first — excellent piece, tula!

next — this tragedy just claimed
the lives of three more miners — these
ones being rescue workers, in the drift. . .

i will wait until morning, to hear
c.e.o. murray’s reaction, and his
demeanor — but it better be pretty
damned contrite. there is going to
be a fairly compelling scientific case –
from a geological/mining engineeering
point of view — that at 1,800 feet of
overburden/cover, these miners were simply
sent by their superiors to a depth BEYOND
the structural limits of such a mining
operation — either the pillars were too
thin, or the drifts were correlatively
too wide — but in either case, coal
seams are simply prone to collapse under
the sheer weight of 1,800 feet of overburden.

it used to be that 1,500 feet was considered
dangerously “too deep” in this region — and
the missing six men were reportedly last known
to be working almost 300 feet below that.

this is an unfolding — and nowhere
nearly ended — tragedy. . .

if you believe in a higher power, ask for
some “mo jo” for these rescuers/miners — the
ones actually doing the work — and the ones
still missing — they’re gonna’ need it,
come tomorrow morning. . .

p e a c e

fdl reader @ 30

OT: Tom Hartmann saying Snowjob is resigning and rumours are “two more” resignations at least are coming as well.

It’s gone beyond the rats; now the actual spars and knees are abandoning the sinking ship.

How many more can leave before it’s nothing but Dead Eye Dick straddling a plank, adrift at sea?

In all fairness to Tony Snow – it may have more to do with his cancer and his family. His kids aren’t all that old.

Hugh @ 16

So Tula, do you know if there has actually been increased collection of fines since enactment of this bill? Because since 2001 collection of fines for violations had gone steadily down.

On a somewhat related note, I saw that PBS’ Washington Week is underwritten by the National Mining Association.

This from the Mine Workers: MSHA reports an increase in assessments and revenue since the MINER Act passed. However, the Mine Workers say companies can appeal the fines, and the challenges to the fines have increased as well. Because it takes years for these cases to get through the courts, no way to tell yet whether fine collections are increasing.

Tula, your posts seem to get interrupted with breaking news much too frequently! Just wanted to say thank you again for providing such compelling posts. I am learning so much from you and your insights!

So Tula, do you know if there has actually been increased collection of fines since enactment of this bill? Because since 2001 collection of fines for violations had gone steadily down.

On a somewhat related note, I saw that PBS’ Washington Week is underwritten by the National Mining Association.

This from the Mine Workers: MSHA reports an increase in assessments and revenue since the MINER Act passed. However, the Mine Workers say companies can appeal the fines, and the challenges to the fines have increased as well. Because it takes years for these cases to get through the courts, no way to tell yet whether fine collections are increasing.

N=1 – as a nurse who left acute care after 21 years following a job injury where I was off for 11 months working “light duty” filling out workman comp forms for my fellow workers who were injured in that 2 year period where they cut ancillary staff(Orderlies).

And in the 3 years before I left, I lost 5 co-workers from cancer. The interesting thing is all but one worked as Pharmacy Nurses mixing IV drugs and the one who wasn’t worked on the Oncology Unit….. hmmmm

So many times I am asked why I left nursing and my response is that nursing treated me like a dirty disposable diaper. One gets soiled and there is always another cheaper new grad nurse. [all before the critical shortage}

Oh boy, katymine! I’m so sorry. The CA deaths are at least worth a call to OSHA, but the usual response is silence.

The dirty disposable diaper analogy is apt. I started working in the days before gloves, and some of my first ICU patients as a fiarly new grad were AIDS patients dying from Kaposi’s sarcoma and pneumocystis carinii pneumonias. I was on my own – no one would even come into the cubicles – there was only one sink for 15 ICU patients (I am not making this up, although I wish it had been fiction), and I worked alone in turning, moving and caring for those young, health-appearing men while they blew out lings and died almost overnight from advanced undiagnosed AIDS. I also worked without patient lift devices, without needle guards, and without equipment that was electrically safe.

I’m pretty sure our experiences are the norm and not the exception. In one job, I even had to take a flashlight outside and hunt the in-ground LZ landing lights for the medevac helicopter because the hospital didn’t want to pay for a minute’s worth of extra electric bills. Had to listen for the rotors as I crawled around the grass and get out of the way if they were already coming in before I got the en code page through the ED.

I’ve taken away loaded wepons (one from a police officer who was fainintg from the prospect of getting a tetanus booster) and another who was wrestling med-evac staff and trying to get out of his restraints when the loaded gun was seen in his back pants pocket.

I’ve been spit on, bitten, hit, punched, pushed, pulled, shoved, knocked down, sworn at, threatened with my license, with my life, and with ever working again – that’s why nurses simply must eventually decide to stop working as employees and come together to contract their services and work as independent practice groups.

Oh – and as a parting present – no pension or retirement benefits.

I confess, however, that what has been done, in our names, shames me.

Can’t believe I’m actually defending snowjob but I’d guess he’s having to cover his treatment costs himself as it would be a “pre-existing condition” that the gov’t employee insurance would not be covering.

Actually I can’t believe it either and won’t until I see evidence that Snow is incurring these costs himself.