Am getting duplicate data from get_posts()

Question

Am trying to display posts only from the "latest" category on my wordpress blog but am strangely getting the same post displayed twice. What am i doing wrong?

/*
* Theme file:index.php
*/
    global $post;
    $categories=get_categories();
    foreach($categories as $categories_item)
    {
        if(strcasecmp($categories_item->name, 'latest') == 0)//case-insensitive string comparison
        {
            $args = array(
            'numberposts'     => 2,
            'category'        => $categories_item->cat_ID,
            'orderby'         => 'post_date',
            'order'           => 'ASC',
            'post_status'     => 'publish'
            );
                $latest_stuff = get_posts( $args );
                echo "<h2>Latest stuff</h2>";
                foreach($latest_stuff as $latest_stuff_item)
                {
                    setup_postdata($post);
                    echo "<div>".the_content()."<div><hr>";
                }   
        }
    }

Answer 1

Without looking at the database data (posts, inherits, etc), it's a bit of guesswork.

Try the following:

• Make sure you have "post_type"=>"post" specified, so that you don't get auto-saved inherits (if it defaults to 'any').
• If this is an isolated query (not meant to be main loop), use $q = new WP_Query() and run it through that instead of get_posts().
• What does setup_postdata do? Does it accidentally rewind anything?
• Try escaping the category loop and apply get_category_by_slug('latest') to "category" (it returns an object with ID) to the call.