West Virginia

Rainforest Action Network and Natural Resources Defense Council enjoyed a huge victory when Bank of America decided last week to end its financing of controversial, destructive mountain top removal coal mining in Appalachia.

Appalachia, long known as one of the poorest parts of the U.S. with chronically high unemployment, finds itself in the enviable position of enjoying remarkably low unemployment due to unwavering demand for its main natural resource – coal.

The only running Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) system has served West Virginia University and Morgantown's downtown for 32 years. Now the university is considering proposals to expand the system to cope with increasing traffic.

As new developments consume agricultural lands in the fast-growing South, the cooperatives that cater to farmers feel the pinch. While some can 'retool' by selling pet food and lawn fertilizer, others must close as another casualty to sprawl.

Controversial technique by mining companies of dynamiting moutaintops to get at coal destroys more than the environment.

It is possible to move three, four, or even five counties out from the District of Columbia and still feel the effects of growth in the national capital region, even though Unger, W.Va. is not generally considered a suburb of Washington.

After suffering population loss and poverty for decades, West Virginia recently posted a decline in the unemployment rate, spurred by the resurging coal, tourism, and construction industries.

Many West Virginians must leave the state to find work, but they long for home.

Inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places could bring federal dollars for Neal Deal homesteads.

The environmental movement suffered a setback as whe Supreme Court refuses to hear a case about mountaintop coal mining in West Virginia.

Contest for the city with the best public tap water draws international attention to drinking water quality.