October 19, 2012
Federal inspectors must share the blame — and therefore face a lawsuit — for a 2006 West Virginia coal mine fire that killed two miners, a lawyer for their widows argued at the state Supreme Court on Wednesday. Lawyer Bruce …
March 30, 2012
The former superintendent of the West Virginia mine where 29 workers died in a 2010 explosion pleaded guilty on Thursday to a federal conspiracy charge that he tipped off employees to safety inspections. Gary May, 43, is the most senior …
March 30, 2012
A federal judge refused Wednesday to dismiss a lawsuit by former Massey Energy shareholders who say they were deliberately misled about the company’s safety record before the Upper Big Branch mine disaster in West Virginia killed 29 men in 2010. …
March 12, 2012
The claims of hundreds of Boone County residents who blame coal companies for contaminating their water supplies will be heard in a single trial, a judge ruled last week. Circuit Judge William Thompson issued an order consolidating 155 individual medical …
February 23, 2012
The former superintendent of the West Virginia coal mine where 29 workers died in a 2010 explosion was charged on Wednesday with felony conspiracy by tipping off mine operators to safety inspections, allowing them to conceal dangerous violations, authorities said. …
January 11, 2012
Coal company Alpha Natural Resources has reached settlements with all the families of the miners killed in the worst U.S. mining disaster in four decades, a lawyer for two of the families said on Wednesday. Mark Moreland told Reuters the …
December 13, 2011
Newly disclosed records show U.S. Labor Department officials stopped independent investigators from questioning how federal regulators handled methane leaks from the floor of the Upper Big Branch mine several times before last year’s disaster. In April 2010, 29 men died …
December 7, 2011
Coal miner Alpha Natural Resources has agreed to pay $1.5 million to each of the families of 29 miners killed in an explosion at the Upper Big Branch Mine in West Virginia last year. The payments – part of a …
November 4, 2011
The number of mine injuries has been cut in the five months since Alpha Natural Resources bought Massey Energy, which had owned the coal mine where 29 men died in a blast last year, Alpha’s CEO said Thursday. “The year-to-date …
October 26, 2011
The former security chief at a West Virginia coal mine where 29 miners died last year was convicted of two felonies Wednesday, the U.S. Attorney’s office said. Hughie Elbert Stover, 60, was convicted by a federal jury of making false …