In most states theft from a construction site is a totally separate law from petty theft or grande theft and it generally carries a much more severe punishment. In my jurisdiction $86 value is the dividing line between petty theft and grande theft but $20 is the dividing line between petty theft and grande theft from a construction site. While an ordinary petty theft may be treated as a mis-demeanor punishable by a fine and probation, even petty theft from a construction site carries a mandatory minimum penalty of $1,000 fine and 12 months in jail for the first offence. The law here further defines a construction site as any site no matter how slight to which construction permits have been issued. About three years ago theft of copper pipe and wire from construction sites or vacant homes was rampant in this area. I personally replumbed 21 homes in one year that were rental properties that had sat vacant for a month and the copper was stolen. Our county finally took a hardline stand on this issue and instituted an ordinace which requires that anyone who turns in more than 20lbs of copper at the scrap yard must sign a disclosure of origin defining how they generated the scrap. For bona fide plumbers, electricians, sheet metal workers or homeowners who are building or doing a rehab at a specific address this is not a problem, but for the crack heads who turn up every couple days with 40 or 50 lbs, they are finding it tough to convince the authorities that they came by it honestly. The scrap yards are also required to get positive identification for anyone selling copper scrap and they must get a "thumb print" of the person presenting the copper for sale. As a result of this legislation the theft of copper is no longer a big deal in this area.

that link scanner has been a big problem in AVG at various times, I would try doing as one person suggested and disable that link scanner from AVG and see if that works. AVG in their FAQ in fact tells how to install AVG with out the link scanner since it causes so many problems. Frequently Asked Questions this is the reply I am referring to by ripling "I tracked my particular problem to AVG 9 , specifically the AVG Active Surf-Shield in their LinkScanner, I unticked that & all has been fine since apart from not having that particular component of AVG available to use." Of course you can always try reverting back to an earlier version of Firefox which it seems many there have done and it seems to go back to normal. do you have the no script add on in your firefox by chance? I see in some threads there may be an issue with it causing a similar problem, however the most recent update of no script supposedly fixes it. from over on BBR I found this comment "tool>options>security uncheck block reported attack sites and block reported web forgeries. restart firefox and see if that helps" There is a new release candidate of firefox that you can give a try if you want to do that, see if it makes any difference new Firefox! seems to be a problem many are trying to find a cure for and none I have seen is the end all be all fix, some things work for some not for others. Those are so difficult to dig out the root cause.

@Polypom @Rina Thanks for giving me a hint for the species, as well as sharing the pics of your plants! You're right, mine have no spines nor prickly parts whatsoever, and they aren't near as thick or rigid as yours look. I had never seen this type of plant, and only bought it because I thought it was neat. Maybe I bought the genetically inferior result of some mad botanist's cross-breeding experiments? :-x As for sunlight and etiolation, I honestly don't think that's it because I've been growing my A. Subulata in the same conditions as my other succulents, same July - October sunlight on my back porch. In fact, they were all sitting in a row on the same porch railing throughout most of this. I typically use the "finger dipstick" test to determine when I should water, but I've kept these plants dry for the most part. Maybe they get watered once every 6 - 10 days at most? The plants pictured below in the black plastic containers are the ones I bought at the same time from the flea market lady (this was dated 7/18/2015), with the baby A. Subulata in the middle. It's a blurry camera pic, but I'm pretty sure I had 5 - 6 of the plants in that pot when I started. ...and these are those same plants now, with the little black container for reference. I'm pretty sure I used the same Miracle Gro "Cactus, Palm, & Citrus potting mix", for these, but it's possible I cut it with Fox Farms Ocean Forest potting soil (I probably did for the big cactus just due to the size of the pot). I know that's not ideal for a desert plant, but surely poor drainage / incorrect perlite mixture would have made my babies pictured above look like this sickly baby pictured below! Maybe A. Subulata is more finicky or sensitive to something in this N.C. weather? I repotted all of those flea market plants the day after I bought them...I didn't know that A. Subulata was many plants, so I was surprised when they all came apart in my hand when I pulled them out. One of the A.Subs died within a couple of weeks of me re-potting, but I chalked that up to my novice plant-handling skills. The others held on, but then started doing the "loch ness monster" dip/grow back up/dip more/grow up/die cycle since maybe late August or so?. That's why I suspected disease or pests, just because it took so long for them to start declining...but maybe they hated that soil, and it's just taken them this long to say "I give up" and die? @Asclepiad_Fan I didn't see what my mom did with it on a day-to-day basis when she owned it, but it always stayed in a pot either on the back porch (wooden, 2nd story off of the ground) or inside in a window sill in the winter. Honestly, it's always had some form of scarring and it's only gotten worst as time went on (summer or indoors!). Anyways, here's some pics in bright sunlight (maybe it will show something that my previous rainy-day pics don't?) This is the front, where there is less scarring visible: This is the back, which looks worse: And here is a close-up of the off-shoot: even its base is showing that same scarring! Not sure if it matters, but this guy has always had more spider webs on it since I assumed ownership and re-potted it. Some mornings, I would see one - two threads on the other succulents, but this guy has always consistently more inside of his pot compared to the other porch-rail succulents. Is it because it's a bigger pot / firm spines make better anchor points and the spiders look for that? Or, maybe I do have some spider-mite like pest? It sure looks like something has been sucking this poor dude dry his whole life...

I remember when I was a kid....visiting some friends who had a ranch. There was a boy about my age, and his job was to drive the pickup out to where his dad was mowing in a pasture, and take him water or pick him up at lunch time and drive him back to the house. We were about 12 years old, but he could drive the truck, and, anyway, he didn't have to get on the road to do this. So we took some cold water out to his dad. About the time we showed up, his dad ran over a bumble bee nest. They nest in the ground, and they were flying everywhere. The tractor was sitting right on top of it. His dad quickly put a tow chain on it and jumped back in the truck. Then he realized, he had forgotten to put the tractor in gear. So he told his son to get out and do it. I remember how . the kid complained, but he did it, and jumped back in the truck, and the dad was able to pull the tractor off quite some distance away. No one got stung, and the bees were flying all around, so I guess they aren't as aggressive as wasps, etc.