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`EXHIBIT 4
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`How Big Tobacco used George Floyd and Eric Garner to stoke
`fear among Black smokers
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`Page 1
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` Retired Deputy Police Chief Wayne Harris stood in front of Black
`lawmakers and clicked to a slide of George Floyd, pinned down on the pavement with
`Police Officer Derek Chauvin’s knee on his neck.
`
`“I chose this picture intentionally because I want to set the tone,” he said.
`
`But Harris hadn’t come to the luncheon to discuss police reform or Floyd’s murder.
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`Page 2
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`Demonstrators rally in downtown Los Angeles in August 2020 in opposition to California Senate Bill 793. They contend that
`the ban on the sale of flavored tobacco statewide — including menthol cigarettes — would unfairly target African Americans.
`The bill briefly became law, but a successful petition drive will require voters to approve it in November. (Ringo Chiu /
`Alamy)
`BY EMILY BAUMGAERTNER, BEN STOCKTON, RYAN LINDSAY
`APRIL 25, 2022 2 AM PT
`ATLANTA —
`
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`He was there at the invitation of tobacco maker Reynolds American to urge
`representatives not to ban menthol cigarettes, the flavor of choice for the vast majority
`of Black smokers. Using the specter of Floyd’s tragic death and the social justice protests
`it inspired, Harris suggested that prohibiting menthol cigarettes would increase policing
`in Black communities and create a new layer of racism in America.
`
`The Times: Daily news from the L.A. Times | EP251
`Big Tobacco, Black trauma
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`00:00
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`29:44
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`That message echoed through the third day of the annual gathering of the National
`Black Caucus of State Legislators at the Marriott Marquis hotel in Atlanta in November.
`Harris did not mention that he serves as chair of the board of the Law Enforcement
`Action Partnership, an organization that in 2019 received a third of its funds from
`Reynolds American.
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`Case 1:20-cv-00393-LO-TCB Document 1278-4 Filed 06/07/22 Page 5 of 22 PageID# 32896
`The lawmakers were told during the first course that the $40,000 bill for their lunch —
`pork chops and sweet tea — had been picked up by that same company, the largest
`manufacturer of menthol cigarettes in the U.S.
`
`Reynolds American’s multibillion-dollar market is under threat. About 150 cities and
`counties have placed some sort of restriction on the sale of menthol cigarettes, most
`issuing an outright ban. If California votes to prohibit the sale of menthols in November,
`it would follow Massachusetts as the second state to do so. The Food and Drug
`Administration has drafted a national ban that could follow in the next few years, which
`estimates suggest could save more than 600,000 lives, including almost 250,000 Black
`lives.
`
`But it could cut the approximately 30 billion Newport menthol cigarettes Reynolds
`American sells every year to zero.
`
`Since last summer, the Los Angeles Times and the Bureau of Investigative Journalism
`have tracked strategic efforts across the country by Reynolds American to keep menthol
`cigarettes in the hands of smokers.
`
`The company has hired a team of Black lobbyists and consultants, including former
`congressman Kendrick Meek (D-Fla.), and sponsored the organization led by civil rights
`activist and MSNBC political show host the Rev. Al Sharpton. Those figures have in turn
`stoked fears among Black communities about what the bans could mean.
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`Reynolds American for years has enlisted prominent Black personalities in its lobbying
`efforts. This investigation has uncovered new details about how individuals and
`organizations working on Reynolds’ behalf have failed to properly declare their links to
`the company. Lobbyists for the company in Denver successfully killed a bill that would
`have banned menthol cigarettes. And in Los Angeles, protesters were paid to attend a
`rally organized by a group with close ties to the company.
`
`“The web that keeps menthol present in cities is not an accident. It’s not driven by some
`kind of innate Black taste for menthol,” said Keith Wailoo, a history professor at
`Princeton University and author of “Pushing Cool,” a book about menthol cigarettes. “It
`is a byproduct of a complex and relentless story of how markets were built and
`sustained.”
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`Page 5
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`Tobacco company Reynolds American, whose cigarette market is under threat from restrictions and bans on the sale of
`menthol cigarettes, has sponsored an organization led by the Rev. Al Sharpton in its campaign against menthol bans.
`(Christian Monterrosa / Associated Press)
`
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`In response to a list of questions, Reynolds American told reporters it believed that
`“regulating menthol cigarettes differently than non-menthol cigarettes would result in
`numerous troubling unintended consequences, including significant growth in
`contraband menthol cigarettes sold through an already widespread underground
`market.”
`
`The company did not address questions regarding its invoking of police brutality fears
`to protect its sales.
`
`Wearing a dark suit and a buzz cut, Harris followed that narrative at the luncheon, when
`he gestured to an image of Floyd taken outside the store known as the best place in
`Minneapolis to buy menthols. The inference was: What happens if Black people can’t
`legally buy the cigarettes they prefer? Harris warned that driving the market
`underground would result in intrusive policing and racial friction in Black communities
`that already feel unfairly targeted by law enforcement.
`
`“I want us to keep in mind not only the murder of this man on the streets in
`Minneapolis but the unrest that occurred afterwards,” said Harris, speaking to
`hundreds of Black lawmakers and their staffs. “I want to talk to you about how policing
`intersects with the community and how decisions that you make as legislators, as
`citizens, impact how we end up dealing with people on the streets.”
`
`Harris’ organization, known as LEAP, said the push toward menthol bans is “the latest
`iteration of the drug war except that it — more than most laws you see these days — is
`overtly racist.” When asked about Reynolds American’s funding, LEAP said its “message
`has been the same for two decades, and if someone wants to donate to us to say it, bully
`for them.”
`
`But other Black advocacy groups, including the NAACP, “applaud” efforts to ban
`menthol cigarettes, saying that the “tobacco industry is on a narrow quest for profit, and
`they have been killing us along the way.”
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`Tobacco-related cancers claim 40,000 Black lives each year, at a rate 17% higher than
`that for whites and 74% higher than for Asians and Latinos, according to most recent
`data. But Harris did not warn against life-threatening illnesses associated with smoking.
`His mission was to ensure that menthol cigarettes — a gateway to hooking young people
`— stayed legal.
`
`Menthol itself is deceptive. Suck on a menthol cough drop and you’ll feel your airways
`open up, a cooling breeze as you breathe in and a momentary easing of the scratchiness
`in your throat. That’s an illusion — the result of a reaction between the menthol and the
`receptors on the surface of your nerves.
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`Page 7
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`Cooler than cool
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`A vintage Kool cigarette ad. Over the years, the tobacco industry has studied Black culture to fine-tune marketing tactics.
`(Rita Harper / For the Bureau of Investigative Journalism)
`
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`Wailoo remembers the billboard ads that towered over the sidewalks in 1970s New York
`City, a minty-green canopy that pushed the fresh, smooth taste of a menthol cigarette. It
`was a product dating to the 1920s, repackaged as new to target the large, concentrated
`Black population in America’s rapidly changing cities.
`
`The tobacco industry, whose early success was built on slave-run tobacco plantations,
`had studied Black culture to fine-tune marketing. At times, it came to conclusions based
`on old racist tropes, such as one 1970s marketing memo that suggested that Black
`people prefer menthols because they are “said to be possessed by an almost genetic
`body odor.” But the companies also broke new ground.
`
`“I grew up reading Black publications like Ebony and Jet, and menthol was all over it,”
`said Wailoo, the history professor and author. Tobacco companies sponsored events
`and handed out free menthols, often to kids in Black neighborhoods. Looking back,
`Wailoo now realizes he grew up at the “high point of the racialization of menthol
`smoking.”
`
`A 1970s study in Detroit commissioned by R.J. Reynolds (which became a subsidiary of
`Reynolds American when the company merged with British American Tobacco in 2004)
`examined how the company should advertise on predominantly Black buses that passed
`through white neighborhoods. The company was concerned that white smokers would
`be put off by ads for brands such as Kool and Newport that featured Black models and
`culture.
`
`The authors concluded that the buses’ “exterior advertising should be compatible to
`both market segments” but that “interior advertising should specifically address this
`[Black] group.”
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`A multibillion-dollar lawsuit in 1998 against the country’s four largest cigarette makers
`severely curbed how the industry could advertise. Although the billboards that Wailoo
`remembers are gone, the demand for menthol cigarettes among Black smokers persists.
`In the 1950s, 2% of white smokers chose menthols, compared with 5% of Black
`smokers, according to an industry survey. Today, that 3% gap has grown into a chasm:
`Menthol is the choice for 30% of white smokers and 85% of Black smokers.
`
`For three hot hours on the morning of June 15, 2021, protesters stood outside Los
`Angeles City Hall wielding signs carrying messages such as “No ban on menthol” and
`“Whites can smoke. Blacks cannot.”
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`Page 10
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`A discarded Kool cigarette package in New Orleans. The demand for menthol cigarettes among Black smokers is high.
`Today, menthol is the choice for 30% of white smokers and 85% of Black smokers. (Rita Harper / For the Bureau of
`Investigative Journalism)
`Paid protesters
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`On the back of their matching white T-shirts was the logo of the organization that had
`arranged the rally, Neighborhood Forward, a new, relatively unknown group led by a
`local pastor.
`
`Describing itself on Twitter as “a collective of real voices from Black and Brown
`communities working together to bring about real change,” the group emerged after
`Floyd’s murder in Minneapolis in 2020. It has since taken aim at California’s plan to
`ban flavored tobacco, which includes menthol. The Senate bill, known as SB 793, was
`made law in August 2020. But a petition against it signed by more than 600,000 voters
`pushed it to a referendum due in November. To date, R.J. Reynolds and Philip Morris
`USA have spent more than $20 million on a campaign to block the bill.
`
`“California fought Big Tobacco and won,” the bill’s author, then-state Sen. Jerry Hill (D-
`San Mateo), said when R.J. Reynolds first indicated it would seek a referendum. “This
`shameless industry is a sore loser and it is relentless.”
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`Before that June rally, a text message had gone out to recruit protesters: “Menthol T-
`shirts will be provided. … The pay is $80 for 2½ - 3 hours.”
`
`Pastor K.W. Tulloss, Neighborhood Forward’s public face, is a former leader of the local
`chapter of the Sharpton-led civil rights group National Action Network, which has been
`funded by Reynolds American. Tulloss was happy to speak about the work that
`Neighborhood Forward was doing to fight SB 793. But when asked where the group got
`its money, he said that “we can’t focus on those sidebar conversations” and that
`reporters should “check public records.”
`
`Little public information exists about Neighborhood Forward. Although the Los
`Angeles-based Tulloss is often described as the group’s co-founder, business filings lead
`1,500 miles east, to Missouri. There, the group was incorporated by Charles Hatfield, a
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`Pratik Patel, center, of Jay’s Smoke Shop in Worcester, Mass., joins a protest outside the Massachusetts State House in
`Boston in 2019. If California votes to prohibit the sale of menthol cigarettes in November, it would follow Massachusetts as
`the second state to do so. (Pat Greenhouse / Boston Globe)
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`lawyer specializing in government relations litigation. Asked to explain how his role
`with Neighborhood Forward, a small grass-roots movement, fitted with this work,
`Hatfield said: “I don’t feel any obligation to help you with that.”
`
`Even the person listed as the chair of Neighborhood Forward’s board, the Missouri-
`based lobbyist Leroy Grant, declined to answer basic questions about the organization
`and his interest in menthol cigarettes. “I’m not really able to speak on that issue,” he
`said before hanging up the phone.
`
`Although public records do not show how the group is funded, they do reveal that one of
`its directors is the California-based lobbyist Ingrid Hutt. She worked for Reynolds
`American for several months in 2019, hired to “promote the unintended consequences
`of the menthol ban in the African-American communities in the City of Los Angeles,”
`according to lobbying disclosures. She did not respond to multiple attempts to reach
`her.
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`Page 13
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`Almost all African Americans who smoke started with menthol cigarettes, which helped recruit an estimated 10 million more
`U.S. smokers since 1980. Above, a Newport cigarette advertisement. (Rita Harper / For the Bureau of Investigative
`Journalism)
`
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`Another director is Corey Pegues, who was once associated with a Reynolds American-
`funded group called the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives, or
`NOBLE. Tulloss said NOBLE, which has campaigned across the country against
`menthol bans, first brought the issue to his attention.
`
`Reynolds American did not comment on these points.
`
`“These Black leaders act as if menthol cigarettes just drop from the sky and are not the
`result of decades of racist, pernicious targeting. They allow these ... tobacco industry
`executives to cynically exploit our legitimate grievances,” said Carol McGruder, co-
`founder of the African American Tobacco Control Leadership Council. “The time of this
`being acceptable is long past.”
`
`Almost all African Americans who smoke started with menthols. The product has
`helped recruit an estimated 10 million extra U.S. smokers since 1980, and research
`suggests that menthols can be harder to give up. This may explain why Black smokers
`try to quit more than white smokers, but they are less likely to succeed.
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`Page 15
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`Thriving off addictions
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`Menthol cigarettes are often cheaper in predominantly Black neighborhoods, where
`store owners have sought contracts with manufacturers of the most popular brands.
`
`When President Obama signed into law a ban on flavored cigarettes, members of the
`Congressional Black Caucus, which has received hundreds of thousands of dollars in
`donations from the tobacco industry, were seen as key in securing an exemption for
`menthol. Many members of the caucus have since come out in support of a nationwide
`ban on the sale of menthol cigarettes.
`
`The industry has grown ever more reliant on revenue from menthols. Last year, they
`made up more than a third of total cigarette sales, the highest proportion ever. LaTrisha
`
`Page 16
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`Newport cigarettes for sale at the Food Mart in New Orleans. Reynolds American sells roughly 30 billion Newport menthols
`a year. (Rita Harper / For the Bureau of Investigative Journalism)
`
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`Vetaw, who campaigned for banning their sale in Minneapolis, described menthols as
`the industry’s “cash cow.”
`
`Reynolds American brought in about $15.3 billion in U.S. sales last year. About half
`came from Newport cigarettes.
`
`“If menthol is banned, you know they’ll lose a lot of money, so they’re paying off a few
`Black men to go out and try and stop it,” said Vetaw. “They know who has a voice in our
`community.”
`
`Sharpton and Meek did not respond to multiple inquiries from The Times. But in the
`past, Sharpton has cited the 2014 death of Eric Garner at the hands of police in New
`York to argue against a ban.
`
`“They killed him over ‘loosie’ cigarettes,” he said at a 2016 forum held in an Oakland
`church, referring to allegations that Garner was illegally selling single cigarettes. “How
`many of these kind of situations are we going to have if we keep having these kind of
`engagements around criminalizing of low-level offenses?”
`
`Public health advocates stress that the policies target the sale of menthol cigarettes, not
`their use, which should ease concerns about how the bans could lead to greater policing
`of Black communities. But there are few more prominent voices in Black communities
`than pastors like Sharpton and Tulloss.
`
`“Even going back to the period of enslavement, often [Black] preachers were looked to
`be the spokespersons” for the Black community, said Obery Hendricks, a scholar at
`Columbia University who has studied the intersection of religion and political economy.
`“The tobacco industry knows the hold that Black pastors have over Black churches.”
`
`Meek’s firm arranged meetings this month with the White House’s Office of
`Management and Budget — responsible for evaluating the FDA’s proposed ban — for
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`both Reynolds American and Sharpton’s National Action Network.
`
`Despite the number of Black lobbyists working on behalf of the tobacco industry, there
`is a significant lack of Black representation across executive-level and board-level
`positions at all the major cigarette makers. Compared with those who have lobbied for
`Reynolds American against banning menthol cigarettes, almost all of the company’s
`senior management team is white.
`
`Denice Edwards sat in the back row of the committee room on the fourth floor of
`Denver City Hall. She was wearing all black, but her shock of amber hair stood out, even
`among the crowd of campaigners wearing loud T-shirts with slogans sprawled across
`their chests.
`
`Denver’s Safety, Housing, Education and Homelessness committee was debating a bill
`that would ban the sale of flavored tobacco, including menthol cigarettes. It drew more
`people to City Hall than any other time since the start of the pandemic, and unusually, it
`was being discussed by the committee for the third time.
`
`Unlike many of those in the audience on that brisk November morning, Edwards, who is
`staunchly opposed to banning menthols, wasn’t there to speak. Her work had already
`been done. She’d spoken to a number of the council members ahead of the meeting. She
`was simply “monitoring the issue.”
`
`Councilmember Kevin Flynn, who sits on the committee, had proposed an amendment
`to the bill that would exempt menthol cigarettes from the ban.
`
`“She just called me up and asked for a meeting,” Flynn said of Edwards, whom he’s
`known for decades. “It was before the bill was even introduced. … Denice was actually
`the first person who approached me about it.”
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`Page 18
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`Positions of power
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`But Edwards isn’t just an old acquaintance. She’s a lobbyist hired by Reynolds American
`— one of at least three consultants working for the company on this issue in Denver.
`Although Flynn said he was aware of her ties to a tobacco company, she didn’t disclose
`them on the city’s lobbying register. Edwards did not reply to questions about her
`failure to properly register, as Denver’s municipal code requires.
`
`The scenario also shows how Reynolds American consultants have been key in
`furthering the company’s interests in levels of government it has rarely lobbied before.
`
`It felt “very uncomfortable for me, as a white man, to be asked to tell my Black
`constituents, ‘You can’t buy this anymore,’” Flynn told a reporter. “The tobacco industry
`has marketed just like any industry markets to its target market, right? … I wish they
`wouldn’t do it at all, but I’m not going to single out Black consumers.”
`
`Flynn and Edwards first met when he was a reporter at the local paper, the Rocky
`Mountain News, and she was working for the city’s first Black mayor, Wellington Webb.
`Nearly two decades after he held office, Webb, whose famous door-to-door campaigning
`shoes are on display at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, remains a huge
`figure in Denver. In early October, not long before Flynn introduced his amendment,
`Webb wrote an opinion piece for the Denver Post, mentioning Garner’s death.
`
`“Law enforcement hardly needs more reason to stop us from going about our lives. But
`that’s what a menthol ban could do,” Webb wrote. (When asked about the menthol ban,
`Edwards said: “I’m on the side of Mayor Webb.”)
`
`A few weeks later, Webb’s opinion piece was removed from the newspaper’s website. A
`correction in print noted that he had not told the editors he was working as a consultant
`for Reynolds American.
`
`He did not respond to multiple inquiries for comment.
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`Page 19
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`A few doors down the corridor from the committee room in Denver City Hall,
`Councilmember Amanda Sawyer, who co-sponsored the bill that would ban the sale of
`flavored tobacco, had been doing the math. In purple marker on a whiteboard were the
`numbers 1 to 13. A series of crosses and dashes next to each indicated how she thought
`the 13 members of the City Council might vote on the bill and its amendments. By her
`estimation, she had the numbers.
`
`Indeed, as Sawyer predicted, Denver’s City Council voted in favor of banning almost all
`types of flavored tobacco, including menthol cigarettes, in December. Despite Edwards’
`efforts, the amendment to exempt menthol had failed. All that was left was for the city’s
`mayor, Michael Hancock, to sign the bill into law.
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`Page 20
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`Darren Blake vapes at Myxed Up Creations in Denver, where he works. The Denver City Council has been pushing to ban the
`sale of flavored tobacco, including menthol cigarettes. (Helen H. Richardson / Denver Post)
`
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`But another Reynolds American consultant, Art Way, who had previously spoken with
`the mayor’s staff about the proposed ban, wrote to Hancock’s office imploring him to
`veto the bill, according to emails released in response to a public records request.
`
`“Unfortunately, it is the very communities the ban is supposed to protect that will
`engage in grey market activity increasing the spectrum of criminality for both youth and
`adults of color,” wrote Way. But nowhere in his email did Way explain his ties to
`Reynolds American. And like Edwards, he is not on the city’s lobbying register. He told
`a reporter he believed his state registration would suffice.
`
`Way also said that his email, one of dozens sent to the mayor’s office on this issue, “was
`likely no more beneficial than others.” He added: “In order to water down my message,
`flavor ban proponents … would like me to shout from the rooftop regarding my client.
`I’ve disappointed in this regard on occasion but never purposefully tried to hide my
`affiliation.”
`
`In his 11-year tenure Mayor Hancock had vetoed just one bill.
`
`The day after Way’s email arrived, the mayor wrote a letter to the council members. The
`bill banning menthol cigarettes had become the second.
`
`About this story
`
`This story was a collaboration between the Los Angeles Times and the Bureau of
`Investigative Journalism, a nonprofit newsroom that works in partnership with major
`news outlets around the world on public interest journalism. It was reported by The
`Times’ Emily Baumgaertner and by Ben Stockton and Ryan Lindsay for the Bureau.
`
`Page 21
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