Strat32

My favorites from the 25 Phrases to Tighten:
4. At this point in time -> Now
9. Unexpected surprise -> Surprise
12. By virtue of the fact that -> Because
I searched for these phrases in Google News and came up with the following results:
"At this point in time" yielded 1,564 hits. By scanning the descriptions under each result, I noticed that many of these results had this phrase in a quote. Thus, this phrase is frequently used in day-to-day speech. Writers need to be aware of this when paraphrasing quotes.
"Unexpected surprise" yielded 79 results, many of which appeared to occur in the lead of this story. This was very disconcerting.
Interestingly enough, "by virtue of the fact that" yielded 79 results as well. This phrase was used a couple times in sports stories.
I chose to tighten one of the stories with "unexpected surprise" in the lead since surprises create interesting stories.
Original: 12-year-old shocked by naughty conversation heart
(NEWSER) – A 12-year-old Sacramento girl got an unexpected surprise while eating some Valentine's Day candy: a conversation heart bearing the message, "NICE TITS." "I thought it was kinda shocking," Ciara Bush tells KCRA. She brought the candy to her similarly shocked parents, who emailed the candy maker. The company asked them to mail the entire bag back so it can figure out what went wrong. 
Tighten: A Valentine's Day conversation heart candy surprised a 12-year-old Sacramento girl with the message, "NICE TITS." "I thought it was kinda shocking," Ciara Bush tells KCRA. Her similarly shocked parents e-mailed the candy maker, who asked Ciara's parents to mail the bag of candy to them so they could figure out the mishap.