When Confined Space founder Jordan Barab shut down the workplace health and safety blog to go to work with the House Education and Labor Committee to help strengthen the nation’s job safety laws, he didn’t stop keeping an eye on the headlines for news the safety community might find informative.

Check out these recent links from Jordan—and for a sobering reminder of the dangers all workers face every day on the job, see the latest Weekly Toll.

In Shafted: How the Bush Administration Reversed Decades of Progress on Mine Safety, Ken Ward Jr. traces the rise in coal mine deaths, culminating in last years’ decade-high death toll of 47, through the years of the Bush administration’s hold on the Mine Safety and Health Administration.