Ten Words from Today's NY Times - October 3, 2012

The United States is laying the groundwork for operations to kill or capture militants implicated in the deadly attack on a diplomatic mission in Libya, senior military and counterterrorism officials said Tuesday, as the weak Libyan government appears unable to arrest or even question fighters involved in the assault.

Working with the Pentagon and the C.I.A., the command is preparing the dossiers as the first step in anticipation of possible orders from President Obama to take action against those determined to have played a role in the attack on a diplomatic mission in the eastern city of Benghazi that killed Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three colleagues three weeks ago.

Mr. Obama has vowed to bring the killers to justice, and in the final weeks of the presidential campaign Republicans have hammered the administration over the possible intelligence failures that preceded the attack — including a new accusation that repeated requests for strengthened security in Benghazi had been rejected.

Libyan and American officials acknowledge the possibility that some of the perpetrators may have fled the country, perhaps across the porous southern border.

But since Sunday, President Obama has been encamped 17 miles from the neon excess of the Strip, in a palm-fringed, financially battered lakeside resort that serves as a vivid reminder of the economic distress that still threatens his hopes for re-election.

In its dizzying boom and bust, Lake Las Vegas epitomizes the damage done to Nevada, a state hit harder than almost any other by the housing collapse and one that Mitt Romney is fiercely contesting.

Ms. Psaki said she had not talked to the president about the peculiar woes of Lake Las Vegas.

It twists around a central courtyard, a Pompeian oasis to which he gave a plunge pool and shade garden, but also faces onto the surrounding desert, with sweeping views of the mountain.

Though not written into the city ordinance, it has for several years been city policy in Phoenix to seek owner consent before designating any building for historic preservation, and because 8081 Meridian never gave its consent, and has no intention of doing so, Mr. Hoffman says he rejects the landmark process outright.

The demolition company the developer had hired, concerned about razing a Wright house, called to check that the permit was valid.