Eastern Kentucky has a long history of being taken advantage by outsiders who came to the state and cut the old-growth trees and tore up the land extracting coal from the ground.

• A New Jersey congressional candidate’s website listed reopening Kentucky coal mines as a top priority.
• The candidate, Gregg Mele, claimed his website was either hacked or contained an error.
• Restarting the coal industry in Eastern Kentucky is unlikely due to depleted coal seams and cheap natural gas.

Something seemed amiss when a friend in Washington, D.C. sent me an email about a candidate in New Jersey who seemed to be taking an oversized interest in what happens in Eastern Kentucky.

Gregg Mele, a perennial candidate who somehow became the Republican nominee in New Jersey’s 12^th Congressional District in this year’s election, seemed from his campaign website to be auditioning to replace 88-year-old Hal Rogers of Kentucky and not 81-year-old Bonnie Watson Coleman of the Garden State.

Mele was pledging on his campaign website to “reopen and open new coal mines in Kentucky’s 5th District” and to “Access untapped oil in Southeastern Kentucky.”

It seemed oddly specific.

Why Kentucky’s 5^th District and not West Virginia’s 1^st or Pennsylvania’s 14^th?

It’s even odder when you look at the campaign websites of Rogers, who has represented Kentucky’s 5th District since 1981, and Democrat Ned Pillersdorf, who is running to replace him, and neither say anything about bringing coal back.

The last mention of coal on Rogers’ website is a 2013 press release where he talks about diversifying the region’s economy beyond coal.

KY coal issues at top of website

Not only did Mele include these two items in the section of his website listing his platform, they were the top two issues.

To be honest, I wasn’t quite sure what to think of this.

Eastern Kentucky has a long history of being taken advantage of by outsiders who came to the state and cut the old-growth trees and tore up the land while extracting coal from the ground.

They took our natural resources worth billions of dollars and left behind only poverty and scarred mountains.

Was Mele seeking to restart this type of neocolonialism, or was he actually trying to help by somehow providing jobs in an industry that is increasingly becoming automated?

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Could hackers be responsible?

So, I asked him.

“I’m sorry, this seems to be an error or a hack. I am getting my team on this to have it corrected,” he said in an email.

That was on Wednesday. It was still on the website on Thursday.

I’m betting on an error.

It doesn’t seem much like something a hacker would add to a website.

Either way, it’s probably not a big deal as Mele’s chances of winning in the Democratic district are practically non-existent. Polymarket gives him just an 8% chance of winning, and I can’t find a single organization that rates House races that believes the district is in play.

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No matter how many House members from Kentucky or West Virginia or Pennsylvania or even New Jersey want to jump start the coal industry in Kentucky, it’s unlikely to happen. Especially in Eastern Kentucky where the large coal seams have been depleted by more than a century of mining.

Coal industry peaked in KY

The rise of fracking, which has made natural gas cheap and easily attainable, may have been the death knell.

The coal industry peaked in Kentucky after World War II, when nearly 80,000 Kentuckians worked in the coal industry, and it has been falling ever since — particularly over the last 40 years.

In 1990, more than 28,000 people were employed in Kentucky’s coal industry, according to the Kentucky Center for Statistics. By 2023, the number had dropped to 3,939, and the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis estimates the number of coal mining jobs in Kentucky fell to 2,900 last year.

And Mele, despite what his website says, ain’t going to stop that trend.

Joseph Gerth can be reached at 502-582-4702 or by email at jgerth@courierjournal.com. You can also follow him at @jgerth.bsky.social.

NEWTOWN, PA — ARTWRKD Gallery at 128 South State Street presents “The Colors of Music,” a solo exhibition featuring the work of artist Jeanette Griffith, on view through June 28. The exhibition explores the relationship between sound and visual expression through a vibrant collection of abstract paintings inspired by music.

For Griffith, music serves as both catalyst and guide. Her work translates rhythm, melody, harmony, and emotion into dynamic compositions of color, texture, line, and space. The exhibition invites viewers to experience music through a visual lens, revealing how sound can become shape, movement, and atmosphere on canvas.

“My work is an intuitive response to music translated into line, color, texture, shadow, and positive and negative space,” said Griffith. “The Color of Music inspires my visual interpretation of note, chord, and melody.”

(Courtesy of Jeanette Griffith)

(Courtesy of Jeanette Griffith)

(Courtesy of Jeanette Griffith)

(Courtesy of Jeanette Griffith)

A native of Philadelphia, Griffith began her artistic career as a designer and fabricator of stained-glass windows. She later studied sculptural glass and developed a distinguished career as a craftsperson, studio assistant, manager, and instructor. Drawing upon decades of experience, she earned a Bachelor of Arts with a concentration in Fine Arts from Lesley University, where her focus expanded to painting, mixed media, and photography.

Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, including at the deCordova Museum and Sculpture Park, the International Exhibition of Glass Craft in Kanazawa, Japan, the Glass Museum in Ebeltoft, Denmark, the Hall Haskell Gallery, Montserrat College of Art, and numerous galleries throughout New England and Pennsylvania.

Visitors are invited to attend a meet the artist reception on June 20 from 1 to 4 p.m.

In conjunction with the exhibition, Jeanette Griffith will donate 50 percent of artwork sales to The Bucks County Foundation’s initiative addressing hunger and homelessness in Bucks County, a cause that holds deep personal significance for the artist.

Exhibition Details

The Colors of Music
Artist: Jeanette Griffith
Dates: June 5 to June 28, 2025
Meet the Artist: June 20 from 1 to 4 p.m.
Location: ARTWRKD Gallery, 128 S. State Street, Newtown
Website: artwrkd.com
About ARTWRKD

ARTWRKD is a creative community and gallery dedicated to connecting artists, collectors, and art enthusiasts through exhibitions, educational programming, workshops, and cultural events. Located in the heart of Newtown, ARTWRKD champions emerging and established artists while fostering meaningful engagement with the arts.

What Providence is going through is an unusually visible example of a problem facing many cities, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic: What combination of carrots and sticks can officials use to turn unwanted office space into something that suits a changing city’s needs?

Even if the building cannot be revived to its former glory, when office workers once poured out of the stunning marbled lobby during lunchtime to create a downtown buzz, surely developers and political leaders can do better.

“This becomes a symbol of this anxiety about Providence and its economic strength,” said Marisa Angell Brown, executive director of the Providence Preservation Society. “It raises that question: Has Providence turned the corner? Are we going to turn the corner?”

For years, the plan has been to redevelop the empty office tower into about 300 apartments, 20 percent of which would be below market rents, set aside for low- and moderate-income Rhode Islanders, along with commercial space on the ground floor. Ongoing squabbles about the size and scope of tax abatements from the city and state have delayed the project repeatedly. The redevelopment now hinges on a low-interest loan of up to $236 million from the US Department of Transportation, green lit for eligibility under former president Joe Biden then held up by the Trump administration.

Adding to the recent troubles, David Sweetser, the principal of High Rock Development and owner of the building since 2008, died unexpectedly last summer. The developer tapped its legal counsel, Michael Crossen, to continue with the project. A spokesperson for High Rock, Bill Fischer, told the editorial board that the firm is focused on finalizing funding details and remains “optimistic the project will proceed.” Fischer said once financing is in place, construction will be complete within 24 to 30 months.

Providence Mayor Brett Smiley is urging patience. “I think it’s fair to say that the situation is frustrating and probably that many people, myself included, are anxious to see something happen, but big historic complicated buildings sometimes require complicated solutions,” Smiley told the Globe’s editorial board.

It’s a scenario playing out in commercial spaces across the nation, with office towers selling at deep discounts as owners struggle with low occupancy rates. If Providence can find a path forward to address a housing shortage while also reviving such a high-profile building, it could become a model for cities across the nation.

Transforming office space into apartments is notoriously tricky. Office configurations come with little interior natural light and plumbing that’s largely incompatible with residential layouts. Still, studies have shown that single-room occupancy units that ring the edge of the building — with shared kitchens, bathrooms, laundry, and living rooms in the center of the building — can work.

This type of low-cost downtown housing has traditionally carried a stigma, but it could be an option for students, young professionals, new arrivals to a city, or retirees. It could also reduce homelessness. Yes, it would not be a huge money generator for a landlord hoping to charge higher rents, but public subsidies could make it work.

Most agree: Tearing down the Superman building is not a great option. In 2017, former Providence mayor turned developer Joe Paolino floated the idea of replacing it with a modern office tower for an anchor tenant, a concept that sent shudders across the city and still reverberates.

“To tear down that building in the middle of city, it would be an absolute sin,” Michael Sabitoni, the president of the Rhode Island Building and Construction Trades Council, told a Globe columnist in 2021.

Construction on the Art Deco building began in 1927. The building featured plaster, bronze work, and the very latest in modern elevator mechanics.

In 2019, the building was listed on the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s annual list of America’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places.

The plight of the building has captivated Providence for too many years now.

In 2020, seven graduate students studying adaptive reuse at the Rhode Island School of Design reimagined uses for the Superman building. Ideas included several theaters and performance spaces, senior housing, a vertical farm, laboratories, and even an amusement park.

A recent op-ed in the Globe suggests: Stop trying to solve, and pay for, the whole building renovation at once. Activate the bottom four floors with a civic space, then let the apartments above follow.

Locals commonly ask why nearby Brown University, which has a massive endowment and needs building space, including graduate student housing, can’t make something happen.

Mayor Smiley said he thinks it’s best to stick with the current developer’s vision for apartments. “There’s a lot of external factors that unfortunately, and somewhat coincidentally, have complicated the timeline. But that doesn’t mean that it’s still not the best plan for the building.”

The mayor says he’s in regular touch with the developer. But few others seem to know what’s going on as they walk past scaffolding in the heart of downtown, and tolerance after more than a decade of delays is running thin. If the the building’s owner can’t get things moving, it should move on and let somebody else take a try at building something.

“It’s a shame that it just sits there and nobody is taking care of it,” said Behrouz Sarlak, owner of Loominous Rug Gallery, which sits a few blocks away from the Superman. “A lot can be done. You just have to be creative.”

Editorials represent the views of the Boston Globe Editorial Board. Follow us @GlobeOpinion.