TASK DEFINITION: Given a paragraph, generate a claim that is supported by the given paragraph. 1) The claim must contain information from within the paragraph. 2) A sentence within the paragraph can be used as a claim. 3) The claim should not have contradictions within the paragraph. 4) The claim should be at most one sentence long.
PROBLEM: His two attempts to craft legislation replacing Obama’s law have collapsed for lack of GOP support. Republican opposition seems likely to doom a vote next week on his Plan C, a bill simply repealing much of Obama’s statute. Along the way, conservative Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., accused McConnell of a “serious breach of trust” by telling moderates that proposed Medicaid cuts would not occur. His fellow Kentucky Republican, Sen. Rand Paul, was a constant thorn and the most vociferous opponent of McConnell’s effort. And Utah Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, gave party leaders little advance word when he and Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kansas, deserted the bill late Monday, effectively killing it in the dark of night. “This has been a very, very challenging experience for all of us,” McConnell told reporters Tuesday. McConnell faced a difficult environment. Polls have consistently shown Obama’s statute was far more popular than the GOP effort to repeal it, making his bill a tough sell to colleagues. President Donald Trump’s dismal approval ratings and zigzagging engagement haven’t helped. And facing unbroken Democratic opposition, McConnell needed to win over at least 50 of the 52 GOP senators, a .962 batting average he’s been unable to achieve. “Mitch has a tough, tough job and frankly I cut him a lot of slack on this. He can only do so much,” said Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz. Democrats, who often grudgingly marvel at McConnell’s moves, kept waiting for him to pull a rabbit from what turned out to be an empty hat. They said he overreached by turning a bill reshaping Obama’s law into one that also cut nearly $1 trillion in taxes over a decade and sliced almost $800 billion from Medicaid, the health care program for the poor, disabled and nursing home patients. They say he boxed himself in by rushing to deliver on his party’s seven-year-old overpromise to repeal Obama’s law. That proved an arduous task that angered tens of millions who’ve benefited from the statute, especially with much of McConnell’s work performed behind closed office doors. “I don’t have any sympathy for him,” said Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., his party’s No. 2 Senate leader. “I assume he felt duty-bound as the Republican leader” to pursue repeal of Obama’s law. But he said McConnell should have known that “rewriting the health care system of America on the fly and in secret was not going to work.” McConnell seemed to be trying to turn lemons into lemonade with next week’s likely rejection of a simple repeal of much of Obama’s law. By losing, GOP leaders would send a message to conservative voters that they tried to obliterate the law, while signaling to Republican senators that the votes aren’t there and it is time to move on. A senator for 33 years, the 75-year-old McConnell has a reputation for weaving compromises that avert onrushing political disasters. He cut several such deals during Obama’s years in the White House, including major budget pacts in 2011 and 2013. But once Donald Trump won the presidency and Republicans took House and Senate control this year, it became McConnell’s job to play offense. In particular, he is quarterback of the Senate GOP drive to repeal Obama’s law. But dismantling the law is not going to happen, at least in the immediate future. Assessing Democrats as unwilling to help them scrap Obama’s law — which they were — McConnell ignored them from the start. That tactic ignored his own advice from his 2016 memoir, “The Long Game,” in which he criticized Democrats for passing Obama’s 2010 statute “without regard for the views of the other side.” “Once you only have 52 votes and you try to do a bill just with Republicans, you set yourself up for a nearly impossible task,” said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. McConnell’s latest bill would cut Medicaid, letting insurers sell policies with negligible coverage and rolling back Obama taxes on the health care industry. Getting GOP votes for it is a Rubik’s cube-like problem because conservatives and moderates have mutually exclusive demands, like whether to slash Medicaid or erase Obama regulations protecting consumers. “You have first- and second-term twerps that think they know the solution to everything,” said former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., who retired in 2007. “This was always going to be a difficult process and I’m not sure how we would have handled it differently,” said No. 2 Senate GOP leader John Cornyn of Texas. Movement conservatives who have often accused McConnell of not being an aggressive enough champion of their causes do fault him. “Mitchcare collapses,” read a statement by Ken Cuccinelli, who heads the Senate Conservatives Fund, which has clashed with McConnell. Cuccinelli called the bill’s demise “an embarrassing defeat for someone who portrays himself as a strategic genius.”

SOLUTION: Crumbling health bill dents McConnell image as top tactician.

PROBLEM: Dr. William D. Parham will oversee the union’s new program designed to help members with mental health issues. The program will be headquartered in Los Angeles. NBPA Executive Director Michele Roberts says the union has “heard our players’ stories and are making mental health a priority now.” Earlier this season, NBA stars Kevin Love of the Cleveland Cavaliers and DeMar DeRozan of the Toronto Raptors revealed issues they’ve struggle with on and off the court. Love detailed his experience with panic attacks and anxiety. DeRozan talked about battles with depression.

SOLUTION: NBA players’ union hires director of mental health.

PROBLEM: Louise, a black English Labrador, doesn’t ask anything of Casteel except to provide a warm lap to sit in or a ball to chase across the room. For Casteel, it’s about the best therapy she’s ever had. ″(Louise) calms me down,” said Casteel, who lives in the Manhattan area. “She’ll play with you, she’ll sit with you. She knows when you’re sad.” Casteel is a client at Veridian Behavioral Health, a multi-disciplinary mental health care center that is part of the behavioral health department of Salina Regional Health Center. Many of Veridian’s psychiatrists, counselors and nurse practitioners serve individuals and families struggling with common life problems such as depression, anxiety, PTSD, marital problems, parent-child conflicts or grief and loss. Recently, the center added another tool to help clients in their programs — certified therapy dogs. Three dogs specifically, have been introduced to the programs: Louise, a Chesapeake Bay retriever named Phil and a Great Dane named Daisy. These dogs assist adult inpatient and outpatient clients at the hospital, as well as children suffering trauma and other mental health issues at Veridian’s east campus, the Salina Journal reported. Angela Koerperich, an advanced nurse practitioner who owns and supervises Daisy, said Veridian received a grant in October 2015 to add three certified therapy dogs into its mental health program. She and two other Veridian nurse practitioners took on a dog: Louise belongs to Jennifer Pekarek and Phil is owned by Marcia Cleavenger. “We’ve talked about this for years as something that would be great to have in the inpatient unit,” Koerperich said. “We worked together to make it happen. We got in contact with CARES, and the pieces just came together.” CARES, which stands for Canine Assistance Rehabilitation Education & Services, is Concordia-based specialty service that offers specially trained canine assistants to people with disabilities throughout the U.S., as well as professional therapy dogs for schools, mental health facilities, hospitals and nursing homes. The majority of dogs that CARES trains are produced from their own breeding programs or are donated ex-show dogs, specifically bred puppies and family pets. Dogs are fostered out to volunteer homes and facilities where they are raised for nine to 18 months, learn basic obedience and become socialized to all aspects of public and private life. Louise and Daisy happened to be trained by inmates at the Ellsworth Correctional Facility, Cleavenger said, which has established a dog training program. “It can be nearly a two year process before they’re certified,” she said. To become a certified therapy animal, a dog has to have the right kind of temperament to interact with subjects who may be going through trauma or other mental or physical issues, Cleavenger said. “A lot of times people come into the clinic, and they’ll be highly anxious or depressed,” she said. “A therapy dog helps to ease the anxiety and make it easier to converse with that person. I’ve had a patient with high blood pressure who, once they spent a little time with Phil, their high blood pressure dropped.” Koerperich said Daisy, who like the other therapy dogs wears an identifiable vest while at “work,” does wonders with children at the Veridian outpatient office. “Sometimes it’s hard to get children to engage or take their medicine, and the dogs can help,” she said. “When you are talking to kids about trauma, it’s nice to have Daisy in the room. Sometimes a child will talk to the dog and not the therapist. They’ll take Daisy outside, walk her around. It’s nice to have that physical distraction.” Pekarek said at Veridian’s inpatient unit at the hospital, Louise has been an immense help when it comes to communicating with patients who are virtually disabled as a result of trauma or mental issues. “Louise seems to warm up to people really fast,” Pekarek said. “I’ll bring Louise into the inpatient units, and she seems to know who needs her the most. She will stay with them, even if that person won’t get out of bed. There was 14-year-old girl here who would not talk to me or her mother, but she talked to Louise. It’s amazing to watch.” For Casteel, having Louise by her side during therapy sessions has given her hope that her life will continue to improve in the future. “I got an animal myself after I met Louise,” she said. “I know now that I need an emotional support animal, that without one I’ll be more depressed than usual. I got a cat, but he’s as gentle as (Louise) is.” ___ Information from: The Salina (Kan.) Journal, http://www.salina.com

SOLUTION:
Salina center’s therapy dogs help manage mental health.