New borehole shows near-complete collapse in Utah mine; lying mine-owner changed plan to riskier one

[Bluebear]

HUNTINGTON - The fifth borehole drilled in search of six men trapped in the Crandall Canyon mine showed the worst results yet - a near-complete cave-in within the main escape tunnel.
A mere six inches exist between the ceiling of the mine and tons of rubble.
So organizers of the consistently disappointing search for the miners will begin drilling a sixth borehole today, targeting the area where the missing men were working. If it, too, shows no signs of life, mine co-owner Robert Murray said Wednesday the borehole will be the last.
"If we don't find anyone alive in that hole," he said, "there is no place anyone in our company or would know where to drill."

http://www.sltrib.com/ci_6695430

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Robert Murray insists that his company did not change the mining plan at Crandall Canyon after purchasing a joint interest in the mine last August.
But documents obtained by The Salt Lake Tribune clearly contradict Murray's assertion, and show that Murray's company sought and received approval from Federal regulators to make a significant, and, experts say, risky change to the mining strategy.
Records of the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) show that, after Murray acquired a 50 percent ownership in the mine on Aug. 9, 2006, his company repeatedly petitioned the agency to allow coal to be extracted from the north and south barriers - thick walls of coal that run on both sides of the main tunnel and help hold up the mine.
That stands in stark contrast to statements Murray made Monday asserting that his company's mine plan, and that of the previous owner, were one and the same. "Some have incorrectly reported that after I bought the mine I changed the mining plan. That is not correct," Murray said.

http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_6685703

[blogslut]

1. K&R

Bob Murray is scum.

Bluebear, you have been a champ with your updates on this awful man who has turned the lives of the miners and rescue workers into nothing but a bloody soapbox.

[Bluebear]

6. Thank you.

Something about the story really got me deeply, thinking about those poor working guys buried in there. The more I looked into Murray, with his Republican connections, the more CNN gave him an open microphone without investigating the CAUSE of the collapse, the more disgusted I became.

Americans are not afraid of a hard day's work; it is disgraceful how Bush and company have made just working a more dangerous acitivity.

[loudsue]

14. True that. It's just one more toxic thing we've imported from China...

a total, complete disregard for worker's safety. For all the name-calling against "communists", our government has certainly followed that communist country's ways to the letter.

:kick:

[Tesha]

18. No, it's a return to our own past.

> True that. It's just one more toxic thing we've imported from China...

No, it's a return to our own past.

Read Upton Sinclair's 1906 novel The Jungle.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Jungle

Tesha

[loudsue]

20. Well, you're right on that too. It is very reminiscent of the Robber Baron days.

And it's nothing but an attempt to reinstate slavery....same way they built the pyramids. When in the HELL is humankind going to evolve past oppression and slavery? The PEOPLE need to rise up and just say "ENOUGH!"

That is why labor unions, world wide, are so important.

:kick:

[frogcycle]

22. our coal labor history

http://www.wvculture.org/history/minewars.html

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=940DE6D7173BF932A3575AC0A963948260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=print

http://www.workerseducation.org/crutch/pamphlets/coal/coal_10.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molly_Maguires

interesting quote from the Wiki entry:
"...a period when "labor was at war with capital, Democrat with Republican, Protestant with Catholic, and immigrant with native..."

we could replace "Protestant" with "Christian fundamentalist" and "Catholic" with "everyone else" and it would fit - some 125 years later

http://www.amazon.com/Molly-Maguires-Sean-Connery/dp/B0001FGBLG

[Kool Kitty]

21. I wanted to slap whoever the newsmodel on CNN

was that was interviewing this POS yesterday. She was oh-so-sympathetic to Murray, saying to him she knew it was so hard for HIM, how was HE holding up. Unreal. Why was this poor excuse for a human being given such an open mike to spin his own disaster? I saw Murray say that he was going to mine for coal again in this mine, and then last night he says that he never said that, that the mine was an evil living thing and that he was going to close the mine. And the newsman was like, oh, okay. No question, no showing him the friggin' video where he made the original statement. And Murray says all the seismologists are wrong, he is right-it was an earthquake that caused the cave-in. And the newsman is like, oh, okay. Un-fuckin'-believable.

[LeftishBrit]

2. This is horrific

[MissMarple]

3. Drip...drip...drip...

One can only hope someone will stop the steady and insidious damage this administration is doing to our country. God knows we have been trying.

[SeattleGirl]

4. Murry is obviously a Rethuglican. Doesn't give a flying fuck about

anyone but himself. Doesn't give a flying fuck about anything except money.

May he rot in the hottest area of hell. :grr: :grr: :grr:

[JI7]

5. is there any way this guy can be arrested for something ?

what about OSHA ?

it just seems so wrong that someone is able to do what he did and get away with it without any legal consequences.

[Garbo 2004]

7. MSHA, not OSHA, has jurisdiction. & MSHA is the agency that allowed Murray to do what the previous

owner wouldn't do due to safety concerns. Murray was mining the remaining coal "barriers" that were providing support in the mine. Remove the barriers and no surprise that the mountain was "settling," resulting in collapses.

[marions ghost]

9. Shouldn't somebody get a Darwin award?

remove supports and stuff falls down...

The mine should have been closed.

[tanyev]

11. The Darwin Award would only apply if the idiot who made the decision

had died as a result of his action. Unfortunately, innocent people paid for this man's selfishness and stupidity.

[marions ghost]

19. you're right...

Killing others stupidly doesn't count then. I guess it's more like criminal negligence in this case. Hara Kiri would be appropriate.

But allowing people to whittle away on an inner support just seems so idiotic.

[marions ghost]

8. happens every day

it's a good example of how things really work when you bend the laws to suit Bidness.

[Harry Monroe]

16. I'm sure they'll be lawsuits aplenty to come out of this

[frogcycle]

23. that asshat who has been doing the pressers approved it all

the one bush had to use a recess appointment to get in

[bahrbearian]

10. Murry called the mountain Evil yesterday on Abrahms report

I wounder if he'll give back his ill-begotten gains.

[Skidmore]

13. I hope he loses everything.

[Harry Monroe]

17. Like Modor??

Murray calling the mountain "evil" is like the pot calling the kettle black.

[malaise]

12. Watch the section on Countdown

Murray and the mine mess. Great discussion with Jack Spadaro, former director of the government academy that trains mine safety inspectors.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036677/

[bleedingheart]

15. I saw Murray interviewed for the first time last night...the man is a greedy moron

I couldn't believe the shit coming out of his mouth...some of it was incomprehensible.