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.

Central to the plan to protect the city, some or all of the 78 barriers will one day be raised when the sea rises more than 110 centimeters (43 inches), to prevent damaging high tides from pushing into the lagoon city, a world heritage site built picturesquely but somewhat precariously upon more than 120 islands. Concerns that high tides are becoming more frequent because of climate change have increased the urgency. While the concept is simple, its realization has been anything but. The system of movable underwater barriers, dubbed Moses, has been beset by corruption, cost overruns and delays. Projected at 1.8 billion euros ($2 billion) and meant to be completed by 2011, the project has so far cost 5.5 billion euros and is running a decade behind schedule. In the wake of last month's flooding of Venice, the worst in 53 years, the consortium that oversees construction of Moses is eager to demonstrate that the project after years of bad news is on track and will be fully operational by the end of 2021. Venetians say they cannot afford to be wrong. Skeptics and critics say they may be. A recent test of the deepest expanse of barriers at the Malamocco entrance to the lagoon was declared a success by the New Venice Consortium. It was the last of the four sections of barriers to be completely raised but so far only in calm seas. The real test will come when all four are raised at once, and not only in serene waters, but under flood conditions. That isn't scheduled to take place until the end of next year. It took six years to test each of the four movable sea walls covering the three openings to the lagoon, partly because work was slowed by a 2014 corruption scandal that implicated the three main contractors and sent 35 people to jail. Work is continuing largely with the original subcontractors now contracting directly with the consortium, which itself has been placed under government control as a result of the scandal. The fact that the barriers have not yet been physically tested in rough seas is a concern to critics. Paolo Vielmo, an offshore marine engineer who has long criticized the project, said that tests carried out in a laboratory in the Netherlands in the 1990s indicated that the barriers, under certain conditions, would oscillate out of control possibly even breaking apart. "Its behavior is not predictable,'' Vielmo said. He said that the trials so far declared successful have been under only modest sea conditions that fail to represent anywhere near the threat of the phenomenon of extreme oscillation called subharmonic resonance. Vielmo and two other offshore engineers have compiled a report for the Codacons consumer and environment protection advocacy group, which is asking officials to run additional calculations to see if the project is indeed viable. And if it is not, Codacons says Moses should be stopped. "We don't want to delay by one minute the possibility to make Moses operational. But we say we cannot make it operational until we are sure it will work,'' said Franco Conte, president of Codacons in Venice. "Naturally, the Venetian community is exasperated and they say, 'If we did 95%, let's do 100% and see if that works.' But that is unconscionable. If we don't know if it works, we cannot experiment." The barrier system is made up of giant flood gates, each 20 meters (66 feet) long. The gates are attached by hinges to giant cement blocks placed on the seabed along the three openings from the sea into the lagoon, Malamocco, Chioggia and the Lido. The gates can be lifted to create a temporary barrier in high tides. Once the water has receded, they can be lowered again allowing shipping traffic to continue and for the tidal system to flush out the lagoon. The idea behind the project was to create a mobile system that would not impede views of the unique and protected landscape. But Moses has suffered criticism from the start that there were simpler, cheaper systems that could have been deployed. Venetians have been waiting since the record 1.94-meter (6.36-foot) flood of 1966 for a system to protect them from regular inundations. The flooding in November, the second-worst recorded, proved the urgency. In the 150 years that they have been recording the tide levels in Venice, two high tides above 1.5 meters have never been recorded in a year. In November, there were three in one week. Climate scientists note that exceptional tides those over 1.4 meters have become much more frequent in the past two decades, with more than half of all recorded occurring since 2000. "One has to realize the kind of existential question that that serious flooding has given rise to," said Jane Da Mosto, an environmental scientist and executive director of the non-profit group We Are Here Venice, which is working to defend the city against myriad issues, including depopulation, cruise traffic through St. Mark's basin and overtourism. "People are asking: will Venice be defendable against these kinds of episodes?'' It's not just the still-uncalculated damage to landmarks like St. Mark's Basilica, where corrosive salt water creeps through porous brick and tile. It's also the boxes of ruined belongings and piles of soaked mattresses discarded in alleyways and loaded onto motorboats and trash barges for disposal. The relentlessness of the Venetian fall and winter tides make one-third of ground floors uninhabitable in the historic canal city. "I am very old, I cannot say that I want to die, but I certainly do not want to be witness to the fact that it does not work," 84-year-old resident Paola Scarpa said of the Moses barriers, as she walked to check on a family property in the Canareggio neighborhood on a recent December morning. "It would be a pain too great." ___ Associated Press journalist Trisha Thomas contributed to this report.
Venice tide barriers pass another test but skeptics remain.

The Republican governor said the state is gradually moving into stage one of the state's recovery plan at 5 p.m. Friday, after 14 days of plateauing of key hospital metrics. He also said the decision came after consultation with a state team of public health experts and business leaders. "I want to be very clear: while lifting the stay at home order and gradually moving into stage one of our recovery is a positive step forward, it does not mean that we are safe or that this crisis is over," Hogan said at a news conference. "Low risk does not mean no risk. All Marylanders, particularly those older and more vulnerable populations, are advised to continue staying home as much as possible." Retail stores may reopen at up to 50% capacity, with curbside pickup and delivery strongly encouraged and all public health precautions in place. Examples of businesses that may reopen include clothing and shoe stores, pet groomers, animal adoption shelters, car washes, art galleries and bookstores. All manufacturing may resume operations, with multiple shifts encouraged. Churches and houses of worship may start holding religious services, at up to 50% capacity, with outdoor services strongly encouraged. Some personal services, including barbershops and hair salons, may open with up to 50% capacity and by appointment only. Maryland residents are still urged to work from home if they can. A requirement that people wear masks in public areas indoors will remain in effect. Limits prohibiting gatherings of 10 or more people will remain in place, with the exception of religious gatherings. The plan provides a flexible and community-based approach that enables individual jurisdictions to make decisions on the timing of stage one reopenings. Local governments can keep restrictions in place, but they can only act within the guidelines announced by the governor. Hogan noted that officials in two of Maryland's largest jurisdictions, Montgomery and Prince George's counties in the suburbs of the nation's capital, have made clear they are not ready to move into stage one. Of the state's 34,812 confirmed cases, 10,072 are in Prince George's, and 7,283 are in Montgomery. Baltimore County has 4,160 cases, and the city of Baltimore has the fourth-highest number with 3,476. Hogan also noted that other counties in the state feel strongly that they are able to begin stage one. "As our state cautiously moves forward we fully understand that not all counties are in the same situation," Hogan said. "Just four of Maryland's 24 jurisdictions currently account for more than 70% of our state's total confirmed cases." Some counties in rural parts of the state have had far fewer cases. Foe example, Garrett County in western Maryland has had six confirmed cases. Somerset County, on Maryland's Eastern Shore, has reported 51 cases the second fewest number of confirmed cases for a Maryland jurisdiction. As of Wednesday morning, Maryland has confirmed 34,812 virus cases. That was 751 more cases than on Tuesday. Maryland also has had a total of 1,694 confirmed deaths, 51 more than on the day before. Maryland has had 138,762 negative test results. On Wednesday, 1,550 people were hospitalized in the state due to the virus. That's 13 less than on Tuesday. ___ For more AP coverage of the virus outbreak, visit https://apnews.com/VirusOutbreak or https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak.
Maryland governor eases restrictions caused by virus.

"PolitiFact Georgia was revving up for the summer driving season when a statement from the head of the Georgia Department of Transportation caught our attention. The state is on pace to see 1,200 people lose their lives on Georgia roads this year, Commissioner Russell McMurry said in news reports. If that happens, it would be a reversal after nine years of declines. Is that possible, even before the busy season of summer? We set aside our packing we'll decide on a bikini or one-piece later and decided to check. As recently as January, PolitiFact Georgia confirmed that road fatalities appeared to be declining again in Georgia. But by April, when five Georgia Southern nursing students died in a pileup crash outside Savannah, scores of single-car crashes had sent the trend line in the other direction. As of Tuesday morning, 465 people had been killed in vehicle crashes in Georgia, state DOT data show. That's 69 more deaths, or 17 percent more, than during the same period in 2014. That keeps Georgia with an average of 100 deaths a month, which would result in a year-end total of 1,200 deaths for the first time since 2011. It would also be the first year-to-year increase in nine years, as this chart shows: Year 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 Totals 1,505 1,298 1,250 1,236 1,199 1,189 1,169 So the GDOT commissioner is right on the overall numbers a scary enough prospect. But to compare apples to apples, it's worth calculating the rates of death as well. That is, would the current pace create the first year deaths don't decline relative to the number of cars on the road, too? Yes, according to data from the state Department of Revenue. The number of vehicles registered annually is: Year 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 Totals* 8.64 8.57 8.59 8.71 8.92 8.32 8.80 9.12 *In millions, rounded In 2008, there were about 8.6 million registered vehicles in Georgia. That translates into 1.7 deaths for every 10,000 registered car or truck. In 2014, with nearly 8.8 million registered vehicles but fewer fatalities, the rate dropped to .1.3 deaths for every 10,000 vehicles. Should Georgia stay on pace to an even 1,200 deaths improbable but an exact number to compare against the 9.1 million vehicles registered this year the rate holds at 1.3 deaths. It's not an increase, of course. But it's not the steady decline in rate, as well as overall numbers, that transportation officials had hoped to see continue and that McMurry noted. And, the rate still means that more people are dying in traffic accidents at a time when the state has seen 95 percent compliance in seat belt usage a large factor in reducing fatalities, said Teri Pope, a spokeswoman for the Northeast DOT region. DOT data shows that 62 percent of people killed in crashes are not wearing the simple safety devices. ""A lot of these deaths are preventable, and that's the heartbreaking part of it,"" Pope said. In other words, driver behavior is the, well, driver of the spike in roadway deaths. In an effort to counter that, the DOT has partnered with the Governor's Office on Highway Safety and the state Department of Public Safety to launch the Drive Alert, Arrive Alive campaign. The effort focuses on education efforts about the dangers of driving drowsy or while using mobile phones both considered distracted driving and greater enforcement of seat belt usage and safe driving. In other words, PolitiFact Georgia expects to see lots of safety reminder signs and state troopers on the roads. You should, too. Our ruling Georgia DOT Commissioner Russell McMurry said in recent news reports that the state is on pace to see 1,200 people die in traffic accidents this year all before the start of the busy summer driving season. Transportation numbers back up that claim. That data, and figures about the number of registered vehicles in the state, also confirm that would be the first time in nine years that Georgia has not seen a decline in those deaths."
Georgia is on track for 1,200 traffic fatalities this year, a reversal of nine years of declines.