America at Large: Down in Texas, a Houston mother is on trial for drowning her five children in the family bathtub, and the story competes for attention with the ever-unravelling saga of the Texas-based Enron Corporation.

In Georgia this week authorities are still unearthing 200 or more rotting corpses from the grounds of the Tri-State Crematory. Their loved ones had apparently been sending the bodies to the firm for cremation, blissfully unaware that Tri-State's incinerator had ceased to function, apparently as long as 15 years ago.

And last week the President of the United States made it official: while he didn't exactly come out and call Nevada the most worthless state in the union, by officially declaring Yucca Mountain, 100 miles removed from Las Vegas, the repository for the nation's nuclear waste, he essentially reaffirmed the widely-held belief that if some state was going to get fried wholesale as the result of a future nuclear accident, Nevada would probably be missed less than most.

The aforementioned three jurisdictions have one other thing in common. Within the past few weeks they have all declared Mike Tyson persona non grata.

"Look, I'm not trying to defend Mike," Showtime boxing boss Jay Larkin told us last week, "but what's happening to him right now amounts to a politically correct lynching.

"Think about this," said Larkin. "Since September 11th, the casino and hospitality industry in Las Vegas has lost 160,000 jobs. Yet five little men (presumably the Nevada State Athletic Commissioners) take it upon themselves to prevent an event that would have pumped hundreds of millions into the local economy."

Personally, I won't feel my life is incomplete if Lennox Lewis never fights Tyson, and I suspect Lewis feels much the same way, but this moral posturing is getting a little ridiculous.

Two days ago, the membership of the District of Columbia's Boxing and Wrestling Commission decided, in a 3-0 vote, to consider Tyson's application to fight in the nation's capital, and Mayor Anthony A Williams added his own voice of support. "We're trying to bring our hospitality and tourism back, and this is a big part of it," said His Worship. "If you look at all sports, there are people who have troubled histories."

Tyson adviser Shelly Finkel termed Washington "the best shot for the fight to happen". Getting past the commissioners cleared the first hurdle, but considerably more obstacles stand in the path of the proposed bout. By the time the actual licensing vote comes up at a public hearing on March 12th, the organised opposition will be up in arms. You can count on a vocal presence from the more strident women's rights groups, and unless we badly miss our guess, sooner or later President Bush is going to have something to say about this as well.

Right now the MCI Center in Washington is the leading candidate to host the hotly anticipated heavyweight championship fight on June 8th, but a lot could happen between now and then.

If all of this seems like a race against time, it is. The original contract Lewis and Tyson signed in January provided for an April 6th date on two conditions: Tyson had to be licensed in the agreed-upon jurisdiction by February 8th, and by the same date the host venue had to post a site fee of between $12 million and $15 million.

After that deadline passed, there were provisions for a later date this year if Tyson could pass muster and the local promoters could come up with the scratch, but if the site turns out to be somewhere other than six venues - and Washington wasn't one of them - specified in the original contract, Lewis has the right to approve (or reject) the new site.

Even if Washington does license Tyson, it's hard to imagine that somebody in the district is going to come up with $15 million in front money.

Abe Pollin, who owns the MCI Center, sounds like a man who has yet to be convinced that hosting the fight is such a great idea. "I love boxing and the fight would be great for the city," Pollin told the hometown Washington Post after Tuesday's preliminary vote. "But I understand the problems Tyson has had in the past and I have to weigh that in considering whether to have the fight at MCI Center. If they decide they want to fight here, then we have to decide if we want it."

And for his part, Lewis appeared to afford himself considerable wiggle room last week with his mixed-message statement that he "looked forward to fighting Mike Tyson", but would only do so if Tyson sought and received psychiatric help.

IF YOU'VE been paying attention you may have noticed that the ardour of both Lewis and HBO have cooled considerably since Tyson's outburst at the January 29th New York press conference and the denial of his licence in Nevada.

Tyson's representatives, and those of Showtime, have been the ones beating the bushes in the hope of securing the fight before the window closes completely.

In this respect it is most assuredly a race against time. Tyson is facing two serious sexual assault charges in Nevada, where the police have recommended that he be indicted on rape charges. If and when he is charged and arrested, every congressman in Washington will line up to oppose the bout.

Should formal charges ensue, Tyson in all likelihood would be forced to surrender his passport, which would pretty much rule out the rogue overseas venues from Amsterdam to Beirut which have been clamouring for the fight - at least until they heard about the $15 million price tag. (Come to think of it, how come we haven't heard a peep about Millstreet?)

In light of this week's developments, the esteemed fight oddsmaker Charles Jay has made Washington a 2 to 5 favourite to host the bout, with California the second choice at 5 to 1 and one of the Connecticut Indian casinos 10 to 1 to pick up the scraps. More significantly, yesterday morning Jay raised the odds against Lewis-Tyson not happening at all from 4 to 1 to 6 to 1.

"It's encouraging and it would be a great event there," said Showtime's Larkin of the Washington option. "But put it this way: I'm not packing my bags yet."