Biden visits Miami condo collapse site, Nikole Hannah-Jones get tenure: 5 Things podcast
On today's episode of the 5 Things podcast: Miami-based correspondent Romina Ruiz-Goiriena has the latest on the Surfside collapse. Plus, journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones receives tenure at UNC-Chapel Hill. Also on the show: Bill Cosby is released from prison, tax-related charges will be unveiled against the Trump Organization and a tropical storm may be brewing.
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 1st of July, 2021. Today, President Joe Biden visits the building collapse site in Miami. Plus journalist, Nikole Hannah-Jones is granted tenure after a week's long controversy and more.
Taylor Wilson:
Here are some of the top headlines:
- Donald Rumsfeld has died. The former defense secretary oversaw wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. He was 88.
- A judge has denied Brittany Spears request to remove her father, James Spears, as her conservator. Brittany said last week that she feels trapped by the conservatorship and that it's abusive, controlling even her medical and personal life. Wednesday's court filings were mainly intended to approve Bessemer Trust as a co-conservator over her estate, along with her father.
- And the Phoenix Suns are heading to the NBA finals after knocking off the Los Angeles Clippers in six games in the Western finals. It's their first trip to the NBA finals since 1993.
Taylor Wilson:
President Joe Biden will visit the site of the collapsed condo building in Surfside, Florida, on Thursday. It's now been one week since the tragedy, and 18 people are confirmed dead with 145 people still missing. The latest bodies to be pulled out of the rubble where those of children, four and ten years old. Miami Dade Mayor, Daniella Levine Cava.
Mayor Levine Cava:
So any loss of life, especially given the unexpected, unprecedented nature of this event is a tragedy. But the loss of our children is too great to bear.
Taylor Wilson:
As you've heard on the show, Miami-based correspondent Romina Ruiz-Goiriena has been covering the aftermath of last week's collapse. She has more from South Florida on the loved ones of those in the collapse and what happens next.
R. Ruiz-Goiriena:
So I think a lot of the officials... And this is true for the Mayor of Surfside. This is true for the Mayor of Miami-Dade County. It's also true for the head of the fire department and for the head of the Israeli delegation, they have continued to express that it is still a search and rescue mission. That being said, they continue to expound a lot of hope for the families. Yet, what we know from traditional manuals of disaster management and just people that we've interviewed, just the entire team at USA TODAY over the course of the last week, after the first 24 hours, the success rates decrease dramatically. I think the last number we were looking at was after day five, it shrinks to 7%. I think we're at this point where we're starting to ask those same officials, at what point do you call this?
R. Ruiz-Goiriena:
And at what point are you actually extending a sense of false hope to these families? Because a lot of them... And I'll tell you, I did an interview of a man, Alex Rodriguez, his grandmother and mother are still unaccounted for. He and his brother are convinced that there is no way that they survived. And he told me, "I have no hope. And it's like sitting in the middle of the waiting room at a doctor's office waiting for lab results, where you know what the diagnosis is, but you still have to wait until they call it."
R. Ruiz-Goiriena:
So I was one of two journalists that was at the Surfside Community Center. This was the first reunification site. It was later moved over the course of the weekend to a hotel ballroom. The first thing was that people were sleeping and waiting and waiting for news. There has been a ton of aid from the community, from Orthodox Jewish groups that have brought in to help support these families and anything they need. There's been grief counseling. There have been a lot of services, and the community has really, really showed up. But it felt to me, as I was there, that people, sometimes they sleep. Sometimes they talk to other loved ones. And when there is news, when somebody comes and updates them in some way, it is almost a new moment of pain where the whaling begins, the crying begins. You see that pain.
R. Ruiz-Goiriena:
It's really interesting, because if you were to walk in there and not know the backdrop, not know that there's a building that is, for all intents and purposes, a mass grave site. It looked like a bustling community center where the rabbi and the rabbi's wife and the kids were running around. And people are serving pizza. There was this moment on Friday when I lived in Israel every time on Friday before Shabbat at 3:00, the market closes. And it's like, there's this frenzy. How can I get rid of this food? How can I move this, all of this, because we need to go back and prepare for Shabbat? And that's what the center looked like on Friday. Everybody was trying to clean up all the food. Everybody was trying to move because Shabbat was coming, and they wanted to welcome these families into the shul, into the synagogue.
R. Ruiz-Goiriena:
But if you didn't know the backdrop, you wouldn't almost see how dramatic it is. If it's not for these moments of absolute pain, from what we are seeing, it is incredibly painful to not have bodies. And so I think people are desperate for that, for answers, and for something that's more dignified. We're a week in. I've talked to a lot of people that have no hope, and what they want is some sense of dignity for their loved ones.
R. Ruiz-Goiriena:
Investigators still have not declared a cause. All the engineers and experts are pointing to different structural issues, but we do not have one unified, cohesive reason yet for why this building collapsed. What we do know is that the building was in a incredible state of disrepair, almost in a calamitous state of disrepair. In some of our exclusive reporting, we obtained a letter that was sent to family members two months ago. It's dated April 9th. And that 16-page document walks owners through this onerous process that has been this 40-year certification that they began in 2018. And at that time, it summarizes how they had hired this engineering firm, how this engineering firm went ahead and produced an evaluation saying, "You have $9 million worth of damage. There are issues with the structure. There are issues with the garage. There are issues with the ceiling."
R. Ruiz-Goiriena:
They actually sent this report to the City of Surfside. We've also learned that meeting minutes show that the head of inspections had a meeting with the condo association and reassured them that the building was fine. And now this year, in 2021, when they're about to go to finish this 40 year... What this letter says is, "We have $700,000. We need $16 million." What was $9 million worth of work has now doubled. And they were in that back and forth with the owners, trying to press them. Also, owners had a lot of questions of why the building was in such a state? So the former building inspector, Russ Prieto, took a leave of absence from another one of the municipalities where he was currently working at. We know that at least three lawsuits have been filed by different firms representing the families.
R. Ruiz-Goiriena:
And on top of this, we know that the Miami-Dade State Attorney, Katherine Fernandez Rundle, said that she will ask a grand jury to probe what steps can be taken to safeguard the residents without jeopardizing any scientific public safety or potential criminal investigations. This isn't the first time that the state attorney takes a measure of this nature. She has a tendency of asking for grand juries to probe these matters.
R. Ruiz-Goiriena:
We still don't know where this is exactly going to land, but we see that things are moving both on a civil level, and it's moving on a criminal level as well. There's the group that investigated after 9/11 that are here. And we also have the County Mayor, Levine Cava, has actually announced a probe of all of the buildings in the county that are nearing their 40-year certification process. Miami is the second largest real estate market in the country in terms of luxury real estate. It is a driver of the economy. This is incredibly unsettling for all of South Florida, for people that have investment properties. We're really at the beginning stages of what will be a very arduous and long process of investigation.
Taylor Wilson:
You can find Romina's work on Twitter @RominaAdi, that's A-D-I. As for Biden's trip, he'll meet with family members. He's also called for an investigation of the collapse. Last week, he declared a federal emergency in Florida to authorize federal aid, to help state and local recovery efforts.
Taylor Wilson:
On Wednesday, Nikole Hannah-Jones was granted tenure as the Knight Chair in Race and Investigative Journalism by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Board of Trustees. In April, Hannah-Jones was offered the position on a five-year contract. That led to outrage from supporters who felt the board received pressure from conservatives not to grant Hannah-Jones tenure because of her work as the creator of the New York Times Magazine's 1619 Project. And Knight Chairs at the university have historically been hired with tenure. Producer Claire Thornton was at UNC's campus Wednesday covering the Board of Trustees' vote. Julia Clark is a junior at UNC and Vice President of the school's Black Student Movement. Clark led protestors, who called for the board of trustees to grant tenure to Nikole Hannah-Jones.
Julia Clark:
Nikole Hannah-Jones's tenure should never have been a question. The fact that we even had to be out here today is an injustice in itself. Giving Nikole Hannah-Jones tenure after the controversy and after the media attention and after the backlash that this board has received is not a genuine act.
Taylor Wilson:
UNC Trustee, Richard Meekins, told reporters that he supported Hannah-Jones receiving tenure, because he thinks more of her work is needed to uncover parts of Black history that students are not taught in school.
Trustee R. Meekins:
I read the 1619 Project, and I found it to be fascinating and powerful, impactful. Were there some errors in it? Perhaps, but compared to the errors that I learned in history and the lack of history that I learned right here in North Carolina... Did you know about what happened in 1898 in Wilmington, North Carolina? And so that's disappointing and actually devastating that we didn't learn those kinds of things.
Taylor Wilson:
Last year, Walter Hussman, who UNC's Journalism School is named after, expressed concern about Hannah-Jones's appointment to the Dean of the Journalism School. In emails obtained by local media Hussman wrote, "I worry about the controversy of tying the UNC Journalism School to the 1619 Project." The tenure controversy also comes as Republican legislators around the country work to pass laws banning the teaching of critical race theory in colleges and K through 12 schools. Carol Shirley, an alum of the journalism school, was also out protesting Wednesday in support of Nikole Hannah-Jones. When the decision to grant tenure was announced, Shirley said she felt relieved.
Carol Shirley:
I'm encouraged the right things happened in the right ways today. And for the people who don't agree with her and the people who don't want her here, I understand that they don't want to perpetuate something that they don't believe in. But as journalists and at the school of journalism, we shine lights in dark places. We speak truth to power. We investigate the things that nobody else wants to know about and nobody else wants to talk about. And if we start now dimming that light and shutting down that voice, then that's the beginning of the end of what we do and what we're here for.
Taylor Wilson:
For more on this story. Search Nikole, that's N-I-K-O-L-E, Hannah-Jones on USAtoday.com.
Taylor Wilson:
Bill Cosby has been released from prison. The former comedian and actor was previously convicted in 2018 of drugging and raping Temple University employee, Andrea Constand, in 2004. But Pennsylvania Supreme Court overturned that conviction this week. They found that Cosby's trial was unfair because prosecutors used damaging evidence that Cosby turned over in Constand's civil case to convict him of criminal offenses. The court's opinion found that Cosby was therefore forced to give up his Fifth Amendment right protecting self-incrimination. USA TODAY's Ralphie Aversa has more.
Ralphie Aversa:
Cosby was sentenced to three to ten years in prison, and he was recently denied parole after he refused to enroll in a sex offender treatment program. The Cosby Show star maintained his innocence, even if it meant staying in prison for 10 years. He's currently served over two. Last December, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court overheard arguments during a virtual hearing on whether or not Cosby was fairly convicted. The court's ruling, no, he was not. The state court cited two reasons for the decision. First, additional accusers were allowed to testify at the second trial, in their view tainting it. Second, Cosby turned over incriminating evidence at the first trial and was told afterwards that those charges were off the table. According to the court, that effectively forced him to give up his Fifth Amendment right to self-incrimination.
Ralphie Aversa:
Cosby was the first celebrity to be tried and convicted during the #MeToo era. So will this have an impact on future cases? It's hard to say, especially considering laws involving prior testimony vary from state to state. The Montgomery County District Attorney who convicted Cosby, Kevin Steele, tells USA TODAY that due to the decision, Cosby cannot be tried a third time.
Taylor Wilson:
Gloria Allred, the women's rights attorney who represents dozens of Cosby accusers, told USA Today that the court decision must be devastating for his accusers, but does not vindicate his actions. Cosby's attorney Jennifer Bonjean said she's thrilled at the overturned conviction.
Taylor Wilson:
Specific tax-related charges against the Trump Organization and its long time CFO, Allen Weisselberg, are set to be unsealed on Thursday. That move comes after a grand jury in Manhattan indicted Weisselberg and the organization on Wednesday. Weisselberg is also expected to turn himself in on Thursday. Weisselberg allegedly failed to pay taxes on fringe benefits from the company. And the charges are part of a long-running inquiry by the Manhattan District Attorney and New York's Attorney General into the Trump family real estate business. Just days ago, Trump attorneys met with local prosecutors in a failed attempt to persuade them not to proceed with the case. There is currently no indication that former President Donald Trump himself will face charges.
Taylor Wilson:
Forecasters are keeping an eye on a pair of tropical waves in the Atlantic. And the National Hurricane Center says that one of them may turn into tropical storm Elsa on Thursday. It's too early to say whether the system will have any impact on the US, but tropical storm watches have already been issued for a few Caribbean Islands. If the system holds together, it's currently forecast to drift west, northwest over open Caribbean waters over the weekend and possibly enter the Gulf of Mexico early next week. It would be the fifth named storm of the young Atlantic hurricane season, which began June 1st.
Taylor Wilson:
That's highly unusual. On average, the second named storm doesn't arrive until early August. And the average formation date for the fifth named storm, August 31st. If predictions hold, this will be a record sixth year in a row of above-normal activity. Forecasters in South Florida are also keeping a particularly watchful eye out. Rescue workers at the Miami condo building collapse are already coping with near daily thunderstorms that forced temporary pauses to rescue efforts.
Taylor Wilson:
Thanks for listening to 5 Things. You can find us wherever you get your audio, including Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Also, if you have a chance, please leave us a rating and review. Thanks as always to Shannon Green and Claire Thornton for their work on the show.
Taylor Wilson:
5 Things is part of the USA TODAY Network.