Death toll rises in California storms, Golden Globes return to television: 5 Things podcast
On today's episode of the 5 Things podcast: Death toll rises in California storms
USA TODAY National Correspondent Elizabeth Weise has the latest from San Francisco on California storms and whether climate change is to blame. Plus, USA TODAY Justice Department Reporter Bart Jansen explains the revelation that classified documents were found at an office used by President Joe Biden before his campaign, Allen Weisselberg is sentenced to prison, USA TODAY Trending Reporter Natalie Alund talks about the possibility of banning gas stoves, and the Golden Globes return to television.
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Hit play on the player above to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript below. This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text.
Taylor Wilson:
Good morning. I'm Taylor Wilson and this is 5 Things you need to know Wednesday, the 11th of January, 2023. Today, the latest on California storms. Plus President Joe Biden and classified documents, and we look at a potential ban on gas stoves.
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At least 17 people have now been killed in severe weather across California in recent weeks, and the Golden State is nowhere near done getting drenched with rain. After a brief stop last night, the next storm is expected to arrive today in Northern California. For more, I'm now joined by USA TODAY National Correspondent Elizabeth Weise. Thanks so much for coming back on the pod.
Elizabeth Weise:
As always, a pleasure to be here, and nice to be inside where it's not raining.
Taylor Wilson:
So Beth, storms continue across California. It seems like we've been talking with you for weeks about this weather. What's the latest and when might storms slow down?
Elizabeth Weise:
Well, it has been wild and wooly here in California since New Year's Eve, really. We've just had storm, upon storm, upon storm they're calling the conveyor belt of storms. They're all forming out in the Pacific and working their way inland. When that nice moist air hits the coast, boom. And we had a whole lot of boom. Trees down everywhere. I talked to Rachel Gordon, who's the spokeswoman for the Department of Public Works, more than 1,000 trees have fallen. We're talking great big, huge trees. And they're so heavy and the ground is so saturated. And as soon as even the slightest bit of wind comes along, they fall. And that's one of the reasons we're seeing these power outages. About 37,000 people evacuated. We've got power outages all over the place. We've got rivers up either in flood stage or around flood stage. It is just very, very wet here.
Taylor Wilson:
Does this rain mean drought is over for California and the region?
Elizabeth Weise:
It takes a lot of storms like this to make up for years and years of not enough rain. And we'll find out in the next two days how much we've made up. And the thing is you really wanted that to follow snow in the mountains. Because snow is such a beautiful thing, and it's pretty. It's also beautiful because it falls up in the mountains as snow, and then it's this lovely storage device. And then in the spring and summer, it slowly melts and it comes down the rivers and we have water down here. And that's kind of the hydrology that a lot of our systems have worked on, is that we get a lot of rain, and rain drip falls as snow, and then we get that back down rivers in the spring, summer and fall. And we'll have to see what the snow pack is.
Taylor Wilson:
Beth, obviously a major focus of your reporting is climate and climate change. When you were on last time, we talked about this idea that wet winters are pretty common for California, but is any aspect of this recent weather not normal? And is climate change playing a role?
Elizabeth Weise:
And we've talked about this before. The truth is, this is normal California weather, which normal California weather is erratic weather, because we have this Mediterranean climate, it's wet in the winter, it's dry in the summer. What we're experiencing is part of the normal oscillating California weather systems, where you get sometimes dry periods and you get wet periods. This is a very wet period. So no one can ever say that any one event was or was not triggered by climate change. But what everyone who is a scientist and actually looks at the data says is that, when you put more heat into a system, it becomes more reactive. And we've put now, I think we're up to one... The Earth's overall atmosphere is warmed 1.7 degrees Fahrenheit since the Industrial Revolution. And that increased heat is making this whole system even more erratic. I can't say, "Gosh, this last week, that's climate change," but what we can say is, "The swings are getting bigger."
Taylor Wilson:
Elizabeth Weise is a national correspondent for USA TODAY and joined from San Francisco. Thanks so much.
Elizabeth Weise:
Thanks so much.
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Taylor Wilson:
The revelation on Monday that classified documents were found in an office President Joe Biden used before his campaign echoed the discovery of documents seized at Mar-a-Lago after former President Donald Trump left the White House. Producer, PJ Elliott spoke to USA TODAY'S Justice Department Reporter Bart Jansen to find out more.
PJ Elliott:
Bart, thanks so much for joining 5 Things again.
Bart Jansen:
Thanks for having me.
PJ Elliott:
So I want to start off by asking you, what exactly was found?
Bart Jansen:
The White House announced that they found a small batch of classified documents in a locked closet at an office that Joe Biden used between his term as vice president and when he ran for president in 2020. Some reports say maybe about 10 in this locked closet, and they turned them over to the National Archives the day after they were found. They were found on November 2nd.
PJ Elliott:
Bart, is it common for presidents and vice presidents to keep classified documents?
Bart Jansen:
Well, the law says presidents should not be bringing home classified documents. They belong with the National Archives or with the agencies that created them. The concern is that whoever generated the documents and the sources that were used to provide the information, the secret information for national security, that that information should not be revealed haphazardly. And so it could potentially be a violation of the Espionage Act, which doesn't necessarily allege spying so much as just the distribution of defense related documents. So that's the concern or the threat, is to the sources and the methods that were used to gather the information that's in the documents if they were released haphazardly.
PJ Elliott:
Should we be expecting a House investigation into this?
Bart Jansen:
Several Republican members of the House have vowed to investigate the discovery of classified documents in Biden's previous office. The Chairman of the Intelligence Committee, Mike Turner, has written a letter to the Director of National Intelligence asking for an assessment about what threat to national security the storage of the documents might represent to the country. And the Head of the Oversight and Accountability Committee, Representative James Comer, a Republican of Kentucky, has said that he would like to investigate whether there is essentially a two-tiered system of justice in the country where former President Trump has been threatened with criminal prosecution and Biden was allowed to simply give back the documents to the National Archives. The Justice Department continues to investigate, review the Biden situation, but some people have called for a special counsel to be appointed for his investigation. That has not yet happened yet. We are waiting to hear from Attorney General Merrick Garland what steps will be taken after a review by the US attorney in Chicago, a John Loesch reviews the Biden situation.
PJ Elliott:
Bart, as always, thank you so much for your insight on this. I really appreciate it.
Bart Jansen:
Thank you.
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Taylor Wilson:
Alan Weisselberg, a longtime executive for Donald Trump's businesses, was sentenced to five months in prison yesterday. The sentence comes as part of a plea deal with prosecutors, sparing him from the maximum 15-year sentence he would've otherwise faced. The case centered on a scheme that saw Trump's businesses hand thousands of dollars in off-the-books perks to Weisselberg and other executives, things like company paid apartments and luxury cars. And the execs repeatedly did not report the perks as income on their tax returns. As part of his plea deal, Weisselberg has repaid some $2 million in criminal penalties, and he'll have to complete five years of probation once released. Former President Donald Trump was not charged in the case and did not appear in court during the trial.
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A federal agency is reportedly considering a ban on gas stoves on the heels of rising concerns about harmful indoor air pollutants emitted by the appliances. Producer PJ Elliott spoke with USA TODAY Trending Reporter Natalie Allen to find out more.
PJ Elliott:
Natalie, thanks for coming on 5 Things.
Natalie Allen:
Yeah, you bet.
PJ Elliott:
So let's start right here. Why are we just now finding out about this issue? Gas stoves have been in houses and apartments forever.
Natalie Allen:
Right. And coincidentally, this isn't really a new issue. These have been medical knowns that the US Consumer Safety Product Commission has wanted to address for quite some time. In fact, they've been considering an action on gas stoves since the fall. In October, the agency's commissioner recommended that they seek public comment on the hazards that are associated with these stoves after pollutants were linked to various medical conditions, including asthma and respiratory conditions.
PJ Elliott:
So you write that ventilation is the key to helping with these issues. What are people supposed to do that don't have vents over their stoves?
Natalie Allen:
Turn on your hoods when you cook, make sure your windows are open and that you're getting airflow into the area where your stove is. I think it's really important that people know that this is not something new. Gas stoves are used in more than 40 million homes and they have admitted pollutants such as nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide, and other matters at levels that the EPA say are unsafe because they're linked to respiratory disease, health issues like cancer, heart disease, and other medical problems. Something else that's really important to note is that it's not just children that are affected. In the article I addressed that children were affected, about 12% of childhood asthma cases in the nation can be attributed to the use of a gas stove, but it also affects adults.
PJ Elliott:
So Richard Trumka, who is the commissioner for the Consumer Product Safety Commission, did an interview with Bloomberg this week and said that, "Products that can't be made safe, can be banned." What exactly did he mean by that?
Natalie Allen:
I think it's really important to note that Trumka said that these regulations apply to new products, and for people who choose to switch from gas to electric, there are support available. No one's coming for anyone's stoves. The CPSC released a statement to us saying that it hasn't proposed any regulatory action on gas stoves right now. Any of that action would involve a lengthy process. So this is not something that's going to happen overnight.
PJ Elliott:
Natalie, thanks so much for your time. I really appreciate it.
Natalie Allen:
No problem. Talk to you soon.
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Taylor Wilson:
The Golden Globes returned for their first televised ceremony in two years last night. The show was dropped from TV last year amid reports about a lack of diversity at the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which votes on the awards. Host Jerrod Carmichael didn't hold back.
Jerrod Carmichael:
I am your host Jerrod Carmichael. Sure. And I'll tell you why I'm here. I'm here because I'm Black.
Taylor Wilson:
One of the night's big moments came when Malaysian veteran actress, Michelle Yeoh, won her first Globe for her performance in "Everything Everywhere All at Once." She reflected on coming to the US to try and make it in Hollywood.
Michelle Yeoh:
I came here and was told, "You're a minority." And I'm like, "No, that's not possible." And then someone said to me, "You speak English." I mean, forget about them not knowing Korea, Japan, Malaysia, Asia, India. And then I said, "Yeah, the flight here was about 13 hours long, so I learned on the way."
Taylor Wilson:
The movie winner for best drama was Steven Spielberg's, "The Fabelmans." And "The Banshees of Inisherin" won for best comedy or musical. In television, "House of the Dragon" won for drama, and "Abbott Elementary" won for comedy. You can find a full list of winners on USATODAY.com.
And you can find new episodes of 5 Things every morning right here, wherever you're listening right now. I'm back tomorrow with more of 5 Things from USA TODAY.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Death toll climbs in CA storms, Golden Globes back on TV: 5 Things podcast
