The Mountain Eagle

Not to be confused with the Alfred Hitchcock film of the same name, The Mountain Eagle is a weekly newspaper based in Whitesburg, Kentucky. Serving as the primary publication for Letcher County and one of the key newspapers in Eastern Kentucky, it has a rich history. Established in 1907 by Nehemiah Webb, The Mountain Eagle has been under the ownership of the Gish family since 1956. Thomas E. Gish led the paper until his passing in November 2008, after which his son, Benjamin T. Gish, took over as editor. The newspaper has gained recognition for its in-depth reporting on issues such as strip mining and its environmental impact, as well as topics related to education and political corruption. Its memorable motto is "It Screams."

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#1623448

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Jaland Lowe believes Pope will help his game

2 days ago | themountaineagle.com | Larry Vaught

Vaught’s Views When Jaland Lowe was contemplating a transfer from Pittsburgh to Kentucky his father made sure to get all the information he could about UK coach Mark Pope. “We called people and spoke to people who had personal knowledge of relationships with him. People I have known for 15 or 20 years made us feel comfortable about him and seeing if […]
Voices from coal country say closures of MSHA offices will greatly endanger mine safety

1 week ago | themountaineagle.com | John Raby |Leah Willingham

CHARLESTON, W.Va. Retired coal miner Stanley “Goose” Stewart questions whether it’s safe for anyone to work in the industry right now. The Department of Government Efficiency, created by President Donald Trump and run by Elon Musk, has been targeting federal agencies for spending cuts. That includes terminating leases for three dozen offices in the Mine Safety and Health Administration, the […]
Layoffs threaten help for black lung patients

1 week ago | themountaineagle.com | Sam Adams

The Trump administration has cut more than 1,000 jobs from the National Institute of Health and Safety, the federal agency which researches black lung disease and provides free black lung evaluations for coal miners. And a week after the President held a press conference in the White House with men in work uniforms and mining hats standing behind him and […]
Quaintance happy he has second chance at UK

1 week ago | themountaineagle.com | Larry Vaught

Vaught’s Views No way was Jayden Quaintance going to pass up a second chance to play basketball at the University of Kentucky. The 6-10 Quaintance planned to play at Kentucky for coach John Calipari but instead ended up at Arizona for the 2024-25 season after Calipari left UK for Arkansas. “We always liked Kentucky,” Haminn Quaintance, Jayden’s father, said. “We were always […]
Earthquakes changed Kentucky in 1811

1 week ago | themountaineagle.com | Jadon Gibson

A joint effort by Robert Fulton, Robert R. Livingston and Nicholas Roosevelt led to the first steamboat to navigate up and down the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, from Pittsburgh to New Orleans in 1811. Fulton is noted for inventing the Clermont, the first commercially successful steamboat. Robert R. Livingston, the minister to France during President Thomas Jeffersonâ€™s administration, was instrumental […]
A new internet scam

1 week ago | themountaineagle.com | Matilda Charles

Senior News I’d thought I could identify an internet scam when it showed up, but there’s a new one out now. It’s slick and potentially dangerous if you fall for it. It’s called the CAPTCHA scam. CAPTCHA stands for “completely automated public turing test to tell computers and humans apart.” They are those annoying interruptions when you’re trying to access a webpage. […]
Social Security to recover overpayments

2 weeks ago | themountaineagle.com | Matilda Charles

Senior News Word is that Social Security is going to “claw back” any overpayment to the tune of 100% of the monthly benefit check until it’s all paid back, inciting panic across the land. But it’s not necessarily true. The recovery of benefits will only affect overpayments that began on March 27 of this year. Yes, they’ll take full payments until that […]
State is nearly out of money after disasters

2 weeks ago | themountaineagle.com | Sam Adams

Kentucky will run out of money to deal with the steady stream of natural disasters the state has faced over the past five years and continues to face today, unless the General Assembly holds a special session and allocates more, Gov. Andy Beshear said this week. Floodwaters in central, western, and northern Kentucky are expected to begin receding this week […]
New festival here features birds, wildlife

3 weeks ago | themountaineagle.com | Sam Adams

They say a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush, but a million birds in the skies over Pine Mountain could be worth a lot of money to the local economy. A new festival scheduled for later this month is seeking to find out just how much money birds of a feather — and the birdwatches who […]
Longer school days might result in May 28 release

1 month ago | themountaineagle.com | Sam Adams

Letcher County Public Schools will increase the time students here spend in school by nearly half an hour, cutting six days off the length of the school year. The Letcher County Board of Education approved the plan at its regular March meeting Monday night. Superintendent Denise Yonts said House Bill 241 will allow schools to compute the length of the […]