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Report says a second Trump term would add 4 billion tons of climate pollution; Trump predicts a bloodbath for the country if he is defeated in November's election; Nevada leaders discuss future of IVF, abortion in the Silver State; and anglers seek trawler buffer zone as Atlantic herring stock declines.

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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.

Collapsing Coal Industry Leaves Miners Fighting for Benefits, Back Pay

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Thursday, August 15, 2019   

WHITESBURG, Ky. – A wave of coal company bankruptcies has left miners fighting for back pay and medical benefits.

Three large coal producers have gone under this year. At the same time, an epidemic of black lung disease is sweeping many coal mining communities.

Letcher County resident Patty Amburgey says her husband, a coal miner, died from decades of exposure to coal dust. They were married for 45 years.

"It destroyed his body,” she says. “It's like a storm went through and there wasn't nothing left."

Last month miners traveled to Washington to press lawmakers on legislation that would ensure retired miners suffering from black lung disease and their families are paid disability benefits when a miner's employer has gone bankrupt.

Known as the Black Lung Benefits Disability Trust Fund Solvency Act, the bill was introduced by U.S. Rep. Bobby Scott, D-Va., and is funded through an excise tax.

Bankruptcy is a real fear as the coal industry continues to atrophy.

Amburgey says it's not just miners with black lung who are suffering.

"Every day, I changed his bed and bathed him,” she relates. “It takes a toll not only on the person that has black lung, it takes a toll on the whole family.

“It leaves a mark that can't be erased nowhere. It leaves it on your heart and soul."

Meanwhile, miners in Harlan County continue to protest for the third straight week, after their employer, Blackjewel. went bankrupt without paying them for their work.

A group of miners continues to camp out, blocking coal trains near Cumberland and demanding missing paychecks.


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