The absence of a strategy is not a strategy

Budgetting to spend every nickel that comes in, while putting token amounts toward reducing the highest per capita debt in the country isn't a fiscal plan, it's a political plan.

Spending public money may bring political success, but financially, it's likely to be a disaster.

The provincial government's current "strategy" is to boost public spending at twice the rate of inflation or more.

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Cabinet Shuffle: a summer yawner

O'Connor's out of defence and moves to national revenue.

Peter Mackay, DDS moves into the minister's suite at Disneyland on the Rideau. Little will change, except Peter's efforts to romance his American counterpart - or appear to - will fall flat.

Bev Oda manages to find a portfolio even less taxing than Heritage.

Diane Ablonczy finally gets called from the benches, but to a nondescript portfolio.

All in all, though, there's nothing in this latest cabinet shuffle to reinvigorate a party that had a plan to govern for a year and wound up accomplishing all of its meagre objectives in that span of time.

The same cabinet as the one before - that's basically what it is - will undoubtedly continue to vamp until the Prime Minister figures out how come his game theorist buddies never gamed this scenario.

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A teapot for the probos...probisc...nose

A truly creative pitch for a truly creative product.

Pet rocks are child's play compared to persuading grown men and women to shove porcelain up their nostrils in a bid for better proboscal health.

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The newest newspaper trend?

Outsourced editting.

Already being used in ireland, outsourcing the editors job now hits the New Zealand Herald.

Update 14 Aug 07: Offal News picks up the story and takes it a step further with news of one California newspaper that has outsourced reporting on local news to Mumbai and Bangalore.

And here I thought Sheena of the Comments section was just kidding.

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The Summer of Flood

Not to be outdone, Quebec premier Jean Charest is getting in on the flood recovery thing, promising to call out the army to help repair damage from a flood in the Saguenay region.

If the troops roll in, who foots the bill: Ottawa or Quebec City?

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SOL Day 46: Other people's money

The public sector must be the engine of votes.

Danny Williams is promising to reward public sector employees - presumably with hefty pay hikes - after the next election.

It's easy to be generous when you use other people's money.

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Hebron: be cautious

News that Hebron talks are back on should be greeted with an abundance of healthy caution if not outright scepticism.

For one thing, take a look at the language used by the provincial government, through the Premier's spokeswoman, versus comments from the oil companies.

We'll take a more detailed look at the whole issue over the next couple of days, but for now let's just leave it as a matter of caution.

And while you are starting to think of the risks and the consequences, take note of a comment made by CBC's David Cochrane [Realplayer video file] about the linkage between Hebron and the Lower Churchill.

Then take a gander at Bond Papers before the collapse of Hebron talks:

More to the point though, Williams needs the cash that will flow from development heading into the next election, likely his last. Money from Hebron can be used by Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro to help develop Williams' glory piece, Lower Churchill development, as a "go-it-alone' project.

Without Hebron cash, Williams will be forced to take the Ontario and Quebec proposal. That circumstance would demolish the carefully built facade of the resurgent and vibrant Newfoundland and Labrador which thrives under his leadership and which can tackle any project by itself, of course with Danny in charge. The illusive and sometimes illusory Lower Churchill project would become, in Danny's view, the antidote to the supposed failure of the Upper Churchill development if it is built with as little outside help as possible. With that project under his belt and with a clean sweep of the provincial legislature's seats in late 2007, Williams will head off to his next goal. Maybe Ottawa has been singing the same siren call to Williams it has sung to at least one other premier.

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Beating yourself to the punch

So how is it Danny Williams started on a national energy plan two years after starting the provincial one and he still finished the national one first?

Does anyone else find that just a wee bit unusual?

It's not like there wasn't already seven years work invested in the provincial plan or anything.

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In defence of blogs

Who'd-a-thunk it?

The bastion of the mainstream print media in Newfoundland and Labrador leaps to the defence of blogs, specifically the political blogs in the province.

Well, parts of it were more like damning with faint praise.

And those were the parts that tried to discuss blogs generally while really talking about specific types of blogs and not really getting it right anyways.

Ah well, let's save the discussion of blogs and the conventional news media for another post.

For now, let's just note that this editorial - as thankful as bloggers are to see it - was really about an ongoing pissing match between the Telegram and an apparently very frustrated former Telegram reporter who now works cranking out another newspaper from offices on Harbour Drive.

Still, it's fun to read the two offering views on new media. It almost makes for a Sally Field at the Oscars kinda moment.

Well, not exactly.

But you get the idea.

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Newfoundland and the Great War: the beginnings

On August 7, 1914, the Newfoundland cabinet met at Government House in an extraordinary session prompted by the outbreak of war with Germany on August 4.

Britain was at war and while the Dominion of Newfoundland was also at war, the shape and character of its participation was entirely a matter for the Newfoundland government to decide.

An outline defence scheme had been developed in 1907 calling for creation of a local militia based on the local sectarian cadet corps and non-sectarian groups like the Legion of Frontiersmen. The original version of the idea dated from the Boer War, but an earlier Newfoundland government had declined participation in that conflict.

In these warm days of summer, it is hard to imagine that 93 years ago our ancestors were embroiled in what would become known as the First World War.

For Newfoundlanders and Labradorians, Beaumont Hamel - or rather the popular imagining of it - has been seared into many a brain, but little attention is paid either by scholars or by the wider public to Newfoundland and Labrador in the Great War.

Space doesn't permit a detailed discussion here, but it is useful to just look back at some key dates.

Britain issued a general warning to the colonies and Dominions on July 25, ordering that they adopt the precautionary stage of the war plan that each had prepared after 1907. Draft orders in council lay waiting - in Newfoundland, in the floor safe of the Colonial Undersecretary - for everything from the imposition of censorship to rationing. All that needed to be filled in on each order was the date and the name of the enemy country.

In Newfoundland, the government directed a paramilitary group called the Legion of Frontiersmen to guard important government buildings. They took up posts at the Waldegrave Battery on the south side of St. John's harbour, at the telegraph station at Admiralty House in what would become Mount Pearl, and at the main post office on the west end of Water Street in St. John's.

When cabinet met that warm summer's night, they had in their hands letters from the heads of each of the sectarian cadet corps offering their members and former members to form a local volunteer contingent for overseas service. Popular opinion lay solidly behind the raising of a volunteer unit, especially among the St. John's establishment. Volunteers from the sectarian youth groups was actually part of the government's defence scheme, so the decision was relatively simple.

Cabinet decided to offer them, along with volunteers of the local Royal Navy reserve division. The government sent their offer to London through the Governor in a telegram sent on August 8.  They offered the sailors from the Royal Naval Reserve Division the Newfoundland government created in 1902 as their defence force.

In addition,  the government offered to raise 500 volunteers out of the local paramilitary brigades run by the churches. This was consistent with government policy in the 1907 defence scheme.  The government supplied the boys brigades - as they were known in Britain - with obsolete rifles, slings, and bayonets purchased from the British Government.

The British wasted no time accepting the offer of soldiers for the land war, doing so by telegram the next day. They advised that further instructions would follow about the sailors. In the event, the sailors were the first to leave Newfoundland. They formed part of the crew of HMCS Niobe, a vessel many had sailed on before during their annual training cruises after the local reserve division was organized during the Bond administration. As an aside, according to some accounts, Sir Robert hand-picked the men who took part in the first training cruise in 1900, their passage on the railway paid for by the Newfoundland government all the way to St. John's where they embarked on a Royal Naval cruiser of the North American squadron.

There is more to the story of the opening days of the Great War, but for now, that gets us quickly up to a fateful decision. Almost a century later, the details have largely been forgotten, but the Great War proved to have a lasting effect on Newfoundland society.

But that fateful decision, one that led to Gallipoli, Beaumont Hamel and Monchy Le Preux was taken by a cabinet made up entirely of elected Newfoundlanders when they met 93 years ago today.

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Revised August 2019

Security concerns

Security for the Premier and his family (including the family home) is the responsibility of the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary.

If it isn't currently, it used to be not so very long ago and the police officers assigned to the detail are as professional and capable as any police officers anywhere.

So why exactly is the Premier considering hiring security guards, presumably out of his own pocket, after yet another incident?

We don't need to know the details; details of the Premier's security arrangements are not a matter that should ever be discussed publicly.

However, we should all be concerned about a situation involving the Premier's security which, as the Premier himself notes, is not the first time someone has gained entry to his home.

In any event, no private security firms - if that's what the Premier was driving at - should be involved in providing physical security to the Premier or any other public official. That's why we have the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police VIP details.

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Stunned is as...well... yet again

Queen's Counsel is largely an honorary designation, but it is supposed to indicate that the laweyer wearing silk has a knowledge of the law that is above the norm. After all, the title goes with the consideration, as spelled out in the Queen's Counsel Act, that the recipient is "learned in the law."

So how is it, then that someone who took silk, albeit long after he stopped practising, could not understand the law as it applies to police forces?

That's the effect of his suggestion in July:

I also agree with a suggestion that a reformed RCMP should become a solely federal force and get out of provincial jurisdictions altogether. Our own government here should kiss the RCMP goodbye and extend the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary’s coverage beyond the St. John’s, Corner Brook, Labrador West regions to blanket the entire province.

As a lawyer, albeit a lapsed one, Rowe QC should understand that the criminal law, drug laws and fisheries regulations, for example are exclusively federal jurisdictions under the constitution. The major provincial laws handled by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police relate to the Highway Traffic Act.

Rowe QC is actually not suggesting the change some people - and likely Rowe himself - think he is, beyond the superficial nationalist posturing he's wont to do sometimes.

No. What Rowe QC is actually proposing is that the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary expand across the province to become glorified traffic cops and meter maids. Meanwhile, for criminal offenses like murder, theft, drug trafficking and poaching, the Mounties would handle the cases across the province.

There's a brilliant idea.

As it stands right now, policing jurisdictions are geographical and within the geographic areas, the two highly professional police forces Newfoundlanders and Labradorians call their own, work without any difference between the two.

Rowe - in the guise of supposedly elevating the RNC - is actually proposing their demotion to a second rate service confined largely to catching speeders and litterers. The job of policing the tough stuff would be taken away from the local constabulary - under Rowe's clearly misguided scheme - and handed to the federal police force.

What a disservice to the RCMP, the RNC and the people of Newfoundland and Labrador.

What an insult to the intelligence of his readers who may not be as "learned in the law" as the freshly minted QC.

What an insult to the men and women from this province who serve and who have served at all rank levels of both police forces not just here but across the country.

Too bad, as well, that some people in this province - including Rowe's employer - actually take his bumpf seriously.

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Working the Hill the smart way

Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro has retained Summa Strategies to help with federal funding assistance on the Lower Churchill and on issues related to the development of an East-West national electricity grid.

Makes sense, if you consider that the provincial government has few if any friends in Ottawa these days and Summa is able to help overcome the personality clashes between the Prime Minister and the Premier.

The lead on the file - Tim Powers - is a Newfoundlander and, as much as it might be nice to have the dollars flowing in this province for the contract, the fact is there are very few lobbyists like Summa operating in this province. Of those that are here, not many of those have the kind of entrees in the Langevin Block available to people like Powers. He's a smart, well-connected guy.

Ordinarily someone from the Premier's Office would be able to take on the job. However, when the tone at the top is the hum of peeing on people's Nikes even over a visit to flooded areas, that pretty much makes it mandatory to engage some outside professional help.

That's the job Summa has apparently been hired to do: put the case for federal assistance to the places where the Premier just can't reach any more.

If it gets the job done, then it will be money well spent.

Makes perfect sense.

Just like it makes sense that in the registry filing Powers answered "No" when asked if the client is "funded in whole or in part by any government or government agency."

Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro is funded entirely by the sale of power to the private sector. It isn't funded by the provincial government or any agency of the provincial government.

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On being all wet after a flood

Give a listen first of all to this exercise [ram audio file] in how many times you can say "y'know" in the answer to the first question during an interview.*

Then take a look at four sentences that put the whole thing in perspective.

Ya know?

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* The answer is:

11 in about 42 seconds, with seven of them (64%) occurring within the first 12 seconds. There's a bonus "quite frankly" in there as well as a "right".

For the record, here's the transcript of the opening section:

Well, y’know, I, y’know, any time, y’know, a leader and the leader of the country, y’know, comes in to have a look at things first hand, I, y’know, I’m pleased he’s done that, but, y’know, he’s done it two days after the fact, he never even gave us the courtesy, y’know, and not only me personally, but this is about the people of Newfoundland and Labrador, the courtesy of a phone call over the last 72 hours while all this was happening, to say don’t worry, we’ll be there, and we’ll work with the provincial and the municipal governments to get this done, so, y’know, he comes in on his own, and does it on his own, because, y’know, I and my ministers certainly would have met him at the site, and pointed out to him what we saw when the rivers were raging, quite frankly, right, everything’s pretty well settled down now, and some of the road damage has already been repaired in order to allow, y’know, the transportation links to be back, but anyway, y’know, he does things in his own way, and so be it.

Astraeus cans London flights

Having only started offering the service in May, 2007, Astraeus announced last week it would be cancelling its twice weekly flights from St. John's to London in September.

The provincial government heralded the start of the flights in a news release last February.

"Our government worked closely with the St. John’s International Airport Authority in an aggressive campaign to attract a new supplier for this service and it is obvious today that this effort paid off," said Minister Hickey. "I applaud Astraeus Airlines for joining a growing list of organizations that view our province as a good place to do business. I also appreciate Astraeus’ expression of confidence in Newfoundland and Labrador and welcome them to this unique part of the world. I’m sure this will become a successful relationship."

In the photo, right, transportation minister John Hickey talks with Hugh Parry, managing director of Astraeus Airlines, during a news conference to introduce Astraeus' new year-round trans-atlantic service from St. John's to London, England. [Photo: Government of Newfoundland and Labrador]

Astraeus operates charter flights between Gatwick and Deer Lake to support the nearby Humber Valley Resort. The St. John's portion of the flights was an adjunct to that.

On July 20, The Independent, a newspaper published by the chief executive of Humber Valley's parent company, reported that

"Astraeus...intends to organize press trips for European journalists to travel to Newfoundland as a way to promote the province as a vacation destination. ("St. John’s is a gateway to a region which can truly be described as the great outdoors," [Astraeus' general manager of scheduled operations Richard] Cann says.)

There's no news release on the cancellation on Astraeus' website. In fact, the website still proudly boasts that "[t]hrice weekly scheduled flights to St John's commence on 27 May 2007 providing the only year round link between the UK and Newfoundland." One has to click on the St. John's page to find out the admission that flights end in September.

According to abtn.co.uk, an airline industry website:

The majority shareholder of Flystar – Astraeus is Northern Travel Holding ("Northern Travel"), created by the Icelandic investment groups, Fons (44%), FL Group (34%) and Sund (22%). Northern Travel also are the sole owners of Sterling Airlines, Iceland Express and Hekla Travel, the largest travel agent in Denmark, and own 29.3% of Ticket, the Swedish stock-market quoted travel agent.

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Foote wins Grit nod in federal riding

Judy Foote will carry the Liberal banner in the riding of Random-Burin-St. George's in the next federal election.

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Rideout defends 5K gift of public cash

No surprise.

Deputy premier Tom Rideout thinks it's just fine to hand out gifts of public money to groups in the province from money set aside originally in 1989 to run his district office.

As Jamie Baker reported in Thursday's Telegram, since the rules allowed it, Rideout thinks the whole idea is just tickety-boo.

Some observations:

• According to Baker's story, Rideout gave away almost half his constituency allowance in 2006 to things other that constituency operating expenses like travel and meals.
• The $5,000 donation Rideout handed out in this case is more than double a previous gift using taxpayers' money. Rideout notes he handed the $2500 secret payment in 2004 to Calypso.
• While the gift of public money was made to the Calpyso Foundation on May 11, Hodder indicates the cheque for it was cut sometime before March 31, 2007.
  
• There is no explanation for the time-lag or why the donation was connected to the auction held in May. As the Pilot reported: "When you factor in a $5,000 donation that MHA for the Lewisporte District Tom Rideout made from his constituency allowance during the auction, the grand total hit the $22,000 mark." [Emphasis added]
• Speaker Harvey Hodder is quoted as saying "Mr. Rideout is in total compliance with the rules as they then existed."
• However, the rules under which Rideout made the gift are still in place and will be in place until October 9, 2007.
• Hodder doesn't explain how the existing rules were met, though, given that in February 2007, [see second story below] news media reported spending in the House of Assembly would be handled on a new basis, or as Hodder said at the time "[t]he old regime changed." Presumably that meant a(n) MHA could only spend a portion of his or her allowance each month. For Rideout, with an allowance of about $41,000, a monthly pro-rated amount would be $3417, considerable less than he spent in that single donation and not including whatever other spending he carried out at the end of the old fiscal year.
• Chief Justice Derek Green was sharply critical of the practice of making donations from public funds and recommended the practice be banned. It will be banned, but only after the election.
• Since the old rules are still in place, it is unclear whether gifts such as the one Rideout made and the practice followed previously of MHAs spending most or all of their yearly allowance in the months prior to an election can continue and is continuing until October 9, 2007. There is no requirement for public disclosure of MHA spending and it is unclear whether the access to information provisions of Chief Justice Green's report will apply retroactively once they come into effect on October 9.
  

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Two Telegram stories follow:

Calypso donation legitimate, Rideout says
Minister defends $5,000 donation to Lewisporte charity

Jamie Baker
The Telegram
Thursday, August 2, 2007, p. A3

Fisheries Minister Tom Rideout insists there was nothing wrong with a large donation he made from his constituency allowance to a charity in his district this past spring.

In March, Rideout, the Tory MHA for Lewisporte, turned over a cheque for $5,000 to the Calypso Foundation, a non-profit organization that provides training and employment support for people with developmental disabilities.

He said the money came from what was left over in his constituency allowance from the 2006-2007 fiscal year, which ended March 31.

"I checked with the House of Assembly staff and asked them if there was any change in the rules for donations at that point in time and there wasn't," Rideout told The Telegram. "I made a contribution out of the constituency allowance to Calypso, which I've done every year for many years, and made it known it was out of my constituency allowance and not out of my pocket."

Although the cheque was cut in March, the donation didn't become public knowledge until after the Calypso Foundation's "fantasy auction"in May. It was reported by the community newspaper in Lewisporte, The Pilot, and Rideout himself referenced it in the House of Assembly May 24.

"I told everybody there, it was their money and I was happy to make the contribution, on their behalf," Rideout said in the House at the time. "I do not think anybody there had any problem with the taxpayers' money being used for that."

House Speaker Harvey Hodder said the cheque from Rideout's constituency account to Calypso was dated March 30, 2007 - just a day before the end of the fiscal year when the remainder of whatever was left in Rideout's allowance would have been wiped from the ledger as the new fiscal year kicked in. While the cheque had to be cut before March 31 to come out of that year's allowance, Hodder explained the actual claim wouldn't have to be filed until some time in April.

"There's always a carry-over," Hodder said. "He would've had to have that money left in his account - there would be no extra money at all, not one nickel."

While MHA donations are often anywhere from $100 to $500, the $5,000 contribution from Rideout actually represented almost a quarter of the entire Calypso fantasy auction earnings, which came in at $22,000.

Hodder said there are no directives in place that limit how much an MHA can donate per charity.

"Mr. Rideout is in total compliance with the rules as they then existed," Hodder said.

In 2006-2007, Rideout had a total allowance of $41,300. According to Hodder, Rideout spent $3,020 on per diem meals, $2,633 on per diem accommodations, $15,300 on travel and $19,016 on "other" - which is where any donations would normally be listed. He left $1,332 untouched.

As for Calypso, Rideout said that's who also got the extra money he was granted the previous year.

"The year before that when we got the additional $2,500 that's where that went, to Calypso as well," Rideout said, indicating no receipt was required. As for the donation made in March "a receipt was required and it was provided and it was made known publicly," he said.

Meanwhile, all parties in the House of Assembly have publicly stated that constituency allowances will not be used to make donations from this point on in keeping with the "spirit and intent" of the recently released Green Report.

The report recommended, among other things, that the practice be discontinued. That recommendation will not become law until after the provincial election in October.

jbaker@thetelegram.com


Departing MHAs spent entire year's allotment

Rob Antle
The Telegram
Friday,February 2, 2007, p. A1

Departing and retiring MHAs may have served half a year in 2003, but they managed to spend most or all of their annual constituency allowances.

House of Assembly Speaker Harvey Hodder said they didn't break the regulations, because there weren't any.

"There were no rules that governed it," Hodder told The Telegram. "The access was not governed. The maximum was out there. It's not that people did it wrong. It's that there were no rules governing it whatsoever."

Hodder said only one departing MHA spent an equal amount of their constituency allowance compared to their time served - roughly 50 per cent of the total for 50 per cent of the year.

The rest of them spent a larger proportion.

"Some people who did not re-run in 2003 - they were only serving in the House for five months and a bit of that year - had actually spent 80 and 90 per cent of their constituency allowances," Hodder noted.

"There were no rules. They didn't do anything wrong - there were no rules governing it."

Hodder said that even MHAs who publicly announced in the spring that they would not run again spent the higher proportion.

The 2003-04 fiscal year began April 1. The election was called in late September, and held Oct. 21. The new government took office in early November. Newly elected MHAs received a constituency allotment pro-rated from the time they took office until the end of the fiscal year.

Hodder said a similar spending phenomenon won't happen in 2007, which also happens to be an election year.

"The old regime changed," he noted.

Auditor General John Noseworthy revealed this week that politicians secretly approved an extra $2,875 constituency payment in 2004. Forty-six of the 48 MHAs accepted the money, which required no receipts for approval.

The twice-delayed Green report on pay for provincial politicians is now set for release in mid-February. It is expected to make recommendations on constituency allowances, among other matters.

rantle@thetelegram.com

NB studying 1000 MW nuke at Lepreau

Atomic Energy of Canada Limited will conduct a study - at its own expense - of installing a second 1,000 megawatt nuclear powered electricity generator at Point Lepreau.

The project would establish new Brunswick as an energy hub of Eastern North America, according to New Brunswick Premier Shawn Graham and would produce 400 long-term jobs.

It appears the power would be for export into the United States.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Stephen Harper seems to be focussing on New Brunswick as the only province in Atlantic Canada where he might shore up his party's crumbling support in Atlantic Canada.

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(h/t to Dulse and Fog for the Point Lepreau story)

This Danny-Hugo Thing, Part 2

Hugo Chavez hangs out with decrepit dictators like Fidel Castro, right.









Danny Williams gets his picture taken with Miss Universe Canada, left.

Of course, she might have mistaken him for ageing 70s television star Lee Majors in this photo.

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Saskatoon: Gateway to the Orient

From May, 2007, funding in Saskatchewan linked to the Pacific Gateway.

Did geography get altered under Canada's New Government?

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