On April 5, 2010 an explosion inside the Upper Big Branch mine in Montcoal, W.Va. killed 29 miners. It was the worst U.S. coal mining disaster in 40 years.
February 2, 2012
An Alpha Natural Resources contractor was sentenced Thursday to six months in prison after he a ...
January 10, 2012
Alpha Natural Resources on Tuesday finalized a deal that resolves the last of the wrongful dea ...
December 24, 2011
Agency's failings under 'internal review'
 
December 17, 2011
Federal mine safety regulators have said they don't know if they ever gave Massey Energy wr ...
December 16, 2011
 
December 8, 2011
U.S. Labor Department officials blocked an independent state team investigating the Upper Big B ...
December 6, 2011
Family members of the 29 miners killed in the worst mining disaster in the Unit ...
December 6, 2011
Federal regulators on Tuesday blamed the Upper Big Branch Mine D ...
December 3, 2011
As they wrap up their probe of the Upper Big Branch Mine Disaster, federal regulators face unan ...
November 3, 2011
Alpha Natural Resources officials said Thursday it's going to take more time for th ...
November 2, 2011
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- The ranking Democrat on a House committee that oversees workplace safety said W ...
October 27, 2011
U.S. Attorney Booth Goodwin promised Thursday that a sprawling criminal investigation of the Up ...
October 25, 2011
The United Mine Workers union on Tuesday accused Massey Energy of "industrial homi ...
October 20, 2011
Federal prosecutors on Thursday moved to drop one of three felony charges against the secur ...
October 19, 2011
Prosecutors will be allowed to tell jurors about the Upper Big Branch Mine Disaster during ...
September 22, 2011
A former employee of Massey Energy's Upper Big Branch Mine was sentenced Thursday to spend ...
June 1, 2011
Legal filings allege 'secret pact' to shield Massey executives
 
May 23, 2011
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- The families of seven miners who died in the Upper Big Branch Mine Disaster hav ...
May 21, 2011
Independent report details how disaster occurred
An independent investigation report provides the most detailed account to date of t ...
May 20, 2011
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Federal and state regulators failed to conduct proper inspections, take strong ...
May 20, 2011
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- With the closing date for its buyout of Massey Energy fast approaching, Alp ...
May 19, 2011
A team of independent investigators has concluded that a corporate culture ...
May 19, 2011
BECKLEY, W.Va. -- Disabling methane monitors and faking key tests for explosive gas had become a ...
May 19, 2011
When Shirley Whitt left the Thursday meeting about the Upper Big Branch Mine Dis ...
May 19, 2011
An independent investigation of the Upper Big Branch Mine Disaster has concluded ...
May 17, 2011
A Massey Energy security chief has been charged with another criminal count that alleges he lie ...
May 16, 2011
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- The first detailed government report on the causes of the disaster at Massey En ...
May 6, 2011
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- A contract worker for Alpha Natural Resources has pleaded guilty to lying to fe ...
May 6, 2011
'We were expendable that night,' team member says
 
April 27, 2011
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Internal investigators at the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration are ...
April 27, 2011
On April 26, 2010, then-Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship began a much-publicized campaign to absol ...
April 20, 2011
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Retired Massey Energy Co. chief Don Blankenship's total compensation f ...
April 13, 2011
A former Massey Energy miner charged in the federal investigation of the Upper Big Branch M ...
April 7, 2011
UBB investigator wants wide-ranging reforms in safety rules
 
April 2, 2011
Environmental problems, prior accidents preceded disaster at Massey Energy
 
April 2, 2011
Sen. Earl Ray Tomblin, acting as governor, has proclaimed Tuesday a day of prayer and remembrance f ...
April 1, 2011
Miner Timothy Blake tried to save 8 co-workers before being forced to flee
 
March 31, 2011
Congressional Republicans grilled the nation's top mine safety official Thursday amid questions ...
March 30, 2011
Despite escalating safety concerns prior to the Upper Big Branch Mine Disaster, federal regulators ...
March 26, 2011
Female miner lost co-worker, beloved in deadly 2010 blast
 
March 22, 2011
A former employee of Massey Energy's Upper Big Branch Mine has been charged with faking a fore ...
March 7, 2011
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- As the one-year anniversary of the Upper Big Branch Mine Disaster appro ...
March 3, 2011
Agency chief, wanting more regulatory tools, grilled over audits
 
March 3, 2011
Federal mine safety officials are refusing to make public documents that may turn out to contai ...
March 2, 2011
Federal mine safety regulators quietly warned lawmakers just two weeks before the Upper Big Bra ...
February 2, 2011
Coal producers must do more to prevent injuries and deaths in the nation's mines, the direc ...
January 29, 2011
$8.5B deal must be OK'd by federal regulators
Alpha Natural Resources has agreed to buy Massey Energy for about $7.1  billion in ...
January 14, 2011
U.S. Attorney decides to keep inquiry information away from public
 
December 18, 2010
Miners' families suffer through deadly year
 
December 12, 2010
A month before the Upper Big Branch Mine disaster, a Massey Energy worker admitted that he had use ...
December 7, 2010
As a federal judge prepares to sentence four foremen from Massey Energy's Aracoma Alma No ...
December 3, 2010
Decision comes amid rumors that coal giant will be sold
 
November 19, 2010
Directing more fresh air to longwall chosen, coal giant's CEO says
 
November 18, 2010
Safety officers, miners attend final hearing in wake of fatal UBB blast
 
November 3, 2010
Federal regulators asked a federal judge to shut down a Massey Energy mine they allege is a disaste ...
October 28, 2010
Coal giant's safety chief, others say investigation improperly conducted
 
October 27, 2010
Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship on Wednesday continued to defend his company's safety record, ...
October 18, 2010
Company officials can plead 5th without going to court
 
October 14, 2010
ICG cited in Raleigh death
 
October 7, 2010
Federal inspectors last week issued nearly a dozen serious enforcement orders after finding major v ...
September 30, 2010
Massey Energy revealed Thursday that its corporatewide accident rates for each of the last three ye ...
September 29, 2010
Regulators from both political parties have for more than three decades failed to strongly and prop ...
September 27, 2010
In the three years prior to the Upper Big Branch Mine Disaster, thre ...
September 25, 2010
Former Upper Big Branch miner won't go back underground
 
September 23, 2010
Nine days after Massey Energy's Upper Big Branch Mine blew up, Gov. Joe Manchin issued an ex ...
September 22, 2010
Six Massey Energy management personnel -- including the company's corporate safety director -- ...
September 22, 2010
The embattled chief executive of Massey Energy accused federal regulators Tuesday of not making a ge ...
September 17, 2010
Mine owner Massey calls agency's data 'unproven or faulty'
 
September 15, 2010
Shortly after 3:30 p.m. on April 5, a Massey Energy official called West Virginia's ...
September 12, 2010
32 minutes after call to surface, 29 miners killed
 
September 3, 2010
2 from coal firm were underground alone for 4 hours
 
August 26, 2010
A federal official says a handheld meter found deep inside the Upper Big Branch mine detected e ...
August 26, 2010
Some mine companies are tipping off their underground workers before federal officials ...
August 25, 2010
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Methane gas may be bubbling into a flooded area of the Upper Big Branc ...
August 23, 2010
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Federal officials investigating the Upper Big Branch Mine Disaster have cited ...
August 6, 2010
MSHA does not classify infractions of Massey subsidiary as 'significant or substantial' regarding miner safety
 
July 22, 2010
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Mine safety officials are painting a portrait of ineptitude and confusion by ...
July 21, 2010
The Montcoal Mining Disaster Fund will close at the end of this month, after raising more than $750 ...
July 17, 2010
Despite safety problems, MSHA failed to fine company
Federal inspectors found that Steven Cain had "little mining experience" and "minima ...
July 13, 2010
Obama administration officials on Tuesday urged quick action by Congress to pass another round of ...
June 30, 2010
The ranking Republican on the Senate Labor Committee questioned Wednesday whether vacancies in se ...
June 29, 2010
Congressional Democrats on Tuesday released a "discussion draft" of proposed legislation ...
June 26, 2010
While federal mine safety regulators last year were curtailing tougher enforcement actions because ...
June 12, 2010
Federal regulators investigating the Upper Big Branch Mine Disaster have removed one member of an i ...
June 10, 2010
Agency-ordered ventilation plans dangerous, Blankenship warns
 
June 2, 2010
Two teams of state, federal and Massey Energy officials went back into Massey Energy's Upper Bi ...
May 21, 2010
'You know he's in there,' James Woods' daughter says
 
May 21, 2010
Latest death puts 2010 W.Va. coal fatalities at 31
 
May 20, 2010
Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship and federal Mine Safety and Health Administration chief Joe M ...
May 14, 2010
Prosecutors' inquiry confirmed; looking back 4 years
 
May 12, 2010
Federal regulators said Wednesday they had blocked Massey Energy from using air scrubbers in dozens ...
May 8, 2010
Late on the morning of March 9, 1976, a huge explosion ripped through the Scotia Mine in Letcher Cou ...
May 6, 2010
Federal investigators will conduct key portions of their probe of the Upper Big Banch Mine disaster ...
May 4, 2010
Disaster team expanded; internal investigator named
Federal officials announced Tuesday that they had expanded the team investigating the Upper Big ...
May 1, 2010
Before every shift worked in an underground coal mine, coal operators are supposed to check for saf ...
April 30, 2010
U.S. investigates potential safety violations in fatal April 5 blast
 
April 29, 2010
The West Virginia coal mine disaster that killed 29 men has prompted another lawsuit, this one over ...
April 29, 2010
The daughter of one of 29 men killed in a West Virginia coal mine explosion says owner Massey E ...
April 28, 2010
Agency missed or ignored Massey violations, lawsuit alleges
 
April 25, 2010
Thousands of people, including President Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, members of West Virgin ...
April 21, 2010
Federal inspectors fanned out across the coalfields over the weekend as part of a U.S. Mine Safety ...
April 17, 2010
In wake of Montcoal disaster, fatal '06 fire gets judicial revisit
 
April 15, 2010
Safety refreshers a focus, most operators say
Most West Virginia coal operators will honor Gov. Joe Manchin's request to cease production Frid ...
April 14, 2010
Investigators may not be able to get a look inside Massey Energy's Upper Big Branch Min ...
April 12, 2010
U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration inspectors cited the Massey operations for violations ...
April 10, 2010
Families like the Greens have sent one generation after the next into Southern West Virginia coal mi ...
April 10, 2010
The news trucks traveled up and down the Coal River Valley last week, past homes and churches, p ...
April 10, 2010
Four years ago, Ray McKinney, then the nation's top coal-mine regulator, had scheduled ...
April 9, 2010
Death toll rises to 29; worst U.S. mine disaster in 40 years
...
April 8, 2010
Twice last year, federal mine safety officials overseeing the Massey Energy Upper Big Branch mi ...
April 8, 2010
The West Virginia Council of Churches has established the Montcoal Mining Disaster Fund and is acce ...
April 8, 2010
West Virginia regulators are conducting special inspections of four coal-slurry impoundments in the ...
April 8, 2010
Conditions were improving Thursday evening inside Massey Energy' ...
April 7, 2010
Gov. Joe Manchin on Wednesday promised swift and harsh action if investigators find that violations ...
April 7, 2010
Traveling down W.Va. 3, church signs urge drivers to "Pray for our Missing Miners and Fami ...
April 7, 2010
Gov. Joe Manchin four years ago delivered what seemed to be miraculous news: a dozen miners had ...
April 6, 2010
Family loses three members in mining disaster
 
April 6, 2010
Here is a look at some of the miners killed in Monday's explosion at the Upper Big Branch Mine- ...
April 5, 2010
MONTCOAL - Rescuers began a race against the clock late Monday night, trying to find miners who rema ...
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