Alec MacGillis, ProPublica

Alec MacGillis, formerly a staff writer at Slate, covers politics for ProPublica. MacGillis previously spent three years covering national politics for The New Republic and five years as a national reporter for The Washington Post, where he was part of the team whose coverage of the Virginia Tech shooting won the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for breaking news. He was also a metro reporter for five years at the Baltimore Sun, where he and collaborators were Pulitzer finalists for their coverage of the Beltway sniper. A resident of Baltimore, MacGillis is also the author of "The Cynic," a 2014 biography of Sen. Mitch McConnell.

Bankruptcy lawyers strip cash from coal miners’ health insurance

Workers often bear the brunt of the coal industry’s decline. One case stands out: 208 Indiana miners, wives and widows whose health care may fall to financial engineering.

October 8, 2015

There was plenty in the complex deal to benefit bankers, lawyers, executives and hedge fund managers. Patriot Coal Corp. was bankrupt, but its mines would be auctioned to pay off mounting debts while financial engineering would generate enough cash to cover the cost of the proceedings.

Alec MacGillis, ProPublica

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Bankruptcy lawyers strip cash from coal miners’ health insurance

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