Threatening letter aimed at Manhattan DA, Blockbuster's website is live: 5 Things podcast

On today's episode of the 5 Things podcast: A threatening letter was sent to Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg this week. USA TODAY Supreme Court Correspondent John Fritze discusses a Mississippi voting rights case. And a Tennessee panel decertifies three former Memphis police officers charged in the beating death of Tyre Nichols. Then USA TODAY National Correspondent Elizabeth Weise talks about a flesh-eating bacteria. Finally, The website for Blockbuster is live, and no, it's not 1999.

More: 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 five things you need to know Saturday, the 25th of March 2023.

Today, threats for the prosecutor overseeing the Trump Hush-Money investigation, plus, the Supreme Court considers hearing an appeal to a voting ban in Mississippi, and a flesh-eating bacteria is spreading.

The New York prosecutor overseeing a Hush-Money investigation involving Donald Trump, was the target of a threatening letter yesterday. A spokesperson for Manhattan district attorney, Alvin Bragg, said the letter had an undisclosed substance and was immediately contained. The New York Police Department and the city's Department of Environmental Protection later determined that there was no dangerous substance. The incident comes as Trump tries to whip up opposition to the district attorney who's believed to be close to making a charging decision after a years-long investigation into Trump.

The investigation has centered around a $130,000 Hush-Money payment made to the porn star, Stormy Daniels, during the 2016 presidential campaign to silence her about an alleged affair with Trump. The former president has denied the affair but he caused a stir last weekend when he falsely declared that he would be arrested in the case this past Tuesday. Today, he'll visit Waco, Texas for a rally.

The Supreme Court is weighing whether to hear an appeal that challenges a permanent voting ban on people convicted of certain felonies in Mississippi. The ban's history dates back to the days of Jim Crow as USA Today Supreme court correspondent, John Fritze, explains. Hi, John. Thanks for hopping on.

John Fritze:

Thank you.

Taylor Wilson:

So what are these voting restrictions at play here in Mississippi?

John Fritze:

So post-reconstruction, there were a number of mostly southern states that saw the increased power of African American voters and took steps to limit that power. That was certainly what happened in Mississippi where, in 1890, the delegates to a State Constitutional Convention imposed a number of changes to voting eligibility that included disenfranchising people who had been convicted of certain felonies.

What I think is one of the most interesting things about this is that felonies like murder and rape were not included, which you would think, as the most perhaps serious types of crimes, would be included. Rather, there were crimes included in that for things like burglary, arson, forgery, and so forth. There's really no question in the historical record that the reason these particular crimes were included, was because the delegates, at the time, thought that those were crimes that would more likely to be prosecuted against African Americans than against white residents. So there's not a lot of debate about the fact that in 1890, there was racism involved with these prohibitions.

Taylor Wilson:

John, there have been a number of amendments over the years to these restrictions. What have courts said already about some of these later amendments?

John Fritze:

This is the point that Mississippi is making. What's happened, of course, is that in the 130 intervening years, this provision has been amended and changed. The state and lower courts have looked, in particular, at two amendments, one in 1950 and one in 1968, where they went through the process of amending the Constitution. In each of those cases, there were some crimes that were removed and other crimes that were added. The murder and rape was added later.

So what the state is arguing and what the Court of Appeals ruled is that when the state went through and did those amendments, it was amending the whole provision, and because there was no evidence of discriminatory intent in those amendments, that it quote "cured" the "taint" of discrimination from 1890. So the real issue in the case here is, if you amend something that is discriminatory, does that wipe away that discriminatory intent if you're making changes around the margins, which is what happened in these subsequent amendments?

Taylor Wilson:

So we know the Supreme Court has looked at and made a number of recent decisions surrounding the Voting Rights Act of 1965. How does this case play into that, and what impact could this case have around the country outside of Mississippi?

John Fritze:

So the first thing we need to make sure we're all really clear on is that the court has not taken this case yet. So this case is sitting at the Supreme Court, waiting for whether the court will take it up and hold arguments and actually decide it. So that's not clear what they're going to do.

But you're right, this case comes in this broader context of a number of important decisions that has weakened the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and made it harder to bring claims in courts alleging that voting laws, whether it's about polling hours or whether it's about how absentee ballots are handled, or any number of things, claims that those changes are racially discriminatory. So the court has really, I think, clamped down on the Voting Rights Acts scope.

Taylor Wilson:

All right. USA Today Supreme Court correspondent, John Fritze, thanks as always.

John Fritze:

Thank you.

Taylor Wilson:

A Tennessee panel yesterday de-certified three former Memphis police officers charged in the beating death of Tyre Nichols. The move will bar the officers from law enforcement work in the state. Five former officers face second-degree murder charges for the death of Nichols after a traffic stop on January 7th. The Memphis Police Department fired the officers and recommended de-certification after an initial investigation showed the officers violated multiple department policies. In addition to the three former officers de-certified yesterday, the board approved an earlier decision from another to surrender his certification.

A type of flesh-eating bacteria is spreading and it'll continue to do so as the climate warms. USA Today national correspondent, Elizabeth Weise, has more. Happy Saturday, Beth.

Elizabeth Weise:

Thank you.

Taylor Wilson:

What is, and I'll do my best to pronounce this, Vibrio vulnificus?

Elizabeth Weise:

Oh, it's something you so do not want to get, I'm just going to tell you. So it is a waterborne bacteria that likes to live in brackish water, so not open ocean, but more along the coast, in estuaries, maybe in a bay where there's a river coming in. So it's slightly salty water, but not as salty as open ocean water, and it prefers warmer temperatures, and that's the problem.

Taylor Wilson:

Is this bacteria spreading?

Elizabeth Weise:

It is. There are a bunch of different kinds of Vibrio. The one that you hear about a lot is the one that causes cholera. This is not that. Vulnificus causes this awful flesh-eating wound, but only if you have an open wound and you go into this kind of brackish water. In the United States, you pretty much only saw it along the Gulf Coast, maybe a little bit along the coast of Florida but as climate change is warming the ocean, the bacteria is spreading. These bacteria prefers warm water that's above 64.4 degrees and it's heading northwards at about 30 miles a year.

Taylor Wilson:

So you've mentioned open cuts in the water, but can you also get this from eating seafood?

Elizabeth Weise:

It exists in a lot of different kinds of seafood, but the problem is oysters because oysters tend to be the only seafood that we eat raw, and it can be in oysters. It's a food-borne illness. It's actually one of the most dangerous foodborne illnesses. It's got a very high death rate. The paper that came out this week is specifically looking at Vibrio vulnificus and the flesh-eating bacteria cases that it causes because they've increased eightfold between 1988 and 2018.

Taylor Wilson:

What can folks listening, who are probably panicking hearing about this, with the summer months coming up, and folks with plans to go to the beach, how can they protect themselves?

Elizabeth Weise:

So the first thing that all the experts I spoke with said is, this doesn't mean you shouldn't go to the beach. It doesn't mean you shouldn't go in the water. It just means you need to be aware. If you have a big cut or a puncture wound and you're in brackish water, be aware if it starts to feel like that open cut or puncture wound is getting infected. If it's red, it's swelling, you're feeling warmth around the area, definitely go to a doctor because what everybody said is, first off, if you're a young, healthy person, your immune system's probably going to fight out off which is fine if you happen to be exposed. It's especially in older people, like fishermen especially, older guys, maybe a little heavier, they're out fishing, they get a fish hook in their finger. Those are the kinds of cases. It's still really rare. It's like 100 cases a year right now, but it is increasing.

The biggest thing that the experts told me is, if you think you might have been exposed, if you've got a wound, and it's looking infected, get to a doctor right away because the thing about this is, it is really rapidly spreading. One of the guys I talked to who studied this for decades said he had this one woman, her husband had just a little cut and she took a picture of it and it looked like a spider bite and four hours later, it was this gaping, nasty wound.

So if you've been in saltwater, brackish water, you've got something going on, and it feels like it's getting infected, go to your doctor. As one of them said, "This is not something to tough out. Go get it checked out because it can kill you in 48 hours," but it's rare.

Taylor Wilson:

Elizabeth Weise, always a pleasure, even when we're talking of flesh-eating bacteria.

Elizabeth Weise:

Yeah. Oh, it's the happy beat, isn't it?

Taylor Wilson:

Just imagine, it's 1999. You smell buttery popcorn mixed with that unique chemical smell that could only be a Blockbuster video. Maybe you'll pick up The Matrix or watch Toy Story for the 10th time. It's a specific type of nostalgia and one that especially popped up this week when people realized Blockbuster's website is still live with a new landing page. It's not entirely clear what the site is promoting, but when visiting the page, users are greeted with the company's iconic ticket stub logo and the words, "We are working on rewinding your movie", a reference to the stores' requests that renters rewind their tapes before returning them. Blockbuster first opened in 1985 before filing for bankruptcy in 2010. The last remaining store exists in Bend, Oregon.

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

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Threatening letter aimed at Manhattan DA, Blockbuster's website is live: 5 Things podcast