Environment

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DHS and its Customs and Border Protection agency have deployed drones to assist local law enforcement and other federal agencies on several occasions.

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**FILE** A123 Systems Inc. high power Nanophospate Lithium Ion Cell for Hybrid Electric Vehicles batteries are shown Aug. 6, 2009 in Livonia, Mich. (Associated Press)

**FILE** President Bush (center) listens to Dave Vieau (right), president and CEO of A123 Systems, as he is shown a Toyota Prius plug-in hybrid car utilizing a lithium power battery during a demonstration of alternative fuel automobiles on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington on Feb. 23, 2007. At left is Energy Secretary Sam Bodman. (Associated Press)

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**FILE** Latin singer Jenni Rivera rehearses April 25, 2012, at the BankUnited Center in Coral Gables, Fla., for the 2012 Billboard Latin Music Awards. (Associated Press/Telemundo)

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Damage caused by a fire in the Breezy Point section of the Queens borough of New York is shown on Tuesday, Oct. 30, 2012. The fire department sent more than 190 firefighters to the blaze caused by superstorm Sandy. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

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Brian Hajeski, 41, of Brick, N.J., reacts on Tuesday, Oct. 30, 2012, as he looks at the debris of a home that washed up onto the Mantoloking Bridge the morning after Superstorm Sandy rolled through Mantoloking, N.J. Sandy caused multiple fatalities, halted mass transit and cut power to more than 6 million homes and businesses. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

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** FILE ** An aerial view shows burned-out homes in the Breezy Point section of the Queens borough of New York on Tuesday, Oct. 30, 2012. The tiny beachfront neighborhood, told to evacuate before Superstorm Sandy hit New York, burned down as it was inundated by floodwaters, transforming a quaint corner of the Rockaways into a smoke-filled debris field. (AP Photo/Mike Groll)

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This Tuesday, Oct. 30, 2012, aerial photo shows burned-out homes in the Breezy Point section of the Queens borough in New York. The tiny beachfront neighborhood was told to evacuate before superstorm Sandy hit New York and burned down as it was inundated by floodwaters, transforming a quaint corner of the Rockaways into a smoke-filled debris field. (AP Photo/Mike Groll)

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Sand and rubble sit where the boardwalk used to be in Seaside Heights, N.J. Seaside Heights, like many other coastal towns, is racing to rebuild its boardwalk from Superstorm Sandy’s damage in time for next summer’s tourism season. Boardwalks are a major economic engine for shoreline communities. (Associated Press)

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Farmers at the Yvy Pyta settlement near Curuguaty, Paraguay, create a banner with pictures of landless farmers, some of whom were arrested in clashes with police over land reform, as they get ready last month to march to demand the jailed farmers’ release. Yvy Pyta is a community of wooden shacks surrounded by vast, privately owned industrial agriculture. The area’s poor residents have long claimed that one such operation is on land stolen from the state. (Associated Press)