"One week after vandals stole a looming cross from California's Mojave Desert Veterans Memorial, the site's caretakers welded together an exact 7-foot replica to take its place. All they need now is permission to put it back up. Henry and Wanda Sandoz, the retired Californians who have watched over the World War I memorial since 1984, are waiting for word from the Department of Justice on whether they can replace the cross that once stood on the park's Sunrise Rock, which is sitting barren for the first time in 76 years.
And, in an ironic development, the theft of the cross could provide an avenue for its unchallenged return, according to a lawyer involved in a contentious legal debate about whether it violates the separation of church and state.
After unknown thieves used bolt cutters to remove the pipe-metal cross from its desert perch this month, the Sandozes drove 140 miles from their home to visit the national preserve on Saturday and begin reconstructing the memorial."
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