Articles by Grist staff

Cyanide, Sealed, and Delivered

Residents of Montana won’t have to vote again on a 1998 ban on the use of cyanide in open-pit gold mines. The U.S. Supreme Court yesterday chose not to consider an appeals court ruling that upheld the voter-approved ban. A corporate spending cap on initiative campaigns in Montana prevented mining companies from throwing their full […]

How Unattracktive

Environmental groups in the U.S. are asking Republican leaders not to take up a controversial trade bill, saying that it could jeopardize the “spirit of bipartisan unity” in Congress. The bill would grant the president the authority to negotiate trade agreements and prevent Congress from amending them; lawmakers could merely vote yea or nay on […]

Ear, There, and Everywhere

To their surprise, Mexican authorities have discovered that some of the country’s native corn varieties have been contaminated by genetically engineered DNA. The finding is particularly troubling because Mexico has not approved the commercial planting of genetically modified corn. Moreover, the contaminated seeds were found in an area considered to be the world’s repository of […]

No-fry Zone

An unidentified plane flew close to the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station on Sep. 13, but fighter jets sent to track the plane down never found it, Vermont Gov. Howard Dean (D) said yesterday. Dean and other lawmakers across the country are calling on the Bush administration to create no-fly zones around all 103 nuclear […]