Hospitality_Recreation

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A once-popular nightclub sits abandoned in Cuidad Juarez. The owner said he closed the bar after it was set on fire three times because he refused to pay extortion fees to cartel enforcers. (Associated Press)

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** FILE ** In this May 17, 1994 file photo, John Wheeler III touches the name of a friend engraved in the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington. Wheeler's body was discovered on Dec. 31, 2010, at the Wilmington, Del.-area landfill. His death has been ruled a homicide. (AP Photo/Charles Tasnadi, File)

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Illustration: Light bulb by Greg Groesch for The Washington Times

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Sophia Loren and Pete Postlethwaite posing for photographers for the film Between Strangers at the 59th International Venice Film Festival, Terrazza del Casino in Lido, Venice, Italy, on Aug. 30, 2002. Mr. Postlethwaite died Sunday, Jan. 2, 2011, at age 64, after a long illness. (AP Photo/PA, Myung Jung Kim, File)

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PASSING THE TORCH: D.C. Mayor Vincent C. Gray receives a hug from former Mayor Adrian M. Fenty after his inaugural address at the Washington Convention Center on Sunday. (Rod Lamkey Jr./Special to The Washington Times)

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Former Washington D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty, right, watches as Councilmember Jim Graham reacts to the crowd after finishing his speech following his swearing in at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington D.C. (Rod Lamkey Jr / for The Washington Times)

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An Indian laborer plucks tea leaves at a tea garden in Amchong tea estate, about 45 kilometers (28 miles) east of Gauhati, India, Friday, Dec. 31, 2010. Tea growers in northeastern India say climate change has hurt the country's tea crop, leading not just to a drop in production but also subtly altering the flavor of their brew. (AP Photo/Anupam Nath)

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**FILE** President Obama welcomes Chinese President Hu Jintao as he arrives for a Group of 20 summit dinner in Pittsburgh in September 2009. (Associated Press)

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The renovated kitchen has hardwood flooring, upgraded stainless steel appliances, custom-designed cabinets and granite counters.

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The Heath model at the Springs at Lenah includes a gourmet kitchen with a center island and stainless steel appliances. The kitchen opens into the breakfast area and has an adjacent family room. The Heath is priced from $609,990.

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The Fairbanks model can be expanded with a morning room and a family-room extension. Upstairs are four bedrooms or three bedrooms and a loft, with a walk-in closet in each bedroom, and two full baths.

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The Fairbanks model at Dixon Crossing has an open floor plan with an open family room and an optional fireplace in the back of the main level. The Fairbanks has 2,565 finished square feet and is priced from $399,990.

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A mead bumper sticker is indicative of the renewed popularity of the ancient brew. The biggest hurdle has been overcoming the centuries-old misconception that something made from honey has to be sweet. (Associated Press)

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Owner Ben Starr mixes up a batch of mead at his company, Starrlight Mead, in Pittsboro, N.C. Mead, the drink of medieval verse, is making a comeback. But it isn't just the honey wine of tales. There are fruit-flavored meads, called melomels, and there are methyglyns made with spices. (Associated Press)

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Abby Winer and her grandmother Marilyn Winer sit in the sun Tuesday at Palm Beach International Airport in West Palm Beach, Fla., while they wait for Abby's father, John Winer, flying in from JFK Airport in New York. (Associated Press/The Palm Beach Post)

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A skier tries to climb down from a stalled chairlift at Sugarloaf ski resort in Carrabassett Valley, Maine, on Tuesday after a lift failed on the state's tallest ski mountain, about 120 miles north of Portland. (Associated Press)

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An air passenger sleeps on a luggage conveyor belt at John F. Kennedy International Airport. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

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The day after a major snowstorm moved through the region, Hunter Duncan, age 12, gets a pull from his father's dogs, Salvo and Avon. Hunter used a boogie board to sled on the beach at 2nd Street on the Virginia Beach oceanfront. (AP Photo/The Virginian-Pilot, L. Todd Spencer)

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The day after a major snowstorm moved through the region, Hunter Duncan, age 12, gets a pull from his father's dogs, Salvo and Avon. Hunter used a boogie board to sled on the beach at 2nd Street on the Virginia Beach oceanfront. (AP Photo/The Virginian-Pilot, L. Todd Spencer)