Federal forecasters predict an "extraordinary" hurricane season | The Excerpt

On Friday’s episode of The Excerpt podcast: The 2024 NOAA hurricane season forecast is here - and a record number of storms are expected. USA TODAY Congress Reporter Riley Beggin discusses how a failed Senate border bill is creating a campaign opportunity for vulnerable Democrats. Hijacking, mobs and combat are threatening Gaza humanitarian aid from a new U.S. pier. The Justice Department is suing Live Nation and Ticketmaster to reduce ticket prices. USA TODAY Money, Markets and Personal Finance Reporter Medora Lee talks about surging home insurance prices. Today marks the 2-year anniversary of the Uvalde school shooting.

Hit play on the player below to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript beneath it.  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.

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Taylor Wilson:

Good morning. I'm Taylor Wilson, and today is Friday, May 24th, 2024. This is the Excerpt.

Today, want to know about forecasts predicting an extraordinary hurricane season, plus how a failed border bill can help some vulnerable Democrats, and the Justice Department sues Live Nation and Ticketmaster.

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The start of the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season is just over a week away and federal forecasters yesterday predicted an extraordinary season with as many as 25 named storms possible.

Rick Spinrad:

The forecast for named storms, hurricanes and major hurricanes is the highest NOAA has ever issued for the May outlook.

Taylor Wilson:

That's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Director Rick Spinrad. Specifically NOAA is forecasting a range of eight to 13 hurricanes out of 17 to 25 named storms total.

Other top forecasters are also predicting an unusually active season. Colorado State University's hurricane forecasting team led by Phil Klotzbach predicted 23 total named storms and 11 hurricanes in its April forecast. That's the highest number of hurricanes ever predicted in an April forecast by Colorado State since the team began releasing predictions in 1995.

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The Senate shut down a border security bill yesterday that was clearly doomed to fail, but it gave an opportunity for vulnerable Democrats to hold a position that may help them this fall. For more, I spoke with USA TODAY Congress Reporter Riley Beggin, who joined me from the Senate Press Gallery. Riley, thanks for hopping on.

Riley Beggin:

Of course.

Taylor Wilson:

So Riley, what exactly was in this border security bill that failed in the Senate yesterday?

Riley Beggin:

It was a pretty sweeping package, so it would do a lot of things. It would shorten the timeframe for consideration of asylum claims. It would make it harder for migrants to qualify for asylum in the first place. And the big thing here is that it would create a new temporary authority for President Biden to essentially shut down the borders the way proponents talk about it. If the amount of legal crossings reaches a certain threshold, the border officers would essentially be forced to stop accepting applications for a short period of time.

Taylor Wilson:

So Riley, despite this failing, how does it give vulnerable Democrats a chance to really hold a position that may protect them this fall, and which vulnerable lawmakers are we talking about here?

Riley Beggin:

It is a really key messaging opportunity for a lot of these Democrats because immigration and the border crisis is top of mind for a lot of voters, especially moderate voters in swing states or in states that are pretty Republican. So in that case, we're talking about Jon Tester of Montana, he's a Democrat who's running in a deep state, Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, Sherrod Brown of Ohio, and then Senator Tammy Baldwin in Wisconsin, and Jacky Rosen in Nevada are some of the most vulnerable Democrats in the upper chamber. And the reason that this matters is the Senate is already very closely divided, and pretty much all of the incumbents that are running for reelection are Democrats. These are the most competitive states. So Democrats are on the offense this year. Republicans have a lot of opportunities to pick up seats, so they're looking for an opportunity to say, "I'm doing something on the border."

Taylor Wilson:

And Riley, can you help us understand this phase of Congress in an election year when passing substantive policy is so difficult?

Riley Beggin:

Yeah, we always hit this time of year in election cycles where it becomes really challenging to pass actual substantive policy like you said. The reason for that is as we get closer to the election, it becomes a lot harder for lawmakers to take challenging votes when they're at the beginning of their election cycle. Say that you're a conservative and you don't want to raise taxes, but there's a policy that will raise taxes but you know it's good for your constituents. That's what we would consider, for example, to be a tough vote. The closer you get to an election, those things become a lot more salient and it becomes harder for lawmakers to take those challenging votes. So they tend to err on the side of what I think of as political messaging bills, these bills that help them campaign but are not going to pass or don't really do much.

Taylor Wilson:

And there's some other bills like these that won't become law but might provide some electoral use for some of these vulnerable members. What else are you keeping an eye on here, Riley?

Riley Beggin:

Yeah, there are a lot of examples here. Something that happened in the House is a bill that would eliminate a DC law that allows non-citizens to vote in local elections and they are teeing up a bill that would also make it illegal for non-citizens to vote in federal elections, which of course is already illegal. Last week, the House also passed a bill that would force the Biden administration to continue sending bombs to Israel, which is of course a challenging topic for Democrats. So it forces their opponents to take a challenging vote.

And then something I'll be watching in the next few weeks is the Senate plans to consider a bill that would guarantee a right to contraception, which of course speaks to reproductive rights, a very important political issue for Democrats this year. But all of these in the democratically controlled Senate and Republican-controlled House, when they pass these party-line bills, they're not going to pass the other chamber. And for Republicans, of course, it's not going to get signed by a Democratic president. So in the end, these are messaging opportunities.

Taylor Wilson:

All right. Riley Beggin covers Congress for USA TODAY. Thanks as always, Riley.

Riley Beggin:

Of course, happy to be here.

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Taylor Wilson:

Hijacking, mobs and combat are creating a major stumbling block to humanitarian aid delivered to Gaza. That's forcing officials to develop alternative routes for trucks arriving by the Pentagon's newly built pier. According to US officials yesterday, some 1,000 US troops have built a $320 million floating pier and causeway to deliver food and medicine to Palestinians in the territory. But the two-month effort has gotten off to a slow start and deliveries were suspended for a time after trucks in the first convoys were hijacked. Three US troops have also been injured in the operation while at sea with none related to combat, according to officials.

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The Justice Department, 29 states and the District of Columbia sued Live Nation Entertainment, the parent and company of Ticketmaster yesterday, alleging it monopolized live events. The lawsuit seeks to lower prices for fans and open venue doors to more musicians. Live Nation, which generates $22 billion a year in revenue, owns or controls more than 265 concert venues in North America. The company bills itself as the largest live entertainment company in the world. US Attorney General Merrick Garland said that dominance allowed the company to exert control over the live events' industry in a way that hurt fans, performers, smaller promoters and venue operators.

Legal experts say the company's footholds in the live entertainment industry may not last. Now that attorneys general are calling for the company to break up its assets, this could give consumers more options on where to buy tickets and which companies venues to visit and in turn, make tickets more affordable, according to Shuba Ghosh, a law professor at Syracuse University. You can read more with a link in today's show notes.

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Home insurance has become less affordable. I caught up with USA TODAY Money Markets and Personal Finance Reporter Medora Lee to discuss what owners and buyers need to know. Medora, thanks for making the time.

Medora Lee:

Thanks for having me.

Taylor Wilson:

So Medora, let's just start here. Where do home insurance rates stand right now?

Medora Lee:

Home insurance rates have been skyrocketing. Just in the last year, on average, home insurance prices have jumped 19%. Since 2019, they've jumped 55% to $1,723 last year on average.

Taylor Wilson:

So why is homeowners' insurance going up so much?

Medora Lee:

There are two main things: inflation, which everybody knows the cost of everything and labor has risen. And so home insurance is based on how much it would cost to replace your home, considering that all the materials and labor prices have gone up, so it makes sense that your home insurance price would also go up.

But the other big wild card is the weather. We've had so many weather-related events that have increased in frequency and intensity over the past few years that this has thrown insurers for a loop. They haven't exactly known how to factor that into their models and they continue to be surprised and they're losing a lot of money because of it.

Taylor Wilson:

So Medora, how big of a decider really should home insurance costs be when it comes to buying a house? What do experts say here?

Medora Lee:

You don't necessarily have to avoid buying a house in states like Florida or Texas or California that are high risk areas for weather-related events because the home insurance is really very street specific, they say, but they do caution because homeowners' insurance is so expensive in some areas that when you look for a house in an area and you finally have an address of a house that you're considering putting an offer in, do some research first before you even go to the bank and talk to your insurance agent about what kind of zone it's in, what kind of flood zone it's in, and how big the wildfire, earthquake risks are, for example.

Taylor Wilson:

Yeah. And what are some other ways to reduce the cost of a homeowners' insurance policy?

Medora Lee:

So the biggest thing is, and this goes for not only insuring a home for the first time but also every year, if you already own a home, it's so easy for you to just re-sign it and keep paying. But instead of doing that, you should take a look around and shop around and see what else you can get from other places. You could also consider raising your deductible. A higher deductible will lower your premiums, but you do take that chance that something could happen and you have to pay more out pocket.

You can also consider bundling your home, auto and possibly even life insurance together into one company.

And then the last one is some preventative things. Update your house. Make sure the age of your roof, your water heater and your furnace, electrical and plumbing are all updated because if they're old, you could be disqualified for insurance. And then clean up around your house. If you're an area with wildfires, make sure you don't have tree limbs hanging over your house or flammable mulch around your house, or if you live in a hurricane-prone area, install shutters and a new roof.

Taylor Wilson:

All right, great advice as always. Medora Lee covers money markets and personal finance for USA TODAY. Thank you, Medora.

Medora Lee:

Thank you. Have a good day.

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Taylor Wilson:

Today marks two years since the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas left 19 children and two adults dead and 17 others injured. Families of the victims on Wednesday announced a $2 million settlement with the city, as well as a lawsuit against the Texas Department of Public Safety and 92 named troopers who were involved in the mishandled law enforcement response. The suit contends the officers received active shooter training but failed to follow national standards and best practices. There have been approximately 652 school shooting incidents since Uvalde, according to the K through 12 school shooting database.

You can read more from the Austin American-Statesman, part of the USA TODAY Network with a link in today's show notes.

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And thanks for listening to the Excerpt. We're produced by Shannon Rae Green and Bradley Glanzrock, and our executive producer is Laura Beatty. You can get the podcast wherever you get your pods, and if you're on a smart speaker, just ask for the Excerpt. I'm Taylor Wilson, back tomorrow with more of the Excerpt from USA TODAY.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Forecasters predict an "extraordinary" hurricane season | The Excerpt