Updated
Jan 13, 2021
Coal Company Officials Plead Guilty After Hiding Black Lung Dangers
So far three former officials with Armstrong Coal have acknowledged their part in a fraud made public by HuffPost.
A former supervisor at the Parkway coal mine in Western Kentucky pleaded guilty Tuesday to taking part in a scheme to hide the threat of black lung disease from federal safety officials.
Steve DeMoss, a former safety director and foreman for Armstrong Coal, which owned and operated the Parkway mine, acknowledged in court that he helped submit misleadingly low coal dust readings to mine regulators. Miners can develop black lung disease by breathing too much coal dust in a mine’s atmosphere, leading to a debilitating ailment that sufferers compare to the sensation of drowning.
December 18, 2020 By David Murray
In the top story of 2020, an invisible virus has, to date, caused more than a million and a half deaths worldwide, sickened tens of millions more, overwhelmed the health care facilities of many countries at times, and upended the global economy, completely reshaping some industries. It is a story that is far from over, but whose end may be in sight.
After crash development by an emergency team under the aegis of Operation Warp Speed, two vaccines have been developed, one by Pfizer-BioNTech and the other by Moderna. Pfizer’s has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration after encouraging testing indicating an effectiveness of more than 90 percent. Moderna’s vaccine was awaiting approval at press time, with 6 million doses ready for immediate allocation.