Chicago Sun-Times
‘TOGETHER, WE ARE’ CHICAGO
During his Super Bowl halftime show, Bad Bunny name-dropped and displayed flags of numerous nations and territories in the Western Hemisphere. His message of unity struck a chord with hundreds of thousands of Chicagoans born in those places.
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SHOTS, LIES? AND VIDEOTAPE
The Border Patrol agent who shot Marimar Martinez in October appeared to turn his steering wheel to the left, toward Martinez’s car, in body-camera footage of the incident released Tuesday by federal prosecutors in Chicago. The agent did so right...
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BREAKING THE SILENCE
There’s a common phrase in Urdu that Rabia Amin hates: “Log kya kahenge.” The 27-year-old law clerk said it translates to, “What will people say?” When Amin’s father was picked up by federal immigration agents last September and detained for more...
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Hotel’s brush with greatness
Hotels are not famous for fine art. Just the opposite. Once showcases for generic massproduced canvases ranging from kitsch to trash, lately they lean toward cutesy black-and-white photos echoing the visual cliche of the moment. Vintage cars. Soda...
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TRUMP’S RACE TO THE BOTTOM
Illinois Democrats are condemning President Donald Trump for sharing a racist video that includes a depiction of former President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama as primates in a jungle. And Democrats aren’t the only group calling out the president...
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DIVERSITY BOOM IN THE BURBS
A decades-old Jewish diner, an African grocery store and a Chinese restaurant — all steps apart in Skokie — illustrate how dozens of suburbs have transformed from majority white to melting pots
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LEADER OF ENGLEWOOD SCHOOL GETS HER FLOWERS
Kamren Lake remembers being 6 years old accompanying his mom to graduate school classes. Bored and tired, he wanted to leave. But his mom, Regina Latimer-Lake, was committed to staying. “She stayed … not just for herself but for her students,”...
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CHECKS FAILED — BUT HOW?
Legal experts are perplexed over how a substitute teacher convicted of abusing children passed a background check and worked as a substitute teacher for the Archdiocese of Chicago for over a year. And no one has an answer why. Brett J. Smith passed...
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‘I AM THEIR VOICE’
Marimar Martinez began to realize she’d been shot by a Border Patrol agent last fall when she lost control of her right hand. Driving away from a collision with three agents at 39th and Kedzie, Martinez felt her fingers go stiff. Her body began to...
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SUBURBAN TEEN BROTHERS ON FRONT LINES DOCUMENTING ICE
On Jan. 24, 17-year-old Ben Luhmann was behind the wheel with his 16-year-old brother Sam in the passenger seat, like they had been countless times before. As they drove through frigid Minneapolis to yet another scene where federal immigration agents...
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SIGNS OF STRESS
David Tapia-Rodriguez didn’t pay much attention to politics or news until last year. He couldn’t avoid videos of federal immigration agents aggressively targeting Chicago. He’s seen them roaming his Gage Park streets, too. And the thought of the...
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TRADING FIRE ON ICE
Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton went on the offensive Monday night against U.S. Reps. Raja Krishnamoorthi and Robin Kelly in the first livebroadcast debate in the heated Democratic primary race for retiring U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin’s seat. Stratton attacked...
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‘ENOUGH IS ENOUGH’
The cries for justice reverberated off Michigan Avenue’s high-rises Sunday afternoon. Thousands of protesters, collectively fed up after a second person was killed by immigration agents in Minneapolis, filled Congress Plaza and spilled out into the...
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BABY, DON’T YOU WANNA GO… …BACK TO THAT SAME COLD PLACE?
If New York City can be wall-towall tourists from Thanksgiving week through New Year’s Day, why can’t Chicago do the same — or at least come close? Chicago’s leading tourism tandem posed that question and answered it this week during a polar plunge...
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THROWN FOR ANOTHER LOSS
Federal authorities slapped all kinds of sinister labels on Chicago’s Juan Espinoza Martinez when they arrested him last fall, and they did it for all the world to hear. They called him a “high-ranking member of the Latin Kings.” They called him...
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TURNING THE PAGE ON THE DIGITAL AGE?
A line of shoppers is often seen outside the Andersonville stationery shop Paper & Pencil. At the front of the line, a store employee acts as a bouncer — preventing overcrowding in the 400-square-foot shop. The store’s capacity has been tested since...
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MAYOR PUTS BUYBACK PLAN IN PARK
Mayor Brandon Johnson said Tuesday that City Hall has dropped out of the competition to take back Chicago parking meters after determining that the $3 billion asking price “would have made a bad deal even worse.” “The price is too high and requires...
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VIDEO GAMBLING THIEVES HIT JACKPOT TIME & AGAIN
Nearly a century ago, serial robber Willie Sutton reportedly explained why he was sticking up banks by saying wryly: “Because that’s where the money is.” These days, crooks in the Chicago area seem to be centering on a new source of cash:...
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GOOD, BETTER, BUST
FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — Drake Maye threw three touchdown passes, Marcus Jones returned one of C.J. Stroud’s four interceptions for a touchdown and the Patriots defeated the Texans 28-16 on Sunday to advance to the AFC Championship Game for the first time...
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GAME CHANGER
Competition changes everything. Winning doesn’t hurt, either. Indiana’s courtship of the Bears and the Hoosier State’s offer to build a stadium for the team has lit a political fire under Gov. JB Pritzker and Illinois lawmakers. Bears President Kevin...
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CHICAGO LGBTQ+ COMMUNITY LOSES A CHAMPION
Longtime activist Rick Garcia, who helped strengthen the gay community’s voice and successfully pushed for local gay rights, died Monday from heart failure, friends said. He was 69. “There’s just no question in my mind that without Rick doing what he...
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PLAYING HARDBALL
While Bears fans are thinking about the divisional playoff game this Sunday at Soldier Field, team executives are asking them to think about a new stadium across the border in Indiana. The Bears sent a survey to season-ticket holders Monday asking how...
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Families search for answers
dren’s grandfather, her hardships don’t make sense considering what she is accused of doing. “There was nothing that ever led us to believe that she’d hurt those children,” said Davis, 66. Court records show Tolbert, 46, armed herself with a kitchen...
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ILLINOIS ON TRACK FOR SLIGHT DECREASE IN AFFORDABLE CARE ACT ENROLLMENT
Illinois is on track to have slightly fewer people enrolled in the Affordable Care Act marketplace this year following the expiration of enhanced tax subsidies that were at the center of last year’s federal government shutdown. The 4% decrease in...
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STUCK BETWEEN HERE & HOME
Jose Perez, a Venezuelan attorney who arrived in Chicago in 2019, had been contemplating going back to his home country for months. Rather than risk deportation after President Donald Trump’s administration revoked his temporary protected status last...
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THINKING OUTSIDE THE MUSIC BOX
As many movie theaters struggle to attract audiences in the age of streaming, Chicago’s Music Box Theatre is preparing to double its screen count. The art-house cinema announced in December that it has acquired The Heights Theater just outside of...
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SEPARATED, SCARED & SCARRED
Days after her dad was handcuffed and dragged off his landscaping job site by masked federal agents in November, 9-yearold Danna was visibly out of sorts at school. When one of her favorite teachers at Eliza Chappell Elementary School in Lincoln...
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LADIES FIRST
As others welcomed the new year with resolutions, Melissa Nunez and Elizabeth Branske became the first couple of 2026 to marry in Cook County. They made history as the county’s first lesbian couple to win the annual lottery and take part in the...
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‘A WALKING MIRACLE’
Gentry Hunt stared at the sky while first responders stanched the bleeding from his gunshot wound. Moments earlier, he was shot when gunfire broke out Sunday afternoon near St. Sabina Church in Auburn Gresham. One thought ran through his mind: “Thank...
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COLD SWEATS
Alone fisherman, bundled up like an Arctic explorer, jiggled his lure at the edge of Lake Michigan this month, getting few if any bites. Two seagulls skimmed the icecrusted water. A crash, as a woman nearby cannon-balled into the lake. A few moments...
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THE SUN-TIMES IS POSSIBLE BECAUSE OF YOU.
Every story we tell, every neighborhood we visit, every conversation we spark—it all happens because you believe facts still matter and that Chicago deserves a strong, independent source of local news.
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FEDERAL AGENTS IN THE CITY AND A CHICAGO-BORN POPE
Chicagoans have faced constitutional abuses, soaring costs and political turmoil over the past 12 tumultuous months. But they also got one of their own to lead the Vatican, plus an occasionally shirtless coach who just might be leading the Bears to...
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Celebrating the start of Kwanzaa
Kwanzaa is more than an annual holiday for many who celebrate it. Kwanzaa’s seven principles can become a guide for life. “The principles can be lived by everyone,” said Barbara Meschino, dean of Malcolm X College, which on Friday kicked off a week of...
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THEY FLED A WAR. NOW THEY’RE IN A BATTLE TO STAY.
Ilkhom, Shakhnoza and their three sons, who came to the U.S. via a Biden administration program to aid Ukrainian refugees, thought they wouldn’t be targeted by the president’s deportation campaign until Ilkhom texted, ‘I was arrested by ICE’ When her...
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JOHNSON BACKS DOWN IN BUDGET BATTLE
Mayor Brandon Johnson says he will not veto a 2026 budget that he has called “morally bankrupt,” instead allowing it to go into effect and staving off political gridlock and the risk of an unprecedented government shutdown. “I will not add the risk...
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COMFORT AND JOY — FOR ALL
Melissa Little sat beside her son, Matthew, in his wheelchair as “Jingle Bells” filled the auditorium. Little leaned in, shook handheld bells and sang along with the Evanston Symphony Orchestra playing on stage. This joyous moment was a long time...
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STEPS TOWARD A LONGER LIFE
Outside the iconic Garfield Park Fieldhouse on the West Side, Glydan “Momma” Hoffman stands in a large circle with about 50 people to warm up for a 1-mile walk. She tries to jostle her knees high, one at a time. “Oh, I hate that one,” Hoffman says...
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A NEW VIEW OF THE ‘BLITZ’
The first of four unmarked U.S. Border Patrol vehicles rolls onto a narrow one-way street in Albany Park. An agent in the back seat starts his body camera. At first, the footage includes no audio but shows the driver putting on his face mask. The...
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HITTING THE GIG TIME
Chicago isn’t ready to let go of its feel-good story of the year. The Leo High School choir, which captured hearts while placing fourth on “America’s Got Talent” in September, is booking gigs around town at an unparalleled clip — with no end in...
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HAND-WRINGING IN THE NEW YEAR
Rebecca George has had a cancel button looming over her for weeks. The 45-year-old Chicagoan was automatically reenrolled in a health insurance plan through the Affordable Care Act marketplace starting Jan. 1. But it would cost $796 a month — up from...
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HOLIDAY Deals
Smithfield has a solution for the most important part of any meal: premium, high-quality meat. We take our meat duties seriously. After all, the rest of the meal is just a side dish. Smithfield products were first introduced in 1936 in Smithfield,...
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CHANCE’S CHEER
One hundred children rode away from a Chicago Ridge Raising Canes on a chilly Monday with new bicycles and helmets, courtesy of the fast food chain and Chicago’s Chance the Rapper. The students did not just leave with bicycles; they left with holiday...
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NATIVITY SCENE STATEMENTS
Holding candles and flowers, a crowd gathered around an Evanston church’s Nativity display, where the familiar figurines stood quietly in the snow. But the Nativity display of Lake Street Church looked different this year, transformed to pay tribute...
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KICKED OUT
As last remaining residents were forced to leave troubled South Shore building raided by feds, some were relieved to close this chapter of their lives. But others were still struggling to figure out what’s next.
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BLIZZARD OF COMPLAINTS
The prelude to winter has pummeled Chicago with more snow this early than the city has seen in nearly 50 years, and people are slipping and sliding their way through uncleared sidewalks and streets. And they’re complaining about it. With record...
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SHE BROKE UP WITH HIM BEFORE FATAL SHOOTING
The mother of Chicago Police Officer Krystal Rivera filed a wrongful death lawsuit Wednesday in which she says her daughter’s partner, Officer Carlos Baker, was struggling to accept her decision to end their romantic relationship when he fatally shot...
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RITE PLACE, RIGHT TIME
Hundreds of Catholics took part in a procession down 26th Street in Little Village on Tuesday, marking the beginning of Our Lady of Guadalupe festivities. The mini-pilgrimage — which mirrors larger-scale celebrations happening in Des Plaines and...
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FIRST BUILDING ‘FUN’ AND DONE AT OBAMA CENTER
A glassy, angular multipurpose facility that features an NBA regulation-size basketball court and views of Jackson Park last week became the first Obama Presidential Center building to reach completion. The 60,000-square-foot building, called Home...
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QUARTER-ZIP MEET-UP ‘BIGGER THAN WHAT YOU’RE WEARING’
On Sunday, Shawn Michelle’s Homemade Ice Cream in Bronzeville was not only bursting with dozens of customers, but they were all wearing the same attire: the quarter-zip sweater. Some were bright, some were muted. Some were paired with bow ties and...
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HEALING FROM THE HORROR
Despite looming funding fears, Spanish-speaking mental health providers, wellness professionals try to help those traumatized by Trump’s deportation blitz
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STATION BREAK
One of the Loop’s oldest and busiest elevated stations is about to be out of commission for three years. The CTA State/Lake station is set to close Jan. 5 for demolition, city officials announced Thursday. The $444-million reconstruction project won’t...
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WHO ‘FAILED TO PROTECT OUR MOM?’
A year after Lacramioara Beldie was killed by her estranged husband, who’d been ordered to stay away, her family has sued Cook County and the company that operated his tracking device. In the months leading up to her death, Beldie received more than...
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WILL THEY BE LEFT OUT IN THE COLD?
For people experiencing homelessness like Ivan Patterson, Monday night’s snow was another reminder to get out of the cold and into a shelter. “It beats staying under a bridge. It’s too cold to do that,” the 52-yearold Patterson said outside the...
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LANDMARKING IRONY
When architect Louis Sullivan’s famed Chicago Stock Exchange Building was wrecked in 1972 to make room for a 44-story office tower, it caused an outrage that made national headlines and birthed the city’s modern preservation movement. In an ironic...
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BLEAK FRIDAY
Black Friday seemed quieter in the Chicago area this year. In years past, long lines of people would be waiting for big-box stores to open before sunrise to get Black Friday deals. Some people would even camp out in the cold. But this year, many...
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These 12 festive pop-up bars will get you in the holiday spirits
With the first snowfall having already blanketed Chicago, it’s beginning to look a lot like holiday bar season is upon us. At some point in Chicago, the holiday pop-up bar became a seasonal signature. While there’s generally no price for entry, most...
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A SNUBBED MOTHER’S WISH
A Dolton mother says she is still processing the trauma of delivering her baby in a truck on the side of the road, just days after staff at a Northwest Indiana hospital told her to leave. “After being kicked out of the hospital and begging to stay but...
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TEARS FOR TEEN, CALLS FOR CURFEW
Armani Floyd helped organize marches and food giveaways with his father, who became an anti-violence organizer after abandoning the gang life. Ulysses Floyd Sr. said his son “had a good future” and was focused on keeping his grades up, honing his...
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TRIBUTES, REMINDERS: SIGNS MARK ICE’S IMPACT
They appear tied to light poles and trees, taped to storefronts and random structures. The laminated paper signs read “ICE secuestró alguien aquí,” or “ICE kidnapped someone here.” A date and time of the federal immigration arrest is written in...
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WINTER BREAK FOR FEDS?
Fifty-six days have passed since U.S. Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino announced on social media, “Well, Chicago, we’ve arrived!” Since then, it’s been eight weeks of chaos and fear. Of Downtown patrols and boat tours. Of tear gas and...
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CONDEMNED
Sen. Dick Durbin is once again under fire for voting on a Republican-led measure that would end the government shutdown — angering Democrats who say the extension of health care subsidies must be part of any deal with Republicans. Durbin on Sunday...
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HE GAVE ME A HOME. ICE TOOK HIS.
On a November morning last year, my phone rang right before I was headed to class during my first semester of graduate school at Northwestern University. It was my mother. “Your father, he’s being deported,” she said. My father, who had lived in this...
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WILL RESIDENTS FROWN ON DELIVERY TAX?
Chicago residents and businesses would pay $1.25 for every package they have delivered — whether from Amazon or another business — under a proposed ground delivery tax that could generate as much as $275 million a year. Ald. Gilbert Villegas (36th),...
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JUDGE: FEDS’ USE OF FORCE ‘SHOCKS THE CONSCIENCE’
The judge began with the famous poem, which challenges people who would “sneer” at this city to show another town “with lifted head singing so proud to be alive and coarse and strong and cunning” as Chicago, which it called the “City of the Big...
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DAY CARE DESPAIR
Federal immigration agents entered a North Center day care and arrested a teacher Wednesday before searching each of the rooms without a warrant, a local alderperson said. Video captured two agents pulling the woman out of Rayito de Sol Spanish...
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THANKSGIVING Deals
For the Rossi family, Sunday isn’t just a day—it’s a tradition. For generations, the savory aroma of homemade lasagne has filled the kitchen, bringing everyone together. What’s their secret? The special wavy edge of Barilla Lasagne. With its ridged...
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CTA’S SMOKING PROBLEM
No matter what time Rigo Osorio rides the CTA Red Line on his daily commute, he usually spots someone smoking. “You see smoking people every time,” Osorio said as he waited for his train at the Belmont Red Line station on a recent evening. For Osorio,...
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L OF A RISKY RIDE
A Chicago man who says he has “subway surfed” numerous times since he was a teenager — surreptitiously climbing atop moving L trains and becoming an open-air commuter, which he often chronicled on video and posted on social media — says there’s nothing...
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FEDS GIVE OUT PEPPER BALLS ON HALLOWEEN
Federal immigration agents swept through the Northwest Side and north suburbs Friday, making arrests and firing pepper balls and pepper spray at protesters, as the Trump administration’s deportation campaign across the Chicago area continued through...
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APPEALS COURT PUTS HOLD ON BOVINO’S DAILY CHECK-INS WITH JUDGE
U.S. Border Patrol boss Gregory Bovino’s standing appointment with a federal judge is off — for now. The federal appeals court in Chicago put a temporary hold Wednesday on U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis’ requirement that the Border Patrol’s...
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