I hope President Obama finds a good replacement for the Supreme Court. More women would be nice. But, I refuse to play the Republican media game. There are people's lives at stake. The 'so called' RESCUE CHAMBERS, come in a box. They are chambers at all.
So, let's see. The mine operators don't care about safety. The 'bore holes' should have been VENT HOLES along the entire duration of the mine tunnel with continuous air quality meters. The rescue chambers should have been real chambers where a human body could actually survive toxic and explosive air, the equipment they wear don't protect them from concussion. The children of the town are encouraged to attend a school where coal dust dominates their playground and the water the people of the area drink is polluted.
Now, I want to know why a Justice choice to the Supreme Court is dominating the USA media where there is so much WRONG with the quality of life of the people of this industry?
I suppose the 'rescue' was sensational and moral enough to pursue but the aftermath just ain't worth it because it might actually change the way the USA finds energy in this country and God forbid Wall Street shouldn't have its profit margin anymore !
Was the CEO fired? Did the news media 'rag on' until he was gone? Votes might want to ask themselves how much of a puppet they really area ! AIG didn't insure them either. I don't believe Bech or Limbaugh carried much coverage. So much for FAIR and BALANCED. Murdoch viewers have an alternate reality. So long as viewers and listeners stay in their 'cubical lives,' "All is well." They are 'spoon fed' their rage on a regular basis and God forbid it should effect Wall Street and Murdoch's political cronies.
Company self-insured for mine tragedy claims (click here)
Safety record eyed after blast kills at least 25
MONTCOAL, W.Va.—The company that owns the West Virginia coal mine where at least 25 miners were killed last week is largely self-insured for the risks associated with the explosion.In its annual report filed last month with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Richmond, Va.-based Massey Energy Co. said—despite the inherent risks associated with coal mining, including fires and explosions—it does not have business interruption insurance. It also self-insures its underground mining equipment, Massey said.
A spokesman for the West Virginia Insurance Commission said Massey's Performance Coal Co. subsidiary, which operates the Upper Big Branch-South mine where the explosion happened, is a qualified self-insured company in the state and self-insures its workers compensation risks....
CORRRECTION: Shares of Massey Energy Co. rise (click here)
April 9, 2010, 10:25 a.m. EDT
By Kate Gibson NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Shares of Massey Energy Co. /quotes/comstock/13*!mee/quotes/nls/mee (MEE 46.72, +0.58, +1.26%) on Friday rose for a second day after the coal company said in a regulatory filing it would hike output elsewhere to make up for lost production at its mine in West Virginia, where a blast killed 25 and left four others missing. Monday's explosion at the Upper Big Branch Mine in Moncoal is the worst U.S. mine accident in decades. Shares of Massey rose 2.9% to $47.46.These people should never be allowed to stand alone anymore in trying to live a life with health and longevity. They have lawyers just to fight for clean water. Does everyone else in the country? And Wall Street does nothing but love the profits made on the backs of danger and death.
Massey’s Blankenship Fought Regulators, Town, Maid as Coal CEO (click here)
April 10, 2010, 12:03 AM EDT
By Margaret Cronin Fisk, Brian K. Sullivan and Karen Freifeld
April 10 (Bloomberg) -- Don Blankenship, chief executive officer of Massey Energy Co., has fought with mine regulators, unions, residents of his town and even his personal maid.
His company regularly appeals fines for safety infractions. He has personally gone into mines to persuade workers to abandon union organizing efforts. Massey is fighting lawsuits that claim it contaminated groundwater in Blankenship’s town. A maid supplied by a company she claimed was a Massey unit was forced to fight all the way to West Virginia’s highest court to collect unemployment benefits.
Blankenship, 60, is emerging as the public face of Massey as rescue workers search for four additional miners after the April 5 explosion at the Upper Big Branch mine that left 25 dead. Resistance to spending money and willingness to litigate reflect policies Massey has pursued since he became CEO in 2000.
“Don Blankenship is perfect for Massey Energy,” said Kevin Thompson, attorney for residents of the West Virginia county where the CEO lives who are suing the company alleging water contamination. “It’s more than cost-cutting with Don Blankenship. It’s a need to control. It’s a need to win.”
At a July 11, 2008, deposition in a lawsuit over two deaths at the company’s Aracoma mine, Blankenship was asked by his lawyer, Thomas V. Flaherty, to respond to accusations that he had a “personal drive for increasing company profits at all costs, including the safety of subsidiaries’ associates.”
Accidents Cost
“It is just the opposite,” Blankenship testified. “As an accountant, I know that safety is an important cost control. So even if I were so calloused, which I am not, as to believe that safety should be sacrificed for production, I would understand that it doesn’t make any sense because the accidents and so forth cause you to have more costs.”
Blankenship wasn’t available for an interview for this story, a spokeswoman at the Massey media hotline who declined to give her name said on April 8. He is declining to comment until the search and rescue of missing miners is completed, she said. Another spokeswoman at the hotline yesterday said the company wouldn’t respond immediately to questions about Blankenship because of the rescue effort.
James S. Crockett Jr., a Charleston, West Virginia, attorney who represented the company in the Aracoma mine wrongful-death suit, declined to comment. Albert F. Sebok, a Charleston attorney with Jackson Kelly PLLC representing Massey in the pollution suit, didn’t return calls for comment.
Safety ‘Job One’
To the claim that Blankenship puts production ahead of safety, his attorney Flaherty said yesterday that “safety is job one” at the company....
