On today’s episode of the 5 Things podcast: Denver shooter foreshadowed rampage in series of books
He killed at least 5 people earlier this week. Plus, weather reporter Doyle Rice talks about how hurricanes farther north will become more common due to climate change, Ghislaine Maxwell has been found guilty, President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin hop on a call and USA TODAY Sports’ Lorenzo Reyes tells us the story of the Madden video games.
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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, Thursday, the 30th of December 2021. Today, disturbing new details about this week’s Denver shooter. Plus, how hurricanes will become more common farther north, due to climate change, and more.
Here are some of the top headlines:
- COVID-19 cases in the US have reached their highest level on record. New cases per day have more than doubled over the past week, and are now at more than 265,000 a day.
- The CDC is now monitoring 92 cruise ships for coronavirus. It’s still not clear if the cruise industry will, again, shut down amid the omicron surge.
- And Iran has launched a satellite carrier rocket into space. The country maintains its satellite launches and rocket tests do not have a military component.
We’re learning more this week about the Denver mass shooter, who killed at least five people on Monday. The gunman apparently published a series of books, foreshadowing some of this week’s violence. That includes writing about a main character who brutally murders people inside a tattoo parlor, along the same street as one of the shootings. And in a terrifying development, he mentioned two of the victims by name in the book, Michael Swinyard and Alicia Cardenas. Police also say the gunman, identified as 47-year-old Lyndon James McLeod, had personal or business relationships with nearly all the victims. He also died after a gunfight with police. And authorities say McLeod was already known to them after investigating him twice before, last year and earlier this year, though neither investigation led to criminal charges. His books are no longer available on Amazon, and a Patreon link to an audio book has been disabled. The gunman opened fire at several locations across the Denver area, beginning after 5:00 PM this past Monday.
A new study finds that northern hurricanes will become more and more common, as the planet continues to warm. That puts cities like New York and Boston at risk. Weather Reporter Doyle Rice explains.
Doyle Rice:
The connection between climate change and hurricanes has been a big study area over the last few decades, and this particular study looks at how hurricanes are going to potentially move farther north than they used to. The study shows that they’re going to be moving a little bit closer to cities such as New York and Boston than they have in the past. So it’s kind of a new way of looking at how hurricanes are going to be impacted by climate change.
They looked at storms, more like Hurricane Henri, which was one this last year, that just kind of came up and affected New England, and that was kind of an unusual storm, because storms usually don’t go that far north. And so this was one that they looked at and said it could be a harbinger of future storms to come. The research into how hurricanes and climate change impact each other is ongoing, and I see this as a way to look at how these two, hurricanes and climate change, will affect each other, as a big source of research for the decades to come.
Taylor Wilson:
For Doyle’s full story, check out our link in today’s episode description.
Ghislaine Maxwell has been found guilty. The British socialite was convicted of luring underage girls to be sexually abused by Jeffrey Epstein, and the verdict came after a monthlong trial full of testimony from victims, some as young as 14 at the time, who described being abused at Epstein’s homes in the 1990s and 2000s. US Attorney, Damian Williams, commended their testimonies.
Damian Williams:
The road to justice has been far too long, but today, justice has been done. I want to commend the bravery of the girls, now grown women, who stepped out of the shadows and into the courtroom. Their courage and willingness to face their abuser made today’s result, and this case, possible.
Taylor Wilson:
Jurors deliberated on their decision for five days, before finding Maxwell guilty of five of six counts. She was largely stoic as the verdict was read, and looked around at her siblings who attended each day of the trial. She notably did not hug her lawyers, in a shift from previous days. Defense attorney, Bobbi Sternheim, said after the verdict, that they plan to fight the decision.
Bobbi Sternheim:
We firmly believe in Ghislaine’s innocence. Obviously, we are very disappointed with the verdict. We have already started working on the appeal, and we are confident that she will be vindicated.
Taylor Wilson:
The main argument the defense painted was that Maxwell was a kind of scapegoat to deliver justice to women deprived of their main villain, when Epstein died in prison while awaiting trial in 2019. But Maxwell now, likely, faces years in prison herself, possibly the rest of her life. No sentencing date has been set, but will likely take place early next year.
President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin will hold a call together today. The chat comes as US and Russian officials are set to meet next month amid fresh tensions between the two countries. Over the past few months, Russia has built up a true presence along the Eastern border of Ukraine. And Biden, along with other allies, are threatening tough economic sanctions, if the situation escalates. Biden, earlier this month, told Putin he preferred a diplomatic solution, but Putin has repeatedly made public demands to the US and other countries in regards to Ukraine relations, and Biden emphasized that consequences could be severe.
Joe Biden:
If in fact he invades Ukraine there will be severe consequences, severe consequences, economic consequences like none he’s ever seen, or ever had been seen, in terms of being imposed. He knows. His immediate response was, he understood that, and I indicated I knew he would respond. But beyond that, if in fact, we would probably also be required to reinforce our presence in NATO countries, to reassure, particularly those in the Eastern front. In addition to that, I made it clear that we would provide the defensive capability to the Ukrainians as well.
Taylor Wilson:
For all the latest, stay with our World News section, on USATODAY.com.
As we continue to remember football legend John Madden this week, many are reminiscing about how important his namesake NFL video games have been in their lives. But what’s the backstory? It turns out Madden was not actually the first choice as the game’s pitchman. USA Today Sports’ Lorenzo Reyes has the story.
Lorenzo Reyes:
This guy, Trip Hawkins, he was looking to get this football simulation video game started, and it was very early in the programming stages. A lot of the particulars hadn’t even been worked out, but he knew that he would need a figure, some prominent person to be that pitchman, to just get the game popular, and spread the word and all that.
So actually, John Madden, believe it or not, was the third choice in all of this. The first choice was Joe Montana, but he had an endorsement deal with Atari. It was a competing endorsement, so obviously, Joe Montana couldn’t do it. And then Joe Kapp, who was, at the time, the Cal Bears coach, he was approached, but he wanted royalties, and at the time, because it was a startup, Hawkins had just started EA sports, and they didn’t have a lot of money to throw around. So Kapp was out. And then they approached Madden, and Madden really was by all accounts, taken, and he really found Hawkins’ pedigree appealing. He went to Harvard, he worked at Apple, and he was a football fan. And those were the ingredients that really got Madden to sign on, and the rest is history.
I think one of the biggest parts of the appeal to Madden, was that he wanted this to be an educational thing. I think at first, he even thought it might be used, potentially, in coaching and player development. But then, I think, he also realized it could be something that would bring the game to a wider group of people, who weren’t maybe even considering the NFL or football in general. But as this takes off, when the first John Madden football game is released in 1989, Hawkins goes to Madden and says, “Hey, we’re about to launch an IPO. You’ve been patient with us. You’ve been so good to us. Basically, take as much stock as you want, but you have to pay for it at the IPO price.” And Madden says, basically, “I’ve given you my time, I don’t know about stocks, I’m a football coach, I’m not doing any of that.”
At the time, the price per stock was $7.50, and then 10 years later it was $70, and Madden said, it was “one of the dumbest things he’s done in his life.” But don’t feel too bad for him. This game is so popular, over the decades that it’s been around, they’ve sold more than 130 million copies. It’s grossed more than $4 billion, with a B, dollars. So yeah, he definitely did okay, but he still left some meat on the bone there.
Taylor Wilson:
For more on John Madden, who died this week at the age of 85, head to USA TODAY Sports.
And you can find 5 Things wherever you find your pods, seven mornings a week, year round. Thanks to PJ Elliott for his great work on the show. And I’m back tomorrow, with more of 5 Things, from USA TODAY.
