PENALTY SHOTS: Don't forget our retired coal miners
As President Trump signed an executive order last Tuesday to begin the process of rolling back the Clean Power Plan - former President Obama's signature policy to reduced carbon pollution from power plants - it spawned some thinking about Southern Illinois' retired miners.
Trump's administration is counting on the rollback to restore thousands of coal mining jobs. Whether it does, or whether the gain will be limited due to increased automation or a glut of cheap natural gas, remains to be seen.
What is clearly in front of us, however, are at least 3,000 retired Southern Illinois miners who live on tenterhooks, wondering if come April they will lose their health care benefits.
Thousands more are concerned they will also lose pensions.
Late last year, Congress agreed to a four-month extension of benefits for miners whose health care was going to expire on Dec. 31.
Those four months are about up, and the Miners Protection Act of 2017 is still sitting in the Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources, where at the moment PredictGov.com gives it a 1 percent chance of being enacted.
Probably just about every one of us knows or is related to someone who works or has worked in the mines. It's hard labor, done by tough men and women, many of whom have had to retire because of health problems.
They were promised health care and pensions, but in declaring bankruptcy, coal companies have gotten out from under those obligations. Now, their insurance benefits are dependent upon Congress agreeing to fund them, primarily from the Abandoned Mine Reclamation Fund.
Mike Bost, our Republican congressman from Murphysboro, has been strongly behind the Miners Protection Act, and that he has said he wants Congress to address the bankruptcy rules that allow companies to abdicate their responsibility to retirees.
I'd like support from even higher ground, too. The President was pictured with coal company executives he's helping by easing environmental regulations.
It would be nice to see a similar picture of him next month, surrounded by the coal miners he's helped by protecting the pensions and insurance they'd been led to believe they could count on.
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<li><strong> Justice or vengeance?</strong></li>
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 It should almost have been expected that last Wednesday's sentencing hearing for London Williams would create a response in the Court of Public Opinion.
People from all walks of life have debated the issue and Williams's sentence of 30 months of probation (the maximum allowed for a Class 3 felony) reflects a case not only difficult to prosecute or defend, but also punish.
A jury of 12 citizens found Williams guilty of involuntary manslaughter in January. One of the jurors, who requested anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the case, pointed to the inconsistent statements from witnesses and the fact no one saw the fatal wound occur as part of the reasoning for the jury's decision.
That, in one juror's mind at least, created reasonable doubt as to whether Williams intended to kill T.J. Michael last June.
Proponents for a tougher sentence point to the state changing the probation rules on Class 3 and Class 4 felonies as the reason why Williams was "saved" from a prison term.
Those that side with the defense will argue the very term of the convicted offense, "involuntary," demonstrates that malicious intent was not present prior to the stabbing.
In the eyes of the Randolph County criminal justice system, Williams did not commit murder. He committed involuntary manslaughter and any judge must always invoke punishment on the offense which the defendant is found guilty of, not what public opinion perceives.
Associate Circuit Court Judge Gene Gross told the court he agreed with most of the arguments that he heard from both sides last week, but he also stuck with the law.
The incident at Bernasek's is regrettable, and could certainly have been avoidable if the parties involved had chosen a different means to settle their differences other than violence.
One man lost his life, another will have to rebuild his. As the city's first murder case - outside of the state facilities - since 2004 concludes, I find myself grateful that it is over.
How we choose to remember this in the future is up to history to decide.