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: A lawsuit filed this week in Eagle County District Court contends Vail town officials violated local rules when they approved a Triumph Development project to build high-density worker housing along Interstate 70 where the bighorns forage during winter. The residents also argue that a Vail Resorts employee on the local Planning and Environmental Commission, which approved the project on a 4-3 vote, should have recused himself due to a conflict of interest. Their lawsuit asks Judge Russell Granger to send the case back to town officials with instructions for proper decision-making. “Developers tried to come up with mitigation. But it doesn’t seem the mitigation measures are sufficient to comply with the code,” which requires the implementation of “all necessary mitigating measures,” attorney Kim Perdue said Thursday. “My understanding is that there are other sites … that would be better for residents and also not have catastrophic impacts on this herd,” Perdue said. This battle pits the mountain resort’s economic demands against the needs of wildlife, in this case Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep, Colorado’s state animal. Bighorns once numbering more than 2 million around the west have been declining, hammered by disease — including sickness spread by domestic sheep — as development eclipses bighorn habitat. The Colorado bighorn population has dwindled to about 6,800, down from about 7,600 in 2012 and 8,000 in 2001, state data shows. Vail Valley bighorns have decreased to about 5% of their historic numbers, along with other species, and the herd that forages east of Vail has been reduced by 40% over the past 12 years to around 50 bighorns. Meanwhile, mountain resort operators around the state have been developing properties and struggling to ensure enough housing for workers as tourism and recreation industries expand. Triumph Development has proposed to construct the housing for Vail on 5.4 acres at one end of a 23.3-acre parcel that Vail obtained from the Colorado Department of Transportation. Local governments have broad discretion. The lawsuit targets town decision-making on narrow grounds, alleging that proposed “mitigation” measures are not sufficient to comply with town rules aimed at protecting the natural environment and wildlife. The developers’ proposals included the construction of a berm between the housing complex and a meadow where bighorns forage, limited lighting and restricted dog ownership. Residents walking to town would have to use an underpass designed for vehicles to cross I-70. The lawsuit also alleges town officials gave improper guidance to planning and environmental commission members by asserting they had no choice but to allow the development of the property, owned by Vail, because otherwise their action would amount to an illegal “regulatory taking” of the property. Vail officials declined to comment on the lawsuit. “We received the complaint, and we have forwarded it to our insurance carrier for review,” assistant town manager Patty McKenny said. Former Mayor Rob Ford, a longtime resident opposing the construction, said even people who recognize a need for affordable worker housing have been questioning Vail leaders’ decision-making. “It was not transparent. Residents were lied to. It is a poorly planned project, a crummy project,” Ford said. The conflict has escalated over the past two years. Colorado Parks and Wildlife biologists have provided guidance, warning that bighorns likely would suffer harm and questioning whether mitigation is possible. Vail officials have countered that the resort needs housing for service workers, in part to create a sense of community and reduce worker driving. Only 20% of Vail’s 8,500 workers live in town. Others commute as far as 75 miles. Houses in Vail cost $1.3 million on average. Renting an apartment typically costs around $1,200 a month. The Vail Homeowners Association has opposed the development. A 40-member group called Citizens to Protect Our Wildlife asked Gov. Jared Polis for help. The local chamber of commerce asked Polis to stay out of the matter unless he planned to support the construction. ___ Information from: The Denver Post, http://www.denverpost.com

SOLUTION: Lawsuit challenges Vail development in bighorn sheep habitat.

PROBLEM: The news release does not mention costs. While a new therapy may not have an established price, the release could have stated “no price is available for this drug.” What would be even better is some context for what women suffering from postpartum pay typically for counseling and medications. The release notes that  there was a reduction in depressive symptoms of 17 points for those on the drug, and 12.8 for those in the placebo group based on the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale. The absolute reduction in the rating scale is given for each group. This information would have been much more helpful if the release also clarified the magnitude of the scale and whether a 4.2-point difference is clinically meaningful. The release contains one somewhat vague sentence on harms. The most common (≥10% of subjects) adverse events following during brexanolone injection administration were headache, dizziness and somnolence. Readers would also be interested in details on whether the drug is safe for nursing infants. That’s not mentioned. The double-blinded randomized trials are described in detail and readers are able to judge the quality of the evidence. The published study includes an important limitation of the research that’s not mentioned in the release: The trials assessed women for only 30 days; the effects of the treatment beyond 30 days are “unknown.” There is no disease mongering. The release explains how common postpartum depression is worldwide. The release notes that Sage Therapeutics funded the research. Sage Therapeutics is the developer of brexanolone injection and sponsor of the trials. A New Drug Application is currently under review by the FDA and brexanolone injection has been granted Breakthrough Therapy Designation. The FDA has assigned a Prescription Drug User Fee Act target date of December 19, 2018. What the release doesn’t tell us is that both quoted researchers disclosed financial ties with Sage Therapeutics. This information was included in the studies published in the Lancet. SM-B reports personal fees from MedScape and grants from Sage Therapeutics, awarded to the University of North Carolina … DRR reports personal fees and has stock options in Sage Therapeutics…. The release mentions that women currently can receive antidepressants for postpartum depression, but that the new drug being studied goes to work relieving symptoms faster than traditional antidepressants — days rather than weeks. The release notes that the drug is currently under FDA review, with a decision on its approval expected by the end of the year. The release notes that the new drug would be a novel treatment for postpartum depression, if approved. There is no unjustifiable language.

SOLUTION: Newly Published Results Show Investigational Treatment Brexanolone Consistently Reduced Depressive Symptoms Across Three Postpartum Depression Trials, Supporting Submission for FDA Approval

PROBLEM: You need the right mix of factors to create ground-level ozone: sunlight, snow cover, little to no wind and, of course, emissions from the oil and gas industry — which arrived in force more than a decade ago in the Jonah and Pinedale gas field. And this year the factors have been right more often than usual. Friday was the 12th ozone action day of the season — a warning system from the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality that forces industry to pull back when conditions for ozone are expected. It’s a record number for recent years, and action days were issued for Saturday and Sunday as well. But there’s something more troubling in the case of the Boulder area: ground-level ozone is regularly forming despite precautions. Breathing it in can cause a variety of health problems, from chest pain to reduced lung function. For reasons still unclear to state regulators, in one corner of the Upper Green, the rules and regulations that reversed an air quality crisis more than a decade ago haven’t been enough, the Casper Star-Tribune reported . “We don’t have all the answers, yet,” Keith Guille, spokesman for the state Department of Environmental Quality, said. “It’s definitely not being ignored. We understand that the public is concerned, as we are.” ___ The Upper Green River Basin is a bowl-shaped area wedged between the Wind River and Wyoming ranges. That landscape holds bad air in place when there is no wind. Snowy and sunny years are worse for ozone action days, as was the case in 2017, the last year that ozone action days were a regular occurrence. There was nearly three times the amount of precipitation during the 2017 winter ozone season compared to historical averages, according to a fact sheet from the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality. But the controllable factor, and the one that once precipitated the great ground level ozone crisis in the basin, is oil and gas. More than a decade ago, oil and gas activity degraded air quality to the point it was comparable to Los Angeles, and it changed the way Wyoming regulated industry in the basin, its pipes and compressor stations, trucks and holding tanks. Those regulations have been effective in driving down emissions. The rules are some of the strongest in the country and have inspired attempts by the Environmental Protection Agency and the Bureau of Land Management to institute similar rules across federal and Native American land — though in both cases the Trump administration has recently pulled back on some of those standards. In addition to the ozone action days, Upper Green rules cover the use of equipment to track leaks and regular checks of infrastructure for damage. And during ozone season, in late winter and early spring, action days are an important part of how the Upper Green manages emissions. In the mix of ozone contributing factors, oil and gas emissions are the one thing regulators can pull back to try and keep ozone at bay. Action days are declared by the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality as having the potential to create ground-level ozone. Operators in the Upper Green respond by following contingency plans to reduce emissions, such as reducing refueling and cutting truck idling. This year industry has had to scale back over and over. ___ Jonah Energy, which operates in a different area of the basin from where the Boulder exceedances have been happening, has scaled back its operations considerably due to action days this year, said Paul Ulrich, spokesman for the oil and gas firm. “Small stuff. We’re turning off air heaters on pads during the day. Big stuff, shutting down workover rigs,” Ulrich said. “Those have immediate production, operational and financial impacts that we are bearing.” Jonah has demobilized its completion crew — holding off on finishing wells and bringing them online until mid-April and it is delaying blowing down wells, he said. “I will tell you though, we plan for it. We train for it and we understand that we have an obligation to do everything we possibly can,” Ulrich added. The outcome of those actions is evidenced in the lack of ozone exceedances, over an eight-hour period, this year near Jonah’s operations, he said. But the rules and practices of today may not be enough, if ozone is still forming in the Upper Green, according to the DEQ. “In 2019, we feel whether or not you have a snow pack or not, we don’t want to see those levels above the standard,” said Guille, of the Department of Environmental Quality. Nancy Vehr, administrator of the Air Quality Division of the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality, said she began reaching out to operators in the Boulder area, where more than 30 companies — mostly oil and gas firms — work, when the ozone spike began about two weeks ago. She asked them to find more ways to voluntarily cut emissions. And they did. But what’s been unique about the Boulder problem this year is that the elevated ozone levels have been persistent, Vehr noted. “We’ve never had an eight-day stretch in one location,” she said. But that area has been a problem in the past. Whether it’s temperature or other factors, the Boulder monitor often picks up more air quality concerns than others across the basin, she said. Ulrich of Jonah said the ozone spikes of this year are a mystery, but it does appear to be isolated and not reflected across the basin, he explained. “The challenge for this particular season is it’s been one monitoring station,” he said. “From a scientific standpoint, that’s a very new challenge for us all, to fully understand between operators and DEQ and others what’s going on at that station.” Everyone is going to have to come back to the table, Ulrich said. “We know we need to take a hard look at it after this year,” he said. Vehr echoed that confidence in current rules, noting that it would be easier to look back over the data in retrospect and analyze patterns. When air quality was at its worst in the Upper Green, you could see it like an orange haze, said Bousman of Boulder. Despite the exceedances this year, the rancher said he hadn’t noticed the air quality being any different. Like everyone else, he wondered what was going on at the Boulder monitor, whether it was working properly and how much of the ozone problem was natural. There is deeper snow up that way, he said. Still, the spikes in safe levels had caught everyone’s attention in the Upper Green, even though they’ve been addressing ozone since 2005 or 2006. “I think, collectively, we thought we were on top of it, so to speak,” Bousman said. “Now, I’m not so sure.” ___ Information from: Casper (Wyo.) Star-Tribune, http://www.trib.com

SOLUTION:
Wyoming ozone levels puzzle officials.