On today's episode of the 5 Things podcast: A federal judge blocks a Biden administration policy that limits migrant access to asylum

A federal judge in Oakland blocks a Biden administration rule that limits migrant access to asylum.  Plus, an Atlantic Ocean current could collapse soon, UPS and Teamsters reach a tentative agreement, poll workers are in demand and getting a pay raise, and Biden honors Emmett Till. 

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Dana Taylor:

Good morning. I'm Dana Taylor and this is 5 Things you need to know Wednesday, the 26th of July 2023. A federal judge in Oakland blocks a Biden administration policy that limits migrants access to asylum, an Atlantic Ocean current could collapse, and UPS and Teamsters avoid a massive strike by reaching a tentative agreement.

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A federal judge in California struck down a new Biden administration policy that sought to limit the number of migrants seeking asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border. The ruling is a major blow to the White House's efforts to stem migration. U.S. District Court Judge Jon Tigar of the Northern District of California, a President Obama appointee, ruled Tuesday on behalf of immigrant rights groups, the groups that challenged a Biden policy requiring migrants heading to the US border to first seek protection in Mexico before attempting to do so in the U.S. In his judgment, Judge Tigar wrote that the rule is both substantively and procedurally invalid, and said the hastiness of the Biden administration's push to implement the policy "denied the public a meaningful opportunity to comment on the rule." The judge delayed his ruling from taking effect for two weeks. The Department of Justice filed a notice that it planned to appeal the decision.

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An Atlantic Ocean current could collapse soon. Dor more on the possible effects, we're joined by USA TODAY Breaking News Reporter Doyle Rice. It's good to talk to you, Doyle.

Doyle Rice:

It's great to be on.

Dana Taylor:

So first, can you please explain what the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (or AMOC) is and how it works?

Doyle Rice:

Yeah. It's a natural part of the earth's current system, kind of underwater streams that go from the depths of the ocean up to the surface and around the entire Atlantic. Believe it or not, these currents affect our weather. These underwater currents affect the atmosphere and can change weather for us here above the surface.

Dana Taylor:

And how might climate change cause the AMOC to collapse? I mean, it sounds like the premise for that movie with Dennis Quaid and Jake Gyllenhaal, The Day After Tomorrow.

Doyle Rice:

Yes, that was ... the premise of that movie was an instantaneous shutdown or collapse of the ocean current, and that caused almost immediate climate changes. And while the climate changes that we're anticipating would occur, they probably wouldn't occur as fast as they did in that movie. And as far as how our own climate is changing the current, yeah, it has to do with how much salt is in the water. See, what's happening is the ice sheets on Greenland are melting, and that's fresh water. And that gets into this current and can change it from being its normal salty self to fresh water or brackish water. And that can really mess up the current.

Dana Taylor:

So if the AMOC does collapse, how would that affect weather patterns?

Doyle Rice:

Yeah, they're saying that there would be more sea level rise along the East Coast of the United States. So some of the parts to the, the coast would be underwater. And also there would be more hurricanes and more winter storms as well, because the water would be warmer, and that fuels these storms. And the other thing is it would also affect precipitation patterns in the central and western United States. So there would be a lot less rain, and so there'd be more droughts.

Dana Taylor:

Well, there've been other studies of the AMOC in the past. What's new in this one?

Doyle Rice:

Yes. The way that the scientists came about with their conclusions, they used a statistical model that went back in time and they were able to go further back in the history of the ocean currents. And for the last 150 years, they were able to replicate what had happened to the ocean currents over those 150 years. And based on what they saw in the past and what they're projecting in the future, they said that the current could actually undergo a collapse sometime this century. And amazingly, as soon as 2025, which is only two years away, to as late as the end of the century. And they're saying that there's like a 95% chance that it will collapse.

Dana Taylor:

But not all groups agree with the conclusions of this study. What are other groups saying?

Doyle Rice:

Yeah, there's other scientists who say, whoa, let's pump the brakes on this study. Let's think about it first. That that one statistical study that these scientists did isn't necessarily the be all and end all of the studies. That there is some indication that we might have a partial collapse or a slowdown, but as far as a complete collapse, that's not what some of the scientists say. This is just one study.

Dana Taylor:

Doyle, this sounds like a catastrophe waiting to happen. Should we be worried?

Doyle Rice:

I would say it's something to consider. Climate change, as we continue to pump these greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, there's going to be more and more impacts from what we're doing, and it's just another reason that we should be reducing the amount of carbon dioxide that we're putting into the atmosphere.

Dana Taylor:

Doyle, interesting stuff. Thank you so much for being on the show.

Doyle Rice:

Oh, thank you. I appreciate it very much. Thank you.

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Dana Taylor:

After months of negotiations, strike threats and walkout talks, UPS and Teamsters, the union representing 340,000 UPS workers, have reached a tentative agreement on a new five year labor contract. The agreement avoided what would've been the largest single employer strike in U.S. history and came after the groups resumed talks earlier this week. The Teamsters released a statement saying in part, "The overwhelmingly lucrative contract raises wages for all workers, creates more full-time jobs, and includes dozens of workplace protections and improvements." The Teamsters' National Negotiating Committee unanimously supported the tentative agreement for the full new contract.

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Poll workers across the country may be getting a raise. USA TODAY National Political Correspondent Phillip M. Bailey joins us now with more. Hi Phillip. Thanks for jumping on.

Phillip M. Bailey:

No problem, Dana. How are you?

Dana Taylor:

Great. So you write that poll workers are getting a pay hike ahead of the 2024 election. Why is that?

Phillip M. Bailey:

Well, look, poll workers - the people who do the real work, who administer and oversee our elections, the people we give our ballots to - so across the country, these folks have been bombarded with online harassment in-person acts of intimidation, even death threats. And largely because of the conspiracy theories that stem from the 2020 presidential election. So a lot of these different states, Republican and Democratic states, are looking to do these pay incentives to sort of keep those folks in these ranks, but also attract new people, given so how many folks have left since 2020.

Dana Taylor:

So, as you mentioned, the threat of political violence or online harassment is very real. How are election officials saying they'll keep poll workers safe?

Phillip M. Bailey:

Well, we wrote about this earlier in the year as well. Multiple states have moved to create new poll worker protections. So different states have made different efforts to, for example, ban and forbid and make it illegal to dox, to expose poll workers' information online, raising the penalties for people who do threaten or intimidate poll workers.

Dana Taylor:

Will there be more security physically on site?

Phillip M. Bailey:

I think you will see that. I think there is going to be an effort to fortify some of these polling locations and also these election centers where all the votes go and they're eventually tallied, particularly at the presidential level. This is going to be the first presidential election since the attacks on our Capitol on January 6th, 2021. And there's a huge amount of anxiety around that. I think you will see state police, I think you certainly see the FBI and the Justice Department provide investigations and warnings, and look out for any threats at polling locations at state capitals, certainly at the U.S. Capitol. But, I think we're going to see more and more of this for the years to come because we haven't fully reconciled, even though we've prosecuted a lot of these folks who stormed the Capitol on January 6th, there is this lingering sort of threat and feeling that our democracy needs a booster shot, if anything else.

Dana Taylor:

Well, as you mentioned, there's a lot of anxiety out there. Is morale among poll workers an issue?

Phillip M. Bailey:

The polling that the Brennan Center for Justice has done does indicate that there is a lot of low morale among poll workers, roughly three quarters of local election workers. Remember, these are the folks who are our neighbors, right? People we go to church with who are in social clubs with, who we see it at ball games. Roughly three quarters of these folks said that they feel that threats against them have increased in recent years. Look, every Secretary of State I've interviewed - it doesn't matter if it's a Republican from Alabama, a Democrat from Colorado, it doesn't matter who it is - they all tell me that we need poll workers. There's no way we can have a democracy. We can talk about police and firefighters and the military. But the people who actually have the lifeblood of our democracy are the people who count those votes, people who take your ballot and put them in the machines or help you out with them, or help you fill out your ballot or tell you where to go for your right precinct. Those are the folks who are the lifeblood of democracy, and those are the folks that we need the most.

Dana Taylor:

Okay, Philip, one last question for our listeners who are interested in volunteering, what kinds of raises are you seeing?

Phillip M. Bailey:

Well, I will say this. People will ask me that question about what's the pay like. You're not going to become a millionaire, you're not going to get rich doing this. But for example, a state like Oklahoma, they are raising election inspectors, is what they call them in their state. Election inspectors are going to get a 125% pay hike, from $110 a day to $225 per day. While you're paying these folks, we've got to train these folks, too. And the different innovative ways that the Brennan Center and others are thinking about doing this, one of them that's very interesting [is] this group called Vet the Vote. It's a national group that's launched a campaign to recruit 100,000 poll workers, drawing them from retired military service members and their families to be the next generation of poll workers. The idea being that, hey, look, there's a group of patriotic Americans who want to serve the country, who have served the country, and maybe wanna serve it in a different capacity. Who better to be on the front lines of our democracy?

Dana Taylor:

Phillip, thank you so much for your insights.

Phillip M. Bailey:

No problem.

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Dana Taylor:

A national monument dedicated to Emmett Till and his mother, Mamie Till Mobley, will finally be a reality after years of efforts to prompt federal recognition of the teenager, whose brutal 1955 killing in Mississippi helped spark the civil rights movement. President Joe Biden announced the decision Tuesday, which would've been Emmett Till's 82nd birthday.

President Joe Biden:

Insisting on an open casket for her murdered, and I might add maimed and mutilated son, 14 years old. 14 years old. She said, let the people see what I've seen, let the people see what I have seen.

Dana Taylor:

In a release accompanying the announcement, the Biden administration said the designation of a national monument honoring Till built on its work to advance civil rights and racial justice, including Biden signing of the Emmett Till Anti-Lynching Act earlier this year. The act codified lynching as a federal hate crime.

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And before we go, the U.S. is playing their second World Cup game this evening when they go head to head with the Netherlands, rated one of the top 10 teams at the World Cup. Kickoff is at 9:00 PM Eastern.

Thanks for listening to 5 Things. I'm Dana Taylor filling in for Taylor Wilson. If you like the show, please subscribe and leave us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. If you have any comments, you can reach us at podcasts@usatoday.com. Join us again tomorrow for another episode of 5 Things.

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