Environment
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Pasquala Beaza is distracted while watering plants in front her home at an unpermitted trailer park in Thermal, Calif. At one such encampment, where raw sewage ran in the dirt streets, electricity was off for a month. So six farmworkers, with the assistance of legal aid, finally sued the landlord. (Associated Press)
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A sign at a sewage pond at an unpermitted trailer park in Mecca, Calif., attests to the hazard there. Squalid housing for migrant farmworkers has for decades been a reality in many places where crops are grown. But the situation in the Coachella Valley, 150 miles southeast of Los Angeles, is unique for both its severity and for the hundreds of hidden and largely unplanned trailer parks that house workers. (Associated Press)
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Soldiers carry the coffin of a victim of the Mount Merapi eruption at a mass burial Thursday in Umbulharjo, Indonesia. (Associated Press)
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Mourners weep at the funeral of Maridjan, the spiritual guardian of Mount Merapi, Thursday in Glagaharjo, Indonesia. For 33 years, Maridjan sought to appease the volcano's spirits by throwing offerings into its crater. He died when he refused to flee its eruption. (Associated Press)
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Lava flows from the Shiveluch volcano in the Kamchatka Peninsula eastern Russia is this image taken from TV Thursday Oct. 28, 2010. Volcanic eruptions on Russia's far-eastern Kamchatka Peninsula have tossed massive ash clouds into the air, forcing flights to divert and blanketing a town with ashes. (AP Photo/RTR, via APTN)
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FILE - In a July 11, 2008 file photo, a trio of humpback whales break the surface of the water as they work together in a group behavior known as "bubble feeding" off the coast of Cape Cod near Provincetown, Mass. Efforts to save endangered animals are making a measureable difference, even as a fifth of the world's backboned species _ mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and fishes _ are threatened with extinction, a huge new analysis says. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
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Map locates a strong earthquake that struck Indonesia Monday; includes location of Indonesian volcano that erupted Tuesday
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In this Monday, Oct. 25, 2010 photo, six pandas selected for display at the upcoming Asian Games eat a meal at the Wolong China Pandas Protection and Research Center at Bifengxia base in Ya'an in southwestern China's Sichuan province. China's panda population is booming this year thanks to a record number of births in captivity, a rare accomplishment for the endangered species known for being poor breeders. (AP Photo)
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A rescuer carries an elderly woman to a temporary shelter as she is evacuated from her home on the slope of Mount Merapi, in Pakem, Yogyakarta, Indonesia, Tuesday, Oct. 26, 2010. Indonesia's most volatile volcano started erupting Tuesday, after scientists warned that pressure building beneath its dome could trigger the most powerful eruption in years. (AP Photo/Slamet Riyadi)
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In a photo provided by Goldberg McDuffie Communication, Dickson Despommier, a professor of public health in environmental health sciences at Columbia University is seen in an undated photo. Despommier's book titled "The Vertical Farm" was published in Oct. 2010, and explores the possibility of farming in skyscrapers as a way to solve food and fresh water shortages. (AP Photo/Goldberg McDuffie Communication, Marlene Bloom, HO)
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FILE - In this Oct. 16, 2010 file photo, "Avatar" director James Cameron arrives at the Environmental Media Awards at Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, Calif. (AP Photo/Dan Steinberg, file)
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The center-island kitchen in the Mount Vernon model at Hunting Crest has 42-inch maple cabinets, granite counters, stainless steel appliances and recessed lighting. A mudroom and laundry room are nearby.
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NV Homes is building 52 single-family homes on sites of 1 1/2 to 2 acres at Hunting Crest in Vienna, Va. The homes have 3,790 to 5,618 finished square feet, with base prices from $1,319,990 to $1,469,990.
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The living room has ebony-stained wood floors, two seating areas, a wood-burning fireplace and recessed lighting.
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Kettler Forlines Homes is building 77 single-family homes on sites of one-third acre to 1 acre at Brightwell Crossing in Poolesville, Md. The homes have 2,472 to 4,108 finished square feet, with base prices from $529,900 to $689,900.
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The Montgomery model at Brightwell Crossing, which has 3,555 square feet and is priced from $639,900, features a center-island kitchen with a breakfast area. A sunroom is optional.
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TUNNEL VISION: Gov. Chris Christie says New Jersey "simply no longer can afford" a major public works project. (Associated Press)
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Rescuers search for victims at a village hit by pyroclastic flows from Tuesday's eruption of Mount Merapi in Kinahrejo, Yogyakarta, Indonesia, on Wednesday. The volcanic eruption and a tsunami killed scores of people hundreds of miles apart in Indonesia, spasms from the Pacific "Ring of Fire," which spawns disasters from deep within the Earth. (Associated Press)
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Indonesian Vice President Boediono (upper right with white shirt) looks at the bodies of tsunami victims in Pagai Utara, Mentawai Islands, on Wednesday. (Associated Press)
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Rescue workers help people evacuated from their homes on the slope of Mount Merapi. About 800 miles away, emergency services were assisting victims of an earthquake and tsunami. (Associated Press)
