Murdaugh gets life in prison, snow in Hawaii

On today's episode of the 5 Things podcast: Alex Murdaugh is sentenced to life in prison for the murder of his wife and son. Nick Fuentes has been removed from the Conservative Political Action Conference for promoting "hateful, racist rhetoric." Plus, there's a water crisis in the west, we look at potential solutions with USA TODAY National Correspondent Trevor Hughes. We'll also hear form sports legend Lisa Leslie about the Lakers and the WNBA. Finally, it's snowing in Hawaii.

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Taylor Wilson:

Good morning. I'm Taylor Wilson and this is five things you need to know Saturday the 4th of March 2023. Today, Alex Murdoch has received his sentence, plus there's a water crisis in the West and we'll hear from this year's CPAC. Alex Murdoch was sentenced yesterday to two consecutive life sentences after being convicted this week of killing his wife and son. Before sentencing, Judge Clifton Newman said he did not question the prosecution's decision not to pursue the death penalty, but he reflected on the fact that Murdoch's lawyer family has prosecuted people who may have received the death penalty for lesser crimes. Murdoch continues to maintain his innocence and his lawyers told reporters yesterday that they plan to appeal. They said the strongest grounds for appeal are the judge's decision to admit evidence related to Murdoch's alleged financial crimes.

White nationalist Nick Fuentes has been removed from the Conservative Political Action Conference. CPAC's chair announced yesterday that his racist rhetoric is not consistent with the conference's mission. Fuentes is a prominent figure in the far right known for pedaling white supremacist ideals and promoting antisemitism. Former president Donald Trump previously dined with Fuentes along with Rapper Ye, but Trump said afterwards he had only planned to meet with Ye and that he unexpectedly brought Fuentes along. CPAC will wrap up later today with a speech from Trump. There's a water crisis in the West. The US has plenty of drinking water, but it's not all in the right place. So what are the potential solutions? I spoke with USA Today national correspondent Trevor Hughes to find out. Trevor, welcome to five things.

Trevor:

Hi, there.

Taylor Wilson:

So there's a water crisis in the West. How bad is this?

Trevor:

This is one of those things where we're talking about such a large scale that it's not as if cities and towns are running out of water today. The problem is that we've been drawing down our big reservoirs like Lake Powell and Lake Mead for decades, and they're not being replenished. And so every year we get a little closer to it becoming a real crisis where we do actually run out of water.

Taylor Wilson:

And so we've heard a lot over the last few months and weeks about rain and snow in parts of the West. Hasn't this helped at all, Trevor?

Trevor:

Oh, absolutely. This has been tremendous. This is your proverbial godsend, this kind of rain. The problem is it's so dry that we would need years and years and years of precipitation like this in order to get back to where we need to be. We just don't have the capacity in the places where it has been raining, where it has been snowing, we just don't have the capacity to store that. And so a lot of this water is just running off into the ocean.

Taylor Wilson:

So let's run through some of the possible solutions that you outlined in this story. First, how feasible is it actually to simply bring water to the West from, say, the East or other parts of the country?

Trevor:

Well, there's a couple of different questions to answer, but at the end of the day, we could do this. We have put people on the moon, we have sent people to the moon. We have sent space probes to outer space. We could do these things. The question is, is it worth the money and is it worth the environmental consequences? And so those are the conversations that are happening right now. Is this something that could be done? Is this something that should be done and is there any appetite to do it?

Taylor Wilson:

And how about this solution specifically that involves the oceans, whether it be desalination or involving the icebergs. Can you talk about those solutions a little?

Trevor:

I mean, there is a saying in some quarters that we really shouldn't be called Earth, we should be called Water because our planet is 75% covered by water. There is a heck of a lot of water on this planet. It's just a question of turning that into something drinkable, something that we can use to farm. And so the technology to remove salt from the ocean has come a long way, tremendously a long way in the past 20 years. And many countries rely very, very heavily on desalination. Saudi Arabia uses it, Israel uses it, and California has a number of desalination plants. It just uses a lot of energy. And so the more solar power that you have, then yes, you can power these desalination plants, but otherwise you're burning coal or natural gas to desalinate water, which contributes to climate change, which reduces your available rainfall in these dry areas. The other wacky one, and I am surprised at how seriously this was looked at, was this idea of taking a nuclear-powered iceberg from Antarctica and somehow driving it up the western seaboard up the Pacific Ocean to California. That is a thing that has been looked into quite seriously.

Taylor Wilson:

So Trevor, who are the big power players here? Who actually makes the decisions when it comes to water in the West?

Trevor:

One of the challenges we have here in the West is that a lot of the allocation of water pits state against state. And so if you are a state that has a lot of water and has been using that water for many years, like California for instance, you are very powerful in terms of what are called water rights. Other states that are perhaps younger and didn't grow as quickly as California at first, they have more junior rights. And so there's a whole legal framework that sets out who gets the water and how much they get. But increasingly we're looking at a situation in which the federal government is having to step in and say, "Y'all need to sort this out or we're going to sort it out and you probably won't like our solutions."

Taylor Wilson:

All right. Trevor Hughes, USA Today, national correspondent. Thanks for your insight here, Trevor. Really appreciate it.

Trevor:

Good to be here.

Taylor Wilson:

Well, WNBA season is still a couple of months away, but one of the sports legends, Lisa Leslie, sat down with USA Today Sports Mackenzie Salmon to talk all things basketball on the latest episode of Sports Seriously.

Mackenzie Salmon:

Lisa, we appreciate you connecting with us. I want to ask you about the Lakers. They're obviously an absolute mess. I'm curious, in your opinion, what direction-

Lisa Leslie:

Not a mess. Did you say a mess?

Mackenzie Salmon:

A little bit with the injuries and whatnot. I'm curious what direction you think they should go this off season, if they do miss out on the playoffs again.

Lisa Leslie:

Oh. Well, it's really tough. I am a Laker girl and a Sparks Girl through and through, I bleed purple and gold. It's tough for us when we are not winning and when we're not on top. But it's going to take a little soul-searching, we've got to figure this out. Obviously we know that LeBron is at the peak and still doing amazing. We just have to keep him healthy, of course. AD is clearly not a five, he's a four, phenomenal four who is very effective, but he needs some help on the inside. We can't rely on him to be just our soul big man. We need somebody bigger than him inside who's willing to do the dirty work. So I think a big is really going to be important. And then the ones have been pretty good. A solid one, obviously we don't have a Chris Paul on our team, so it's going to be important collectively for the point guards to really help facilitate moving the ball around more.

And then defensively, the Lakers are known, and we are top five and defense and they're hanging their hats on defense. They have a better opportunity of winning and being in championship form and that's just not the case right now. So it's difficult right now for the Lakers. And then the last thing that the dismal three point shooting, oh my gosh, it's like building brick houses out there. I think they settle too much for the three. Clearly they're not a top three point shooting team. And if I were coaching, I'd talk more about getting that ball and taking it to the basket, trying to get more to the free throw line, being aggressive and not settling so much for the three ball.

Mackenzie Salmon:

I know you bleed purple and gold, but I need you to be honest with me, who do you think has a better chance of winning a title in LA sooner, the Clippers or the Lakers?

Lisa Leslie:

Oh, man. Send the dagger. Well, listen, the Clippers right now have the team to beat in terms of they have the three superstars that they need. They have great surrounding cast, solid at the point guard, solid with their backup, post is really nice. They definitely have all of the pieces and they have an excellent coach. For them, it's just going to be a matter of showing up and playing well when they need it. And sometimes they don't play as well on the road in the playoffs. Historically we've seen that. And then Paul George, I think he's the X factor. He's my guy friend, I really appreciate him. But being able to step up in those big moments, we know that Kawhi can hit baskets, but sometimes Paul George misses in opportunities where we really need for him to be solid. So again, I'm not a Clipper hater at all. I'm from LA, I love the Lakers, but it would be great to see the Clippers win their first championship ever.

Mackenzie Salmon:

Yeah. As it stands now, who are your favorites out of the east and the west, maybe your top two?

Lisa Leslie:

Well, I'm definitely going to go with Yannis. I think as long as he's healthy, his team and his vigor, his heart, his fight, everything that he does, putting his team on his back, he's always going to be one of the toughest teams for Milwaukee coming out of east. And then you can never rule out Boston. Boston just has that blue collar work ethic. They work hard and Tatum's been playing excellent. I probably would vote for him MVP if I had a vote. I think he's just been so consistent all year. And with them obviously losing their coach last year. Was that last year? It's just so weird, the year is going... That was still this year. That was earlier this season actually. I think they've been great.

Mackenzie Salmon:

[inaudible 00:09:59].

Lisa Leslie:

Yeah, they've been great. So when you look at those two teams, those would probably be my picks coming out of these.

Mackenzie Salmon:

Well, on another note, you've been synonymous with the WNBA since day one. Where are you most excited about for the upcoming season? Is the Liberty the super team winning it all?

Lisa Leslie:

Listen, first off, I'm excited that Brittney Grinder will be back on the court. I hope that she has a phenomenal season and just getting back to her old self and just being amazing. I'm super excited about New York and Breanna Stewart being in New York, joining [inaudible 00:10:33]. That's going to be phenomenal. You also have Jonquel Jones. Ooh, that's just a nasty group. Their poster should be everywhere in Times Square. But you can't rule out Vegas, the defending champs, and you've added Candace Parker there. Listen, I'm just going wait with my popcorn whenever New York and Vegas are playing, don't bother me. That's going to be an amazing matchup.

Mackenzie Salmon:

Yeah. Well, Lisa, I love the thoughtfulness you put into all your answers. We really appreciate you. Thank you.

Lisa Leslie:

Thank you.

Taylor Wilson:

It's snowing in Hawaii. Parts of the State's Big Island are under a winter storm warning with as much as eight inches of snow possible on the island's mountains through today. The volcanic peaks Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea have already gotten snow this winter with more than a foot last month, and a dusting earlier this week. Meanwhile, in the continental US, some 15 million people were under tornado watches yesterday in the South and 10 people were killed. Elsewhere, a storm is dumping snow from the Midwest to New England today across a 1300-mile stretch of the country. For updates throughout the weekend, stay with usatoday.com. Thanks for listening to Five Things. You can find us every day of the week right here, wherever you get your audio. James Brown is back with the Sunday edition tomorrow, and I'll see you Monday with more of Five Things from USA Today.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Murdaugh gets life in prison, snow in Hawaii