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In the chill of a damp spring morning, ranchers at the Bledsoe ranch in Hugo, Colo., castrate, vaccinate and brand young calves. Bill Bledsoe holds the hot branding iron, as Dallas Loutzenhiser, left, J.D. Schier and Wil Bledsoe help hold down the calf. The ranchers’ practiced motions take just 60 to 90 seconds per animal. Branding day has unfolded this way for generations on ranches all across the West. But ranchers from Colorado to Oregon, from Montana to Texas, worry that the tradition is under threat. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has announced plans to rewrite its regulations so that hot-iron brands will no longer be recognized as an official form of identification for cattle sold or shipped across state lines. Instead, the USDA wants every cow to have a unique numerical ID, stamped on an inexpensive ear tag, to make it easier to track individual animals from ranch to feedlot to slaughterhouse. Here, Wil Bledsoe counts cows after they branded calves. The proposed regulation won’t bar ranchers from branding their livestock. Individual states will be free to recognize brands as official ID if they so choose. Here, a recently branded calf at Bledsoe ranch is back out in a pen. ‘When government steps in, they like to make things more complex,’ Wil Bledsoe said. ‘Branding’s the simplest, most efficient way to do it. Why change?’ Here, Wil Blesdoe heads back for lunch after a morning of branding calves. |
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view Branding Calves at the Bledsoe Ranch as presented by: Wall Street Journal |
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Downtown Miami is experiencing a revival as young professionals and families move into residential towers that once sat mostly vacant amid the housing glut. Young professionals, who have moved into the area along with young families, often gather after work for food and happy hour at various restaurants and bars in Mary Brickell Village in Brickell. The Epic, a residential and hotel tower built in the heart of downtown Miami, is an example of the city’s real-estate rebound. When the market collapsed four years ago, many of the city’s glittering towers sat mostly vacant. Now the buildings are filling up faster than expected. Women relaxed at a spa at Icon Brickell, a luxurious three-tower complex. More than 80% of the units have been sold, according to Fortune International, which is in charge of marketing the building. Sales average 47 units per month. |
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view Downtown Miami Rebounds as presented by: Wall Street Journal |
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The latest research suggests troops handle battlefield stress better, and avoid post-war problems more often, when they heal among their comrades. On a base in Afghanistan, Marines on the front lines help a comrade cope with his best friend’s death. A portrait of Cpl. Chad Wade hangs in 1st Platoon’s command post at Patrol Base Hernandez . Cpl. Wade was killed in December by a bomb buried on the path he was patrolling. The rest of the platoon rallied around Lance Cpl. Voie, just the kind of front-line, buddy-to-buddy intervention the Marine Corps is trying to institutionalize to avoid post-traumatic stress disorder among the troops. Here, 1st Squad leader Sgt. Albert Tippett, left, and Lance Cpl. Voie smoke and hang out with other Marines in the squad’s hooch. A Marine from 2nd Battalion raises the flag at Patrol Base Hernandez. The battalion was one of three in Afghanistan to have gone through the new combat-stress training before shipping out from the U.S. |
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view Marines Rally Around Friend as presented by: Wall Street Journal |
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After days of media blackout and unconfirmed reports of a bloody, but successful, uprising against Col. Moammar Gadhafi in Libya, David Degner’s photographs provide a view of the aftermath of fighting in Baida, eastern Libya. In Baida, as in many cities in Libya’s east, flags flew from the era before Gadhafi Wednesday. The days-long fight for Baida began in the first days of anti-Gadhafi protests last week. Wednesday, Masouda al-Alamy, a distinguished professor of animal science at the city’s Omar Mukhtar University, called the meeting of elders to order. “Today, we meet and can speak freely for the first time,” she said. Here, Sheikh Mohamad Darnawi, right, spoke. Here, civilians displayed the guns and ammunition that they claim to have taken from mercenary soldiers in a fight. |
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view Inside Libya – A Photographer Reports as presented by: Wall Street Journal |
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In his 10 years in the U.S. Army, Luis Lopez served 10 years in Iraq and Afghanistan, earning medals and rising to the rank of staff sergeant. Mr. Lopez is also an illegal immigrant. The 28-year-old native of Mexico was discharged in December from the Army after applying for U.S. citizenship. His case reflects the federal government’s complex relationship with illegal immigrants in the armed forces. Mr. Lopez’s story took a few twists and turns, including a recommendation from his commanding officer that he granted citizenship. On Wednesday, in an office in Anchorage, Alaska, he became a citizen. Luis Lopez holds a photo of himself in his former Staff Sgt. Army uniform while living in his girlfriend’s apartment in Eagle River Alaska. Lopez was discharged after ten years of honorable service because he applied for citizenship and is awaiting the outcome of his pending immigration case. Mr. Lopez takes the U.S. citizenship oath on Wednesday in Anchorage, Alaska. Mr. Lopez reviews paperwork at a citizenship ceremony on Wednesday. |
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view Soldier Finds Minefield on Road to Citizenship as presented by: Wall Street Journal |
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A diver vaulted from the board during warm-ups in the diving portion of the 85th annual Westchester County Swimming and Diving Championships at Sprain Ridge Park in Hastings-on-Hudson, N.Y., in July. Competitors ranged in age from 10 to 13. Kelly Anne Burns, center, rode atop her husband Mike Smith Rivera’s shoulders during the New York Clown Theater Festival in September. Firefighter Jim Lanigan resuscitated a puppy at the scene of a small apartment fire in Manhattan in July. |
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view 2010: Greater New York’s Year in Photos as presented by: Wall Street Journal |
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Peter Otieno, 5, stood at a school in Kibera, Kenya’s largest slum, Monday. He is infected with HIV and both his parents died of AIDS. The preschool is managed by the Nyanyo Project, which works to empower grandparents who care for their HIV-positive grandchildren. A man pulled his bicycle at a parking area outside a railway station in Tachikawa, western Tokyo. Volunteers David Patterson and Matthew Poorman searched a dumpster Tuesday in Holiday City, Ohio, for three brothers who have been missing since a Thanksgiving Day visit to their father’s home: Andrew Skelton, 9, Alexander Skelton, 7, and Tanner Skelton, 5. Their father, John Skelton, has tried to hang himself and police said he lied to them. |
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view Photos of the Day: Nov. 30 as presented by: Wall Street Journal |
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Mangled steel and incinerated fire trucks destined for the National September 11 Memorial and Museum are now being stored at Hangar 17 at JFK Airport. Here’s a look at the artifacts. Hangar 17 at the JFK Airport is temporary home for artifacts from the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks that will eventually reside at the National September 11 Memorial and Museum. Partially incinerated vehicles include police cruisers and a fire truck, shown here. A New York City taxi cab with a collapsed roof. The mangled facade that stood directly above and below where American Airlines Flight 11 struck the World Trade Center, known as the “North Tower Impact Steel.” A damaged fire truck. |
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view 9/11 Artifacts at JFK Airport as presented by: Wall Street Journal |
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