Miami condo's concrete deterioration was accelerating in April, new heat records set: 5 Things podcast
On today's episode of the 5 Things podcast: The official death toll at the Florida building collapse site is up to 11, with 150 still missing. Plus, Senior Video Producer Hannah Gaber and Supreme Court Correspondent John Fritze discuss the Court's decision not to hear a school board's transgender bathroom case, President Joe Biden pushes an infrastructure plan on a trip to Wisconsin, new heat records are set in the Pacific Northwest and Quentin Tarantino turns to novels.
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 Tuesday, the 29th of June, 2021. Today, more hints to a possible cause in the Miami building collapse, plus what the Supreme Court decided on whether schools can bar transgender students from using the bathroom that reflects their gender identity and more.
Taylor Wilson:
Here are some of the top headlines.
Tropical Storm Danny made landfall late Monday near the Georgia-South Carolina line. After hitting land, the storm immediately weakened to a tropical depression. It's the fourth named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season.
Ethiopia's government has declared a ceasefire in the Tigray region. It comes after nearly eight months of deadly conflict between Tigray fighters and government soldiers. Hundreds of thousands in the region are suffering from the world's worst famine crisis and there are growing allegations of atrocities there, including gang rapes and forced starvation. Ethnic Tigrayans say they've been targeted harshly even with no links to the conflict, something the Ethiopian government denies.
And Wimbledon rules on Tuesday. Tennis legend Serena Williams will begin her quest for another major win when she takes on Belarusian Aliaksandra Sasnovich in the first round.
Taylor Wilson:
Rescuers are continuing to work at the site of the devastating Miami condo building collapse. The official death toll has now risen to 11 in the tragedy and 150 people remain unaccounted for. The building collapsed early Thursday morning, meaning five days have now passed, but officials clarified Monday that they are still in a search and rescue mission. Former Miami-Dade Fire Chief Dave Downey said Monday that workers at the site are holding out hope.
Dave Downey:
It's an incredibly dangerous site. We've got a lot of rescuers working. We've got a lot of equipment including heavy equipment moving about and part of our challenge now is trying to control that rescue operation. We're doing everything we can to try to unearth any voids that could contain a survivor and we're going to continue on rescue operations until such time as we've determined a likelihood of survival is almost not there. You have to maintain hope; every rescuer out here has that hope. I just want the family members, everybody watching, to realize that every rescuer here is maintaining hope, They're putting themselves in harm's way, trying to recover any victims that they can and we're going to continue do that.
Taylor Wilson:
Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Assistant chief Raide Jadallah said Monday, that new voids in the rubble where residents could be located have been found, but they're so far been no evidence that anyone is inside them. They continue to use equipment to listen to sounds coming from the rubble, but none could be identified as coming from people. He added that the decision to transition from search and rescue to recovery cannot be made until crews are confident that no one could be alive in any part of the rubble. Some hints about what caused the Champlain Tower South to collapse are beginning to emerge. A letter in April from the building's condo association president said that damage to the basement garage had gotten significantly worse since an inspection less than three years ago and that deterioration to the buildings concrete was accelerating. In October 2018 report following inspection had warned of major structural problems, but a month later a town building official told board members that the structure was in "very good shape." The National Institute of Standards and Technologies is investigating the collapse.
Taylor Wilson:
The NIST was created after 9/11. It's also investigated the 2003 Rhode Island nightclub fire, the 2011 tornado in Joplin Missouri and Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico in 2017. Their investigation is expected to last some time, more immediate investigations are underway by Miami-Dade County in the town of Surfside. Family members of the missing were given a tour of the area on Sunday afternoon and some continued visits on Monday. The site is still extremely dangerous with unstable materials and frequent fires and flooding. During the tour a rescue worker fell 25 feet down the mound of rubble. Just north of the collapse is an identical condo building, many residents remain in homes there after the building appeared to be undamaged by the neighboring collapse but, many residents fear the building built by the same contractor with the same central plans might also be at risk.
Taylor Wilson:
The Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear a dispute over whether schools may block transgender students from using the bathroom that reflects their gender identity. The high Court's decision allows a lower court ruling against those prohibitions to stand. Senior video producer Hannah Gaber linked up with Supreme Court correspondent John Fritze to find out more.
Hannah Gaber:
The Supreme Court has once again given us some interesting things to talk about, this time we're looking at the transgender bathroom case. This issue has come up again and again, really we're going all the way back to 2016 here, starting with an Obama era directive that said children should be allowed to choose whichever bathroom is appropriate to their gender in schools. So, when Trump came into office he withdrew the directive and the case died, but now it's back so, what happened?
John Fritze:
Right, so the dispute starts I think with Gavin Grimm, who was a rising sophomore at a high school in Virginia, when he changed his first name to Gavin and began using male pronouns. This set off a huge debate about how school districts handle transgender students in the context of which bathroom they use. Gavin wanted to use the boys' bathroom. Initially the school was supportive of that approach, but subsequently the school board passed a resolution requiring him to use a neutral bathroom, a unisex bathroom. And the school installed several unisex bathrooms throughout the building. The problem for Gavin was that when he attended a football game after school or when he did an activity those bathrooms were often not accessible to him and so he said he felt stigmatized and he was harmed by this. This is as you know a suit that's very old, it's been going on for years. It was at the Supreme Court once before. In the meantime, what's happened is that presidential administrations have shifted back and forth how they view the law.
John Fritze:
The Obama administration basically set in guidance to school districts that, hey, you have to let students use a bathroom for the gender with which they identify. Trump administration withdrew that guidance, which basically mooted this Supreme Court case in 2016, the court walked away from the issue. But when the Biden administration came in, one of the first things he did was sign an executive order reversing things back to the way Obama did it and the school district of Virginia school district immediately brought this case back to the Supreme Court and today the court has decided that they are not going to take it. They're not going to hear arguments in this case.
Hannah Gaber:
So when the Supreme Court declines to take up a case, it means that the ruling of the previous court stands. So, what is the actual applicable guidance that we're going to see now as a result of the court declining this?
John Fritze:
So that is the general rule and this is what spurned a huge debate. The question is, how impactful is this decision, what happens in schools, right? And the reality is that it's a mixed bag. I think that this is a victory for Gavin Grimm. It is a victory for LGBTQ rights in terms of the battle, but to use a cliché, the war is still very much going on. So you have circuit courts now in Richmond, in Chicago and Atlanta that have said that schools have to allow students to use a bathroom that matches the gender that they identify with. In other parts of the country it's not clear, it's a mixed bag, either courts haven't ruled or it's really unclear and so nationally you don't have an overarching legal framework for this. So, I do think it's a victory for Gavin and I think it's a victory for LGBTQ rights, but what I think is also likely is that this issue in particular and this case is going to wind up continuing to be litigated at lower federal courts and ultimately in the Supreme Court again.
John Fritze:
I think the broader context to keep in mind is that bathrooms is one part of this fight, but there's this huge pouring of laws in conservative states that are trying to limit transgender student rights on issues such as sports and curriculum and so forth and so there are conservative states that are really trying to test the limits of what the Supreme Court has done in the past on this issue. Those cases are pretty much designed to get back to the Supreme Court. So this issue is not going away.
Hannah Gaber:
So essentially in declining to hear this case again, the Supreme Court gave a victory to the Virginia-specific case but all these other specific cases are still making their way through so, what has yet to be decided is this constitutional question of access or discrimination or whatever it is that whatever the next case that makes it to the Supreme Court might present?
John Fritze:
That's right and the fourth circuit ruling which sided with Gavin stands, that ruling stands, but the broader constitutional question has not been answered.
Taylor Wilson:
For more on recent Supreme Court decisions, search Supreme Court on USATODAY.com.
Taylor Wilson:
President Joe Biden heads to Wisconsin on Tuesday. There he'll try to sell voters on the economic benefits of a $973 billion infrastructure package. Biden told Democratic donors on Monday that the agreement was a way for the U.S. to assert democratic principles and economic strength that can come from investing in the economic future. White House officials also issued an internal memo that highlights the package as the largest investment in transportation, water systems and services in nearly a century.
Taylor Wilson:
The memo also emphasized that 90% of jobs generated by the spending could go to workers without college degrees. That would be a major shift since most net job gains before the pandemic went to college graduates. Potential economic gains were important to both Republicans and Democrats who agreed to the deal on Thursday, but the Bill's future was briefly put into danger when Biden suggested the deal would be held up. He said he needed to receive a separate package on infrastructure, jobs and education determined only by Democrats through the budget reconciliation process. Biden clarified Saturday that he did not mean that as a veto threat and the deal appeared back on by Sunday. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Monday that Biden wants both bills to be approved by Congress.
Jen Psaki:
The President intends to sign both pieces of legislation into law. He is eager to do that, looking forward to do that, as you know, they are both moving forward on dual tracks in Congress. The leaders in Congress are ensuring that is happening.
Taylor Wilson:
But approval of both bills by Congress remains a long shot, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said Monday that he has not yet decided if he supports the bipartisan package, but that he wants Biden to pressure Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer to allow the bipartisan agreement to pass without requiring a follow-up bill. The bipartisan deal includes spending for a number of projects. They include roads and bridges, power infrastructure, broadband, trains, water, public transit, and more. Democrats' broader bill would include more human infrastructure issues like childcare and also proposals on climate change.
Taylor Wilson:
Temperatures will finally start to cool off in the Pacific Northwest on Tuesday, but that's not before a heat wave set records all over the region during the weekend and on Monday. Portland hit 116 on Monday setting another all time record after 112 degrees on Sunday. And Seattle hit 108 smashing an all time record of 104, set just a day before. Temperatures even close to those numbers are basically unheard of in the region known for rain and relatively mild summer temperatures. In Seattle average highs in the summer usually land around the upper seventies and Portland usually hits the low eighties.
Taylor Wilson:
Recent heat is particularly dangerous for residents without air conditioning. In Seattle, less than 50% of homes have AC units, closer to 80% of Portland homes have air conditioning, but about half of them are window units which provide less relief than a central air system. On Tuesday, temperatures will remain much hotter than normal, but begin to cool off. Portland could hit highs in the upper nineties while Seattle's high may dip below 90.
Taylor Wilson:
Filmmaker Quentin Tarantino is trying out a new medium of art, a novel. His first novel hits bookshelves Tuesday, though it'll be familiar to followers of his movies, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is a novelization of his 2019 film of the same name.
Rick Dalton:
I'm Rick Dalton. It's my pleasure to meet Mr. Schwartz.
Mr. Schwartz:
Come in my office, put it down. Is that your son?
Rick Dalton:
No, that's my stunt double Cliff Booth.
Mr. Schwartz:
Last night we brought a Rick Dalton double feature, well the shooting I love that stuff here the killing.
Rick Dalton:
A lot of killing.
Taylor Wilson:
That film starred Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt, and was nominated for 10 academy awards. Tarantino said he grew up reading movie novelization as his first adult books in the seventies. The book will also come out first as a mass market paperback, similar to the old Pulp novels that Tarantino loves. He signed a two book deal with Harper Collins. The second will be a non-fiction called Cinema Speculation. The publisher is calling that book a deep dive into the movies of the 1970s. A release date has not yet been decided.
Taylor Wilson:
Thanks for listening to 5 Things. A reminder, you can subscribe for free and also rate and review on Apple Podcasts. You can also listen on Spotify or wherever you get your audio. Thanks as always to Shannon Green and Claire Thornton for their great work on the show. 5 Things is part of the USA TODAY Network.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Miami condo report, new heat records set in PNW: 5 Things podcast
