Howard Berkes

Changes to workers' compensation laws mean families and government bear more of the costs that result from injuries on the job.

Over the past decade, states have slashed workers' compensation benefits, denying injured workers help when they need it most and shifting the costs of workplace accidents to taxpayers.

In reaction to an NPR/MSHN investigation, federal regulators, a member of Congress and others are considering ways to crack down on mining companies that fail to pay delinquent mine safety penalties.

A federal judge in West Virginia has rejected the pleas of NPR and other news organizations and upheld a sweeping gag order in the criminal trial of former Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship.

Blankenship faces charges of conspiracy and securities fraud, which stem from the federal criminal investigation of the ...

NPR and four other news organizations are challenging a sweeping gag order issued in the federal criminal case against former coal mining executive Don Blankenship.

Blankenship was indicted on November 13 in Beckley, W.Va., on charges of conspiracy and securities fraud. The charges stem from the 2010 explosion ...

A key House Republican called today for federal regulators to crack down on mine owners who don't pay fines for safety violations, saying, "Clearly more can be done."

Rep. John Kline, R-Minn., the chairman of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, was reacting to an investigation by ...

Jim Justice, a West Virginia philanthropist and mine owner, gave away and invested more than $200 million while his mines failed to pay $2 million in delinquent mine safety penalties.

Don Blankenship is accused of defying safety regulators when he ran the Upper Big Branch coal mine in West Virginia. A blast at the mine killed 29 people in 2010.

In the eight years regulators didn't collect penalty fines from D&C Mining, it was cited 1,500 times for safety violations — including many that federal inspectors say put miners at serious risk.

With the Common Core State Standards' emphasis on "complex texts," some critics worry kids are being asked to struggle too much. We ask: How much is too much?

An NPR investigation found thousands of American mine owners fail to pay penalties for safety violations, even as they continue to manage dangerous — and sometimes deadly — operations.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has enraged families of the victims of the Soma mine disaster by characterizing mining accidents as "ordinary things."

In fact, the disaster appears to have ordinary causes familiar to mining experts, who note that well-known precautions exist to prevent the kind of explosion ...

More than 280 miners have died in Turkey with another 150 still missing. It's hard to imagine how so many can perish in a mine accident in modern times.

The West Virginia mine where two workers were fatally injured on Monday consistently violated federal mine safety laws, but federal regulators say they were unable to shut it down completely.

The Mine Safety and Health Administration confirmed that two workers were killed on May 12 when coal and rocks burst ...

Two coal miners died in a mine accident in Boone County, W.Va., Monday night, in a mine with a troubled safety record.

The accident occurred at the Brody Mine No.1, which is owned by Patriot Coal. In a statement, the company says the deaths were caused by "a severe coal ...

The Mine Safety and Health Administration has announced new regulations reducing the amount of coal dust miners can be exposed to in underground and surface mines.

For American speedskaters, this Winter Olympics has been defined by controversy over racing suits and disappointment over a lack of podium finishes. Now comes word that the U.S. Olympic Committee will "leave no stone unturned" in looking at how the high hopes of US Speedskating collapsed in Sochi.

The news ...

This post was last updated at 1:42 p.m. ET.

The United States Supreme Court has put same-sex marriages on hold in the state of Utah.

The order issued by the court on Monday halts same-sex marriages until an appeal is decided by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the ...

Two Democratic congressmen have formally asked the Labor Department's Inspector General to investigate "allegations of misconduct by doctors and lawyers working on behalf of the coal industry" and their roles in the denials of benefits for coal miners stricken with black lung disease.

In their letter, Rep. George Miller ...