Second expelled Tennessee lawmaker reappointed, NPR leaves Twitter: 5 Things podcast

On today's episode of the 5 Things podcast: Second expelled Tennessee lawmaker reappointed

Commercial Appeal Government Reporter Katherine Burgess has the latest after a second expelled Tennessee lawmaker was reappointed. Plus, avideo sparks outrage after appearing to show a Ukrainian soldier being decapitated, inflation slows again, USA TODAY Health Reporter Ken Alltucker explains how e-cigarette maker Juul will pay millions to settle a series of lawsuits, and NPR leaves Twitter.

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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 Thursday, the 13th of April 2023. Today, another Tennessee lawmaker has been reappointed. Plus, an e-cigarette maker will pay millions after a series of lawsuits, and NPR quits Twitter.

♦

The second of two Tennessee lawmakers expelled by Republicans was reappointed yesterday.

Justin Pearson:

They ended up putting themselves on trial and the people's verdict is back.

Crowd:

Guilty.

Justin Pearson:

Guilty, guilty, guilty.

Crowd:

Guilty, guilty, guilty.

Taylor Wilson:

That's Justin Pearson, one of two Black Democratic state legislators whose expulsion from the state house last week sparked a national backlash. For more, I spoke with Commercial Appeal government reporter Katherine Burgess. Katherine, thanks for hopping on the podcast.

Katherine Burgess:

Hi. Thanks so much for having me.

Taylor Wilson:

So Katherine, let's just set the stage, to start. Why was Justin Pearson expelled from the Tennessee House of Representatives in the first place?

Katherine Burgess:

Justin Pearson and Justin Jones, who represents Davidson County, were expelled from the Tennessee State House after they engaged in protests related to the Covenant School shooting. They were advocating for tighter gun restrictions, along with representative Gloria Johnson, who represents Knoxville. So the three of them went forward, led chants, engaged with many young people who were in the Capitol and broke House rules of decorum.

Taylor Wilson:

And days later, Pearson has now been reappointed. Was this expected after Rep. Jones was also reinstated?

Katherine Burgess:

Yes. I think this was expected even before Rep. Jones was reinstated. Shelby County Commission, which is the body that decides whether or not to reappoint an interim, has a nine-member Democratic super majority. Not all of them were able to be present today. There were seven Democrats present, but Pearson was still able to easily get the seven votes he needed to be reappointed.

Taylor Wilson:

And what was the scene like as his supporters gathered after the vote?

Katherine Burgess:

There was so much applause, so much cheering, chants of, "Justin, Justin." The chambers were absolutely packed. The audience was really excited. After the vote, members of the crowd, Justin Pearson's supporters and Pearson himself spilled out into the plaza outside the Shelby County government building where there was very much a party-like atmosphere. Music was playing. It was a very joyous moment for the people gathered, but also slightly tempered by Justin Pearson reminding people that there is a weight on his shoulders to keep seeking gun reform. So very joyful, but also an awareness that this was something prompted by a very serious moment.

Taylor Wilson:

And what are lawmakers saying about a possible investigation into these expulsions?

Katherine Burgess:

Top leadership in the country have called on the Department of Justice to investigate.

There's specifically three things they are asking to be investigated. The first is whether the rights of the people who are represented by Jones and Pearson have been violated in them losing representation for a week. The second is whether the rights of Reps Jones and Pearson were violated for losing their free speech and freedom of assembly, and the third is whether the rights of Jones and Pearson were violated based on race. Because notably, they were expelled and they are both young Black men, while Gloria Johnson, the representative from Knoxville, a white woman, was not expelled.

Taylor Wilson:

Commercial Appeal Government Reporter Katherine Burgess, thanks so much.

Katherine Burgess:

Thank you.

♦

Taylor Wilson:

A video circulating on social media that appears to show a Ukrainian soldier being decapitated fueled outrage yesterday and prompted a war crimes investigation. The Chief of Ukraine Security Service, Vasyl Maliuk, said, "We will find these monsters." Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy pledged to neither forgive the killers, nor forget the crimes. He also referred to Bucha, the city where hundreds of bodies were found in mass graves after Russian occupiers fled.

Meanwhile, a Kremlin spokesman questioned the authenticity of this week's video.

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Inflation slowed for a ninth straight month in March, amid drops in both gasoline and grocery prices. According to the Labor Department's Consumer Price Index, consumer prices overall increased 5% from a year earlier, down from 6% in February and a 40-year high of 9.1% last June.

Meanwhile, rent continues to be the biggest driver of inflation, but the increase notably slowed. Rent increased 0.5%, down from 0.8% in February, but it's still up 8.8% the past year. Economists do expect rents to fall later this year.

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Embattled e-cigarette maker Juul will pay nearly half a billion dollars to settle a series of lawsuits. USA TODAY Health Reporter Ken Alltucker explains.

Ken, welcome to 5 Things.

Ken Alltucker:

Thanks for having me.

Taylor Wilson:

So Ken, what exactly did these lawsuits focus on?

Ken Alltucker:

Well, we had a half dozen states, California, Colorado, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Mexico and New York, as well as the District of Columbia, who largely alleged that Juul targeted marketing efforts towards underaged vapers. This was a collective settlement for those six states and DC, and as part of it, Juul agreed to pay $462 million. Juul denied any wrongdoing, but they've been settling a bunch of cases. Now they say they're up to 47 states and territories and they've paid out over $1 billion. The way the company describes it is these largely deal with past business practices.

Taylor Wilson:

So Ken, how big of a deal is the teen vaping crisis in America?

Ken Alltucker:

Well, in 2019 it kind of snuck up in many ways where there's a national survey the federal government does, and it found more than one quarter of high school students were using vaping devices.

There was a more recent survey last year and it found that those numbers had dropped. Researchers cautioned the two studies weren't directly comparable because of different methodologies, as well as the pandemic that sort of hampered collection efforts.

Taylor Wilson:

Ken, can you just explain to us a little about the risks to vaping?

Ken Alltucker:

Sure. Now, as with everything, with vaping, there are different views on this. Federally-funded research shows that there might be some cardiovascular risk. This is from the National Institutes of Health. The CDC says nicotine is, of course, addictive and that's what these devices deliver and can harm adolescent brain development. However, long-term risks are still being studied.

Now, vaping industry supporters and advocates will say it's less harmful than cigarette smoking and they sort of portray it as a harm reduction effort because you're not inhaling the harmful chemicals that are in tobacco. However, health folks, groups like the American Lung Association, warn that we really don't know what the long-term effects of these chemicals are and it's a risk.

Taylor Wilson:

Ken Alltucker, thanks so much.

Ken Alltucker:

Okay. Thanks for your time.

♦

Taylor Wilson:

NPR is leaving Twitter. The move comes about a week after the social media platform designated the outlet as state-affiliated media. That's the same designation often used to identify propaganda and media outlets controlled by authoritarian governments.

Twitter later changed the label to government-funded media, but NPR maintains that both labels are inaccurate, noting that the nonprofit news company operates independently from the US government. The company said that federal funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting accounts for less than 1% of NPR's annual operating budget.

In addition to NPR, Twitter has given the government-funded media label to several other outlets as of yesterday, including PBS and the BBC. PBS said yesterday that it has also stopped tweeting from its main account.

USA TODAY reached out to Twitter for a statement yesterday. The press account replied with a poop emoji.

Thanks for listening to 5 Things. You could find us every day wherever you get your audio. I'm back tomorrow with more of 5 Things from USA TODAY.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Justin Pearson reappointed in TN, inflation slows again: 5 things podcast