--:-- Shamita Basu: Good morning. It's Monday, December 16th. I'm Shamita Basu. This is Apple News Today.
--:-- Shamita Basu: On today's show, a cancer-causing chemical that's in so many everyday objects. Why doctors in Boston are prescribing solar power to patients. And drones over Jersey. What's up with all these mysterious unmanned aircraft sightings? But first, to controversial pardons and clemency granted by President Joe Biden.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Last week, the president announced he was commuting the sentences of 1,500 people and granting pardons to 39 more. It was the biggest single-day act of clemency for any president. And now that we're learning more about who was on the list, some of those names are raising eyebrows.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Like Michael Conahan, a former judge in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania. He was convicted in 2011 of accepting $2.8 million in kickbacks in exchange for imposing harsh sentences on children to help fill the cells of private, for-profit juvenile detention centers owned by a friend.
--:-- Shamita Basu: More than 2,300 kids, some as young as 8 years old, were put behind bars by Conahan and another judge, Mark Chivarella. The case got widespread attention. It was nicknamed the Kids for Cash scandal.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro says, if anything, Conahan was given too light of a sentence from the start.
--:-- Josh Shapiro: I do feel strongly that President Biden got it absolutely wrong and created a lot of pain here in northeastern Pennsylvania. This was not only a black eye on the community, the Kids for Cash scandal, but it also infected families in really deep and profound and sad ways.
--:-- Josh Shapiro: Some children took their lives because of this. Families were torn apart. One of the family members of a victim has spoken out.
--:-- Sandy Fonzo: [Speaking to a local newspaper] My son was sentenced by one of the judges for possessing drug paraphernalia and later died by suicide after being released.
--:-- Sandy Fonzo: She called the judge's commutation, quote, an injustice for all of us who still suffer.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Other names on Biden's list include Rita Cronwell, the former comptroller for the city of Dixon, Illinois, who was convicted in 2012 of embezzling more than $50 million from taxpayers to buy things like jewelry and hundreds of show horses.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Jason Wodillo, a former U.S. Marshal who investigated Crundwell's crimes, talking to CBS News Chicago.
--:-- Jason Wodillo: I anticipate she's dancing in the streets of Dixon with her commutation because she just also conned the president of the United States.
--:-- Jason Wodillo: He says he thinks Crundwell never really understood the gravity of what she did. She is not remorseful. She never has been. Her only regret has only ever been that she was caught.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Cronwell had a little under four years left on her sentence. Biden's sweeping act of clemency and pardons has been met with criticism on all sides, in particular the pardon of his own son, Hunter Biden, which came prior to his big day of commutations.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Some lawmakers say presidential clemency powers need reform, including Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar.
--:-- Amy Klobuchar: I think that this whole process cries out for reform because otherwise you undermine the justice system.
--:-- Amy Klobuchar: And again, I emphasize this also happened in a big way under President Trump. And you undermine the work of these line FBI agents, these line prosecutors who have taken on these cases, followed the sentencing guidelines and made a decision.
--:-- Amy Klobuchar: Might you want mercy 10 years later? Yes, you might. But let's at least look at these on a factual basis and a risk basis instead of just in the middle of the night a month before a president leaves.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Let's turn to a new investigation from ProPublica about a toxic chemical found in so many everyday things that regulators are struggling to come up with ways to undo the damage done.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Sharon Lerner covers health and the environment. And she told us about the risks of formaldehyde.
--:-- Sharon Lerner: When you compare it to other toxic chemicals in the air, you can see that it causes more cancer by far than any other. And I don't mean by a little, I mean by a lot.
--:-- Sharon Lerner: Formaldehyde is produced by emissions from cars, trucks, industrial facilities, but also the gas stove in your kitchen or certain types of furniture and flooring.
--:-- Sharon Lerner: Most of the formaldehyde inside your home and inside stores comes from things like that cheap kind of particle board stuff, which are little pieces of wood that are held together by resin that can release formaldehyde when it dries.
--:-- Sharon Lerner: Also scented candles and some cosmetic products. According to ProPublica's analysis, formaldehyde is exposing us to cancer risk above the goal level set by the EPA.
--:-- Sharon Lerner: The agency, by its own admission, has underestimated the public health risks associated with formaldehyde, like asthma, respiratory illness, miscarriages and fertility problems.
--:-- Sharon Lerner: But not much has been done to reduce our risk of exposure, in part because it's so widespread.
--:-- Sharon Lerner: Formaldehyde is incredibly useful. It can preserve dead bodies. It can fight viruses in aquaculture. It's used in farming. It prevents pigs from getting viruses.
--:-- Sharon Lerner: It's like just incredibly useful, not to one industry, but to many.
--:-- Shamita Basu: When I was looking into the different responses that EPA had gotten when it was attempting to regulate or at least assess the health risk from formaldehyde, I found that more than 75 trade groups had written to the agency pushing back against its efforts.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Lerner says she doesn't expect regulation to improve under the incoming Trump administration based on his last term.
--:-- Shamita Basu: He put someone into a position in the EPA who had the authority to decide what reports were put out about the toxicity of chemicals.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The EPA at the time had been working for decades on a report about the toxicity of formaldehyde. This person, who had previously worked for the chemical industry defending formaldehyde, managed to kill the report.
--:-- Shamita Basu: It wasn't released until this year.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Lerner told us there are some steps you can take at home to reduce your exposure, the main one being ventilation.
--:-- Shamita Basu: So opening windows, turning your stove vent on while cooking, or leaving new furniture outside to air out for a few weeks before bringing it in if you can. All of that helps.
--:-- Shamita Basu: ProPublica also put together a tool where you can put in your address to see just how much formaldehyde is in your community and where it's coming from.
--:-- Shamita Basu: We'll include a link to that in our show notes.
--:-- Shamita Basu: A group of doctors in Boston are writing somewhat unusual prescriptions for their patients. Solar power.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Bob Biggio leads this program out of Boston Medical Center that identifies patients with chronic conditions who need help paying their utilities, and they effectively prescribe them power.
--:-- Bob Biggio: It involves more than 500 solar panels spread across one of the medical center's rooftops.
--:-- Bob Biggio: It's simple. The solar panels create power, and then we direct a certain percentage of that power to a particular patient's meter.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Dr. Anna Goldman is a primary care physician who co-founded the project.
--:-- Anna Goldman: She told WBUR she used to hear about patients dealing with energy insecurity on top of their health issues, people who couldn't afford electricity to recharge wheelchairs or keep fridges, air conditioners and CPAP machines running.
--:-- Anna Goldman: Someone who had a hospital bed at home, they were using so much energy because of the hospital bed that they were facing utility shutoff.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Last year, she and her colleagues wrote more than 1,600 letters to utility providers, asking them to not shut off gas or electricity to these patients.
--:-- Shamita Basu: They launched their $1.6 million solar panel project in October of that year, largely using tax credits from the Inflation Reduction Act.
--:-- Shamita Basu: About half of the energy produced goes to the medical center. The rest goes to roughly 80 low-income patients with complex conditions, who get a utility credit of around $50 a month.
--:-- Bob Biggio: Biggio told WBUR he's already planning to expand the program.
--:-- Bob Biggio: We're looking at all different areas. I think we currently have scoped out almost $11 million worth of additional solar that could be installed on our campus.
--:-- Bob Biggio: He says that could increase the number of patients they help with utilities tenfold.
--:-- Shamita Basu: There's another type of unusual prescription some patients get at this medical center. Fresh produce grown on the rooftop farm.
--:-- Shamita Basu: In addition to the solar panels, the center has plants like tomatoes, bok choy and beans. And their harvest goes toward feeding patients who otherwise don't have access to local organic foods.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Before we let you go, a few other stories being featured in the Apple News app.
--:-- Shamita Basu: New York Governor Kathy Hochul says the federal government is deploying sophisticated drone detecting technology to help local authorities figure out what's behind a series of reported drone sightings.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The sightings continue to baffle residents and government officials. It started four weeks ago in New Jersey, but has since expanded to at least six states.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Unnerved residents have reported seeing drones overhead, sometimes in clusters, but so far no one has explained what's happening.
--:-- Shamita Basu: New Jersey Republican Congressman Chris Smith told reporters he's drafting legislation that would give local authorities more power to track and potentially down drones.
--:-- Chris Smith: This is the wake-up call. You know, we've had a month of non-action. You know, I was amazed when Secretary Mayorkas, when he briefed us, and that us means the New Jersey delegation, and the governor put that together, he didn't have a clue.
--:-- Chris Smith: And I said, Houston, we have a problem.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Federal officials say there is no threat to public safety from the drones and no evidence that they have ties to foreign countries.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The Wall Street Journal has exclusive reporting on the secretive Russian spy agency that carries out the Putin regime's agenda.
--:-- Shamita Basu: That agenda includes arresting American citizens on Russian soil, which is what happened to Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The entire time he was detained by Russia last year, for 16 months, he was conducting his own reporting on who ordered his arrest.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Now he and his colleagues at the Journal have identified the man at the top of this agency, who they say is leading the biggest campaign of internal repression within Russia since the Stalin era.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And finally, it's been dubbed the sad beige lawsuit.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Sydney Nicole Gifford, an online influencer from Minneapolis, has sued another influencer, Alyssa Scheel, for stealing her signature beige-colored aesthetic.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Both influencers' homes, clothing, and entire lives, basically, are awash in neutral beige, creams, and browns.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Gifford says Sheil ripped off her brand identity and is asking for up to $150,000 in damages for mental anguish and lost income.
--:-- Shamita Basu: She also wants Sheil's content taken down, which has been described as the ultimate blow to an influencer.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The suit is being described as the first of its kind, and it could have ramifications for the influencer world, which is estimated to be worth hundreds of billions of dollars.
--:-- Shamita Basu: You can find all these stories and more in the Apple News app.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And if you're already listening in the News app right now, we've got a narrated article coming up next.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Vanity Fair has a great story about an amateur art sleuth who's made a name for himself by recovering lost centuries-old masterpieces.
--:-- Shamita Basu: If you're listening in the podcast app, follow Apple News Plus Narrated to find that story.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And I'll be back with the news tomorrow.
