TASK DEFINITION: Generate an explanation for the given claim using the provided supporting material from the paragraph. Please consider the following points while generating an output. 1) The claim will always have supporting proof in the paragraph, and the paragraph will have a clear point of view supporting the claim. 2) There can be instances where direct correlation to the claim is not available. Make use of the sentences in the paragraph to provide a corresponding output supporting the claim. 3) The explanation should be at least one and at most twelve sentences long.
PROBLEM: Paragraph: Central to the plan to protect the city, some or all of the 78 barriers will one day be raised when the sea rises more than 110 centimeters (43 inches), to prevent damaging high tides from pushing into the lagoon city, a world heritage site built picturesquely — but somewhat precariously — upon more than 120 islands. Concerns that high tides are becoming more frequent because of climate change have increased the urgency. While the concept is simple, its realization has been anything but. The system of movable underwater barriers, dubbed Moses, has been beset by corruption, cost overruns and delays. Projected at 1.8 billion euros ($2 billion) and meant to be completed by 2011, the project has so far cost 5.5 billion euros and is running a decade behind schedule. In the wake of last month’s flooding of Venice, the worst in 53 years, the consortium that oversees construction of Moses is eager to demonstrate that the project — after years of bad news — is on track and will be fully operational by the end of 2021. Venetians say they cannot afford to be wrong. Skeptics and critics say they may be. A recent test of the deepest expanse of barriers — at the Malamocco entrance to the lagoon — was declared a success by the New Venice Consortium. It was the last of the four sections of barriers to be completely raised — but so far only in calm seas. The real test will come when all four are raised at once, and not only in serene waters, but under flood conditions. That isn’t scheduled to take place until the end of next year. It took six years to test each of the four movable sea walls covering the three openings to the lagoon, partly because work was slowed by a 2014 corruption scandal that implicated the three main contractors and sent 35 people to jail. Work is continuing largely with the original subcontractors now contracting directly with the consortium, which itself has been placed under government control as a result of the scandal. The fact that the barriers have not yet been physically tested in rough seas is a concern to critics. Paolo Vielmo, an offshore marine engineer who has long criticized the project, said that tests carried out in a laboratory in the Netherlands in the 1990s indicated that the barriers, under certain conditions, would oscillate out of control — possibly even breaking apart. “Its behavior is not predictable,’’ Vielmo said. He said that the trials so far declared successful have been under only modest sea conditions that fail to represent anywhere near the threat of the phenomenon of extreme oscillation called subharmonic resonance. Vielmo and two other offshore engineers have compiled a report for the Codacons consumer and environment protection advocacy group, which is asking officials to run additional calculations to see if the project is indeed viable. And if it is not, Codacons says Moses should be stopped. “We don’t want to delay by one minute the possibility to make Moses operational. But we say we cannot make it operational until we are sure it will work,’’ said Franco Conte, president of Codacons in Venice. “Naturally, the Venetian community is exasperated and they say, ‘If we did 95%, let’s do 100% and see if that works.’ But that is unconscionable. If we don’t know if it works, we cannot experiment.”  The barrier system is made up of giant flood gates, each 20 meters (66 feet) long. The gates are attached by hinges to giant cement blocks placed on the seabed along the three openings from the sea into the lagoon, Malamocco, Chioggia and the Lido. The gates can be lifted to create a temporary barrier in high tides. Once the water has receded, they can be lowered again — allowing shipping traffic to continue and for the tidal system to flush out the lagoon. The idea behind the project was to create a mobile system that would not impede views of the unique and protected landscape. But Moses has suffered criticism from the start that there were simpler, cheaper systems that could have been deployed. Venetians have been waiting since the record 1.94-meter (6.36-foot) flood of 1966 for a system to protect them from regular inundations. The flooding in November, the second-worst recorded, proved the urgency. In the 150 years that they have been recording the tide levels in Venice, two high tides above 1.5 meters have never been recorded in a year. In November, there were three in one week. Climate scientists note that exceptional tides — those over 1.4 meters — have become much more frequent in the past two decades, with more than half of all recorded occurring since 2000. “One has to realize the kind of existential question that that serious flooding has given rise to,” said Jane Da Mosto, an environmental scientist and executive director of the non-profit group We Are Here Venice, which is working to defend the city against myriad issues, including depopulation, cruise traffic through St. Mark’s basin and overtourism. “People are asking: will Venice be defendable against these kinds of episodes?’’  It’s not just the still-uncalculated damage to landmarks like St. Mark’s Basilica, where corrosive salt water creeps through porous brick and tile. It’s also the boxes of ruined belongings and piles of soaked mattresses discarded in alleyways and loaded onto motorboats and trash barges for disposal. The relentlessness of the Venetian fall and winter tides make one-third of ground floors uninhabitable in the historic canal city. “I am very old, I cannot say that I want to die, but I certainly do not want to be witness to the fact that it does not work,” 84-year-old resident Paola Scarpa said of the Moses barriers, as she walked to check on a family property in the Canareggio neighborhood on a recent December morning. “It would be a pain too great.”  ___  Associated Press journalist Trisha Thomas contributed to this report. Claim: Venice tide barriers pass another test but skeptics remain.

SOLUTION: Floated along by barge , one of the 10-ton barriers designed to relieve Venice’s perennial flooding looks like a giant plaything: an oversized hinged yellow Lego.

PROBLEM: Paragraph: When he entered the NFL, Cook could hardly have envisioned spinach as the centerpiece of one of his meals. Now, he’s made youth nutrition his chief charitable cause, trying to help kids embrace the value of healthy foods. “I just started seeing some of the stuff I was eating, and I was like, ‘I never would’ve had this two years ago,’” Cook said. “So just imagine if I was 10 years old? Just to give them a jump-start on how to do things, to get a message out there and show them how it’s supposed to be done.” Education is one thing, but access is another. When school is out, especially in the summer, many children in low-income households can find meals harder to come by. The Boys & Girls Club of the Twin Cities works with about 9,000 kids, with 90% of them eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, according to senior director of corporate and public relations Tim Schober. Vikings chief operating officer Kevin Warren saw his own awareness rise when his daughter, Peri, founded a food delivery business to bring healthy food to underserved residents of the north side of Minneapolis. “I didn’t quite understand the level of it until I helped her deliver food a couple times on weekends,” Warren said. “There are people right here in our touchpoint that are really struggling, that don’t eat healthy, and it impacts every area of their life.” When the Vikings relaunched their philanthropic arm in 2017, they prioritized childhood hunger, fitness and achievement gaps, with a goal of actively creating their own programs in partnership with local nonprofits rather than the old model of simply issuing grants. The first major initiative was a food truck to serve nutritious meals to needy kids in the area, in conjunction with organizations already addressing food access. This custom-built, converted recreational vehicle energized by rooftop solar panels was unveiled on Thursday. It’s called Vikings Table . “You think about developing countries having hunger issues, but it exists in our own backyard,” said Vikings Foundation executive director Brett Taber. “Food trucks are very popular, so this eliminates some of that social stigma of receiving a free meal.” The association with the local professional football team helps, too. “With the Vikings being involved, it gives it a different feel,” Schober said. “Now, it’s a big special event and everyone is participating and you can take some of the potential embarrassment away.” The concept is similar to an “eye mobile” the Eagles Charitable Foundation has deployed in the Philadelphia area since 1996 to offer free eye exams and prescription glasses to needy children . Boosted by a seven-figure pledge from Xcel Energy, the project also will be funded by sales from the food truck with a separate menu at Vikings games, training camp practices and other events. Profits will be directed back to the summer youth meal service. The back of the truck has an 80-inch monitor to show videos about healthy eating. Local food truck entrepreneurs Tony and Haley Fritz will be operating, maintaining and staffing the truck. “The hope is to have some kind of an effect on people. It’s kind of an event so they want to be a part of that,” Haley Fritz said. “We’re trying to say: ‘Hey, this is cool. The Vikings eat turkey tacos, too.’ The hope is that they just keep us overly busy and we just keep feeding as many people as we can.” ___ More AP NFL coverage: https://apnews.com/NFL and https://twitter.com/AP_NFL Claim: Vikings unveil community food truck to serve hungry youth.

SOLUTION: Dalvin Cook’s rookie year was dominated by his rehabilitation from reconstructive knee surgery, and his second season included recuperation from a significant hamstring strain. The arduous process of recovery from injuries quickly made the Minnesota Vikings running back realize the necessity of eating right.

PROBLEM: Paragraph: "On August 3 2020, a Facebook user shared the following status update, which advises readers to submit their mail-in ballots to the Board of Elections directly — based on “an inside tip from a postal worker”:It read:Don’t mail ballots in. Drop at board of elections. This is an inside tip from a postal worker. “Can’t say any more than that.”Other VersionsOn August 12 2020, a post with very similar wording appeared:That post offered an additional method of submitting ballots:Don’t mail ballots in. Drop at board of elections or a polling site.This is an inside tip from a postal worker. “Can’t say any more than that.”That poster credited a Twitter user, @wvjoe911, with the commentary. On August 10 2020, @wvjoe911 tweeted:Don’t mail ballots in. Drop at board of elections or a polling site. This is an inside tip from a postal worker. ""Can’t say any more than that. ""— 🇺🇸🌊JoeInWV 🌊🇺🇸 (@wvjoe911) August 10, 2020This is an Inside Tip from a Postal Worker. ‘Can’t Say Any More Than That.’All three iterations we located had nearly identical wording, all citing an “inside tip from a postal worker, who can’t say more than that.”It wasn’t clear if all three referenced the same “inside tip from a postal worker” who “can’t say more than that” (one with broad reach on social media), or if that detail was tacked on to lend plausibility to the claims. In any event, the “inside tip from a postal worker” was impossible to verify.United States Postal Service Delays in August 2020All three posts were shared between August 3 and August 12 2020; at the same time, reports of slowdowns involving the United States Postal Service started appearing from all over.On August 7 2020, Vox reported:The United States Postal Service is dealing with crippling backlogs of letters and packages. A postmaster in upstate New York recently told their union that the regular mail was two days behind and, for the first time in their career, Express Priority Mail was not going out on time. Despite a surge in package delivery during the pandemic, postal workers are no longer able to work overtime, and fewer mail trucks are on the road. If your own mail seems delayed or unpredictable, it’s not a one-off problem.On August 12 2020, Reuters covered USPS backlogs and delays:[A USPS] reorganization, introduced in July [2020], has resulted in thousands of delayed letters in southern Maine, as delivery drivers follow a new directive to leave on time, even if the mail has not been loaded, said Scott Adams, who represents about 550 workers as the president of American Postal Worker Union Local 458.Another new directive requires mail carriers to head out on their routes immediately in the morning, carrying only packages and letters that were sorted the night before, according to an internal memo seen by Reuters. That is requiring some carriers to double back to pick up a second batch later in the day, said Kimberly Karol, president of the Iowa Postal Workers Union.“It is on the ground costing more in manpower and man-hours than it is saving,” Karol said.An August 10 2020 ClickOnDetroit.com indicated Senate Democrats in Michigan demanded answers about slowdowns in USPS service (as did other local outlets in August 2020):US Democratic Sen. Gary Peters of Michigan and postal workers are accusing Postmaster General Louis DeJoy of forcing workers to leave their work unfinished in order to slow down mail service.Those delays come as the country grapples with the coronavirus pandemic and looks ahead to the presidential election.In a press conference Monday morning [August 10 2020], Peters noted that he has heard from hundreds of Michigan residents who say they have had sudden delays in vital mail service.That same day, a tech-centric site reported the ongoing USPS delays could have a major effect on “Amazon Prime Day” shopping and shipping. On August 11 2020, CNBC reported small businesses were being disproportionately harmed by nationwide USPS slowdowns:This year [2020], small businesses have dealt with COVID-19 related closures and restrictions, and now they’re facing shipping delays.“Things are not right from a shipping perspective, and it’s really, really critical to our business while we can’t have as many clients in the store to be able to ship on time,” said Laurie Molton, founder of House of Lolo, located on El Paseo.With an uncertain retail market, several shops have moved a majority of inventory online.But owners say delays through the United States Postal Service are impacting not only when customers receive their orders, but when stores get their inventory as well.“Being on a website, it’s very important to keep your product fresh and with new things constantly going. So when we have nothing new to put on the website it makes it a little complicated,” said Morgan Rooney, manager of Blonde Clothing Boutique, located on El Paseo.Across the country, regional and national news organizations covered the myriad slowdowns and delays in USPS service in August 2020.‘Don’t Mail Ballots in. Drop at Board of Elections or a Polling Site.’As of August 2020, it was unclear whether the reported USPS delays would persist through November 2020 and the general election.All three posts advised social media users to avoid USPS for submitting mail-in ballots. Two suggested dropping mail ballots off at a polling place, and either suggestion would bypass USPS entirely to ensure that ballots were placed directly in the hands of Board of Elections employees.Is it Possible to Drop Ballots off at the Board of Elections or a Polling Place?Each state had its own guidelines for mail-in voting; many have made provisions for the COVID-19 pandemic. According to USA.gov, voters ought to check in with their local Board of Elections for information about those procedures regardless of advice gleaned from statements and claims made on Twitter:Coronavirus and Voting by Mail-In Absentee Ballot States are making it easier for citizens to vote absentee by mail this year due to the coronavirus. Every state’s election rules are different. And each state has its own rules for mail-in absentee voting. Many are still in the process of deciding how they will handle voting during the pandemic. Visit your state election office website to find out if you can vote by mail. Can I Vote takes you right to your state’s absentee voting page.For voters within the United States, USA.gov explains:Get your absentee ballot from your state or territory.Visit Can I Vote and choose your state from the dropdown menu. It will take you right to your state’s absentee voting page.Your state may require you to have a valid excuse to vote absentee. Acceptable excuses vary by state. Most include:Follow your state’s instructions for requesting an absentee or vote-by-mail ballot.Most of the answers were state-specific. One Arizona voting resource advised voters to mail ballots or drop them off:HOW TO RETURN AN EARLY BALLOTBy Mail: You should always plan to mail back your ballot at least 7 days prior to election day, to ensure it is received by the county in time. The United States Post Office recommends 7 days for returning ballots by mail, which is first class mail. Postage is pre-paid so all you have to do is drop your signed and sealed ballot envelope in the mail.Drop it Off: If you don’t have enough time to mail your ballot back or prefer to return it in person, you have several options:You can drop your ballot off at any in-person early voting locations, including the County Recorder’s Office or Elections Office.Some counties have secured ballot drop boxes. You can drop your ballot off in any ballot drop box in your county.You can drop your ballot off at any voting location in your county on Election Day. No need to wait in line. Just head straight inside the voting location and drop it in the early ballot bin. You can get an I Voted sticker too!However you decide to return your ballot, just remember to SIGN IT and that the county RECEIVES it by 7:00 p.m. on Election Day.Vote.org listed some of those state-specific directives. Finally, the U.S. Election Assistance Commission indicated that ballot drop boxes are an option for voters who do not want to mail them in:Ballot Drop Box [PDF] This document outlines things to know and consider when planning for the use of ballot drop boxes including general considerations, recommendations on closing boxes, and security considerations. A drop box is a secure, locked structure operated by election officials where voters may deliver their ballots from the time they receive them in the mail up to the time polls close on Election Day.The linked PDF began:A ballot drop box provides a secure and convenient means for voters to return their mail ballot. A drop box is a secure, locked structure operated by election officials where voters may deliver their ballots from the time they receive them in the mail up to the time polls close on Election Day. Ballot drop boxes can be staffed or unstaffed, temporary or permanent.EAC also explained:Some voters prefer to deliver their mail ballots to a drop box rather than sending them back through the mail. These voters may be motivated by lack of trust in the postal process, fear that their ballot could be tampered with, or concern that their signature will be exposed. Voters may also be concerned about meeting the postmark deadline and ensuring that their ballot is returned in time to be counted.Ballot drop boxes and drop-off locations allow voters to deliver their ballots in person. More importantly, the availability of ballot drop boxes and drop-off locations ensures that even voters who wait until the last minute to vote or who receive their requested ballot in the mail at the last minute will be able to return their ballots in time to be counted.EAC included important information for anyone planning to submit a mail-in ballot via drop box or to their Board of Elections — primarily that not all polling places accept mail-in ballots:Voters who are unable to return a ballot in person or get it to a postal facility in time for it to be counted may, depending on state law, may be able to entrust the voted ballot to someone else to help them deliver it—an agent or designee. […]Many of these last-minute voters drop their ballot off at a voting location (which may not be allowed by state law). Setting up ballot drop boxes and educating voters to use them mitigates a number of COVID-19-related risks associated with in-person voting. It also minimizes the number of people that will need to access voting locations, thereby providing more space for those who are engaged in in-person voting.TL;DRPosts on Facebook and Twitter about an “inside tip from a postal worker” who “can’t say more” advised voters to avoid using USPS to submit mail-in ballots as of August 2020. However, it was no secret that United States Postal Service delays emerged as a major issue in August 2020, and that the heavy anticipated volume of mail-in votes were a growing concern. As the posts described, it is true that voters often have the ability to directly submit ballots to their Board of Elections or polling place. Procedures varied by state, and voters who wished to bypass USPS for mail-in ballots were best advised to obtain jurisdiction-specific information from their local Boards of Elections well before November 2020.Comments" Claim: If you don't wish to use USPS to mail ballots, you may be able to bring them directly to your local Board of Elections or polling place to ensure their receipt.

SOLUTION:
Posts on Facebook and Twitter about an “inside tip from a postal worker” who “can’t say more” advised voters to avoid using USPS to submit mail-in ballots as of August 2020. However, it was no secret that United States Postal Service delays emerged as a major issue in August 2020, and that the heavy anticipated volume of mail-in votes were a growing concern. As the posts described, it is true that voters often have the ability to directly submit ballots to their Board of Elections or polling place. Procedures varied by state, and voters who wished to bypass USPS for mail-in ballots were best advised to obtain jurisdiction-specific information from their local Boards of Elections well before November 2020.