Mark Kern

Sports editor, The Kansas State Collegian

Ranked No.4 in the BCS and undefeated in the Big 12 should earn you the respect of the football experts right? Well, in the case of K-State, this couldn't be further from the truth.

Michael Carvelli

Sports editor, The Daily Athenaeum

In a conference like this where there are no easy victories, West Virginia has to have a short memory and that will all start with the offense.

Love Letters

An anthology of reflections on American places

Sitting down at a table in the corner, it would be easy to conclude that this was a small tavern in Italy with an odd obsession with West Virginia University athletics.

Illeana Hoffman

Writer; traveler

On the last leg of our journey we reversed direction and headed north to West Virginia through every back woods and windy road in Appalachia.

Mitch Anderson

Writer, Activist

Ain't no chance in hell we're leavin 'em. You rest assured of that, Larry Gibson. You rest assured, we're all keepers of the mountains now.

Peter Brown Hoffmeister

Author, 'The End of Boys' and 'Let Them Be Eaten By Bears'

I have one simple request as we move forward with the season, and it is this: Please, please don't let teams play rematches in bowl games, and most importantly, do not let that happen in the BCS National Championship Game.

Chris Hedges

Senior Fellow, The Nation Institute; Author, 'Days of Revolt, Days of Destruction'

Drug overdoses are the leading cause of accidental death in West Virginia, and the state leads the country in fatal drug overdoses. OxyContin -- nicknamed "hillbilly heroin" -- is king.

Jeff Biggers

Author of 'State Out of the Union: Arizona and the Final Showdown Over the American Dream'

Obama should keep his 2008 campaign promise, travel to Appalachia and publicly announce a timeline to enact a mountaintop removal moratorium and launch a green jobs coalfield regeneration fund.

Ian Reifowitz

Author of 'Obama’s America: A Transformative Vision of Our National Identity'

The coal industry essentially has its employees between a rock and a hard place. They say they are operating on behalf of the employees' interests, that they want to protect their jobs. In reality, they want to protect their bottom line.

Heather Taylor-Miesle

Director, NRDC Action Fund

Will polluting industries continue to resist public health safeguards at every turn? Will energy companies keep looking backward or will they start embracing change? Will we elect leaders who represent special interests or ordinary citizens?

Tasha Gordon-Solmon

Playwright

Here's the other thing: Miss Piggy is so much more charismatic than Emily. It was almost unfair they had to share screen time. There was a running gag of Piggy getting jealous of Em and Kermit. And despite Kermit's best efforts to compliment Emily, it was clear he's way out of her league.

Laverne H. Bardy

Author, Syndicated Humor Columnist, blogger

We met online. He was from West Virginia; I'm from New Jersey. He was looking for Happily Ever After. I was looking for something to do Saturday nights.

Randy Fox

Writer and photographer

Today, Hollywood is alive again in the cities and valleys of Western PA and its surrounding areas.

Jerry Nelson

Photojournalist

The campaign to save Blair Mountain has been growing in recent years, culminating in the summer of 2011 with a modern March on Blair Mountain.

Brad Friedman and Desi Doyen

Co-hosts of the radio's nationally syndicated 'Green News Report'

TWITTER: @GreenNewsReport. The 'GNR' is also now available on your cell phone via Stitcher Radio's mobile app!. IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Repub...

Brad Friedman and Desi Doyen

Co-hosts of the radio's nationally syndicated 'Green News Report'

TWITTER: @GreenNewsReport. The 'GNR' is also now available on your cell phone via Stitcher Radio's mobile app!. IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Drill...