Canadian wildfires bring more smoke to US cities, Julian Sands found dead: 5 Things podcast

On today's episode of the 5 Things podcast: Canadian wildfires bring more smoke to US cities

Chicago and Detroit topped world air pollution lists Tuesday amid smoke from Canadian wildfires. Plus, USA TODAY Supreme Court Correspondent John Fritze looks at the court's rejection of a GOP argument on who decides rules for U.S. elections, more than $200 billion in COVID-19 relief loans and grants for small businesses have been stolen by fraudsters, USA TODAY Money Reporter Medora Lee explains how worrying Gen Z debt is, and Julian Sands has been found dead, months after going missing while hiking.

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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 28th of June 2023. Today, more smoke from wildfires hits American cities. Plus, the Supreme Court rejects a GOP argument on who decides rules for elections, and a new report outlines just how much was stolen in COVID relief.

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Chicago and Detroit saw the worst air quality in the world yesterday, thanks to more smoke from Canadian wildfires. In Chicago, thick smoke clouded the sky, bringing limited visibility and a faint burning smell. And in Detroit, smoke could be seen lingering over the Downtown skyline. On IQAir's air quality index, the two cities alternated yesterday between the unhealthy and very unhealthy categories. There were also unhealthy levels of pollutants from the smoke across the Great Lakes region, including in most of Wisconsin and parts of Indiana and Ohio. That's expected to continue today.

And more smoky air is headed back toward New York State. Governor Kathy Hochul warned that air quality is expected to reach unhealthy levels in western and central parts of the state today and tomorrow. Health experts remind anyone in an at-risk group, including young children, older adults, or those with heart and lung disease, to stay indoors for any physical activity, and that everyone in high pollutant areas limit the amount of time they're active outdoors.

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In a win for voting rights groups, the Supreme Court has rejected the North Carolina GOP argument that state lawmakers should have extraordinary powers over election rules. Audio Producer Mark Sovel sat down with USA TODAY Supreme Court Correspondent John Fritze to find out what this ruling means.

Mark Sovel:

Hi John. Big day at the court. Thanks for joining me.

John Fritze:

Thanks for having me.

Mark Sovel:

You wrote that the lawsuit that SCOTUS ruled on was based on a conservative theory. Can you explain what that theory is and what the justices decided?

John Fritze:

Sure. At base here, what started all this was the North Carolina legislature tried to redo its congressional map, which every state in the country does every 10 years after the census. And a bunch of voters challenged that map and said look, this is a partisan gerrymander. It's just you're trying to eke out an advantage for the Republican Party. This thing went up to court and it got litigated for a long time. And one of the theories that got raised by the Republican lawmakers in court was that, look state courts, you don't have any role to play here anyway. Because there's this clause in the constitution that says the power to set the rules for elections will be set by the state legislatures. Doesn't say anything about courts, doesn't say anything about governors or anybody else.

And so at its most extreme, what's called the independent state legislature theory is that state lawmakers get to set these rules about elections, and really nobody else can come in and say you're wrong, not courts or anybody else. And so what the Supreme Court did today was it rejected that extreme view of that theory on a six-three vote. The majority opinion written by John Roberts basically said look, courts have always had the review of what a state legislature does, just like federal courts can review what Congress does. And they're not going to upend that in this case.

Mark Sovel:

The case is being talked about as a big win for voting rights groups. What are they saying?

John Fritze:

They are very optimistic. They're cheering this decision, I think is the right way to put it. And this isn't their first win this term. They got another big win earlier this month in a case about redistricting out of Alabama. That case dealt specifically with the Voting Rights Act. Supreme Courts weakened that law over a series of decisions. And so it was a little bit of a surprise to see the court not do that in this case and uphold the law. In some ways, both of these decisions, while they are getting a lot of applause from voting rights groups, they really maintain the status quo. They're not really changing anything. But I think people have been so concerned about the direction the Supreme Court's taken in this area that the fact that they didn't really move the needle is viewed as a huge victory for that side of the argument.

Mark Sovel:

So does this have the effect of preventing state legislatures of stepping in and determining the outcome of elections in their state?

John Fritze:

I think what it means is that it would be harder for one party that dominates a state legislature to set the rules in a way that completely advantages their side without some court intervention.

Mark Sovel:

Election rules over how absentee ballots work played a major role in the 2020 election in numerous disputes, in particular because of COVID. Is it expected to impact rulings in the 2024 election?

John Fritze:

I think it will influence how state legislatures approach these various rules because they will know that potentially they could be brought into state court and challenged. It sort of acts as a check on these state lawmakers when they're setting these election laws.

Mark Sovel:

John, thanks so much for your reporting here.

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Taylor Wilson:

More than $200 billion in COVID-19 relief loans and grants for small businesses have been stolen by fraudsters. That's according to new estimates from a report published yesterday by the Office of the Inspector General for the US Small Business Administration. It's the highest estimate yet in the Office's ongoing investigation into federally funded programs that helped small business owners and entrepreneurs in the heart of the pandemic. At least 17% of the money dispersed through the Small Business Administration's pandemic assistance loan programs were potentially stolen. It noted that programs had easy to exploit loopholes. The Biden administration earlier this year announced a series of measures targeting pandemic relief fraudsters. You can read more about those with a link in today's show notes.

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Gen Z leads the way in getting financial advice from TikTok, but they've still nearly doubled their non-mortgage debt and tripled their overall debt load in the past two years. Producer Mark Sovel sat down with USA TODAY Money Reporter Medora Lee to get her insights.

Mark Sovel:

Hi Medora. Thanks for joining us.

Medora Lee:

Thanks for having me.

Mark Sovel:

It sounds like Gen Z is taking on some heavy debt burdens. First, where does this data come from? And what is it telling us about the debt habits of this generation?

Medora Lee:

It's really interesting. LendingTree did an analysis of some data and they've discovered that Gen Zers have increased their debt a lot in the last couple of years. If you include mortgages, their debt burden has increased almost 200%. If you take out the mortgages, it's doubled. That's pretty big debt. I have to admit that they do have the lowest total dollar amount of debt among all generations, but it's growing at a pretty fast clip.

Mark Sovel:

So how does this compare to older generations? Should we be worried?

Medora Lee:

The Chief Credit Analyst at LendingTree does not see this as worrisome. And he says that it's just part of growing older. The oldest Gen Zer is now about 26 years old, so they've had time to establish some credit, so their credit score is rising and they can probably qualify for bigger loans with better terms now. And so they're taking advantage of that. And he says that it also can show a little confidence. Some of the Gen Zers have gotten out of college and have started working, and now they are more certain that they can handle a slightly higher debt loan.

Mark Sovel:

Comparing Gen X to Gen Z, are they racking up debt in the same categories?

Medora Lee:

It's interesting. They are. Gen X, actually, if you just go by pure dollars, has the largest average debt balance, followed by Millennials. And part of this is because Gen X, they're a little older, so they have a very big mortgage and also auto loans. There's a lot of spending on cars.

Mark Sovel:

When it comes to debt, obviously student debt is a big part of what Gen Z is dealing with. And how does that factor into this?

Medora Lee:

Gen Z, the student loans that they take out generally tend to be higher because they're the latest to have gone to school, and so prices are high. However, student loans actually make up a higher percentage of Millennials' debt balances than any other generation, and that's at 36%.

Mark Sovel:

Very interesting. Medora, thanks for giving us the context to the story here.

Medora Lee:

That's great. Thanks. Thanks for having me.

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Taylor Wilson:

Julian Sands has been confirmed dead. The English-born actor disappeared five months ago while hiking, and his remains were found over the weekend by hikers in the Mount Baldy Wilderness, northeast of Los Angeles. Sands was an experienced hiker who was reported missing in January after setting out on a peak that rises more than 10,000 feet high. Crews searched using drones and helicopters, but struggled to find his body in wintry conditions.

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: Canadian wildfire smoke hits Chicago, Gen Z debt: 5 Things podcast