A Border Patrol agent looks for footprints from illegal immigrants crossing the U.S.- Mexico border in 2010. Traffickers have begun using immigrants as drug smugglers, recruiting voluntarily and forcibly.
John Moore/Getty Images
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The Niemeyer Center for the arts will shut its doors on Dec. 15 after being open for only nine months in Aviles, Spain. It's a victim of political squabbling during difficult economic times.
Lauren Frayer for NPR
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Daniel Kryger, left, works with fellow traders on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. If the European Union can't agree on a plan, its debt crisis could lead to the kind of financial chaos that economists say surely would hurt the United States.
Richard Drew/AP
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Fairfield, Idaho, is struggling. Once poised for expansion, the town has high unemployment and a shrinking population.
Molly Messick/StateImpact Idaho
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