After intense criticism from mine safety advocates, lawmakers and others, a former Massey Energy Co. executive tied to the Upper Big Branch explosion that killed 29 miners will not be part of the newly merged company.

In Orchard Park, N.Y., just about 600 yards from the Buffalo Bills’ Ralph Wilson Stadium, where as many as 73,000 football fans gather on fall Sundays, sits the Big Tree Inn. Owner Dan DeMarco tells ESPN.com those Sundays account for 30 percent of his annual revenue.

The former Massey Energy Co. chief operating officer who invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination and declined to be interviewed by the West Virginia commission investigating the Upper Big Branch explosion that killed 29 miners, will play a role overseeing safety at the corporation taking over Massey’s mines.

House Republicans once again thumbed their noses at American workers last week by voting to give $310 million of taxpayer dollars to reward the owners of the Avondale (La.) shipyard for shutting down and putting nearly 5,000 people out of work. The House rejected by a margin of 246-177 an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act offered by Rep. Cedric Richmond (D-La.) that would have prevented the government from refunding $310 million to Huntington Ingalls Industries for closure costs at Avondale. Nineteen Republicans voted to support the measure.

Wall Street and congressional Republicans are working overtime trying to prevent implementation of the Wall Street Reform law, which would help prevent the abuses that created the recent financial meltdown.

Two alarming reports recently out point to long-term trends in the U.S. economy that don’t bode well for maintaining a strong middle class in this nation.

The foreclosure crisis just keeps getting worse. More than 12 percent of residential mortgage loans are in foreclosure or at least one payment past due. Millions of homes have been needlessly foreclosed on because banks have not modified homeowners’ mortgages to affordable levels. On top of this misery, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD’s) funding for counseling to prevent foreclosures has been cut to zero.

Massey Energy Co.’s Upper Big Branch (W.Va.) coal mine exploded April 5, 2010 because the company operated the mine in a “profoundly reckless manner and 29 coal miners paid with their lives for the corporate risk-taking,” according to an independent report on the disaster commissioned by former W.Va. Gov. Joe Manchin (D).

Congressional Republicans slapped older Americans and working people in the face earlier this week by voting to keep billions in subsidies for oil companies while supporting a budget plan that would make it even harder for seniors to visit a doctor and fill a prescription.

This is a cross-post from Mary Bottari of the Center for Media and Democracy’s PR Watch. Bottari reports on yesterday’s protest at a shareholders’ meeting of the Scott Walker-connected M&I Bank of Wisconsin. Be sure to check out the video from the Sheet Metal Workers (SMWIA) on the demonstration here.