update checkout version; debug permission error

.github/workflows/release-branch-checks.yml

@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ jobs:
   verify_all_commits_are_already_in_master:
     runs-on: ubuntu-latest
     steps:
-      - uses: actions/checkout@v3
+      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
         with:
           # Fetch all history for accurate comparison
           fetch-depth: 0
@@ -30,10 +30,10 @@ jobs:
             echo "ERROR: The following commits are not present in $MASTER_BRANCH:"
             echo ""
             echo "$MISSING_COMMITS"
-            echo ""
-            echo "PRs to release branches should only contain commits that are already in master."
-            echo "To fix this PR, reset your branch locally to a commit at or behind https://github.com/datacommonsorg/website/commits/master/ and run `git push --force -u origin`."
-            echo "Note that a release branch PR should be based on master and not the previous version of the release branch, which contains merge commits."
+            # echo ""
+            # echo "PRs to release branches should only contain commits that are already in master."
+            # echo "To fix this PR, reset your branch locally to a commit at or behind https://github.com/datacommonsorg/website/commits/master/ and run `git push --force -u origin`."
+            # echo "Note that a release branch PR should be based on master and not the previous version of the release branch, which contains merge commits."
             exit 1
           fi