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Many towns in California are turning to goats... nature's own walking trash disposals...to help clean up dry brush and other vegetation in fire-prone areas. NPR's Ina Jaffe reports from Laguna Beach, where the animals have been used for about a decade. The goats are about five times cheaper than a human crew...and are able to go where people and heavy machinery can't.

NPR's Corey Flintoff reports on a new study that found that the monuments and memorials around Washington DC are vulnerable to terrorist threats. The report states that because of an understaffed and underfunded police force, nine sites, including the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial, are at risk.

NPR's Martin Kaste reports on the conflict between Brazil's government and The Movement of Landless Agricultural Workers. The group wants to seize property owned by large land owners, and is encouraging hundreds of families to take over these properties by moving in, or "squatting." The group has prodded the government into an official policy of land reform, but recent protest tactics have reduced its influence greatly, and have pushed big landowners back into political favor.

Tim Post of Minnesota Public Radio reports on a gas station in St. Cloud, Minnesota that lets customers pre-pay bulk gasoline purchases.

NPR's Gerry Hadden reports from Mexico City on Vicente Fox, the winner of yesterday's presidential election. The man who ended the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party's 71-year monopoly on power is a rancher and the former head of Coca-Cola for Latin America. He also served as a Mexican state governor. He is expected to continue current government policies on the economy and trade, while maintaining Mexico's close ties to the United States.

NPR's Guy Raz reports from the eastern German city of Schwerin that since East Germany adopted the West German currency ten years ago, the road to economic reform in the East has been rocky. Although Schwerin has burnished its image, repaving cobblestone streets and restoring historic buildings, the end of Communist rule has meant the loss of jobs for many. Many older residents feel resentment toward Western Germans. However, young people say the real gap is not between Eastern and Western Germans, but between the generations.

Host Jacki Lyden talks to NPR science correspondent Chris Joyce about genetically modified foods. The U.S. government considers genetically modified foods to be safe, and doesn't require them to be labeled. But some people are concerned that the long-term health and environmental effects of the foods could be dangerous.

The mailbag is filling up! Host Jacki Lyden reads from some of our listeners' letters.

Enrique Krauze, a Mexican historian, and author of Mexico: Biography of Power: The Making of Modern Mexico. He's also editor of Lettras Libres, a monthly journal. He joins Robert by phone from Mexico City to talk about the history of the Institutional Revolutionary Party.

Brett Blume of member station KWMU in Saint Louis, Missouri reports there are demands for more information on the shooting of two unarmed black men by undercover officers last month. The police department has refused to release information about the race of the two officers. The department says the officers opened fire in fear for their lives during a drug bust.