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Palin to campaign for Chambliss in Savannah
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Saxby Chambliss: http://www.saxby.org

Jim Martin: http://www.martinforsenate.com

ATLANTA --  Former Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin is expected to campaign with Georgia Sen. Saxby Chambliss on the eve of his Dec. 2 runoff, the senator's campaign said Tuesday.

Palin will join Chambliss for four public rallies Monday in Augusta, Savannah, Perry and Atlanta in a closely watched runoff against Democrat Jim Martin.

It's one two contests that will help determine whether Democrats win a filibuster-proof majority in the U.S. Senate. The other is in Minnesota, where a recount is under way in the race between Republican Sen. Norm Coleman and Democrat Al Franken.

Palin was the little-known governor of Alaska when Arizona Sen. John McCain tapped her as his running mate. She drew enthusiastic crowds on the campaign trail as the first woman to win the Republican nomination for vice president but also faced questions about her preparedness for higher office and her pricey wardrobe.

Still, she emerged from the losing campaign as something of a rock star, fielding book offers, documentary deals and countless interview requests. It's widely expected that she will make a run for president in 2012.

Palin is popular with Georgia's conservative base. The mention of her name at GOP rallies routinely draws louder cheers than that of McCain's. The Chambliss camp is counting on her energizing those voters in the campaign's final hours.

"I was thrilled when I got the call that Gov. Palin would be able to make the trip to Georgia," Chambliss said Tuesday.

Martin's campaign has asked President-elect Barack Obama to campaign with him but has received no word yet on whether he will. Obama has recorded a radio advertisement and automated phone calls on Martin's behalf. And about 100 former Obama field operatives are in Georgia working for Martin.

Georgia's Senate runoff has drawn a parade of political luminaries, including most of the Republican presidential field.

Former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani is expected in the state Tuesday to campaign with Chambliss. McCain, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney have appeared for Chambliss.

Former President Bill Clinton and his Vice President Al Gore have made cameos for Martin. Gore's one-time campaign manager, television pundit Donna Brazile, is appearing Tuesday with Martin.

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Book review: Author digs into mining's complicated past and present in 'River of Lost Souls'
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Jonathan Thompson will speak about his book "River of Lost Souls" at the King's English Bookshop on Tuesday, April 3 at 7 p.m. - photo by Amanda Olson
"RIVER OF LOST SOULS: The Science, Politics, and Greed Behind the Gold King Mine Spill," by Jonathan Thompson, Torrey House Press, 275 pages (nf)

Plenty has been written about the very small world of a mining town and the very broad reach of a beleaguered industry. From Loretta Lynns iconic song "Coal Miners Daughter," to the 2010 nail-biting coverage of 33 trapped Chilean miners, to the hit Broadway musicals "Paint Your Wagon" and "Billy Elliot," mining is a global story, and its one of heartbreak, hard work and hard times.

Jonathan Thompsons "River of Lost Souls" examines the many facets of risk involved in taking resources from below the earths surface. An environmental journalist, Thompson has reported on southwest Colorado for over 20 years. This book is special, however, because the Four Corners area of Colorado is his current and ancestral home. Thompson is writing about minings ecological, social, financial and political impact on his land, his landscape, his water, his people. That makes "River of Lost Souls" more than a regular reporting job.

Thompson begins with the Gold King Mine wastewater disaster of 2015, which the EPA caused while attempting to drain water near the mines entrance. The spill sent 3 million gallons of waste and tailings into Cement Creek, a tributary of the Animas River and part of the San Juan River watershed which drains into the Colorado, affecting the Utah, Colorado and New Mexico parts of that watershed as well as the Navajo Nation.

From there, Thompson jumps into far stretches of time to 1765, when a Spanish explorer named the Animas River; to 10,000 years earlier, when Paleo-Indians roamed the rivers valley; to the meridian of time, when the ancestors of the Zuni, Hopi and Rio Grande Pueblo people inhabited the land for 500 years; to the mid-1800s and the Swedes who came to Silverton, Colorado, to mine.

Its a grand scope, but telling any story of landscape is telling a very grand story.

It also makes a complex story difficult to follow. Thompsons time warps are important, but they are jarring. His time jumps need clear dates, and Thompson doesnt always make them available. A map would also be useful. Thompsons writing is good, but his sentences can be dense and require readers to do their own mining for the riches the writing embeds. The work is worthwhile, however, as there are many moving parts in any story about mines land, culture, policy, history, money, inevitable disaster and Thompson works to examine all of them.

"River of Lost Souls" is a thoughtful read, but not a quick one. Because Thompsons writings come from 20 years of his newspaper reports, the overall feeling can be disjointed and sparse, which is distracting if one is expecting to follow a tenable thread. This is not a typical narrative with a cast of characters and a traditional story arc. Readers should approach this text as the investigation it is: puzzle pieces of a larger-than-life story that is eons old. If you are the kind of reader who wants it laid out cleanly, this is not that book. But, to Thompsons point, nothing is clean about mining that has never been the case.

Thompsons best writing is in his descriptions of people and places. His telling of how he came to Silverton is familiar and engaging. If readers approach the book with care and attention, they will be rewarded with savoring these descriptive passages when they happen.
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