7th Memphis cop relieved of duty, millions under winter storm warnings: 5 Things podcast

On today's episode of the 5 Things podcast: Seventh Memphis police officer relieved of duty over fatal Tyre Nichols traffic stop

A seventh Memphis police officer was relieved of duty over the fatal Tyre Nichols traffic stop, while fire officials have also been let go. Plus, USA TODAY National Correspondent Elizabeth Weise looks at an artificial intelligence prediction that climate change is coming faster than we recently thought, the Biden administration plans on ending COVID-19 emergency declarations in May, USA TODAY Money and Personal Finance Reporter Medora Lee has the latest tips for tax season, and millions are under winter storm warnings.

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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 Tuesday, the 31st of January 2023. Today, more firings after the traffic stop and death of Tyre Nichols. Plus climate change might be worse than we thought, and the Biden administration plans on ending COVID emergency declarations.

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A seventh Memphis police officer has been fired after officers brutally beat, tased and pepper sprayed 29-year-old Tyre Nichols after pulling him over. Nichols died three days after the traffic stop. The last two firings come after five officers were initially fired and then charged with second-degree murder, along with assault and kidnapping charges. The Memphis Fire Department has also fired three employees for failing to give Nichols an adequate patient assessment when they were called to give medical aid after the beating. A video of the violence shows nearly a half hour passes between the start of the beating and the moment when a stretcher is brought for Nichols. Criminal charges have not been filed against the firefighters.

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Artificial intelligence predicts that climate change is coming faster than we recently thought. That's according to a new study that found the world faces a significant risk of passing a crucial global warming threshold, potentially as soon as 2050. For more and an attempt at reassurance, I caught up with USA Today National Correspondent Elizabeth Weise. Beth, always great to have you back on the show. Thanks for coming on.

Elizabeth Weise:

I'm happy to be here.

Taylor Wilson:

There's a new study out about when we might reach the critical two degrees Celsius warming threshold. Tell us more about this study, Beth.

Elizabeth Weise:

This is by researchers at Stanford and Colorado State University and they're using machine learning and artificial intelligence. They basically fed in climate data going back as far as we've got it, and tried to create models to show, okay, what happened in the past, what's going to happen in the future, and linking it to changes in the amount of carbon to and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. And they know this works because then they went back and said, "Okay, what does our model say should have been happening, say, in 2015?" And it hit pretty spot on. There's a fair degree of reliability here, sadly.

Taylor Wilson:

So that's concerning. What might we see sooner rather than later? What's right around the corner in terms of global warming right now?

Elizabeth Weise:

There's two thresholds that they talk about. 1.5 degrees Celsius rise in temperature is 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit rise in temperature. So the two points we keep talking about are that 1.5 and then 2.0 Celsius. The reason that we have those thresholds is because at the Paris Agreement, back when the whole world got together and said, "Hey, let's do what we can to stop this, shall we," those were the thresholds they set. The ideal is to keep things from not rising more than 1.5 degrees Celsius, and really want to keep it below 2.0 degrees Celsius. And the bad news is, all the models have said, yeah, we're not going to stable at 1.5. We're already at 1.1 from pre-industrial times.

The big question is, are we going to hit 2.0, and if so, when? And there have been predictions, if we continue at really high rates of greenhouse gas emissions, it could happen by the 2080s. If we really bring it low, it could never happen at all. What this AI model found was that even if we really pull down our emissions, there's a 50 in 100 chance that will go over 2.0 before 2054. And that's soon. I mean, if you've got a kindergartner, your kid's just entering their 30s then. This is the world your kid's going to live in.

Taylor Wilson:

You mentioned the world that current kindergartners could be growing into. What does that world look like specifically? What will it look like, Beth?

Elizabeth Weise:

And it's an important question. Two things that it's not just that they will happen, it's that they're already starting to happen. I mean, one is, things just get hotter. We have more heatwaves, we have longer heatwaves, we have more droughts.

But the other is that weather gets more erratic. It's not that the world ends, but the world that we've built everything upon where you know the rains are going to fall at a certain time. And yeah, there are hurricanes, but there are hurricanes we can live with. It's kind of like, for people who are old enough, that movie from the '80s, This Is Spinal Tap, where the guy says, "Yeah, but my equipment goes up not just to 10, but 11." I mean, we're going to be hitting more 11s, and that's not good.

Taylor Wilson:

Beth, you mentioned the Paris Agreement. It's now been, what, about eight years since world leaders came together and signed that back in 2015. Is this latest study a sign that the agreement itself is failing?

Elizabeth Weise:

It's not. And I got to say, I mean, I couldn't keep doing this job if I thought there were no hope. Renewables are coming online at these insanely cheap prices. Every climate scientist I talk to, they all say there's hope. And not only there's hope, but we have the technology to do this. We just have to implement it. And that's what the scientists who did this work are saying is, we have to implement it harder and faster now because the ideal is not to overshoot. And what is that going to mean for the world that our kids or grandkids are growing up in.

Taylor Wilson:

Right. Elizabeth Weise covers climate change and energy transition for USA TODAY. Beth, thanks for giving us a little bit of a glass half full perspective at the end. We really appreciate it.

Elizabeth Weise:

It really is half full. You got to look on the bright side.

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Taylor Wilson:

The Biden administration plans on ending COVID-19 emergency declarations on May 11th. The move will restructure how the federal government responds to the pandemic entering its fourth year. A national emergency was first declared by then President Donald Trump on March 13th, 2020. States have been receiving extra Medicaid funding during the emergency, in exchange for keeping patients continuously enrolled in the healthcare program. As a result, Medicaid enrollment increased 30% and fewer Americans have been uninsured. But in a massive spending bill last month, Democrats and Republicans agreed to allow states to kick people off Medicaid in May. When the public health emergency ends, people without insurance will have to pay for vaccines, tests, and treatment on their own.

COVID vaccines are also expected to get more expensive as the government stops buying them. About seven in 10 Americans have received an initial COVID vaccine, but less than 20% of adults have the latest booster according to the CDC.

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As you've already heard on the show, tax season is here. USA TODAY Money and Personal Finance Reporter Medora Lee has the latest tips and tricks. Medora, welcome back to 5 Things.

Medora Lee:

Hi, how are you?

Taylor Wilson:

Doing great. So let's talk taxes. First off, this may surprise some of our listeners, it surprised me, that not everyone actually needs to file their taxes. So who doesn't have to, Medora, and who does?

Medora Lee:

Okay. Well, basically who has to file taxes depends on a few different things, including how much you've earned and also your filing status. Whether you're single, married or filing jointly or separately, and if you're a head of household or a widower, and then your age. Those three things will usually determine whether you have to file taxes. There's some minimum thresholds for income for each of those situations that you can find on the IRS website. And then also people who are in special situations have to file taxes. People who might have household employment taxes. They have uncollected social security benefits. They bought insurance on the ACA and those types of things.

Then there are the people who do not have to file taxes, and those are the people who fall underneath those income brackets. But even if you don't have to file taxes, sometimes there are benefits to filing taxes. I know this sounds crazy, doesn't it? And let me tell you why. Because you might have a refund check coming to you that you may not even know about. This is a big one that a lot of people talk about, the earned income tax credit. A lot of low and middle income people qualify for this, but only one in five people actually ever claim it. And you could get between $500 and $6,000 back. That's incredible.

Taylor Wilson:

Medora, how can people get their tax refunds faster?

Medora Lee:

The best thing to do is to request a direct deposit right into your bank account. That's also the safest way to do it. There's no worries about lost checks, or someone stealing it from your mail, or it getting destroyed if you get it by paper. To be doubly fast, you could file electronically, too, and then also request your money come electronically.

Taylor Wilson:

Let's talk small business owners.

Medora Lee:

Oh yeah.

Taylor Wilson:

There are additional allowed deductions from 2022. Can you tell us more about this?

Medora Lee:

Oh yeah, this one excites me, although I don't think anyone's bought me a lunch lately or a dinner. But anyway, that's the sad part of working from home. But in 2021 and 2022, the IRS gave companies a tax break, that if they decided they were going to order food in for their employees, try to entice them back to the office again, they could deduct 100% of that bill, including tax and tip. But that is going away next year in the tax year 2023. It's going back to the pre-pandemic level of only half of it can be deducted.

Taylor Wilson:

All right, Medora Lee, thank you for your insight on taxes. I'm sure we'll hear from you again throughout tax season. Really appreciate it.

Medora Lee:

Sure. Thanks so much.

Taylor Wilson:

You can stay up to date with everything money related with a daily USA TOAY newsletter called The Daily Money. You can find a link in today's show notes.

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Winter storm warnings and weather advisories are stretching from Central Texas to the East Coast this week. Parts of Arkansas, Mississippi, and Tennessee are under an ice storm warning. And further north, wind advisories are in effect in the Upper Midwest with wind chills dropping to 35 degrees below zero in some places. The National Weather Service warns that such temperatures can cause frostbite on exposed skin in as little as 10 minutes. You can find more about the weather in your neck of the woods and a Winter Storm Tracker with a link in today's show notes.

Thanks for listening to 5 Things. We're here every morning wherever you get your audio. I'm back tomorrow with more of 5 Things from USA TODAY.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 7th Memphis cop taken off force, winter storm warning: 5 Things podcast