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This is an interesting one in my mind: On the one side, you have the farmer fighting imminent domain along a quiet border road. On the other hand, if we're so concerned about lax borders, why wouldn't this be a good time to upgrade a quiet crossing point, before potential terrorist figures out an easy way into the country? Discuss:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/s...ryId=127273577

In Vermont, the federal government plans to seize a farmer's land to build a $5 million border post on a quiet country road. The community is fiercely opposed, and the Department of Homeland Security is under fire for planning expensive projects that some say isn't needed.

The hamlet of Morses Line is just a dot on the Canadian border in the small northern Vermont town of Franklin. A quiet country road leads to the existing brick border station at the edge of a hayfield.

In about two hours on a recent afternoon, one truck and two cars go by. One was a Customs officer arriving for his shift.

"Last night was a little busier because you had bingo at the church in the neighboring town," says Brian Rainville. The land the U.S. government wants is part of his family's dairy farm. Rainville goes through a box full of documents and pulls out the architectural drawings for the new border post.

"So we're looking at putting in a storm water pond, a traffic turnaround, covered parking, three designated traffic lanes, two stages of radiation detectors, a two-story building with a fitness center on the second floor. It all strikes me as a little much for Morses Line," he says.

"I'm not quite sure how Morses Line, with a traffic rate of 2 1/2 cars an hour, is a matter of national security and utmost budgetary importance."