import re


def removePunctuation(text):
    """Removes punctuation, changes to lowercase, and strips leading and trailing spaces.

    Note:
        Only spaces, letters, and numbers should be retained.  Other characters should should be
        eliminated. (e.g. it's becomes its)

    Args:
        text (str): A string.

    Returns:
        str: The cleaned up string.
    """
    return re.sub(r'([^A-Za-z0-9\s+])', '', text.strip().lower())