Trump's trial in Georgia will be televised, student loan payments resume: 5 Things podcast

On today's episode of the 5 Things podcast: Trump's trial in Georgia will be televised

Former President Donald Trump's trial in Georgia will be televised. Plus, USA TODAY Justice Department Correspondent Bart Jansen looks at the latest Jan. 6 sentences for Proud Boys members, including one that ties the longest sentence yet related to the insurrection, as student loan payments resume, here's how to make sure you're prepared, President Joe Biden announces new proposed nursing home standards, in a USA TODAY opinion piece, and USA TODAY Consumer News Reporter Bailey Schulz explains how the child care crisis in America is about to get worse.

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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 Saturday, the 2nd of September 2023. Today, Trump's Georgia trial will be televised. Plus, two major sentences have been handed down for the January 6th attack, and we take a look at the childcare crisis in America.

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A judge in Atlanta has ruled that all court proceedings in former President Donald Trump's Georgia election interference case will be televised. Judge Scott McAfee of the Superior Court of Fulton County made the ruling Thursday, also deciding that the use of cell phones, recording devices and laptops will be allowed in court as long as they don't "disrupt the administration of justice." If the order holds, the Georgia trial will be the only one televised among Trump's four indictments. The public will most likely be able to watch the proceedings via the Fulton County Court YouTube channel, according to CNN. John Dean, the Watergate era White House counsel-turned-judicial responsibility advocate praised the judge's ruling saying it'll give the public important transparency in a historically important case. He also acknowledged that televised proceedings will give Trump a platform to speak directly to his political base of supporters who have stuck by his claims of innocence.

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Two Proud Boys members were sentenced yesterday for their roles in the January 6th Capitol attack, including one that ties the longest sentence given up to this point. I spoke with USA TODAY Justice Department Correspondent Bart Jansen for the latest. Bart, thanks as always for hopping on 5 Things.

Bart Jansen:

Thanks for having me.

Taylor Wilson:

A judge has sentenced Proud Boys member Ethan Nordean. Bart, what's he convicted of in the January 6th attack and what kind of sentence did he get?

Bart Jansen:

Well, Nordean was one of four Proud Boys members convicted of seditious conspiracy. That's one of the most serious charges facing any of the folks charged in the January 6th attack on the Capitol. He was effectively charged with becoming a leader of the Proud Boys in the absence of Enrique Tarrio, the national leader of the group who was arrested a couple of days before the riot on unrelated charges. He was not in D.C. on the day. Now, Tarrio is going to be sentenced on Tuesday and prosecutors have asked for the longest sentence yet against him. In the meantime, Nordean tied for the longest service yet handed down for a January 6th case. He got 18 years in prison. A leader of the Oath Keepers, Stewart Rhodes, was the other person to have gotten 18 years so far. Those are the longest sentences and one of them went down on Friday.

Taylor Wilson:

Another Proud Boys member, Dominic Pezzola, was also sentenced yesterday. What punishment did he receive and how was he involved in January 6th?

Bart Jansen:

Pezzola was tried with the other four Proud Boys that we're talking about, getting sentenced this week and Tuesday. He received 10 years. He was the only one of the five acquitted of seditious conspiracy, but he was convicted of a half dozen other serious crimes. While he might not be a household name, he committed one of the most iconic acts on January 6th. He was able to wrestle a police shield away from a police officer and then he used that shield to smash one of the windows on the Senate side of the Capitol, which became the first breach of the Capitol that afternoon and allowed other rioters to sweep into the building. He later entered the building and spent about 20 minutes inside. He was not convicted of seditious conspiracy, but he was convicted of being effectively a leader in the field of allowing people into the building and confronting police officers.

Taylor Wilson:

Bart, you've been covering this for years. Did anything surprise you about this week's sentences?

Bart Jansen:

What's a bit of a surprise after years of covering misdemeanor charges and lower-level charges in these January 6th cases, more than 1,100 people have been charged so far. Half of them have had their cases resolved. We are finally at the stage where some of the most serious cases with the most serious convictions are finally coming to the point of sentencing. In this case, this week, we are seeing this longest sentence for Ethan Nordean. On Thursday, we saw two significant sentences. Joseph Briggs, who also stepped into a quasi-leadership role of the Proud Boys with Nordean. Joseph Briggs got 17 years and another Proud Boys member, Zachary Rehl, got 15 years. These are very long sentences where relatives of the Proud Boys - wives, mothers, daughters - have been pleading for mercy for these men who have been locked up already for a couple of years awaiting trial and now are looking at a decade or more behind bars. The seriousness of the offenses and then the seriousness of the punishment are two things that have really shined through this week.

Taylor Wilson:

You mentioned Proud Boys leader, Enrique Tarrio. He has a sentencing scheduled for Tuesday. Bart, do we have any expectation on what sentence to look for there and whether or not he could get longer than the record 18 years we've seen this week?

Bart Jansen:

Prosecutors requested 33 years in prison for Tarrio. That would be by far the longest sentence, if U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly were to impose it. However, their recommendations for these others we've been talking about were all in the range of 27 to 33 years. In each of these cases, the judge has imposed a sentence basically half the level of what the prosecutors have been recommending. I suspect Tarrio will be somewhere amid those higher ranges of sentences. We'll have to see, because he was not there on the day, so he is not actually assaulting police. His role was entirely in a leadership position as part of this seditious conspiracy, a conspiracy of a group of people to try to overturn the government.

Taylor Wilson:

USA TODAY Justice Department Correspondent Bart Jansen. Thanks, as always.

Bart Jansen:

Thanks for having me.

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Taylor Wilson:

A pandemic era pause to student loan payments is coming to an end next month, and interest on those loans was set to begin accruing yesterday. So, how to prepare? According to student loan expert, Mark Kantrowitz, about 44% of borrowers have a new student loan servicer and won't be dealing with the same one they had before the pandemic pause began in March of 2020. Emails started going out in July, identifying loan servicers. And experts warned that recent graduates or attendees who have never made a payment should be extra vigilant about checking for changes. If you have a federal student aid account, you can confirm your servicer at studentaid.gov.

The Biden administration has erased some $116 billion in student loans for nearly three and a half million borrowers. That's mostly through programs for people employed in public service or who have been defrauded by their schools. But, earlier this summer, the Supreme Court killed his forgiveness plan that would've benefited more than 40 million borrowers. Last month, the administration announced a repayment plan touted as the most affordable option to reduce monthly debt. One expected to especially benefit low and middle-income borrowers who might be saddled with other debt.

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President Joe Biden has a clear message for the nursing home industry. No more padding profits on the backs of residents and nurses. In an opinion piece yesterday for USA TODAY, the president wrote that too many nursing home facilities are understaffed, which can result in illness and even death for residents. In response, Biden announced a proposal of minimum staffing requirements for every taxpayer-funded nursing home. Under his proposed standards, every nursing facility would have to provide a registered nurse on site 24/7, and have enough nurses and nurses' aides to provide bedside care among other tasks. As part of the announcement, the Department of Health and Human Services said it was making a $75 million investment on top of hundreds of millions already committed to recruit, train, and retain nurses and other caregivers. You can read the President's piece with a link in today's show notes.

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Childcare in America already faces a crisis, and with pandemic era childcare funding set to end in a matter of weeks, things are about to get worse. I spoke with USA TODAY Consumer News Reporter Bailey Schulz for more. Bailey, thanks for hopping on 5 Things.

Bailey Schulz:

No, thank you for having me on.

Taylor Wilson:

Childcare is inaccessible and unaffordable for many Americans. How big of an issue is this already?

Bailey Schulz:

This is something that we know has been a problem for parents for a number of years in the U.S. Just to throw out some data highlighting just how expensive and accessible this is, we know that parents on average pay more than $10,000 per year, per child for childcare, but certain areas of the country are paying even more than that. There was some data from the Labor Department that showed that childcare costs can take up to 19% percent of a medium family's income per child. That can be something like more than $17,000 per year, which is a big chunk of money for a lot of people. It's not just the money and the costs that's a problem with this, but it's also accessibility where because this is an industry that is very expensive to run, and because a lot of the staff doesn't get paid well for the work they do, it's hard for people to keep staffed up and to keep centers open. More than half of the U.S. population is living in what is called a childcare desert, which just means that there is an insufficient supply of daycare options available.

Taylor Wilson:

Wow, so despite all of those issues already, a major decline in federal childcare funding is coming at the end of September. Which programs are going away, Bailey?

Bailey Schulz:

This is actually tied to emergency pandemic era funding, but we saw this boost in money going toward childcare during the pandemic. That passes part of the American Rescue Plan Act. It's about $24 billion of an investment that went to funding more than 220,000 childcare programs. That is set to end on September 30th. So we're going to see that this funding, which impacted as many as 9.6 million children, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, that cutoff for the funding is approaching pretty fast. Aside to this, we're also seeing that another $15 billion investment to expand childcare in development block grants, which helps low-income families pay for childcare, that's another investment that's set to end September 2024. We're coming to a point where this pandemic era emergency funding is starting to run dry.

Taylor Wilson:

How will these changes impact parents and childcare centers who are already struggling to make ends meet?

Bailey Schulz:

There was a report from a think tank called the Century Foundation that took a look at, okay, this funding is set to start running out on September 30th. What does that mean? What impacts are we going to see? According to that report, the ending of this additional emergency funding could result in the loss of 70,000 childcare programs in more than 3 million childcare spots. Additionally, more than 230,000 jobs in the childcare sector. For parents who are dealing with all these changes - which I should say aren't expected to happen all at once, we'll see them accumulate through the coming months - for parents, that could mean they see that the childcare sector and dealing with all these changes could be forced to hike up their costs for parents even higher.

Taylor Wilson:

What ripple effects might the loss of childcare programs have on the U.S. economy?

Bailey Schulz:

The Century Foundation says if we see parents of children in daycare, maybe they have to cut their working hours or leave their jobs entirely to take care of their kids if those prices continue to rise and become unaffordable. Those changes are expected to cost states $10.6 billion in economic activity per year.

Taylor Wilson:

Whether it's at the federal or state level, what's the solution here, Bailey, to this childcare crisis in America?

Bailey Schulz:

As far as some ideas the people are talking about, we're seeing some people and some lawmakers are pushing for more funding in this area, even funding to bridge a gap between this funding cliff that we're expecting to see on September 30th. We're seeing certain states try out public, private partnership programs. These are programs that split childcare costs between families, employers and the states. Then other solutions we're seeing thrown out are lifting some red tape and easing some restrictions. Like for example, maybe changing the ratios that are set in law that say how many teachers you need available per the number of students and children you have in a daycare. So overall, we're seeing that lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have just struggled to pass a bill in this area. Unfortunately, that means that parents just are continuing to struggle and deal with these high prices.

Taylor Wilson:

Bailey Schulz covers money for USA TODAY. Thank you, Bailey.

Bailey Schulz:

Thank you.

Taylor Wilson:

Before we go, a reminder that 5 Things is now on YouTube. A limited number of our specials and Sunday episodes will now be available as vodcasts. We have a link in today's show notes. Thanks for listening to 5 Things. Dana Taylor is in for the Sunday episode tomorrow, and I'll see you Monday with more of 5 Things from USA TODAY.