Uvalde report finds 'systemic failures', Steve Bannon trial begins: 5 Things podcast

On today's episode of the 5 Things podcast: Uvalde school shooting report finds 'systemic failures' in law enforcement response

Reporter Cady Stanton explains. Plus, a jury prepares to decide the fate of the Parkland school shooter, jury selection begins in the trial of former White House strategist Steve Bannon, reporter Amanda Lee Myers talks about how businesses have been hurt by Yosemite fires and the MLB Home Run Derby is here.

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 Monday, the 18th of July, 2022. Today, a report's findings on failure in Uvalde. Plus a look at baseball's first half of the MLB season, and more.

Here are some of the top headlines:

1. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has fired both his top security chief and prosecutor. The two moves came after Zelensky cited hundreds of criminal proceedings, into treason and collaboration, by people within their departments and other law enforcement agencies.

2. British authorities are urging the public not to travel through subways in London today, amid an ongoing heat wave. Temperatures may pass a hundred degrees in parts of southern Britain today, a region usually known for moderate summer heat with temperature highs in the 70s.

3. And the Baltimore Orioles took shortstop Jackson Holliday, with the number one overall pick in last night's Major League Baseball draft. He's the son of former MLB All-Star Matt Holliday.

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A scathing report out yesterday from the Texas House Committee investigating the Uvalde school shooting blamed multiple failures by people in positions of power for not putting a stop to the massacre more quickly. That includes the nearly 400 law enforcers on the scene. Texas State Representative Dustin Burrows is the committee's chair.

Dustin Burrows:

What I would like to do today is start with this. If there's only one thing that I can tell you is there were multiple systemic failures. I would invite everybody to read the entire report. You cannot cherry pick one sentence and use it to say everything, without reading it all together and with context. But if we need a simple phrase to describe what the report says, again, I would tell you multiple systemic failures.

Taylor Wilson:

For more on the committee's findings, 5 Things producer, PJ Elliot, spoke with Breaking News reporter Cady Stanton.

Cady Stanton:

A Texas House Committee started investigating the events surrounding the shooting about a month or two ago. And they interviewed about 30 or 40 different individuals, trying to get a sense of the events, and whether or not certain aspects of the shooting could have been prevented. And they spoke to police officials, witnesses, and a lot of different people, and then produced this report.

And ultimately, a lot of grieving family members, and community members in Uvalde, had a lot of questions about the police response, in particular, to the shooting and whether it could have been handled differently. And ultimately, the report describes, "Systemic failures and egregious poor decision-making," among different areas, especially, among police leaders, and that the school district was partially at fault because it didn't fully adhere to its safety plan.

The report also released body cam footage and some further video from security footage at the school on the day of the shooting. But it really just outlines different ways that, if the police had followed their active shooter training, which they had done before, and if the school district had adhered to some of the safety plans that it had in place, some of the casualties could have been prevented.

PJ Elliott:

Were there any recommendations or is anything going to come from this report, like either civilly or criminally to the agencies?

Cady Stanton:

Yeah, that's a really good question. After this report was released, the city of Uvalde actually placed its acting police chief on administrative leave, and has hired a national expert to do an internal investigation of how the department responded to the shooting. So there's some change immediately right there with the report having been released. But this is also a preliminary report, so once the committee continues to interview more people and come with a full report, I would imagine that a more robust response could come from that, because it could have more further recommendations because a lot of this report focused on the chronology of events, different times that different steps could have been taken, but wasn't quite as future focused as maybe a more lengthy report might be.

Taylor Wilson:

For all the latest from Uvalde, stay with USATODAY.com and the Austin American-Statesman, part of the USA TODAY Network.

♦

A 12-person jury and a Broward County, Florida judge will decide the fate of the now 23-year old gunman who killed 17 people in the Parkland school shooting in 2018. Nikolas Cruz pleaded guilty to premeditated first degree murder and attempted murder charges in October. He now faces two options, life in prison, or the death penalty. A decision on the death penalty must be unanimous by the jury, and Circuit Judge Elizabeth Shearer will have the final say. Opening statements are scheduled to begin today, despite a push by Cruz's defense team to delay the trial. They argue that recent mass shootings could bias the jury. Testimony from more than a thousand potential witnesses is expected to push a decision into this fall.

♦

Jury selection will begin today in the trial of former White House strategist Steve Bannon. He's charged with defying a subpoena from the House Committee investigating the January 6th Capitol attack. Bannon faces two counts of contempt for his failure to appear for a deposition, and another involving his refusal to produce documents. Bannon has argued that his testimony is protected by former President Donald Trump's claim of executive privilege.

♦

As a wildfire burns in Yosemite National Park, nearby businesses that rely on tourism, are seeing waves of cancellations in just the latest of many economic hits in the area. Producer PJ Elliott chatted with reporter Amanda Lee Myers about how bad businesses are being affected.

Amanda Lee Myers:

Business has been pretty bad for part of the businesses around Yosemite, particularly the southern part. There are several entrances to Yosemite, they're all very, very far apart from each other. And right now the southern entrance is closed. And so all those businesses on the way into Yosemite on the south are hurting pretty bad. The hotel I spoke to is down 50%. A restaurant I spoke to is down 40%. And this has been going on for a week now. And every day that south entrance is closed, is thousands of dollars in a hit to their businesses. But if you're on the western entrance or the eastern entrance, you're probably doing pretty good.

PJ Elliott:

Are there any signs of things getting better?

Amanda Lee Myers:

The fire's 31% contained right now. They're gaining a little bit of containment every single day, but they've got warm temperatures, low humidities right now, that can make for some definite active fire behavior. And it's putting up smoke every afternoon.

This fire is not the worst Yosemite has seen by far, but it is definitely a financial hit for some of the businesses down there. And it comes on the heels of just a tough few years. In 2018, they had the Ferguson Fire that closed the park down for three weeks, which was devastating to all business in and around Yosemite.

And then two years later, the pandemic hit, that was devastating. Last year was a bit of a bounce back. This year, they've been struggling with some lower visitors from last year because of gas prices. And now this fire hit at the busiest time of year, which is when they make most of their money. So it's just been kind of a... the hits keep coming for businesses there. And it's just getting harder to operate a small business in Yosemite because of the frequency of these fires and sort of other disasters.

♦

Taylor Wilson:

The first half of the Major League Baseball season is officially in the books and the All-Star break begins today. Who were some of the best performers in the league's first half? USA TODAY Sports' Bob Nightengale has his early season MVP picks.

Bob Nightengale:

I know we got the All-Star game coming up, the Hall of Fame induction coming up, and a trade deadline. But it's time for the mid-season American League and National League MVP awards. Right now, it's got to be Aaron Judge of New York Yankees. He's our American League MVP. When you got 30 home runs, 66 RBI, you're the best player on the best team at baseball, you're MVP.

In the National League, hey, it's Paul Goldschmidt's award going away. He's putting up Lou Gehrig type numbers, is what he's doing. So sensational year from Goldschmidt, and he plays all the time. No one has played more games than Goldschmidt since he joined the St. Louis Cardinals three years ago. And how good is this guy? He's hitting 270 with two strikes this year. He's also hitting 411 with runners on base. So those are MVPs for their first half, Aaron Judge and Paul Goldschmidt.

Taylor Wilson:

Now, eight of the best sluggers in baseball will compete tonight in the MLB Home Run Derby. Headlining the competition is New York Mets star Pete Alonso. He's looking for a three-peat, after winning the last two contests in 2019 and 2021. If he were to win again, Alonso would join Ken Griffey Jr. as the only three-time winners. Others in this year's field, are Kyle Schwarber, Juan Soto, Jose Ramirez, Ronald Acuna Jr., Julio Rodriguez, Corey Seager and 42-year old Albert Pujols. You can tune in at 8:00 PM Eastern, 5:00 Pacific on ESPN.

Taylor Wilson:

And you can find 5 Things every morning of the year, right here, 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: 'Systemic failures' in Uvalde shooting, Home Run Derby begins: 5 Things podcast