Cold Comfort from a Coal Baron

The PR firm Dix & Eaton "is serving as 'media coordinator' for International Coal Group, the owner of the Sago Mine in West Virginia in which a dozen miners lost their lives," reports O'Dwyer's. The U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration had cited Sago Mine for 276 safety violations in 2004 and 2005, "including 120 that were considered 'significant and substantial.'" ICG, which bought the mine in November 2005, "has established a $2 million fund for the families of the lost miners." ICG owner, New York billionaire Wilbur Ross, said he understands the families' trauma since "I lost my own father when I was a teen-ager." Dix & Eaton has worked for Diebold, the International Steel Group and Adelphia.