The Independent-Record from Helena, Montana • 10

Independent Record www.heienair.com muhua), uauamuoi iu, cuui v. Interior secretary asks Congress to reform 1872 mining law Amtrak train kills three teen-agers on railroad tracks IaiRLESS HILLS, Pa. (AP) An Amtrak Acela Express train traveling 100 mph rounded a curve and killed three teen-agers who were walking on the railroad tracks with their backs to the train, authorities said Sun- SJone of the roughly 300 passengers was hurt. Iqfhe three victims were among a group of five teenagers trespassing in the industrial area in suburban Philadelphia, police said. Access to the rail tracks had been blocked by a fence.

"We don't know if they heard the train or not," Falls acting Police Chief Neil Harkins said. "The 'train engineer saw them and he tried to stop and was (unable to do so and they were struck." Harkins said the victims were three males, aged 14, 15 19. A 14-year-old girl and a 14-year-old boy got away before the train reached the group. Police did not immediately identify any of the victims, but said two were from Morrisville, Pa. Authorities were contacting family members Sunday night, but said the survivors only knew the 19-year-old by his first name, making identification difficult.

Amtrak spokeswoman Karen Dunn said engineers need at least a mile to stop a fast-moving train if they see someone on the tracks. "It's tragic for the engineer, because in cases like this you can often see it but not prevent it." Passengers on the southbound Acela Express train en iroute to Washington, D.C., were stranded for about two rhours. The train eventually continued on to Philadelphia (Where passengers boarded other trains, Dunn said. i i By JOHN HEILPRIN Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON Durable yet outdated, the little-changed 1872 Mining Law crafted to help pick-and-shovel prospectors open up the West may get a serious look next year in Congress. The Bush administration wants a bigger role for states in enforcement, inspections and managing permits, while some members of Congress want stronger environmental controls.

But virtually everyone is coming to the view that the government should start collecting millions in royalties on gold, silver, copper, uranium and other valuable minerals extracted from federal lands. Interior Secretary Gale Norton wrote lawmakers who nationally, with cleanup costs estimated in the tens of billions of dollars. "The West is settled. Now, we need some protection for the people who settled there," said Lexi Shultz, legislative director of the Mineral Policy Center. The conservation group filed a suit last month challenging Norton's revisions of environmental restrictions on hard-rock minerals imposed by President Clinton just before he left office.

Norton's revisions are due to take effect Dec. 31. More than one-third of the western United States, including Alaska and Hawaii, is government land and most of it is available for mining. But the mining law's biggest impact is in a minerals-rich region centered in Nevada that extends from Salt Lake City to Sacramento. oversee natural resources that she hoped Congress could "resolve long-standing and contentious issues" in its 2002 session.

"The existing framework has served the nation well," Norton said. Updating it would "further protect taxpayers and help us achieve more effective administration of the mining program." Environmentalists disagree, blaming the lack of safeguards in the law for widespread contamination. The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that 40 percent of Western watersheds have been polluted by mining. The critics cite as an example bankrupt and abandoned gold mines leaking acid and heavy metals into streams from Alaska to Southern California. A half -million closed mines dot the landscape Valley fire leaves family homeless Snowmobiles: New rules for this season with an extension cord, she said.

The boy escaped While eliminating the gov-ernment's authority to tell miners they can't dig on pub lie land where they've staked claims, Norton affirmed a Clinton administration requirement that mining com panies post bonds to cover 100 percent of their cleanup costs in case they go bank- rupt. The last time Congress tried seriously to overhaul rtjp 1872 Mining Law was in 1994f just before Democrats lost control of both the House and the Senate. The legislation failed over mining industry 3 concerns. While offering no specifics? Norton also said Congress should look at imposing royal-, ties for the first time on harcP-rock mining. An anathema to the industry and Western law makers in the past, a royalty'1 of some kind is now recog- nized as virtually inevitable.1 1 Some conservationists say the short-term efforts are an attempt by the Bush administration to steer money away from building a snowcoach-based system of-winter transportation and ip sap momentum for the Jon Catton, of the Greater Yellowstone Coalition, worries that the one-season rules will be presented by 60 Department of Interior officials as an acceptable alternative to a snowmobile "It will end up coming odr they think this is OK clearly the decision they made a year ago what they felt was best for the tit park was that snowmo-biles need to be phased he said.

r' He said the rules may hep'impfove'sdme cdhal- tions but will ultimately -hamper the shift to a "cleaner winter use ethic. "What they've done is cut the funding for the next generation of snowcoaches" which we know can be even better than the ones they have," said Catton. v' Matthews said the fund-ing for the rules this year is? not coming out of any win- ter use accounts but is being covered by the Park Ser- iu vice's entire Intermountain11 Region budget. 5fi uninjured. Benjamin's 14-year-old daughter, Amber, was away from home at the time.

"He's really shook up," she said of her son, Troy. "He thinks it's all HOW TO HELP Donations for the Benjamin family may be sent to: Tonya Benjamin 2908 Magnolia St Helena, MT 59602 By LAURA BEHENNA --1 IR Staff Writer vflfc electrical fire destroyed a home in X. JL Leisure Village Mobile Home Park northeast of Helena about 9:30 p.m., Saturday, leaving a family of three homeless. Tonya Benjamin came home from Christmas shopping with a friend to find her home in flames. The fire apparently started in her 11-year-old son Troy's room, possibly because too many electric appliances were plugged into one outlet jamin, was a total loss.

"We have nothing," she said. "It burned every thing we have, start to finish." Mobile homes are tightly built, allowing fires to race through quickly, said Bill Wegn-er, East Valley Fire Department fire Firefighters arrived on the scene about nine minutes after receiving the call and found owner Bill Benjamin combating the fire with a garden hose, Wegner said. Although the blaze was controlled within IS minutes, heat and smoke damage had destroyed the home, he said. The Benjamin family is staying with Tonya Benjamin's mother. The Red Cross has provided food and clothing, including coats and shoes, Benjamin said, adding that family would greatly appreciate donations.

Jacqueline McKenna of the Red Cross said outside donations would help supplement the limited assistance the organization can offer. Helena his fault. He had nightmares all night." The mobile home, which Benjamin was purchasing from her brother, Bill Ben- Christmas: Dinner a thank-you to continued from 1A wildlife and air quality near the park entrance at West Yellowstone, Matthews said. The new measures include selling entrance fees at businesses in town, opening more lanes to prevent a traffic jam at the entrance and reducing the speed limit on the road to Madison from 45 mph to 35 mph. Delays at the gate last year were blamed for exhaust fumes.

Workers complained of headaches and nausea. "The reason why we're doing this is the impacts that have been identified at the West Yellowstone entrance, Matthews said. Several other regulations focus on the 30 miles from the West Yellowstone entrance to Old Faithful. They will be in place for one year and include adding law enforcement rangers, hiring people to educate park users about wildlife and asking riders not to idle their machines while watching wildlife or while they are in warming huts. Matthews said the price tag on implementing the one-season rules is $264,000.

Guests, many of whom are disadvantaged, have expressed abundant grati- tude for the dinners over the years, Foster said. "Most of the feedback is just the smiles you see on the people's faces," he said. its support, Foster said. County Market has provided all the food since the beginning, and Lehrkinds Coca-Cola provides the drinks. The Rocky Mountain Development Council gives rides to those who need transportation and National Guard members deliver meals on request.

continued from 1A tfia! he hopes a newcentral location will be found. Gen. John E. Prendergast founded the free Christmas dinner event 15 years ago to thank the Helena community for Teacher: Team problem solving a new approach English. In a regular Chinese public school, students are generally not allowed to use calculators, and the students' experiences are limited to direct instruction, Sietz said.

Basically, teachers lecture and give homework assignments with very little creative problem solving or small group interaction. In Sietz' class, it is much the opposite. There is a heavy emphasis on team problem solving, and students are taught to use technology to solve mathematical equations. His students eagerly tackle statistics, algebra, finite differences and complex geometry. In a class of 12 students, Sietz breaks them into three cooperative teams.

Throughout the week, they work prob continued from 1A School isn't a typical Chinese school. Ordinarily, public school in China is segregated. Boys and girls attend separate schools. But at the school where Seitz teaches, both boys and girls share the classroom. Most of the students who attend the school are the children of professionals who work for international corporations with offices in Hong Kong.

i 0lThe summer program is an outreach for gifted students in public high schools. Most of the students who attend are the country's brightest mathematics students, Sietz said. The summer program is taught by eight American math teachers, and several Canadian teachers who teach The cost of a college degree when todays newborn reaches college age could exceed $200,000 at private universities and $80,000 at public institutions. U.S. Department of Education Are you prepared for the rising cost of college? We can show you several ways to save for higher education including: A tax-free 529 savings plan Education IRAs (soon to be Coverdell education savings accounts.) Custodial accounts (UGMAUTMA) 'Includes tuition, fees, room and board.

Assumes a 5 percent rate of inflation. Qualified withdrawls are tax-free beginning in 2002 lems and vie for a weekly title handed out every Friday. "It's very competitive," Sietz said. "They really learn to work as a team." Because the Hong Kong International School is a private school, tuition is fairly expensive, Sietz said. "A parent told me that it was cheaper to send a student to college in the U.S.

for a year than to the Hong Kong International School for a year." While Sietz said he finds the teaching experience rewarding, he also takes a week or so in China to travel. The first year he was there he had the opportunity to visit Beijing. Last summer, his wife Mary was able to accompany him, and the couple toured the city of Hong Kong. "It's an incredible city," he said. "It's a city of skyscrap "She jumped ON THE NET www.rliodesscholar.oro WBb.grinnell.edu.

ers skyscrapers and green space." More than 8 million people live in Hong Kong, Sietz said, and even though traffic is often hectic and congested it's still efficient. Nearly everyone lives in small, high-rise apartments. What impressed Sietz most was how clean the city was. "It is amazing the amount of effort they put into making even public areas beautiful," he added. Sietz said he plans to continue working summers in Hong Kong as long as he can.

"It's fun. It's a kick to have someone pay you to travel. They pay most of the airfare and all my expenses," he said. Reporter Laura Tode can be reached at 447-4081 or by e-mail at laura.todeheknair.com. called yesterday and we all up and down," her mother, Sharon Young of Bigfork, said Sunday.

Kendra Young is the eldest of four children. She began school in Billings, where she was born, lived in In Rhodes: Bigfork woman persuaded to apply "It will provide a very nice foundation to start that (medical education) when I return to the United States," Young said. She credited Doug Cutchins, a Grinnell administrator, with pushing her to apply for a Rhodes. Bob Haseman 516 N.Park 443-0918 800-877-1077 Dianne Wiseman 900 N. Montana Suite A3 442-2294 800-621-6975 continued from 1 A am 21, said in a telephone interview.

"I was convinced to apply for it." -tt'She spoke from Missoula, where she wasf met by her mother, grandmother and 13-year-old sister Sunday upon flying in from Houston, one of the cities where Rhodes winners were announced a day earlier. Young planned to board another plane later Sunday, for her return to Grinnell. She is a senior majoring! in biology. She expected to attend medical school next year but is postponing that part of her education to spend 2-3 years at Oxford. Jared Hauskins 1617 Euclid Suite 6 495-1832 866495-1832 EdwardJOneS Sorvlng Individual Inveaun Stn 1871 www.edwardj onei.com "I love Grinnell to death," she said.

"It's been a fantastic place to go to school." Fluent in Spanish, Young has done medical work in Bolivia and Costa Rica through programs offered by Grinnell, a private school with about 1,300 students. Her studies at Oxford will begin in October. California for eight years, moved to Bigfork as a teenager and graduated from Bigfork High School. Her father is David Young of Lake Arrowhead, Calif Montana's previous Rhodes recipients include students from the University of Montana and Montana State University. Member SlI'C fTm lo8 fie0 iAf o-r Ift GoodyyrenA Svlot offers SSwonly8 2LI ff HELP US SUPPORT Up-Front Pricing A $540 MviNQS WHEN YOU BRING IN 11 FSSE) SKliSXCGlH Courtesy Transportation 2 CANS OF NON-PERISHABLE FOODI Jtp TX A Lifetime Guarantee on Parts and Labor FREE Car Waah and Vacuum, and eh.ek all fluid lavala.

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