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PITTSBURGH (AP) — A citizens’ group has sued a longwall mining company in southwestern Pennsylvania, claiming it is polluting key waterways — including at least one high-quality fishing stream — that feed the Monongahela River.

The Center for Coalfield Justice, based in Washington, Pa., filed the federal lawsuit Friday in Pittsburgh against Emerald Coal Resources LP, which operates the Emerald Mine in Waynesburg, Greene County. The citizens’ group is being backed by the Earthrise Law Center in Norwell, Mass.

The lawsuit contends Emerald Coal has violated pollution levels for iron, manganese, aluminum and other pollutants more than 120 times in the past 12 months and more than 400 times in the past five years. The group is basing those claims on violations the company has been self-reporting to the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection under Emerald’s National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System Permit as part of the federal Clean Water Act.

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Last week’s Downton Abbey broadcast debacle, while not representative of the world’s most acute problems, unnervingly illustrated one of the many ways that media companies fail to understand markets, technology and day-to-day consumer realities. The hit show ended its third season on December 25th with an extreme plot development. The season was broadcast only to its British audience, while American viewers were waiting until 2013 to clap their eyes on the latest round of shows. Problem was, of course, that the entire non-UK audience had the whole third season spoiled by instant social buzz and UK-generated web reviews of the final dramatic denouement.

If technology does nothing else, it destroys boundaries of all sorts — between countries, time zones, populations, affiliations and cultural circumstances. Media companies that distribute their products as if those borders still held sway seem increasingly clueless and hostile to their ever more empowered audiences.

Continue reading Editorial: Media ‘release windows’ are increasingly archaic, futile and hostile

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Many athletes sent best wishes across the Twitter universe as they celebrated Christmas with their families this week. Though some of them were caught being nice, others were better suited for the naughty list. But as the new year inched closer, even Santa seemed ready to back out of the spotlight until next winter.

The plight of a certain New York Jets quarterback was a hot topic this week, and the pageantry of Bowl season continued to march on. Of course, many personalities had plenty to say about the knee-jerk firing of Brooklyn Nets coach Avery Johnson on Thursday — though some seemed to handle it better than others.

As always, we’ve scoured our timeline to bring you what we believe to be the most ridiculous tweets that the sporting world has to offer. Take a look below, and let us know who had the funniest tweet in the comments below.

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If there’s anything we know about New Year’s Eve, it’s that two things will be going on later this evening: people will be celebrating the end of 2012 and the beginning of 2013 and they’ll be taking a lot of pictures with their phones. If Instagram is still your photo-sharing service of choice, then you can be celebrating the new year with others around the world through a new page Instagram has launched today.

Instagram.com/nye is the place to be to view photos of other Instagram users around the world as they celebrate New Year’s. The site allows you to view photos from various locations around the world as their clock strikes midnight. You can also learn more about the photo as you’ll be able to click on the photo to comment or like it, as well as view the user’s profile and even follow them if you like.

If you’re planning on celebrating New Year’s Eve where you are and are an Instagram user, feel free to share your moments with others around the world as we’re sure it won’t be as weird as one of the New Year’s traditions going on in Iran where they hold babies onto the windshield of vans. What else do you expect from the birthplace of The Iron Sheik?

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Facebook Poke Sends Self-Destructive Pokes To Your Friends On iPhone, Pearltrees 1.0 offers Pearltrees Premium with privacy features,

MOSCOW — About 25 people reportedly have been arrested in Moscow on New Year’s Eve for trying to hold an unsanctioned protest.

The gathering at Triumphalnaya Square in central Moscow on Monday attracted 50 to 100 people.

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