Don Blankenship

Mammoth case massive headache for Massey

Massey Energy lost a major appeal yesterday in the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond. The court ruled to uphold a lower court ruling that requires the Richmond-based coal company to rehire 85 union miners who lost jobs after it bought the Mammoth Coal complex in West Virginia. Massey bought the operation from… Read more »

Massey CEO joins the Twitterati

Don Blankenship, chief executive of Massey Energy, has been tweeting away on Twitter since June 19. Massey is the nation’s fourth largest coal producer and the repeated target of protests over their mining practices in Appalachia.  Last week, actress Darryl Hannah and a top NASA scientist were arrested in West Virginia at one such protest…. Read more »

Massey Supreme Court case sets precedent

A divided U.S. Supreme Court ruled Monday that a West Virginia judge should have recused himself from a trial involving Richmond-based Massey Energy Company. The appeals court judge, Brent Benjamin, received $3 million in support from Massey chief executive Don Blankenship during his campaign to be elected to the state bench. From the Reuters article:… Read more »

Gee steps down from Massey board

Ohio State University president E. Gordon Gee has stepped down from his post on the Massey Energy board after nine years. Gee was re-elected at the company’s shareholder’s meeting held at the Jefferson Hotel on May 19. In a letter to CEO Don Blankenship, Gee said he wanted to focus on his role at the… Read more »

Highest Paid Execs in Richmond

Thirteen out of the top 40 highest paid executives of publicly traded companies are based in Richmond, according to the most recent issue of Virginia Business magazine. The following figures are total annual compensation and only for companies with at least $1 billion in revenue: Louis Camilleri of Altria: $24 million Thomas Farrell, Dominion Resources:… Read more »