State Snapshots

By The Associated Press - 05/22/2008

Asarco settlement with Montana OK’d TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) — The bankrupt copper producer Asarco LLC has won court approval to pay up to $28.5 million to settle claims that Asarco mining waste polluted the Blackfoot River in Montana.

U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Richard S. Schmidt in Corpus Christi, Texas, signed an order approving the settlement Tuesday.

Last month Asarco, based in Tucson, agreed to pay Montana $8 million and give the state a $19.8 million unsecured claim in its bankruptcy case.

Asarco also will pay $500,000 to the United States and grant the federal government a $228,000 claim.

Government consultants had estimated the U.S. and Montana were owed $105 million in cleanup costs related to a former Asarco mine near the headwaters of the Blackfoot River.

Bill Clinton coming back to Montana HELENA (AP) — Former President Bill Clinton will return to Montana on Saturday to campaign for his wife in Bozeman, Lewistown and Miles City.

The trip will be Clinton’s fourth this year.

Presidential hopefuls Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are battling for the state, which will hold the nation’s last primary on June 3.

Hillary Clinton has been under increasing pressure to exit the race and allow Democrats to rally behind Sen. Barack Obama, who has the lead in terms of both pledged delegates and superdelegates. At stake in Montana’s primary are 16 delegates to the Democratic national convention.

Hillary Clinton’s campaign did not release the times or specific locations of Saturday’s events.

Deputy shoots rifle pointing suspect HELENA (AP) — A 54-year-old Eureka man who pointed a rifle at a Lincoln County sheriff’s deputy is hospitalized in Kalispell after being shot by the deputy, County Attorney Bernie Cassidy said Wednesday.

Cassidy said officers were investigating a report that a man had been shooting a gun in a house Tuesday when they spotted the suspect’s vehicle as he was apparently heading back to the house. Cassidy said the suspect stopped, got out of his vehicle and pointed a rifle at a deputy, who shot the man.

“I don’t know if the suspect got off a shot,” said Cassidy, who was awaiting reports from the Department of Justice’s Division of Criminal Investigation.

Lead investigator Dave Schettine of Kalispell did not return a phone call seeking comment.

A spokesman at the Kalispell Regional Medical Center said the man was hospitalized in serious but stable condition Wednesday with gunshot wounds to the chest and arm. Cassidy said the suspect could face a charge of assault on a peace officer.

Cassidy would not release the name of the deputy or the suspect.

Billings listed among top cities BILLINGS (AP) — A men’s magazine, Best Life, ranks Billings the third-best city in America to raise a family. The magazine ranked Honolulu the best city, citing low unemployment and relatively high per-pupil spending by the island’s public schools.

Editor Stephen Perrine says the magazine also considered sprawl, the crime rate, median home value and the number of parks and museums in arriving at its list of the 100 best cities.

Other top cities include Virginia Beach, Va.; Columbus, Ga.; Des Moines, Iowa; and San Diego, Calif.

The magazine says Philadelphia, Flint, Mich., and Dayton, Ohio, are among the ten worst cities in the country for families.