Import creates duplicates and adds star character ★

I am trying to import all posts from one wordpress site to a local copy of the same site. (I can’t do a full database import because the pages and settings are different).
Whenever I import the posts, WordPress automatically imports everything (including content which should be duplicate). On top of that, any post imported now has a ★ (star) character at the beginning of the title. How do I stop that from happening?

Thanks!