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.

The first Democrat-only televised debate is Wednesday, a natural forum for the three candidates to tout their agendas to a broader audience after several weeks of unveiling fresh items. Gretchen Whitmer, Shri Thanedar and Abdul El-Sayed agree on many issues, like raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour, spending much more on roads and other infrastructure, shutting down twin oil pipelines in a waterway linking two of the Great Lakes and repealing the state's emergency manager law. But there are some differences that are being emphasized more in the stretch to the Aug. 7 election. El-Sayed, Detroit's former health director, has proposed a plan to provide all Michigan residents with government-financed "Michicare" until they reach Medicare age, including 600,000 who have no insurance. He hopes to make it a "wedge issue," especially with Whitmer, who has not embraced the single-payer concept and whom he has criticized for accepting campaign donations from the political action committee of Blue Cross Blue Shield, the state's dominant insurer. "Health care is a human right," he said, contending that raising taxes to fund the Medicare-for-all-style system while eliminating premiums, deductibles and copays would save both residents and businesses overall. Whitmer is expected to announce her own health care plan before the primary and most recently has rolled out education and economic proposals while also focusing on her mantra to "fix the damn roads." The former Senate minority leader frequently points to her role in the bipartisan expansion of Medicaid to more than 600,000 adults, including in a TV ad that is airing. "She's the only candidate in the race who has actually expanded coverage for Michiganders," said spokesman Zack Pohl. El-Sayed, who is courting the party's liberal wing and in recent days outlined a plan to address high auto insurance premiums, proposes paying for Michicare with a 2 percent or 2.25 percent gross receipts tax on businesses, depending on their size, with the first $2 million exempt from taxation. He also would effectively raise the state's 4.25 percent personal income tax to between 5 percent and 8 percent, via a graduated payroll tax. Thanedar, a multimillionaire businessman, also supports a universal, single-payer system but has not elaborated. He is recommending tax increases to fund signature facets of his economic plan expanding child care subsidies to cover 345,000 additional low-income children, ten times more than now, and paying for 78,000 more 3- and 4-year-olds to attend preschool. He says the moves would allow thousands of women to re-enter the workforce and improve students' educational outcomes. He wants to boost the 6 percent corporate income tax to 7.5 percent for businesses with at least $350,000 in gross receipts and assess a 10 percent tax on the portion of receipts exceeding $1 million. He also would assess an 8.85 percent personal income tax for individuals earning at least $200,000 and a 10 percent rate for millionaires. Households with less than $50,000 income would pay no income tax. "We are one big family. We need to chip in to make it helpful to the ones who need help," Thanedar said during a recent joint Democratic-Republican debate on Mackinac Island. Both he and El-Sayed, if elected, would face steep obstacles, including a Republican-led Legislature unless power shifts and the constitutional requirement that voters approve a graduated income tax. Whitmer, with an eye toward the general election, has been more pragmatic focusing on what her camp says is actually achievable in the current budget and political environment. While not ruling anything out, she has not called for changes to business or income taxes and has proposed repealing the taxation of retirement income that was enacted as part of a GOP-written tax overhaul. She pledges to work with lawmakers to fund an infrastructure bank to upgrade roads through user fees such as higher fuel taxes or, if that is unsuccessful, to ask voters to approve bonding. Thanedar wants to borrow money, while El-Sayed also proposes an infrastructure bank funded with increased fuel taxes and other revenue-raising mechanisms. The centerpiece of Whitmer's jobs plan is providing a two-year maximum $3,040 annual scholarship to high school graduates who attend an in-state university, community college or receive technical training, as long as they do community service, maintain a certain grade point average and have a good attendance record. The estimated cost is $100 million a year. "It's about creating a path for everyone in to a high-wage skill," she said. ___ Online: Policy plans for El-Sayed: https://abdulformichigan.com/issues Thanedar: https://www.shri2018.com/ Whitmer: https://www.gretchenwhitmer.com/issues/ ___ Follow David Eggert on Twitter at https://twitter.com/DavidEggert00 . His work can be found at https://apnews.com/search/David%20Eggert
Democrats unveil new policies before gubernatorial primary.

While governments in at least 20 other states obtained more than 30 million doses of the drug through donations from the federal reserve or private companies, Oklahoma and Utah instead bought them from private pharmaceutical companies. Top officials in both states chalked up the decisions to "the fog of war." Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt on Tuesday defended the state's $2 million purchase, saying the drug was showing some promise. His health secretary attributed buying the 1.2 million hydroxychloroquine pills to something that happens in the "fog of war." Utah Gov. Gary Herbert at first defended the state's $800,000 purchase of 20,000 packets of hydroxychloroquine compounded with zinc, but has since ordered an investigation of a no-bid contract with a local company that had been promoting the drugs. Herbert, a Republican, also canceled an additional plan to spend $8 million more to buy 200,000 additional treatments from the same company. A left-leaning nonprofit group in Utah filed a price gouging complaint Tuesday with state regulators, arguing the $40 per pack drug was grossly overpriced. Oklahoma's attorney general requested an investigative audit on Tuesday of its Department of Health over spending and warned the agency about retaliating against employees who report wrongful government activities under the state's Whistleblower Act. A spokesman for Attorney General Mike Hunter declined to comment on whether the request was related to the $2 million spent on the drug. Doctors can already prescribe the malaria drug to patients with COVID-19, a practice known as off-label prescribing, and many do. But the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Friday warned doctors against prescribing hydroxychloroquine for treating the coronavirus outside of hospitals or research settings because of reports of serious side effects, including irregular heart rhythms and death among patients. Preliminary results from a recent study done on coronavirus patients at U.S. veterans hospitals showed no benefit, casting more doubt on the drug's efficacy during the pandemic. Those were the latest admonitions against the drug that Trump has regularly promoted in public appearances, touting its potential despite his own health advisors telling him it is unproven. Oklahoma acquired 1.2 million pills, or about 100,000 doses, on April 4 from FFF Enterprises, a California-based medical supply wholesaler, according to the Oklahoma State Department of Health. Oklahoma state Rep. Melissa Provenzano, a Democrat from Tulsa, said the state's purchase shows that Gov. Stitt's actions don't follow his claim that he relies on data to drive his decisions. "Two million dollars is a lot of money to waste, especially when we have unemployment claims approved yet going unpaid, health care professionals without proper protective equipment, and diagnosed cases and deaths continuing to rise," Provenzano said. Stitt, a first-term Republican, said hydroxychloroquine was showing some promise as a treatment in early March, and he didn't want Oklahoma to miss out on an opportunity to acquire it. "Now there's some evidence the chloroquine may not be as effective, but I was being proactive to try and protect Oklahomans," Stitt said Tuesday when asked about the purchase. "That's always going to be my first instinct, to get the equipment and things we need that I'm seeing in the future would help Oklahomans." Oklahoma's Secretary of Health Jerome Loughridge said several physicians, including some in Oklahoma, were previously optimistic about the drug's promise in treating COVID-19. He added that the drug is also useful for treating lupus and some other auto-immune diseases, so the state's supply "will not have gone to waste." "When we were battling sort of the fog of war at that point, we certainly acquired it on the potential that it would have utility," Loughridge said. Jeff Burton, a former adjutant general of the Utah National Guard chosen to lead the state health department's coronavirus task force, offered a similar explanation for why the state made its purchase. He said the state never received the pills and is trying to get its money back. "I chalk it up to fog of war," Burton told the state's pharmacy board. "There was a lot going on. It's easy to judge it from (an) easy chair.. . . Since then we've decided that was not a wise purchase." Doctors in Oklahoma have been using the drug to treat patients with COVID-19, often in conjunction with a second drug, azithromiocin, but the results "just are not that promising," said Dr. Douglas Drevets, chief of infectious diseases at University of Oklahoma Medicine. FFF Enterprises said it's the company's policy not to comment on transactions with customers. Utah gave a local company called Meds in Motion the $800,000 contract without taking bids from other companies under emergency procurement rules, said Christopher Hughes, director of Utah's division of purchasing. State officials haven't explained why they didn't seek to get the drugs for free. The Federal Emergency Management Agency said Saturday it has sent out 28.6 million tablets of hydroxychloroquine sulfate free of cost to states around the country. Several states including New York, Connecticut and Texas received donations of the medication from a private company based in New Jersey called Amneal Pharmaceutical, according to information compiled by The Associated Press. Utah taxpayers deserve to know what happened to allow a purchase that seems like a company taking advantage of the early, chaotic days of the pandemic, said Chase Thomas, executive director of the group called Alliance for a Better Utah that submitted the price gouging complaint. The complaint alleges Utah paid at least double the common price for the medication. "Whether they were buying drugs we didn't need or paying too much for it when they could have gotten them for free, there just needed to be a lot more thought going into this," Thomas said. Meds in Motion didn't answer an email seeking comment about the allegations. Herbert declined to provide an update Tuesday about the investigation of the purchase. He said Friday the state's legal counsel would aim to find out what, how and why it happened. He said he believed state officials acted in good faith as they scrambled to slow the spread of coronavirus, but acknowledged a mistake may have been made. "I have some questions about how it came about," Herbert said Friday. "Bottom line is, we're not purchasing any more of this drug." ___ McCombs and Whitehurst reported from Salt Lake City.
Oklahoma, Utah face scrutiny over malaria drug purchases.

The EPA issued a certificate to Boston-based GE saying that it has completed its remedial action under the federal Superfund program. Critics of the cleanup wanted the EPA to withhold the certificate and to demand further dredging. EPA Regional Administrator Peter Lopez said more time and testing are needed to fully assess the $1.7 billion cleanup that GE has done, and he stressed that the company can still be compelled in the coming decades to do more work, including additional dredging. "GE is not off the hook," Lopez told reporters during a conference call. "If new information comes in that causes EPA to conclude that more work is needed to protect public health and the environment, we can and will require GE to take that action." Gov. Andrew Cuomo and state Attorney General Letitia James, both Democrats, promptly announced they intend to sue the EPA over its decision. They claim levels of the contaminating polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, remain unacceptably high in the river sediment and in fish. Scenic Hudson and Riverkeeper, two environmental groups lobbying for additional dredging, said they would support litigation. "Since the EPA has failed to hold GE accountable for fulfilling its obligation to restore the river, New York state will take any action necessary to protect our waterways and that includes suing the EPA to demand a full and complete remediation,'" Cuomo said in a written news release. "Anything less is unacceptable." Cuomo accused the Republican Trump Administration of putting corporations' interests ahead of public health and the environment. EPA officials said their decision was guided by Superfund law and science. The EPA said in a "five-year review" of the river released Friday that there is not enough testing data on fish, water and sediment yet to determine if the cleanup will succeed in its goal of protecting human health and the environment. Lopez said that will take more time and monitoring before a conclusion could be reached. The review found some signs of progress in removing highly contaminated sediment, though it found three spots in the upper river with slightly elevated levels of PCBs. Until the mid-1970s, GE factories discharged more than 1 million pounds (450,000 kilograms) of PCBs into the river. The probable carcinogen, used as coolants and lubricants in electrical equipment, was banned in 1977. GE said the EPA's decision confirms the success of the project. "GE will continue to collect environmental data to assess ongoing improvements in river conditions and to work closely with EPA, New York State, and local communities on other Hudson environmental projects," the company said in a written statement.
EPA won't make GE restart Hudson dredging for now.