The Kansas City Star (Sunday)
Chiefs lawyer defends stadium deal to Kansas lawmakers: ‘Tried, true and tested’
Kansas lawmakers spent an hour Wednesday afternoon questioning an attorney for the Kansas City Chiefs about the logistics of how the team plans to build its next home — a $3 billion domed stadium — in the Sunflower State. Rep. Sean Tarwater, a...
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Why fate of Missouri’s historic abortion vote will center on Kansas City
Months before the historic election that legalized abortion in Missouri, Cara Hile rallied her neighbors to put the amendment to a vote. Hile, who hails from Grandview, spearheaded signaturegathering efforts for Abortion Action Missouri. She trained...
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What happens if Chiefs’ STAR bond plan fails?
The Kansas Department of Commerce is defending its plan to heavily subsidize the Kansas City Chiefs’ next stadium against critics who say the deal’s terms could potentially leave the state in a financially precarious position. Officials have projected...
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Is Chiefs’ Kansas stadium deal the largest ever offered? What experts say
By at least one metric, the incentive deal that lured the Kansas City Chiefs across the state line from Missouri to Kansas is the largest public subsidy in the history of American professional sports, a leading researcher on the subject told The...
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What are STAR Bonds? How the Chiefs stadium in Kansas will be funded
Kansas lawmakers and the Kansas City Chiefs announced an agreement Monday to move the football team’s facilities to the Sunflower State using a controversial funding mechanism called STAR bonds. The Kansas City, Kansas, stadium; Olathe headquarters...
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Longtime sergeant raised alarm on fraud in KCPD. Now, she’s suing
A longtime police sergeant has filed a whistleblower lawsuit alleging she faced retaliation after reporting widespread timekeeping fraud in the Kansas City Police Department. Sgt. Kathy Coots, who joined the department in 1996 and was promoted to...
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As KC pushes a 7-OH ban, a local lab finds ‘concerning’ spread of the drug
There’s a vape shop next door to one of Robert Thompson’s favorite Chinese restaurants in town. Earlier this year, he was finishing up a call before going in to pick up his order and noticed a flashing neon sign that said “KRATOM.” He’d never heard of...
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Passionate fans can’t wait for World Cup to come to KC
Hundreds of fans braved the December cold in Kansas City’s Power & Light District on Friday to watch the painstaking process of setting the field for the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Groups for the tournament were largely set Friday at the end of a plodding...
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Missouri is illegally keeping people with mental health issues in jail, lawsuit says
The families of six people detained in jails across Missouri sued state health officials on Monday, alleging that Missouri is illegally allowing individuals with mental health issues to languish behind bars. The class action lawsuit, filed in U.S....
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Kehoe wants to eliminate income taxes. Some fear KS-like budget crisis
Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe has floated a plan to eliminate the state’s income tax, an extraordinary move that would drastically change how the state funds operations and services. Kehoe, a Republican who promoted the idea on the campaign trail last...
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Kansas Citian to Washington: See what life’s like for those on ‘the bottom rung’
On most Mondays, Cynthia Ransburg makes her way to the Redemptorist Social Services Center to walk through the food pantry and get what she can. Maybe some salad, fresh produce — “the good, healthy food,” she says. And then when her Supplemental...
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Missouri’s new map carves 70,000 minority residents out of Kansas City district
Leonard Graham has lived the majority of his life in downtown Kansas City, the city’s urban core historically located within Missouri’s 5th Congressional District. But Graham, a 75-year-old civil engineer who owns his own firm, will soon be one of...
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Inside Missouri governor’s closed-door talks as Royals eye stadium move
As the Kansas City Royals eye a move to the Northland, a series of recent closed-door meetings solidify that Missouri is still in the fight to keep the team at home. Throughout the past month, Republican Gov. Mike Kehoe has held three private,...
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KCI refuses to air Noem’s TSA video blaming shutdown on Democrats
Kansas City International Airport has joined a growing list of airports refusing to air a video of Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem that blames Democrats for the federal government shutdown. A Kansas City spokesperson confirmed the refusal...
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KU sanctions fraternity after underclassman hospitalized first day of classes
Paramedics arrived at the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity house in Lawrence shortly after 11 p.m. on Aug. 18, the first day of fall semester classes at the University of Kansas. Over the phone, a 911 calltaker had coached the SAE men through performing...
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KC building from 1888 to be demolished within weeks
It has stood on the corner of 31st and Main streets for 137 years. Now the Jeserich Building, also known as the Tower building — a distinctive piece of 1888 Kansas City architecture, with its southwest Queen Ann turret rooms and bow windows — will be...
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As KC’s mayor eyes Congress, would he – and Dems – have a shot?
After Missouri Republicans thrust Kansas City into the national spotlight by gerrymandering the state’s congressional map, the city’s mayor immediately warned the move could backfire. Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas and others have argued the new...
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WEST BOTTOMS REVAMP
Elevated view of Kansas City’s West Bottoms at Santa Fe Street and Union Avenue where New York-based SomeraRoad developments plans the first phase of a $527 million redevelopment. The Avery building, left, Moline Plow Co., building (center) and Crooks...
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Tasting KC’s iconic COMFORT FOODS
The day before my internship began at The Star, I dropped my dad off at the airport. We had just completed a road trip from my hometown in Virginia. As I pulled away from the drop-off area, I started to cry. Don’t worry. This is pretty standard for...
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Will Trump send troops to Kansas City? Why some think KC ‘should be prepared’
As leaders in two major U.S. cities vehemently wave off President Donald Trump’s threat to send National Guard troops to address crime there, one question looms here. Could the Republican president put Kansas City on his list of places where he deems...
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Running mate of Kansas governor candidate accuses him of fraud: ‘Grifter’
Doug Billings, an Olathe podcaster running to be the next governor of Kansas, has been accused of soliciting a $2,700 donation for campaign software and pocketing the money. The accusation is being levied by the man who wrote the check as well as...
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Calls opposing gerrymandering KC are flooding MO governor, records show
As Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe publicly weighed President Donald Trump’s effort to gerrymander the congressional district that encompasses Kansas City, messages condemning the move rolled into the Republican governor’s office. “Please do not let the...
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Why all eyes are on KC — not St. Louis — as Trump pushes to gerrymander Missouri
When U.S. Rep. Eric Burlison received a phone call from someone on President Donald Trump’s political team late last month, the conversation centered on adding another GOP congressional seat in Missouri. For Burlison, a Missouri Republican, the likely...
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KCK trench was deemed ‘not safe’ days before collapse killed construction worker
Two days before Francisco Rodriguez of Kansas City, Kansas, died on the job, a contractor in charge of marking sewer and water lines expressed concern about muddy conditions making the construction site a potential hazard. A utilities locator with...
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Kansas City fire captain remained on job despite four DWI arrests, records show
Liberty Police got the bizarre call on May 13, 2023. A silver Ford F-150 pickup with Missouri plates had been speeding along Kansas Street “with no tires on the passenger side of the vehicle,” the report said. An officer dispatched to the area at...
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After Missouri repealed paid sick leave law, it could go back on the ballot
When Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe last week signed a bill repealing paid sick leave protections, his signature overhauled a voter-approved law that enjoyed widespread support in November. But the Republican governor’s decision may not be the final say on...
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Missouri abortion ban would also restrict transgender care. It’s already illegal
For Celeste Michael, the transgender community is being used as a pawn in Missouri’s push to ban abortion. When the 23-year-old went to vote in Lee’s Summit last November, signs outside her polling place falsely claimed an abortion rights amendment...
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ACLU sues to block ‘misleading’ abortion ban from Missouri ballot
The ACLU of Missouri on Wednesday sued to block a proposed abortion ban from reaching the statewide ballot next year, marking the first major legal challenge intended to halt a Republican-led attempt to ban abortions again in Missouri. The lawsuit,...
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Chiefs’ request to Kansas shocks Missouri lawmakers: ‘A shot in the gut’
Several Missouri officials expressed shock and frustration Thursday afternoon after the Kansas City Chiefs asked Kansas lawmakers to extend that state’s stadium-funding incentives program past its Monday deadline. A spokesperson for Gov. Mike Kehoe,...
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KCK voters OK’d $180M to rebuild schools, timeline for projects uncertain
Kansas City, Kansas, families may have to wait a beat before knowing when to expect new schools and campus renovations across their public school district. Seven months after residents approved financing a series of capital improvements with $180...
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Fight over Chiefs, Royals shifts local after Missouri vote
After Missouri lawmakers on Wednesday approved a funding plan aimed at keeping the Kansas City Chiefs and Royals in the state, attention now turns to Jackson County and Kansas City, where the teams currently reside. Jackson County residents in April...
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Kansas City employee sues after death threats over Butker post she didn’t write
A Kansas City communications staffer says her superiors ignored her requests when she asked that they clear her name after she was falsely accused of sending out a social media post last year that allegedly doxxed Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker and then...
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Kansas-Missouri fight for Chiefs, Royals will come to a head in June
Exactly 14 months after Jackson County voters rejected a sales tax that would have guaranteed the Kansas City Chiefs and Royals remained in the county, Missouri lawmakers will gather for a special session aimed at keeping them in the state. The...
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Why KansasMissouri economic ‘border war’ truce could collapse by August
The landmark Kansas-Missouri agreement that largely stopped the two states from poaching Kansas City metro businesses from one another risks collapsing in August, after Missouri lawmakers failed to pass an extension. The agreement’s imminent...
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Abortion will go back on Missouri ballot in Republican effort to reinstate ban
Missouri voters will decide whether to reimpose an abortion ban next year, after a landmark statewide vote last year that enshrined the right to the procedure in the state constitution and overturned a previous ban. The Republican-controlled Senate on...
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Kansas hasn’t had a Johnson County governor in decades. Could 2026 be the year?
Kansas last elected a Johnson County Democrat to be governor over a century ago. And voters last picked a Johnson County Republican in 1975. Will next year be different? The 2026 Kansas governor’s race — in both parties — could feature an unusually...
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Trump cuts are ‘dismantling support’ to these crime survivors, KC advocates say
When Shirley Fessler traveled to California last month, she expected to present at a conference on sexual assault and domestic violence. Fessler was a senior program associate at Activating Change, a nonprofit that helps crime survivors who are deaf or...
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The clock is ticking for Chiefs, Royals stadium plans. Is Missouri doing enough?
With less than a month left in this year’s legislative session, Missouri lawmakers have largely taken no steps to provide public support for new stadiums for the Kansas City Chiefs and Royals. State lawmakers are divided on the exact reason for the...
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The looming ‘big concern’ that could threaten Chiefs’, Royals’ stadium efforts
When Jackson County voters rejected a stadiums sales tax in April 2024, the economy was strong. Inflation had dropped significantly over the past two years and an imminent recession appeared unlikely. A year later, the outlook’s changed. President...
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Trump cuts trigger layoffs at KC area health department. ‘A lot of fear’
Jackson County Assistant Health Director Ray Dlugolecki sounded deflated. When the Health and Human Services Administration abruptly cancelled billions in public health grants last month, Jackson County Public Health wasn’t spared. The agency, which...
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Missouri GOP wants to revive 2nd Amendment law. KC-area top cops say it’s a bad idea
Blue Springs Police Chief Bob Muenz began his law enforcement career in the early 1990s and has led the department since 2017. He’s worked through periods of upheaval that have shaped and challenged law enforcement: Rodney King. Ferguson. George...
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Critics compare KC jail sales tax push to failed stadium vote
Next month’s vote to renew a public safety tax feels like deja vu to Kansas City Councilman Johnathan Duncan. “This tax and and the construction project that it’s centered on is eerily similar to the stadium vote,” he said in an interview the other...
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Kansas City fears losing thousands of federal jobs. How much economic pain will follow?
Waterbird Coffee Company, a downtown Kansas City source for lattes, sits two blocks from the Richard Bolling Federal Building, where thousands of federal employees work. Co-owner Brian Denman estimates up to 20% of his shop’s customer base are federal...
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KC Democrats join GOP push for state control of St. Louis police
Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas urged Missouri lawmakers not to do it. A slew of activists in Kansas City have long tried to end it locally. But on Monday, a pair of Democratic state lawmakers from Kansas City backed a plan to place St. Louis police...
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KC-area police, fire dismiss chaplains with IHOPKC ties in fallout from sex abuse report
All Grandview police and fire chaplains associated with the International House of PrayerKansas City have been dismissed in the fallout from a third-party investigation into a sex abuse scandal involving the 24/7 global ministry, according to local...
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Johnson County loves early, mail-in voting. Will Kansas eliminate ballot grace period?
Elizabeth Hunter-Blank’s commitment to voting is such that ahead of Kansas’ abortion rights election in August 2022, the Mission Hills resident paid to have her ballot shipped overnight to a marina as she traveled by sailboat across Lake Michigan. She...
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Top MO lawmaker pressures Jackson County on Chiefs, Royals plan: ‘Time is running out’
A powerful Missouri lawmaker on Thursday put pressure on Jackson County leaders to come up with a plan to keep the Kansas City Chiefs and Royals, suggesting that another stadium vote could come later this year. House Speaker Jonathan Patterson, a...
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Kansas program aims to draw Chiefs, Royals. Does it fuel growth or pick winners and losers?
When Mike Jacobi helped spur efforts to turn around Wyandotte County in the 1990s, then a moribund region shedding residents and businesses, local leaders turned to a new state economic tool to finance the Kansas Speedway and the sprawling Village West...
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Gov. Kehoe’s anti-crime plan doesn’t tackle guns
Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe last week rolled out an ambitious crimefighting agenda, proposing harsher criminal penalties for some offenses, more funds to recruit and retain law enforcement officers and enhanced detection of fentanyl in schools. Missing...
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Missouri’s new governor wants to keep Chiefs, Royals. How he plans todoitisa mystery
When Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe delivered his first State of the State address on Tuesday, one of the most pressing issues confronting Kansas City — the future of the Chiefs and Royals — earned only a passing nod. “We’re going to work hard to retain and...
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Missouri AG is suing China for hoarding masks during COVID-19
Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey’s office will argue at a federal civil trial next week that China hoarded masks and other protective gear during the COVID-19 pandemic that would have slowed the virus’s spread. But Bailey has previously said...
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Missouri, Kansas GOP officials prepare to help Trump with illegal immigration clampdown
Minutes after Gov. Mike Kehoe took the oath of office on Monday, Missouri’s new chief executive signed a series of orders – including two intended to combat illegal immigration. Some Missouri Highway Patrol troopers will receive training on aiding...
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Missouri Republicans want income tax cuts. Dems fear budget effects
Missouri residents may soon pay a flat 4% state income tax, under a plan advanced by Republican lawmakers who want to eventually eliminate the tax. At the same time, the GOP proposal would give the General Assembly the power to impose sales taxes on...
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Islamic State group’s influence persists despite losses
The Islamic State group has lost thousands of fighters to death or prison and suffered the demise of its self-declared caliphate in Iraq and Syria. But the global reach of the group, also known as ISIS, is still vast, in part because of its...
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Kansas City kids are dying in their homes as state agency pushes ‘family preservation’
After a 2-month-old Independence baby and her mother died last month in a police shooting, questions immediately focused on why an officer fired at a woman holding an infant. Before long, as an independent team investigated the shooting, additional...
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Missouri’s new governor is keeping a lot of the same people in charge. Why that matters
Missouri Gov. Mike Parson will leave office in January — but many of his top deputies are sticking around. Gov.-elect Mike Kehoe, who began rolling out his cabinet picks shortly after he won the November election, has so far announced he is retaining...
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Family of KC Chief who died of CTE feels shunned by NFL (and wants you to know this)
When the Chiefs selected Michigan State defensive lineman Ed Lothamer 26th overall in the 1964 AFL Draft, they weren’t to be deterred when Baltimore also chose him in the rival NFL’s fifth round. Even though Lothamer anticipated playing in the...
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Next Missouri governor predicts ‘tougher times’ for spending. Will Kansas City see cuts?
Earlier this year, Missouri Gov. Mike Parson cut roughly $1 billion from the state budget, including millions for Kansas City-area highway work, health care and civic groups, frustrating local leaders and lawmakers. Gov-elect Mike Kehoe will soon...
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KS Republicans back Trump’s tariff proposal. Why experts fear trade war could hurt farmers
One of President-elect Donald Trump’s biggest campaign promises — asserting sweeping tariffs on imports coming to the U.S., with higher sanctions on goods from China — could have unintended consequences for Kansas’ economy, experts say. The escalating...
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Witnesses detail Independence police shooting that killed mom, baby
Oval Spring Apartments assistant property manager Gavin Delaney was walking through vacant apartments Thursday checking air conditioning units when he saw a car racing through the Independence complex. After going to scold the driver, he saw a woman...
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Missouri Republicans ponder how to overturn new abortion rights
51,549 votes. That’s how narrowly Missouri approved Amendment 3, overturning the state’s abortion ban and enshrining reproductive rights into the state constitution. With more than 2.9 million ballots cast, the measure passed 51.74% to 48.26%,...
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Extended GOP control of Missouri would affect KC. What it could mean on crime, guns, taxes
When Missouri Lt. Gov. Mike Kehoe campaigned in the Kansas City area in the final days before the August primary, the Republican nominee for governor predicted his party would go on to dominate the general election. “The reality is, the way Missouri...
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Kansas and Missouri AGs could help Trump try to overturn an election loss
Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey, a staunch supporter of former President Donald Trump, possessed no power this spring to stop a New York jury from finding Trump guilty of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. That didn’t stop...
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Reddy voices ‘respect’ for Kansas abortion vote in ad
Republican Prasanth Reddy is leaning into the issue of abortion in the final weeks of his bid to unseat Democratic Rep. Sharice Davids, a lastditch bid to win over skeptical voters that marks a departure from most GOP candidates, who downplay the...
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As Kansas Republicans overhaul state budget process, will Laura Kelly’s influence shrink?
Every year in January, Kansas Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly submits a budget proposal – a spending blueprint for a $25 billion state government – to the Republican-controlled Legislature. Lawmakers poke and prod the document. They praise and complain...
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How will Missouri’s next governor confront crime in KC? What they say about officers, guns
Missouri Lt. Gov. Mike Kehoe, the Republican candidate for governor, often speaks about a “Day One” plan to tackle crime as Kansas City, St. Louis and other areas of the state grapple with gun violence. What’s in the plan isn’t totally clear. Kehoe,...
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