I did have hacks installed, but I tried removing one at a time to see if they are the problem. No, it hasn't been fixed this way. So I deleted ALL custom content. I created a new neighborhood. I told sims to disable custom content at startup. Still this happens.
When I click on newspaper : error from the sim. "Missing Action String" conditions: new unplayed neighborhood, no CC, testing cheats enabled (only way to produce the error).

When I click on bookshelf : Error in object. "Object must be a person" so action is rejected.

I had Carrigon's rape hack, but deleted it. I had custom careers, deleted them. I had custom default skins, deleted that. I told the game to disable ALL CC at start up, still the problem remains.
Why still the problem?

My install is Sims 2, Nightlife, Open For Business. no other disk.
Are the hacks still affecting my game somehow?

Issue already resolved but I post information for others.

Only a few threads exist about errors in the "Community Lot Populator" object causing conflicts. Unfortunately of the cancel, reset, delete trio, only delete had any effect, which is maybe the wrong choice.

I wanted to creatively dispose of a few townies that were created when custom content was disabled. I created a sim strictly for the purpose of serial killing. Unfortunately, this sim managed to kill herself by standing too close to some burning townies. I had the testing cheats enabled, and the tombstone of L&D on the lot, and Rodney's death creator. Cheats work fine if used properly, but improper use can ruin a neighborhood.

First effect, with no created sim living on the lot, the game went into speed 3 and refused to shut down. The lot remained running because I had added townies to the family. These townies went full red on all motives but refused to die. I tried to kill them several times. Second, a child townie was to have died on the lot, but instead disappeared. When I tried to summon her in later testing, she showed up as a ghost and departed in an unusual manner. I did not see the expected " died on another lot " message that was given for adult townies. Children are usually protected from some deaths in Sims 2, so something happened.

The problem started on all lots, and surprisingly all neighborhoods even default neighborhoods. Every time a sim travels from home to a community lot, I get the community lot populator error , and the speed is stuck on 3. So the community lots are unplayable.  Of course, I understand my custom neighborhood being corrupted. What I don't understand is how this problem corrupted the three maxis default neighborhoods, when I don't even play them ! Maybe it's because the townies are shared with Pleasantview, which I used for testing of error fixes?

Anyhow, only fix I found was to reinstall expansions and start over.