The companies assets need to be secured in court.

The US Food and Drug Administration said the fungus causing the fungal meningitis outbreak was in one lot of vials made in August by the New England Compounding Center, which is at the center of the national investigation into hundred of fungal meningitis cases, including at least 21 deaths.

I hope there are already processes to secure the companies assets. Officers of this company will probably appear in the lawsuit and rightfully so. The real estate alone is worth enough to help the families. The building will probably have to be demolished. I doubt there is any technology available to remove the contamination from it. 

 Aspergillus--7 µm diameter (click here)

There is another fungus involved, but, Aspergillus alone is so tiny it will be in every crack in the wall. That is seven micrometers.

μm = micrometer(s) (1 μm =10^-6 m) NOT micron or μ (click here)

In mathematical numeration 10^-6 m is 0.000001 meters (click here). That is really, really tiny. There is no way anything but complete fumigation (gas) of the building will work and it is very difficult to be sure all the fungus is destroyed.

It would be best if Governor Patrick would begin to talk to the public about establishing a charity fund to help the families across the country. It could be a permanent fund with donations and fund raising to benefit any children through college as well. There just won't be enough money from the company itself to cover all the needs of those left behind from the death of their family members.

President Obama has to make a solid commitment to the Coal Industry.

In his second term, President Obama has to continue the funding that supports families and coal miners, continue union support as the only stop gap to calamity of the miners and their families and a promise to these workers to raise levels of federal assistance through R&D to solve the problems of this industry.

Why?

Easy.

Because the national security of the USA depends on self reliance for its people and its military. Solid fossil fuel is safer to manipulate than any other form it takes. With falling carbon dioxide levels there is always a place for fossil fuels that can be mastered to provide BENEVOLENCE.

The Coal Industry cannot go on denying its problems and blaming it on politics. Its reality has moved far beyond that.

The trouble with coal and the USA is the volume of trapped carbon dioxide in the solid coal. There has to be an understanding that only so much coal can be part of the energy paradigm for the USA to prevent our agricultural land from becoming a desert.

The Climate Crisis is real, but, coal in the USA is also our reality. It is by far the largest deposit of immediately available energy when the country is in crisis of war or otherwise. It cannot be denied as the greatest energy asset of the USA. It has to be mastered for the insured future of this country.

The lack of sustainability of the Coal Industry to date is due to the negligence of the Republican Party to commit this country to not only solving the industry's problems, but, the country's problems. Coal is a USA reality. It has to become a benevolent asset and not one that blights this country and the global troposphere. 

The Climate Crisis is real and it occurred because weak willed Republicans had no other vision except deregulation and the destruction of the federal authorities. 

Coal will always have a place in the USA as a defense strategy, so the idea the entire industry will disappear is not a reasonable one or a prudent one, but, its place is diminished as compared to the past, so is the idea of burning wood for electricity.

Ask Secretary Chu how hard he is working for the future of our country?

The continuing drought across the USA is unrelenting due to high CO2 levels. One of the latest findings hits the Great Plains and our farmers. We cannot continue to ignore this huge problem we face.

Why do miners ignore the dangers of mining?

Primarily because the unions have been able to hold the line on demands in having excellent health care. The miners know their lungs are under attack, they simply accept that. And for as long as coal has been mined, one would expect a reactive industry to have conquered the disease called Black Lung.

...In mid-century, (click here) when Marcum worked, dust filled the mines, largely uncontrolled. Almost half of miners who worked at least 25 years contracted the disease. Amid strikes throughout the West Virginia coalfields, Congress made a promise in 1969: Mining companies would have to keep dust levels down, and black lung would be virtually eradicated.

Marcum doesn't have to look far to see that hasn't happened. Throughout the coalfields of Appalachia, in small community clinics and in government labs, it has become clear: Black lung is back....

Coal, mining and Black Lung Disease is something I know something about personally. My Grandfathers worked in the Pennsylvania Anthracite Coal Mines, one a Blacksmith crafting the tools needed by the miners and one as a coal miner in the coal shafts.

My Grandfather who was a Blacksmith worked above ground. He, on rare occasion, went into the mines. He never had lung complications. He also used to enjoy local politics to help the people of the community who did, to save their lives, bring in medical talent, build good hospitals through federal government fund sharing and be sure the children were getting the best education, including his own.

My Grandfather that worked in the mines, did contract Black Lung Disease. He was a big, Irish fellow, 2nd generation in the USA that had lost both his parents to the Avian Flu of the early 1900s. He was seventeen when he became the eldest in the family and the eldest son who inherited the responsibility of five younger siblings. The youngest, who was also the youngest sister, went to nursing school and had a very successful career. The second sibling was a sister that took up the matriarchal care of the family and was supported by my Grandfather until she married.

He died of Black Lung Disease and then the fund paid his wife a subsidy to her income until she died. She died 22 later than he. She missed him almost every day of her life and her daily Rosary kept her going along with her eleven children.

The reason the initiative to stop the occurrence of Black Lung Disease fails so royally is not for the trying to modernize the industry was because the Republicans insisted on deregulation at all costs including the workers. The cronies to the Republicans didn't work in the mines either, they worked above ground playing and financing politics. The owners of these mines have no intention of contracting Black Lung Disease and the unions are happy to maintain health insurance rather than solve the problems.

The lack of Republican backbone to solve the problems of the Coal Industry while maintaining high employment and still turning a profit to stockholders is overwhelming. The lack of resolve to overcome the industry's problems through concerted research and development has moved the industry to smaller and smaller work forces, mountain top mining, destructive practices and shrinking economic demand rather than a stable source of energy.

The Coal Industry is losing it's market share and deregulation will never bring it back, it will simply increase profits to Wall Street while the industry still exists. 

Rachel Cernansky

For National Geographic News

Published August 9, 2012

Neighbors recall promises (click here) that the eerie azure lake known as "Little Blue" would be made into a recreational jewel, complete with swimming, bike trails, and sailboats.

But the sprawling pond, its blue somewhat faded in recent years, delivered more blight than benefits to its rural surroundings near the West Virginia border in southwestern Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania officials now have initiated shut down of the facility south of the Ohio River, one of the largest U.S. impoundments for waste ash from coal power plants....

...Combustion Residue

Coal, which for years provided half the electricity in the United States, doesn't disappear entirely up the smokestack when it is burned at a power plant. While U.S. reliance on coal is decreasing in favor of now-cheaper natural gas, there is still the issue of the leftover "combustion residuals" and ash....

The residents hope there would be a tourist economy instead of a threat to their lives and livelihoods. "Little Blue" also has implications to the Ohio River through leaching which would distribute the toxins everywhere along its banks.

The Coal Industry in the USA is actually a victim of the Republicans.

Silly thought, huh? Not really. If I may?

Who is the biggest supporter of the Coal Industry? Republicans for the most part, although you won't find a tougher Democrat when it comes to the topic than the Senator from West Virginia.

But, what have the Republicans done to the Coal Industry, in fact? What have they done by today's measure to the Coal Industry?

Coal is the highest polluting fossil fuel of the three, gas, oil and coal. Coal, however, is the most stable of all the fossil fuels. It is a solid and brings tragedy to coal mines when methane gas, otherwise known as natural gas, escapes in large quantities into the mines. There is explosion with natural gas when it enters any space. In the case of coal mines, it ignites in a very small area and causes deaths of the miners.

But, Republicans have done NOTHING to improve the forward movement of Clean Coal Technology. They have never moved in all of nearly 50 years to seek improvement of industry standards of its by-product of carbon dioxide. While subsidizing the Oil and Gas industry, Republicans have done NOTHING to advance the technology to permit coal to remain competitive. That has not been the case with President Obama and his Energy Secretary Chu.

Now, if the Coal Industry wants to really stay in business in the USA then they need to take a good hard look at their greatest enemy and that is the Republican Party who has done nothing to improve their long term survival in the face of the USA having the largest coal deposits on Earth. The Republicans have maintained the coal industry in the Dark Ages while stating deregulation is the only enemy the industry has. 

Not the case. 

The real enemy, and I am seeing long term into the next decades, of the Coal Industry, are the very Republicans stating deregulation is their enemy. That is completely the opposite, because, if CO2 (carbon dixoide) were regulated it would have forced the USA Congress to legislate monies to Clean Coal Technology to improve the CO2 emission as a by-product. Regulation was the insurance of the Coal Industry to longevity. Not deregulation. If the USA Congress 35 to 40 years ago stopped the subsidies to the Oil Industry and instead devoted them to the Coal Industry for modernization of the industry they would not be facing a challenge to stay in business today against men such as Romney's Energy Advisor Howard Hamm.

Hamm is not about coal. What Hamm knows about coal and nuclear for that matter can be put in a thimble. So, the Romney campaign is only using the Coal Industry as a platform issue with the only goal of relief as deregulation. There are no plans by Romney to remove oil subsidies or advance alternative energy, but, simply to deregulate the coal industry. There won't be safeguards for anything anymore.

But, to be real about the future of the Coal Industry, it is out of demand. Setting aside the absolute worst idea the petroleum industry ever had, which is hydraulic fracturing of 'solid' rock to make holes in the hopes of extracting natural gas, the international community is seeking alternative energies at a record pace. Even, China, with it's own coal industry is seeking alternative energies. Japan  is left with the decision to seek more and more offshore and onshore alternative energies due to it precarious location on Earth.

So, the idea somehow the Democrats are the Coal Industry's enemy is a farce.  Regulation with changing paradigms of research and development is the best idea for the Coal Industry. And that idea is not coming from the Republicans.

Entertain this observation about the methods of Bain Capital.

Across the board when I listen to employees of these companies speak about their experience, they are always long term employees losing everything. With Bainport there are employees looking forward to retirement after being with the company for 35 years.

When I read about the history of Sports Authority and Staples, the companies bought out were long standing companies. They were well established whom's owners were reaching retirement and basically didn't need the company in their lives anymore.

What is Bain looking for in these companies? 

Money. 

Cash. 

They have a cash flow they like to maintain and the largest one purpose of that cash flow is payments to investors. Every investor ever engaged with Bain was always happy with their cash flow. Yes? Yes. No complaints.

Bain is predatory. I am not so sure all the other venture capitalists aren't either, however, in order for outfits like BlackRock to survive they are seeking IPOs. Which I think is very dangerous. I don't see that venture capitalists should every hold an IPO. That is ridiculous, they will simply be more predatory to maintain their stock prices.

When I look across the spectrum of Bain Capital's (Let's just call them BC for the sake of appropriate designation. Their practices need to be ancient and be made ancient forever. Pre-historic actually.) operations it was very predatory. BC didn't at all expect to keep the businesses they bought controlling interest in, they intended to dismantle the businesses with leveraged advantages, sell off the assets (otherwise known as capital INVESTMENTS, which is why they are allowed depreciation over time), declare bankruptcy, close out pension funds and sell real estate and/or hold the real estate as assets. 

I ask myself, what company would best be suitable for AN OPERATION such as BC?

Well, BC didn't like risk. BC liked guarantees. It was set up for wealthy men to become more wealthy; to literally hoard all the wealth they could without being someone like George Soros or Warren Buffet.

Money is power. These men like power and they like money to provide it to them. This is not about luxury, this is about power and Romney is at his pinnacle right now.

BC sought out well established and profitable companies where employees work hard, had contributed to the quality of their products and the longevity of their companies. BC wanted well established companies with lots and lots of assets including pension funds. 

BC wanted to buy out a long lived company, call it antiquated, past its prime where it could reap profits, have a healthy stock, until BC was ready for anything different. 

See, I think most of the companies BC preyed upon would still be in business today if BC hadn't 'run game' on them. It is criminal as far as I am concerned. It has no morality. It is a cowards way of making money and it is definitely predatory on the American economy.

There have been 50,000 manufacturing companies in the USA closed since Bush/Cheney took office and BC was one of those involved in providing 'service to China.' 

Now, all of a sudden, President Obama is supposed to return economic vitality to the USA with good paying jobs, health care benefits and RESPONSIBLE, sustainable employment without compromising American Values, quality of life to families and protection of our environment overnight after all the monies obtained by BC and its peer group have left the country.

Right. It is amazing the USA still has an economy and if it were not for the power within the municipalities such as Muskegon, Michigan to 'find a way' there wouldn't be an economy in the ONLY Free World country on the planet to provide a global economy stability.

BC (Bain Capital) and its peer group are a national security problem and their Republicans are as well. The BC Republicans continue to provide all the advantages to Wall Street without caring what happens to the economic infrastructure of the USA which is the Middle Class and personal mobility through opportunity to educate and work. 

The American Voter that is falling for the Romney Dialogue has a problem. They are the same unwitting people of places like Bainport that don't see the train heading for them until it is too late.

There is no light at the end of this tunnel.