When Ashley Judd recently spoke before a crowd of 800 demonstrators during the “I Love Mountains” rally in Frankfort, Ky., she projected an image of Appalachia different from the stereotypes normally seen on most newscasts.

She referenced the beauty of the…

The Catholic Committee of Appalachia (CCA) is distributing a DVD, “Climate Change: Our Faith Response,” to all 27 Catholic dioceses in the Appalachian region. The 10-minute DVD is intended for religious education classes and comes with a study guide to…

With the recent spike in gasoline prices, politicians and pundits have begun calling again for energy independence for America. Ethanol refiners continue lobbying Congress for massive subsidies while electric utilities and coal producers promote clean coal and a nuclear renaissance.

Oil…

The U.S. spends more on defense than all other nations combined. Considering the basic budget for the Defense Department — that covers salaries, operations, equipment and the supplemental budget that pays for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan — defense…

Not since the Gilded Age of the 1890s has the wealth gap between the rich and poor in the United States been wider. With 469 American billionaires, the richest 1 percent of Americans own 33.4 percent of all U.S. wealth measured as stocks, bonds, cash, real estate and personal possessions. The bottom 90 percent of all Americans divide only 30.4 percent of the wealth among them. While 37 million Americans live in poverty, most breadwinners among them have jobs and some have two or more. The numbers seemingly measure only the economic gap, but on deeper reflection they indicate a disturbing trend: the diminishing of America's middle class.

Because Congress failed last year to pass comprehensive immigration reform, 2008 began with a patch quilt of state laws and local ordinances that reflect a national confusion about dealing with immigration. On the one hand, Lake Havasu, Arizona, like a…

A row of identical signs arranged like landing lights at an airport repeat the appealing offer: "Borrow $200, Repay $203." This modern spider-to-fly invitation displayed in front of the office of payday lenders appeals to hard-strapped workers who just need…

Nothing quenches a thirst like cool water, whether it's Pepsi Co.'s Aquafina (13 percent of the bottled water market), or Coca-Cola's Dasani (11 percent of the market), or a specialty water from Nestlé. Every day, millions of Americans grab a…

Falling refrigerators dropped from planes plus old car chassis and kegs of nails raining down on innocent civilians during aerial bombardments are cited as some of the Sudanese government's weird war tactics in the "Unity Statement" of Save Darfur, a…

Last Labor Day agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) swooped down on a poultry plant in Stillmore, Ga., arresting 120 people with false papers and scattering another 300 in all directions. ICE agents also raided several homes in town,…