Word: virginia
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Some three million pounds of explosives are detonated each day in West Virginia for coal mining, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, and the process shears up to 800 feet of elevation off each mountain peak, says Margaret Palmer, director of the University of Maryland's Center for Environmental Science. The black scars run visibly up the spine of the central Appalachians. And the explosions don't sound lightly: "When they put these blasts off, it's horrendous," says Maria Gunnoe, 41, of the community advocacy group Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition, who lives in Bob White, W. Va., 12 miles...
...mountaintop mining. Recently, representatives of the U.S. Office of Surface Mining visited Appalachia to study the effects in the area. Such mining is devastating the environment, "polluting our streams, poisoning our air and destroying our culture and heritage," says Judy Bonds, co-director of the West Virginia-based Coal River Mountain Watch...
...that people who live in mountaintop mining areas have "higher rates of lung cancer, chronic lung, heart and kidney disease mortality [and] lower birth rates" than average, possibly caused by breathing in coal dust or absorbing harmful chemicals, says Dr. Michael Hendryx, a professor of community medicine at West Virginia University, who studies health effects from mining...
Bracket makers take note: this past Tuesday the University of Connecticut’s women’s basketball team won their 72nd straight game, beating West Virginia by a whopping 28 points. The lopsided outcome was nothing new for this team, which has averaged a 32.5-point margin of victory during their record-setting streak. Although these juggernauts have clearly displayed their dominance in this particular season, the question remains: Are they the greatest ever? Some talking heads profess that they will be if they win the national championship at the end of this season, others doubt whether this...
...letter was seen as a blow to the independence of the state's education institutions, which normally have "a great deal of autonomy," says Kirsten Nelson, spokeswoman for the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia. "Changes must be made by the General Assembly. Without changes, historically it has been assumed that it is the will of the General Assembly that the institutions retain broad control of their governance." The Council will discuss this issue at their regularly planned meeting next week...