April 6, 2016
Former coal baron Donald Blankenship was sentenced to a year in prison for evading mine-safety rules in one of the final chapters of a fatal mine explosion that was the worst U.S. coal industry accident in almost 40 years. U.S. …
April 6, 2016
Six years after 29 miners were killed in a West Virginia coal dust explosion, the man who ran the mining company like a fiefdom — a coal baron and power broker who earned millions of dollars a year — will …
March 30, 2016
Former coal baron Donald Blankenship should face the maximum sentence of one year in prison for flouting mine-safety rules, prosecutors said, urging a judge to send a message to the coal industry. The government asked U.S. District Judge Irene Berger …
December 14, 2015
Former Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship will be sentenced next year on a conviction of conspiring to violate safety rules at the mine where a deadly explosion occurred. U.S. District Judge Irene Berger on Dec. 10 scheduled Blankenship’s sentencing for …
December 7, 2015
A 48-foot black granite monument with life-size silhouettes of 29 fallen miners defines this small Appalachian town, just downhill from the site of one of the deadliest U.S. mine disasters. Survivors and friends of those who couldn’t escape the underground …
December 4, 2015
To hear Donald L. Blankenship tell it, the U.S. coal industry has been undone by inept regulators, evil unions, the media and “global warming hoaxers.” But for jurors at his criminal trial in Charleston, West Virginia, it’s the king of …
December 3, 2015
Former Massey Energy Chief Executive Don Blankenship was found guilty in federal court on Thursday of conspiring to violate safety standards at the Upper Big Branch mine, the site of a 2010 blast that killed 29 people. Relatives of those …
December 2, 2015
Jurors at former Massey Energy Co. Chief Donald Blankenship’s criminal trial ended their eighth day of deliberations after telling the judge they remain deadlocked on charges the coal executive plotted to ignore safety rules before a 2010 mine explosion that …
November 22, 2015
After a third full day of deliberations, a jury recessed Friday without reaching a verdict in the criminal trial of ex-Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship. Jurors had been trying since Tuesday, Nov. 17, to reach a decision. Blankenship is charged …
November 17, 2015
Former Massey Energy Chief Donald Blankenship won’t take the witness stand to explain what happened when a company mine exploded in 2010 killing 29 workers, choosing instead to leave his fate in the hands of jurors at his criminal trial …