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Tag: Juvenile corrections

  • New analysis shows more US consumers are falling behind on their utility bills

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    WASHINGTON — More people are falling behind on paying their bills to keep on the lights and heat their homes, according to a new analysis of consumer data — a warning sign for the U.S. economy and another political headache for President Donald Trump.

    Past due balances to utility companies jumped 9.7% annually to $789 between the April-June periods of 2024 and 2025, said The Century Foundation, a liberal think tank. The increase has overlapped with a 12% jump in monthly energy bills during the same period.

    Consumers usually prioritize their utility bills along with their mortgages and auto debt, said Julie Margetta Morgan, the foundation’s president. The increase in both energy costs and delinquencies may suggest that consumers are falling behind on other bills, too.

    “There’s a lot of information out there about rising utility costs, but here we can actually look at what that impact has been on families in terms of how they’re falling behind,” Margetta Morgan said.

    Troubles paying electricity and natural gas bills reflect something of an economic quandary for Trump, who is promoting the buildout of the artificial intelligence industry as a key part of an economic boom he has promised for America. But AI data centers are known for their massive use of electricity, and threaten to further increase utility bills for everyday Americans.

    These troubles also come as Trump faces political pressure from voters fed up with the high cost of living.

    Ever since Republicans saw their fortunes sag in off-year elections this month and affordability was identified as the top issue, Trump has been trying to convince the public that prices are falling. Fast-rising electricity bills could be an issue in some congressional battlegrounds in next year’s midterm elections.

    Trump has put a particular emphasis on prices at the pump. Gasoline accounts for about 3% of the consumer price index, slightly less than the share belonging to electricity and natural gas bills — meaning that possible savings on gasoline could be more than offset by higher utility bills.

    The president maintains that any troubling data on inflation is false and that Democrats are simply trying to hurt his administration’s reputation.

    “In fact, costs under the TRUMP ADMINISTRATION are tumbling down, helped greatly by gasoline and ENERGY,” Trump posted on social media Friday. “Affordability is a lie when used by the Dems,”

    Nearly 6 million households have utility debt “so severe” that it will soon be reported to collection agencies, according to the foundation’s analysis, drawn from the University of California Consumer Credit Panel.

    During Trump’s first six months in office, there was a 3.8% increase in households with severely overdue utility bills.

    “Voters are frustrated and families are hurting because these tech giants are cutting backroom deals with politicians, and it’s causing their power bills to go up,” said Mike Pierce, executive director of the advocacy group Protect Borrowers, which contributed to the analysis. “If the Trump administration doesn’t want to do its job and protect families and make life more affordable, I guess that’s its choice.”

    Both Margetta Morgan and Pierce previously worked at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a government agency formed in part to track trends in household borrowing to prevent potential abuses. The Trump administration has essentially shut down the bureau.

    The administration has so far said it has no responsibility for any increases in electricity prices, since those are often regulated by state utility boards. The White House maintains that utility costs are higher in Democratic states that rely on renewable forms of energy.

    “Electricity prices are a state problem,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told ABC News this month. “There are things that the federal government can control. Local electricity prices are not one of them.”

    The Century Foundation analysis counters that the Trump administration is contributing to higher utility costs “by impeding renewable energy generation” including solar and wind power.

    While the new analysis is a warning sign, other economic analyses on consumers suggest their finances are stable despite some emerging pressures.

    The New York Federal Reserve has said delinquency rates of 90 days or more for mortgages, auto loans and student debt have each increased over the past 12 months, though it said mortgage delinquencies are “relatively low.” An analysis of debit and credit card spending by the Bank of America Institute showed that consumers’ “overall financial health looks sound.”

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  • Teens kept in isolation cells at Kentucky juvenile detention center, lawsuit alleges

    Teens kept in isolation cells at Kentucky juvenile detention center, lawsuit alleges

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    LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Two teenage girls held at a troubled Kentucky juvenile detention center were kept in isolation cells for weeks in unsanitary conditions, including a padded cell with no toilet, a federal class-action lawsuit filed this week alleges.

    The teens were held at the Adair County Youth Detention Center in late 2022, around the same time state police reported a riot at the facility that started when a juvenile assaulted a staff member. That and other violent incidents at juvenile facilities prompted Gov. Andy Beshear’s administration to enact new policies that placed male juveniles charged with serious crimes in separate facilities and create a female-only detention center in northern Kentucky.

    The lawsuit filed Monday also details alleged incidents with other youths at the center, including one who it says was being held in an isolation cell with “a Spanish version of ‘Baby Shark’ playing on a loop” and another who it alleges “spent days soaked in menstrual blood” while staffers insulted her about her hygiene.

    The lawsuit seeks other plaintiffs who “were held in isolation” and subjected to “abuse and neglect” at the Adair County facility. The Associated Press left an email message seeking comment with a spokesperson for Kentucky’s Justice and Public Safety cabinet Wednesday.

    Both of the teenage girls who brought the lawsuit said they were kept in isolation during their entire stints at the Adair facility, with few opportunities to take showers. One of the teens, who was 17 and seven months pregnant at the time, said she was let out of her cell just five times in one month to take a walk, the lawsuit said. The other teen said she was kept in isolation for the entire four months she was there, including two of them in a padded cell with no toilet.

    The lawsuit names several state officials, including the head of the state Justice and Public Safety Cabinet, Kerry Harvey, and former state Juvenile Justice Commissioner Vicki Reed, who retired on Jan. 1. Harvey is due to retire at the end of the month.

    The lawsuit alleges that juvenile detainees had their civil rights infringed upon at the facility in south-central Kentucky and that the center failed to properly train staff. It seeks unspecified actual and punitive damages.

    The 2022 disturbance at the Adair County facility began when a juvenile assaulted a staff member, took the employee’s keys and released other young people from their cells. One staff member was hospitalized with injuries. Order was restored after law enforcement officers entered the facility.

    The new state policy for juvenile offenders took effect in 2023 and places male juveniles charged with serious crimes in a high-security facility. It replaced a decades-old regional system that put juveniles in detention facilities based on where they live. The governor said at the time that the old model could result in a juvenile charged with murder being housed next to someone held for truancy.

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  • French juvenile court convicts 6 teens for their roles in teacher's beheading by Islamic extremist

    French juvenile court convicts 6 teens for their roles in teacher's beheading by Islamic extremist

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    French juvenile court convicts 6 teens for their roles in teacher’s beheading by Islamic extremist

    ByThe Associated Press

    December 8, 2023, 2:35 PM

    PARIS — French juvenile court convicts 6 teens for their roles in teacher’s beheading by Islamic extremist.

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  • Hope and uncertainty linger as California turns the page on state-run youth prisons

    Hope and uncertainty linger as California turns the page on state-run youth prisons

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    LOS ANGELES — Juvenile offenders in California might now have a better chance at rehabilitation instead of facing a mostly punitive sentence in a youth prison system that often only reinforced the patterns of neglect and violence that led many of them into trouble in the first place.

    On Saturday, California shuttered its last three state-run youth lockups and passed day-to-day operations of juvenile halls to county probation departments. The plan decentralizes care of youth offenders and prioritizes keeping them closer to home in facilities focused less on punishment and more on reformation — all in hope of breaking “the school-to-prison pipeline,” as Gov. Gavin Newsom put it in 2020.

    But will it be enough?

    Advocates say the move away from a punitive approach reflects their belief that children who commit crimes are better served in settings that emphasize education, mental health care and other supportive services.

    But supporters and skeptics alike say there is still plenty of uncertainty ahead.

    The state-run system had a troubled history marked by inmate suicides and brawls, as well as allegations of physical and sexual abuse by staff members. And more recently, state facilities had been reserved for the worst offenders — young people who had committed murder, assault and other serious crimes.

    “At the local level we just don’t have the programs and services, or the culture, that’s ready to handle to the kids with real needs, those dealing with serious trauma,” said Frankie Guzmán, director of the California Youth Justice Initiative at the National Center for Youth Law. He himself spent six years in California’s youth prisons for armed robbery.

    Jose, a 21-year-old who spent nearly two years in a state-run juvenile hall in the San Francisco Bay Area, described a facility where classes and treatment programs were frequently canceled because of staffing shortages. Fights were common, illegal drugs readily available and gang members jostled for power in dorms and on yards. He was pepper-sprayed twice by guards while fending off attacks by other youths, he said.

    “You got this feeling where you’re not safe and need to watch your back,” said Jose, who asked that his full name not be used for fear of personal and professional repercussions. “You feel like you’re always a target.”

    Jose said he had to navigate a complicated system of incentives and rewards to eventually gain access to behavioral health treatment, schooling and vocational training.

    “My mission was to get out of there,” he said. He was eventually granted early release after serving time for a string of offenses including stealing a car and association with a gang — things he said he did after falling in with the wrong crowd after emigrating from Mexico.

    Other kids were not as motivated and remained trapped in a loop of acting out and subsequent punishment. The old system wasn’t fully equipped to help young people with anger issues and untreated trauma, he said.

    The first California facility for troubled youth — the San Francisco Industrial School — was created by the Legislature in 1859 as an alternative to housing children as young as 12 alongside adults in San Quentin and Folsom state prisons. Two years later, the State Reform School in Marysville opened for boys ages 8-18. At one point, the state system included 11 lockups holding about 10,000 youths.

    Today, the youth offender population in the remaining state-run facilities was around 300. Their average age was 19 and in 2020, a disproportionate 88% were Black or Latino.

    California counties already handle about 35,000 juvenile offenders — more than 3,600 of them held in juvenile halls, camps and ranches.

    County probation departments say they are determined to make the law work despite the challenges of a decentralized system. Officials fear smaller counties could struggle with providing care to youth with serious mental health needs, said Chief Probation Officers of California executive director Karen Pank.

    And some rural counties in Northern California will have to consolidate and share facilities.

    While California has in recent years ramped up funding for behavioral health, not enough of it flows to young people or the state’s 58 county probation departments tasked with handling the new system, Pank said.

    “The state must remove barriers and listen to the counties to hear what they really need,” she said.

    California will send counties about $230 million annually to help cover those costs.

    County probation officers, meanwhile, will try to balance reform advocates’ focus on rehabilitation with judges who — at prosecutors’ request — could still send older teenagers to adult prisons for the most serious crimes.

    Still, others believe meaningful change will only happen with robust oversight from the state.

    “It’s wrong to think that the state of California can simply move the prison population into the county juvenile hall and we’ll suddenly have a more successful juvenile justice system,” said Meredith Desautels, a staff attorney at the Youth Law Center in San Francisco. Transformation, she said, is only possible if California recognizes it “as an ongoing process that requires ongoing adjustments.”

    Oversight of the realigned system will run through the new Office of Youth and Community Restoration, part of the state’s Health and Human Services Agency, instead of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

    That offers little consolation to Guzmán, who fears the new office “has no teeth” and won’t be able to provide the oversight the counties need. A bill that passed the Assembly last month seeks to give the office greater regulatory authority, including the ability to respond to reports of abuse.

    The state-run system, while far from perfect, had concentrated resources at campuses that could fit schools and vocational training and provide care, Guzmán said.

    “Now that we’re closing those down, what we’re left with are much smaller facilities that lack resources, essentially county jails for young people,” he said.

    Katherine Lucero, director of the Office of Youth and Community Restoration, conceded that the counties still have work to do.

    Her office has been staffing up internally and establishing relationships with a range of partners including advocates, therapists and attorneys “to ensure youth have a supportive and safe environment as they return to their home communities,” Lucero said in a statement.

    Lucero defended her office’s relationship with a now-defunct nonprofit established by probation chiefs across California shortly after Newsom’s decision to close youth prisons. The County Probation Consortium Partnering for Youth Realignment, with a board comprised of most of California’s probation chiefs, made recommendations on what resources counties needed.

    Critics said the consortium added an unnecessary layer of bureaucracy and secrecy, and the nonprofit was targeted by a lawsuit demanding greater transparency. Late last month, the nonprofit said it would shut down because “the critical need for the consortium has come to an end.”

    Jose, the former youth inmate, said when he arrived in lockup as an angry, directionless young man he couldn’t imagine the future he has now: employed full time with goals of starting his own business and raising a family.

    His main hope for the new system is a major staffing shakeup and a renewed focus on health and wellbeing. During his sentence, he dealt mostly with staff members “who weren’t invested, they weren’t professionals, they were just there to guard.”

    “We need people who want to make it more therapeutic,” he said. “It’s more of learning how to function in a community by replacing negative behaviors with positive behaviors.”

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  • It might seem tempting to not pay your student loans. Here’s why that’s a bad idea

    It might seem tempting to not pay your student loans. Here’s why that’s a bad idea

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    NEW YORK — After three years, the pandemic-era freeze on student loan payments will end in late August.

    It might seem tempting to just keep not making payments, but the consequences can be severe, including a hit to your credit score and exclusion from future aid and benefits.

    More than 40 million Americans will have to start making federal student loan payments again at the end of the summer under the terms of a debt ceiling deal approved by Congress.

    Millions are also waiting to find out whether the Supreme Court will allow President Joe Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan to go ahead. But payments will resume regardless of what justices decide.

    That means tough decisions for many borrowers, especially those in already-difficult financial situations.

    Experts say that delinquency and bankruptcy should be options of last resort, and that deferment and forbearance — which pause payments, though interest may continue to accrue — are often better in the short term.

    WHAT HAPPENS IF I DON’T MAKE STUDENT LOAN PAYMENTS?

    Once the moratorium ends, borrowers who can’t or don’t pay risk delinquency and eventually default. That can badly hurt your credit rating and make you ineligible for additional aid and government benefits.

    If you’re struggling to pay, advisers first encourage you to check if you qualify for an income-driven repayment plan, which determines your payments by looking at your expenses. You can determine this by visiting the Federal Student Aid website. If you’ve worked for a government agency or a non-profit organization, you could also be eligible for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program, which forgives student debt after 10 years.

    Carolina Rodriguez, Director of the Education Debt Consumer Assistance Program at the Community Service Society of New York, emphasizes that anyone temporarily unemployed should be able to qualify for a $0 payment plan. And many others qualify based on income and family size.

    “The repercussions of falling into delinquency can be pretty severe,” Rodriguez said. “The federal government can administratively intercept tax refunds and garnish wages. And it can affect Social Security, retirement, and disability benefits. Does it make financial sense at that point? Probably not.”

    Rodriguez says her organization always advises against deferment or forbearance except once a borrower has exhausted all other options. In the long term, those financial choices offer little benefit, as some loans will continue to accrue interest while deferred.

    Abby Shafroth, senior attorney and director of the Student Loan Borrower Assistance Project at the National Consumer Law Center, said that, of the two, deferment is generally a better option.

    That’s because interest generally does not accrue on Direct Subsidized Loans, the subsidized portion of Direct Consolidation Loans, Subsidized Federal Stafford Loans, the subsidized portion of FFEL Consolidation Loans, and Federal Perkins Loans. All other federal student loans that are deferred will continue to accrue interest.

    “Forbearance allows you to postpone payments without it being held against you, but interest does accrue. So you’re going to see your balance increase every month.”

    WHAT ABOUT DECLARING BANKRUPTCY?

    For most student loan borrowers, it’s still very difficult to have your loans discharged, or canceled, through bankruptcy. Borrowers must prove a very hard standard of financial circumstances, called “undue hardship.”

    “That doesn’t mean people shouldn’t look into it,” Rodriguez said. “But they may not be successful at discharging their loans.”

    For borrowers who show that level of financial strain, chances are they have other options, Rodriguez said.

    She advises that borrowers make sure they are speaking to a bankruptcy attorney who understands student loan bankruptcy, which requires a different proceeding than other types of bankruptcy.

    Shafroth, of the NCLC, says that new guidance on student loan bankruptcy has been coming out in recent years.

    “Though it is difficult to get your loans discharged through the bankruptcy process, an increasing number of borrowers are eligible to get their loans discharged that way,” she said. “A lot of people write that off as ‘there’s no way,’ it’s impossible.’ But it’s increasingly possible.”

    WHAT HAPPENS WHEN A LOAN GOES INTO DEFAULT?

    When you fall behind on a loan by 270 days — roughly 9 months — the loan appears on your credit report as being in default.

    “At that point, it’s not just behind, it’s in collections,” Shafroth said. “That’s when you become ineligible to take out new federal student aid. A lot of people go into default because they weren’t able to complete their degree the first time. This prevents them from going back to school.”

    Once a loan is in default, it’s subject to the collection processes mentioned above. That means the government can garnish wages (without a court order) to go towards paying back the loan, intercept tax refunds, and seize portions of Social Security checks and other benefit payments.

    WHAT ARE OTHER OPTIONS IF I CAN’T MAKE PAYMENTS?

    Shafroth said that many borrowers may still be eligible to have loans canceled via a patchwork of programs outside of the Biden administration’s proposed debt relief program.

    “If your school closed before you could complete your program, you’re eligible for relief. If your school lied to you or misrepresented the outcome of what your enrolling would be, you can file a borrower defense application, and request your loan be canceled on that basis,” she said. “If you have a disability, you can sometimes have your loans canceled on that basis.”

    Shafroth encourages borrowers to look at the Student Aid website to see what their options might be before missing payments.

    WHAT IF MY LOANS WERE IN DEFAULT BEFORE MARCH 2020?

    Under the Biden administration’s Fresh Start program, borrowers with federal student loans who were in default before the pause have a chance to become current.

    Borrowers who were in default will not be subject to collection processes or have wages garnished through about August 2024, or roughly one year after the payment freeze ends. These borrowers have also been granted permission to apply for federal student loans again, to complete degrees. Lastly, these defaulted loans are now being reported to credit bureaus as current.

    That said, borrowers must take action if they want to stay out of default after this year-long leniency period ends.

    To eliminate your record of default, you should contact the Education Department’s Default Resolution Group online, by phone, or by mail, and ask the group to take the loans out of default via the Fresh Start policy. In four to six weeks, any record of default will be removed from your credit report, and the loans will be placed with a loan servicer. This will also give you access to income-driven repayment plans and Public Service Loan Forgiveness, if applicable.

    WHAT IF I WAS BEHIND ON PAYMENTS OR DELINQUENT BEFORE MARCH 2020?

    The Fresh Start program also applies to borrowers who were delinquent prior to the payment pause. Those accounts will be considered current, and borrowers will have the option to enroll in income-driven repayment plans that can lower bills to as little as $0, or to apply for deferment, forbearance or bankruptcy.

    ___

    The Associated Press receives support from Charles Schwab Foundation for educational and explanatory reporting to improve financial literacy. The independent foundation is separate from Charles Schwab and Co. Inc. The AP is solely responsible for its journalism.

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  • Hearing for Iowa teen who killed rapist moved to January

    Hearing for Iowa teen who killed rapist moved to January

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    DES MOINES, Iowa — An judge on Friday set a hearing for January to consider whether to order prison for an 18-year-old sex-trafficking victim in Iowa who killed her rapist and pleaded guilty last year to involuntary manslaughter and willful injury.

    Pieper Lewis was sentenced Sept. 13 to probation for five years to be served at a Des Moines women’s shelter, but less than two months later she cut off the court-ordered GPS ankle monitor and walked away from Fresh Start Women’s Center. She was arrested five days later and put in jail, where she remains.

    An Iowa Department of Corrections probation officer had asked the court to revoke the terms of her probation, and Judge David Porter set a hearing Friday to consider the matter. But after meeting briefly with lawyers, Porter scheduled a new hearing on Jan. 18.

    Matthew Sheeley, a lawyer for Lewis, said they plan to contest the proposed revocation.

    Assistant Polk County Attorney Meggan Guns said when a defendant challenges a proposed revocation, a judge typically sets a hearing where evidence can be presented, which is what occurred Friday.

    Porter told Lewis at her sentencing hearing in September that he was giving her a second chance by allowing her to serve time at the women’s shelter and complete community service instead of prison. He said she wouldn’t get a third chance.

    Lewis had faced a 20-year prison sentence in the June 2020 killing of Zachary Brooks, 37. Lewis was 15 when she stabbed Brooks more than 30 times in a Des Moines apartment. She initially was charged with first-degree murder, but prosecutors agreed to a plea deal dropped that charge.

    Lewis has said that she was trafficked against her will to Brooks for sex multiple times and stabbed him in a fit of rage after he raped her again.

    The Associated Press does not typically name victims of sexual assault, but Lewis agreed to have her name used previously in stories about her case.

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  • Shuffle of juvenile prisoners lands 8 at adult penitentiary

    Shuffle of juvenile prisoners lands 8 at adult penitentiary

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    NEW ORLEANS — A controversial transfer of juvenile prisoners to a temporary facility at Louisiana’s sprawling high security prison farm for adult convicts involves a shuffle of youths to and from four different lockups around the state, officials said Thursday.

    As of Wednesday night, the facility at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola held eight young offenders in a building isolated from the adult population. That building is now being called the Feliciana Center for Youth. The penitentiary is in a remote rural area in West Feliciana Parish, north of Baton Rouge.

    The move of young offenders was announced in July by Gov. John Bel Edwards. It came as state officials were under growing pressure to do something after the latest in a series of escapes from the violence-plagued Bridge City Center for Youth in suburban New Orleans. That escape involved six inmates who overpowered a guard and jumped a fence. One inmate is suspected in a carjacking and shooting that happened before all were recaptured.

    However, the state said in a news release that the eight at the Feliciana facility are not from Bridge City, as initially announced by a state senator. Four were from Acadiana Center for Youth at St. Martinville in southwest Louisiana and four were from Swanson Center for Youth at Monroe in northeast Louisiana.

    Ten youth offenders from Bridge City, initially thought to have been taken to the Feliciana facility at Angola, were actually transferred to Monroe, Nicolette Gordon, a spokeswoman for the state Office of Juvenile Justice confirmed Thursday.

    State Sen. Patrick Connick, whose district includes Bridge City, acknowledged he had been mistaken when he said the Bridge City youths had been taken to Angola, in accordance with plans announced in July. Connick said in a Thursday interview he was told by officials that behavior at the Bridge City Center has improved since the pending transfers to Angola and stepped up security at Bridge City were announced in July.

    Connick said juvenile justice officials transferred prisoners this week based on assessment of the behavior of individuals at each of the state juvenile lockups. The ones moved to Angola, he said, “were the worst of the worst.”

    Gordon said this week’s moves were the first of a three-phase transfer. She said the youths were evaluated in accordance with a state law passed earlier this year that ordered juvenile justice authorities to establish a tiered system for classifying youths as low-, medium- or high-risk based on age, aggressive tendencies and other factors.

    Juvenile justice advocates and families of the young inmates have objected to the transfer of youths to Angola. The penitentiary is home to serious offenders, some sentenced to death. It is where executions of condemned prisoners are carried out. It has its own checkered history of sometimes bloody violence and has been the subject of litigation alleging inadequate medical care.

    A lawsuit filed by opponents of the transfer contended the trauma of being housed at Angola would be irreversible.

    U.S. District Judge Shelly Dick, however, said that “while locking children in cells at night at Angola is untenable, the threat of harm the youngsters present to themselves, and others, is intolerable. The untenable must yield to the intolerable.”

    It’s unclear exactly how long the Feliciana facility at Angola will be used as a youth lockup. Officials have said space is being built at the Jetson Correctional Center for Youth near Baton Rouge for those with disciplinary problems. Also, new juvenile housing at the Swanson facility in Monroe is to be in operation by the spring, and a behavioral health unit there is being renovated.

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