TASK DEFINITION: Given a document, an entity and its sentiment towards the entity, verify if it is the correct sentiment towards the entity. Answer should be yes or no. Note that URLs in the text have been replaced with [Link].
PROBLEM: Verify if the sentiment of the following document towards the entity Reidy is Neutral . Jim Reidy   an employment lawyer based in Manchester  N.H.  hears a fair amount about office holiday parties gone wrong. Last year  the high-profile CEO of a local company kicked things off by hanging mistletoe from the front of  his  pants belt   Reidy  says  "dancing around and making suggestions [saying ] 'It's the holidays  can't you see the mistletoe?' "
"[The CEO's] response was  'I was kidding; everybody knows I'm kidding ' " Reidy says  but evidently many employees did not see it that way.
"There were also a segment of people saying  'Do I say something ' " Reidy says. But there was also the fear for retaliation or being seen as the buzzkill without a sense of humor. "That's emblematic of why a lot of employers have gotten away from" holiday parties  he says.
This was a good year for many companies and they have cash to spend on parties. One CareerBuilder survey found 71 percent of employers are hosting holiday parties this year  up 10 percentage points from a decade ago. But  Reidy   who recently surveyed about 40 companies in  his  area  found that this year more than half opted to go non-alcoholic at their shindigs.
For those serving alcohol   Reidy  advises other measures  like limiting the length of the party  or holding the event during the day and inviting spouses and children. Overall  says  Reidy   workplace parties are far tamer than they were back in the 1980s and '90s.

SOLUTION: yes

PROBLEM: Verify if the sentiment of the following document towards the entity Taya Kitman is Neutral . Fish came in to work  and  Taya Kitman  a high-ranking staffer  at the time  and two other employees were in the conference room waiting for  him . They needed to prepare the 400-person seating chart for the organizationâs annual gala.  Kitman  wanted to get  it  done and pressed Fish to help  her . Fish seemed annoyed by  her  request.
Fish  who is well over 6 feet tall  approached  Kitman  from behind  put his hands around  her  neck and applied pressure  according to four people with knowledge of the incident.
One person said Fish meant it as a joke  but took it too far. He left red marks on  Kitman âs neck  the four sources said. Shaken by the encounter   Kitman  tried to downplay  it .
Board member Victor Navasky and The Nation Instituteâs lawyer at the time were briefed the following day about the incident. They told Fish to apologize  and  Kitman  didnât want to take things further.
In an email to HuffPost  Fish said: âThe incident with  Taya Kitman  did not happen as described.  Taya  has been a friend and colleague of nearly 20 years  I have the utmost regard for  her  and the work  she  had done at the institute. We were partners in building the organization and we continue to collaborate on projects that we created together. I know it sounds self-serving  but anyone who knows me knows I would never harm a woman or another person.â
 Kitman  declined to comment.
Reached by phone last week  Navasky praised Fish and insisted he didnât know anything about the alleged physical altercation between Fish and  Kitman . âI donât know what youâre talking about  so thereâs nothing to deny or not deny â he told HuffPost on Friday. âThe Nation Institute is a private thing and the trustees arenât supposed to talk about anything that happened there  and Iâm obeying their rules. But Iâm just telling you that Hamilton was a great partner for me. Period.â
 Kitman  is now executive director of the institute.
âI know that  Taya  recognized that Ham was a problem and did everything she could to get him out of there â Berman said. âThings have been much better since  Taya  took over. Sheâs respected by the staff. Sheâs respected by the fellows. Sheâs respected by the donors. Sheâs very hardworking.  Taya  is literally the exact opposite of Ham  and I mean that in the best way possible about her.â
Berman added: âWhen  Taya  took over  the office became a lot more functional and pleasant to be in.â
After this story was first published   Taya Kitman  released the following statement:

SOLUTION: yes

PROBLEM: Verify if the sentiment of the following document towards the entity Donna Brazile is Negative . Donna Brazile . (Joe Raedle/Associated Press)
On Thursday  former Democratic National Committee interim chair  Donna Brazile  made a surprising revelation: An August 2015 agreement gave Hillary Clintonâs campaign partial control of the DNC months prior to Clinton winning the nomination. The âagreement was not illegal â  Brazile  writes  âbut it sure looked unethical.â The news reignited a debate among politicos and activists over whether the DNC influenced the Democratic primary. Whether the primary was âriggedâ or just business as usual though  Brazileâs allegations are only the latest evidence of the Democratic Partyâs troubles  and why the party establishment is ill-equipped to solve them.
Start with something that  Brazile âs article doesnât touch on: the electoral record. At the federal level  Republicans control the White House and both houses of Congress. The GOP House majority is at its largest in 70 years. Though two-thirds of the Senate seats contested in 2016 were held by Republicans  Democrats only gained two seats  losing races against very vulnerable GOP incumbents. At the state level  Republicans are at their strongest since the 1930s. Republicans control both the state legislatures and governorships in 24 states  compared with Democratsâ five. The GOPâs ruthless exploitation of gerrymandering â aided by its control of so many states â has helped increase GOP control  but much blame still lies with Democratic leaders.
Here is what you need to know about the political storm sparked by  Donna Brazile 's allegations against the Clinton campaign. (Amber Ferguson Melissa Macaya/The Washington Post)
Then thereâs the financial mismanagement. Money troubles for the DNC are hardly unprecedented  but the struggles appear to have worsened considerably in the past few years.  Brazile  says that the partyâs monthly expenditures had doubled in the previous five years  in large part because of former DNC chair Debbie Wasserman-Schultz and President Barack Obama keeping expensive consultants on the payroll. (Given Democratsâ electoral failures  what these consultants were doing is anyoneâs guess.) Of course  itâs in  Brazile âs interest to blame things on  her  predecessor. But a former senior party official independently confirmed the troubles to the Interceptâs Ryan Grim  adding that the DNC was unable to make payroll in August 2015 and was âapproaching the equivalent of bankruptcy.â

SOLUTION:
no