Friday beaver does a temporary encore - Massey mine disaster relook

It was four and a half years ago I reported about this and never thought for once that a CEO might go to jail. The original story from my first posting http://demeur.blogspot.com/2010/04/miners-revisited-and-beavers-not-happy.html  Seems I was dead on about what was going on in his mine.

In 1992 Don Blankenship was appointed the President, Chairman and CEO of Massey  Coal Company one of the largest in the U.S. He was the head when an explosion at the Upper Branch Mine took the lives of 29 miners. This happened in April 2010. By December Blankenship resigned saying he was retiring. The year prior to the accident the mine was cited for 458 safety violations 50 of which were failure to comply. (You're talking criminal acts here.)

Four years later
Don Blankenship, the longtime chief executive officer of Massey Energy, was indicted Thursday on charges that he orchestrated the routine violation of key federal mine safety rules at the company’s Upper Big Branch Mine prior to an April 2010 explosion that killed 29 miners.

“Blankenship knew that UBB was committing hundreds of safety-law violations every year and that he had the ability to prevent most of the violations that UBB was committing,” the indictment states. “Yet he fostered and participated in an understanding that perpetuated UBB’s practice of routine safety violations, in order to produce more coal, avoid the costs of following safety laws, and make more money.”  Quote from Booth Goodwin United States Attorney.

So Mr Blankenship will face a potential 31 years in prison if convicted. But we all know nobody gets the max when they hand out prison time, none the less, it's nice to know that justice is finally being served. And not stated above was that he made false claims in connection with Massey stocks, an SEC violation.

Bank fails later... and maybe we'll get the goods on them too.
UPDATE: No fails this week

Friday Pussy - South of the border edition

A story that's gotten little press here in our main stream media from Mexico.

The peace in the little town of Iguala, Mexico has been shattered with the disappearance of 43 students from a teachers college of a neighboring town (Ayotzinapa). The wife (Maria de los Angeles Pineda) of the mayor of Iguala was about to give a speech for her charity when her husband Jose Luis Abarca ordered the police to round up the students and prevent them from protesting. That is the last they have been heard from. As the days past with no word about the students the mayor and his wife fled the town. The Attorney General issued arrest warrants for the two. Eyewitnesses report seeing the students shuffled into police cars the day of the event September 26.

It has been reported that the mayor had ties to a local drug gang and that the police turned the students over to them. The gang leader received word that these were members of a rival gang and ordered their disappearance. They were loaded into pick up trucks and driven to Pueblo Viejo where a number of mass graves were found. The 28 bodies found there turned out not to be any of the students.



The towns' people became furious over the slowness of the investigation and took to burning the mayor's office. Protests have since spread nationwide as even the federal authorities have been slow to act.




To date 52 people have been arrested including police officers, gang members and local officials but no sign or clues as to the whereabouts of the students. Even the president of Mexico has been confronted by one of the families only to hear silence.

UPDATE: To date 70 people have been arrested and the gang members have confessed to killing the students, burning their bodies and dumping some of the charred remains in a river. Forensic scientists from Argentina are trying to determine identities. 



Bank fails later...
One bank fail this week in Ca.