Fresh Loaf

The AJC’s Ariel Hart reports that Wayne Shackelford, the Georgia Department of Transportation commissioner during the state’s boomtimes, has died:

Steeped in Gwinnett County politics and heavyweight friendships like that of developer Wayne Mason, Shackelford developed real estate projects including Gwinnett Place Mall, and helped lay the water and road infrastructure that allowed Gwinnett to transform into a booming suburb. Backed by Zell Miller, he rose to statewide prominence as DOT commissioner, a post he held from 1991 to 2000.

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While Shackelford led the state DOT, Georgia added 1.5 million residents. Shackelford presided over historic projects to help those people move around, such as the opening of Ga. 400’s leg inside the Perimeter, and the HOV lanes that bore traffic for the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games. During his tenure the DOT’s three-year list of approved projects ballooned from $2.6 billion to $5.1 billion, according to DOT.

Before his death, Shackelford was a vocal supporter of the Brain Train, a proposed commuter rail line that would connect more than 30 colleges and universities along Athens, Atlanta and Macon.

Hart has a thorough story. Check it out.

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Oh hey, Ariel Hart of the AJC, what good news do you have for us this evening?

At a moment when mass transit is taking center stage as a solution to transportation problems nationwide, a [Federal Transit Administration] report has concluded that the Georgia Department of Transportation’s transit program is riddled with financial management problems, according to a report obtained by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

The problems were so severe that the federal government has frozen DOT’s transit grants, which average about $28 million a year, including some from the federal stimulus program. The report cast doubt on whether DOT could manage grants for the commuter rail line proposed to go south through Lovejoy.

It’s that last sentence that really smarts. A GDOT spokesman tells Hart that the agency’s taken steps to fix the problems and unfreeze the funding. For a better idea of how behind the times Georgia is when it comes to rail, Hart’s full article is worth checking out.

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State auditors have discovered what they call evidence of “possible financial statement fraud” and questionable accounting practices at the Georgia Department of Transportation during two years of former Treasurer Earl Mahfuz’s tenure.

According to a 54-page report released Monday, Mahfuz, who was demoted last year to assistant treasurer, “was responsible for the decision to implement business process changes at GDOT [between 2005 and 2007] that he knew would violate the Georgia Constitution.”

Those changes involved GDOT letting road projects even if it lacked the money to do so. The audit notes that the state Constitution has strict requirements when it comes to the state incurring debt.

The audit says the accounting practices might have helped mask GDOT’s budget deficit. It also says GDOT’s upper management and top boardmembers often butted heads with each other and that a general mistrust existed between the agency and the governor’s office. These factors helped create an operating environment that auditors say was “dysfunctional to the extent that GDOT was ripe for fraud, waste, abuse and mismanagement.”

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Beltline has secured a purchase option on segments highlighted above in red

The Beltline and Georgia Department of Transportation have agreed that key railroad tracks owned by the state agency will indeed be part of the 22-mile loop of parks, trails and transit.

GDOT Commissioner Vance Smith and Atlanta Beltline Inc. CEO Terri Montague announced today the agencies have struck a deal over a two vital segments of railroad tracks in Southwest and Southeast Atlanta.

The set of tracks in Southwest Atlanta stretch more than three miles from Allene Avenue to Lena Street. The other segment, which is much smaller, runs from Wylie Street to Memorial Drive in Reynoldstown.

According to the agreement, Beltline officials have exclusive claim on the properties until June 30, 2012. Until then, ABI will lease the segments and prepare them for public use — think hiking tours, urban sightseeing, etc.

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The state Transportation Board this morning unanimously elected state Rep. Vance Smith, R-Pine Mountain, as the new Georgia Department of Transportation commissioner. Once he resigns from the Gold Dome, Smith’s expected to move into GDOT offices on June 25th.

What exactly Smith’s duties will be is rather murky. Earlier this year, the Georgia General Assembly passed a bill pushed by Gov. Sonny Perdue that restructured the transportation planning power structure. Whereas previously the DOT board called the shots, now most of the people-moving decision-making will be made by a planning director appointed by the governor. It wasn’t what Perdue originally wanted, but he signed the bill. The governor hasn’t named his planning director pick. (UPDATE: Dick Pettys of Insider Advantage reports just now that Perdue has named Todd Long, formerly or DOT and the Georgia Regional Transporation Authority, as planning director.)

Pettys also reports that there was some debate among boardmembers over how to interpret the governance reform bill, but that they’ve decided to hold off until all the pieces of the bureaucratic puzzle come together.

In a released statement, Smith says the state and DOT must work together to finally solve Georgia’s transportation woes. He adds that the deep-in-the-red department sorely needs new funding. During his time under the Gold Dome, Smith pushed for a statewide one-cent sales tax that would fund new roads, bridges and transit. Like all transportation funding proposals in the Legislature, it never passed.

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…that’s not the real story.

The veteran political reporter’s sources say the state agency wants to avoid ending the fiscal year with a deficit, possibly by tapping $75 million in federal funding. There’s also the question over what exactly Senate Bill 200, a piece of legislation that shakes up Georgia’s transportation power structure, means for GDOT.

At the same time – and this is where it gets interesting – talks have been underway between the DOT staff and the governor’s office over how to implement SB 200, the governance reform bill that gives the governor (through the new planning director) and the Legislature (through new budget authority) broader control over DOT. There are some loose ends that the bill does not address.

Some believe the two issues have become entangled in something of a quid pro quo, with the governor holding both a carrot (the bailout money) and a stick (the new rules which dissidents believe give the planning director – and through the planning director, Perdue – more power over issues like public-private partnerships and funding allocation formulas than the law stipulates.)

Others don’t see any such entanglement, but this week’s meeting should be interesting nonetheless. Even if there is no suspense about the new commissioner.

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Business blogger Maria Saporta reports state Rep. Vance Smith, R-Pine Mountain, seems to be the most likely candidate to be named the next Georgia Department of Transportation commissioner.

Smith, chairman of the House transportation committee, has been interested in the DOT job for nearly two years, and it appears he will get his wish.

The deadline for applications from people interested in the DOT job was today at 5 p.m.

Word has it that Smith’s top two potential competitors did not apply for the job, meaning that he is the last man standing.

Saporta reports one of those competitors, Georgia Regional Transportation Authority Executive Director Dick Anderson, decided to stick with GRTA to try to implement the governor’s recently completed statewide transportation plan. Interim GDOT Commissioner Gerald Ross is rumored to return to his position as chief engineer.

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At last week’s State Transportation Board meeting in Douglas, Ga., Erik Steavens of the department’s intermodal program director briefed board members on land negotiations that are underway between GDOT and Atlanta Beltline Inc., the agency tasked with designing the planned 22-mile loop of parks, trails and transit that will one day circle the city’s urban core.

GDOT owns two pieces of transit right-of-way that ABI has marked as part of the project’s “spine” — a small sliver in Southeast Atlanta and a larger one in Southwest Atlanta.

After the jump, screenshots from Steavens’ presentation to GDOT board members depicting the properties, including what kind of profit the department might see from their sale.

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On April 16, President Barack Obama gave rail lovers some long-awaited good news: As part of the president’s stimulus plan, he offered $8 billion to begin linking major U.S. cities with high-speed rail lines — and an additional $5 billion more to improve rail service over the next four years.

“We need high-speed rail,” Obama said. “It’s happening right now. It’s been happening for decades. The problem is, it’s been happening elsewhere, not here.”

By “elsewhere,” the president was referring to Europe and Asia. But he could just as easily have been talking about Southeastern states other than Georgia. Thanks to a lack of vision, little to no funding, and an almost cartoonish addiction to roads, the Peach State’s far behind many of its neighbors when it comes to rail.

Transit and transportation advocates say if the state’s leadership doesn’t work to catch up, Georgia could miss out on a nationwide rail renaissance.

Click here to continue reading this story.

(Photo by Joeff Davis)

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Number of state employees laid off this fiscal year: 345

Number of state employees who were furloughed in late February: 24,969

Percentage by which the number of furloughed employees has increased since then: 27

Total number of employees in the state Department of Corrections: 13,500

Number of days Department of Corrections employees are required to take as unpaid leave in the first half of 2009: 2

Total number of employees in the state Department of Transportation: 6,000

Number of days DOT employees are required to take as unpaid leave in the first half of 2009: 1

Total number of employees in the University System of Georgia: 40,000

Number of days that University System employees are required to take as unpaid leave: 0

Sources: AJC.com, www.macon.com, www.dot.state.ga.us, www.usg.edu

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City Hall had three separate, unrelated civil cases before the Georgia Supreme Court that received rulings yesterday. The result was a mixed bag with no unexpected blows to city coffers – but no big victories either.

First, the least interesting case: The city was a co-defendant with the state in a wrongful death suit involving a passenger in a taxi that veered off the highway and hit a tree. The state DOT was sued for allowing a tree to remain too close to the Downtown Connector; the city was sued for a botched taxi safety inspection. The High Court ruled there was no compelling evidence to suggest the city was aware of inspection shortcomings. That’s one win for the city.

Next up, a biggie: Atlanta has brought suit against a number of online hotel booking services – Expedia, Travelocity, etc. – because they don’t collect the city-imposed hotel tax when accepting bookings. This is an industry-wide battle being waged by cities across the country over whether online companies are required to collect local taxes on the sales they facilitate.

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For most of the Beltline’s history, concerns about displacement have largely focused around slowly gentrifying neighborhoods in Southeast and Southwest Atlanta. The land and homes are less expensive and ripe for the picking by a developer agog at the thought of a project near the 22-mile loop of parks, trails and transit.

But at Monday morning’s Atlanta City Council meeting, councilmembers heard from concerned residents who feared a plan to save a key part of the $2.8 billion project would potentially uproot them from their homes.

At yesterday’s special-called meeting, council unanimously OK’ed a deal reached by the Georgia Department of Transportation, Amtrak and Beltline officials that saved residents near the Piedmont Park the headache of high-speed trains lumbering nearby on tracks called the “Decatur Belt.” The move also saves the entire Beltline project — late last year, the city poured money into the area when it purchased the property from a Gwinnett County developer for at least $66 million.

But the vote came without some last-minute amendments thanks to Marietta Street residents who said Amtrak, GDOT and Beltline officials’ plan to save the Decatur Belt merely shifted the burden of high-speed rail on to them — and placed their homes at risk. According to rough plans presented to GDOT’s board last week, the alternate plans for high-speed rail serving Atlanta involve expanding the tracks and potentially seizing property. The buildings and lofts in which the residents could very well be some of those.

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The most tangible component of President Barack Obama’s $787 billion stimulus plan — transportation projects — is starting to take shape in metro Atlanta and Georgia.

Yesterday, the State Transportation Board today approved 135 projects — most of which involve bridge maintenance and road resurfacing — valued at more than $512 million.

And today, the Atlanta Regional Commission approved stimulus projects totaling more than $270 million — $95 million of which will help metro region transit agencies replace aging vehicles, complete maintenance projects, and improve park-and-ride facilities. MARTA has been allocated $55 million. Some pedestrian improvements are included in each agency’s project lists.

If Gov. Sonny Perdue approves the projects, bids will be solicited. Work is expected to begin immediately thereafter.

Georgia was allocated $1.1 billion in transportation funding under the plan — $931 million for roads and $144 million for transit projects. GDOT oversees 70 percent of that cash. The remaining funds are distributed among metropolitan planning organizations — i.e. the ARC.

After the jump, screenshots of GDOT’s approved projects in Fulton and DeKalb Counties. To view the entire list and monitor how the agency spends Obamabucks, visit its stimulus projects website. To download a PDF of the ARC’s approved stimulus projects, click here. I’d post screenshots for you, dear reader, but since the projects are all local, it’s best to read the list in full.

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The dispute that potentially derailed Atlanta’s smart-growth future seems to be officially coming to an end.

The Georgia Department of Transportation today ended its role in the dispute over railroad tracks in northeast Atlanta considered vital to the Beltline, the 22-mile loop of parks, trails and transit proposed to one day circle the city.

During its monthly meeting, the department’s board unanimously voted to remove its objection over the Beltline’s plans for the “Decatur Belt,” a 4.3-mile rail segment that stretches from Ansley Park to DeKalb Avenue.

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After narrowly passing the state Senate on March 5, Gov. Sonny Perdue’s re-arranging of the deck chairs is scheduled to be debated in the lower chamber perhaps as soon as tomorrow. And whattya know, the members of the lower chamber aren’t taking too much of a shine — that’s Southern-speak for “unhappy with” — to the legislation.

If approved, Senate Bill 200 would create a new transportation agency led by a governor-appointed “secretary” and overseen by an 11-member board. Five board members would be appointed by the governor. The lieutenant governor and House speaker would each appoint three. The legislation would also neuter the Georgia Department of Transportation and turn it into a glorified road maintenance agency. Currently, state lawmakers elect GDOT board members. UPDATE: The AJC today offers dueling guest editorials about the legislation from Senate President Pro Tem Tommie Williams, R-Lyons, and GDOT Board member Brandon Beach.

The whole proposal has some lawmakers flummoxed.

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Beltline

The federal agency in charge of the exciting topic of “railroad abandonments” has told the Georgia Department of Transportation, Amtrak and Atlanta Beltline Inc. that it expects an update about the three agencies’ dispute over hotly contested Beltline tracks no later than March 23.

In a decision filed today, the U.S. Surface Transportation Board says it received the transportation agencies’ requests for 15 more days to resolve any remaining issues about the “Decatur Belt,” a 4.3-mile segment of rail that runs from Ansley Park to DeKalb Avenue and hugs Piedmont Park.

In late January, the local, state and federal agencies got into a nasty fight over the rail segment, which is owned by the city and planned to be a vital part of the Beltline, the 22-mile loop of parks, trails and transit envisioned to circle the city. Last Friday, the agencies said they’d reached a “consensus” that commuter or intercity rail did not need to run on the tracks.

(Courtesy Atlanta Beltline Inc.)

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Happy ending for the Beltline?

Residents and transit wonks hoping for a Friday cease-fire over unused railroad tracks called the “Decatur Belt” got good news today.

Officials from the Beltline, Georgia Department of Transportation, Amtrak and other transportation agencies say they’ve reached an agreement regarding the hotly contested rail segment that stretches from Ansley Park to DeKalb Avenue.

“These parties have reached a consensus on joint actions to develop and implement a plan to accommodate commuter rail, intercity and high-speed rail service in the region that does not require the use of the Decatur Belt rail corridor,” a joint statement says.

The agencies agree that a commuter, intercity or high-speed rail line could operate along modified tracks west of the city. Beltline supporters initially proposed such a concept, but Amtrak and GDOT rejected it, calling it difficult because those tracks are busy freight routes.

A technical committee recommends a long-awaited downtown train terminal proposed near Philips Arena which would accommodate the trains be redesigned, that Amtrak consider possible stations along MARTA’s Northeast line, and that the local, state and regional transportation agencies conduct a study of freight traffic options in metro Atlanta.

In other words: It appears that, barring anything insanely out-of-the-blue, the mixed-use, light-rail Beltline vision proposed near Piedmont Park is safe.

Background and the full release from the agencies after the jump.

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Hear ye, hear ye! The re-arranging of the deck chairs continues!

The state Senate today narrowly passed Gov. Sonny Perdue’s controversial overhaul of the state’s transportation power structure. The final vote was 30-25.

Under the governor’s plan, a “State Transportation Authority” would be created. The new agency would be led by a transportation secretary and an 11-member board. The governor would appoint the secretary and five board members. The lieutenant governor and speaker would each appoint three. Two other people-moving agencies — the Georgia Regional Transportation Authority and the State Road and Tollway Authority — would merge.

But it’s what the bill would do to the Georgia Department of Transportation that has some lawmakers in conniptions. Perdue’s plan would strip GDOT of most of its powers, essentially turning it into a glorified road-paving service. That asphalt-spitting power would shift to the new agency, appointed by the state’s leadership.

And that’d be a major loss of influence for state lawmakers who currently elect GDOT’s 13-member board.

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Beltline, Georgia Department of Transportation and Amtrak officials have until tomorrow afternoon to update the U.S. Surface Transportation Board about the fate of the Decatur Belt, a strip of abandoned rail in Northeast Atlanta which all sides say they need to control for very different rail projects. (Here are some maps of the project and area in question.)

Late last week, residents of several at-risk neighborhood organizations — including Poncey-Highland, Inman Park and Old Fourth Ward — asked Amtrak and GDOT to scrap their plans for commuter or intercity rail running along the Decatur Belt. (Click here to read their Word Document press release.) While all the agencies promised to work together to try and resolve the issue, they’re keeping mum on how things have progressed. On Tuesday, Mayor Shirley Franklin told U.S. Congressman John Lewis the sides are still negotiating. Nonetheless, keep checking back for updates about the story.

In other Beltline news, some areas of the 22-mile loop of parks, trails and transit that would require rezoning are scheduled to be discussed — and possibly voted on — by the Atlanta City Council’s Community Development and Human Resources Committee on Monday, March 9 at 6 p.m.. Included are project areas near Old Fourth Ward, Grant Park, Northwest Atlanta, and others.

A full list of the areas follows after the jump. If you want to get involved, stop by City Hall or contact your councilmember.

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The Georgia Department of Transportation has unveiled a website to allow residents to track projects that are part of President Barack Obama’s stimulus program.

From the department:

Visitors to the site will find links to topics including Georgia’s stimulus transportation funding chart, project categories, the Department’s current efforts, links to other sites and resources, frequently asked questions and much more. The Web site will be closely monitored and periodic updates will be added continually.

The department’s December call for transportation project proposals generated more than 850 responses from Georgia cities and counties. The president’s $787 billion plan allocated $932 million for transportation projects in the Peach State.

The department says it’s combing through the cities and counties’ wishlists — which totaled more than $1 billion — and will post information about projects once they are approved. That could be as early as Friday or Monday.

(Photo courtesy the gubment)

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For someone who was recently given a pink slip, Gena Evans is chipper.

“If you can’t notice the smile on my face, the best day I’ve had at GDOT was Thursday,” the former Georgia Department of Transportation commissioner says, referring to her ousting last week from the state agency. “I’m very happy to be gone.”

And now that Evans no longer heads one of the state’s most powerful agencies — one that’s facing a drastic restructuring under a controversial plan pushed by Gov. Sonny Perdue — she says she can be frank in her criticism of the department. She speaks lovingly of the employees but paints a grim portrait of a $2 billion agency that’s mired in politics.

Evans, who now earns a paycheck as executive director of the State Road and Tollway Authority, sat down with CL at that agency’s downtown offices looking over the city skyline this afternoon. She talked about Perdue’s grand reorganization plan, the “systemic” problems at GDOT, her occasional thoughts about resigning, and Georgia’s overall transportation landscape. It ain’t pretty and it’s all after the jump.

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Correction appended

The Georgia Department of Transportation fired Commissioner Gena Evans today.

Boardmembers offered Evans, the beleaguered state agency’s first female commissioner, the option of resigning or being fired. The source said she did not want to resign. Boardmember Brandon Beach of Johns Creek made the motion and was seconded by David Doss of Rome. The final vote was 9-1-1 8-2-1. Board Chairman Bill Kuhlke and Vice Chairman Larry Walker voted against firing Evans. Boardmember Robert Brown of Decatur abstained.

Chief Engineer Gerald Ross will serve as interim commissioner while a nationwide search for a replacement is conducted.

Gov. Sonny Perdue has proposed a massive reorganization of the state’s transportation agencies. Under his proposal, the department would be gutted.

More details to come.

(Photo courtesy of MARTA)

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Ain’t no better time to replace the general than in the middle of battle, right? Uh, right?

Dick Pettys of Insider Advantage reports:

A palace revolt is brewing among members of the state Board of Transportation, and sources say it is poised to try to dump Commissioner Gena Evans on Thursday.

The board has a called meeting that day to take up budget matters. If it goes into closed session, a vote to remove Evans will likely be conducted.

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If she is voted out, look for the governor and likely the lieutenant governor to argue that is exactly the reason why DOT should be relegated to a maintenance agency status and a new State Transportation Authority given power over policy and funding.

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On Feb. 2, nearly 30 officials from various local, state and federal transit agencies, most of whom were locked in a bitter dispute over Beltline tracks near Piedmont Park, sat down with Congressman John Lewis’ staff in his Atlanta office. Their purpose: Let’s figure out what we’re going to do with “The Decatur Belt,” a segment of city-owned property near Piedmont Park that includes tracks vital to the Beltline project.

Officials have declined to comment on what was discussed at the meeting and how things have progressed. In a joint press release issued the day of the sitdown, agency officials said they would work toward a common solution and report progress in 30 days.

According to MARTA’s notes of the meeting, obtained by CL in an Open Records Request, some of the transportation agencies sound — contrary to many of their comments after news of the dispute broke — seemingly unsure of their options. And they really didn’t want to involve the media. What’s more, the notes suggest a disappointing  — but not entirely surprising — reality: Local and state transportation agencies, at least prior to the Feb. 2 meeting, were not communicating with each other in a productive manner.

But with federal funding and millions of dollars in taxpayer and private investment on the line, the officials said they needed to figure this one out.

Download the meeting notes here. To see who attended the sitdown, download the meeting’s sign-in sheet here. UPDATE: GDOT has responded with its notes from the meeting. They’re much more detailed than MARTA’s. In them, GDOT says it wants to explore what other parts of the city would be suitable for a train terminal into which commuter rail or inter-city rail could operate. That transcript is pasted after the summary.

If you’re adverse to downloading the files, I’ve written a rather lengthy rundown of the meeting after the jump.

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Flanked by the Gold Dome’s top pachyderms, Gov. Sonny Perdue yesterday gave residents another peek at his plan to overhaul the state’s transportation agencies.

From Dave Williams at the Atlanta Business Chronicle:

Perdue unveiled plans Thursday to introduce legislation merging two transportation agencies created by former Gov. Roy Barnes into a new organization that essentially would take over the main planning and funding duties of the Georgia Department of Transportation.

The DOT would maintain its operations and maintenance functions and could compete with private highway contractors for road-building projects.

The State Transportation Authority would consist of 11 members appointed by the governor, lieutenant governor and speaker of the House. Its board would make policy decisions that now are the responsibility of the 13-member DOT board, which has one member representing each of Georgia’s congressional districts.

The bill, which is still being drafted, is expected to be longer than the Bible. Perdue told reporters he won’t support either the state Senate or House’s proposals to increase transportation funding until they tend to his reorganization effort.

(Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)

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