Biden officials blocked from contacting social media, Highland Park remembers: 5 Things podcast

On today's episode of the 5 Things podcast: Judge restricts Biden officials from contacting social media companies

A federal judge has restricted Biden officials from contacting social media companies about content moderation. Plus, USA TODAY Pentagon Correspondent Tom Vanden Brook explains how the Army is using 'fit camps' to get recruits in shape amid a recruiting shortage, the Illinois town of Highland Park gathers to remember shooting victims one year later, El Paso Times and USA TODAY Border Reporter Lauren Villagran puts a border labor shortage in perspective, and sea surface temperatures are unusually warm.

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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 Wednesday, the 5th of July 2023. Today, a judge blocks Biden officials from contacting social media companies over content moderation. Plus, how the Army aims to try and solve a recruiting shortage, and we look at the conversation around a labor shortage and legal immigration.

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A federal judge in Louisiana has restricted parts of the Biden administration from communicating or meeting with social media platforms about content moderation on Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter. Judge Terry A. Doughty blocked agencies, including the FBI and Department of Health and Human Services, from flagging social media posts and accounts. The judge made exceptions for national security threats and criminal activity. The ruling came in response to lawsuits brought by GOP Attorneys General in Louisiana and Missouri. The suits alleged that the government officials, under the guise of curbing misinformation, colluded with social media platforms to remove conservative viewpoints. In a response, a White House official said that the administration has promoted responsible actions to protect public health, safety, and security when confronted with challenges like a pandemic or foreign attacks on elections. The Justice Department is reviewing the court's injunction and will evaluate its options.

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Amid one of its worst recruiting crises in decades, the Army is desperate for smart and fit soldiers. One potential solution, so-called "fit camps" to get recruits in shape. I spoke with USA TODAY Pentagon Correspondent Tom Vanden Brook to learn more. Welcome back to 5 Things, Tom.

Tom Vanden Brook:

Good to be here, Taylor.

Taylor Wilson:

So Tom, we've increasingly heard about these struggles the Army is having to meet recruitment goals. How far off are they from where they want to be?

Tom Vanden Brook:

Well, we don't know exactly how far they're off this year, Taylor, because they won't tell us. They're not saying how many recruits they are short of their goal, although we're pretty well convinced that they are, because there's been testimony on Capitol Hill about it. But last year they were 25% short of their goal, which is a huge amount for them. It's been a long time since they've been that short of their goal.

Taylor Wilson:

And Tom, why is the Army having so many problems with recruitment?

Tom Vanden Brook:

The number one concern that they'll point out is that just 23% of young people aged 17 to 24 meet the qualifications to join the military. They don't have the physical ability to do it or the mental aptitude. So they have a fairly small pool of folks from which to draw. And then from in that pool, you've got a number of folks who are going to end up in college. And then when the economy's really booming and unemployment as low as it is now, at an almost 50-year low, young people opt to take jobs in the private sector rather than join the military.

Taylor Wilson:

And so, one of the potential solutions here are these fit camps to get recruits in shape. What's the specific goal of these camps, Tom?

Tom Vanden Brook:

Well, again, going back to this figure, about 23% of American young people not qualified physically or academically to get into the military, these camps are designed to bring them up to those standards, both physically and academically. So, in one of the camps, they spend three weeks getting tutored on how to take this armed forces aptitude test, and they need to score within a certain range to be qualified to get into the military. And one of the young women we profiled for this story had failed the test eight times before she went to this course. Took the course and increased her score by three times, and now she's in advanced training.

So the idea is that they can spend three weeks in this course, get schooled on the sorts of questions that they're going to be asked, and then take the test again and see if they can pass that. And there's also a component that works with them on diet, exercise, if they don't meet those physical standards as well. And they've had some success with that. Now, this young woman that we talked to, Private First Class Lambaga, she got a personal trainer and ended up losing 25 pounds over a period of several weeks, and she meets both the physical and academic standards, and she's thriving right now.

Taylor Wilson:

So Tom, some folks might wonder why it's such a big deal that the Army is short of its recruitment goals. Why is it so important that they meet these goals, not just on quantity, Tom, but also on the quality of recruits coming in?

Tom Vanden Brook:

That's a great question, Taylor. Because in part, the quality part is really key, especially the academic part. I talked to a Rand Corporation expert on the draft and she pointed to a study that was done years ago about how soldiers who didn't do well on these tests take longer to learn how to do skills that are necessary in the military. For instance, being able to follow the directions to fire patriot missiles, which most of our regions will know about. They're being used in Ukraine right now. Those who scored better on the test hit the targets with fewer missiles, and those missiles cost $4 million each. So there's a price tag involved in this. There's a national security issue involved in it, too. So you need smart, fit people to do these jobs, and they're obviously important to national security.

Taylor Wilson:

All right, Tom Vanden Brook covers the Pentagon for USA TODAY. Great insight as always. Thanks Tom.

Tom Vanden Brook:

Thanks Taylor.

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Taylor Wilson:

Thousands of people gathered yesterday in Highland Park, Illinois a year after a mass shooting there during a 4th of July parade left seven people dead and 48 injured.

Nancy Rotering:

Katie Goldstein of Highland Park, Irina McCarthy of Highland Park, Kevin Michael McCarthy of Highland Park, Stephen Straus of Highland Park, Jacki Lovi Sundheim of Highland Park, Nicolas Toledo of Morelos, Mexico, Eduardo Uvaldo of Waukegan.

Taylor Wilson:

That's Highland Park Mayor, Nancy Rotering. In the wake of the shooting, Illinois passed a ban on dozens of high-powered semi-automatic weapons and high-capacity magazines. Survivors and victims' families also sued the gunman and his father, who additionally faces charges for helping the shooter obtain a gun license even though he had threatened violence. They also sued the gun manufacturer, the gun store where the weapon was purchased and an online gun distributor. Yesterday, people of all ages, many wearing shirts that read, "We are Highland Park," attended the remembrance ceremony. In addition to the reading of names, a minute of silence was held. That's all the time it took for the shooter to fire 83 rounds into the crowd.

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A nationwide labor shortage is making it hard for employers to find the help they need in industries ranging from agriculture to manufacturing and hospitality. That shortage is being particularly felt in the border towns of Far West Texas. Why is it so hard to find people to do the job? The US faces 3.8 million unfilled job vacancies a month, yet the country has admitted 1.8 million fewer legal immigrants than it would have without the disruption of the COVID pandemic. That's according to economics professor Pete Orazem. I spoke with El Paso Times and USA TODAY Border Reporter Lauren Villagran to learn more. Thanks for hopping on the podcast, Lauren.

Lauren Villagran:

Yeah, thanks.

Taylor Wilson:

So Lauren, can you just tell us about Alpine, Texas and this struggle to find workers there?

Lauren Villagran:

It's a small town surrounded by rolling foothills and sprawling ranches. Farming is still an occupation there. But like much of the rest of the country, they're facing an enormous labor shortage.

Taylor Wilson:

With labor gaps like we've seen in Alpine and other border areas, some business leaders say the focus on asylum seekers at the border has clouded the debate around reforms that could meet this labor demand. Can you put that in context for us?

Lauren Villagran:

Yeah. I mean, what's so ironic or interesting about the case of Alpine is that Alpine is in the north part of Brewster County, Texas, and Brewster County is a border county. So you could drive 95 miles south down Highway 118 and you'd be in Mexico. It's an area that from October to May, migrants were attempting to cross the border an average of 1200 times a month. So on the one hand you have this town that can't find enough cooks for its restaurant and hotel kitchens, prep cooks, hostesses, cleaning staff, ranch hands, farm workers. I mean, you name it, almost every major business in town is looking for workers. And here in a border county, you had all of these migrants arriving, but they had no permission to enter. Or when they were allowed to enter the country to seek asylum, for example, they aren't being given permission to work. So it's sort of like, here's the demand and here's the supply, but no bridge between the two.

Taylor Wilson:

And on the political level, efforts to modernize the legal immigration system have reached Capitol Hill several times in recent years without much meaningful legislation. Is there a stronger push this time around among lawmakers and political leaders, or what's the solution here?

Lauren Villagran:

I mean, I wish I could say that I had the answer to that. I know that there are Borderland US representatives who are interested in doing something. You've seen Democrat US representative Veronica Escobar out of El Paso propose some immigration legislation. More recently, you've seen US Congressman Tony Gonzalez, who represents Brewster County and 800 miles of Texas Borderland, saying that he is interested in proposing legislation around expanding access to work visas and work permits. But, he also told the El Paso Times that there's a quote unquote "boneyard of politicians who have tried to do so and failed." Immigration is just this issue that's been so thorny, and both political parties have in some ways used it to their advantage, keeping the system a problem.

Taylor Wilson:

All right. Lauren Villagran covers the border for the El Paso Times and USA TODAY. Thanks as always, Lauren.

Lauren Villagran:

Thank you.

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Taylor Wilson:

Sea surface temperatures are unusually warm this summer amid a series of marine heat waves across much of the globe. Around 40% of the world's oceans are experiencing heat waves, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and that's expected to climb to 50%. The spike in ocean temperatures is fueled in part by global climate change, and it's worrying scientists because of the devastating impact that marine heat waves can have on ocean ecosystems. The warmth could help usher in the hottest year on record this year or next, while spinning up more tropical cyclones than originally predicted in the Atlantic. You can read more with a link in today's show notes.

Thanks for listening to 5 Things. If you like the show, please subscribe and leave us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. And if you have any comments, you can reach us at podcasts@usatoday.com. I'm back tomorrow with more of 5 Things from USA TODAY.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Army using 'fit camps', Highland Park remembers victims: 5 Things podcast