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: "Donald Trump ""seems terrified to release his taxes"" because they may reveal his net worth, his donations to liberal causes, or something even seedier, Sen. Ted Cruz suggested on Meet the Press. ""There have been multiple media reports about Donald's business dealings with the mob, with the mafia,"" Cruz said Feb. 28. ""Maybe his taxes show those business dealings are a lot more extensive than has been reported."" Pressed by host Chuck Todd to back up his claim, Cruz cited reports by ABC and CNN. ACruz spokesman forwarded us several other media reports detailing the real estate developer's alleged ties to organized crime. The Trump campaign did not get back to us. Is Cruz right that the Donald has worked with a few Dons in his career? HELP US RAISE $15,000 TO HIRE AN EXTRAFACT-CHECKER It's important to note that Trump hasn't been charged with any illegal activity, and it's reasonable to argue that he was unaware or even a victim in some cases. But Cruz has a point that the mogul has been linked to the mob for decades. Mob control a 'fact of life' Before we detail Trump's alleged ties, none of this proves that Trump was happy doing business with the mafia or even in cahoots with them at all. La Cosa Nostra had a virtual monopoly on concrete in New York at the time Trump was adding his name to its skyline in the 1980s. And the mafia's control over building supplies and labor unions meant that the crime families had a hand in most construction projects in Manhattan. Trump and other major developers ""had to adapt to that situation"" or build elsewhere, said James B. Jacobs, a mafia expert who was part of a state task force on organized crime. ""That was the fact of life, that was the way it was,"" he told PolitiFact. ""The contractors and developers weren't pure victims. You could bribe the mob-controlled union leaders and get relief from the more arduous conflicts. But we had no information that Trump was any different."" That being said, Trump's business dealings with the mob or mob-related characters are widely documented. Let's run through them. Mafia concrete for Trump Plaza Trump was first tied to the mafia in the 1980s, when a $7.8 million subcontract for Trump Plazawas awarded to S&A Concrete, according to Fortune. The company, as Cruz correctly says, was partially owned by Anthony ""Fat Tony"" Salerno, the boss of the Genovese crime family. Trump himself acknowledged as much in a December 2015 interview with the Wall Street Journal, admitting that S&A Concrete was ""supposedly associated with the mob."" ""Virtually every building that was built was built with these companies,"" he said, adding, ""These guys were excellent contractors. They were phenomenal. They could do three floors a week in concrete. Nobody else in the world could do three floors a week. I mean they were unbelievable. Trump Tower, other buildings."" When Salerno was indicted in 1986, the charges specifically mentioned Trump Plaza. Salerno's 1992 obituary ends with a nod to the luxury highrise and 15 other Manhattan buildings. Trump World Tower, supported by the Quadrozzi Concrete Company, is also tangentially related to La Cosa Nostra. The head of the company, John Quadrozzi Sr., was tied to the Lucchese crime family and indicted for making illegal payoffs to the mob in 1992. TIMEand Daily Beasthave speculated that Trump Tower was also built with mafia influence, though the evidence is less concrete. Atlantic City partnerships Trump's alleged mob dealings were not confined to New York. According to reports from the Huffington Post and Philadelphia Inquirer, Trump made a deal in Atlantic City with Kenneth Shapiro, an associate of mob boss Nicky Scarfo, and mob-connected labor boss Daniel Sullivan. Trump seemed aware of this, calling Shapiro ""a third-rate, local real estate mafia"" and Sullivan ""the guy who killed Jimmy Hoffa."" Nonetheless, in 1981, Trump leased a portion of the land for Trump Plaza and Casino from a company the two men controlled, according a report by New Jersey gaming regulators. The company refused to cooperate with the authorities, and Trump eventually ended the partnership and bought out their shares. Later Trump brought on Sullivan as a labor negotiator at the Grand Hyatt Hotel and introduced the man to his own banker, according to the Los Angeles Times. Through intermediariesTrump bought the property for the casino from the ""crown prince"" of the Philadelphia mob, Salvatore Testa, for $1.1 million in 1982. Multiple media reports and an unauthorized biography about Trump allege this was more than twice its market value. (Testa purchased the property in 1977 for $195,000.) According to The Federalist, two construction companies controlled by Nicky Scarfo ended up building Trump Plaza and Casino. ""You had contractors that were supposedly mob-oriented all over Atlantic City,"" Trump said when the Wall Street Journal asked him about it, adding that ""every single casino company used the same companies, just I hope you will say that."" A few years later, Trump's organized crime connections extended overseas. In 1992, a Senate subcommittee named Danny Leung, who was then the vice president for foreign marketing at Trump Taj Mahal, as an associate of the Hong Kong-based organized crime group 14K Triad. ""Leung has also given complimentary tickets for hotel rooms and Asian shows to numerous members and associates of Asian organized crime,"" reads the report, which also identified three other triad-connected business associates or former employees of Trump's gambling empire. According to gaming regulators, Leung ""flew in 16 Italian organized crime figures from Canada who stole more than $1 million from the casino in a credit scam,"" reported the New York Daily News in 1995. ""The incident was never reported because Trump never filed charges."" Leung, who had a separate contract to bring gamblers from Toronto to the casino, denied the affiliation to organized crime, and his casino and junket licenses were renewed. (The Trump Taj Mahal declared bankruptcy in 1991, and his other Atlantic City properties folded a decade later.) Mob-linked business adviser And there'sFelix Sater, ""a twice-convicted Russian emigre who served prison time and had documented mafia connections"" and the subject of the ABC story Cruz referenced. Sater pleaded guilty to a charge of money laundering in 1998 and was indicted again in 2000 for taking part in a $40 million stock scheme involving four Mafia families, according to the New York Times report. From 2003 to 2007, Sater traveled the country promoting projects for Trump, and his company was a partner in the Trump SoHo hotel. Trump told the Times he ""never knew that."" Three years later, Sater returned to the Trump Organization and had business cards that described him as Trump's ""senior advisor,"" the AP reported. Trump told the AP that he's ""not familiar"" with Sater. Our ruling Cruz said, ""There have been multiple media reports about Donald's business dealings with the mob, with the mafia."" While it's important to note that these connections were not atypical in the real estate and casino businesses in the 1980s, Cruz's statement is accurate. Media reports have linked Trump to mafia bosses and mob-connected business associates for decades." Claim: "There have been multiple media reports about (Donald Trump's) business dealings with the mob, with the mafia."

SOLUTION: "Cruz said, ""There have been multiple media reports about Donald's business dealings with the mob, with the mafia."" While it's important to note that these connections were not atypical in the real estate and casino businesses in the 1980s, Cruz's statement is accurate. Media reports have linked Trump to mafia bosses and mob-connected business associates for decades."

PROBLEM: Paragraph: A month after the first death from the highly infectious virus was registered in Italy, the government also issued an order freezing all business activity deemed non-essential in an effort to keep ever more people at home and off the streets. Amongst the sectors targeted were the car, clothing and furniture industries. They have until Wednesday to wind down operations and will have to remain shuttered until April 3. The interior and health ministries issued a separate statement, telling people they had to stay where they were, unless urgent business or health reasons forced them to move to another town or region. Italy has registered more deaths than any other country in the world, while the number of confirmed cases is second only to China, with the tally rising by 5,560 to 59,138 on Sunday, the Civil Protection Agency said. However, offering a ray of hope, the latest figures represented an improvement on Saturday, when the death toll rose by 793 and new cases increased by 6,557. "We don't want to get over enthusiastic or overestimate a trend, but compared to yesterday there is a slight drop in the figures," said Franco Locatelli, the head of Italy's top health council, which advises the government. "We must not lower our guard, we must continue with the measures taken and respect the government's instructions," he told a news conference. Regional leaders having been pushing Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte for days to tighten the screws as infections have spiralled, but some business leaders and financiers expressed alarm at his decision to shutter more companies. "The closure of production activity is devastating. Our companies will lose market share and won't be able to reopen for lack of liquidity," Alberto Forchielli, head of Mandarin Capital Partners private equity fund, wrote on Twitter on Sunday. "This is the end of Italy's industrial system." Amongst the companies that said they were halting production in Italy were the world's largest eyewear company, Luxottica. However, union leaders accused Conte of not going far enough with his closure order, noting that dozens of sectors had won exemptions. They threatened to call a general strike if they thought too many workers were exposed to health risks. In a video posted late Saturday night on Facebook, Conte said Italy was facing its most serious crisis since World War Two, with the health system in the wealthy north at breaking point and almost every intensive care bed now filled. China has already sent medical equipment and doctors to help Italy, while more than 50 Cuban doctors arrived in Milan on Sunday to provide assistance to the stretched hospitals. The Russian military said it would also start sending aid to Italy on the orders of President Vladimir Putin. Domenico Arcuri, head of the government's coronavirus relief effort, told state broadcaster RAI that Italy was "at war". "All wars are won in two ways, with one's own army and with the help of ones' own allies," he said. Claim: Italy bans internal travel as a further 651 die from coronavirus.

SOLUTION: Italy banned travel within the country on Sunday in yet another attempt to slow the spread of the coronavirus, as data showed a further 651 people had died from the disease, lifting the number of fatalities to 5,476.

PROBLEM: Paragraph: Ravalli County District Judge Jennifer Lint signed a temporary restraining order Friday that prohibits Gov. Steve Bullock and state health officials from enforcing emergency rules on flavored vaping products. They were set to take effect Tuesday. Lint was acting in response to a lawsuit filed Thursday by three vape shops and an industry group. They claim the 120-day ban is an overly restrictive reaction to a national outbreak of vaping-related illnesses and deaths they say is caused by illegal black-market products. Bullock's press secretary, Erin Loranger, told the Ravalli Republic that officials are reviewing the judge's ruling. The lawsuit was brought by the Montana Smoke Free Association, Freedom Vapes, Liberty Smoke and uBlaze Vapor said the ban could force more than 20 Montana businesses to close. The business owners said the pulmonary illnesses could be the result of the "illicit addition" of THC or marijuana products into legal vaping products. THC and marijuana are not included as ingredients in any of the products sold by the businesses involved in the lawsuit, according to the plaintiffs. The ban would not only harm the businesses, but also people who use e-cigarettes to quit tobacco products, the lawsuit said. In an affidavit filed in the lawsuit, Freedom Vapes owner Ron Marshall said that flavored vape juices comprise 95% of the products sold in his three stores and his business would not be able to survive without them. On Friday, he said that the lawsuit was about freedom and liberty. "If the governor can take away those liberties with a swipe of a pen, then what's next? If it's us today, who will it be tomorrow?" he said. Lint scheduled an Oct. 30 hearing to consider arguments about the future of the temporary ban. ___ Information from: Ravalli Republic , http://www.ravallirepublic.com Claim: Montana judge halts temporary flavored vaping ban.

SOLUTION:
A temporary ban on the sale of flavored electronic cigarettes due to take effect next week in Montana has been blocked for now by a judge.