August 31, 2007 The Pump Handle 12Comment

by Celeste Monforton  Yesterday in “MSHA Spokesman Parrots Bob Murray,” I wrote about MSHA’s rejection of a request by the families of the six trapped Crandall Canyon miners to have the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) serve as the miners’ representative during MSHA’s investigation of the disaster.  As usual for me, about two hours […]

August 31, 2007 The Pump Handle 3Comment

Coturnix at A Blog Around the Clock alerted me that today is the third annual Blog Day, which “was created with the belief that bloggers should have one day dedicated to getting to know other bloggers from other countries and areas of interest.” To participate, bloggers link to five new blogs – and I’m going […]

August 31, 2007 The Pump Handle

In recognition of the second anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, Chris Mooney and Sheril Kirshenbaum at The Intersection provide a series of posts about the lessons from this disaster. At Gristmill, Joseph Romm explains why Hurricane Katrina busts the myth that humans can adapt to climate change. Elsewhere:

August 31, 2007 The Pump Handle 9Comment

by Susan F. Wood, PhD  Today’s Washington Post writes about one more instance where women’s health and children’s health were a lower priority than the interests of a powerful group.  In this case, it was breastfeeding vs. the formula industry. Marc Kaufman and Christopher Lee write: In an attempt to raise the nation’s historically low rate […]

August 30, 2007 The Pump Handle 11Comment

by Celeste Monforton  Max Follmer of The Huffington Post reports that MSHA has rebuffed a request from the Crandall Canyon families to designate the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) to serve as their representative during MSHA’s formal accident investigation.  “In a statement e-mailed to The Huffington Post, MSHA spokesman Dirk Fillpot defended the agency’s actions, saying federal […]

August 30, 2007 The Pump Handle 3Comment

By Liz Borkowski  Here in the U.S., people seem to like the idea of our government ensuring that we’ve got clean air, clean water, and healthy workplaces, and that our exposure to toxic substances is limited. However, we also keep electing politicians who make it hard for federal agencies to ensure these things. We’ve written […]

August 29, 2007 The Pump Handle 3Comment

The Mountain Eagle‘s Tom Bethell recounts a 1986 coal mining disaster in Queensland, Australia which involved an explosion in an abandoned, sealed area which caused the death of 12 miners.  Its similarities to the 2006 Sago tragedy end there because, as Bethell writes: In the wake of that disaster, the Australian government launched an innovative program to […]

August 29, 2007 The Pump Handle

More distressing news related to Ground Zero keeps coming out. A probe has been launched into the Deutsche Bank building fire that killed two firefighters on August 18th; community leaders are criticizing the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation for hiring a demolition subcontractor with insufficient experience and numerous city and federal violations listed against it. The […]

August 28, 2007 The Pump Handle 1Comment

During one of Mr. Bob Murray’s endless television appearances, he was asked why his underground coal mine in Illinois had received more than 900 safety and health violations last year.  In his “I’m just a humble coal miner” kind-of-way, he tried to explain that the public just doesn’t understand that getting written up by a mine inspector is commonplace, […]