Hickey Seeks to Throw out Republican Council Ticket

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WPCNR CITY HALL CIRCUIT. By John F. Bailey. July 10, 2003 UPDATED 4:50 P.M. E.D.T.: Daniel Hickey, challenger of Republican Party-designated candidates for Common Council, Jeffrey Binder, Rosa Munoz and TimSheehan, filed a “General Objection” with the Board of Elections Wednesday  to the designating petitions of  the Republican trio, attempting to have the Board of Elections throw them off the ballot.


At a news conference this morning, the stung Republican nominees said Mr. Hickey filed the objection “without first examining the Binder/Munoz/Sheehan petitions.” Hickey, who was present, said he had not had time to examine the petitions, and simply wanted to protect his rights to examine the signatures. Hickey stated he did not plan to carry the legal process forward. The designated nominees alleged that Hickey simply filed the wrong form, (there is a general objection form and a form to request review of petition signatures), and questioned his judgment.


Jeffrey Binder, speaking to WPCNR moments ago, amplified his comments, charging that Hickey deliberately filed the general objection form, because he asked Carolee Sunderland, the Co-Chair of the Board of Elections about how he could file a General Objection form about 10 days ago. Binder said this clearly indicated that Hickey had deliberately planned to file the General Objection, and said he and his two running mates were not “stunned,” they were “outraged.”


Carolee Sunderland confirmed Mr. Binder’s report to WPCNR Thursday evening, saying Hickey had come into the Board of Elections two weeks ago asking how he could file an objection, and did so again the day petitions were due.

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WBDT Premiers ”Smokey Joe’s Cafe” Tonight.

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WPCNR’S STAGE DOOR. From Westchester Broadway Dinner Theatre. July 10, 2003: Leiber & Stroller’s Broadway favorite, Smokey Joe’s Cafe, premiers this evening at the unique Westchester showplace for a run that will take the show into September.


Smokey Joe’s Cafe is a hit parade of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stroller rock ‘n roll classics from the 1950s. Some of the songs you will hear and see performed in Smokey Joe’s Cafe will be “Poison Ivy,” “Kansas City,” “Fools Fall in Love,” “Little Egypt,” “Love Potion #9,” “Searchin’,” “There Goes My Baby,” “Is That All There Is,” and many more classics of Top 40 Radio from the 1950s. Dinner and Show range between $55 and $76 tax included. Shows are presented Wednesdays through Sundays. For information on showtimes and tickets, call 914-592-2222.


The theatre has also released its fall schedule of productions. Following the run of Smokey Joe, Broadway Dinner Theatre will present the Original Broadway Musical, Swing, from September 18 to November 15, followed by a Holiday Musical, November 20 through February 7, based on the famous film of the same name, Miracle on 34th Street.


 

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City Hall Shocker: Hot Wire Knocks Out Planning Dept. Phones Out to Friday

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WPCNR CITY HALL CIRCUIT. UPDATED By John F. Bailey. July 9, 2003, 11:45 A.M. EDT: The Planning Department at City Hall remained incommunicato and without telephone service in the aftermath of an electrical short-circuit that happened at 11:00 Monday morning.


The Planning Department reported this morning that telephone service was not expected to be restored until Friday. In the meantime, citizens desiring to contact the Planning Department should dial 422-1252.


The original short circuit that knocked out the Planning Department took place Monday. The Fire Department responded by 11:03 and took care of the black smoky electrical fire that occured on the Eastern rear corner of City Hall, where power is fed by wire to the Planning Department annex. The according to Fire Chief Richard Lyman was, he surmised, caused by an overheated electrical wire due to a current overload created by the high electricity demand and heat of the day, and there was no evidence that animals had possibly severed the wires.


City Hall did not respond to media inquiries as to the seriousness or danger of the fire. Jim Benerofe, on the scene at the time, (of SuburbanStreet.com), said the smoke was black, and observers were under the electric cable watching it burn. As of 9 A.M. this morning, the Planning Department was back in service and business was being conducted., according to a spokesman for the Mayor’s office. However, the telephone service was still out and was expected to be restored this afternoon.

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Hockley Introduces Apprentice Bill to Promote Jobs for Youth

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WPCNR COMMON COUNCIL CHRONICLE-LEDGER. By John F. Bailey. July 7, 2003: A bill authored and developed by Councilman Glen Hockley will be offered this evening at the regular monthly Common Council meeting beginning at 7:30 P.M. The bill requires any city department contracting services to ask a company whether or not they have an “apprenticeship” program, and the second part of the regulation requires the company to document the nature of the apprenticeship program they have in place. The bill also requires city contracted departments to post apprenticeship jobs and publicize them.


Councilman Hockley says he has developed the bill working with city departments and the legal department, and that it is designed to encourage companies to hire youths into trades positions “with a future.” Hockley told WPCNR that 25% of all students going to college do not last the first year and the vast majority of them are minorities. He reports that his bill provides an incentive for companies wishing to do work for the city to begin apprentice programs if they do not already have them in place. He also sees the bill as a way of weeding out companies who pay below trade rates to unskilled workers to facilitate low bids to secure contracts.

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Root Canal Puts Reporter on Sidetrack

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WPCNR White Plains Health Herald. By John F. Bailey. July 7, 2003: The pain was very subtle on Friday afternoon at poolside on Long Island’s Gold Coast. Just a slight throbbing in my left lower molars. I thought it was perhaps just a piece of food lodged in my teeth. It was not a piece of food causing my steadily increasing pain. It was as it turned, a root canal infection on a holiday weekend.


Fortunately for yours truly, there was Advanced Endodontics of Westchester at 222 (for tooth) Westchester Avenue, and Dr. Kara Diamond, who came to the rescue of this mouthy scribe. A terrific emergency dental service for those whose mouths have suddenly gone wrong (politicians take note!).


By nightfall on Friday, I had dislodged a piece of food with some floss, took some aspirin and went to bed, figuring the source of the irritation was removed. Not the case. By 2 A.M. the pain was so irritating that I could not sleep. I took more tylenol. No relief. I would fall asleep, and within 10 minutes I’d be up again with the steady irritating pain in my left lower gum. The only relief was ice water sloshed on the offending molar every 15 minutes, then by 5 A.M., I was sloshing it on every 5 minutes. The pain threshold was steadily worsening.


A Sleepless Night.


Ice water was the only relief, and I knew something was seriously wrong with my mouth. The only question was what? Mouth cancer? An abcess? And it had come out of nowhere.


At 8:30 A.M. Saturday morning, I called my dentist emergency number, and fortunately the call got through to him. He suggested trying hot coffee on the tooth as a test, and when I reported the tooth area hurt more, he said it appeared I might have a “dead tooth.” He said he could not handle the work needed because it involved a root canal procedure. He referred me to Advanced Endodontics of Westchester on Westchester Avenue. Their receptionist scheduled me in for 12:20 PM Saturday morning. They did not take insurance. But they did take credit cards.


As the morning wore on, with me sloshing ice water on the tooth area, the relief the icy water gave my tooth did not last as long. I mean, I tell you folks, when you have an infected tooth, the dull irritating pain does not let you concentrate on anything. Fortunately, this did not happen to me on any number of  the softball tournaments I usually am on weekends, as I was last weekend. What do you do in Providence, Rhode Island, when you get a toothache? Suffer.


Early to a Dentist Appointment for the First Time Ever.


Counting the minutes until 12:15, I finally pulled out of my driveway at quarter to twelve and arrived at 222 Westchester Avenue at noon. I had to fill out forms, as usual. The receptionist noted that my water I had brought with me was getting warm and got me some more ice water. By 12:45, I was ushered in, and we started with X-rays to see what was causing my problem.


I gagged on the sheer size of the X-ray slide holder that was being wedged into my mouth (the only truly unpleasant experience of the treatment), but the side molar X-rays did not reveal the problem. Then Dr. Diamond came in to review the X-rays on the state-of-the-art computer X-ray machine. Dr. D could not find the exact cause of the pain and asked for another view to be taken using older X-ray slide technology. Meanwhile, of course, I could not lubricate my mouth with icewater. But  considering Dr. Diamond was a very attractive dentist, I just hung tough like in the movies. After two more X-Rays, she noted that the root of the tooth had begun to decay from infection, and the infection had also spread to the gum.


I asked how this could have happened. She noted that it was possible a crack had occurred at the base of the tooth, or that the large filling that had recently been refilled was perhaps too close to the root and the decay might have seeped into the root. But it had happened.


They Do Not Wheel Me In.


One of the assistants said they would move me into another theatre of operations which was cooler. Foolishly, I asked if they wante me to walk over there. They said yes. (I mean this is the closest I have ever come to a medical emergency in my life, and hey, they wheel you in on “ER,” right?) Anyway, I was able to motivate myself under my own power, over to the next office. I do not know what possessed me to think I’d be wheeled in.


Dr. Diamond explained that she was first going to numb up the gum and the tooth and that would take about 15 minutes to take effect. As the novacaine took hold, the pain of the gum ceased. I found myself dozing off since I had not had much sleep. Hopefully I did not snore.


The Procedure


Dr. D first isolated offending molar with one of those operating aprons, put dark glasses on my eyes, then proceded to drill out the filling to get down to the roots. Though I felt absolutely no pain, it is very disconcerting listening to the grindout of your filling. Meanwhile Dr. Diamond’s assistant was sucking out the remnants of the filling flying out from the high speed drill with one tube, and another tube was removing my saliva. I have been told by my present dentist that I salivate a lot. ( I guess it is my reporter’s blood.)


So I’m flat on my back while Dr. D. is drilling out my tooth, and my main concentration is not to gag with all this activity going on in my mouth.


Removing the Nerves.


Now the procedure got interesting. Dr. Diamond called for several little doohickeys which I assumed were tools for removing the actual nerves from the tooth roots. This was a little delicate and I felt a dull pain the first time which I signalled by a macho grunt. Dr. D. took up her syringe and added a little more novacaine. And the procedure continued. The actual nerves are about the size of a human hair, Dr. Diamond had explained before the procedure. (Dr. Diamond had covered her luminous brown eyes with  microscopic lenses for the procedure.)


After removing the nerves a process that took about 10 minutes, a yellow medication was flooded into the roots where the nerves had been. The medication, the doctor had explained, was to kill off any remaining infection within the root canals.


Then a new temporary filling was put in place. The whole process took about 1 hour and 30 minutes I believe. And I did not gag once. I was then sent home with some Advil for the pain. I was also on antibiotics prescribed by my dentist.


Not the Only Sufferer


I was not the only victim of root canal pain Saturday. A couple walked in with the wife obviously in excruciating pain. Apparently her own dentist had been working on her tooth that morning. She was there for emergency treatment.


Advanced Endodontics of Westchester was there when I needed them Saturday, and they are a good resource to keep in mind for dental emergencies. You may not be lucky enough to get Dr. Kara Diamond, whose crisp professionalism and obvious concern about the pain of her patients was gratifying and, well, yes, comforting, but you will be taken out of your misery, quickly and professionally.


They can be reached at (914) 946-2218, and you can learn more about them on their website at www.westchesterendo.com.


Not so fast…Come Back in Two Weeks.


However root canal is a two-part procedure. I have to come back within two weeks to have the temporary filling removed, and replaced with a permanent one.


The cost for the procedure $1,200 and they will supply you with insurance paperwork, however you must pay them first and then have the insurance company reimburse you.


Thank you, Dr. Diamond!

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Adam In Albany: Join Me in My Summer Reading Challenge

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WPCNR’S ADAM IN ALBANY. By 89th Assembly District Assemblyman Adam T. Bradley. June 27, 2003:Summer is here and children across New York are enjoying the long, hot days. But just because the school year is over doesn’t mean that reading and learning should wait until the fall. I am calling on children and parents to participate in my Summer Reading Challenge, a program designed to encourage children to continue reading throughout the summer months.
Children who read with a parent for 15 minutes a day, for at least 40 days during July and August, will earn a New York State Assembly Excellence in Reading Certificate.

In today’s world, reading is often overshadowed by television, video games, and the Internet. It’s time that kids and parents rediscover the simple joy of reading. The challenge will help our children develop a love of books and improve their communication skills – as well as help them meet high educational standards. It will also provide families quality time together, which can often be difficult to find these days.

My Summer Reading Challenge is a wonderful way to keep kids reading for a lifetime and to establish a solid foundation for learning. Your local library is a good place to start the summer reading program. Libraries play a crucial role in our communities, and they deserve the resources needed to encourage learning in New Yorkers young and old. To ensure that public libraries are able to provide this invaluable service, I fought for additional library funding. This year, we successfully restored the governor’s proposed $13.3 million cut to public libraries.

My Summer Reading Challenge and support for public libraries are part of my ongoing efforts to focus on children, and ensure that they are reading and learning so that they are able to meet our ever increasing educational standards. Remember to drop in at your local public library and explore the fascinating world of reading, along with the many other significant services they provide. It is more important than ever to give our children a solid foundation now so they may be successful in the future.

Students and parents interested in taking part in the Summer Reading Challenge can write me at 4 New King Street, Town of North Castle, White Plains, NY 10604 or call my district office at (914) 686-7335.

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All’s Well That Ends Well: 500 Graduate One Day Late at Eastview/Highlands

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WPCNR SCHOOL DAYS. June 27, 2003: In an intimate, one-hour ceremony at Eastview School and a simultaneous ceremony at Highlands Middle School, White Plains Eighth Graders graduated today at high noon ceremonies hastily and smoothly improvised by the School District after the cancellation of their Thursday graduation at the County Center due to a failure of a circuit breaker at the Westchester County Center. The Eastview exercises were complimented by parents for the “home town” feeling, prompting many this reporter talked to to say the exercises should be done at Highlands and Eastview every year.



CONGRATULATIONS! Eastview Eighth Graders receiving their Middle School Diplomas at Eastview earlier this afternoon. Left to right, Dr. Joseph Casbarro, representing the School District, Peter Bassano of the Board of Education, and Dorothy Schere President of the Board of Education.
Photo by WPCNR News



INVOCATION: Eighth Grader Joseph Costable delivered the invocation saying it was “The Best of Times, it was the worst of times,” noting the historical events his class has been through, and ending noting that “of the best of times, they have had the better.”
Photo by WPCNR News




ACCOMPLISHMENTS: William Roscoe Lewis, President of the Student Organization, detailed a long list of accomplishments and activities the eighth grade experienced this year and spoke for many of the graduates, concluding his speech, saying, “High School, here we come.”
Photo by WPCNR News



LOOKING BACK ON MEMORIES, TIME FOR DREAMS: Assistant Superintendent for Pupil Services, Dr. Joseph Casbarro, thanked the parents and guardians for patience and understanding throughout the Westchester County Center power failure and cancellation of ceremonies yesterday. Casbarro asked students to raise their hands to show who came from Church Street School, Mamaroneck Avenue School, Post Road, Ridgeway and George Washington, and the parents and guardians looking on were impressed how balanced a representation of the five elementary schools there was. Casbarro encouraged them to remember their times at the elementary schools, saying now that they were entering high school, it was the time to dream…and that only they could make those dreams come true.
Photo by WPCNR News




PRINCIPAL ADVISES BALANCE:
Joseph Cloherty, Prinicipal of Eastview, advised the students that achieving balance among disciplines and appreciations was a goal of education, and that they should strive to achieve that balance as they continue their academic careers.
Photo by WPCNR News
After presentation of diplomas, Mr. Cloherty said, I present you with the White Plains High School Class of 2007.



“POMP AND CIRCUMSTANCE” was played on solo trumpet by Laura Mazziotti, and Ms. Mazziotti also performed the recessional. Here the graduates prepare to march out into the sunshine.
Photo by WPCNR News


The big old auditorium, lonely on graduation days for many years, had taken on a splendid appearance. It seemed brighter, warmer (literally and figuratively), as if cheered that its students had brought the old hall a warmth it had not enjoyed in decades. All attending appeared genuinely pleased at how the impromtu (though you would not know it thanks to the efforts of the administration and staff), ceremony was conducted. Even the sound system performed perfectly.

It was a graduation these Eighth Graders will always remember.

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Power restored to County Center as of 4:45 P.M. High School Graduation is “On.”

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WPCNR SCHOOL DAYS. June 26, 2003″ Westchester County Communications spokesperson Donna Green told WPCNR moments ago that power has been restored to the Westchester County Center and that the White Plains High School Graduation is “on” as scheduled this evening.

Green said “this was not a Con Edision issue, but an equipment issue. From what I understand some circuit breakers tripped the system. Con Edison crews were helping working on the problem.”

Green said the problem probably occurred slightly before eighth grade graduates started arriving at the County Center at 2 P.M. today, but had no other details at this time.

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2,000 Swelter at Middle School Graduation That Wasn’t.County Center Loses Power

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WPCNR SCHOOL DAYS. June 26, 2003: The White Plains Middle School Graduation was cancelled this afternoon at 3:25 P.M. when maintenance crews could not restore power to the venerable Westchester County Center. A sweltering crowd of about 2,000 persons crowded in front of the center for about an hour and a half, awaiting word as to when they could enter the center, only to be informed at 3:25, one-half hour after the ceremonies were to begin that the graduation was cancelled.



THE GRADUATION THAT WASN’T: Power to the County Center, officials said to the crowds through poorly audible bullhorns, was expected to be restored by 5 P.M., at which time a decision would be made as to whether tonight’s White Plains High School Graduation scheduled for 7:30 would be held. An announcement was scheduled to be aired on local media outlets and Channel 77 regarding the High School Graduation at that hour.
Photo by WPCNR News


Superintendent of Schools for White Plains, Timothy Connors, told WPCNR the cancelled graduation would take place tomorrow at noon at Highlands and Eastview Schools respectively. The graduations would only be open to parents, he said. Connors said he had no idea what caused the power failure. White Plains Fire Chief, Richard Lyman, on the scene, told WPCNR he did not have information as to what the problem was either. One graduate to be was overcome by the heat to this reporter’s knowledge.



WEARING CAPS AND GOWNS and no place to graduate. Eighth grade students from Highlands and Eastview with parents and relatives from afar, lingered in caps and gowns milling for an hour and a half in hopes County Center crews could return the juice to the County Center.
Photo by WPCNR News

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WPHS Seniors to Walk as Ed. Commissioner Waives Math A Regents Results

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WPCNR SCHOOL DAYS. From NYS Education Department. June 25, 2003 UPDATED 1:30 P.M. E.D.T.: The handful of White Plains seniors who failed to pass the Math A Regents will not need to pass the exam in order to receive a Regents diploma because NYS Education Department Commissioner Richard Mills has declared the recent Math A test flawed, allowing seniors needing a passing grade on that test to graduate, to graduate without officially passing the test. Therefore the seniors affected, estimated at “5 to 8” Monday evening by White Plains Superintendent of Schools, Timothy Connors will graduate as planned.

Superintendent Connors told WPCNR this morning at approximately 11 A.M. that the seniors in question were having their grades “recalculated” without their Math A test result, and if they have a passing math grade without the test they would graduate.

Seniors failing the June test had numerous opportunities to pass the test the last three years but apparently did not. The test is usually taken in the sophomore year. A copy of the suspect exam may be viewed on the Education Department website at www.nysed.gov.

Asked why the students had not taken the test or failed to pass it before this June, Superintendent Connors explained that it was the students’ option as to when they took the Math A test. He said some choose to take it in their freshman and sophomore years, others delay it until they feel they have mastered the skills.

Here is Commissioner Richard Mills’ announcement jettisoning the results of the June 2003 Math A test, stating his plans for designing future tests:

Children are our first concern. We express that concern by providing the very best education we can. Fair exams are part of that education. This exam doesn’t seem fair. I think we made some mistakes with this exam and it’s up to us to identify and correct them. This situation is unacceptable and we are taking action now to protect the children. That done, we will turn immediately to the most rigorous, independent, public accounting of the test itself.

Some students are preparing to graduate this year and go on to college or work. Others will begin their senior year in September and are considering whether to go to summer school or to retake math in the fall. Still others are nearer the beginning of high school and are taking the test for the first or second time. We are concerned about all of these students and their special circumstances.

At my request, during the past few days experts have reviewed the exam and the results available so far. Here is what we have concluded at this point:

Preliminary data indicate a very low success rate on the June Math A Regents Exam. Yet this exam should have been comparable in difficulty with the January exam and previous Math A exams. Therefore, success rates should have been generally consistent, but they were not.

It will take some time to get enough data and do a complete analysis, but we have enough information to say one thing clearly: Performance on the June Math A exam is not consistent with performance on previous Math A exams. The inconsistency indicates there was a problem in the process of creating this exam. Finding that problem and fixing it will take time and study. Students cannot wait while we do that, and they must not be penalized.

We must and will always take steps that are in the best interests of the students. Therefore, we will:

Give districts the option to use the local course grade in place of an exam score for juniors and seniors to determine achievement of the mathematics standards.

Freshmen and sophomores (that is, students who entered 9th grade in 2001 or later) already are required to take at least another year of math (for a total of three years of math during high school), and they can take a Regents math exam again after another year of study. In addition, our analysis may result in adjustments to the scoring on this current exam.

Assemble an independent panel of mathematicians, educators, testing experts and citizens to review all information on this exam to determine what happened and why. They will also advise whether or not an adjustment should be made to scores of the freshmen and sophomores. Their work will help us prepare future Regents Math exams without the problems we see in this one. The results of that independent panel will be public, and will advise the Regents and the State Education Department. We will also continue to conduct our own internal review and make the analysis public.

Suspend the administration of the August Math A exam to provide time for any adjustments to the test content or scoring that may be indicated by the review. The next administration will be in January.

We already ask schools for extensive information on each student, and we have speeded up that effort. We are taking several major steps to determine exactly what has happened with the June Math A exam:

Gather data and analyze the difficulty of individual test questions and the cumulative difficulty of the questions. This includes how well students performed on each question, to see if some questions were harder than they appeared in the field-testing that was done in creating this test. Field-testing involves giving all test questions first to a representative sample of students across the State; this helps us determine their level of difficulty and therefore the scoring.
Gather and analyze data on:

How many times each student in each grade has taken a Regents Math exam.

How much preparation in math each student has had.

Each student’s score, to find out several things, including how close each student is to passing.
Gather and analyze data to compare student performance on the June 2003 exam with previous Math A exams.

During the past few days we have heard from lots of people. I have called as many as I could myself. Whenever we make a mistake, criticism and suggestions can help in arriving at a solution to the problem. I have discussed this with Chancellor Bennett and together we have consulted the members of the Board of Regents. I am especially grateful for the different perspectives of Tom Rogers of the New York State Council of Superintendents, Toni Cortese of New York State United Teachers, New York City Chancellor Joel Klein, Randi Weingarten of the United Federation of Teachers, Tim Kremer of the New York School Boards Association and many others.

Standards and good tests are indispensable to any effort to improve student achievement. They help protect the educational welfare of children. New York has high standards and highly regarded exams to measure achievement of those standards. Student achievement has improved in recent years in part because the Regents linked standards and assessments and the schools responded. We will find and fix whatever problems exist in this June math exam so that New York can continue to improve the education of all its children.

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