Help for Medicare recipients



Pathfinders for Independent Living will present options for recipients of Medicare Part D coverage and for those wishing to enroll in the plan from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Nov. 20, at the Harry M. Caudill Memorial Library in Whitesburg. Open enrollment for Medicare Part D ends December 7. Appointments are necessary and can be made by calling Mindy Brummett […]

Digital photography workshop



A workshop on digital photography is being offered by Southeast Kentucky Community and Technical College. The session, to be taught by Jennifer McDaniels, will be held Saturday, Nov. 16 from 1 – 3 p.m. in the lower shelter area at Kingdom Come State Park at Cumberland. The fee is $20. For more information, call Tessa Roark at phone 606- 589-3047 […]

William Branham dies at 94



William Patton Branham, 94, of McRoberts, died October 14 at Whitesburg Appalachian Regional Hospital. Born in Pike County, he was a son of the late Lorenzo and America Johnson Branham and the widower of Flonnie Tackett Branham. He was a brother of the late Hattie Hughes, Odell White, Ester Potter, Jonas Branham and Jack Branham. Surviving are two daughters, Patty […]

War without honor



To the Editor: We returned home from the war with a lot of pain and grief. Our bodies all shot up, our minds were incomplete. No one ever asked if we were OK. No one did not care, we were soldiers anyway. People looked down on us like we should have shame for laying down our lives so you could […]

Moments in Time



• On Nov. 18, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln boards a train for Gettysburg, Pa., to deliver a short speech at the dedication of a cemetery. The Gettysburg Address became one of the most famous speeches in American history. • On Nov. 21, 1927, Time magazine puts the weekold Holland Tunnel on its cover. The tunnel, which runs under the Hudson […]

Political Cartoon



Black lung victims are the sacrifical lambs of the coalfields



“The first priority and concern of all in the coal mining industry must be the health and safety of its most precious resource — the miner.” — First sentence of the 1969 Federal Coal Mine Health and Safety Act Center for Public Integrity reporter Chris Hamby conducted a yearlong investigation into the failed Black Lung Benefits Act that was passed […]

The noise around health act




The ace political and baseball prognosticator Nate Silver titled his book about prediction and statistical mastery “The Signal and the Noise.” Rarely has it been more important to distinguish between the two than in the uproar over the launch of the Affordable Care Act. As Silver put it, “The signal is the truth. The noise is what distracts us from […]

Court packing and unpacking



Back in 1937, then President Franklin D. Roosevelt, frustrated with decisions of the Supreme Court majority blocking critical aspects of his New Deal program, announced that he would seek to expand the court to as many as 15 justices. Under the bill he proposed, the president would have the authority to appoint one new justice for every justice who was […]

The Way We Were

100 years ago this week, Letcher County was all abuzz with talk about that week’s election.

Clips from available Mountain Eagle pages since our founding in 1908 Thursday, November 6, 1913 “One of the greatest, soberest and best managed campaigns ever fought in Letcher County comes to an end,” The Mountain Eagle says in a headline on its front page. “The cool quiet midnight air of Tuesday night pierced by the enthusiastic screams of the Republican […]