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just for our listeners. Good

0:28

morning, I'm Taylor Wilson and today is

0:30

Thursday, March 14th, 2024. This

0:33

is The Excerpt. Today,

0:39

the murky future of TikTok in the

0:41

U.S. Plus, a Georgia judge

0:43

dismisses several charges in the Trump election

0:45

racketeering case and we take a look

0:48

at how some school districts are helping

0:50

teachers with housing. The

0:53

House has approved a bill targeting TikTok, putting

0:56

the future of the popular app in the

0:58

United States up in the air. I

1:00

caught up with USA Today Congress and

1:03

campaigns reporter Riley Beggin for the latest.

1:05

Riley, thanks for hopping on The Excerpt today. Of course.

1:08

So the House approved this TikTok bill

1:10

yesterday. What would it functionally

1:12

do, Riley, and why do proponents say

1:15

it's necessary? It's been described often

1:17

as a ban, but that's not

1:19

exactly what it would do. It

1:21

would essentially force the parent company

1:23

of TikTok, which is called ByteDance,

1:26

to sell the app within around

1:28

six months. And if they do

1:30

not do that, that would be

1:32

banned in the United States. And

1:34

essentially it would be deplatform, prevented

1:37

from being shared on the app

1:39

stores and stuff like that. And

1:41

the argument for it, ByteDance is

1:43

a Beijing-based company. It's a Chinese

1:45

company. So TikTok

1:47

has an American subsidiary,

1:49

but lawmakers that have

1:52

concerns about this are worried

1:54

about the Chinese government's potential

1:57

influence over Americans' data

1:59

here. Some people are worried

2:01

about propaganda going through the app

2:03

and influencing Americans, and then other

2:05

sort of national security risks. And you know,

2:08

this vote passed overwhelmingly in the House, but

2:10

a group of House lawmakers have warned against

2:12

a ban like this. What's their

2:14

argument, Riley? There were about 65 people

2:17

who voted against the bill in

2:19

the House. Their explanations really run

2:21

the gamut. So something that

2:23

we hear a lot is First Amendment concerns,

2:26

you know, worried that it would be restricting

2:28

Americans' freedom of speech. People

2:30

have said that this process was rushed. It

2:32

just passed through committee late last week. People

2:36

have said it's bad policy, that instead we

2:38

should have actual standards for social media companies,

2:40

that we should be doing more for data

2:42

privacy. And then another thing

2:45

is concerns that it could hurt small businesses,

2:47

because a lot of people make money on

2:49

TikTok. The people who

2:51

voted against this really sort of

2:53

ran the gamut. We had really

2:56

progressive lawmakers like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and

2:58

Ilhan Omar, and really

3:00

conservative members like Marjorie Taylor Greene

3:02

that voted against it. The House

3:04

Intelligence Chair, Jim Himes, voted against

3:06

it. Nancy Mace cited constitutional issues.

3:09

So a wide range of people.

3:11

You don't see them all agreeing

3:13

that often. So what does

3:15

TikTok say about these concerns over

3:17

user data? And what does this

3:19

lobbying campaign from them look like

3:21

in recent weeks? TikTok has

3:24

been really pushing back. They have prompted

3:26

their users to call members of Congress

3:28

and tell them to oppose the bill.

3:30

There are a lot of members who

3:32

have told us that they think that

3:34

that approach backfired. Top influencers on the

3:36

platform have come to the Capitol to

3:39

speak with lawmakers. There was a protest

3:41

outside the Capitol yesterday when the House

3:43

bill passed. And then this

3:45

week, the CEO of TikTok came to the

3:47

Hill to speak with lawmakers. And there are

3:49

some senators who have said, no, I'm

3:52

not going to meet with him. And then TikTok says,

3:55

your data is safe with us. They say

3:57

TikTok stores its American user data in the

3:59

United States. that is managed solely

4:01

by a US-based data security team

4:04

since mid-2022. There

4:06

has been some reporting that has indicated

4:08

that that may not be the whole

4:10

picture. The data of paid

4:12

content creators is stored on servers in

4:14

China, according to reporting by Forbes from

4:16

last year. So there

4:18

are a couple ways to sort of look

4:20

at that claim. So Riley, the bill

4:22

now, of course, needs the Senate to pass.

4:25

What are you hearing about its chances there

4:27

in that chamber and what's next going forward?

4:30

I would say for the most part, senators

4:32

share the concerns of the folks in the

4:34

House about the national security vulnerabilities here. But

4:37

there's definitely less of a

4:40

unanimous agreement for the bill.

4:43

The two top senators on the Intelligence

4:45

Committee, Mark Warner and Marco Rubio, conservative

4:48

Senator Josh Hawley, the number two

4:50

Republican in the Senate, John Thune,

4:53

have all said that they are for this.

4:55

But at the same time, there are a

4:57

lot of senators who have raised other concerns.

4:59

They're worried that the House bill might not

5:01

be legal for President Trump. Try

5:03

to ban TikTok when he was president and

5:05

the courts blocked him. So that's sort

5:07

of the backdrop of a lot of people's thoughts about this. There's

5:11

conversations about alternative solutions, like making

5:13

it easier for the Commerce Department

5:15

to regulate foreign apps. And

5:18

then Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky has said

5:20

he would block speedy passage. They need unanimous

5:22

consent, all 100 votes in

5:25

the Senate, to avoid moving

5:27

through the multi-day process of

5:29

considering legislation. He said to

5:31

me, in a free country, you don't take people's

5:33

companies. He thinks it violates the First Amendment. So

5:35

he is, at the very least, going to do

5:38

his best to stop it. President

5:40

Biden has said that he would sign this

5:42

bill if it got to his desk. So

5:44

if it makes it through the Senate, then

5:46

the indications are good that the president would support

5:48

it. Riley Bagan covers Congress and

5:51

campaigns for USA Today. Great

5:53

update for us here. Thanks, Riley. Of

5:55

course. Thank

5:58

you. Georgia judge

6:00

presiding over former President Donald Trump's

6:03

case for allegedly trying to steal

6:05

the Twenty Twenty election dismiss six

6:07

charges yesterday. Fulton County Judge Scott

6:09

Mcafee did so because they were

6:12

not specific enough against Trump and

6:14

several codefendants. It is miss.

6:16

Charges allege a mass public officials

6:18

to violate their oath of office

6:20

by switching presidential electors from those

6:22

for President Joe Biden the one

6:24

Georgia to Trump. Still, The

6:27

judge less thirty five charges and place

6:29

in the indictment. And you attacks

6:31

described in the indictment like Trump's call to

6:33

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Rapids Burger when

6:35

he asked him to find the votes needed

6:37

to give him victory in the state. The.

6:40

Judge said the ass could still be alleged

6:42

as part of the conspiracy. Is.

6:44

Not yet scheduled the trial and

6:46

is also considering whether to disqualify

6:48

Fulton County District Attorney Funny Willis

6:51

and Special Prosecutor Nathan Way from

6:53

the case. The

6:58

portion of Us adults who identify

7:00

as other than heterosexual as more

7:03

than doubled since Twenty Twelve. According

7:05

to a Gallup poll, about seven

7:07

point six percent of adults in

7:09

the country identify as Lgbtq plus

7:11

or something other than heterosexual. That's

7:14

compared to around five and a half percent

7:16

for years ago, and three and a half

7:18

percent in Twenty twelve. Now. Was

7:20

the year the National Polling

7:22

Agency began measuring sexual orientation

7:24

and transgender identity. The. Authors

7:27

said that if trends continue, the share

7:29

of Lgbtq plus adults in the U

7:31

will exceed ten percent within the next

7:34

thirty years. Branded. Robinson and

7:36

associate professor and Department chair of

7:38

Gender and Sexuality Studies at the

7:40

University of California Riverside said the

7:43

growing numbers show that people sense

7:45

greater societal acceptance. And. Or

7:47

support systems for those who

7:50

identify as Lgbtq plus. with

7:56

rising rents some school districts around

7:58

the country are trying to find

8:00

teachers affordable housing. I spoke

8:02

with USA Today breaking news reporter Claire

8:05

Thornton for more. Claire thanks

8:07

for hopping on the excerpt today. Thanks for

8:09

having me Taylor. So Claire

8:11

how big of an issue is unaffordable

8:13

housing for teachers? It is

8:15

a quite

8:17

enormous issue. Housing

8:20

prices have gone up everywhere

8:22

and even in school districts where

8:24

teacher salaries have increased in the

8:27

last couple of years, economic

8:29

data shows that the salary

8:31

increases have not increased nearly

8:34

enough to keep up with

8:36

rising housing costs. And so

8:38

districts are having a

8:41

hard time recruiting teachers

8:43

and at the same time rising

8:45

housing costs are pushing teachers out

8:47

of some school districts. So

8:50

Claire some school districts are now building

8:52

housing for their teachers. What

8:55

does this look like and what are some of the districts

8:57

that are doing this? It is

8:59

a very complicated process but

9:01

in the end when a

9:03

school district is actually able

9:06

to have some rental apartment

9:08

units available for district staff,

9:10

not a lot but some,

9:13

they're able to offer it at less

9:16

than half of market rate. So

9:18

that means paying as little as $800

9:20

a month or a thousand dollars

9:25

a month for a one-bedroom

9:28

in California. But it

9:30

takes years to get to that point.

9:32

Districts have to cobble together

9:34

different funding from anything they

9:36

have that they can use

9:38

to build and get

9:41

money often from the city and

9:43

other non-profit sources. Very

9:45

very few school

9:47

districts, a very small minority,

9:49

actually have teacher housing in

9:52

the U.S. but many more

9:54

are considering it. And Claire you talked

9:56

about some of the complications here. In particular,

10:00

It's curious when a teacher's employer

10:02

then becomes their landlord as

10:04

well. Can you talk about that complication? One

10:07

district leader who I spoke to

10:09

in California said, Oh,

10:12

it's like a dorm for teachers, but

10:14

he said that that criticism, he has

10:16

only ever heard that from teachers who

10:18

don't live in the teacher housing, who

10:21

have their own housing. And

10:23

he said that because of

10:25

the below market rates that

10:27

their district is able to offer

10:30

the people who are in those

10:32

units are really glad they're there.

10:34

School districts have not historically been

10:36

in the business of

10:39

creating housing and housing

10:42

advocates and education advocates

10:44

have said, it's

10:46

not good that we've gotten to

10:49

this point that school districts have

10:51

become the backstop against America's insane

10:54

housing crisis. Schools

10:57

don't really have extra time

10:59

and energy to be creating

11:01

housing, but they're doing

11:03

it because they feel like they have no other

11:05

choice. So Claire, what other

11:07

solutions are on the horizon? Is this

11:09

a matter of just paying teachers more

11:12

or what else is being discussed? It is

11:14

a yes and scenario.

11:16

Advocates and experts and district

11:19

leaders who I spoke to

11:21

said that teachers' salaries

11:23

across the board absolutely

11:26

need to be raised. Teachers

11:29

are not making enough to make ends

11:31

meet, but because of

11:33

the way school districts are funded

11:35

in the U.S., in many cases,

11:38

teachers' salaries are set and

11:41

allocated based on a limited

11:43

amount of tax revenue. So

11:46

even if a district had all the

11:48

intention in the world of raising teacher

11:50

salaries, there's only so much they can

11:52

do to put more money in the

11:55

hands of teachers because of the way

11:57

our education system is structured.

12:00

So it's a yes and situation because

12:02

even with teacher raises

12:05

that have been able to benefit teachers,

12:08

it's still not enough for them to afford market

12:11

rate housing. Claire Thornton covers poverty

12:13

and social services for USA Today.

12:16

Great insight as always, Claire. Thanks so

12:18

much. Thanks, Taylor. The

12:23

existence of menopause in humans has

12:25

long been a biological conundrum, but

12:27

scientists are now getting a better

12:29

understanding from whales. Findings

12:32

of a new study suggest that

12:34

menopause gives an evolutionary advantage to

12:36

grandmother whales grandchildren. A paper

12:38

published yesterday in the journal Nature

12:41

looked at 32 whale species, five

12:43

of which undergo menopause. In

12:45

those species, researchers' findings suggest that

12:47

menopause evolved so that grandmothers could

12:50

help their daughter's offspring without competing

12:52

with them for mates. Those findings

12:54

support what's known as the grandmother

12:56

hypothesis. It states that

12:58

menopause is evolutionarily useful because while

13:00

older women are no longer able

13:02

to have children, they can instead

13:04

focus their efforts on supporting their

13:06

children and grandchildren. This means

13:09

their family lines are more likely to survive.

13:12

You can read more with a link in today's

13:14

show notes. And be

13:16

sure to stay tuned to the excerpt

13:18

later today when my co-host Dana Taylor

13:20

talks with Kenneth Miller, professor of Earth

13:22

and Planetary Sciences at Rutgers University about

13:24

how living right on the water on

13:26

the eastern seaboard might be a

13:29

riskier venture than you thought. You

13:31

can find the episode right here on this

13:33

feed beginning at 4pm Eastern Time. And

13:36

today is Pi Day, celebrating the

13:39

mathematical constant known as pi. It's

13:41

marked on March 14th since pi is typically

13:44

rounded to 3.14. It

13:47

can actually go on forever, though the most

13:49

accurate value, according to Guinness World Records, is

13:52

more than 62 trillion digits.

13:55

Thanks for listening to the excerpt. You can

13:57

get the podcast wherever you get your audio. on

14:00

a smart speaker, just ask for the excerpt. I'm

14:03

Taylor Wilson, back tomorrow with all

14:05

of the excerpts from USA Today.

14:20

If you like USA Today's Be Excerpt,

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