Signal or noise?

Like many people in WV and elsewhere, I've been eagerly following the federal investigation of Massey Energy's 2010 Upper Big Branch disaster which killed 29 coal miners. The latest development is a delay in sentencing for a former company official, David Hughart, who pleaded guilty to two charges of conspiring to violate safety standards and to covering up for them.Part of it may be due to summer scheduling, but it looks like ongoing cooperation between Hughart and federal prosecutors, who have signaled that charges may move up the corporate chain.

Would that it were so.

BAKER'S DUO. Economist Dean Baker takes another whack at austerity here and comments on the Affordable Care Act here.

URGENT WOOLLY MAMMOTH UPDATE here.

SOON TO BE A TWEET. On a road trip to WV's eastern panhandle, I had a WV town insight: Milton is the Anti-Shepherdstown.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED