The Encyclopedia

Distinctly different land ownership and fencing patterns arose in the eastern and western United States. Original fence laws on the east coast were based on the British common law system, and rapidly increasing population quickly resulted in laws requiring livestock to be fenced in. In the west, land ownership patterns and policies reflected a strong influence of Spanish law and tradition, plus the vast land area involved made extensive fencing impractical until mandated by a growing population and conflicts between landowners.

Privacy fencing is the use of fences to protect privacy, usually by preventing outsiders from seeing onto a property. There are cultural differences with regards to the use of fences around properties. For instance, it is common in European countries to put a fence around the entire border of one's property, including the front border, with a gate to obtain access to the property. However, in many parts of North America, fences are commonly used only on the borders between properties that back onto each other (on the side away from the street) and along the sides of properties up to the point where the house begins. Such fences are often made of chainlink and do not prevent people from seeing into neighboring yards. They may be intended to mark property lines or to keep dogs in, or out of, yards. The front yards in such neighborhoods are often open to the street.

Deluxe Lokk Latch

WASHINGTON — Small businesses would have an easier time banding together to offer insurance to employees. Consumers could cross state lines to buy coverage. There'd be no big government expansion.

Those are among the ideas that Republicans in the House of Representatives plan to push later this week, as lawmakers expect to begin debating how to overhaul the nation's health care system.

One longtime favorite Republican proposal apparently will be absent: The Republican plan will contain no tax incentives for consumers who buy insurance individually, said House Minority Leader John Boehner , R- Ohio .

"Cost," he said, was the reason for the omission.

Chances are that little or none of the Republican plan will become law, since the House has 177 Republicans and 256 Democrats and Democrats control 60 of the Senate's 100 seats.

The Republican strategy has two missions: Illustrate what the party stands for, and try to demonize and defeat Democratic initiatives.

Some analysts questioned whether the effort would work.

"It's hard to see how Americans worried about the cost of insurance or who goes without coverage would see this as a viable alternative to the Democratic plan. I guess its appeal is to the middle class, who may see it as a way of bargaining down costs," said Steven Smith , the director of the Weidenbaum Center on the Economy, Government and Public Policy at Washington University in St. Louis .

House Democrats have proposed a 1,990-page bill that includes a government-run insurance plan, or "public option," that would compete with private insurers. Savings in Medicare and a tax on the wealthy largely would pay for the legislation, which has been estimated to cost a net $894 billion over 10 years. The tax surcharge would apply to adjusted gross incomes of more than $500,000 for individuals and $1 million for joint filers.

Debate on that plan could begin late this week, with final votes late this week or early next week. The Republican plan would be offered as an alternative.

House Republicans plan a series of efforts, including a 12-hour online town hall meeting beginning Thursday afternoon, to call attention to what they see as problems with the Democrats' plan.

Their message: "This would be a government takeover of health care in this country," House Republican Conference Chairman Mike Pence of Indiana said.

In the Senate , Majority Leader Harry Reid , D- Nev. , has proposed a public option that would permit states to "opt out" of the plan. He's encountered serious resistance from party centrists, and no Senate debate is expected this week.

Many of the Republican ideas are expected to surface in the Senate , where the rules make it easier to amend legislation.

In the House, Republican leaders began mounting an offensive last week built around four key principles, as Boehner outlined Monday:
— Giving states more flexibility to "create their own innovative reforms."

Republicans wouldn't bar insurers from denying coverage for pre-existing conditions, as Democratic legislation would, but they'd provide financial incentives for the private marketplace to create high-risk pools.

House Republican leaders fear that putting sicker consumers in with lesser risks could make coverage more expensive for the better risks. By encouraging high-risk pools, people with long medical histories would still be able to get coverage.

— Revamping medical malpractice laws to make it harder to bring what Boehner called "junk lawsuits." Republicans have long sought changes in medical malpractice laws, but Democrats traditionally have blocked them and show no inclination to bend this time.

— Permitting families and businesses to buy health insurance across state lines.

— Making it easier for employers, individuals and small businesses to set up risk pools.

Under one scenario, a small business that operates in different states could draw customers — and thus pool risks — from all states where it conducts business. Currently, such pools are subject to the rules and regulations of each state, which critics see as burdensome.

The Republican effort faces huge hurdles. There isn't yet a firm estimate of how much the entire plan would cost, nor is there a Congressional Budget Office estimate of how many people the Republican provisions would cover.

ON THE WEB

House Republicans on health care

House Democratic leaders information on health care taxes

House Democratic leaders' health care bill

Side-by-side comparison of health care bills

MORE FROM MCCLATCHY

Moderate Democrats hold health bill's fate in their hands

Reid includes public option in latest health care bill

Americans cutting back on health care to save money

For more McClatchy politics coverage visit Planet Washington

PHILADELPHIA – All those meetings on the mound called by catcher Jorge Posada and the New York Yankees are giving Major League Baseball pause, too.
Posada and pals visited pitcher CC Sabathia eight times — in a single inning — on Sunday night, grinding Game 4 of the World Series to a standstill. Agitated Phillies fans booed each trip.
MLB vice president of umpiring Mike Port said frequent mound meetings by all teams likely would be discussed by baseball officials this offseason.
"It would fall under the province of pace of game," Port said before the Yankees beat Philadelphia 7-4 to take a 3-1 Series lead.
Baseball has tried speed-up rules and guidelines in recent years, with varying results. Boston closer Jonathan Papelbon was fined a few times this season and even had a ball called on him for taking too long to pitch. Hitters are encouraged to stay in the batter's box.
One trip to the mound is allowed per inning — by a manager or coach — before a pitcher must be pulled. There is no limit, however, on players-only meetings.
The Yankees held six in the first inning of Game 4. Then came eight more — four alone with Jayson Werth hitting — in the fifth. Damaso Marte relieved Sabathia in the seventh. After two pitches, Posada made the 60-foot, 6-inch trudge yet again.
Sabathia wound up striking out Werth with two runners on. Perhaps the Phillies could have used a meeting to figure out who covers third base if Johnny Damon steals second against an overshifted infield.
"It's just part of the game," Posada said. "We want to talk with each other so we know what we're doing."
Plate umpire Brian Gorman clapped his hands while Posada and Andy Pettitte met in Game 3, trying to hurry them along. The PA system at Citizens Bank Park played "Fly Like an Eagle" by the Steve Miller Band — the song starts out "Time keeps on slippin', slippin', slippin' into the future" — when Posada and Sabathia talked.
The World Series opener lasted 3 hours, 27 minutes. The next three games all took exactly 3:25.
Yankees pitcher A.J. Burnett and personal catcher Jose Molina visited seven times during an inning in the AL championship series. New York pitching coach Dave Eiland made no apology.
"Every pitch is a big pitch this time of year. Seriously. You want to make sure everything's covered," Eiland said Sunday night.
As for making a rule limiting catchers' trips to the mound, Eiland scoffed.
"No, don't take three minutes between innings. You know how many times a pitcher is standing on the mound waiting for the umpire's call to throw the first pitch?" he said.
"You can't take away the beauty of the game," Eiland said. "I know fans get upset and I know Major League Baseball may get upset with that. But that's part of the game. There's no rules against it, and I don't see any rules changing for that. That would be ridiculous."
Sabathia had no problem with the confabs, either.
"We were just trying to make sure we were on the right page, getting the pitches right, whatever it takes. There's really no time limit on the game," he said.

The Yankees' mound visits throughout the postseason can serve another purpose. In a sport that's not supposed to have timeouts, it can help slow opposing hitters.

"Sometimes it's a momentum-breaker," Eiland said. "If we feel like they have the momentum we kind of want to take a little momentum timeout and stop it and regroup, and I want to make sure the pitcher's mind is right. So a lot of things go into it."

Added Yankees manager Joe Girardi: "There's a lot of situations."

"Sometimes it's easier to go talk about what you want to do as opposed to putting down signs and then keep shaking," he said before Game 5 Monday night.

Phillies outfielder Shane Victorino dismissed speculation that the Yankees held so many meetings because Philadelphia was swiping their signals.

"Obviously," he said, "if we're stealing signs we would be doing better than what we're doing right now."

Actor Robert Wuhl found it all amusing.

Wuhl portrayed coach Larry Hockett in the movie "Bull Durham" and made a much-quoted trip to the mound when the guys got stuck on what to get a teammate and his bride for their wedding. "Candlesticks always make a nice gift, and maybe you could find out where she's registered ... maybe a place setting, or a silverware pattern. OK? Let's get two," Hockett said.

Wuhl was behind the backstop watching the Yankees take batting practice before Game 5. He'd also noticed New York's many meetings.

"Here's what I don't get in baseball," Wuhl said. "You have a Korean pitcher, a Dominican catcher, a first baseman from French Canada and a third baseman from Mississippi, and they can't understand each other already. Then they cover their mouths with their gloves. Then the catcher puts down one finger for fastball. What was that all about?"

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AP Baseball Writers Mike Fitzpatrick and Ronald Blum contributed to this report.

On private land in the United Kingdom, it is the landowner's responsibility to fence their livestock in. Conversely, for common land, it is the surrounding landowners' responsibility to fence the common's livestock out.

The "open range" tradition of requiring landowners to fence out unwanted livestock was dominant in most of the rural west until very late in the 20th century, and even today, a few isolated regions of the west still have open range statutes on the books. Today, across the nation, each state is free to develop its own laws regarding fences, but in most cases for both rural and urban property owners, the laws are designed to require adjacent landowners to share the responsibility for maintaining a common boundary fenceline, and the fence is generally constructed on the surveyed property line as precisely as possible.

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WALSENBURG, Colo. – Bernice and Jerry Angely like to show visitors the singed T-shirt a friend was wearing when their water well exploded and shot flames 30 feet high.
The friend wasn't hurt. But that and an explosion at another home weeks earlier forced Colorado to suspend natural gas drilling around this southern plains town until someone could find out why dangerous levels of methane were getting into the groundwater.
Two years later, Walsenburg and surrounding Huerfano County are still waiting, its residents caught in a collision between two of the West's vital resources: Water and natural gas.
"The water is so saturated with methane and other chemicals it is not to be used for human consumption," said Bernice Angely, who's had water trucked to her home 10 miles west of town since her well blew up in July 2007.
Petroglyph Energy Inc., a Boise, Idaho-based firm that has worked the rolling plains of the Raton Basin since 1999, suspended drilling until it can stem the methane. Colorado also is rewriting rules that had allowed Petroglyph to discharge water runoff from its drilling into streams and creeks.
But Petroglyph says it's not clear the drilling caused the methane leaks or prompted other area water wells to run dry. Eying what it calls an extremely promising natural gas field, it believes a shallow water formation tapped by area homeowners isn't connected to a deeper one pumped by the company for its drilling operations.
Petroglyph chief operating officer Paul Powell also believes a growing number of new homes in the area could explain some of the dry water wells.
"We'll do what we need to do," Powell said, stressing that his firm is working with the state on a solution.
Petroglyph has a plan to prevent the flow of methane into water wells by creating a hydraulic barrier. The company has proposed pumping water from an underground formation and injecting it into a row of wells where gas drilling occurs. Powell said gas will migrate into a void, and "if the void is full of water, there isn't room for gas to migrate through it."
State regulators say the plan is plausible but that Petroglyph needs to prove it works. Democratic U.S. Rep. John Salazar, who farms in the nearby San Luis Valley, has asked the U.S. Geological Survey to weigh in by evaluating the area's water quality and formations to determine if the gas drilling is to blame for the problems.
Water coursing through porous rock and streams has allowed farming, ranching and new subdivisions to thrive in the semiarid area about 160 miles south of Denver.
It also helps trap methane gas in the vast coal seams that once made the area a mining hot spot. The coal mines are gone, but the methane that made digging for it dangerous is a valuable resource. Companies like Petroglyph pump huge volumes of water out of the ground to relieve the pressure trapping the natural gas.
Steve Gunderson, director of Colorado's water quality control division, said Petroglyph will have to build a water treatment plant before it gets a new permit to discharge water. The old permit allowed Petroglyph to release up to 8 million gallons of water daily.
Fourth-generation dairy farmer Brett Corsentino blames the discharges into the Cucharas River for ruining his corn crops. He uses river water to irrigate his crops just a few miles east of the homeowners having problems with their wells. He says the high levels of sodium in the wastewater has diminished his soil's ability to absorb water and stunted the corn's growth.
"They say, `Well, there's no proof,'" Corsentino said. "Well, we'd been getting along for generations just fine until they started pumping 8 million gallons out of this country."
Corsentino also says his herd suffered abnormally high birth and death rates and now numbers 400, down from 650. He believes the cows consumed too much sodium from the water and corn grown from it. His corn used to produce 6,000 tons of silage; this year's crop yielded 1,500 tons.
However, Corsentino says his herd is healthier and milk production has increased since drilling stopped.
"There's an obvious direct, substantial impact to Brett Corsentino's dairy," the state's Gunderson said of the drilling.

Petroglyph paid for soil tests on Corsentino's farm. They showed high levels of sodium but that it also needed more calcium, Powell said. Petroglyph and Corsentino are discussing possible treatments.

"We still don't believe we have liability for the situation," Powell said. "But we were willing to help him fix his land and get back to productivity."

Ten miles west of Walsenburg, a rushing sound emanates from a pipe that vents methane from Ben and Melanie Bounds' water well. The pipe was installed after a June 2007 explosion blew off a shed roof covering the well.

The Bounds had moved from Dallas to build what they call their dream home atop a hill with a breathtaking view of the Spanish Peaks. They say their problems started when Petroglyph began drilling nearby. They're suing the company and haul water from town to their cistern.

"If I could run the clock back, we'd have never tried this," Ben Bounds said.

"I had more methane coming out of my water well than they had out of any of their gas wells. It sounded like a locomotive going down the road," said Kent Smith, who also has a methane detector in his house. "The damage and the problems they've caused have got to be addressed, and they keep getting pushed aside and forgotten about."

Petroglyph insists it's a good neighbor. Despite the methane mystery, it's trucking water to 14 area homes and has supplied 15 homes with methane alarm systems.

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On the Net:

Petroglyph Energy Inc., http://tinyurl.com/ybfpcco

Walsenburg 2009 Drinking Water Consumer Confidence Report for Calendar Year 2008, http://tinyurl.com/yenabct

NEW DELHI – Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said Thursday that the world's poor nations will not sacrifice their development in negotiations for a new climate change deal.
The issue of how to share the burden of fighting global warming has divided the developing and industrialized worlds as they prepare to negotiate a replacement to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol at a December summit in Copenhagen.
"Developing countries cannot and will not compromise on development," Singh told an international conference on technology and climate change.
However, even poorer countries need to "do our bit to keep our emissions footprint within levels that are sustainable and equitable," he said.
Developing countries argue that the industrial world produced most of the heat-trapping greenhouse gases and should bear the costs of fixing the problem. Wealthy nations say all countries — including growing polluters India and China — have to agree to broad cuts in emissions.
India and China agreed Wednesday to stand together on climate change issues at the Copenhagen meeting. The two nations agreed to work on slowing the growth of greenhouse gas emissions, but resisted making those limits binding and subject to international monitoring.
Developing countries want financial aid for their climate change efforts, and Singh said wealthy nations have an obligation to ensure they get access to new, clean technology that will cut emissions and increase energy efficiency.
"We need technology solutions that are appropriate, affordable and effective," he said.
U.N. climate chief Yvo de Boer said any agreement at Copenhagen would need to include ambitious emissions cuts for industrialized countries, limit the growth of emissions from developing nations and give significant financial support to help poor nations comply with the targets.
"We have very little time remaining," he said.
Scientists say warming weather will lead to widespread drought, floods, higher sea levels and worsening storms.
Even a 3.6-degree-Fahrenheit (2-degree-Celsius) temperature rise could subject up to 2 billion people to water shortages by 2050, according to a 2007 report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a U.N. network of 2,000 scientists.
Maldives President Mohammed Nasheed warned Thursday that developing nations would bear the brunt of environmental catastrophes caused by global warming and insisted that a new deal was essential.
"On the issue of climate change, there is no room for compromise, no deals, no half measures. Radical change is what's required," Nasheed told the conference.
Nasheed has become a leading voice on the issue of global warming, with his low-lying Indian Ocean island nation in danger of being swamped by rising sea levels.

Though at first glance a very simple object, the mug serves a number of functions which make it especially suited to holding hot liquids:

A travel mug is a variation on the traditional mug that is better for transporting hot liquids. It may or may not be a vacuum flask, but is usually well insulated and completely enclosed, with an easily closed opening on the top.

Photo Mugs

WASHINGTON – The Obama administration said Thursday it is designating more than 200,000 square miles in Alaska and off its coast as "critical habitat" for polar bears, an action that could add restrictions to future offshore drilling for oil and gas.
Federal law prohibits agencies from taking actions that may adversely affect critical habitat and interfere with polar bear recovery.
Assistant Interior Secretary Tom Strickland called the habitat designation a step in the right direction to help polar bears stave off extinction, while recognizing that the greatest threat to the bear is the melting of Arctic sea ice caused by climate change.
"As we move forward with a comprehensive energy and climate strategy, we will continue to work to protect the polar bear and its fragile environment," Strickland said at a news conference.
The total area proposed for critical habitat designation would cover about 200,541 square miles — about half in the rugged Chukchi Sea off Alaska's northwest coast. About 93 percent of the area proposed for the polar bear is sea ice, with the remaining 7 percent made up of barrier islands or land-based dens of snow and ice.
Designation as critical habitat would not, in itself, bar oil or gas development, but would make consideration of the effect on polar bears and their habitat an explicit part of any government-approved activity.
Thursday's announcement starts a 60-day public comment period, with a final rule expected next year. Interior faces a June 30 deadline for critical habitat designation under terms of a settlement agreement between the government and three environmental groups.
The Bush administration last year declared polar bears "threatened," or likely to become endangered. The May 2008 order by then-Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne cited the bear's need for sea ice, the dramatic loss of such ice in recent decades and computer models that suggest sea ice is likely to recede further in the future.
Environmental groups hailed the habitat announcement, but noted that it came in the same week that the Interior Department approved a plan by a subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell to drill exploratory wells on two leases in the Beaufort Sea off Alaska's north coast. The proposed drilling sites are within the area proposed for critical habitat designation.
"If polar bears are to survive in a rapidly melting Arctic, we need to protect their critical habitat, not turn it into a polluted industrial zone," said Brendan Cummings, a lawyer with the Arizona-based Center for Biological Diversity, which filed a lawsuit in the polar bear case.
Cummings called the Interior Department "schizophrenic" — on the one hand declaring its intent to protect polar bear habitat in the Arctic, yet at the same time "sacrificing that habitat to feed our unsustainable addiction to oil."
The announcement comes one day after the state of Alaska filed a new complaint in its effort to overturn the listing of the polar bear as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.
Former Gov. Sarah Palin filed suit last year, saying that Interior did not respond to the state's concerns in a timely manner before listing the polar bears as threatened. State officials say the listing could cripple offshore oil and gas development in the Chukchi and Beaufort seas, which provide prime habitat for the polar bears.
Gov. Sean Parnell, who succeeded Palin upon her resignation last summer, said the Endangered Species Act was being used as a way to shut down resource development along Alaska's northern coast. Parnell said he does not intend to let that happen.
Environmental groups monitoring the Arctic have long complained that federal regulators routinely grant permits for petroleum exploration without adequately considering consequences for whales, polar bears, walrus and other marine mammals. They say boats, drilling platforms and aircraft will add to bears' stress by causing them to flee and expend more energy.
Conservation groups also say oil companies have not demonstrated they can clean up an oil spill in broken ice. Cleanup off Alaska's coast could be slowed by extreme cold, moving ice, high wind and low visibility.
Andrew Wetzler of the Natural Resources Defense Council said designation of critical habitat is a powerful tool to protect threatened species, but said more must be done to save the polar bear from extinction.
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On the Net:

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service: http://www.fws.gov/

PORTLAND, Maine – Two police officers were legally justified when they fatally shot a 26-year-old Sudanese immigrant in an incident that sparked anger and unrest in the Sudanese community in Maine's largest city, the state's top prosecutor ruled Friday.
Portland Officers Benjamin Roper and Joshua Wiseman acted in self-defense when they shot David Okot after he pulled a handgun from the waistband of his pants April 25, Attorney General Janet Mills said.
Police were responding that night to a report of an intoxicated man showing off a weapon when officers encountered Okot, who initially tried to flee into an apartment building.
Locked out of the building, Okot responded to the officers' orders with expletives and was shot after he pulled a .22-caliber semiautomatic pistol and pointed it at Wiseman, Mills said. Toxicology tests later determined Okot had a blood-alcohol content of 0.26 percent and cocaine in his bloodstream, Mills said.
Okot's family couldn't be reached immediately for comment Friday; a listed telephone number could not be found for his father.
The shooting caused hard feelings within Portland's Sudanese community and led to a policy of officers being sent in pairs to certain neighborhoods.
Police Chief James Craig said the shooting had "heartbreaking consequences" for Okot and his family, but that Mills' report confirmed his initial impression that his officers' actions were justified.

BERLIN – Part of Berlin's red-light scene is going green. One bordello, hoping to stave off falling demand in the economic crisis, has begun offering discounts to customers who pedal bicycles to the door.
"It's very difficult to find parking around here, and this option is better for our environment," said Thomas Goetz, who owns the brothel Maison d'Envie, or House of Desire.
Local residents in Prenzlauer Berg — a part of former East Berlin now home to scores of trendy boutiques, restaurants and clubs — had staunchly supported the Green party in recent elections and have welcomed the bordello's offer to emphasize the environment.
The bordellos in the capital of Germany, where prostitution is legal, have seen business suffer with the global financial crisis. Patrons have become more frugal, and there are fewer potential customers coming to the city for business trips and conferences.
But Maison d'Envie has seen its business begin to return since it began offering the euro5 ($7.50) discount in July, Goetz said.
To qualify, customers must show the receptionist either a bicycle padlock key or proof they used public transit to get to the neighborhood. That knocks the price for 45 minutes in a room, for example, to euro65 from euro70.
Those who arrive on foot, however, are out of luck.
"We haven't found a way for people to prove they have walked here," Goetz explained.
Other brothels have tried different incentives to cope with the economic downturn. One Berlin bordello offered a flat-rate for an unlimited time before officials' concerns over prostitutes' rights and cleanliness in the club forced them to rescind the offer.
The 450,000 prostitutes working in Germany, some 10,000 of whom are in Berlin, have the same legal rights and social benefits as people in other professions.

ANKARA (AFP) –
An end to the "humanitarian tragedy" in Gaza and reviving peace efforts in the Middle East are vital for normalising Turkish-Israeli ties, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said on Friday.

"Unfortunately, the Gaza offensive dealt a big blow to peace efforts," in the Middle East, Davutoglu told reporters.

"When there is a return to the track of peace, these relations of trust (with Israel) will be re-established on the same level as before," he said.

"Ending the humanitarian tragedy in Gaza, reviving peace efforts -- both on the Palestinian and Syrian track, and most importantly -- reinstating a prevailing spirit of peace in the region... this is what we want," he said.

Once-flourishing Turkish-Israeli ties took a downturn in January after the Islamist-rooted government in Ankara launched an unprecedented barrage of criticism against Israel over its devastating war on Gaza.

Tensions were rekindled last week when Turkey barred Israel from participating as planned in joint military exercises.

"As long as the human tragedy in Gaza continues, no one should expect us to be part of a military picture" with Israel, Davutoglu said.

He rejected suggestions that the Turkish government, the moderate offshoot of a now-banned Islamist movement, was becoming anti-Israeli, saying Ankara had spent a lot of "effort" last year to mediate indirect peace talks between the Jewish state and Syria, which were also disrupted by the war on Gaza.

"The Gaza offensive killed the peace perspective in the region," he said.

"Although no single rocket has been fired on Israel from Gaza over the past eight months, children in Gaza have no schools to go, people have no homes to take shelter in... How can a country like Turkey stay silent to that?

"The humanitarian situation should be improved in the shortest possible time. How can wanting this amount to being anti-Israeli? This is a humanitarian attitude," he said.

The minister declined to comment on the impact of a Turkish state television series about the plight of the Palestinians that fanned the tensions this week, with Israel condemning the programme as "inciting hatred against Israel" and "not worthy of being broadcast even in an enemy state."

The public TRT broadcaster "is autonomous... and I do not think it is appropriate for government officials to comment" on its programmes, he said.

Ownership of the fence varies. In some parts of the country all boundaries are shared; in other parts of the country you may own the boundary on the left-hand or right-hand side, however, only the title deeds can be depended on to tell you which side is yours. (A 'T' symbol indicates who is the owner). It used to be normal for the cladding to be on the non-owners side (enabling access to the posts for the owner when repairs need doing), but increasingly this cannot be depended on.

Distinctly different land ownership and fencing patterns arose in the eastern and western United States. Original fence laws on the east coast were based on the British common law system, and rapidly increasing population quickly resulted in laws requiring livestock to be fenced in. In the west, land ownership patterns and policies reflected a strong influence of Spanish law and tradition, plus the vast land area involved made extensive fencing impractical until mandated by a growing population and conflicts between landowners.

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COPENHAGEN – Rio de Janeiro's bid to host the 2016 Olympics has put Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva at the center of its campaign.
Sidestepping questions Tuesday about the effect President Barack Obama's presence could have on Chicago's bid, Rio's team says Silva has 80 percent approval ratings in Brazil.
Bid leader Carlos Nuzman said the president — known as Lula — was the most popular in the country's history.
Silva arrives in Copenhagen on Wednesday and will meet with International Olympic Committee members the next day, ahead of Friday's vote. Obama arrives Friday and will take part in Chicago's final presentation to the IOC.
Rio and Chicago are competing with Madrid and Tokyo for hosting rights.

Immediately after birth, a newborn's skin is often grayish to dusky blue in color. As soon as the newborn begins to breathe, usually within a minute or two, the skin's color returns to its normal tone. Newborns are wet, covered in streaks of blood, and coated with a white substance known as vernix caseosa, which is hypothesised to act as an antibacterial barrier. The newborn may also have Mongolian spots, various other birthmarks, or peeling skin, particularly on the wrists, hands, ankles, and feet.

A newborn's genitals are enlarged and reddened, with male infants having an unusually large scrotum. The breasts may also be enlarged, even in male infants. This is caused by naturally-occurring maternal hormones and is a temporary condition. Females (and even males) may actually discharge milk from their nipples (sometimes called witch's milk), and/or a bloody or milky-like substance from the vagina. In either case, this is considered normal and will disappear in time.

Organic Baby

TUESDAY, Sept. 22 (HealthDay News) -- Older widowers who recently
lost their wives are more likely to have a sexually transmitted disease
than their counterparts who are still married, a new study has found.

The researchers behind the study add that drugs like Viagra could boost
the risk, noting the widowers might be seduced by advertisements for
sexual enhancement.

The risk that seniors have a sexually transmitted disease remains
extremely low, at less than 1 percent, study co-author and Harvard
researcher Kirsten Smith explained in a news release about the study.

"Nonetheless," Smith said, "older adults need to be aware that they are
at risk of contracting a sexually transmitted infection if they take on a
new sexual partner following a spouse's death."

The researchers examined data from more than 400,000 U.S. couples, who
were aged 67 to 99 years in 1993.

Within six months to a year after their wives died, men were 16 percent
more likely to be infected with a sexually transmitted disease. And for
recently widowed men, the risk of having a sexually transmitted disease
rose by 83 percent after 1998. That's the year that Viagra went on the
market as a treatment for erectile dysfunction.

"For men ages 67 and older, the age group that we studied, the use of
medications for erectile dysfunction may contribute to that risk by making
sex possible," Smith said.

Gonorrhea was the most common STD in the men, the study authors noted.

The study appears in the Sept. 17 online edition and the November print
issue of the American Journal of Public Health.

More information

Learn more about sexually transmitted diseases from the American Academy of Family Physicians.