Tag: coal
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Blackout: Scenes from a Coal-Dependent Economy
This article was originally published in the Jan./Feb. 2016 issue of West Virginia Focus magazine. One day Bill Thompson, 76, decided to just sit and wait by the front door of his Boone County home improvement store. Thompson bought Danville Lumber from his uncle after he left the Army in 1963. Business was strong back […]
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The Forgotten Disease
This story originally appeared in the January/February 2016 issue of West Virginia Focus magazine. For a time, it seemed black lung was headed the way of smallpox and polio. When Congress passed the Federal Coal Mine Health and Safety Act of 1969, about 35 percent of coal miners with 25 or more years on the […]