"Hollow, an interactive documentary about the people and issues of McDowell County, WV, launches June 20 – West Virginia’s 150th statehood celebration day. The immersive, online experience is the brainchild of West Virginia native Elaine McMillion. She worked with a team of designers, programmers, journalists, filmmakers and community members to combine video portraits, user-generated content, data, grassroots mapping and soundscapes on an HTML5 site and an accompanying community tool to tell the story of those living in boom-and-bust areas."
"While most of us have known about the beautiful outdoors opportunities in Central Appalachia for some time, it seems that recently the region's tourism efforts have been really stepping it up. And according to research out of Oregon, capitalizing on the eco-economy is a good idea."
"Mike Hurley had a great opportunity: He could multiply sales and staff by converting his metal-stamping business from one that made brackets for the automotive industry into a top-tier supplier of satellite dishes to DirecTV. He also had a problem: Highlands Diversified Services is headquartered in small-town Appalachia, a place where big banks readily lend money for houses, cars and refrigerators but shy away from business loans. Louisville, sure. But not London, Ky., population 8,000."
"'We don’t belong to anyone’s political party. We don’t belong to anyone’s organization, and so we ought to have the freedom, then, to speak prophetically to both parties and to all parties,' says the new president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission."
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"The Hiwassee River has a reputation as one of the finest trout fisheries in the Southeast, but that’s not why Jeremy Monroe and David Herasimtschuk came here last week all the way from Oregon. Instead of fly rods, they plied the river with an underwater camera."