Don Blankenship

Sitting in court since early October, spectator Judy Jones Petersen has heard plenty from the defense about a former coal CEO’s safety concerns but not much about how 29 men died

An outspoken critic of President Obama, charged with conspiring to violate mine safety rules before a deadly explosion, is under orders not to tell jurors he’s being persecuted by Democrats.

Don Blankenship ascended from a modest, single-mother upbringing in Appalachia to personally make almost $20 million off coal in one year.