Television correspondent ROBERT KRULWICH

2: Television correspondent ROBERT KRULWICH. In a FRONTLINE production (co-produced with the Center for Investigative Reporting) called "Public Lands, Private Profits" to be aired at 9 p.m. tonight on PBS (check local listings), KRULWICH examines today's gold mining industry—the impact of mining activities and the current political battle for control of mineral resources on public lands. The Mining Law of 1872 was passed to encourage settlement and development in the West. It's still on the books. Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt thinks the law allows mining companies—even foreign ones—to legally rip off American taxpayers. The mining companies and western legislators like the status quo. The show's producer Stephen Talbot calls it "a fight over who will rule the West in the twenty-first century."