Shareholders have approved an $8.5 billion merger between Massey Energy and Alpha Natural Resources. Alpha’s acquisition of Massey will make it the second-largest holder of coal reserves in America. We reported yesterday on some shareholder concerns about Alpha’s plans to retain several Massey executives who were in oversight positions during the April 2010 explosion at the Upper Big Branch Mine in West Virginia.

Farmers breathed a sigh with the clear skies and 90-degree plus weather, but now they face a new challenge. They must make up for time lost because of the wet weather and quickly plant crops that should already be in the ground.Keenan Bishop, Franklin County Agriculture and Natural Resources extension agent, says there is just enough time to get the planting done, but farmers will have to hurry.

It looks like any other apartment - a bird’s nest on top of the door, a phone book on the porch and a grill by the back door. But early in the afternoon on May 25, Capri Johnson, 29, realized something big was going on in that apartment. Johnson and her 8-year-old son saw several large sport utility vehicles and a large pickup truck carrying law enforcement officials pull up outside her apartment building. As Johnson began to watch, she and other neighbors were told by law enforcement officials to go back inside their apartments. Now, Johnson knows that a man who was the subject of the raid was an Iraqi refugee arrested on suspected ties to terrorism.

Two Iraqi refugees who are accused of supporting efforts to kill American troops in Iraq slipped through the vetting process that allowed both of them political asylum in the United States. Waad Ramadan Alwan, 30, and Mohanad Shareef Hammadi, 23, are facing terrorism charges after a federal grand jury in Bowling Green returned a 23-count indictment against the men Thursday. FBI agents arrested the men here May 25 while the federal agency had a mobile command center set up behind the Bowling Green Police Department. Agents could be seen going in and out of the BGPD headquarters, where someone in an attempt to throw off suspicion had posted a sign that indicated police training was in progress.

James Robinson, executive director of the International Center in Bowling Green, said Tuesday his main concern is to avoid retaliation against the refugee community following the recent arrests and indictments of Waad Ramadan Alwan and Mohanad Shareef Hammadi in Bowling Green on federal terrorism charges. “Our first concern is for the people,” Robinson said. “We hope the people of Kentucky do not identify this with the thousands of refugees that live in Kentucky, and the hundreds of thousands that live in the U.S.”

When members of the Patrick family took to their yard for a Memorial Day weekend picnic, little did they know their gathering would be crashed by an unwanted visitor - a five-foot tall black bear. The bear raided the family's grill, helping itself to hamburgers, hot dogs, buns and other goodies. The animal was eventually shot by a state wildlife officer.

"The moment when something is transformed into something else is the most beautiful moment; it's a magical moment," said Brazilian artist Vik Muniz in the 2010 Oscar-nominated documentary Waste Land (in Portuguese, "Lixo Extraordinário"), directed by Lucy Walker, João Jardim and Karen Harley.

In response to Freedom of Information Act requests dating back to the 2008 presidential elections, Alaska is set to release more than 24,000 pages of emails sent and received by Sarah Palin during her governorship. The Anchorage Daily News reports that 2,415 pages are exempt from the request and that:

It’s the beginning of June but the thermometer seems to be reading like a day in mid July.  High heat and humidity this early in the summer can make it uncomfortable.  But, Bourbon County Extension Agent, Glenn Mackie says many farmers welcome this weather.  “The heat is good for our crop people because we’ve been cool and wet.  It’s dried the soil out where we can get in and finish our planting.  We’ve finished up corn pretty much.  Planting soybeans and making hay.  This is good weather to make hay in,” said Mackie.

Lawyers for cyclist Lance Armstrong are asking for an on-air apology from CBS News' 60 Minutes. Last month, the news magazine aired an interview with Tyler Hamilton, one of Armstrong's teammates, in which he said he saw Armstrong take performance-enhacing drugs. Hamilton also alledged that the International Cycling Union helped him conceal a positive test result at a Swiss event.

The AP reports: