Sexual assault in the Peace Corps, over 70 dead in Kentucky tornadoes: 5 Things podcast

On today's episode of the 5 Things podcast: Sexual assault in the Peace Corps

A USA TODAY investigation finds the organization hasn't done enough to protect its volunteers, as national correspondent Donovan Slack reports. Plus, the death toll passes 70 after Kentucky tornadoes, reporter Sarah Elbeshbishi tells us about the latest bad approval rating news for President Joe Biden, the Fed may take action to tame inflation and the brightest comet of the year can be seen with the naked eye.

Podcasts:True crime, in-depth interviews and more USA TODAY podcasts right here.

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 14th of December 2021. Today, sexual assault in the Peace Corps. Plus, the death toll sores in Kentucky and around the US after weekend tornadoes, and more.

Here are some of the top headlines: 

1. The latest study out of South Africa on the omicron variant of COVID-19 finds that the variant is more contagious than others and it appears to reduce the effectiveness of vaccines, but people who are fully vaccinated are still largely protected against severe disease.
2. An avalanche in Washington state killed one person and trapped five over the weekend. The avalanche took place on Crystal Mountain, about 85 miles from Seattle.
3. And the Los Angeles Rams took down the Arizona Cardinals last night, 30 to 23. They've now inched to within a game of them in the NFC West race.

Volunteers in the Peace Corps were raped and assaulted. And according to a new USA TODAY investigation, the organization is not doing enough to protect them. National correspondent Donovan Slack has more.

Donovan Slack:

Earlier this year, we published our larger investigation about sexual assault in the Peace Corps. We found that the Peace Corps wasn't doing enough to protect volunteers from being sexually assaulted in the first place. And then there were shortfalls in following up afterward of providing adequate support after volunteers were assaulted. We really did a deep dive on the data and analyzed five years worth of data that the Peace Corps had given to us. And we found that for volunteers who ended service in 2019, 44% of women volunteers said they had been sexually assaulted in some way from groping to rape. And we also found that forcible sexual assaults and rapes had almost doubled between 2015 and 2019, which we found quite compelling. And when we went to interview agency officials, some of them really did not have a grasp on the extent of the problem. So we published that story in April. And the Peace Corps pledged a bunch of reforms since then. Added training, they've bolstered their computer system that tracks crimes.

One of the things we found was that the Peace Corps placed volunteers in situations that they knew or should have known were dangerous. For example, they put a volunteer in a school where the previous volunteer had reported being sexually harassed on a bus where another volunteer had been sexually assaulted. That was in Kyrgyzstan. And after volunteers were assaulted, their response inflicted further trauma on the volunteers. We spoke with a dozen volunteers who shared their experiences with us. Some of them obviously are featured in our story this week. They said, they're really not happy with the way that the Peace Corps has responded. They feel like they should do more and be more transparent basically because some of the concerns that we dug up in our reporting and concerns that they brought forward mirror concerns that had been raised in years past, and Peace Corps officials say, "Oh, we're going to fix this. We're going to fix that." And these volunteers worry that this is all just talk, I think one of them said.

Taylor Wilson:

You can read the full story by searching Peace Corps on USATOAY.com.

The death toll has risen past 70 in Kentucky after a devastating tornado over the weekend. Governor Andy Beshear.

Andy Beshear:

109 Kentuckians now unaccounted for, but as I look at this broken down by county, it's way more people unaccounted for than this. 81 of these are in Hopkins County alone, 22 in Warren, it says five in Graves. And that can't be right. There are more people than that, that we've got to identify and find, hopefully safe in Graves County. Again, because we have multiple of our towns in rubbles, finding the numbers are going to move a little bit. And we're going to do the best we can to give you the most accurate information we can. News I wanted to be wrong Was apparently right. We just confirm that the Hopkins County 17 deaths is accurate. And that's where we're up to. So that's one miracle We did not get. 74 lost Kentuckians as of now and that number is going to grow.

Taylor Wilson:

Victims have ranged from five months to 86 years. Mayfield, Kentucky and the Southwestern part of the state near Paducah was among the hardest hit. That includes a candle factory that partially collapsed killing eight people. Many of those who did survive in the tornadoes' path are now left with their lives in ruins. Mayfield resident, Teresa Herndon lost her entire house.

Teresa Herndon:

That is my home, my house. Let me break it. That's my house. We've already made plans to put our house right back where we are. And that says it right there, this is where I want to be. This is where I want to be. I want to be with this type of people. I want to be with the loving people. And that's where I am. That's where I want to be. I did not call a single person. These people showed up. They showed up. I get up and they are here. This is an ornament from 2000, Granny and Papa's angels. That's for my children.

That tornado, I mean, it took my whole neighborhood from... And I would be the last house and I don't know how it jumped. They're telling me that you can see the clear path all the way to Highway 131, but it took my whole neighborhood is what it did.

This is my home. These people are my home. That was just a house. And I have to look at it like that. I have truly lost things that were my mom and dad's. And husband's mom and dad's, I have lost them. They're gone, but I have my home, I have my family.

Taylor Wilson:

In all, more than a thousand properties were destroyed across Kentucky in what officials have called the worst tornado in the state's history. Elsewhere, at least 16 people are now dead across Illinois, Tennessee, Missouri and Arkansas and thousands more are now homeless while tens of thousands are without power. President Joe Biden plans to visit affected areas tomorrow and assigned a disaster declaration for Kentucky. We've collected a number of ways you can help folks affected by these disastrous tornadoes. Find the link in today's episode description.

President Joe Biden is increasingly receiving heavy criticism for his handling of the economy, COVID-19 and gun violence. As reporter Sarah Elbeshbishi tells us he faces his lowest approval ratings yet.

Sarah Elbeshbishi:

Biden's approval in just about every category ranging from the economic relief to gun violence, to COVID-19 and taxes dipped from previous polls. And the most drastic difference was from the poll back in March to now. Biden went down nearly 20 percentage points in his approval of the economic recovery. So in March, he was at 60% approval and this past poll showed that he's at 41%. And so there was a similar trend in several of these categories. So infrastructure, he still has the majority of Americans approval rate on that in this last poll, but it almost dipped 10 percentage points from August. So you're seeing a lot of shifts in more Americans kind of disapproving of his handling of these different issues.

I think the most distinct thing that we can really talk about is his response to COVID-19. So in March, he had a 72% approval rating and that dipped to 53%. Yes, he still has the majority of Americans approval in that. But I think as the CDC said that we didn't need a mask mandate anymore during the summer. And as cases rose or the delta variant appeared, then they kind of went back on that and said, now we need masks, and now we need a third vaccine. And now as omicron variant is now appearing in several states, I think Americans are starting to kind of lose a little bit of faith, at least based on these numbers, just because of that significant shift from March.

And the one category actually that he has improved in since October has been immigration. He went up three percentage points, which is interesting. And that's actually the highest since August. So there's minor shifts in between all of these different categories, but for the most part, his approval ratings have reached the lowest that it's been.

Taylor Wilson:

You can find more of Sarah's work on Twitter, @sarahbishi.

The federal reserve has kept its key short term lending rate near zero since the COVID-19 pandemic triggered a deep recession in March of 2020. But with inflation surging to a nearly 39 year high, those days of nearly free money are likely coming to an end. Fed officials at meetings today and tomorrow are expected to reduce the amount of treasury bonds and mortgage backed securities the fed has been buying. And economists say that would clear the way for interest rate increases as early as March. Fed rate hikes typically mean that Americans will pay a little more for everything from mortgages to credit card bills and student loans, but that curbs consumer demand, which in turn should mean more modest price increases.

The newly found comet, Leonard will be the brightest of the year, and you can see it in the night sky with the naked eye beginning tonight. That means no binoculars or telescopes are needed. Leonard is a long period comet, meaning it almost never comes around. In fact, this is its first trip past Earth in 70,000 years. And after it passes by the sun, it'll be ejected from our solar system, never to be seen on Earth again.

Thanks for listening to 5 Things. You can find us right here, wherever you get your podcast, seven mornings a week. Thanks as always to PJ Elliot for his great work on the show. And I'm back tomorrow with more of 5 Things from USA TODAY.