March 13, 2024
FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — The Kentucky House voted Monday to allow the state’s smallest coal mining operations to reduce the number of miners with emergency medical training assigned for each underground shift. In a state once known as a coal …
June 15, 2023
A coal dust examiner who worked for a Kentucky mining company has been sentenced to six months in prison for falsifying dust samples and lying to federal officials. Walter Perkins’ employer, Black Diamond Coal Company, was placed on probation for …
July 11, 2017
Kathy Bartlett watched helplessly this spring as Kentucky lawmakers cut back on mine safety inspections and replaced them with coaching sessions on miners’ safety habits. She knows more than most what’s at stake. Bartlett’s son, Rickey Thorpe, was crushed to …
December 30, 2016
Federal investigators have concluded that a worker crushed to death by a machine at a Kentucky coal mine earlier this year wasn’t wearing an emergency shut-off device, and that his managers had not provided a way to securely attach it. …
July 12, 2016
The West Virginia Office of Miners’ Health, Safety and Training will receive more than $524,000 in federal funds for training courses aimed at reducing mining accidents, injuries and illnesses. The Mine Safety and Health Administration announced the grants July 6. …
January 22, 2016
A coal miner in western Kentucky died after being pinned against a wall by a mobile digging machine in an underground mine, the first coal mining death in the state this year and the third nationally. The death prompted a …
December 10, 2015
Kentucky’s Energy and Environment Cabinet has agreed to levy a stiff fine against a coal mining company that acknowledged thousands of Clean Water Act violations, effectively barring the company from operating in Kentucky in the future. Frasure Creek Mining and …
March 20, 2015
A former state mine inspector has pleaded guilty in federal court to taking bribes from former Kentucky lawmaker Keith Hall. Kelly Shortridge agreed to a plea that was filed in court on Wednesday. It says Shortridge, who worked for the …
December 17, 2014
A worker was killed Tuesday in a Kentucky mine owned by Patriot Coal Co., the company’s third such fatality this year. Eli Eldridge, 34, of Sturgis, Kentucky died after he was struck by a vehicle shuttling coal to the feeder …
May 31, 2012
A published report says Kentucky coal operators owe more in delinquent fines to federal authorities for mine safety violations than any other state. The Courier-Journal said the finding is from an analysis it did of records from the federal Mine …