FOR the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition, there is good news and bad news. The good news is that they are not living in a third-world dictatorship where those in power round up dissenters and have them shot. The bad news is that they find themselves sharing a state with people who share the mentality - if not the tactics - of third-world dictators: people who haven't enough confidence in the strength of their position to tolerate any opposing views.

The ongoing dispute is over whether mountaintop removal mining is a wise practice. This has been going on for years.

The current round is over the Kroger gift card program. Under that program, one may buy a Kroger gift card from any one of dozens of non-profit organizations. Kroger then donates a small fraction of purchases made with that gift card to the non-profit organization that the customer designates. Kroger has no role in selecting the organization that gets the donations. Customers may select a church, a school or any other non-profit organization that participates in the program. One of the participants is the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition.