With outfits like Patch, AOL is doing a good job rolling up small-scale news reporting across the country.

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We know the job we have to do and we know we can beat them on their patch.

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You could still find rubber tires here and there, but you couldn't get patch kits or the kinds of adhesives that would stand up to a repair job anymore, so we had no choice but to go back to wooden wheels with iron rims.

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Top Social Democrats who look bound to nose into his patch include Rudolf Scharping, the incoming defence minister, who fancied himself in the foreign-affairs job, and the acquisitive Oskar Lafontaine at finance, who is carving out a role for himself as the new government's Mr Europe.

ECONOMIST: Joschka Fischer, Germany’s reluctant statesman | The

He also sells corn from his own small patch of land at a roadside stand in front of the family home, a part-time summer job he's done since he was nine that helps pay for college.

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