Category: Uncategorized

Upper Big Branch Mine Blast News Coverage

I’m continuing to collect news and internet coverage of the mining tragedy at the Upper Big Branch Mine in Montcoal West Virginia.  Due to time constraints I’m playing catch up on some of these posts and they rightfully belong in yesterday’s post.  I’ll try to distinguish these in my links.

New York Times story for 4/7.

A background story about mine safety regulation and Massey Energy Co. Ceo Don Blankenship.

Some posts from the blog Daily Kos about mining and Blankenship:

On safety violations at Massey Energy Co. mines.

About air circulation and construction in mines and the damning nature of memos from Blankenship.

Some statistics about mine safety and unions.

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CNN reports on improving air quality in the mine and the likelihood of rescue operations recommencing.

25 dead and 4 missing after coal mine explosion in Montcoal West Virginia

I will be keeping a running log of news stories related to this tragedy in this post and following it up with subsequent posts examining the tragedy and the press and national reaction to it.  Right now though our obvious thoughts should be for the missing miners and all of the families struggling through this.

New York Times

Associated Press

BBC

CNN

President Obama speaks about the tragedy via CNN

West Virginia Gov. Manchin interview via CNN

Massy Energy Co. Safety Violations via the AP and Huffington Post (This is also an update of the previous AP news story link.)

ABC News reports on Massey Energy Co. Safety Violations and the questionable relationship between Massey CEO Don Blankenship and West Virginia Supreme Court Justice Brent Benjamin. Video of confrontation between ABC reporters and Blankenship included.

Video of press conferences about tragedy via New York Times.

A brief bio of one of the victims of the explosion via New York Times.

CNN reports on Massey Energy Co.’s safety record.

Not news, but Boing Boing has a q&a with Christopher Bise, chair of West Virginia University’s Mining Engineering department, about methane in mines.  The comments are intriguing thanks to their range and for the dialogue it raises between those who are local to mining regions and aware of its history and those who believe the positivist story of American mining history.

Yes, there’s a zombie theme happening lately…

You can thank Zombieland for bringing my love of the zombie genre to the forefront once again.  I was finally able to watch Zombieland last night (and less than a year after it’s theatrical release!)  It takes a firm number two slot in my favorite zombie flicks (behind Shaun of the Dead).  That’s likely blasphemy for true aficionados of the genre and I yield to the criticism that I probably rightly deserve.  I just prefer the quirky over gory.

That said, this post about the plants you’re going to need in the Zombie apocalypse over at Plants are the Strangest People is right up my alley.  I just want to add that Sunflowers and Peas are a MUST.

The Battle for Blair Mountain


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Originally uploaded by sarian19

As of January 8, 2010, The National Register for the Park Service has de-listed Blair Mountain as a National Historic Site. Blair Mountain in West Virginia was the site of the Battle of Blair Mountain in 1921. This battle was the largest armed uprising in U.S. labor history and involved 10,000 to 15,000 laborers in a struggle with coal company-employed private detectives. The battle was over the unionization of two counties in West Virginia and was more immediately sparked by the murder of Matewan West Virginia’s police chief and union sympathizer, Sid Hatfield. The battle resulted in the calling up of the National Guard and the use of U.S. Army airplanes in the bombardment of U.S. citizens. (More information about the historical importance of Blair Mountain can be found here and here.) Blair Mountain was only added to the National Historic Site list in March 30th 2009. The removal of it from the list is in light of apparent objections by property owners at the site. The property owner complaints appear to have a number of inconsistencies. Activists seeking to preserve the site have noted that two of the property owners listed as having objected are in fact deceased. The removal of Blair Mountain from the list opens it up to the possibility of mountaintop removal mining.

Despite its size, the Battle of Blair Mountain is a largely forgotten conflict. Yet is one of the most important labor struggles in the 20th century if not in U.S. history. The battle serves as an important example of labor struggles, as well as the pattern of the use of force by industrial interests, private detective agencies, and the United States government against labor unions throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. To allow the site to be destroyed is to continue a long history of washing away our less flattering history as a nation and it is a disservice to those that died there. It is, in short, criminal.

I will be following this as closely as I can in the coming weeks and posting information here as I find it.

More from Jeff Biggers (this post has a nice sum up of the situation in the latter part of the post), and Front Porch Blog. Also: Friends of Blair Mountain and the Preservation Alliance of West Virginia.

(The picture is of Denise Giaradina’s Storming Heaven, a fictional retelling of the Battle of Blair Mountain.)