Rather than discovering the future of energy, some within the coal industry spend a majority of their time donating to conservative, intolerant elected officials and bashing President Obama and the Environmental Protection Agency. Although Bob Murray, President of Murray Energy, has seen many die in his coal mines he refuses to acknowledge the dangers of coal mining and incineration, and instead chooses to cut down those who attempt to move the U.S. energy sector forward. If coal-fired power plants ran more efficiently they would burn less coal and emit less carbon dioxide. This field should be the focus of the coal industry, not demeaning agencies attempting to protect Americans from the effects of climate change. Coal mining jobs have been lost, not because of EPA rules, but because of mechanization. In 1951, the leaders of the United Mine Workers of American and the Bituminous Coal Operators Association lifted their opposition to the mechanization of the mining industry. In 1940, West Virginia employed 135,457 miners. In 1968, it was 41,573. Currently there are 22,786 West Virginians employed in coal mines. The job losses over the last 50 years are dwarfed by job losses during an era when the EPA did not exist.

Europe has already fought back against powerful chemical companies and took a big step to protect bees by putting into effect a ban of the top bee-killing “neonic” pesticides. Now it’s our turn! Join Friends of the Earth and our allies in demanding that the EPA take immediate action to protect bees! Bees are critical in producing the majority of our food crops and the evidence is mounting that Bayer and Syngenta’s pesticides are a key contributor to mass bee die-offs. However, the EPA continues to ignore scientists -- even those employed by the EPA -- and has delayed action until 2018. But the bees can’t wait -- and neither can we! U.S. beekeepers have been consistently losing 40-100 percent of their hives. This winter, beekeepers are likely facing yet another season of historic bee die offs. We can’t let the EPA wait another five years to address this crisis. Please take action today and tell the EPA to ban bee-killing pesticides.

Europe has already fought back against powerful chemical companies and took a big step to protect bees by putting into effect a ban of the top bee-killing “neonic” pesticides. Now it’s our turn! Join Friends of the Earth and our allies in demanding that the EPA take immediate action to protect bees! Bees are critical in producing the majority of our food crops and the evidence is mounting that Bayer and Syngenta’s pesticides are a key contributor to mass bee die-offs. However, the EPA continues to ignore scientists -- even those employed by the EPA -- and has delayed action until 2018. But the bees can’t wait -- and neither can we! U.S. beekeepers have been consistently losing 40-100 percent of their hives. This winter, beekeepers are likely facing yet another season of historic bee die offs. We can’t let the EPA wait another five years to address this crisis. Please take action today and tell the EPA to ban bee-killing pesticides.

Europe has already fought back against powerful chemical companies and took a big step to protect bees by putting into effect a ban of the top bee-killing “neonic” pesticides. Now it’s our turn! Join Friends of the Earth and our allies in demanding that the EPA take immediate action to protect bees! Bees are critical in producing the majority of our food crops and the evidence is mounting that Bayer and Syngenta’s pesticides are a key contributor to mass bee die-offs. However, the EPA continues to ignore scientists -- even those employed by the EPA -- and has delayed action until 2018. But the bees can’t wait -- and neither can we! U.S. beekeepers have been consistently losing 40-100 percent of their hives. This winter, beekeepers are likely facing yet another season of historic bee die offs. We can’t let the EPA wait another five years to address this crisis. Please take action today and tell the EPA to ban bee-killing pesticides.

Europe has already fought back against powerful chemical companies and took a big step to protect bees by putting into effect a ban of the top bee-killing “neonic” pesticides. Now it’s our turn! Join Friends of the Earth and our allies in demanding that the EPA take immediate action to protect bees! Bees are critical in producing the majority of our food crops and the evidence is mounting that Bayer and Syngenta’s pesticides are a key contributor to mass bee die-offs. However, the EPA continues to ignore scientists -- even those employed by the EPA -- and has delayed action until 2018. But the bees can’t wait -- and neither can we! U.S. beekeepers have been consistently losing 40-100 percent of their hives. This winter, beekeepers are likely facing yet another season of historic bee die offs. We can’t let the EPA wait another five years to address this crisis. Please take action today and tell the EPA to ban bee-killing pesticides.

Europe has already fought back against powerful chemical companies and took a big step to protect bees by putting into effect a ban of the top bee-killing “neonic” pesticides. Now it’s our turn! Join Friends of the Earth and our allies in demanding that the EPA take immediate action to protect bees! Bees are critical in producing the majority of our food crops and the evidence is mounting that Bayer and Syngenta’s pesticides are a key contributor to mass bee die-offs. However, the EPA continues to ignore scientists -- even those employed by the EPA -- and has delayed action until 2018. But the bees can’t wait -- and neither can we! U.S. beekeepers have been consistently losing 40-100 percent of their hives. This winter, beekeepers are likely facing yet another season of historic bee die offs. We can’t let the EPA wait another five years to address this crisis. Please take action today and tell the EPA to ban bee-killing pesticides.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, every year more than two million people are hospitalized and 23,000 die because they have been infected with antibiotic-resistant bacteria. We're now in danger of returning to an age when simple infections are potentially fatal. Our decision-makers need to hear from the public, and it needs to happen quickly. That’s why we've launched a campaign to stop the overuse of antibiotics where the problem is the worst -- on factory farms that mix antibiotics right into the feed of healthy animals. In fact, 80 percent of the antibiotics sold in the U.S. are for animals. The result? Bacteria that come into contact with these animals mutate and become resistant to antibiotics, and the infections these bacteria cause -- everything from pneumonia to MRSA -- become harder and harder to treat. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has the authority to stop the worst overuse of antibiotics on factory farms. Please join us in calling on the FDA to act now.

The School Board is stripping away the right for Volunteer Coach's to drive their Athletes to and from Athletic events.

Just as the late-night T service begins, the MBTA is planning to cut cleaning services to the bone beginning September 1st. At stations across the Greater Boston, nearly 100 out of 315 janitors are about to lose their jobs – nearly 1/3 of the total cleaning workforce. This means grime-filled staircases, dirty walls, garbage-strewn stations and sticky floors. I´ve been cleaning these stations for over 8 years. These cuts are not going to work . . . and we are going to smell the results.

Our greatest enemy today is the increasingly Extreme Weather brought about by runaway Global Warming. Yet, we continue to build battleships, nuclear missles, and bombs that will not protect our nation from our biggest threat. The Pentagon has never been audited and is believed to be filled with massive waste, duplication, cost-overuns and the like. Let's start there to begin really protecting our national security from real existential threats !

Too many young kids are being beat senseless with the goal of making this website.

Hopkinton has not had the chance to thoroughly discuss the new online high-stakes test called PARCC (Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Career) as a replacement for MCAS (Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System) and what it will mean for our kids, teachers, and K-12 schools.