Mining

For more than 100 years, workers have blasted and dug into the earth at the Greenspring Quarry, hauling out about 30 million tons of stone that was used to build Baltimore and its suburbs.But today, the only sound to be heard in the gigantic crater is the trickle of water from underground springs creating what one day will be Maryland's deepest lake.Yesterday, quarrying operations at the Arundel Corp. facility off Greenspring Avenue stopped forever, meeting the terms of a 1985 agreement with the surrounding neighborhoods.

BUTTE, Mont. -- The Dumas Brothel closed in 1982 after more than a century of service to the men of Butte. Now it's back as a tourist attraction -- and the center of a storm over the place in history of the world's oldest profession.On historic East Mercury Street in the heart of downtown, the Dumas is a regular stop on the Butte Chamber of Commerce-approved trolley tour of city landmarks.Visitors can be guided through the building for $3. They can dress up in Victorian costumes and have their pictures taken in one of the brass beds, admire the art and artifacts of sex workers, and perhaps chat with the 48-year-old former Los Angeles police officer and Beverly Hills call girl who's restoring the Dumas as a museum of prostitution.

In the early days of the Net, glowing analogies were often made suggesting that access to the World Wide Web was like having the resources of a vast library at your fingertips.Of course, it soon became apparent it was a library almost completely lacking organization. Search engines helped, but they're limited by the abilities of the searcher to create a proper search strategy.One of the more novel and successful approaches to finding things in the uncharted reaches of cyberspace arrived almost three years ago with the launch of the Mining Co. Visitors to this Web portal could quickly hook up with a Mining Co. guide, a certified expert in a particular subject area who was continually mining the Net for nuggets of information about that topic -- someone to do the digging for you.The concept has proved golden with visitors numbering in the millions monthly, placing it among the most frequented spots on the Web. Last spring, the company made an initial public stock offering and, shortly thereafter, made a change that initially disturbed some loyal users: Mining Co. changed its name to the more generic-sounding About.

WASHINGTON -- In an overture with potentially far-reaching implications, Republican lawmakers sought yesterday to join Sen. Robert C. Byrd, a West Virginia Democrat, in trying to preserve the rights of mining companies to dump waste that environmentalists say causes pollution.Under a deal being discussed last night, the Republicans would back Byrd in his effort to overturn a federal judge's ruling that would curb the practice of mining coal from mountaintops and then dumping rock waste into streams and valleys in West Virginia.

Well, of course, New York installation artist Fred Wilson is delighted to be one of the 32 recipients of this year's John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation grants.You could even say thrilled, stunned, happy, excited and profoundly and forever grateful. "The whole thing is a blur," he says, still sounding shocked even though the announcement came in late June.Wilson, 44, is the artist whose 1992 exhibition at the Maryland Historical Society played a catalytic role in how museums view themselves.

This is an excerpt of a Boston Globe editorial published Thursday.THE CLINTON administration can improve its already strong environmental record if it presses ahead with restrictions on road construction in 33 million national forest acres that are open to logging and mining. It has already placed an 18-month moratorium on road building, but conservationists are concerned that the prohibition will be eased after an in-house study of the issue.The road ban effectively blocks logging and mining operations and preserves the natural character of the forests.

By the time Redland Genstar Inc. finishes digging into the limestone of Wakefield Valley, all but 9 feet of the 40-story Legg Mason Tower in Baltimore could fit into the pit.The project is part of the stepped-up mining taking place in huge limestone deposits that stretch across the valley from Medford, southwest of Westminster, to near the Frederick County line, south of New Windsor.The increased activity by three major operators reflects long-range planning rather than a significant increase in demand for the road surfacing materials they produce, quarry officials say."

Ashurst Technology Ltd., which has its research and development center in Relay, is considering abandoning its involvement in a Ukrainian gold mining venture as part of a corporate restructuring designed to make the company profitable.Stephen Meldrum, vice president of marketing, said yesterday that Ashurst's continued participation in the Ukrainian gold program is under review by management and the company's board of directors.He said there is a possibility of ending the gold venture, "but we would not do so without first attempting to get our investment out of it."

The abrupt departure on Tuesday of Ashurst Technology Ltd. founder and Chairman Benton H. Wilcoxon will help the company focus on becoming profitable by next year, a senior manager said yesterday.Did Wilcoxon leave voluntarily? "I've got no comment," said Executive Vice President Stephen Meldrum, who then reconsidered and added, "It was voluntary, though. I would say voluntary."Meldrum and other executives did not comment Tuesday when the sudden resignation was announced, but said yesterday that they had simply been too busy dealing with the situation to return phone calls.

The author of a law requiring limestone quarry companies to repair sinkholes and other damages caused by mining operations says a long-awaited ruling by state environmental officials doesn't go far enough in protecting property owners near Medford Quarry.Perhaps worse, says state Treasurer Richard N. Dixon, a former Carroll County delegate who led the fight for establishing "zones of influence" around quarries, the Maryland Department of the Environment's boundary around the Westminster-area mining operation shows that the mining industry has too much influence over the state agency.

A Delaware company wants to mine sand and gravel on a parcel of farmland and forest along Marshyhope Creek on Maryland's Eastern Shore - a proposal that is raising alarm among conservationists who fear the operation will destroy rare wetlands, harm endangered species and ruin bird habitat. The Horsey Family LLC is asking Dorchester County this week for a zoning exception so it can excavate soil, sand and gravel from the property and create an "open-water lake." Workers would then float a hydraulic dredge into the lake and extract the remaining mineral resources, according to an application filed with the county last month.

Environmentalists want you to buy organic roses, and human-rights groups advocate conflict-free diamonds. Now, just in time for Valentine's Day, jewelry retailers are stepping up a campaign that aims to discourage the mining and sale of "dirty gold." A group of prominent jewelers, including Tiffany & Co., Helzberg Diamonds and Fortunoff, announced yesterday that they oppose the gold and copper Pebble Mine that's planned for Alaska's Bristol Bay watershed, site of the world's largest sockeye salmon run. The jewelers' "Bristol Bay Protection Pledge" marks a new front in the "no dirty gold" initiative waged by environmental and human-rights groups against destructive mining practices.

OUR FAVORITE singing/dancing/glamour-puss/Oscar-winner/survivor and genuinely nice human being, Cher, has been lying low recently. One of the things I love about Cher - and miss when she's out of touch - is that she speaks spontaneously and truthfully, but never tells too much. She's so appealingly earthy, frank and funny you think you're seeing her soul. But you're only seeing what she allows. The real woman is far more interesting and complex. Anyway, soon fans of Cher will have one, perhaps two offerings.

"Had I known that this evil mountain, this alive mountain, would do what it did, I would never have sent the miners in here." -- Robert Murray There is something elemental, in the Judgment Day sense, about that hollowed-out mountain in Utah shrugging and shifting as if closing its wounds. Coal mine owner Robert Murray called the mountain "alive" and "evil": Indeed, its groaning gestures claimed the lives of nine men. But the mountain at Crandall Canyon was as much a victim as the miners of the relentless quest to extract every possible resource from the earth.

Increased attention to script development is the focus of the 26th annual Baltimore Playwrights Festival, which begins in July and will feature nine plays produced by seven companies. Two indications of this focus, according to Rich Espey, festival chairman, are the creation of a biweekly playwrights group and the debut of a new theater company. Founded by director Barry Feinstein and playwright Terry Kenney, the Theatrical Mining Company sprang up to work on some of the scripts that didn't make the cut for last year's festival.

Country star Kathy Mattea has spent recent years experimenting with Celtic music and exploring her folk-music heritage, but one thing has remained constant in her 20-year career: her talent for performing well-written songs. Mattea's latest project is an acoustic, "roots-oriented" tribute to the music of the coal-mining era a century ago and to those who have worked in the mines. Mattea takes the stage at 8 p.m. Wednesday and April 19 at the Barns at Wolf Trap, 1635 Trap Road, Vienna, Va. Tickets are $35. Call 410-481-6500 or 800-955-5566, or go to wolftrap.

ISSUE: The Navy has begun accepting lease offers for an 857-acre former dairy farm in Gambrills, formally making available the pastoral tract for a state horse park, a mining operation, an organic farm or other uses. The Navy received expressions of interest from six parties early last year, including one from the Maryland Stadium Authority, which seeks to open a state-run equestrian center featuring a visitors center, a museum, a climate-controlled equestrian show ring with 2,500 fixed seats, and stables for 840 horses.

BUTTE, Mont. -- This was once "the Richest Hill on Earth." Home to vast mineral wealth, Butte was a storied mining town, providing one-third of the nation's copper for the dawning electric age more than a century ago. Today, that hill has a hole, a toxic abyss framed by a gash where the land was. The pit, 1 by 1 1/2 miles, is the center of the nation's largest string of Superfund sites, stretching 140 miles mostly along waterways, local officials say....

Morgantown, W.Va. -- Kevin Pittsnogle has passed around baby photos and been the bearer of bad news, as the life cycle has come quickly at West Virginia and its fans in 2006. One basketball game at the WVU Coliseum began with a moment of silence for a dozen deceased coal miners. The most recent concluded with students singing an impromptu rendition of "Happy Birthday" to Pittsnogle, a day after Pittsnogle's wife, Heather, gave birth to their first child. Papa is a tattooed, 6-foot-11 paradox of a center who prefers three-pointers to post-up moves.

WASHINGTON --Congressional officials said yesterday that they wanted to investigate the disclosure that the National Security Agency had gained access to some of the country's main telephone arteries to glean data on possible terrorists. "As far as congressional investigations are concerned, said Sen. Patrick J. Leahy of Vermont, the ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, "these new revelations can only multiply and intensify the growing list of questions and concerns about the warrantless surveillance of Americans.