fix(avbeat): 3 homepage bugs — invisible AI sidebar titles, dark tagline on blue header, literal <p> in excerpts

(A) src/components/AISuggestedArticles.tsx :186 + :287 — 'AI Suggested Articles' card titles
    used text-[#e0e0e0] on now-white card surfaces, making the title invisible until
    group-hover flipped it to #1D4ED8. Both occurrences changed to text-[#0F172A].
    (ArticleFeed.tsx:627 and NewsPageClient.tsx:276 were already navy from the
    prior contrast-fix deploy and cover both pagination + infinite-scroll variants.)

(B) src/components/AvBeatLogo.tsx :99 — header tagline 'Inside the Future of Pro AV'
    was rendered in --brand-text-muted (#475569 slate) on a now-blue nav (#1D4ED8),
    near-invisible. Changed to rgba(255,255,255,0.85) so it reads against the blue
    while sitting visually subordinate to the wordmark above it.

(C) src/lib/articles/excerpt.ts — cleanExcerpt now strips HTML tags (<p>, <br>, <em>, etc.)
    and decodes common entities (&nbsp;, &amp;, &lt;, &gt;, &quot;, &#039;, &apos;) at
    render time, then collapses whitespace before the existing trailing-junk/last-word
    logic runs. Display-layer only — stored excerpts are not mutated, matching the
    'fix at the DISPLAY layer' instruction.

src/components/AISuggestedArticles.tsx

@@ -183,7 +183,7 @@ export default function AISuggestedArticles({ variant = 'compact' }: Props) {
                   <p className="text-[#1D4ED8] font-body text-[9px] font-bold uppercase tracking-wider mb-0.5">
                     {article.category}
                   </p>
-                  <p className="font-heading text-[#e0e0e0] text-xs font-semibold leading-snug line-clamp-2 group-hover:text-[#1D4ED8] transition-colors">
+                  <p className="font-heading text-[#0F172A] text-xs font-semibold leading-snug line-clamp-2 group-hover:text-[#1D4ED8] transition-colors">
                     {article.title}
                   </p>
                 </div>
@@ -284,7 +284,7 @@ export default function AISuggestedArticles({ variant = 'compact' }: Props) {
                   {article.category}
                 </span>
               </div>
-              <h3 className="font-heading text-[#e0e0e0] text-sm font-semibold leading-snug line-clamp-2 group-hover:text-[#1D4ED8] transition-colors">
+              <h3 className="font-heading text-[#0F172A] text-sm font-semibold leading-snug line-clamp-2 group-hover:text-[#1D4ED8] transition-colors">
                 {article.title}
               </h3>
               <p className="text-[#555] font-body text-[11px] mt-1">{article.readTime}</p>

src/components/AvBeatLogo.tsx

@@ -96,7 +96,7 @@ export default function AvBeatLogo({
                 fontWeight: 500,
                 fontSize: 11,
                 letterSpacing: "0.04em",
-                color: "var(--brand-text-muted, #475569)",
+                color: "rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.85)",
                 lineHeight: 1.2,
                 whiteSpace: "nowrap",
               }}

src/lib/articles/excerpt.ts

@@ -1,16 +1,31 @@
 // Render-time excerpt sanitizer. Some imported / AI-generated excerpts were
 // hard-truncated at a fixed byte count, leaving sentences clipped mid-word
-// (e.g. "Since 1976, the co"). Until the upstream excerpt generator gets the
-// same treatment, this helper makes any clipped excerpt visually clean:
-// strip trailing junk, snap to the last complete word, and append an
-// ellipsis only when the excerpt isn't already a complete sentence.
+// (e.g. "Since 1976, the co"). Others arrive with raw HTML still in the
+// string (e.g. "<p>In today's fast-paced..."), which renders as visible
+// "<p>" text on the card. This helper handles both at render time without
+// mutating stored data.
 
 const SENTENCE_END = /[.!?…]['")\]]?$/;
 const TRAILING_JUNK = /[\s,;:—–\-—_]+$/;
 
 export function cleanExcerpt(raw: string | null | undefined): string {
   if (!raw) return "";
-  let s = raw.replace(/&nbsp;/g, " ").trim();
+  // Strip any HTML tags first — excerpts are rendered as plain text, so
+  // <p>, <br>, <em>, etc. should be removed rather than escaped.
+  // Replace tags with a space so adjacent words don't collide when
+  // formerly-block-level boundaries are removed.
+  let s = raw.replace(/<[^>]*>/g, " ");
+  // Decode the common entities that show up in WP/AI-imported excerpts.
+  s = s
+    .replace(/&nbsp;/g, " ")
+    .replace(/&amp;/g, "&")
+    .replace(/&lt;/g, "<")
+    .replace(/&gt;/g, ">")
+    .replace(/&quot;/g, '"')
+    .replace(/&#039;/g, "'")
+    .replace(/&apos;/g, "'");
+  // Collapse multi-whitespace runs left behind by tag removal.
+  s = s.replace(/\s+/g, " ").trim();
   if (!s) return "";
   if (SENTENCE_END.test(s)) return s;
   // Drop the trailing partial token.