Environmental Activist Pleads No Contest

• {Beckley, West Virginia}...Catherine-Ann MacDougal, an environmental activist, will spend seven days in jail after pleading no contest to trespassing Thursday in Raleigh County magistrate court. MacDougal participated in a protest at Alpha Natural Resources' Bee Tree mine near Marfork last summer. She climbed a tree on July 20th and descended August 18th. Virginia-based Alpha is suing MacDougal and three other activists who participated in the protest. A trial is set for January 14, 2013, in federal court.