Former Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship didn’t get off the hook entirely for his role in the Upper Big Branch Mine explosion that killed 29 coal miners in 2010, but he didn’t face full justice, either.
A federal jury on Thursday found former Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship guilty of conspiring to willfully violate mine safety standards.
The jury found him not guilty of securities fraud and not guilty of making false statements in the wake of the Upper Big Branch Mine Disaster. [...]
The count Blankenship was convicted of, conspiring, is a misdemeanor for which he could face up to one year in prison.
Full justice would have put mine safety violations at the same level as other crimes that take people’s lives. Just to begin with.
Blankenship is set to be sentenced in March 2016, but says he will appeal. Because apparently the possibility of a year in prison is too, too much punishment for years of willfully putting profit before workers’ lives.
A fair day’s wage
● The positives and problems with international labor monitoring.
● These numbers are shockingly low, but at least Oregon shows that improvement is possible:
In Oregon, outreach efforts to ensure women have apprenticeship opportunities were rewarded at a ceremony earlier this month, during which elected officials and union leaders touted the state’s leadership and celebrated the receipt of a $3 million federal grant to develop such programs. According to the numbers, Oregon has more than double the number of women in apprenticeships (6.9 percent) than the national average (3.2 percent) for states whose apprenticeship programs are managed directly by the federal government.
● A National Labor Relations Board decision may change how employers do drug tests.
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Education
● Early childhood development expert Nancy Carlsson-Paige on how over-testing is hurting young kids:
But play is disappearing from classrooms. Even though we know play is learning for young kids, we are seeing it shoved aside to make room for academic instruction and “rigor.”
I could not have foreseen in my wildest dreams that we would have to fight for classrooms for young kids that are developmentally appropriate. Instead of active, hands-on learning, children now sit in chairs for far too much time getting drilled on letters and numbers. Stress levels are up among young kids. Parents and teachers tell me: children worry that they don’t know the right answers; they have nightmares, they pull out their eyelashes, they cry because they don’t want to go to school. Some people call this child abuse and I can’t disagree.
We need to be clear about the link between treating little kids like this and the workers they’re being trained to become.
● Pass the Every Student Succeeds Act, but no celebrations, please.
● Former students take to for-profit college open houses to warn prospective students.