{"id":535259,"date":"2010-04-20T08:51:46","date_gmt":"2010-04-20T12:51:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/climateprogress.org\/?p=23198"},"modified":"2010-04-20T08:51:46","modified_gmt":"2010-04-20T12:51:46","slug":"corporate-front-group-funded-by-coal-industry-scorns-widow-of-mine-disaster-%e2%80%9ceveryone-wants-free-money%e2%80%9d-later-apologizes-for-distasteful-and-baseless-comment-locks-twitter-account","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/535259","title":{"rendered":"Corporate front group funded by coal industry scorns widow of mine disaster: \u201cEveryone wants free money\u201d – Later apologizes for distasteful and baseless comment, locks Twitter account"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is a Think Progress repost<\/a> by Lee Fang. <\/em><\/p>\n

Yesterday, the AP reported<\/a> that Marlene Griffith, a widow of William Griffith, one of the 29 men killed in last week\u2019s explosion at a coal mine in West Virginia, is suing Massey Energy, the owner of the mine. Griffith filed a wrongful death lawsuit in Raleigh County Circuit Court, arguing that Massey\u2019s handling of work conditions at the mine plus its history of safety violations amounted to aggravated conduct that rises above the level of ordinary negligence. Marlene and here husband were to celebrate their 33rd wedding anniversary weeks after the deadly blast on April 5.<\/p>\n

<\/span>Indeed, as the Wonk Room\u2019s Brad Johnson has reported, the mine where William Griffith worked had been cited for over 3,000<\/a> safety violations. Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship, who has mocked safety regulators as being \u201cas silly<\/a> as global warming,\u201d had gummed up the safety regulations process by filing endless appeals instead of paying fines and fixing safety problems<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Responding to the lawsuit, Nathan Coffey<\/a>, the Public Affairs Coordinator of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), took to Twitter yesterday to mock Marlene Griffith. Coffey posted a link to the AP story about Marlene Griffith, sarcastically commenting that \u201cEveryone wants free money<\/a>!\u201d View a screen shot of the comment below:<\/p>\n

\"Nathan<\/p>\n

ALEC, founded<\/a> in 1973 by conservative activist Paul Weyrich, is a DC-based front group which helps state lawmakers craft corporate-friendly legislation. State-based schemes aimed at deregulation are often conceived and coordinated out of ALEC. It is funded by some of the biggest corporations in America, including Koch Industries, Wal-Mart, and AT&T, as well as by the coal industry. Peabody Coal\u2019s Kelly Mader, a Vice President for State Government Affairs at the company, sits on the board of directors<\/a> of ALEC.<\/p>\n

Update<\/span> Nathan Coffey has apologized for<\/a> and retracted his “distasteful,” “insensitive<\/a>” and “baseless<\/a>” comment, saying he did not read the story before mocking the widow.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

JR:\u00a0 The links to Coffey’s tweets are all dead.\u00a0 Apparently he has “locked<\/a>” his twitter account, so at least something good came out of this.
\n<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is a Think Progress repost by Lee Fang. Yesterday, the AP reported that Marlene Griffith, a widow of William Griffith, one of the 29 men killed in last week\u2019s explosion at a coal mine in West Virginia, is suing Massey Energy, the owner of the mine. Griffith filed a wrongful death lawsuit in Raleigh […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-535259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/535259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=535259"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/535259\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=535259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=535259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=535259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}