The morning daily catches up with the Rosemont Mine story broken by Dan Shearer of the Green Valley News yesterday:

Arizona's legislative chiefs frustrated a majority of Tucson-area legislators by writing the U.S. Forest Service a letter friendly to the proposed Rosemont Mine without consulting them - yet saying they were writing "on behalf of the Arizona Senate and the House of Representatives."

Tuesday's letter from Senate President Bob Burns and House Speaker Kirk Adams praised Rosemont as a "tremendous economic opportunity for the State of Arizona," cited Arizona's rich mining history, and encouraged the Forest Service to "allow Arizona to continue to move forward responsibly to utilize our rich and vital copper resources."

But late Thursday, Burns backed off, under criticism led by Jonathan Paton, a Tucson-area state senator and mine opponent of his party who is running for Congress against another mine opponent.