#coal mining

Excerpt from this press release from the Center for Biological Diversity:

A federal court ruled today that the federal government’s attempts to undercut Endangered Species Act protections for the sake of coal mining were illegal. Coal mines will now be required to follow the law and ensure their activities don’t harm protected plants and animals.

“This is an incredibly important victory for the streams and rivers of Appalachia and the people and wildlife who rely on them,” said Jared Margolis, a senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. “For too long regulators have allowed coal mining to devastate wildlife. This decision will require coal mines to fully account for their threats and harms and do more to ensure that imperiled wildlife aren’t pushed to extinction for dirty fossil fuel profits.”

The decision was issued by the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia and invalidates the federal government’s unlawful attempt to streamline how coal mines comply with the Endangered Species Act. The Center for Biological Diversity and Appalachian Voices sued the U.S. Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 2023 for failing to protect highly imperiled wildlife from the devastating harms of coal mining. The court today agreed, finding the agencies failed to implement required protections for species, putting wildlife at great risk.

Sources : Wikipedia, MSHA, Coal Creek

I had to go up in the attic yesterday. While there, I though I'd grab the two old photos of my great grandparents (Peter and Julia). They hung down at Home Farm all the years my mother lived there, and I recently asked Son if I could put them back up. He said yes.

Problem is, I couldn't find Peter and Julia. (This photo, but cropped to be individual portraits and framed in rather fancy frames)

All I could find was this guy.

And, even after wiping the thick shroud of dust away, I don't know . . who this is. He's not bearded and German, so not my father's side of the family. The frame is modern and simple. It clearly had a mat at one time, but it doesn't now; that brown(er) border is just the photo, but damaged/darkened. The closer I looked at it, the more baffled I got. Literally nothing about the frame, backing, or photo is consistent or makes any kind of sense. And I don't recognize him!!

Maybe, MAYBE a younger photo of this guy:

Sadly, I don't know who HE is, either. My mother's family Had Issues, and most of them were dead or estranged before I was ever born. My father, looking at this, said "That's an Irishman if I ever saw one," which would make sense for my mother's side of the family.