By Ellen Smith The nation may have a new President with grand ideas about the Freedom of Information Act, but letâs be clear: at MSHA, nothing regarding FOIAÂ has changed. The same people are still in charge of FOIA, offering ridiculous redactions and refusing to divulge information which, previous to 2002, was openly shared with the […]
by Rena Steinzor, cross-posted from CPR Blog With his attractive family and a phalanx of top aides in tow, Professor Cass Sunstein had a cordial, 45-minute hearing before the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee yesterday. He was introduced by former student and current Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) who praised Sunstein as a teacher, […]
by Pete Galvin You never learn much from a “wired” confirmation hearing, and that was true yesterday at the hearing for Cass Sunstein to be director of OIRA. Only three Senators bothered to come (apart from his former student, now the Senator from Minnesota, who introduced him before leaving) and two short rounds of questions were […]
Early Sunday morning (May 10), I read a news brief from WSAZ reporting that seven workers had been rescued from a flooded underground coal mine in Gilbert, WV, after being trapped for 32+ hours. As I combed the web for further details, I was struck by the news accounts and audio recordings noting that the trapped miners and their families had spoken […]
One trait of a good reporter is providing facts—facts that may make us uncomfortable, but ultimately force us to ask “is this really true?”  That’s what happened to me on Friday when I read the Charleston Gazette’s Ken Ward’s piece Solis plays fast and loose on MSHA budget, in which he accused the new Labor Secretary of spinning the data on mine safety enforcement […]
During today’s confirmation hearing for M. Patricia Smith as Solicitor of Labor, Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) referred back to last week’s Senate hearing on “Meaningful Roles for Victims and Their Families.” The dialogue went as follows: 00:72:30 Senator Murray: “This committee has had a number of hearings about workplace accidents and the aftermath. One of the things that […]
Over the next week, two Senate committees will hold confirmation hearings on senior Administration officials who could play key roles in worker health and safety policy. First, the Senate HELP Committee will meet tomorrow (May 7) to consider the nomination of M. Patricia Smith for Solicitor of Labor. I wrote previously about Ms. Smith’s efforts as NY […]
The Associated Press is reporting that last month MSHA inspectors found tremolite asbestos at a quarry owned by the Ash Grove Cement Company, part of its Kaiser plant in Jefferson County, Montana. The article quotes MSHA spokeswoman Amy Louviere saying that asbestos is present in the pit as âisolated occurrencesâ due to geologic intrusions in certain zones of the quarry. Isolated occurrences?….of […]
University of California Berkeley’s Health Research for Action is calling on OSHA to revise its occupational health standard on lead, which is now 30 years old. In a report entitled “Indecent Exposure: Lead Puts Workers and Families at Risk,” the authors describe the adverse health effects of lead in workers with blood-lead levels of 5-10 ug/dL—a fraction of […]
Or is it: what wouldn’t we know without investigative journalist Andrew Schneider??? Would the town Libby, Montana mean anything? How about the words Zonolite, Diacetyl, or GRAS?  These terms and places are familiar because of Andy Schneider, the Pulitzer Prize (and other) award winning reporter, who’s an integral part of our public health community. Schneider’s worked recently for papers in Seattle, St. Louis, […]