AMSN

In some communities, elected leaders are actively pursuing data centers, or are at least open to them, in part to help make up for coal’s decline and counter rising electricity prices.

Consumption of raw milk has been increasing across the country in recent years. But in some states like Kentucky, direct-to-consumer sales are illegal — leading some farmers to find a legal, though unregulated, means of meeting demand.

Around campfires in Dickson County people tell passed-down tales of two local cryptids — one a werewolf and the other the White Bluff Screamer.

It’s been 50 years since the release of “Harlan County USA,” the Academy Award-winning film from director Barbara Kopple that shined a light on an eastern Kentucky coal mining community. Its echoes can still be heard in Appalachian music, documentaries and modern labor movements.

Many cryptids are said to lurk in the shadows of Appalachia, including West Virginia’s Flatwoods Monster.

The mayor of Gallatin, Tennessee says a hyperscale Meta data center is the city’s largest taxpayer and has done a lot of charitable giving in the community. But two years into operation, residents in the northern Tennessee town still have concerns about its effect on utilities, the environment, and property values.

Elon Musk’s xAI runs one of the nation’s largest data centers in Memphis. It’s powered by about 60 gas turbines that emit a loud, unsettling noise.

Dollywood opened the park the day after Dolly Parton’s death to carry on the country music icon’s legacy and honor her spirit saying “the show must go on.”

Mine safety advocates are calling on the Trump administration to do more to protect coal miners amid increasing rates of black lung disease reported among working miners in central Appalachia.

Residents across Kentucky, Tennessee and West Virginia have packed public meetings in recent months to speak out against data centers, with a recurring concern being how they could affect the cost of electricity.