Interesting report today on PBS News Hour from Howard Berkes of NPR: Upper Big Branch Miners' Families 'Encouraged' by Prosecutors' Moves

[Intro] Today, state mining officials issued 253 violations against the company and released their final report. In it, they singled out two foremen, saying they repeatedly failed to clean conveyor belts or apply rock dust used to neutralize explosive coal dust, all leading to unsafe conditions.

And, just yesterday, federal prosecutors brought criminal fraud charges against the mine's former superintendent Gary May.

[Berkes:] ...in that state report, they noted that the maximum fine for those foremen, for these citations, is $250, and that state law doesn't permit citing anyone above the level of mine foreman.

And those foremen didn't make up the way that they behaved in that mine. They were working at the direction of a mine superintendent, of the president and vice president of the Massey Energy subsidiary that ran that mine. And we know from documents that have been released in the investigation so far and in a deposition by former CEO Don Blankenship in another case that this mine was micromanaged and that Blankenship and other senior officials at Massey Energy knew what was going on there.

They monitored the coal production by the foot and by the minute. And so, even though it's clear that these -- that the superintendent who was charged yesterday and that the mine foremen who were mentioned in the state report today were not acting on their own, it appears that it's very difficult in -- certainly in state law in West Virginia to reach beyond the foreman to cite anyone else and get anyone else held responsible.

He goes on to say, however, that Gary May appears to be cooperating with prosecutors, and so there is hope to actually get to higher level officials.

More from the NY Times:
Mine Superintendent Charged in 2010 Disaster, with more details of the procedures for getting around inspections

~ Becky in Long Beach