Follow the trail

Although I'm 8000 or so miles away from West Virginia right now, I spend every chance I get checking up on the disaster at the Upper Big Branch mine. While this is the first disaster of this magnitude at a Massey mine, there has been a long trail of fatalities and safety violations by that company.

I'm linking three articles about this topic. Pride of place goes to my friend Charleston Gazette reporter Ken Ward, who also puts out the excellent Coal Tattoo blog. New York Times reporters Ian Urbina and Michael Cooper prepared the following item, with help from others, including my pal Dan Heyman. Lawrence Messina, a WV AP reporter who puts out another must read blog from the Mountain State, looks at Massey safety issues here.