'Libby fix' is vital for asbestos bill
We have to commend U.S. Sen Max Baucus for his continued efforts to make sure Libby asbestos victims will be compensated when and if the long-awaited Fairness in Asbestos Compensation Act passes. That legislation would create a trust fund for asbestos victims, and a special "Libby fix" in the bill would provide sick Libby residents with at least $400,000 in compensation.
Baucus vows to use his influence as the highest-ranking Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee to make sure the Libby fix stays in the bill, and has said he'll help tank the bill if Libby folks aren't protected.
W.R. Grace & Co., the corporate giant whose former vermiculite mine is blamed for asbestos exposure in Libby, has balked all along at compensating the people it apparently harmed. Libby needs and deserves the support of leaders such as Baucus to make sure Grace's feet are held to the fire.
It must have been a little surprising to some motorists to read a recent study that found children are no safer in sport utility vehicles than they are in passenger cars.
The reason? The risk of rollovers in SUVs cancels out the advantages of their greater size and weight. Researchers found the heavier SUVs did reduce the risk of injury to children by a third - but that was offset by findings that SUVs were twice as likely as cars to roll over in crashes. And injuries to children in rollovers tend to be more severe.
There are some caveats to this study. For example, the study looked at accidents from 2000 to 2003 - and some SUVs built since then are being designed to resist rolling over. And SUV safety is expected to continue to improve with better federal standards.
The bottom line from this discussion is that all drivers - whether in an SUV or not - need to drive with caution, particularly when children are on board.
It was arguably Glacier National Park's most brutal mauling in recent memory, but the outcome has been remarkable for the father and daughter who encountered a grizzly bear with its cubs last August.
Despite lingering injuries from an incredibly scary incident, Johan Otter and his daughter, Jenna, of Escondido, Calif., were well on the road to recovery over the holidays.
Not only did the two survive severe injuries inflicted by the bear, they also lived through potentially deadly falls off rocky cliffs adjacent to the Grinnell Glacier Trail.
The Otters were lucky, in a sense, and they know it wasn't all luck - their survival was largely due to an impressive response from hikers, park rangers and the ALERT helicopter crew out of Kalispell Regional Medical Center. It's encouraging to know that kind of capability is in our area. It certainly made a difference for the Otters.