to measure the human cost of coal mining, literally. West Virginia University researcher Michael Hendryx argues the price West Virginians pay in health problems and shorter life spans is far greater than any economic benefits.
Several competing proposals to overhaul the nation’s health care system are being worked on in the U.S. Senate. West Virginia Sen. Jay Rockefeller, one of the architects of the Children’s Health Insurance Program, has his own proposal for universal health coverage: “The Consumers Choice Health Plan,” a publicly-run health plan like Medicare to compete with private health insurers.