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.

The nonprofit Jersey Pride has produced New Jersey’s annual LGBTQ Pride event in Asbury Park on the first Sunday in June since 1992. Attendance usually surpasses 20,000 over the weekend.

ASBURY PARK- The 34th Annual Statewide LGBTQ+ Pride Celebration in Asbury Park will take place from Friday, June 5 through Sunday, June 7, and the main festivities will culminate on Sunday with the grand parade and the outdoor beachside festival.

Jersey Pride Inc., the nonprofit organization that produces the Garden State’s annual Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer Pride Celebration in Asbury Park the first Sunday in each June, launched its annual parade and festival in 1992, and has remained a constant for New Jersey’s LGBTQ+ residents and their allies.

It is the largest, and oldest, LGBTQ Pride Celebration in the garden state, with attendance under normal circumstances surpassing 20,000 over the weekend.

Tickets to the family (and pet) friendly event cost $10 and will feature New Jersey’s largest outdoor display of the Names Project’s AIDS Memorial Quilt, rides in our Family Zone, and an array of eating options at the food court.

New Jersey’s most welcoming towns pair walkable main streets with year-round arts calendars and centuries of preserved history. Some carry deep Revolutionary War legacies. Others grew up around an art museum or a resident orchestra. Free jazz fills Nishuane Park. The Mayo Performing Arts Center hosts touring Broadway shows. Expect Victorian beach streets, summer Shakespeare, and old battlefields. All places where strangers get treated like neighbors.

Cape May

Cape May built its hospitality on its bed-and-breakfast district. Longtime innkeepers remember returning guests by name. The city holds one of the largest collections of 19th-century frame buildings in the country. That Victorian architecture earned it National Historic Landmark status in 1976. Cape May stands at the southern tip of the state’s coast, where Delaware Bay meets the Atlantic Ocean.

Beach access stretches past Cove Beach and Poverty Beach to the central stretch near Beach Avenue. The Washington Street Mall handles shopping and dining inland. The 1859 Cape May Lighthouse still operates at the southern point. Visitors can climb its 199 steps for a view of the bay and ocean below.

Princeton

Princeton turned its university art museum into a public town square. The free museum opened a new building in October 2025 and holds more than 117,000 works. Princeton University began as the College of New Jersey in 1746, among the oldest in the country. Its collegiate Gothic campus stays open for self-guided architectural tours.

Bookstores and cafés line Nassau Street and Witherspoon Street downtown. Princeton Battlefield State Park preserves the ground where George Washington beat British troops in January 1777. The Delaware and Raritan Canal State Park follows the old canal corridor nearby. Level paths there suit walking and biking.

Morristown

Morristown holds the country’s first national historical park. Established in 1933, it preserves the site where the Continental Army camped through the brutal winter of 1779-1780. The town carries one of the deepest Revolutionary War legacies anywhere. The National Trust for Historic Preservation named it a Dozen Distinctive Destination. The Ford Mansion served as George Washington’s headquarters and stays open for tours. Acorn Hall, Historic Speedwell, and the MacCulloch Hall Historical Museum round out the historic-house circuit.

The Mayo Performing Arts Center on South Street books classical music, touring concerts, and Broadway shows year-round. The Morristown Green gathers the downtown restaurant and shopping scene around one public square.

Madison

Madison hosts the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey at Drew University. It is the state’s only professional company devoted to Shakespeare and the classics. Performances fill the F.M. Kirby Shakespeare Theatre through a long summer season. The town stands about five miles east of Morristown.

Independent cafés, bakeries, and boutiques fill Main Street and Waverly Place. The Museum of Early Trades and Crafts occupies the 1900 James Library building. Its displays show the tools New Jersey artisans used in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Montclair

The free Montclair Jazz Festival fills Nishuane Park each year. Emerging and established players make it one of the larger jazz gatherings in the region. The town rests on the eastern slope of the Watchung Mountains. It keeps one of New Jersey’s busiest arts calendars. The Montclair Art Museum on South Mountain Avenue centers its collection on American and Native American art.

The Alexander Kasser Theater at Montclair State University books dance, music, and theater all year. Restaurants and shops line Bloomfield Avenue in the Montclair Center district. The restored 1922 Wellmont Theater hosts touring concerts and comedy.

Westfield

The New Jersey Festival Orchestra calls Westfield home and plays venues around town all year. Shops, boutiques, and restaurants fill the Union County downtown along East Broad Street and Elm Street. The 1922 Rialto on East Broad Street was long the town’s movie house. It is being reborn as the Center for Creativity, a community arts venue for film, performance, and exhibitions.

Mindowaskin Park holds a pond, walking paths, and picnic spaces near downtown. The Spring Fling and FestiFall events bring music, food, and family activities to the blocks each year.

East Brunswick

Giamarese Farm and Orchards keeps a pick-your-own operation in East Brunswick. It offers seasonal fruit and vegetable picking, a corn maze, and autumn hayrides. The Middlesex County town leans toward families. Butterfly Park sets aside green space for butterfly conservation. Crystal Springs Family Waterpark gives a summer cooling-off spot.

Playhouse 22 stages community theater, plays, and concerts year-round. The East Brunswick Public Library hosts programs and exhibits as a cultural hub. Bicentennial Park and the Tamarack Golf Course cover the sports side. Route 18 puts New Brunswick and the central Jersey corridor within easy reach.

Hospitality You Can Walk To

Hospitality here shows up in small, repeatable ways. The Morristown Green fills with the same faces every weekend. Princeton opens its new art museum to everyone for free. The New Jersey Festival Orchestra tunes up in Westfield. Giamarese Farm hands East Brunswick families a basket every fall. None of it is staged for outsiders. These towns built their welcome for the people who live there. The rest of New Jersey keeps showing up anyway.