Muckreads from ProPublica

Here are some—one example from the link:

If you don’t have to pay the fine for having an unsafe workplace, why provide a safe workplace? Thousands of mines are operating despite owing safety penalties that go back as far as 20 years, according to an NPR investigation. In their years of delinquency, these mines reported injury rates 50 percent higher than mines that paid penalties. In a joint investigation, NPR and Mine Safety and Health News discovered that federal regulators are either unable or unwilling to get these owners to pay up. “Coal mine regulation is not a high-profile area of law enforcement. … It’s a fairly low priority,” said one former assistant U.S. attorney.—NPR via @AnnaBoikoW

It’s not a high-priority because our government is oriented to serve the needs of the powerful and coal miners are not powerful, so the government ignores their plight—cf. Native Americans for another example: we steal their land, we force them onto reservations, and then we ignore them.

Another example (but read them all at the link):

Are your strawberries grown with these dangerous pesticides? Nine out of 10 strawberries come from California. But to keep this $2.6 billion industry growing, farmers rely on a fumigant that state scientists say poses an increased risk of cancer. While Dow AgroSciences, manufacturer of the chemical 1,3-Dichloropropene, said agricultural use of the fumigant doesn’t pose a cancer risk, state researchers say otherwise.—The Center of Investigative Reporting via @rachael_bale