Millions in fines against mine operators unpaid

WASHINGTON -- Kentucky mine operator Stanley Osborne has accumulated more than $200,000 in safety fines since the 1980s, but the federal government has not been able to collect the money. In a new approach, the Mine Safety and Health Administration filed suit against Osborne this month. "We just can't be chasing people around for these collection cases when they should be paying their civil penalties," said Thomas Mascolino, deputy associate solicitor at the Labor Department. MSHA, part of the Labor Department, was owed more than $16 million in delinquent fines at the end of last year, said agency spokesman Dirk Fillpot. More than $11 million was for violations at coal mines. The problem isn't new, but it has gained attention following mining accidents that have left 21 miners dead so far this year. West Virginia lawmakers have asked the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, to look into how the mine agency assesses and collects fines.

Fossett completes longest nonstop flight in history

MANSTON, England -- Adventurer Steve Fossett completed the longest nonstop flight in aviation history with an emergency landing Saturday, flying 26,389 miles in about 76 hours but stopping early because of mechanical problems. Ground control said Fossett, 61, broke the airplane distance record of 24,987 miles while his lightweight experimental plane was flying over Shannon, Ireland. Generator problems then forced him to land the Virgin Atlantic Global Flyer at Bournemouth International Airport in southern England instead of at a military air strip in nearby Kent. The millionaire adventurer completed his nonstop journey around the globe -- and then some -- over 3 1/2 days despite losing about 750 pounds of fuel during his takeoff Wednesday from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida because of a leak.

Rare frog in Sierra Nevada range faces extinction

YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK, Calif. -- The mountain yellow-legged frog has survived for thousands of years in lakes and streams carved by glaciers, living up to nine months under snow and ice and then emerging to issue its raspy chorus across the Sierra Nevada range. But the frog's call is going silent as a mysterious fungus pushes it toward extinction. "It's very dramatic," said Yosemite biologist Lara Rachowicz. "One year, you visit a lake and the population will seem fine. The next year you go back, you see a lot of dead frogs scattered along the bottom of the pond. In a couple years the population is gone." There are about 650 populations left in Yosemite, Sequoia and Kings Canyon national parks, but most lakes have only one to five frogs and 85 percent are infected with the lethal fungus.

New York stops openings of for-profit schools

NEW YORK -- As for-profit schools across the country face allegations from financial aid fraud to flimsy academics, New York has decided to put the brakes on the rapidly growing sector of higher education. The state Board of Regents recently said it will not consider applications from new degree-granting for-profit schools until it reviews its approval process and has a better sense of the problems the schools face. The decision comes in the wake of a flurry of reports about problems. In New York, one school was accused of cheating to get more student aid money, and another was ordered shut down because of poor academics. Reports of problems in California and Florida also have crept up.

-- From wire reports