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Tag: Mike Braun

  • Some states set to impose SNAP bans on soda, candy and other foods

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    Starting New Year’s Day, some food-stamp recipients around the U.S. will be banned from using the government nutrition assistance to buy candy, soda and other foods. 

    Indiana, Iowa, Nebraska, Utah and West Virginia are the first of at least 18 states to enact waivers prohibiting people enrolled in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, from purchasing certain foods. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins have urged states to strip foods regarded as unhealthy from the $100 billion federal program.

    “We cannot continue a system that forces taxpayers to fund programs that make people sick and then pay a second time to treat the illnesses those very programs help create,” Kennedy said in a statement in December.

    The efforts are aimed at reducing chronic diseases such as obesity and diabetes associated with sweetened drinks and other treats, a key goal of Kennedy’s Make America Healthy Again effort.

    Confusion for SNAP recipients?

    But retail industry and health policy experts said state SNAP programs, already under pressure from steep budget cuts, are unprepared for the complex changes, with no complete lists of the foods affected and technical point-of-sale challenges that vary by state and store. And research remains mixed about whether restricting SNAP purchases improves diet quality and health.

    The National Retail Federation, a trade association, predicted longer checkout lines and more customer complaints as SNAP recipients learn which foods are affected by the new waivers.

    “It’s a disaster waiting to happen of people trying to buy food and being rejected,” said Kate Bauer, a nutrition science expert at the University of Michigan.

    The new restrictions are the latest source of concern for SNAP recipients. Food aid distributed under the program, which is used by 42 million Americans, was interrupted during the 43-day U.S. government shutdown. Reliance on food stamps typically surges during economic downturns, such as the sharp slump that followed the outbreak of COVID-19 in 2020.

    Nearly 62% of SNAP participants are in families with children, while roughly 37% are in households with older adults or people with disabilities, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a nonpartisan think tank. 

    Roughly 14% of U.S. households reported food insecurity on average between January and October, up from 12.5% in 2024, according to Purdue’s Center for Food Demand Analysis and Sustainability.

    While the prevalence of food insecurity around the U.S. fluctuates month to month, the overall rate had been declining since 2022, when an average of 15.4% of households were food insecure as inflation hit 40-year highs following the pandemic. 

    Retailers fear impact

    A report by the National Grocers Association and other industry trade groups estimated that implementing SNAP restrictions would cost U.S. retailers $1.6 billion initially and $759 million each year going forward.

    “Punishing SNAP recipients means we all get to pay more at the grocery store,” said Gina Plata-Nino, SNAP director for the anti-hunger advocacy group Food Research & Action Center.

    The waivers are a departure from decades of federal policy first enacted in 1964 and later authorized by the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008, which said SNAP benefits can be used for “any food or food product intended for human consumption,” except alcohol and ready-to-eat hot foods. The law also says SNAP can’t pay for tobacco.

    In the past, lawmakers have proposed stopping SNAP from paying for expensive meats like steak or so-called junk foods, such as chips and ice cream.

    But previous waiver requests were denied based on USDA research concluding that restrictions would be costly and complicated to implement, and that they might not change recipients’ buying habits or reduce health problems such as obesity.

    Under the second Trump administration, however, states have been encouraged and even incentivized to seek waivers – and they responded.

    “This isn’t the usual top-down, one-size-fits-all public health agenda,” Indiana Gov. Mike Braun said when he announced his state’s request last spring. “We’re focused on root causes, transparent information and real results.”

    How many people are affected

    The five state waivers that take effect Jan. 1 affect about 1.4 million people. Utah and West Virginia will ban the use of SNAP to buy soda and soft drinks, while Nebraska will prohibit soda and energy drinks. Indiana will target soft drinks and candy. In Iowa, which has the most restrictive rules to date, the SNAP limits affect taxable foods, including soda and candy, but also certain prepared foods.

    “The items list does not provide enough specific information to prepare a SNAP participant to go to the grocery store,” Plata-Nino wrote in a blog post. “Many additional items — including certain prepared foods — will also be disallowed, even though they are not clearly identified in the notice to households.”

    Marc Craig, 47, of Des Moines, said he has been living in his car since October. He said the new waivers will make it more difficult to determine how to use the $298 in SNAP benefits he receives each month, while also increasing the stigma he feels at the cash register.

    “They treat people that get food stamps like we’re not people,” Craig said.

    SNAP waivers enacted now and in the coming months will run for two years, with the option to extend them for an additional three, according to the Agriculture Department. Each state is required to assess the impact of the changes.

    Health experts worry that the waivers ignore larger factors affecting the health of SNAP recipients, said Anand Parekh, a medical doctor who is the chief health policy officer at the University of Michigan School of Public Health.

    “This doesn’t solve the two fundamental problems, which is healthy food in this country is not affordable and unhealthy food is cheap and ubiquitous,” he said.

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  • Voters’ anger at high electricity bills and data centers looms over 2026 midterms

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    Voter anger over the cost of living is hurtling forward into next year’s midterm elections, when pivotal contests will be decided by communities that are home to fast-rising electric bills or fights over who’s footing the bill to power Big Tech’s energy-hungry data centers.

    Electricity costs were a key issue in this week’s elections for governor in New Jersey and Virginia, a data center hotspot, and in Georgia, where Democrats ousted two Republican incumbents for seats on the state’s utility regulatory commission.

    Voters in New Jersey, Virginia, California and New York City all cited economic concerns as the top issue, as Democrats and Republicans gird for a debate over affordability in the intensifying midterm battle to control Congress.

    Already, President Donald Trump is signaling that he’ll focus on affordability next year as he and Republicans try to maintain their slim congressional majorities, while Democrats are blaming Trump for rising household costs.

    Front and center may be electricity bills, which in many places are increasing at a rate faster than U.S. inflation on average — although not everywhere.

    “There’s a lot of pressure on politicians to talk about affordability, and electricity prices are right now the most clear example of problems of affordability,” said Dan Cassino, a professor of politics and government and pollster at Fairleigh Dickinson University in New Jersey.

    Rising electric costs aren’t expected to ease and many Americans could see an increase on their monthly bills in the middle of next year’s campaigns.

    Higher electric bills on the horizon

    Gas and electric utilities are seeking or already secured rate increases of more that $34 billion in the first three quarters of 2025, consumer advocacy organization PowerLines reported. That was more than double the same period last year.

    With some 80 million Americans struggling to pay their utility bills, “it’s a life or death and ‘eat or heat’ type decision that people have to make,” said Charles Hua, PowerLines’ founder.

    In Georgia, proposals to build data centers have roiled communities, while a victorious Democrat, Peter Hubbard, accused Republicans on the commission of “rubber-stamping” rate increases by Georgia Power, a subsidiary of power giant Southern Co.

    Monthly Georgia Power bills have risen six times over the past two years, now averaging $175 a month for a typical residential customer.

    Hubbard’s message seemed to resonate with voters. Rebecca Mekonnen, who lives in the Atlanta suburb of Stone Mountain, said she voted for the Democratic challengers, and wants to see “more affordable pricing. That’s the main thing. It’s running my pocket right now.”

    Now, Georgia Power is proposing to spend $15 billion to expand its power generating capacity, primarily to meet demand from data centers, and Hubbard is questioning whether data centers will pay their fair share — or share it with regular ratepayers.

    Midterm battlegrounds in hotspots

    Midterm elections will see congressional battlegrounds in states where fast-rising electric bills or data center hotspots — or both — are fomenting community uprisings.

    That includes California, Georgia, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Texas.

    Analysts attribute rising electric bills to a combination of forces.

    That includes expensive projects to modernize the grid and harden poles, wires and substations against extreme weather and wildfires.

    Also playing a role is explosive demand from data centers, bitcoin miners and a drive to revive domestic manufacturing, as well as rising natural gas prices, analysts say.

    “The cost of utility service is the new ‘cost of eggs’ concern for a lot of consumers,” said Jennifer Bosco of the National Consumer Law Center.

    In some places, data centers are driving a big increase in demand, since a typical AI data center uses as much electricity as 100,000 homes, according to the International Energy Agency. Some could require more electricity than cities the size of Pittsburgh, Cleveland or New Orleans.

    While many states have sought to attract data centers as an economic boon, legislatures and utility commissions were also flooded with proposals to try to protect regular ratepayers from paying to connect data centers to the grid.

    Meanwhile, communities that don’t want to live next to one are pushing back.

    It’s on voters’ minds

    An Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll from October found that electricity bills are a “major” source of stress for 36% of U.S. adults.

    Now, as falls turns to winter, some states are warning that funding for low-income heating aid is being delayed because of the federal government shutdown.

    Still, the impact is still more uneven than other financial stressors like grocery costs, which just over half of U.S. adults said are a “major” source of stress.

    And electric rates vary widely by state or utility.

    For instance, federal data shows that for-profit utilities have been raising rates far faster than municipally owned utilities or cooperatives.

    In the 13-state mid-Atlantic grid from Illinois to New Jersey, analysts say ratepayers are paying billions of dollars for the cost to power data centers — including data centers not even built yet.

    Next June, electric bills across that region will absorb billions more dollars in higher wholesale electricity costs designed to lure new power plants to power data centers.

    That’s spurred governors from the region — including Pennsylvania’s Josh Shapiro, Illinois’ JB Pritzker and Maryland’s Wes Moore, all Democrats who are running for reelection — to pressure the grid operator PJM Interconnection to contain increases.

    High-rate states vs. lower-rate rates

    Drew Maloney, the CEO of the Edison Electric Institute, a trade association of for-profit electric utilities, suggested that only some states are the drivers of higher average electric bills.

    “If you set aside a few sates with higher rates, the rest of the country largely follows inflation on electricity rates,” Maloney said.

    Examples of states with faster-rising rates are California, where wildfires are driving grid upgrades, and those in New England, where natural gas is expensive because of strained pipeline capacity.

    Still, other states are feeling a pinch.

    In Indiana, a growing data center hotspot, the consumer advocacy group, Citizens Action Coalition, reported this year that residential customers of the state’s for-profit electric utilities were absorbing the most severe rate increases in at least two decades.

    Republican Gov. Mike Braun decried the hikes, saying “we can’t take it anymore.”

    ___

    Associated Press reporter Jeff Amy in Atlanta contributed to this report.

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  • Indiana Parole Board rejects death row inmate Roy Ward’s clemency bid ahead of Oct. 10 execution

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    Convicted murderer Roy Lee Ward is scheduled to be executed at the Indiana State Prison before sunrise Oct. 10. (Mugshot from the Indiana Department of Correction)

    The Indiana Parole Board on Wednesday recommended against granting clemency to death row prisoner Roy Ward, setting up a final decision by Gov. Mike Braun about two weeks before Ward’s scheduled Oct. 10 execution.

    The five-member panel deliberated behind closed doors and released its recommendation letter to the governor outlining its reasoning. Board members cited the “brutal nature” of Ward’s 2001 rape and murder of 15-year-old Stacy Payne, emphasizing that Payne was conscious during the attack and her “final hours living with the injuries that Roy Lee Ward inflicted on her.”

    “Candidly, this Board reviews thousands of cases a year, many with gruesome facts, but the victimization of Stacy Payne stood out to us,” wrote parole board chairperson Gwen Horth.

    The board’s decision is advisory. State law gives the governor sole authority to decide whether to accept the recommendation and commute Ward’s sentence, grant a reprieve or allow the execution to proceed.

    Braun has yet to announce his verdict.

    Unless the governor intervenes, Ward will be the third person executed since Indiana resumed capital punishment in December 2024, after more than a decade-long pause. Braun denied clemency for another death row inmate, Benjamin Ritchie, earlier this year.

    Story continues below.

    Roy Ward Recommendation

     

    Ward declined to appear before the board. In a written affidavit, he said his autism spectrum disorder diagnosis complicates his ability to communicate, and that he wanted to “avoid any misinterpretation” of his remorse.

    Instead, his defense team argued before the board on Monday that his life should be spared. Lawyers pointed to evidence that Ward “has been consistently remorseful” and asked the board to consider his autism diagnosis as a mitigating factor.

    The board acknowledged the legal counsel’s argument that Ward was misdiagnosed with antisocial personality disorder during trial, and that autism spectrum disorder would have better explained his behavior. Defense counsel emphasized that those with antisocial personality disorder do not feel remorse, whereas individuals with autism can — and they recounted instances of Ward expressing remorse.

    But the board wrote that it gave “little weight” to either diagnosis, concluding that the jury’s findings were supported by the facts and that the preferred autism diagnosis “still does not provide the Board with any information into why this crime occurred.”

    The panel also noted that because Ward declined to appear, they were unable to question him directly, as they often do in clemency proceedings. Without that interview, members said they could not gain additional insight into what led to the crime or whether Ward’s remorse reflected genuine rehabilitation.

    The state — along with members of Payne’s family and community — urged the board to deny clemency, telling the panel that Ward “deserves no mercy,” and that sparing him would deny Payne’s family the justice they’ve long awaited.

    DOC obtains more pentobarbital

    The clemency recommendation was handed down less than a day after newly filed court records disclosed significant details about Indiana’s execution drug stockpile. 

    In pending federal litigation brought by Ward, the Indiana Attorney General’s office confirmed Tuesday that the Department of Correction has obtained “three sets” of pentobarbital.

    Indiana State Prison Warden Ron Neal said in a sworn declaration submitted to the Northern District judge that two of those sets will expire at the end of October — after Ward’s scheduled execution on Oct. 10 — and the third set expires in March 2026.

    As of late August, Braun said the DOC didn’t yet have the necessary execution drugs, but the state would purchase more pentobarbital when necessary.

    Story continues below.

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    The governor previously disclosed that state officials spent $1.175 million on lethal injection doses over the past year — $600,000 of which was spent by former Gov. Eric Holcomb’s administration on drugs that expired before use. The cost has been between $275,000 and $300,000 per dose.

    State officials have not responded to the Indiana Capital Chronicle’s questions about the amount paid for the latest three doses or if any of those are expected to expire before use.

    The filings by the attorney general’s office were in response to Ward’s arguments that Indiana’s current protocol creates a constitutionally unacceptable risk of pain and suffering, in violation of the Eighth Amendment.

    The inmate’s legal team continues to challenge the use of the drug, citing evidence that pentobarbital can cause flash pulmonary edema and sensations of drowning. 

    They point to Ritchie’s execution in May, when witnesses reportedly saw the inmate “lurch upward, as if to sit up, in a spasm” after the injection, a reaction they say is “inconsistent with the normal effects of unadulterated pentobarbital.”

    More execution drug details

    For more than a year, the state has resisted releasing details about its lethal injection drugs.

    Attorneys for Ward and other death row prisoners have argued that compounded pentobarbital degrades quickly and can lose effectiveness or become contaminated because it is mixed in small batches by compounding pharmacies rather than manufactured under conditions regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

    But the state’s latest court filings stressed that DOC is using “manufactured injectable pentobarbital” — not a compounded version — to carry out executions. Manufactured pentobarbital is produced in sterile facilities under federal quality controls, with longer shelf lives and stricter oversight than compounded alternatives, according to court filings.

    Ward’s attorneys proposed that executions could be carried out more humanely if DOC administered a “pre-dose” of fentanyl or another opioid before pentobarbital, but Neal said in his declaration that the department “does not intend to use fentanyl as part of carrying out the death sentence” and that it is not included in the prison’s directives.

    Ward also suggested firing squad or nitrogen hypoxia as alternative methods, but the state rejected those options. Currently, Indiana law only permits executions to be carried out via lethal injection.

    Public records also outline how DOC previously destroyed expired doses. 

    A “DEA Form 41,” used for documenting the destruction of controlled substances, revealed that pentobarbital was “burned” at the Putnamville Correctional Facility on June 6. Another record shows two doses of pentobarbital were destroyed on July 10 at the Indiana State Prison by “pour(ing)” them into “kitty litter.”

    It remains unclear where the execution drugs are sourced from, however. State law still protects the identity of suppliers.

    Indiana Code prohibits disclosure of “the supplier’s identity through discovery or as evidence in any civil or criminal proceeding” and exempts suppliers from oversight by the pharmacy and medical licensing boards.

    State law also does not provide access for journalists to witness executions unless invited by the condemned person. A federal lawsuit challenging that restriction is still pending. Indiana Capital Chronicle is a plaintiff in the case.

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  • Indiana Public Safety Secretary Jennifer-Ruth Green resigns

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    Secretary of Public Safety Jennifer-Ruth Green following a presentation with the Senate Appropriations Committee on March 13, 2025. (Whitney Downard/Indiana Capital Chronicle)

    Jennifer-Ruth Green has stepped down as Indiana’s Secretary of Public Safety, Gov. Mike Braun announced Saturday, marking the first major shakeup in his cabinet since taking office.

    Braun said Indiana State Police Superintendent Anthony Scott will take on an expanded role as the new secretary of public safety.

    “I am pleased to announce that Anthony Scott, Superintendent of the Indiana State Police, has accepted the role of Secretary of Public Safety,” Braun said in a statement posted on X. “He will continue his strong and effective leadership of the Indiana State Police as Superintendent. Hoosiers will be safe with Anthony and the State Police setting the tone for all state government public safety agencies.”

    The move came less than a year after Green joined Braun’s cabinet — and opened the door for a second congressional bid.

    “She was a part of a transformative time in Indiana’s history and we wish her the best of luck on her next endeavor,” he said. The governor added that he would announce “additional personnel updates and efficiencies in the Office of Public Safety at the beginning of the week.”

    On Sunday, Green posted her own statement on X.

    “Many thanks to Governor Braun for the honor of serving as Indiana’s inaugural Secretary of Public Safety. I’m honored to have worked alongside so many great leaders around the state,” she said. “Secretary Scott will do an amazing job in this position, and I look forward to watching his successes. I’m off to military duty — always a privilege to wear the uniform, and I’m excited for the future.”

    The military service Green referenced is not a deployment but routine National Guard duty, expected to last only a week or two.

    Indiana State Police Superintendent Anthony Scott tours an ISP garage alongside Gov. Mike Braun on Friday, Aug. 29, 2025, in Indianapolis. (Casey Smith/Indiana Capital Chronicle)

    Neither Green nor the governor’s office provided further details about her future plans, however.

    Even so, Green has been a rising figure in state Republican politics since her 2022 run for U.S. Congress in Indiana’s 1st District, where she mounted a competitive challenge to Democratic Rep. Frank Mrvan. 

    Despite losing that race, Green came within 5 percentage points in a traditionally Democratic stronghold.

    Tim Edson, who served as Green’s consultant on her 2022 congressional race, told the Indiana Capital Chronicle that Green “is seriously weighing another run for Congress in northwest Indiana and Republican leaders in Indiana and nationally are encouraging her to enter the race.”

    Republicans are currently weighing mid-cycle redistricting, aiming to grow the number of GOP-held seats in Congress. The 1st District, along with Marion County’s 7th District, are both held by Democrats.

    Green, a combat veteran and cybersecurity expert, had been appointed to the post in December as part of Braun’s incoming administration. At the time, Braun said her “military and cybersecurity background made her uniquely qualified to lead Indiana’s public safety agencies.”

    Green previously commanded the 122nd Cyber Operations Flight in Fort Wayne and deployed to Baghdad with the Multinational Security Transition Command-Iraq. A U.S. Air Force Academy graduate, she is an FAA-certified pilot and a former Air Force Special Agent. She also served as Deputy Commander of the 11th Operations Group at Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling in Washington, D.C.

    Upon being named secretary, Green pledged to “bring a strategic, comprehensive approach to public safety that protects Hoosier families and supports our first responders.”

    Scott, who has led the Indiana State Police since earlier this year, will now oversee the state’s entire public safety apparatus while remaining in charge of the department.

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  • Polling memo reveals risk for Indiana Republicans as they weigh redistricting

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    A majority of Indiana voters oppose mid-decade redistricting in their state, a new poll shows, as White House officials host Hoosier Republicans in Washington Tuesday amid President Donald Trump’s redistricting pressure campaign.

    The survey from left-leaning firm Change Research — which was commissioned by Count US IN, an Indiana-based nonprofit focused on increasing voter turnout and was obtained by POLITICO — shows several vulnerabilities for Republicans as Trump’s push to protect the GOP’s House majority sparks a nationwide redistricting arms race.

    Fifty-two percent of registered voters in Indiana — which Trump won by 19 points last year — said they are against Republicans revising their maps, with 43 percent “strongly” opposing the effort.

    That opposition rises to 60 percent after voters are informed of arguments for and against redistricting. The memo summarizing the survey breaks down some responses by party affiliation, but not all. The poll of 1,662 registered voters was conducted online between Aug. 18 to 21 and has a margin of sampling error of 2.6 percent.

    The unfavorable views of redistricting come as some four dozen of Indiana’s GOP lawmakers visit the White House on Tuesday for what’s being billed as a state leadership conference to coach legislators on how to sell the president’s agenda back home. The lawmakers are slated to meet with the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs, per a person familiar with the planning. The group is expected to include Indiana House Speaker Todd Huston, whose daughter, Liz Huston, is one of White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt’s assistants.

    The visit was put on the books before Vice President JD Vance and administration officials traveled to Indiana to prod Gov. Mike Braun and top state lawmakers into redistricting. But it falls against the backdrop of the White House ratcheting up pressure on red states to redistrict.

    Meanwhile, the Indiana poll gives Democrats some potential messaging guidance as they race to counter Texas’ new map and the potential for more GOP pickups across Indiana, Missouri, Ohio and Florida — even thought Republicans hold a supermajority in Indiana’s Legislature. GOP lawmakers outnumber Democrats there four-to-one in the Senate, and hold 70 seats in the House to Democrats’ 30.

    Nearly two-thirds of the survey respondents said gerrymandering should be illegal. And a full two-thirds expressed opposition to Washington politicians meddling in their state’s politics. While Indiana is considered ruby-red, registered independents make up a larger share of the electorate than Republicans or Democrats.

    Meanwhile, an overwhelming 81 percent of respondents agreed with a Democratic argument in the survey that redistricting “should be conducted in a balanced way to ensure fairness and that our communities are not disenfranchised for political gain” — versus the Republican argument provided to respondents that because Indiana is a mostly Republican state, “the majority should be able to draw our districts in a way that benefits Republicans whenever they want.” That included 68 percent of Republicans, and more than 90 percent of independents and Democrats.

    And 45 percent of respondents said they’d be “somewhat” or “much” less likely to vote for their state representative for reelection if they elect to pass a redrawn congressional map.

    That’s higher among Democrats — a whopping 88 percent — versus 55 percent of independents and just 12 percent of Republicans. Conversely, 40 percent of GOP respondents said they were somewhat or much more likely to vote for someone who voted for redistricting, while 34 percent said it would not change their vote and 14 percent were unsure.

    The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

    The potential for backlash comes as Trump’s push drives a rift among Indiana’s Republican officials. Some, like the state’s lieutenant governor, Micah Beckwith, have embraced Trump’s effort. All nine of Indiana’s GOP members of Congress have backed it. But several Republican state lawmakers have openly opposed it, with one hard-right representative panning it as “politically optically horrible.” Former Republican Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels said a mid-decade redistricting effort would “just be wrong.”

    Meanwhile, Braun, the state’s current governor, has remained noncommittal on calling a special legislative session to consider a new map.

    The White House isn’t letting up on its pressure campaign. Along with outreach from top administration officials, Trump’s political operation and MAGA influencers like Charlie Kirk have threatened to support primary challenges of GOP state lawmakers who don’t fall in line.

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