Tag: coal mining

WERU Special: Coal Mining 2/8/12

Broadcast time: 4pm

Program Topic: impacts of coal mining practices in southern West Virginia on the environment, residents’ health, and worker safety

Key Discussion Points:
a) The choices for those who are trying to make a living in southern West Virginia are difficult at best.
b) A recent health study conducted in mountaintop removal coal mining areas revealed higher cancer rates and different cancer types than in a non-mining area of West Virginia.
c) Few working miners join the union despite unsafe working conditions.

Guests by name and affiliation:
A) Reverend Jim Lewis
B) Bo Webb
C) Larry Metheney, Sec./Treasurer AFL-CIO of WV
Call In Program: n
Political Broadcast: y
Host: Carolyn Coe

FMI: americanswhotellthetruth.org

WERU Special – Coal Mining 1/24/12

Broadcast Time: 10am
Program Topic: coal mining in southern West Virginia

Key Discussion Points:
a)Coal companies have assaulted the landscape of southern West Virginia with large-scale surface mining operations, blasting off the tops of mountains. As coal leaves the state, so does the money it generates, leaving poor communities with polluted wells, respiratory ailments, flash floods, and unnecessary miner deaths.
b) Junior Walk of Coal River Mountain Watch shares what he has seen over the past twenty years including citizen efforts to relocate an elementary school, which sits below an impoundment filled with toxic coal waste.
c)Writer Denise Giardina describes growing up in a coal camp, community solidarity with striking mine workers, and her own love of the mountains.

Guests by name and affiliation:
A)Junior Walk, outreach coordinator of Coal River Mountain Watch
B)Denise Giardina

FMI: www.crmw.net, www.denisegiardina.com

Call In Program: n
Political Broadcast:y
Host:Carolyn Coe

WERU News Report 6/15/11

Producer/Host: Amy Browne
Contributing Producer: Carolyn Coe with assistance from Lindsey Saunders

Segment 1: An interview with Lisa Savage, CODEPINK Maine Local Coordinator, about the upcoming annual mayor’s conference where a resolution will be considered that calls for Congress to “bring our war dollars home” to be spent on local community needs. Lisa will attend and report back to WERU next week. She will also be the contact person for a Mainer who will be on the next humanitarian aid flotilla to Gaza at the end of June. “The Audacity of Hope” flotilla sets sail 13 months after the Israelis stormed a similar flotilla and killed several activists. Lisa Savage will also follow up with us over the next few weeks re: their progress. FMI: http://www.codepink4peace.org/section.php?id=429

Segment 2: When transnational mining companies discovered coal and moved into the department of Cesar, Colombia, paramilitaries also arrived. Local rivers have become contaminated, people and animals are getting sick, and social problems have worsened in the city of La Jagua and neighboring communities. Area leaders discuss the impacts of the coal mining on their communities.
Speakers:
Dioselina Carvajal Saravia, victim of paramilitary violence
Adanies Quintero, representative from agriculture sector
Ricardo Machado, union member, welder for Carbones de la Jagua (a Glencore mine)
Ana Marquez Martinez, police inspector, Boqueron
Oswaldo Aguilar Mejia, former univ. professor and member of local AfroColombian association, La Jagua
Jaime Giraldo Duque, president of the displaced persons association, La Jagua
Of note: According to US diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks, the US-based Drummond Company paid paramilitaries for protection of its Colombian mining operations. http://colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/14935-us-coal-firm-drummond-paid-paramilitaries-wikileaks.html
Glencore, another transnational operating in the area, is about to sell publicly on the London exchange.

RadioActive 3/18/10

Producer/Host: Meredith DeFrancesco

Topic:

Today we look at how the health insurance industry’s still unbridled quest for profits hits close to home.  Tomorrow state courts will hear Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield’s lawsuit against Maine for stopping their proposed 18% rate increase.

We also hear an editorial on a bill which would require cell phones to carry labels cautioning consumers on the health hazards of their radiation.

And we also review upcoming events which we will be covering in the next few days, concerning the war in Afghanistan,  the constitutional rights of corporations, and mountain top removal coal mining.