Unforgiveable Whistleblowing

Earle Dixon says he was fired from the Bureau of Land Management because he publicized health and safety problems at the former Anaconda copper mine near Yerington, Nev., AP reports. But agency officials contend the problem was that he couldn't play well with others. BLM and Interior Department lawyers called Dixon "strident, unforgiving ... and obstructionist," and said his inability to work with other agencies undermined efforts to get Atlantic Richfield Company to voluntarily clean up contamination at the mine.