This morning's Intelligencer has a page 5 story about more layoffs in the coal industry. "Patriot Coal Expects to Lay Off 2,000 Workers" details the likely job losses in West Virginia. The AP article also discusses some of Patriot's asset sales as well as the problems associated with its bankruptcy proceedings. Here's the final paragraph as it appears in this morning's Intelligencer:

Patriot's reorganization plan has drawn opposition from the federal government; regulators in Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia; and environmental groups.

At this point, the Intelligencer conveniently drops the rest of the AP story. Here is what the Intelligencer deemed unimportant to the story (I've highlighted in bold what I think is particularly critical):

In court filings, they questioned how the company’s obligations would be fulfilled once a substantial amount of its assets are sold to Blackhawk Mining. These obligations include the multimillion-dollar cost of cleaning up mine pollution.

Bob Bennett, Patriot’s chief executive officer, has said the company believes the assets sale to Blackhawk is in the best interest of the company, its employees and stakeholders.

Note -- I did not link to the online version of the Intelligencer article because it is not listed there and so you'll need to check a morning paper to see the Intelligencer's version of the AP article.

Update 3 PM -- Sometime early today Patriot Coal and the WV Department of Environmental Protection came to an agreement on WV cleanup costs. From the AP story:

Patriot Coal and West Virginia environmental regulators have reached an agreement in which the company will set aside more than $50 million to cover cleanup costs at its former mine sites in the state.

Interestingly, this AP story is on the local site but it did not make it into the afternoon News-Register.