Prosecutors charge Illinois shooting suspect, severe flooding in Australia: 5 Things podcast

On today's episode of the 5 Things podcast: Prosecutors charge Illinois shooting suspect

The death toll has risen to seven. Plus, Supreme Court correspondent John Fritze stops by to talk about the conservative legal movement that led to overturning Roe v. Wade, a special grand jury in Atlanta issues subpoenas for Rudy Giuliani and Lindsey Graham, severe flooding continues in Australia and USA TODAY's Rayna Song looks at how some workers are re-creating home environments at the office.

Podcasts: True crime, in-depth interviews and more USA TODAY podcasts right here.

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 6th of July, 2022. Today, charges and a rising death toll in Highland Park, plus tracing the Roe v. Wade reversal years in the past, and more.

Here are some of the top headlines:

1. Kentucky governor Andy Beshear has released emails that show President Joe Biden intended to nominate an anti-abortion Republican to a lifetime appointment as a federal judge in Kentucky. The White House has declined to comment.

2. Doctors will have to amputate the leg of a Florida girl after a shark attack. The attack came as she was scalloping off a Gulf Coast beach.

3. And a million Muslim pilgrims descended on Mecca today for the largest Hajj since the pandemic.

♦

The death toll has risen to seven in the Highland Park, Illinois, 4th of July parade shooting.

[audio from the parade shooting]

In addition to those killed, more than 30 were injured in the attack. Authorities yesterday charged Bobby Crimo with seven counts of first degree murder after he allegedly opened fire. Lake County Sheriff's Office Deputy Chief Christopher Covelli, alleged the violence was pre-planned well in advance.

Christopher Covelli:

At this point in the investigation - and some of this is still preliminary, so is subject to change as we keep moving forward - but we do believe Crimo pre-planned this attack for several weeks.

Taylor Wilson:

The charged suspect bought five guns legally, despite authorities being called to his house twice in 2019 for threats of violence and suicide, according to police. A spokesman for the Lake County Major Crime Task Force said the suspect used a rifle similar to an AR-15 to shoot more than 70 rounds from the top of a commercial building during the parade.

Meanwhile, we're learning more about the victims in the shooting. Names of six of the seven were released yesterday. They range in age from 35 to 88. They include a dual Mexican-American citizen and grandfather Nicolas Toledo, who watched from his wheelchair. There's also synagogue worker Jackie Sundheim, financial advisor Steven Straus, and mother Katherine Goldstein, plus Irina and Kevin McCarthy, parents of a two-year old who was found bloody and alone by bystanders. For their full stories, head to USATODAY.com.

♦

Overturning Roe vs. Wade was a triumph of a decades-long push by a conservative legal movement. Conservatives, for years, worked to push originalism, a theory of strict constitutional interpretation. Supreme Court correspondent, John Fritze, chatted with 5 Things producer, PJ Elliott, about how a 1982 meeting of conservative law students helped undo abortion protections.

John Fritze:

Yeah, I mean, I just think it's worth noting that it's not like this is something that came in a vacuum. I mean, I think everybody realizes that this has been a push for a long time. I think it's sort of interesting to look at the conservative legal movement and it's really tied in with a group called the Federalist Society and their origins. And when they first started this group, everybody says it really wasn't about abortion. But it was about, I think, promoting some of these ideas, some of these conservative legal ideas, that were... ended up being very much opposed to what happened in Roe. And that's this idea of originalism, and reading the constitution as the founding fathers might have seen it, looking at its text and not really looking at extra textual elements. So this is something that started back in the 1970s and 1980s after Roe, and it's been building ever since. And I think the decision in the Mississippi case is a huge triumph, really, a huge victory for that effort and that movement.

PJ Elliott:

Can you talk a little bit more about who the Federalist Society is?

John Fritze:

Yeah, I mean, it started out, really, on college campuses, which I think is sort of interesting. And it started out as a response to what some conservatives saw as a liberal, I think, saturation is the best word for it, of thinking on the nation's largest law schools. And it almost started out as a social thing. I think in some ways it was an opportunity for conservatives to get together, to express their views, to hear from professors to debate, and so forth.

I think as it has matured and, particularly, as it interacted with Republican presidential administrations over the past several decades, it also became a group that had an enormous amount of influence. And we saw that with President Donald Trump and when he was looking to find nominees for the Supreme Court, he turned to one of the leaders of the Federalist Society, a guy named Leonard Leo, to try to help build the list of potential candidates.

That was a list he took with him to try to sway and court evangelical voters, that we all know how that worked out. It was pretty successful for President Trump. And I think it just shows that this group, while not ostensibly lobbying for a position in these cases, in some of these cases, has a great deal of influence over them.

Taylor Wilson:

For more find a link in today's episode description.

♦

A special grand jury in Atlanta investigating interference in the 2020 election issued subpoenas yesterday for key members of former President Donald Trump's legal team. Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani and attorney John Eastman were among them, as was Republican Senator Lindsay Graham. Trump lawyers created a plan to assemble alternate slates of electors to overturn President Joe Biden's election. And Graham made at least two phone calls to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, and members of his staff, looking to reexamine absentee ballots for a potentially more favorable Trump outcome, according to court documents. The Georgia criminal investigation is separate from a Justice Department inquiry and a special House committee's examination of events linked to the January 6th Capitol attack.

♦

Severe flooding continues in Australia. More showers are in the forecast today for Sydney, where hundreds of homes have been flooded over this past week. Evacuation orders, and warnings to prepare to abandon homes, were given yesterday to 50,000 people up from 32,000 on Monday. And New South Wales Premier Dominic Perrottet warned residents not to keep their guard down.

Dominic Perrottet:

We expect more heavy rainfall to continue over the course of the week. We will see more rain moving north in the Hunter today, and then that, into tonight, will move to the mid North Coast. So this event is far from over. Please don't be complacent, wherever you are. Please be careful.

Taylor Wilson:

A local Sydney resident, who identified herself as Mrs. Thomas, said the flooding is more than the usual seasonal flooding the region gets.

Mrs. Thomas:

This is more than just rain because we had the rain, and within not even 24 hours, it started on Friday morning, was it? By Friday night we were under, and it usually takes a week of constant, constant, constant rain. And we still don't flood. So this was unbelievable.

Taylor Wilson:

According to Bureau of Meteorology meteorologist Jonathan How, parts of southern Sydney had been hit with nearly 8 inches of rain in 24 hours, more than 17% of the city's annual average. This is the fourth flood emergency in 16 months for Australia's largest city.

♦

Some employees are resisting mandates to return to the office, while many, who do comply, bring bits of home with them. USA TODAY'S Rayna Song reports that only 82% of employees have come into the office as much as their employers wanted.

Rayna Song:

Many workers have faced these challenges of decreased productivity after they come back into the office. And so for those who do come back into the office, sometimes, they're hoping to recreate their home environments in their offices. So they could use, some could use headphones, for example, and others brought in food or items from home to make their office environment more similar to their home environments, after spending more than two years working from home.

And in terms of employers, supervisors have decided to introduce new facilities in terms of a bigger office or more quiet spaces for their workers so that the workers could be more productive. So a lot of workers have had these difficulties with productivity or commute, right? That's another main issue that workers are dealing with. So they are either choosing not to go back to the office entirely, or they're choosing to go back less frequently than they usually are asked to.

I think the pandemic has shown us the possibilities of working remotely, completely remotely, or working hybrid format. So according to the research, a hybrid format is preferable and is highly possible for all industries going forward, because a lot of employees and employers have noticed how productive they are when the work format is hybrid.

Taylor Wilson:

Thanks for listening to 5 Things. You can find us seven mornings a week on whatever your favorite podcast app is. Thanks to PJ Elliott for his great work on the show, and I'm back tomorrow with more of 5 Things from USA TODAY.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Highland Park suspect charged, subpoena for Giuliani: 5 Things podcast