Police order dispersal of gathering at UCLA as protests continue nationwide | The Excerpt

On today's episode of The Excerpt podcast: Pro-Palestinian protests continue on college campuses nationwide. USA TODAY Congress and Campaigns Reporter Savannah Kuchar looks at the impact of Florida's six-week abortion ban. Plus, the Arizona Senate has voted to repeal a near-total 1864 abortion ban. RFK Jr. proposes a 'no-spoiler' pledge with President Joe Biden to defeat former President Donald Trump. The Federal Reserve held its key interest rate steady Wednesday. USA TODAY Health Reporter Karen Weintraub has the latest from a bird flu outbreak.

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Hit play on the player below 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 today is Thursday, May 2nd, 2024. This is The Excerpt. Today, the latest from campus protests. Plus, we take a closer look at the impact of Florida's six-week abortion ban. And should you be worried about bird flu?

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Hundreds of police officers, many wearing tactical gear, filed onto UCLA's campus in Los Angeles last night. Police ordered a large group of pro-Palestinian demonstrators to leave or face arrest a night after violence erupted at their encampment by counter-protesters. Video posted on social media showed counter-demonstrators battering a makeshift barricade around pro-Palestinian protesters at the campus on Tuesday. UCLA canceled class yesterday after the incident. As the police force entered the campus last night to clear the encampment, some of the protesters were heard yelling at them, quote, "Where were you yesterday?" unquote. UCLA officials said the campus will resume operations on a limited basis today and tomorrow.

Elsewhere, 90 pro-Palestinian demonstrators were arrested at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire yesterday and several hundred protesters gathered for a peaceful demonstration at Ohio State University. School officials had locked up some buildings in anticipation of the demonstration. But unlike last week's protests, which led to almost 40 arrests, the crowd began dispersing around 9:00 p.m., and the demonstration ended before 10 o'clock. And in New York, Columbia University students and faculty continued demonstrations yesterday protesting the university's decision to send police on campus and arrest pro-Palestinian demonstrators.

Demonstrators:

Cops on campus. Cops on campus. Free, free Palestine. Free, free Palestine.

Taylor Wilson:

The NYPD announced almost 300 arrests had taken place Tuesday at Columbia and City College.

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Arizona's Senate has voted to repeal the near-total abortion ban from 1864. That's after the State Supreme Court said last month that the measure could stand. Along with banning abortions in all situations except life-threatening medical emergencies, the 19th century law imposes prison terms for doctors and others who aid in an abortion. The repeal will head to Democratic Governor Katie Hobbs for her signature. As the Senate was voting, Hobbs told reporters earlier in the day that she would sign it. Meanwhile, in Florida, a new abortion law took effect yesterday prohibiting most abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy. I spoke with USA TODAY Congress and campaigns reporter, Savannah Kuchar, for more. Savannah, thanks for hopping on The Excerpt today.

Savannah Kuchar:

Yeah, thanks for having me.

Taylor Wilson:

Let's just start with this, Savannah. What does this ban functionally do? How's it being implemented now that it's taken effect?

Savannah Kuchar:

This bans all abortions in almost every case after six weeks. It does make exceptions for rape, incest, and human trafficking provided that a woman can show documents proving that, so police records, restraining orders. The other thing it also bans is abortion drugs by mail, so it prevents doctors from prescribing medication abortion via telehealth appointments. Now, that will be potentially difficult to enforce, some experts say, so we'll have to see on that.

Taylor Wilson:

Florida Supreme Court green-lit these restrictions last month. Can you just remind us what happened in the courts leading up to this moment?

Savannah Kuchar:

The decision in April was a couple years in the making. In 2022, when the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and the national standard for abortion, Florida implemented a 15-week ban on abortion in their state. But this was challenged by opponents including Planned Parenthood and the ACLU. As that challenge was going through the court, the 15-week ban was allowed to go into effect. But then last year, the state legislature and Governor Ron DeSantis signed a six-week ban that was being held until the court came to a decision on the 15-week ban. So in April, the court allowed the 15-week ban to stand, which in effect triggered the six-week ban.

Taylor Wilson:

What are we hearing from patients and clinics in the state now that this ban is in place?

Savannah Kuchar:

We have heard from both providers and advocates that people in Florida, patients, residents, are already feeling the impact. Talking to clinics in the state, one told us that... she called this a public health crisis and said that she's devastated because she knows she's going to have to turn patients away if they're after six weeks, which many women don't know that they're pregnant before six weeks. So it's expected that many clinics are going to have to turn away many patients for abortions in the state.

Taylor Wilson:

Abortion opponents, Savannah, are presumably on board with this ban. What are we hearing from them?

Savannah Kuchar:

They're calling this a cause for celebration. They're saying that this is something that they believe Florida voters want to see in their state. One person I talked to from Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life said that she was happy to see this go into effect, that Florida will be joining the rest of the Southeast with the abortion ban. They say they're now focused on preventing this from reversing back in November.

Taylor Wilson:

How might this ban really ripple across the South?

Savannah Kuchar:

It's definitely expected to have impacts regionally. For starters, Florida was by comparison a access point for patients in the South, women and patients in Georgia or Alabama, places like that with either a six-week ban or a near total ban. They could come to Florida, which with its 15-week limit is less restrictive, and seek abortions there, but now, obviously, that option is taken away. Women in the South have lost that option to seek abortion care and will have to turn to either places like North Carolina or Virginia or leave the region. On the flip side, women in Florida are now expected to be the ones to travel to seek abortions. It's expected to increase travel for abortion and also put a strain on funds for abortion that a lot of aid organizations try to provide women to help them travel.

Taylor Wilson:

Savannah, what's next here? I know abortion will be on the ballots in Florida this fall.

Savannah Kuchar:

Next in Florida is a ballot measure in November that would enshrine abortion access in the state through viability, which is often around 24 weeks. So it would very much reverse the current ban, even going beyond what had been with the 15-week ban. Advocates say that they're confident it will pass. A poll from USA TODAY and Ipsos found that about 50% of Florida voters said they would support such a abortion measure. It does need 60% to pass, but we'll see what happens with that. So far, abortion ballot measures in other states have a perfect win streak for abortion rights' side. We'll have to see what happens in November and Florida.

Taylor Wilson:

Savannah Kuchar covers Congress and campaigns for USA TODAY. Thank you, Savannah.

Savannah Kuchar:

Thank you.

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Taylor Wilson:

Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. proposed to take a no-spoiler pledge with President Joe Biden at a campaign event in New York yesterday. The pledge, as he laid out, would have Kennedy and Biden co-fund a 50-state poll of more than 30,000 people in October that would pit each of them against former President Donald Trump in a two-man race and agreeing that whoever performs weakest against him will drop out of the presidential race. After presenting results from a campaign commissioned poll that showed scenarios where he could win against both Biden and Trump in separate head-to-head races, Kennedy alleged that Biden is actually the so-called spoiler in the race, not him. Democrats quickly rejected the argument yesterday. Democratic National Committee spokesperson, Matt Corridoni, called Kennedy a spoiler candidate in a statement.

Initially running as a Democrat in line with the Kennedy dynasty, the presidential hopeful switched parties to run as an independent. RFK appears to be drawing voters aged 18 to 34 and 35 to 49 away from Trump, according to a national poll released April 18th. The Florida Atlantic University and Main Street Research poll showed President Joe Biden narrowly leading Trump by a single point. But when RFK was added to the test ballot, Biden's lead over Trump grew to five points. Trump attacked RFK in a series of posts on his Truth Social account about a week after the poll was released, calling him a Democrat plant.

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The Federal Reserve held its key interest rates steady again yesterday and gave no signal that it plans to lower it anytime after a resurgence of inflation early this year. In a statement after a two-day meeting, the Fed said that, in recent months, there's been a lack of further progress toward the Fed's 2% inflation objective. The concerns about persistent inflation suggest the Fed likely will not be prepared to cut rates for at least a few months, if not longer. You can read more with the link in today's show notes.

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Government officials say they're closely monitoring the bird flu virus in food, livestock, and people. So should you be worried? I spoke with USA TODAY health reporter, Karen Weintraub, for the latest. Karen, thanks for hopping on.

Karen Weintraub:

Thanks for having me.

Taylor Wilson:

Karen, just to remind us here, what is bird flu?

Karen Weintraub:

Bird flu is a kind of flu that is normally found in birds, sorry, surprise, surprise, also called avian influenza and also called H5N1, which describes the type of flu that it is. It is not normally found in people. People have caught it from birds, but it is not the seasonal flu. The concern is it's been circulating since at least 1997 in birds, but it has jumped to a lot of other species recently, including bottlenose dolphins and cats and recently in the US into dairy cows. The concern there is that a lot of cows are in fairly close contact with people. And the closer contact with people, the more animals it's in, the more likely it is to get into people and to potentially become contagious from person to person. That's what we really need to worry about. Is it becoming a person-to-person virus?

Taylor Wilson:

Karen, are the workers who work around these animals protected?

Karen Weintraub:

We hope so, but we don't really know. The concern, again, is that a worker who is in close contact with chickens in the past and now with dairy cattle might come into contact with this virus. We know of one person in Texas who got the virus in their eye. They got conjunctivitis, red eyes from this. Nothing more serious than that, luckily. But people have died in the past from catching avian flu, so it can be very serious. We don't want to mess with it. Again, the real concern is if it adapts, if it changes and becomes contagious person to person.

Taylor Wilson:

For folks listening, Karen, what precautions can they take? Are there vaccines available, for instance?

Karen Weintraub:

There is a stockpile of vaccines, and there are some vaccines under development. The trick is to develop the vaccines fast enough for a virus that's changing really, really rapidly and a population that has no protection at all. I get the annual flu vaccine. I've had the flu in the past. I still would have no protection at all against this virus. The human body has never seen this virus before.

Taylor Wilson:

Karen, just how worried should folks be, especially when it comes to the food supply. Is it safe to eat chicken or beef right now?

Karen Weintraub:

The average person, general public is at no risk whatsoever at this point. It's only people who are farms. Or the one concern is people who drink unpasteurized milk. Never a good idea, particularly not a good idea right now. The danger is that this virus does seem to be fairly widespread in the milk supply in certain states, but in a number of states, so if you drink the milk, it's possible it could have unpasteurized milk, it could have avian flu in it. The commercial milk, the milk you buy in the grocery store shelves is pasteurized, so you don't have to worry about it. The FDA said they've also checked things like cottage cheese and sour cream. All of that comes from pasteurized milk. It's safe. There has been no evidence for beef cattle. So as far as we know, beef is safe. Chopped meat, hamburgers, all of that is safe. A concern might be if you have backyard chickens. People need to take precautions for backyard animals at this point.

Taylor Wilson:

All right, Karen Weintraub covers health for USA TODAY. Thank you, Karen.

Karen Weintraub:

Thank you.

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Taylor Wilson:

Be sure to stay tuned to The Excerpt later today when my co-host Dana Taylor chats with Jason Frakes and Kirby Adams from the Courier Journal ahead of this weekend's 150th Kentucky Derby. You can find the episode right here on this feed beginning at 4:00 p.m. Eastern time. Thanks for listening to The Excerpt. You can get the podcast wherever you get your audio. If you're on a smart speaker, just ask for The Excerpt. I'm Taylor Wilson back tomorrow with more of The Excerpt from USA TODAY.