News - Ohio Valley ReSource

Jul 19

Energy & Environment

Coal Miners To Hit Capitol Hill For Black Lung Funding

Dozens of Appalachian coal miners plan to visit Capitol Hill Tuesday to ask lawmakers to bolster funding for the black lung disability trust fund, which miners depend upon when no responsible company can be identified to pay for needed health care. The fund is already billions of dollars in debt, and that will likely grow […]

By Sydney Boles

Jul 19

Energy & Environment

Coal Miners To Hit Capitol Hill For Black Lung Funding

By Sydney Boles

Jul 18

Economy

Living Wage: Ohio Valley Workers, Employers React As House Votes For $15 Minimum Wage

The U.S. House of Representatives voted Thursday to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour, more than double the current $7.25 rate, which has not changed in a decade. The bill is unlikely to clear the Republican-controlled Senate, where Majority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky has said he will not take it […]

By Becca Schimmel

Jul 18

Economy

Living Wage: Ohio Valley Workers, Employers React As House Votes For $15 Minimum Wage

Becca Schimmel

Jul 17

Health

New Data Show Opioid Deaths May Have Peaked, And Reveal Scale Of Past Pain Pill Sales

Two newly released sets of government data show that the death toll from the nation’s opioid crisis may finally be dropping and also reveal the scale of the pain pill sales that help set the crisis in motion. The data for the Ohio Valley show how hard the region was hit and how hard people […]

By Aaron Payne

Jul 17

Health

New Data Show Opioid Deaths May Have Peaked, And Reveal Scale Of Past Pain Pill Sales

Aaron Payne

Jul 15

Economy

“Death Spiral.” How A Carbon Tax Could End Some Coal Towns … Or Fund A New Future

Declining coal tax revenues place coal-reliant counties in Appalachia at risk of fiscal collapse, according to new research from the centrist Brookings Institution and Columbia University. Policies designed to prevent further climate change would accelerate that decline, the report found, but could also provide a new stream of revenue to help communities rebound from coal’s […]

By Sydney Boles

Jul 15

Economy

“Death Spiral.” How A Carbon Tax Could End Some Coal Towns … Or Fund A New Future

Sydney Boles

Jul 12

Health

New Prescription: Ohio Valley Native Dr. Patrice Harris Is First Black Woman To Lead AMA

Dr. Patrice Harris took the oath in June to become the first African-American woman to serve as president of the powerful American Medical Association, the largest professional association for physicians in the United States. Harris also brings another unique perspective to the job as someone who grew up in rural Appalachia. “I was born and […]

By Aaron Payne

Jul 12

Health

New Prescription: Ohio Valley Native Dr. Patrice Harris Is First Black Woman To Lead AMA

Aaron Payne

Jul 10

Economy

Laid-Off Employees Of Bankrupt Blackjewel Mining Seek Pay, Answers

Patrick Fitchpatrick has worked at Blackjewel’s D-11 coal mine in Cumberland, Kentucky, for more than a year. He said he enjoyed the work right up until he was told not to come in last Monday. “Everything was smooth sailing and then one day it just all goes to hell,” he said. The country’s sixth-largest coal […]

By Brittany Patterson and Sydney Boles

Jul 10

Economy

Laid-Off Employees Of Bankrupt Blackjewel Mining Seek Pay, Answers

Brittany Patterson and Sydney Boles

Jul 9

Economy

Minimum Wage Hike Would Have Major Effect In Ohio Valley

A new report from the Congressional Budget Office shows increasing the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour would boost the wages of 17 million workers and lift about 1.3 million people out of poverty. But the CBO warns that could also result in more than one million lost jobs and could diminish overall income […]

By Becca Schimmel

Jul 9

Economy

Minimum Wage Hike Would Have Major Effect In Ohio Valley

Becca Schimmel

Jul 5

Agriculture

Watershed Moment: “Ephemeral” Streams Debate Could Reshape Ohio Valley Waterways

West Liberty University Professor Zachary Loughman has dedicated his professional life to crustaceans – specifically freshwater crayfish. He dips his hand into one of the water tanks at his laboratory near Wheeling, West Virginia, to pick up a teal crayfish the size of a dollar bill. “See the little guy dropping down? We caught mom […]

By Liam Niemeyer

Jul 5

Agriculture

Watershed Moment: “Ephemeral” Streams Debate Could Reshape Ohio Valley Waterways

Liam Niemeyer

Jul 3

Economy

Judge Approves $5M Loan To Ailing Blackjewel Coal, But CEO Hoops Is Out

Kentucky’s Attorney General said on Friday he is investigating complaints from miners who say they are not receiving pay following the fast-moving bankruptcy negotiations for Blackjewel mining, which employs some 1100 people in Central Appalachia. Attorney General Andy Beshear said in a statement he has received “numerous troubling complaints” related to the company, “ranging from […]

By Brittany Patterson

Jul 3

Economy

Judge Approves $5M Loan To Ailing Blackjewel Coal, But CEO Hoops Is Out

Brittany Patterson

Jul 1

Energy & Environment

Major Appalachian Coal Company Files For Bankruptcy Protection

In the latest sign of problems for the U.S. coal industry, one of the country’s largest coal producers has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. West Virginia-based Revelation Energy LLC and its recently-formed affiliate, Blackjewel LLC, began the bankruptcy reorganization process in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of West Virginia on Monday. […]

By Brittany Patterson

Jul 1

Energy & Environment

Major Appalachian Coal Company Files For Bankruptcy Protection

Brittany Patterson