From Marmet, West Virginia, to Blair, West Virginia, hundreds are marching across the Appalachian region throughout this week to honor the historic labor event known as the Battle of Blair Mountain. This event designed to remember one of the largest battles in US labor history, however, is not just about history. A coalition known as Appalachia Rising is using the five-day march to call attention and protest mountaintop removal coal mining.

We’re hours away from a government shutdown because Republicans want to use their hatred of lady parts to extract maximum budget cuts. Apparently John Boehner agreed to drop that rider last night, if we’re to believe Harry Reid, but then Boehner sent a 4am email saying he couldn’t sell it to his caucus. He’s not really in control.

Today, the EPA flat-out revoked the permit for one of the largest mountaintop removal projects in the nation.

Yesterday PEER reported that President Obama asked a Bushie lawyer who spent years battling for mountain top destruction coal mining to run the Federal agency that regulates mountain top destruction mining. Change you can believe in? Yes – if you believe in hiring one of Steven Griles’ helpers and forever burying ancient streams and hollows under toxic coal mining waste in a mad rush to roast the planet.