Articles by Thomas Peipert, Sarah Brumfield, Jesse Bedayn, Colleen Slevin and Matthew Brown

Associated Press

Aircraft Caught Fire After Landing in Denver, Sending Passengers onto Wing

A fire on an American Airlines plane after it diverted mid-flight and landed at Denver International Airport sent passengers fleeing onto a wing in a fraught evacuation amid billowing clouds of smoke. Airport officials said 12 people were taken to …

How Underground Abandoned Mines Pose Danger When Land Collapses

Swaths of Pennsylvania and many other states are honeycombed with old, unstable mines that can cause the earth to suddenly give way and threaten people and property. That’s what searchers in Westmoreland County, just southeast of Pittsburgh, fear led to …

More Logging Proposed to Help Curb Wildfires in Pacific Northwest

U.S. officials would allow increased logging on federal lands across the Pacific Northwest in the name of fighting wildfires and boosting rural economies under proposed changes to a sweeping forest management plan that’s been in place for three decades. The …

Colorado Mine Elevator Door Was ‘Broken’ in Accident That Killed 1, Trapped 12

Investigators are trying to figure out what led to an elevator accident inside a former Colorado gold mine that killed a tour guide, injured four others and left a separate group of 12 people trapped for hours at the bottom …

Court Upholds Finding That Montana Clinic Submitted False Asbestos Claims

A federal appeals court has upheld a lower court determination that a Montana health clinic submitted hundreds of false asbestos claims on behalf of patients. A jury decided last year that the clinic in a town where hundreds of people …

Montana Asbestos Clinic Seeks to Reverse Court Finding That It Submitted Hundreds of False Claims

An attorney for a health clinic in a Montana town polluted with deadly asbestos asked a federal appeals court on Wednesday to reverse a lower court determination that it submitted hundreds of false claims on behalf of patients. That judgment …

Jury Rules BNSF Contributed to 2 Deaths in Montana Town Exposed to Asbestos

A federal jury said BNSF Railway contributed to the deaths of two people who were exposed to asbestos decades ago when tainted mining material was shipped through a Montana town where thousands have been sickened. The jury awarded $4 million …

BNSF Says It Didn’t Know About Asbestos That’s Killed Hundreds in Montana Town

BNSF Railway attorneys told a Montana jury that the railroad should not be held liable for the lung cancer deaths of two former residents of an asbestos-contaminated Montana town, one of the deadliest sites in the federal Superfund pollution program. …

Petroleum Asphalt Remains in Yellowstone River in Montana After Train Derailment

Two months after a railroad bridge collapse sent carloads of hazardous oil products plunging into Montana’s Yellowstone River, the cleanup workers are gone and a mess remains. Thick mats of tarry petroleum asphalt cover portions of sandbars. Oil-speckled rocks and …

Montana Clinic Files for Bankruptcy After $6M False Asbestos Claims Ruling

A health clinic in a Montana town plagued by deadly asbestos contamination has filed for bankruptcy protection after a judge ordered it to pay the government almost $6 million in penalties and damages for submitting hundreds of false claims for …