Feds: West Virginia mine may be permanently sealed

The Upper Big Branch Mine accident was the worst mining disaster in the United States since 1972.It is the worst mining disaster in the United States since 1972The mine had a spotty safety record

(CNN) -- The owners of a West Virginia mine where 29 people perished in an explosion last year have agreed to permanently seal it, federal regulators said.

Massey Energy has filed a plan with regulators and the two sides are set to meet next week, said Amy Louviere, a spokeswoman with the Mine Safety and Health Administration.

The April 5, 2010, explosion at the Upper Big Branch Mine was the worst mining disaster in the United States since 1972, when 91 miners died in a fire at the Sunshine Mine in Kellogg, Idaho.

Don Blankenship, the company's now-retired CEO, had previously indicated the company hoped to reopen the mine.

The Big Branch Mine had a spotty safety record prior to the explosion, with three deaths reported over the previous 12 years.

Most of the blast victims were working in an area where long-wall cutting was taking place. The technique uses a large grinder to extract coal and creates large amounts of coal dust and methane gas, both of which are explosive.

CNN

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Virginia Tech survivor Colin Goddard lobbies for gun control

Jack Gruber, USA TODAY

Since surviving four gunshot wounds at Virginia Tech's April 16, 2007, massacre, Colin Goddard has remade himself into an advocate for gun control legislation.

EnlargeCloseJack Gruber, USA TODAY

Since surviving four gunshot wounds at Virginia Tech's April 16, 2007, massacre, Colin Goddard has remade himself into an advocate for gun control legislation.

Waiters carry trays of hors d'oeuvres through the crowd while Goddard, a 25-year-old who could model for a J.Crew catalog, chats amiably. He doesn't have to move much because people flutter around him. The lights flicker, and the crowd moves to a screening room to watch Gun Fight, a documentary on the nation's firearms debate. The film prominently features Goddard, a survivor of the April 16, 2007, shooting at Virginia Tech.

Scenes like this are typical of Goddard's life since he became assistant director for federal legislation at the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, a Washington-based group pushing for more gun control. When Goddard visits lawmakers on Capitol Hill or speaks to groups, listeners latch onto his words. Some say they respect how he has turned the trauma of being shot four times into something productive. Before Gun Fight, filmmaker Kevin Breslin made a documentary featuring Goddard called Living for 32, so named for the number of people shot dead by Virginia Tech gunman Seung Hui Cho before he fatally shot himself. That documentary was screened at the Sundance Film Festival in January.

MORE: Virginia Tech fined $55K in shootings"He looks good, he speaks directly and honestly, he's not programmed, he's not scripted," said Paul Helmke, president and CEO of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. "Sometimes, it's not quite what I think he should say," Helmke added , "but, hey, that's him."

Barbara Kopple, director of Gun Fight, said there was little footage shot of Goddard for the documentary that she didn't use. "He's approached all this with an amazing levelheadedness and a sense of purpose."

"He's just very unique for a young guy," Kevin Breslin said. "He could have collected the insurance policy and taken a walk. A lot of people would have."

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Virginia Tech fined $55,000 in shootings

File photo by Alan Kim, The Roanoke Times, via AP

Injured individuals are carried out of Norris Hall at Virginia Tech on April 16, 2007. Seung Hui Cho killed 32 people and himself.

EnlargeCloseFile photo by Alan Kim, The Roanoke Times, via AP

Injured individuals are carried out of Norris Hall at Virginia Tech on April 16, 2007. Seung Hui Cho killed 32 people and himself.

The failure warrants a fine "far in excess" of that, a letter notifying the university said, but $27,500 per violation was the most allowed by law. The university also was cited for failing to follow its own security policy, required by law, on crime warnings.

The department cited the school for violations of the Clery Act, which requires schools that receive federal aid to issue a "timely warning" when a serious crime is committed on campus. The law is named for Jeanne Clery, a Lehigh University freshman murdered in her dorm room in 1986.

Virginia Tech said in a written statement it will appeal. "Neither the Department of Education nor the Clery Act defines 'timely,' " the statement said. "The university actions on April 16 were well within the standards and practices in effect at that time."

A survivor of the shootings, Virginia Tech graduate Colin Goddard, applauded the fine.

"I think what's important is it was the maximum they could fine," said Goddard, 25, who was shot four times by Virginia Tech student Seung Hui Cho. He is assistant director of federal legislation with the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence. "It's not a surprise. I knew that the school had acted too slowly four years ago."

At about 7:15 a.m. on the day of the rampage, Cho fatally shot two students in a residence hall. At 9:26 a.m., school administrators e-mailed students and staff to say there had been a shooting; the e-mail did not say the killer had not been identified.

Between 9:40 a.m. and 9:51 a.m., Cho shot 47 more people in Norris Hall, then fatally shot himself.

The Education Department letter says students and staff continued to move freely around campus, unaware of the danger.

"The facts that the assailant had not been identified, a weapon had not been found at the scene and that bloody footprints led away from the bodies strongly indicated that the shooter was still at large, and posed an ongoing threat," Education official Mary Gust wrote.

After the first shooting and before the warning, she said, two senior administrators e-mailed their families, bank deposit pickups and campus trash pickup were canceled, and Blacksburg public schools were locked down.

Virginia Tech said that its own guidelines at the time of the shootings said 48 hours would be an acceptable time frame in which to inform a campus of a serious crime. The school complained it is being held accountable for a standard adopted after its own tragedy.

A representative of Security on Campus, an organization launched by the Clery family, disputed that.

"All the provisions that they were found to have violated had been part of the original statute enacted in 1990," S. Daniel Carter said.

He said the case has broader national policy implications.

"It sends a very important message to other colleges and universities that their timely warning policies have to be taken seriously," he said.

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