A 48-foot black granite monument with life-size silhouettes of 29 fallen miners defines this small Appalachian town, just downhill from the site of one of the deadliest U.S. mine disasters. Survivors and friends of those who couldn’t escape the underground …
West Virginia Governor Earl Ray Tomblin has signed a bill lauded by the struggling coal industry and called dangerous by the miners’ union. Tomblin signed the bill last week changing coal mine safety and environmental standards. It passed the Republican …
Mike Caputo, one of the top Democrats in the West Virginia legislature, began working in the state’s coal mines at age 19. It helped put his kids through school, he said, and helped him pay for his family home. Now …
