In our experience, this is seldom done by name and in the first sentence.Īs we reported recently, these reform initiatives, effective immediately, represent an attempt by the Labor Department to create a more level playing field for coal miners navigating a byzantine federal benefits system that often favors coal companies and the lawyers and doctors they enlist. Normally, government agencies don’t like to give specific credit to the news media, although they often make a vague reference to an unnamed news article down in the body of a government report. In the first line of an official Solicitor of Labor memo, the Center for Public Integrity’s published articles are cited as the reason for the Labor Department’s review of the black lung compensation program, and for the department’s reforms.

Labor Department said so specifically, which is unusual for a government agency. That this is the end result of our investigation is a fact. Brian Ferguson/Center for Public Integrityīecause of a yearlong investigation by the Center for Public Integrity, coal miners who are sick and dying with “black lung” will now have higher-quality medical reports and thus a better chance to get compensation for their terrible disease. He died July 2014 at age 67, still awaiting a decision in his case for federal black lung benefits.į.

Retired miner Steve Day, 67, needed supplemental oxygen 24 hours a day to breathe.

Government watchdog article