TASK DEFINITION: Given a document and an entity the task is to select the author's sentiment towards the entity. Sentiments can be Positive, Neutral and Negative. Select Positive if the article expresses a positive view towards the given entity or praises its quality or skills. Select Neutral if the document expresses no clear view towards the entity or has equal amounts of positive and negative statements or expressing some fact/quote by someone else. Select Negative if the article expresses a negative view towards like harsh remarks, criticizing entities action/decision etc. Note that URLs in the text have been replaced with [Link].
PROBLEM: What is the sentiment of the following document towards the entity Quincy Jones ? (CNN)  Quincy Jones  might be an 85-year-old musical legend with nothing to prove  but that doesn't mean  he  isn't still learning from  his  mistakes.
 The musician  on Thursday apologized for a string of headline-making recent interviews that  he  said were full of "bad-mouthing" and "inexcusable."
The interviews Jones referenced were with GQ and Vulture . In the chats   Jones  was candid about  his  feelings about Taylor Swift ("We need more songs  man. F---ing songs  not hooks.")  Paul McCartney ("the worst bass player I ever heard") and Michael Jackson (whom  he  called "greedy")  among others.
 He  also caused controversy in speaking about alleged sexual relations between legendary Hollywood figures.
 Jones  said it was a conversation with  his  daughters that opened  his  eyes to the error of  his  ways.

SOLUTION: Positive

PROBLEM: What is the sentiment of the following document towards the entity Michelle Obama ? Former first lady Michelle Obama  revealed to Ellen DeGeneres what was inside the Tiffany box she received from Melania Trump on Donald Trump’s Inauguration Day.  Obama ’s perplexed expression and inability to find a place to put the box generated some laughs  and the contents apparently remained unknown until now.
“It was a lovely frame ”  Obama  told DeGeneres in a preview clip of her sit-down with the talk show host to air Thursday.
Let’s rewind to Inauguration Day in January 2017 for a moment. Melania Trump presented the Tiffany & Co. box to  Obama  at the White House before the ceremony. Watch the awkwardness ensue.
“Well  there’s all this protocol  Obama ma said to DeGeneres in the footage posted by People. “I mean  this is like a state visit  so they tell you that you’re going to do this  they’re going to stand here. Never before do you get this gift  so I’m sort of like  OK. Obama ma acknowledged tha she he was a bit flummoxed by the presentation. “What am I supposed to do with this gift? And everyone cleared out and no one would come and take the box. Barack Obama ma stepped in to smooth out the awkwardness.

SOLUTION: Positive

PROBLEM: What is the sentiment of the following document towards the entity Toni Preckwinkle ? Unfortunately for the driving force behind the soda tax imposed on Cook County   Illinois  Board president Toni Preckwinkle   the voters caught on  the industry sued (and were threatened over it)  and now county supervisors are to vote on repeal.
Suddenly  when push is to come to shove   Preckwinkle  has dropped the health issue and admits that it's all about the money. Andy Grimm of the Chicago Sun-Times:
[A] day ahead of making her budget address to a Board of Commissioners said to be lined up for a close vote on pulling back the county's penny-per-ounce tax on sodas and sweetened beverages   Preckwinkle  was not shy about saying what would happen without the estimated $200 million in tax revenue projected to come from the tax. "(We will) make significant cuts to public health and public safety  because that's where 87 percent of our money goes "  Preckwinkle  told reporters  following an unrelated press conference on criminal justice reform.
The tax narrowly passed last year with the president casting a tie-breaking vote. Furor over the tax  stoked in part by a multimillion-dollar advertising campaign by soda industry groups  reached a fever pitch this summer  when consumers around the county first saw the beverage tax tacked onto their grocery receipts.  Preckwinkle  reminded commissioners of the financial implications for the county if the tax is pulled back in a fiscal note sent out Friday  which said the county health system and public safety funds  which were slated to receive 75 percent of the new soda tax revenue. The lost revenue would require an 11-percent cut to those departments' budget  according to the memo.
 Preckwinkle  sweetened the deal by giving each commissioner control over $500 000 in gas tax revenue to spend on transportation projects in their districts.

SOLUTION:
Neutral