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Shumita Basu, Narrating: Good morning! It's Friday, April 7th. I'm Shumita Basu. This is "Apple News Today." On today's show, a historic vote expelling two Black Tennessee lawmakers, Johnson & Johnson offers nearly nine billion dollars to settle talcum powder lawsuits and what you should know about LED light bulbs.
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But first, "ProPublica" reports that Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas reportedly accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in gifts from a billionaire Republican donor for decades. Its investigation reveals trips on private jets and yachts. Vacations at lavish estates. Spending time at an exclusive all-male retreat.
"ProPublica" reports that Thomas failed to list these trips on financial disclosures, potentially violating federal law. Retired federal judges and ethics lawyers were surprised by the extent of the gifts. "ProPublica" says they appear to have no precedent in the history of the Court. Justin Elliott is one of the reporters on the story.
Justin Elliott: Turns out the Supreme Court justices, like other government officials, are required to report most gifts. The reason for that is so people can understand who's trying to influence them, assess potential conflicts of interest. And according to ethics lawyers we spoke to, Clarence Thomas appears to have been violating that disclosure law.
Justice Thomas has been scrutinized for his ethical standards before, over potential conflicts of interest involving his wife's political activities. Following this "ProPublica" report, several Democratic lawmakers are renewing their calls for tighter ethics rules for Supreme Court justices.
Elliott: The sort of mechanisms of enforcement and accountability within the Supreme Court itself are very opaque and appear to be largely up to the Supreme Court, perhaps the Chief Justice, and they have not been responding to any questions so far.
The man behind the gifts to Thomas is Harlan Crow, a real-estate billionaire and GOP power player.
Elliott: He's given at least over 10 million dollars to mostly Republican political campaigns, but he is also funded and sits on the board of think tanks such as the American Enterprise Institute, so Harlan Crow has been very involved in not just funding political campaigns, but specifically in funding conservative approaches to the law.
"ProPublica" found that many of the people Crow invites on his trips are very active in law and politics. Justice Thomas did not respond to questions from "ProPublica." Crow said Thomas didn't ask for anything he gave him, that it's similar to what he has done for other friends and that he's never tried to influence Thomas on a legal or political issue.
"ProPublica" has done extensive work and uncovered a lot of details, from the huge potential costs, down to the embroidering on a custom polo shirt that Thomas wore commemorating one of the yacht trips. You can read the whole story on the Apple News app.
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And now, let's briefly talk about a few stories we're following today. Violence is escalating in the Mideast, with Israel launching new attacks today on sites in Lebanon and Gaza. It says it's retaliating for missiles launched into Israel, which it blames on Hamas. Tensions have been high lately, following Israeli police raids on Muslim worshipers at the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. It's at a place Jewish worshipers call the Temple Mount, one of the most sacred sites to both faiths, and a longtime flashpoint for tensions between Israelis and Palestinians. The U.S. State Department says Israel has the right to defend itself. It also says it's concerned about the police action at the mosque. Videos have shown Israeli police beating worshippers during raids.
Here in the U.S., Tennessee Republicans voted to expel two Black Democratic lawmakers from the state House of Representatives, Justin Pearson and Justin Jones. You can hear the crowd reaction as it became official.
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Unidentified Speaker: I hereby declare Representative Justin J. Pearson of the 86th Representative District expelled from the House of Representatives of the 113th General Assembly of the state of Tennessee.
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A vote to expel a white Democrat, Gloria Johnson, fell short. Republicans say the three state lawmakers violated rules by leading an anti-gun protest in the chamber, after the deadly school shooting in Nashville. Expulsions have only happened twice there in more than 150 years, involving bribery and sexual-harassment allegations. Pearson and Jones could return if they're appointed to their seats and win in special elections.
And finally, there are several major developments involving transgender athletes in schools. The Biden administration is proposing new regulations that would prevent blanket bans on transgender competitors. Laws like this are currently in place in 20 states. But the administration's proposal would also allow schools to bar transgender athletes in some cases. Schools would have to make the case that a ban serves an important educational objective and minimizes harm to others. The administration's proposal relates to compliance with Title 9, a longstanding federal law barring sex discrimination in education.
Now separately, the Supreme Court is siding with a transgender girl, who is fighting a West Virginia law barring trans athletes from female sports teams. She won an earlier ruling putting the law on hold, allowing her to remain on her middle school track team. In the Supreme Court's first time addressing the issue of trans athletes, it refused to reinstate the law while it's being challenged in court.
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After years of lawsuits across the country, Johnson & Johnson is offering 8.9 billion dollars to settle claims about its talcum powder. "Reuters" reporter Mike Spector is covering the case.
Mike Spector: Plaintiffs accuse Johnson & Johnson of causing their cancer, various gynecological cancers and mesothelioma, which is a fatal cancer connected to asbestos exposure.
A "Reuters" investigation in 2018 found J&J knew for decades… about tests showing talc in baby powder and other products sometimes had asbestos, a carcinogen. "Reuters" reported that the information was kept from the public and regulators. The company has long argued that its products are safe. It says a settlement is not an admission that it did anything wrong.
J&J previously tried to offload liability for talc products to a subsidiary, which filed for bankruptcy. A court rejected that. The new settlement number is billions more than what the company offered before. For this latest offer to go through, those suing have to accept it.
Spector: If they get enough talc plaintiffs on board with the settlement, they can get a bankruptcy plan approved over the objections of talc plaintiffs who disagree and don't wanna sign on to the settlement. But they'll need 75 percent of the outstanding claims, and it's not clear that they have 75 percent yet.
And that's because attorneys representing current plaintiffs say the money isn't enough to cover most of their medical bills. 8.9 billion is a big number, but there are tens of thousands of people affected here, and some say they've gotten very sick. As for the product itself, the company stopped selling talc Baby Powder in the U.S. and Canada. And it's discontinuing it worldwide this year.
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Finally, let's end with a story in "New York" magazine that looks at LED light bulbs. Since these bulbs will soon be the only option that you can buy in the U.S., the magazine looks at how they're different from old incandescent bulbs. First off, they just make sense, for the environment and for your wallet. They last a long time and use a fraction of the energy of the old bulbs. Now another thing to understand is with old incandescent bulbs, when they burn out, it's out. You replace it. But with LEDs, it's more complicated than that. They sometimes end up somewhere in the middle, not broken, still lighting up, but not working 100 percent. This is where color temperature comes into the conversation. You know, whether the light is more warm or cool, yellowish or bluish. This piece goes into a lot of detail about this. But the takeaway is that making LED lights glow like the ones we grew up with is pretty tricky. And so what we get is light that feels kinda weird sometimes. A little gray-scale. High-end LED lighting is actually pretty expensive. As the writer puts it, we may have to be patient, as technology improves and the best LED lightbulbs become more affordable.
You can find all these stories and more in the Apple News app. And check out our weekly interview show, "In Conversation." This week, I talk to "New Yorker" editor Jessica Winter about how we don't take postpartum mental health seriously enough.
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Jessica Winter: I think a lot of people have trouble admitting that they're feeling down, that motherhood or new parenthood isn't this, you know, beautiful Hallmark card that they thought it was going to be, or they were told it was going to be. I think again, anecdotally, but a lot of times when new mothers share their anxieties, it's dismissed in a well-meaning way. Oh, don't be silly. You're a great mom.
Jessica writes and talks about this issue in such an eye-level and empathetic way. I hadn't read this kind of piece before, and the conversation we had is really frank and I think important to hear.
If you're listening in the Apple News app right now, that episode is queued up to play for you next. So, enjoy the weekend, and I'll be back with the news on Monday.
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