Gazette photos by Lawrence Pierce

Here’s a link to my Gazette story on today’s mountaintop removal demonstrations here in Charleston.

The Associated Press had two reporters at the event, and we’ve posted their story on our Web site as well. They included this interesting tidbit:

Before taking the stage, Kennedy waded into the crowd of shouting miners and spent a half-hour debating Massey Vice President of Surface Operations Mike Snelling and others.

“He’s very passionate about what he was doing and I have to give him enough credit for walking through a crowd of a lot of people he would consider adversaries,” Snelling said. “He just keeps talking about the environment and the concern for the environment and the mountains of Appalachia, and what we tried to tell him is that we are just as concerned about the mountains – or more than he is, for the fact that we live here.”