Johnny Giles

The contributions of Kentucky’s eastern counties are most often overlooked. So is the fact that the residents are seeing tough times and facing hard choices. In recent years, the coal mining industry, formerly the backbone of the local economies, has been decimated.

A long-awaited revival is under way in this beleaguered Central Appalachia community where residents see coal as the once and future king. Trucks are running again. Miners working seven days a week cannot keep up with current demand. Coal mines, long dormant after the industry’s collapse, are now buzzing again with antlike activity. “We load coal every day for the power plant in Virginia City,” explained Rick, a long-time supervisor for a major local operation who did not want to give his last name.

The makeshift mortar looked like something from an old pirate ship, and it took the Kurdish fighters several days to figure out how to use the improvised weapon seized in a skirmish with ISIS. When they finally did, they crouched behind sandbags and launched a series of homemade shells found with the device at a village held by the terrorist group a mile away.