Mines Montana

The company involved in a controversial gold mine near Yellowstone National Park said a Clinton administration proposal to close the mine is acceptable, but it wants to make sure the government can deliver before formally agreeing to the plan. In a letter Crown Butte Mines Inc., a Canadian firm whose parent company is based in Houston, expressed concern about recent congressional criticism of the deal and said it wants further assurances that Congress will approve it.

The company involved in a controversial gold mine near Yellowstone National Park said a Clinton administration proposal to close the mine is acceptable, but it wants to make sure the government can deliver before formally agreeing to the plan. In a letter Crown Butte Mines Inc., a Canadian firm whose parent company is based in Houston, expressed concern about recent congressional criticism of the deal and said it wants further assurances that Congress will approve it.

State inspectors charged with enforcing the federal strip-mining law are missing or ignoring many violations of the environmental protection statute, according to a congressional study. The allegation by the General Accounting Office, the investigative wing of Congress, was based on visits last year to strip mines by GAO personnel and inspectors from the federal Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement.

Wednesday night will be one of the few times in the last 150 years that the moon will appear bigger and fuller and will be easily visible for a longer period, in a cosmic rarity that is expected to occupy thousands of astronomers and sky watchers.

The Bush administration plans to stop the cleanup of toxic wastes at 33 federally designated Superfund sites in 19 states, according to an Environmental Protection Agency report released Monday.

The tobacco industry has been good to George L. Barnes--and vice versa. A high school dropout who built a lucrative career as a private investigator, Barnes for years was the eyes and ears of Big Tobacco. Nowadays, the 63-year-old former gumshoe lives in sumptuous retirement in Las Vegas and on the Oregon coast.