Howard Berkes
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Rates are now the highest they've been in nearly 50 years among veteran coal miners. Mining experts blame toxic silica dust, now more common in mines. -
Forty years after the Challenger disaster, NPR explores the engineers' last-minute efforts to stop the launch, their decades of guilt and the vital lessons that remain critical for NASA today. -
Addressing a problem first identified 50 years ago, federal regulators say stricter new rules to limit miners' exposure to silica dust are expected to finally go on the books on Tuesday. -
For decades, miners have called for limits on highly toxic silica dust, which they're exposed to while mining. An investigation shows its impact and the weakness of proposed rules to protect them. -
Allan McDonald, who directed the booster rocket project at NASA contractor Morton Thiokol, urged delaying the launch of the space shuttle before it exploded in 1986. He has died at age 83. -
Al Haynes has died at age 87. He was the captain of United flight 232 when it crashed in Sioux City, Iowa, in 1989 after total hydraulic failure. 184 of 296 people survived.
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Coal miners will press members of Congress to fully restore a coal excise tax that supports miners diagnosed with black lung. The tax was cut more than 50% at the end of last year. -
A top mine safety regulator testified before Congress that no new regulations are needed to protect workers from deadly silica dust, despite an epidemic of advanced black lung disease. -
Miners across Appalachia are dying of black lung. Now they're coming to terms with decades of dedication to a job that would drastically change their lives and that of their families.
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An extensive NPR and Frontline investigation finds that government data showed that thousands of miners were exposed to toxic dust. And despite multiple warnings, regulators didn't act to stop it.
