Last August the Crandall Canyon Mine in Utah collapsed, killing six coal miners. Ten days later, three men sent to rescue the trapped miners died in a second cave-in. A Congressman has asked the U.S. Attorney for Utah to conduct a criminal investigation into whether the mine's general manager "willfully misled" federal officials.

House Education and Labor Committee Chairman George Miller of California asked prosecutors to determine if the general manager "covered up" conditions in the mine that could have warned federal inspectors of potential dangers. In particular, Miller said the mine manager did not report a significant damage from a mine collapse, or "bump," in March

Mine management at Crandall "may have purposefully misled MSHA about the severity of the March bump fearing MSHA would close the mine, and [they] continued to adhere to the mischaracterization after the August incidents in an effort to downplay the foreseeability of the August incident," Miller's report said.

The Washington Post reminds its urban readers that "Washington's air conditioners and iPods have helped drive" a particularly destructive form of coal strip mining in the eastern mountains. The Post's David Fahrenthod traces the coal used in DC-area power plants back to West Virginia mines, where mountains are now leveled to extract the coal. "It used to be West Virginia," Vivian Stockman, an environmental activist, said. "And now it's Mars."

A West Virginia mining official estimates that 70 percent of the coal taken from strip mines comes from operations where the tops of mountains are lopped off to get to the fuel. "There's one big reason you mountaintop mine. That's where the good Lord put the coal," said Bill Raney, president of the West Virginia Coal Association.

The story ends with a confrontation between an anti-strip mine activist and a coal truck driver — a staple of this issue in coal country for the past 40 years.

Yes, food prices worldwide are rising and basic foods are in short supply. But it's hard to put all the blame for riots in Haiti and shortages in India on corn ethanol in the U.S.

The Los Angeles Times noted Monday morning that fighting the construction of new coal-fired power plants has become a popular activity across rural America. (The front page photo on the Times site was of a protest in Abingdon, Virginia, see above and story about the protests in the next paragraph.)

Peter Galuszka writes about the particular fight against a Dominion Energy coal plant planned for southwest Virginia in Bacon's Rebellion. The post went up in January, but it gives a flavor of how these fights are playing out in rural communities. 

Finally, in the Louisville (Ky.) Courier-Journal, author Erik Reece, who wrote a book about coal strip mining, reviews the cost of coal on the regions where it's mined.

Our fast-food nation is driven by corn. A couple of recent college graduates decide to learn more about the commodity by growing an acre in Greene, Iowa, and shooting a television program. "King Corn" airs this week on public television's Independent Lens.

The Des Moines Register's Philip Brasher says the film "is a warm, playful portrayal of Greene as well as its residents and farmers. At one point the woman behind the counter at a local bakery comments on the speed at which farmers can get their planting done with modern machinery: 'Then they're back twiddling their thumbs until it's time to spray something.'"

The film perhaps missed a good bit of the changing economics that the ethanol boom brought about, but then again much of the bloom is off that rose.