Abortion pill uncertainty, Americans unite in hatred of Washington: 5 Things podcast

On today's episode of the 5 Things podcast: Dueling federal rulings have sent the future of a major abortion pill into legal uncertainty. Wall Street Journal Reporter Evan Gershkovich has been charged with espionage in Russia. And new polling shows Americans' dissatisfaction with politics. Then Hampton County Guardian Managing Editor Michael DeWitt, Jr. gives the latest on the new autopsy for Stephen Smith. And finally, USA TODAY National Correspondent Elizabeth Weise looks at the rise of solar and wind jobs.

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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, Saturday the 8th of April 2023.

Today the future of abortion pills is up in the air after dueling federal rulings, plus a Wall Street Journal reporter remains detained in Russia. And we hear the latest on the autopsy of Steven Smith in South Carolina.

Competing rulings by federal judges in Texas and Washington state have created uncertainty around the future of a key abortion drug. A ruling by US District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, a Trump appointee in Texas put a stop on government approval of the drug Mifepristone. But just minutes later, US District Judge Thomas O. Rice in Washington ordered the FDA not to make any changes that would restrict access to the drug in 17 states and DC that sued to expand access. At least in the short term, the rulings mean that access to Mifepristone remains unchanged and the legal battle may be destined for the Supreme Court. Even before the high court struck down the constitutional right to abortion, granted by Roe v. Wade, medication abortion accounted for more than half of all abortions in the US. That's according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research and policy organization that supports abortion rights.

Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich was formally charged with espionage yesterday in Russia, according to Russian state news agency TASS. The country's federal security service said, "Gershkovich was acting on US orders to collect information about the activities of the Russian military-industrial complex." Stateside Senate majority leader Democrat Chuck Schumer and Republican leader Mitch McConnell, issued a joint statement condemning the detention and they said, "Russian authorities have failed to present any credible evidence to justify the charges." The arrest marks the first time an American journalist has been arrested on espionage charges there since the Cold War.

Americans seem to be able to agree on one thing, they're not satisfied with Washington. According to a survey out yesterday from the Pew Research Center, the majority of Americans have negative views of President Joe Biden and both Republican and Democratic leadership in Congress. Only 26% of Americans have a favorable opinion of the new Congress, and that pessimism extends beyond political leaders. Most Americans also have little confidence in the country's ability to solve major problems and they don't trust the American public in making political decisions. You can read the poll's full results with a link in today's show notes.

Stephen Smith has been given a second autopsy. The teenager's body was found in 2015 and initially ruled a hit-and-run death before the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division or SLED reopened the case in 2021. And last month, SLED confirmed to the Smith family that it was officially considering the case, a murder investigation. The case is the latest chapter in the same rural Hampton County where disgraced lawyer Alex Murdoch, was convicted of murdering his wife and son. For more, I caught up with Hampton County Guardian managing editor Michael DeWitt, Jr. Hi, Michael. Thanks for hopping back on 5 Things.

Michael DeWitt, Jr:

Always a pleasure.

Taylor Wilson:

How was Steven Smith initially found back in 2015?

Michael DeWitt, Jr:

It was early in the morning on July 8th, 2015, I think roughly a little before 4:00 AM. And a local gentleman was going to work and saw a young man sprawled out in the middle of the road. And being that time of night, that isolated road, he was afraid to stop, but he called 911 and told them that there was a young man in the road and that he was going to get run over if somebody didn't come to his rescue. And police responded and found him there, part of his body was touching the yellow line in the middle of the road.

Taylor Wilson:

And why did South Carolina Law Enforcement reopen this case in 2021?

Michael DeWitt, Jr:

We don't know the exact reasons. It was a cold case for a while. We just know that in June of 2021, not long after the Murdaugh murders in Colleton County, SLED reopened the case. Their statement back in June of 2021, red light, they had found something in the case in the course of investigating the Murdaugh murders that led them to reopen Steven Smith's case. Now, their more recent statement indicates that maybe there's no real connection there.

Taylor Wilson:

And Michael, what do we know about the autopsy as of now?

Michael DeWitt, Jr:

We know a whole lot of little pieces of information. We don't know if there's going to be any major breakthroughs coming from this. The initial autopsy in 2015 was that the young man died from blood-force trauma to the head, whether you consider it a hit-and-run or whatever, it was still a homicide back in 2015. The only difference is SLED has now officially declared it to be a murder instead of just a random hit-and-run accidental homicide.

Taylor Wilson:

Michael, you wrote in one of your recent pieces that a crime scene forensic expert hired by the family has said that the autopsy yielded new evidence.

Michael DeWitt, Jr:

Any evidence they find is probably going to be new evidence. It may not be groundbreaking evidence. So I didn't read as much into that as I did his optimistic tone that they feel like things are moving forward. They were able to do a total autopsy, meaning they were able to check for DNA, do x-rays, check for bones, pretty much as if he died yesterday. It's also a symbolic kind of step as attorney Eric Bland, attorney for the Smith family said, "Steven can rest easier now. And now that he's been taken from his grave and the new investigation has begun, he can rest easier and perhaps his family can rest a little easier now."

Taylor Wilson:

So Michael, we've had this new autopsy. There's been a GoFundMe page that the Smith family posted that raised a lot of the money for it. What is next for the Smith family, what's their plan going forward?

Michael DeWitt, Jr:

I can't speak to the Smith family, but attorneys and investigators that they have hired are clearly on a mission. It's my understanding that the results of the autopsy are going to be turned over to SLED in about a week or so. SLED wants to save some face. They want to show South Carolina that hey, we are a good law enforcement agency and we are committed to doing proper thorough investigations and we take this very seriously.

Taylor Wilson:

All right, Michael DeWitt, Jr. Always with a new chapter for us in this low country saga. Thanks so much.

Michael DeWitt, Jr:

Thank you.

Taylor Wilson:

As green energy grows in America, so too to the jobs associated with it, places like wind and solar farms are hiring and many will train people with no experience in the field. USA Today national correspondent, Elizabeth Weise has more. Elizabeth Weise is back on the program. Hi, Beth.

Elizabeth Weise:

Hello.

Taylor Wilson:

I want to start by talking about the demand for renewable energy jobs. Is this something that's on the rise?

Elizabeth Weise:

Oh boy, is it? Yes. So the renewable workforce in the United States is about 443,000 Americans. And people who can work in wind tech jobs, it's the second fastest-growing job in the country, second only to nurse practitioners according to the Department of Labor Statistics. And I mean we're building more wind installations and it is not a job where you just show up and start climbing a 300-foot tower. You need to get trained.

Taylor Wilson:

Yes. So these training programs are popping up around the country. What do they aim to achieve?

Elizabeth Weise:

These are fantastic jobs. I mean, it's a two-year degree, so you go to a community college, you get a two-year wind tech degree. And you can walk into your first job at 45 to $50,000 a year. And if you're willing to travel, it can be up to 60 to $70,000 a year. And if you have one of these two-year associate degrees from a community college in this, you quickly move up the ladder, and in five years you can be a manager and some of those people are making six figures. I started talking to people who were in these programs or were graduates and you do one year at the program and then you do a summer internship and they have trouble keeping those people because the companies are so eager to have new workers that they will try and hire them away.

If you're willing to travel, you just choose among your jobs. And the people that I talked to said it was nice because not everybody needs or wants a four-year college degree. In fact, one of the young women I spoke with said, "Yeah, my teachers in high school were like, 'Oh, you should go to college.'" And she's like, "I love this. I love being outside. I do something different every day. It's physical, it's interesting, and I'm happy." And they kind of thought, "Oh, but you could do well after a four-year degree." And she's like, "I have a two-year degree and I'm employed and I love it."

Taylor Wilson:

That's awesome. So when I think of these wind farms, I think of massive wind turbines. Do these jobs require folks to climb up to the top of them, what do these jobs look like?

Elizabeth Weise:

Oh yeah, they do, they do. Listen I talked to the guy who runs the program in Cloud County Community College in Concordia, Kansas. I went out and visited the school and he said, "It's okay to have a fear of heights because that's pretty rational. Everybody should be concerned when you're really high up because bad things can happen." He said, "You just can't have a paralyzing fear of heights." Most of your work is happening 300 feet up, some of it hanging by a harness, especially if you're repairing the blades. All the programs that I spoke with at the very beginning, they spend a lot of time training and drilling on safety and you're always wearing a harness. You've always got contact and you're always hooked into the actual turbine or to something so that you can't fall. But yeah, I mean it's serious because 300 feet up, you don't want to step back to take a look at what you just did and not be harnessed to something.

Taylor Wilson:

All right, Elizabeth Weise. Thanks so much.

Elizabeth Weise:

You're so welcome.

Taylor Wilson:

Thanks for listening to 5 Things. You can find us every day of the week right here, wherever you get your podcast. James Brown is back with the Sunday edition tomorrow. And I'll see you Monday with more of 5 Things from USA Today.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Abortion pill uncertainty, Americans unite in hatred of Washington: 5 Things podcast