Word: desertic
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...Working Two years ago, Yuma Sector was the busiest jurisdiction in the entire border patrol. This 118-mile (190 km) stretch of border in western Arizona and eastern California was a well-known gap through which people and drugs flowed north while guns and money went south. The harsh desert on either side was crosshatched with smugglers' roads, trampled by the footprints of thousands of "walkers," some of whom dropped dead from thirst. In the city of San Luis, Ariz., so-called banzai runs were a near nightly occurrence. Scores of people would gather on the Mexican side and dash...
...wary of a subject that shows up in so many guises on so many different plates. What tastes like common sense to one voter--cracking down on illegal crossings--smacks of xenophobia to the next, and the same rumble of helicopters and border-patrol Jeeps in the Southwestern desert sounds to some people like America standing up for itself but to others like Emma Lazarus, poet of the Statue of Liberty, rolling over in her grave...
...aliens. "Some days now, we see zero coming through here," he said. East of San Luis, the triple fence becomes a double line, then a single tall fence, until it reaches the rugged Gila mountains. Beyond the range, the fence resumes, but now it's in the deep Sonoran Desert. The design here is steel posts, about 4 ft. (1 m) high, filled with concrete to thwart plasma torches and linked by surplus railroad iron. This fence is intended to stop cars, not walkers--but anyone crossing out here must be ready for a parched hike of 30 miles...
...hidden pyramid believed to house the tomb of the obscure Pharaoh Menkauhor, who briefly ruled more than 4,000 years ago. Known as the Headless Pyramid because of its missing top, the structure was discovered by a German archaeologist in the 19th century but later obscured by the desert sand. Authorities hope further digs at the site will yield more discoveries...
...Eisenhower won pretty good White House grades following his 43-year Army career, Jimmy Carter (seven years in the Navy) didn't do so well. Old soldiers still grimace when recalling the military highlight of that presidency: 1980's failed mission to rescue U.S. hostages in Iran. The Desert One fiasco killed eight U.S. service members, doomed Carter to lose to Ronald Reagan later that year and primed the pump for Reagan's military buildup...