PAPILLION POLICE PROMOTE ORIN ORCHARD TO DEPUTY CHIEF

PAPILLION- A longtime member of the Papillion Police Department, Orin Orchard, has been promoted to deputy chief.

Orchard has been with the department for 26 years, according to the city. He succeeds Chris Whitted, who was named police chief in May.

During his tenure at the department, Orchard worked in various capacities, including on-road patrol, as a narcotics investigator, detective, uniformed services lieutenant, and administrative services lieutenant.

Orchard also served in the U.S. Navy and U.S. Army Reserves. He has deployed to Kosovo, Iraq, and Afghanistan. He has served as the commander of the 45th Military Police Detachment and retired from the military in 2018 with the rank of major.

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OPS TO REVIEW ITS MASK POLICY IN EARLY JANUARY

OMAHA- With COVID-19 vaccines for children ages 5 and upcoming soon, Omaha Public Schools officials said they will revisit the district’s mask policy in January.

At a school board meeting, OPS Superintendent Cheryl Logan encouraged all eligible people to talk to their doctor and get vaccinated against COVID-19.

An influential advisory panel on recommended kid-size doses of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine for children ages 5 to 11, putting the U.S. on the brink of a major expansion of vaccinations. A final decision followed later.

The Food and Drug Administration already has paved the way for young children to get Pfizer’s COVID vaccine.

The FDA cleared kid-size doses — a third of the amount given to teens and adults — for emergency use. The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention gave the final OK, making up to 28 million more American children eligible for vaccinations as early as this week.

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STINNER: NU PROPOSALS 'HAVE MERIT' WHEN DECIDING HOW TO SPEND NEBRASKA'S $1B IN PANDEMIC RECOVERY FUNDS

LINCOLN- Sen. John Stinner of Gering, chairman of the Legislature's Appropriations Committee, pointed to water resource and tourism development, workforce initiatives, and rural broadband development as potential beneficiaries of federal pandemic recovery funding that will be allocated by the state government next year.

"I'm 100 percent behind mental health improved access and affordability," Stinner said during a webinar question-and-answer session hosted by OpenSky Policy Institute.

Stinner said the University of Nebraska has offered "some proposals that have merit" for funding with the flow of federal stimulus dollars into state government as well as proposed initiatives promoted by community colleges.

The state government will receive more than $1 billion in federal recovery funding for distribution by the Legislature.

Wishart says pandemic funding priorities can help shape Nebraska's future

Stinner said the Legislature will need to be careful to meet federal criteria associated with the infusion of those federal dollars.

"It needs to be a one-time spend," he noted during a conversation with Renee Fry, executive director of OpenSky.

Proposed new state prison to replace the aging State Penitentiary in Lincoln was also part of the discussion.

With the state sitting on a healthy budget surplus and a recent revenue forecast of more to come, "we have the money" to build a new prison if the Legislature decides to support Gov. Pete Ricketts' proposal to do so, Stinner said.

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GARVER ANNOUNCES BID FOR SECOND TERM AS LANCASTER COUNTY TREASURER

LANCASTER COUNTY- Treasurer Rachel Garver announced she will run for a second term in office, with a focus on accountability and transparency.

“I initially ran to bring back honesty, intelligence, and integrity to the office,” she said in a prepared statement. “Since assuming the role of county treasurer at the beginning of 2019, I am proud to say that my leadership has allowed my hard-working staff to shine.”

When Garver was elected in 2018, she became the first woman elected to that office and the first Democrat in almost 40 years. She replaced Andy Stebbing, who had been charged with multiple felonies related to privately selling used cars and ultimately pleaded guilty to three misdemeanors.

Garver said improvements during her term include participating in the state’s modernization of the Department of Motor Vehicles system; initiating an easy-to-use appointment system; allowing customers to avoid lines to process their motor vehicle transactions, and restructuring and updating job duties to improve services.

Garver said the office is also working with a new vendor to improve services for credit card and online payments that will generally lower processing fees. The new service will begin early next year.

The county treasurer is the chief custodian of county funds and tax enforcement officer for Lancaster County. The job includes safeguarding all county monies, collecting taxes, disbursing payments due to subdivisions, and providing motor vehicle services to county residents.

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CASINO RULES SET TO COME OUT NEXT WEEK; VOTE SET FOR DEC. 17TH

LINCOLN- A year after Nebraska voters approved casino gambling at the state's horse racing tracks, there's finally a light at the end of the tunnel for the tracks hoping to get gaming licenses.

Tom Sage, executive director of the Nebraska Racing & Gaming Commission, said this week that a final draft of casino regulations is set to be released Nov. 12.

Sage said the commission has been working on the rules for the past couple of months after it received a consultant's report in early September. It has fielded comments from the public and the gaming industry and has incorporated some of the suggestions into its draft regulations, he said.

Commissioners will hold a public hearing on the proposed rules at their next scheduled meeting on Dec. 17. Because of the expected interest from industry members and the public, the commission plans to hold the meeting at Nebraska Innovation Campus.

All six existing horse tracks in the state, including the Lincoln Race Course, have announced plans to build casinos. There also have been proposals announced for new tracks in Bellevue, Gering, Kimball, Norfolk, North Platte, and York, all of which are likely to seek casino licenses as well.

Under Nebraska law, horse tracks must host at least one day of live racing annually to be able to host simulcasting, which all tracks except the one in South Sioux City do.

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REPORT FINDS 258 NEBRASKA VICTIMS OF CLERGY SEX ABUSE SINCE 1978

LINCOLN- The Nebraska Attorney General's Office released its report on clergy sex abuse in the Catholic Church, finding 258 documented victims across the three dioceses in Nebraska.

Attorney General Doug Peterson said many of the cases found during the three-year-long probe were gut-wrenching. Few had been prosecuted.

He said no additional prosecutions could come from the cases found in the report because the statute of limitations on filing charges has passed or because the alleged perpetrator has died. But Peterson expressed hope that at least victims' voices had been heard.

“We have been unable to bring our own justice system to bear on these predators,” Peterson said. “That’s extremely frustrating.”

He said he would support legislation to change Nebraska’s statute of limitation laws.

The 182-page report found that the Lincoln Diocese had 97 victims, the Omaha Diocese had 158 victims, and the Grand Island Diocese had three victims. Two priests, Msgr. Leonard Kalin, who served on the campus of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and an Omaha priest, the Rev. Daniel Herek, committed many of the abuse and misconduct cases, Peterson said.

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OMAHA TRIBE TO PROVIDE HOUSING ASSISTANCE FOR TRIBAL RESIDENTS; BUYS WALTHILL GROCERY STORE

MACY- The Omaha Tribe of Nebraska said it will start providing as much as $20,000 per household in housing assistance for tribal members who live on the reservation in Northeast Nebraska.

The tribe also announced it has purchased a combination grocery store, gas station, and restaurant in Walthill.

About $1 million has been budgeted for the tribe's new Homeowner Assistance Fund Plan. In the first phase, eligible households would receive up to $2,000 in assistance to pay utility bills. In later phases, residents could qualify for up to $6,000 for mortgage assistance, up to $3,000 for delinquent property taxes, and, eventually, as much as $10,000 in home-improvement assistance.

The direct assistance would be financed with the tribe's share of $41 million from the American Rescue Plan Act. The COVID-relief package passed by Congress in March also will finance the tribe's purchase of the Walthill grocery store, Heritage Foodtown. The purchase price was not disclosed at a news conference in Macy.

Melissa Henscheid, housing director with the Omaha Tribe, said the tribe has been working on the new housing assistance program for months. The first phase, the utility assistance, is expected to begin in a week or so, while the subsequent phases will start at a later date.

Henscheid said at least 180 families living on the reservation should benefit from the assistance, though she acknowledged that figure is a "guesstimate."

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REPORT: AT LEAST 59,000 MEAT WORKERS CAUGHT COVID-19, 269 DIED

NATION- At least 59,000 meatpacking workers became ill with COVID-19 and 269 workers died when the virus tore through the industry last year, which is significantly more than previously thought, according to a new U.S. House report released earlier this week.

With workers standing shoulder-to-shoulder along production lines, the meatpacking industry was one of the early epicenters of the coronavirus pandemic. The U.S. House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis, which used internal documents from five of the biggest meatpacking companies for its report, said companies could have done more to protect their workers.

The new estimate of infections in the industry is nearly three times higher than the 22,400 that the United Food and Commercial Workers Union has said were infected. And the true number of infections could be even higher because the company documents generally don't account for coronavirus cases confirmed by outside testing or self-reported by employees.

At the height of the outbreaks last spring, U.S. meatpacking production fell to about 60% of normal levels as several major plants were forced to temporarily close for deep cleaning and safety upgrades or operated at slower speeds because of worker shortages. The report said companies were slow to take protective steps such as checking employee temperatures, distributing protective equipment such as masks, and installing barriers between workstations.

“Instead of addressing the clear indications that workers were contracting the coronavirus at alarming rates due to conditions in meatpacking facilities, meatpacking companies prioritized profits and production over worker safety, continuing to employ practices that led to crowded facilities in which the virus spread easily,” the report said.

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UNO'S $35 MILLION RENOVATION OF DURHAM SCIENCE CENTER SET TO BEGIN IN MARCH

OMAHA- A $35 million renovation of the Durham Science Center at the University of Nebraska at Omaha is set to begin in March.

Despite the price tag, the two-year project involves improvements that will likely go unnoticed once work is finished.

Sacha Kopp, senior vice chancellor for academic affairs at UNO, said the renovation will essentially be an infrastructure upgrade to a building that has seen only minor touch-ups since it opened in 1987. The building — located near the northwest edge of the north campus — houses several academic departments including chemistry, mathematics, physics, and geology.

Kopp said that a lot of the classrooms will be refreshed with new technology and that new heating, ventilation, and air conditioning units will be installed. According to documents presented to the University of Nebraska Board of Regents earlier this month, electrical, mechanical and plumbing upgrades also will be made.

“It’s kind of like rewiring your house” in that the majority of improvements, while important, will likely not be noticeable, Kopp said.

Private donations will cover $20 million of the renovation project’s cost, according to the document presented to regents. The remaining $15 million will come from the state, thanks to a bill passed by the Nebraska Legislature to help NU tackle an $800 million backlog in building maintenance projects. The bill was signed into law in April.

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DOWNTOWN LINCOLN GOLD'S BUILDING TO BE SOLD TO LOCAL INVESTOR

LINCOLN- One of Lincoln's largest downtown office buildings is being sold again after attempts to redevelop it fell through.

Gerard Keating of Keating Resources said that he has a deal in place to sell the Gold's building at 1033 O St. to Mike Works, a Lincoln-based hotel developer.

"Keating Resources is proud to have played a role in repositioning (the) property for its next life," Keating said in an email. He declined further comment.

Keating, who lives in Florida but is a Nebraska native, bought the building out of foreclosure for $2.3 million in December 2019.

His original plan was to turn the northern half of the building into a 110-room extended-stay hotel while remodeling the southern half of the building to provide better, more modern space for existing office tenants.

The coronavirus pandemic sunk the hotel plans, and Keating agreed early last year to sell the building to an investment group led by Jeff McMahon, a University of Nebraska-Lincoln graduate and former managing principal of RED Development, the company that owns SouthPointe Pavilions.

McMahon's group wanted to redevelop the building into about 180 apartments in a $50 million redevelopment, but that deal fell apart this summer when the project failed to get approval to use historic tax credits.

Keating said after that setback that he planned to demolish the building.

The sale will mean the building will be saved, but beyond that Works said he doesn't have many details to offer, other than the fact that he does plan to convert part of the building to apartments and hopes to attract some "interesting" retail and/or restaurant tenants.

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RICKETTS REAPPOINTS BRIAN KRUSE AS DOUGLAS COUNTY ELECTION COMMISSIONER

LINCOLN- Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts has reappointed Brian Kruse as Douglas County election commissioner.

Kruse has served as the county’s election commissioner since 2016.

The position will pay $116,027 in 2022, according to information provided by Douglas County.

Under state law, the governor appoints the election commissioners for Douglas, Sarpy, and Lancaster Counties, and those commissioners name their deputy from an opposing party.

Kruse and Ricketts are Republicans. With Kruse’s appointment official, the Douglas County Election Commission will notify the Democratic, Libertarian, and Legal Marijuana NOW Parties of the opening and request a list of candidates. From those lists, Kruse will pick his deputy.

Democrat Chris Carithers has been the deputy commissioner during Kruse’s first term. Carithers is a former executive director of thE

Douglas County Democratic Party and owner of the Carithers Group, according to his LinkedIn profile.

The deputy’s position will pay $87,020 next year, according to the county.

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$140 MILLION CHILD CARE GRANT PROGRAM TO HELP NEBRASKA PROVIDERS SURVIVE

LINCOLN — Nebraska child care providers have an “unprecedented opportunity” to get back on the solid financial ground and help families get equal access to high-quality care, thanks to a new grant program.

State Department of Health and Human Services officials unveiled the $140 million Child Care Stabilization program this week.

Stephanie Beasley, children and family services director for HHS, said the grants will shore up a key part of the state’s economy. She said the pandemic put a spotlight on the critical role that child care providers play in making it possible for parents to work.

“Child care providers have been and continue to be the workforce behind the workforce throughout the COVID-19 pandemic,” she said.

Nationally, the pandemic has exacerbated the shortage of reliable and affordable child care, which in turn has restricted the growth of the broader economy. The shortage has forced many people — mostly women — to leave the workforce and contributed to a deepening labor shortage.

Child Care Aware of America estimated that 9% of licensed child care programs have permanently closed since the pandemic began, based on its tally of nearly 16,000 shuttered centers and in-home daycares in 37 states between December 2019 and March 2021.

The new grant program is intended to address some of the challenges that have pushed providers to close.

State officials said it aims to ease financial burdens faced by child care providers because of the public health emergency and the instability of the child care market as a whole. It has a special focus on supporting providers in underserved and lower-income areas of the state.

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ADM PLANS TO MAKE JET FUEL AT NEBRASKA ETHANOL PLANT

COLUMBUS- Archer Daniels Midland's Columbus, Nebraska, the dry mill is part of a plan the company announced to turn ethanol into sustainable jet fuel.

ADM said it has signed a memorandum of understanding with a company called Gevo Inc. to transform ethanol into sustainable jet fuel and other renewable hydrocarbon fuels.

According to terms of the deal, Colorado-based Gevo would use its processing technology to turn about 900 million gallons of ethanol produced at ADM’s dry mills in Columbus and Cedar Rapids, Iowa, as well as its Decatur, Illinois, complex into about 500 million gallons of sustainable, low-carbon fuels for aviation and other industries.

The Columbus and Cedar Rapids facilities both have production capacities of about 300 million gallons a year, so it appears the plan is to dedicate all their capacity to the sustainable fuels effort.

Gevo CEO Patrick Gruber said in a press release that it has potential demand from customers for more than 1 billion gallons of sustainable fuels.

“By working with ADM, who already has committed to reducing their carbon footprint, we have the opportunity to accelerate scale," Gruber said in the press release. "The technology to convert low carbon ethanol and isobutanol into (sustainable aviation fuel) by Gevo is well developed and ready for world-scale commercialization."

ADM said in the release that demand for sustainable aviation fuel is likely to increase over the coming years because U.S. airlines, airports, shippers, and the U.S. government are working together to advance its use.

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CONSTRUCTION OF NEW, LARGER SARPY COUNTY JAIL REMAINS ON TRACK

SARPY COUNTY- After their weekly meeting, Sarpy County Board members donned hard hats and neon vests.

They headed to the construction site next door, where crews have erected the skeleton of a new jail in recent months. Construction remains on track to wrap up in December 2022, according to Jake Tietgen, lead project manager.

Tietgen described the new facility as about 25% finished. The jail is expected to be operational in early 2023, according to county spokesperson Megan Stubenhofer-Barrett.

Crews broke ground in the spring. They cleared the site and have completed some underground work — laying pilings, plumbing and electric — and stood up structural beams and an elevator shaft. Next, observers will start seeing walls go up, said Stubenhofer-Barrett.

In April, the County Board approved a guaranteed maximum construction price of $69.4 million with JE Dunn. The facility was designed by DLR Group.

The new 150,000-square-foot jail, on the county’s campus near 84th Street and Nebraska Highway 370, is aimed at easing overcrowding and will have more space for programming and services to help people experiencing mental health challenges.

The current jail, built-in 1989, was designed to hold about 150 people, according to Ryan Mahr, the head of the Sarpy County Department of Corrections. The new lockup is designed to hold close to 360.

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RICKETTS DEFENDS DECISION TO SCALE BACK NEBRASKA COVID-19 REPORTING

LINCOLN - At the end of a news conference that highlighted the importance of data reporting availability to Nebraska’s COVID-19 response, Gov. Pete Ricketts defended the state’s decision to scale back its COVID-19 dashboard.

“That really just reflects the needs right now that we have here in the state. So we are looking to get back to normal, folks, right?” he said.

Ricketts said daily data updates are unnecessary and providing that information on a weekly basis is “sufficient.”

“There is nobody who is planning their staff on a daily basis. Right? Nobody needs daily information to do staffing,” he said, stating that staffing occurs on a week-to-week basis. “People want to know a week ahead of time when they’re going to be working.” Ricketts emphasized the decrease of the state's hospital staffing emergency and the increase of hospital capacity in his justification for the shift.

Hospital capacity is also what the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services emphasized in their latest dashboard release. Hospital capacity falling below 10% triggers Directed Health Measures, and the reappearance of the dashboard, until capacity increases above 10%.

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RICKETTS: NEBRASKA TO SEEK INJUNCTION AGAINST OSHA VACCINE REQUIREMENTS

LINCOLN - Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts said during a news conference that he plans to fight OSHA in court over the COVID-19 vaccination requirements as soon as the agency reveals them.

The Governor also reiterated his position against vaccination mandates and said during the news conference that he planned to take action against the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to fight those requirements.

“As soon as those rules come out, we will be taking OSHA and anybody else to court to get an injunction and stop what is a huge abuse of federal power to mandate vaccines through these emergency rules,” Ricketts said. Ricketts has cited Nebraska's lack of a vaccine mandate as a reason why potential employees should come work in Nebraska; specifically, nurses as the shortage continues.

Ricketts went on to encourage Nebraskans to get the COVID-19 vaccine, especially for those 40 and older.

Tasked by President Biden to draft vaccination rules for businesses with at least 100 employees, OSHA is expected to roll out its plan any day now.

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CORPS OF ENGINEERS HOSTS MEETINGS ON MISSOURI RIVER MANAGEMENT

MIDWEST- With unusually dry conditions as the backdrop, the Army Corps of Engineers is hosting its annual fall meetings this week on the management of the Missouri River.

The meetings are being held from Montana to Missouri. Earlier in the week, meetings were held in Sioux City, Iowa as well as Nebraska City.

By regulating releases from six dams on the upper river, the corps influences how much water is held in those reservoirs as well as river levels downstream. Those levels affect farming, aquatic life and habitat, power generation, flood control, and drought mitigation.

Upper basin runoff (upstream of Sioux City) in September was 67% of normal, according to the corps. The upper basin is on pace to see its 10th-driest year out of 123 years on record.

Winter releases will be set at 12,000 cubic feet per second.

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SARPY COUNTY BOARD WILL CONSIDER CUTTING ELECTION COMMISSIONER SALARY

SARPY COUNTY- The Sarpy County Board will consider a proposal that would cut the salary of the county’s newly appointed election commissioner by 16% in 2022 and the deputy election commissioner’s salary by 11%.

Gov. Pete Ricketts appointed Emily Ethington, 25, the twin sister of State Sen. Julie Slama, to serve the balance of the term that ends Dec. 31 and another four-year term after that. State law requires the commissioner to appoint a chief deputy of a different political party — Sarpy County chief deputy Michelle Boyland was appointed in July 2020.

As a result, Ethington’s 2022 salary would be $72,753, and Boyland’s 2022 salary would be $69,910. County employees typically receive yearly raises tied to the cost of living and moving up in the salary schedule. Megan Stubenhofer-Barrett, the county spokeswoman, believes that this would be the first time these positions’ salaries would be tied to a schedule.

According to board member Jim Warren, Ethington had requested that commissioners set her salary at $90,000.

State law says the election commissioner and chief deputies are county “employees.” Don Kelly, chairman of the County Board, said the county had been treating the roles like elected officials instead. Kelly said he crafted the proposal by looking at comparable positions outside the county as well as within county ranks, along with previous salaries for Sarpy election commissioners and their qualifications and experience.

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TRUMP ENDORSES HERBSTER IN GUBERNATORIAL RACE; RICKETTS DISAGREES

NEBRASKA - Former President Donald Trump announced that he is endorsing Charles Herbster in his bid to be elected governor next year, prompting a swift response from Gov. Pete Ricketts who said he "strongly disagrees" with that judgment.

Herbster, who was an agricultural adviser to Trump during his presidency, is a candidate for the Republican nomination.

In his endorsement statement, Trump took a verbal shot at Republican Sen. Ben Sasse and lavished praise on Ricketts.

Herbster "has been a tremendous supporter of America First and Make America Great Again, right from the beginning," Trump said, "and will do a fantastic job" as governor. Ricketts responded via Twitter with claims that he has also been a supporter of President Trump's conservative leadership and America First mentality. Ricketts wrapped up his comments with "Nebraska deserves better."

Ricketts is expected to endorse Jim Pillen of Columbus, a University of Nebraska regent, but has not done so yet.

Despite the disagreement between President Trump and Ricketts, the former President has referred to Ricketts as a "terrific" governor of Nebraska.

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FORMER NEBRASKA SEN. CAP DIERKS, A CHAMPION FOR RURAL AMERICA, DIES AT AGE 89

EWING- A strong advocate for rural development, who was known for getting things done during his long tenure in the Nebraska Legislature, has died.

Former Sen. Merton "Cap" Dierks, 89, died from complications following a stroke. He was known as a state senator who preserved relationships as he advocated for issues important to him.

"Rural America lost one of its very best champions," said John Hansen, president of the Nebraska Farmers Union, describing Dierks as "one of the most influential and respected state senators" in the Legislature in the last 35-plus years. "He argued things from a moral and ethical and policy perspective, so he raised the level of debate on a lot of discussions."

Former U.S. Sen. and Nebraska Gov. Bob Kerrey and current Sen. Deb Fischer offered similar praise.

"Cap was a man whose faith and love of Nebraska combined with the virtue of caring about the opinions of everyone made him a model of what public service is at its best," Kerrey posted in a tribute on Facebook. "I trusted and loved this man completely. Young Nebraskans: Remember him. Be like him. You cannot do better."

Fischer, a former state senator who served alongside Dierks, said she got to know Dierks while advocating for Nebraska's schools.

"He was a champion in the Nebraska Legislature for our state’s children and our state’s school districts. ... He was always a gentleman, sincere and honest in every relationship, and he had the deep respect of all who knew him."

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