Delinquent Mines: Congress Revives Bill To Hold Mine Owners Accountable
Federal lawmakers have revived a mine safety reform bill that addresses a regulatory failure detailed in a joint investigation by NPR and Mine Safety and Health News. The Robert C. Byrd Mine Safety...
View Article'I Lost A Hand And This Is Workman's Comp. ... I Didn't Lose A Hook!'
The tattoos on Dennis Whedbee's left arm describe what he lost when the North Dakota oil rig where he was working blew out in 2012. There's an image of a severed hand spurting blood, framed by the word...
View ArticleFeds Probe Failure To Collect Mine Safety Penalties After NPR Report
The inspector general of the Labor Department is conducting an audit of the Mine Safety and Health Administration 's handling of delinquent mine safety penalties. The audit comes six months after NPR...
View ArticleDoctor Who Crusaded For Coal Miners' Health Dies At 87
The nation's coal miners have lost an advocate — a pulmonologist who helped create a national movement in the 1960's that focused national attention on the deadly coal miners' disease known as black...
View ArticleOpt-Out Plans Let Companies Work Without Workers' Comp
Billy Doyle Walker loved working in the sky. He used to say he could see forever, perched high up communications towers as he applied fresh paint. Three years ago, working halfway up a 300-foot steel...
View ArticleFederal Workplace Law Fails To Protect Employees Left Out Of Workers' Comp
Kevin Schiller had no idea what hit him. With 21 years on the job, the building engineer for Macy's department stores had been in and out of every nook and cranny of many of the retail giant's Texas...
View Article30 Years After Explosion, Challenger Engineer Still Blames Himself
Thirty years ago, as the nation mourned the loss of seven astronauts on the space shuttle Challenger, Bob Ebeling was steeped in his own deep grief. The night before the launch, Ebeling and four other...
View ArticleYour Letters Helped Challenger Shuttle Engineer Shed 30 Years Of Guilt
When NPR reported Bob Ebeling's story on the 30th anniversary of the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger, hundreds of listeners and readers expressed distress and sympathy in letters and emails....
View ArticleOklahoma Commission Declares Workers' Comp Alternative Unconstitutional
An Oklahoma law that lets employers opt out of state-regulated workers' compensation has been rejected and declared unconstitutional by state regulators. The Oklahoma Workers' Compensation Commission...
View ArticleBillionaire Gubernatorial Candidate Owes $15 Million In Taxes And Fines
West Virginia's Democratic candidate for governor is a billionaire, a philanthropist and a resort and coal mine owner who cites his business and mining experience as major attributes as he seeks to...
View ArticleAdvanced Black Lung Cases Surge In Appalachia
Across Appalachia, coal miners are suffering from the most serious form of the deadly mining disease black lung in numbers more than 10 times what federal regulators report, an NPR investigation has...
View ArticleLawmakers Seek Better Count Of Advanced Black Lung Disease Cases
Updated at 6:25 p.m. ET Two Democratic members of Congress want three federal agencies to work together to get a more accurate count of coal miners suffering from progressive massive fibrosis, the...
View ArticleNPR Continues To Find Hundreds Of Cases Of Advanced Black Lung
NPR's ongoing investigation of the advanced stage of the fatal lung disease that afflicts coal miners has identified an additional 1,000 cases in Appalachia. That brings the NPR count of progressive...
View ArticleFlorida Lawmakers To Review Law Targeting Injured Undocumented Workers
The second-highest ranking member of the Florida Senate pledged a legislative review of a state law that has allowed injured undocumented workers to be arrested and potentially deported rather than...
View ArticleShooter Behind Las Vegas Massacre Had No Criminal Record
Copyright 2017 NPR. To see more, visit KELLY MCEVERS, HOST: Let's talk now about the 64-year-old-man who law enforcement officials say was responsible for this deadliest gun massacre in modern U.S....
View ArticleWhat We Know, And Don't Know About The Las Vegas Shooter
Copyright 2017 NPR. To see more, visit KELLY MCEVERS, HOST: Investigators in Nevada are looking through the evidence they collected at the homes of Stephen Paddock, the man who attacked the Las Vegas...
View ArticleLas Vegas Shooter's Life Comes Into Focus, But Not His Motive
Investigators in Las Vegas are sifting through evidence they've gathered from the homes of the man who sprayed a concert crowd with gunfire. They've begun to interview his girlfriend. They've learned...
View ArticleBlack Lung Study Finds Biggest Cluster Ever Of Fatal Coal Miners' Disease
Updated on Feb. 6 at 3:49 p.m. ET Epidemiologists at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health say they've identified the largest cluster of advanced black lung disease ever reported, a...
View ArticleCongress Boosts 'Black Lung' Treatment Funding By Millions
Rural medical clinics that are struggling to respond to an epidemic of a fatal lung disease plaguing coal miners received a 40 percent boost in federal funding with the passage of the omnibus spending...
View ArticleKentucky Lawmakers Limit Black Lung Claims Reviews Despite Epidemic
A measure signed into law in Kentucky this past week would prevent federally-certified radiologists from judging X-rays in state black lung compensation claims, leaving diagnoses of the disease mostly...
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