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SD public defense duties shift from counties to state; SCOTUS appears skeptical of restricting government communications with social media companies; Trump lawyers say he can't make bond; new scholarships aim to connect class of 2024 to high-demand jobs.

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The SCOTUS weighs government influence on social media, and who groups like the NRA can do business with. Biden signs an executive order to advance women's health research and the White House tells Israel it's responsible for the Gaza humanitarian crisis.

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Midwest regenerative farmers are rethinking chicken production, Medicare Advantage is squeezing the finances of rural hospitals and California's extreme swing from floods to drought has some thinking it's time to turn rural farm parcels into floodplains.

Bills Would Help Protect Family Cemeteries From Strip Mine Desecration

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Friday, March 6, 2009   

Charleston, WV – Two bills are being submitted to the West Virginia House of Delegates to make it easier for coalfield residents to protect small cemeteries from being damaged by surface mining.

Regina Hendrix, political chair for the West Virginia chapter of the Sierra Club, says current law protects cemeteries if they are registered with the state. The problem is, sometimes it’s difficult for people to register their small family plots, and even then the protections might not be enough.

"The loggers will come through, drag their skidder through the cemetery, which knocks the stones down. In a number of cases, we have found the stones piled up."

It is unknown how many cemeteries might have been destroyed by strip mining. An official with the West Virginia Coal Association says he knows of no such cases, and any registered cemetery is protected by what he calls a strong body of law. Protecting "unlawful cemeteries" might not be wise, he adds.

Hendrix argues, it can be difficult for people to register small family plots, even very old ones, if they're on coal company land. Sometimes, even gaining access to the cemeteries to document them for registration can be difficult, she adds.

"The problem now is the way the code is set up, that a citizen has to go to the circuit court to gain access to their family cemeteries."

One of the new bills before the state legislature would make it easier to gain access, by shifting those issues to lower-level magistrate courts. The other bill would increase the area around a cemetery in which mining is forbidden.




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