In March 2012, the AFT helped lead a public-private partnership to help struggling McDowell County, W.Va., and the participants were hopeful that things could be turned around economically and educationally. A year later, the Reconnecting McDowell project has begun to show that investment in communities can change people's lives.

In April 2010, 29 mine workers were killed in an explosion in what's known as the Upper Big Branch mine disaster in Raleigh County, W. Va. Today, federal prosecutors charged Massey Energy mine manager David C. Hughart with covering up defiance of safety regulations and resulting dangerous conditions from government inspectors. The Charleston Gazette reports that this is the "first time in their probe of the Upper Big Branch mine disaster that prosecutors have filed charges alleging Massey officials engaged in a scheme that went beyond the Raleigh County mine...."

The decision by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) yesterday that upheld last December's decision by an administrative law judge (ALJ) that the Mine Workers (UMWA) fairly won the representation election at Big Ridge Inc.'s Willow Lake coal mine in Harrisburg, Ill., is a tremendous victory for miners, says UMWA President Cecil Roberts.