Jobs data force delicate balancing act for Obama

WASHINGTON (AP) ? A third straight month of weak hiring shows the U.S. economy is still struggling three years after the recession officially ended.

U.S. employers added just 80,000 jobs in June, and the unemployment rate was unchanged at 8.2 percent, the Labor Department said Friday.

For the April-June quarter, the economy added an average of 75,000 jobs a month ? one-third the pace in the first quarter.

And for the first six months of 2012, employers added an average of 150,000 jobs a month. That's fewer than the 161,000 average for the first half of 2011.

Slow job growth has led consumers to pull back on spending. Many analysts think the economy is growing at a sluggish annual rate of less than 2 percent.

Job creation is the fuel for economic growth. When more people have jobs, more consumers have money to spend ? and consumer spending drives about 70 percent of the economy.

___

Here's what The Associated Press' reporters are finding:

___

OBAMA TREADS CAREFULLY.

Four months before voters pass judgment on his leadership of the economy, President Barack Obama attempted a rhetorical balancing act Friday.

June's slight job growth is a "step in the right direction," Obama said on a bus tour through Ohio and Pennsylvania,

Yet he also acknowledged that the economy must grow faster.

"It's still tough out there," the president conceded.

He said voters must help him break a stalemate in Congress that he says is preventing his administration from boosting hiring.

For Obama's Republican presidential rival, Mitt Romney, the jobs report could provide a point of attack in the dwindling time before Election Day.

And Romney seized on it.

Campaigning in New Hampshire, he called the unemployment rate "unacceptably high" and said Obama must take responsibility for failed policies.

? Ben Feller, AP White House Correspondent

___

TIME UNTIL ELECTION DWINDLING

Is it too late for Obama to win over voters unhappy with the job market he's presided over?

The election is four months away, and four more job reports will be issued before then. The final one will come four days before Election Day.

At some point ? now, or closer to the election ? voters' views of Obama's handling of the economy will solidify. And many analysts think four months isn't enough time for the unemployment rate to fall much below its current 8.2 percent.

"Time has run out," says Patrick Sims, director of research at the consulting firm Hamilton Place Strategies.

For the unemployment rate to fall under 8 percent would require an average monthly gain of 219,000 jobs from July through October, according to calculations by Hamilton Place.

Few predict job growth that strong.

___

THE ANNUAL SLUMP

The June jobs report confirmed evidence of an unhappy long-term trend: Hiring is slumping for a third straight year.

In each of the past three years, hopes for a job-market recovery were lifted by robust gains early in the year. But in each case, those hopes fizzled as hiring slowed by spring or summer.

June marked a third straight month of weak hiring ? an average of 75,000 jobs for the second quarter of 2012. That's far too few to lower the unemployment rate.

The 2011 job slump lasted from May through August. Over that period, the average monthly job gain was 80,000.

In 2010, the slowdown, from June through September, consisted of four straight months of job losses. The average loss was 76,000.

Over time, the economy would need to add about 150,000 jobs a month to drive down the unemployment rate.

___

SOURNESS ON WALL STREET

Stock investors gave a collective thumbs-down.

The market opened sharply lower after the jobs report was issued. The Dow Jones industrial average closed down 124 points, nearly 1 percent. Other stock indexes also sank.

Money flowed instead into U.S. Treasurys, which investors perceive as safer than stocks when the economy is weakening.

Never mind that you get almost nothing in return for lending money to the federal government these days. The yield on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury note fell to 1.54 percent, from 1.59 percent on Thursday.

___

THE LOST JOBS

Five million jobs.

That's how many the economy has still failed to recover since the Great Recession officially ended three years ago.

The nation lost nearly 8.8 million jobs between January 2008 and February 2010. Since then, it's regained more than 3.8 million ? less than 44 percent.

The economy has added just 137,000 jobs a month since employment hit bottom. At that pace, it would take three more years for employment to return to where it was in January 2008.

? Paul Wiseman, AP Economics Writer

___

WORDS TO DESCRIBE THE NUMBERS

Here's what politicians and economists had to say about the June employment data:

President Barack Obama: "It's still tough out there."

Mitt Romney: "This kick in the gut has got to end."

Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics: "It's hard to sugarcoat any of it."

___

GLASS HALF-EMPTY, GLASS HALF-FULL

Compared with last year, job growth is worsening.

Employers added an average of 150,000 jobs a month in the first half of 2012 ? fewer than the 161,000 average in the first half of 2011.

Yet by some other measures, the job market has improved over last year. The number of people who sought first-time unemployment aid fell to 374,000 late last month ? 12 percent lower than the level a year earlier. That shows layoffs have declined.

Companies are posting more jobs. There were 3.4 million job openings in April, according to the most recent data available. That's 13 percent more than in April 2011.

And the economy grew at a 1.9 percent annual rate in the first three months of this year. That's a weak gain, granted. But it's better than the nearly stalled 0.4 percent annual pace in the first quarter of 2011.

? Christopher S. Rugaber, AP Economics Writer

___

FED TO THE RESCUE?

As job growth sputters, the Federal Reserve becomes more likely to try to give the economy another jolt.

Economists generally agree, though, that the Fed won't act immediately and won't act at all unless the economy takes a sharper turn for the worse.

The Fed's options are complicated by the presidential election, just four months away. The Fed may be reluctant to take action close to the election out of concern it could be seen as affecting the vote.

After the Fed's last policy meeting, which ended with a decision to extend a bond-buying program, Chairman Ben Bernanke said, "If we're not seeing a sustained improvement in the labor market, that would require additional action."

The Fed's next policy meeting begins July 31.

? Martin Crutsinger, AP Economics Writer

___

IT'S A MAN'S RECOVERY

Men bore the brunt of the recession: They lost about 70 percent of the jobs. But they've benefited the most during the weak recovery.

Three-quarters of the jobs created in the past 2? years have gone to men: roughly 2.7 million of the 3.8 million jobs.

Dean Baker, an economist at the Center for Economic Policy and Research, says huge job losses in male-dominated professions like manufacturing and construction have forced men to seek work elsewhere. As a result, they've taken many jobs that otherwise might have gone to women.

Men have landed 474,000 jobs in retail and 123,000 in finance, Baker calculates. By contrast, women have lost 49,000 retail jobs and 65,000 finance positions.

? Christopher S. Rugaber, AP Economics Writer

___

THE 10 MILLION MISSING WORKERS

One reason it's been so hard for the economy to generate consistently strong hiring: Only 58.6 percent of adults are earning paychecks.

That's near a three-decade low. And it's down from about 63 percent before the recession ? meaning 10 million fewer people have jobs.

These people include not only laid-off workers. Some are young adults who are staying in school or older workers who have retired early. It also includes people who aren't looking for jobs and rely on disability or other government aid.

Nearly all have less money to spend than if they were working. They can't spend as much to eat at restaurants or to buy computers or furniture.

That means lower sales for companies, which are responding by adding few jobs. The result is a vicious cycle that's been difficult for the economy to escape.

___

STATES OF (RELATIVE) DISTRESS

Only 14 states have unemployment rates above the national average of 8.2 percent. But most of them have large populations. Thirty-four states ? more than two-thirds ? have rates that are below the national average. Two states, Arizona and Kentucky, are at the national average.

Unemployment is highest in Nevada (11.6 percent), where the effects of the housing bust are pervasive. The four states with the next highest rates are: Rhode Island (11 percent), California (10.8 percent), North Carolina (9.4 percent) and New Jersey (9.2 percent).

Unemployment is lowest in North Dakota (3 percent). It's an agricultural state that avoided the housing boom and bust and has benefited from an oil-drilling boom. The four states with the next lowest rates are Nebraska (3.9 percent), South Dakota (4.3 percent), Vermont (4.6 percent) and Oklahoma (4.8 percent).

The Labor Department's state-by-state unemployment data is for May.

___

'WORLDLY AND BROKE'

When Deborah Masse, 49, lost a job in 2007, she had three interviews and a job offer within six weeks.

This time has been different. After being laid off in October 2011, she's sent out thousands of resumes and had several phone interviews.

No job offers.

But Masse, who lives in Stanton, Mich., with her husband and mother, has been encouraged by the auto industry's rebound. She's seeing auto companies advertise jobs in human resources, her field. She plans to move next week to be closer to Detroit.

While unemployed, Masse says she's exercised more, learned some French and Spanish, and brushed up on her technological skills.

"If nothing else, I will end up on Social Security more fit, more intelligent and worldly and broke," she says.

? Christopher S. Rugaber, AP Economics Writer

___

UNEVEN JOB MARKET

If you're 25 or older, the job market may not feel so tough. The unemployment rate for this group was just 6.9 percent in June.

If you're a teenager, the outlook is much bleaker. Unemployment for teens was 23.7 percent.

Such disparity illustrates how the pain of a tight job market can depend on age and race.

Among racial and ethnic groups, black Americans suffered the sharpest increase in June. Their unemployment rate jumped from 13.6 percent in May to 14.4 percent. It exceeded the rate for Hispanics (11 percent) and was far above the rates for whites (7.4 percent) and Asians (6.3 percent).

The June jobs report left no doubt about the value of education: Unemployment was 4.1 percent for college graduates. The rate was double for people with no more than a high school education and triple for those without a high school degree.

? Christopher S. Rugaber, AP Economics Writer

___

MORE CARS, MORE GADGETS

Despite the overall tepid job growth, customer demand in some sectors is lifting hiring.

Consider the auto industry. Healthier U.S. sales, on track for their best year since 2007, are leading to more jobs.

Nissan plans to hire 1,000 workers at a plant in Canton, Miss., by year's end to build the Sentra sedan. Volkswagen is on a hiring spree, with plans to hire 1,000 at its assembly plant in Chattanooga, Tenn.

Technology companies are generally faring well, too. A common complaint is a lack of qualified software engineers and designers.

Demand is also rising for social media specialists, who manage ads on Facebook or LinkedIn or moderate online communities. There's also a need for Web developers who know HTML5, the newest version of the programming standard websites are built on.

Amazon.com is adding more than 7,000 jobs, mainly at order centers in California, Indiana, South Carolina, Tennessee and elsewhere.

? Dee-Ann Durbin, AP Auto Writer and Barbara Ortutay, AP Technology Writer

___

SHRINKING GOVERNMENT JOBS

As an employer, the government isn't helping.

The number of jobs at all levels of government fell 4,000 in June. Only local governments added jobs ? and it was a scant 4,000. State governments cut 1,000 jobs. They shed 13,000 in the April-June quarter.

"In the first quarter it looked like state and local government job losses were coming to an end," says Stuart Hoffman, chief economist at PNC Financial Services. "That turned out to be a temporary halt... Apparently, there's no end in sight."

The federal government cut 7,000 jobs in June. It hasn't added jobs since March 2011.

? Paul Wiseman, AP Economics Writer

___

A BROADER GAUGE OF PAIN

The unemployment rate doesn't fully capture the breadth of the jobs crisis.

A more inclusive measure is known as the "underemployment rate." And it worsened again in June.

This measure includes not only the unemployed but also people who want jobs but have stopped looking for them and part-time workers who want full-time jobs.

The underemployment rate rose to 14.9 percent in June ? up from 14.8 percent in May and 14.5 percent in April.

___

'FISCAL CLIFF' KEEPS EMPLOYERS ON EDGE

The job market could get even weaker once 2012 ends.

Unless Congress intervenes by then, income tax cuts will expire and $100 billion in spending cuts will kick in. This would push the economy off a " fiscal cliff" and land it in another recession, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

Jobs would become even scarcer.

A last-minute reprieve is likely, according to many political analysts. But until then, uncertainty is making employers reluctant to hire. More than three-fourths of the 32 economists surveyed by the AP last week described the fiscal cliff as a "major" risk.

___

CUSHIONING THE PAIN

When the job market and the economy weaken, energy prices tend to drop. That means relief for businesses and consumers.

Lower oil prices mean cheaper diesel and jet fuel for shippers and airlines. Falling gasoline prices give drivers more money to spend on things like cars, appliances and vacations that fuel economic growth.

Oil has fallen 21 percent from its peak in late February ? to $87.22 barrel. And gasoline now costs $3.34 a gallon, down 15 percent from early April.

As the U.S. and European economies struggle, oil demand is expected to weaken in the second half of the year. The U.S. is the world's biggest oil consumer, and the prospect of less demand tends to lower prices.

___

AS FOR THE GOOD NEWS...

Average hourly pay rose 6 cents in June ? the biggest gain in nearly a year. Hourly pay has risen 2 percent in the past 12 months. It's slightly outpacing low inflation, which has been held back by lower gas prices.

The construction industry added jobs for the first time in five months. The gain was small ? 2,000 jobs ? but it could rise in coming months because builders are breaking ground on more homes. And spending on commercial construction is up.

Manufacturers added jobs for a ninth straight month. The average work week grew. And companies hired 25,000 temporary workers.

Economists say those are generally signs that hiring will increase in the months ahead.

That said, job growth will likely stay too weak to drive down unemployment significantly.

? Christopher S. Rugaber, AP Economics Writer

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/jobs-data-force-delicate-balancing-act-obama-172750111--finance.html

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Be a Private Real Estate Investors with respect to Rewarding ...

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Source: http://answers.apostoliccm.com/2012/07/be-a-private-real-estate-investors-with-respect-to-rewarding-investment-in-home-and-property/

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Motorola DEFY Pro heads to Brazil, offers tough and tactile Android action

You got to give it to Motorola, it's pretty specific with its handset releases. Today's announcement? It's the DEFY Pro doing the Samba towards Brazil. The "lifeproof" phone is designed to battle the elements (water, dust and carnival spirit,) and is the first touchscreen / QWERTY Android handset from the firm. There's 2.7-inches of Gorilla Glassed screen to poke at, an SD card slot to upgrade the 2GB onboard memory (upto 32GB) plus GPS and WiFi (so you can find your way home with the morning after). How much for this party of a phone? We don't know just yet, but the fun starts on July 15th, when it becomes available.

Update: Motorola reached out to us with some clarification on its claim of being the first touchscreen / QWERTY Android handset:

The release denotes that the DEFY Pro is our first life-proof device to feature both a QWERTY and touchscreen. Motorola's life-proof devices are water resistant, scratch resistant and dust proof, ready to handle life's daily challenges, indoors and out. Admiral and Titanium have similar features but are categorized slightly differently since they are iDEN-based products and have different mil-spec certification.

Continue reading Motorola DEFY Pro heads to Brazil, offers tough and tactile Android action

Motorola DEFY Pro heads to Brazil, offers tough and tactile Android action originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 06 Jul 2012 11:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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New View's Head Start Receives Donation of 1000 Books | Eastern ...

DUBUQUE, Iowa? A donation of 1,000 books will help bring smiles to children in the Dubuque area.

Read to me Foundation donated the 1,000 books to New View?s Head Start program.

The program serves as an early childhood education program for low income families.

The bilingual books donation will help preschool students with their reading.

?At the time all this was going on, I just assumed that we would get maybe about 300 books, and I was notified about a thousand and I couldn?t believe it. ? Said Peggy Hanniford, Head Start Director.

The 1,000 books that are donated to New View Head Start will be placed in backpacks, where students will be allowed to take the books home to read with their family.

?

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Source: http://easterniowanewsnow.com/2012/07/05/new-views-head-start-recieves-donation-of-1000-books/

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Small Home Repairs That Make a Big Difference

Do-it-yourself home projects are a great way to improve the appearance of your home, and without further ado, here are several things that you can do to improve the appearance of your home that will not require professional help.

PAINTING

Preparation

Before you begin to paint interior walls, wash them to remove any dust or dirt. The next step is to measure the square footage of the area you intend to paint. You will need this later in order to purchase the right amount of paint. Before painting, consider priming the walls with a paint primer. If you use a good primer, the walls will require less paint for full coverage. Primer produces a beautifully finished wall that will look like a professional paint job.

Color

Colors always add depth and texture to a room. The right color can transform an otherwise dull room into a warm and inviting space. It would be wise to test the paint in the room before you invest in gallons of a color that you may not like. Many paint manufacturers now make small sample cans of their colors. Try a few samples on the wall to ensure that your money is wisely spent. Check out this article on Better Homes and Gardens for color scheme ideas.

After you have completed all of the above steps, you will have to choose the right painting tools and brushes to get the job done. Shop around for the best prices.

UPDATE YOUR KITCHEN

The return on money spent improving a kitchen is exceptionally high, and employing contractors to do the job can be an expensive endeavor that may involve signing performance bonds. You don't have to tear the entire kitchen down to make improvements. Small improvements can change the look of your kitchen.

Cabinets

You can refinish, reface or replace your kitchen cabinets. Refinishing involves sanding, staining and applying a fresh coat of varnish over the surfaces of the cabinets. If you decide to paint the cabinets, coat them with a paint primer before you apply the new color. In this case, the primer is applied to ensure that the paint will properly adhere to the cabinets.

Refacing

Refacing cabinets involve buying new doors for the front of the cabinets. This is a little more expensive to do, but the results can be impressive. Most home improvement stores have cabinet doors in stock that will match the color of your cabinets.

Hardware

Changing the hardware on your cabinets can significantly change the look of your kitchen. New knobs are relatively inexpensive, and they are offered in an array of styles. Attaching the knobs will require nothing more than a screwdriver.

Cabinet Replacement

This process is a little more involved; however, it's worth the trouble. Measure the size cabinets you will need and choose a style at one of the home improvement stores in your area. Installing the cabinets is a simple matter of unscrewing the cabinets from the wall and replacing them with new cabinets. This is a two person job. You will need someone to support the cabinets while you unscrew them. Be sure to measure your cabinets twice to ensure that you have the right measurements before you place your order.

Countertop Replacement

Replacing the countertops is a great way to give your kitchen a facelift. Granite is the most desirable choice; however, it can be expensive. There are many types of countertops that cost a lot less. Some are just as attractive in appearance as the more expensive choices.

Properly measuring your counter space is the most important part of this job. You can order new countertops from a kitchen or home improvement store. They will cut the countertops to the exact measurements that you provide. You will need the proper adhesive to install your countertops. Shop around for the one that best suits the type of material you have chosen for your countertops.

Installing the countertops is relatively simple. Position the countertops to see if they fit properly. Once you are sure they are the right fit, apply the adhesive on the on the tops of your cabinets. If you have a corner seam, caulk it with a colorless caulk.

UPDATE YOUR BATHROOM

The bathroom is also an important room in your home. If you have tile in your bathroom, one of the easiest ways to make it look better is to clean the grout. You can do this with a grout cleaner and a grout brush. If it still looks dirty after it dries, you will have to replace the grout. Remove part of the old grout by scraping the top surface. Apply the new grout to the top surface. When it dries, you will notice a remarkable improvement. Your tile will appear much brighter after the process of replacing the grout.

Fixtures

If your faucets and fixtures are old, replace them. Replacements are fairly inexpensive, and it will make a tremendous difference in how your bathroom will look. Turn off the main water line before you begin to unscrew any of the fixtures.

If the cabinets or countertops are not in good shape, you can replace them. Just like the kitchen, the cabinets can be painted for a cleaner appearance. Try painting them an eggshell color and changing the knobs to a brushed nickel finish. Brushed nickel goes with nearly everything, and it's inexpensive.

Bathtubs

If you have a bathtub that has a lot of nicks and scrapes, you can either refinish or replace it. If you decide to refinish, there are many products on the market that work wonders on the surface of an old bathtub. Shop around for the one that best suits your needs. If you follow the manufacturer's instructions closely, you should have a beautifully refinished bathtub without the high cost of buying a new one.

Take precautions to protect your lungs when working with chemicals. A good mask should be sufficient for small jobs.

Kent Yuen is a writer for Granite Transformations, a?home remodeling company?with exciting ideas for home improvement.

If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment or subscribing to the RSS feed to have future articles delivered to your feed reader.

Source: http://cabinethardwareideas.com/small-home-repairs-that-make-a-big-difference

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Colombian rebels kill five oil workers in south

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Childcare like you've NEVER SEEN before? - www ...

Magic Kingdom launches with a breakthrough innovation in NZ childcare & education.

Daily teaching and learning at Magic Kingdom follow the New Zealand Early Childhood Education curriculum (like most other centres). However the owners of Magic Kingdom recognized the need for parents to have early cues to identify, understand and visualise how and what skills and interests were emerging with their children. They wanted an easier understanding of the curriculum than what was available in literature and the Ministry of Education?s website.

?What we really wanted to know as parents were certainly all the high level learning outcomes in the curriculum like the teaching and learning principles, strands and goals being achieved by our child, but we also wanted to know early practical indicators of what skills were emerging in our child?, says centre owner Nikeeta Singh.

?The concept of skills, dispositions and interests gave us as parents a more intuitive and practical sense of understanding where our child was in terms of development and furthermore, it gave us a good sense of what we could do at home to reinforce, explore, and encourage those emerging areas?.

This is when their patent pending invention of ?Learning RootsTM? & ?Learning ShootsTM? was launched.

The model is based on the clever idea that:

1. ?roots? are the invisible part of a tree that: a) are hidden within (i.e. emerging interests, skills, etc), b) absorb nutrients (i.e. learning from teachers, family and environment), and c) hold the foundations steady for growth of the entire tree.

2. ?shoots? are the visible part that reveal the fruits, flowers, leaves, branches (i.e. the visible outcomes of learning and in particular which directions the skills and learning branches are growing in).

Magic Kingdom has launched a new web based tool that allows parents (with secure password access) to visualise their child?s entire portfolio and learning outcomes in a holistic manner. Each branch represents a learning skill in the NZ curriculum and each leaf can be clicked to open up your child?s learning story ? organised chronologically for easy communication and tracking. Presently, learning stories provided by most Early Childhood Education centres are filed in hard copy inside a folder for the child and parents to view. Some centres also make portfolios accessible online (as is the case at Magic Kingdom too), but these centres usually have a long list of learning stories for parents and family to view and it is often difficult for parents to connect learning from months ago with the present.

As well as viewing learning stories each month that automatically link the learning to general curriculum outcomes, Magic Kingdom?s teachers are going the extra step to also identify the curriculum?s specific learning skills, dispositions etc. Parents are also able to thread all of these skills and interests together throughout the child?s time at the centre to enable them to visualise the emerging developments in a single view using this new tool.

Parents can now, for the first time, visualise the entire portfolio of their child in a single evolving diagram each week and month as their child learns and develops interests and skills during their most crucial early years. This proprietary software has parents, teachers, ECE centres, university researchers, and even the Ministry of Education showing interest.

?A useful and innovative framework for documenting children?s learning, interests, next steps and life contexts has been established, which includes child and parent voice.? NZ Education Review Office, March 2012.

Apart from this innovation, Magic Kingdom is all set to become the most eco-friendly and environmentally sustainable childcare centres in NZ.

Buried underneath the playground is Magic Kingdom?s massive 30,000L rainwater recycling tank that pumps back treated rainwater for all laundry, toilets and gardening needs. It is so big that the tank could not be transported and so had to be built on site!

On the roof is Magic Kingdom?s array of solar panels which produces electricity for the centre. Children can see a digital graph on a display wall and see how much electricity they have produced each day and match that with sunny and cloudy days. The community will also benefit in the long run since Magic Kingdom will continue to produce electricity for the public grid on weekends.

?A lot of organisations claim to be sustainable, but often it?s like saying they are a little bit married? says Nikeeta. ?I think it?s an all-or-nothing approach and we want our Magic Kingdom children to start life knowing nothing less than a standard of living in which we save all our rainwater and produce our own electricity freely and cleanly from the sun?.

For more information about enrolling call Nikeeta Singh or Dr Darius Singh on 0800 MAGIC KINGDOM or visit the new website http://www.magickingdom.co.nz

The grand open day is Saturday, 14 July at 12pm.

Source: http://www.indianweekender.co.nz/Pages/ArticleDetails/25/3088/In-focus/Childcare-like-you%E2%80%99ve-NEVER-SEEN-before%E2%80%A6

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