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U.S. Gov't Backs Off Plan To Seize Flight 93 Memorial Land

The U.S. government will not use eminent domain to seize people's land for a permanent Flight 93 memorial and instead will renew negotiations with landowners near the terrorist crash site in Somerset County, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said Friday.

Until Friday, the National Park Service had planned to seize the remaining land that's needed for a $58 million, 2,200-acre memorial and national park at the crash site -- an extremely rural area 60 miles southeast of Pittsburgh.

U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter, D-Pa., accompanied Salazar Friday as they met with families of victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, fatal hijacking and landowners in Shanksville.

The meeting also focused on what still needs to be done for the memorial to be completed by 2011, in time for the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attacks.
Read entire article at ABC (The Pittsburgh Channel)