Who's minding the store?

Journal Star, Peoria, Ill.: Just three weeks after an explosion led to the deaths of 12 coal miners, two more men died in an underground mine fire. Both West Virginia tragedies have prompted a national outcry for better enforcement of federal mine safety regulations. It's fair for workers to be questioning whose interests federal regulators serve.
Look who's running the show. Until 2004, it was Dave Lauriski, a former mine executive who's been accused of covering up a toxic coal slurry spill. His nominated replacement, Richard Stickler, is a longtime coal man whose Pennsylvania mine safety record has come under fire.