--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Good morning. It's Thursday, February 11th. I'm Duarte Giraldino. And I'm Shamita Basu. This is Apple News Today. Each morning, hear about some of the most fascinating stories in the news and how the world's best journalists are covering them.
--:-- Shamita Basu: We're getting a clearer picture about the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol and how close lawmakers came to being face-to-face with the violent mob. Yesterday, House impeachment managers divided their case against Donald Trump into three categories. What they're calling the provocation, the attack and the harm. And for the first time, senators and the American public were shown some previously unreleased videos of that day.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: So right now, we'll take a few minutes to recap the new details that we learned from yesterday's hearing. And just a warning here, some of the violent descriptions may be upsetting. Insurrectionists got so close to lawmakers. Trump loyalists were within seconds of reaching our elected leaders. At one point, just 100 feet from Vice President Mike Pence.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Newly released security footage of Pence being escorted to safety is unsettling. Here's House Manager Stacey Plaskett. During the assault on the Capitol, extremists reportedly coordinated online and discussed how they could hunt down the vice president. Journalists in the Capitol reported they heard rioters say they were looking for Pence in order to execute him.
--:-- Stacey Plaskett: Trump's supporters had erected a gallows on the lawn in front of the Capitol building. Another group of rioters chanted, hang Mike Pence, as they stood in the open door of the Capitol building. You can hear the security alarm from the door in the background, and you can hear the mob calling for the death of the vice president of the United States.
--:-- Shamita Basu: This was the theme that Democrats kept reinforcing, that the intention of the mob was violent. Listen to another impeachment manager, Representative Joe Neguse, reading from court documents.
--:-- Joe Neguse: In the charging affidavit of one of the leaders of the Proud Boys, we learned that members of this group said, I'm going to quote, they would have killed Mike Pence if given the chance. In another, we learned of a tweet in real time while they were in the building stating, we broke into the Capitol. We got inside. We did our part. We were looking for Nancy Pelosi to shoot her in the frickin' brain, but we didn't find her.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Pence wasn't the only one who had a close call. Remember Officer Eugene Goodman? He's being held a hero for redirecting some of the rioters. We now know he stopped Mitt Romney as the senator was unknowingly headed in the direction of the rioters. Officer Goodman pointed him to safety. A similar thing happened to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and members of his security detail.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Here impeachment manager Eric Swalwell speaking directly to senators You know how close you came to the mob Some of you I understand could hear them. But most of the public does not know how close these rioters came to you.
--:-- Eric Swalwell: As you were moving through that hallway, I paced it off. You were just 58 steps away from where the mob was amassing and where police were rushing to stop them. They were yelling. In this security video, you can see how the Capitol Police created a line and blocked the hallway with their bodies to prevent rioters at the end of the hall from reaching you and your staff.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Representative Swalwell echoed something that we've heard other lawmakers say. The situation was so scary, so intense, that he thought he wouldn't make it out alive.
--:-- Shamita Basu: A new security announcement was made. Get down under your chairs if necessary so we have folks entering the rotunda and coming down this way. So we'll update you as soon as we can, but just be prepared. Stay calm.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: As I heard that announcement on the floor, I saw the new House chaplain on just her fourth day on the job walk to the front podium. Unannounced and amidst the chaos, she started to recite a prayer for peace. Uncertain what would happen next, I sent a text message to my wife. I love you and the babies. Please hug them for me. I imagine many of you sent a similar message.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The impeachment managers also spent hours yesterday detailing Trump's role in all of this. They emphasize what the former president did and did not do as the world watched his loyalists storming the Capitol. From his tweets and actions leading up to January 6th, to his lack of tweets and lack of action when things got as violent as they did.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: They played videos of Republicans on that day, some panicking and clearly worried for their lives, urging Trump to call it off, call it off. But hours passed before Trump did anything to calm his violent supporters.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Today, impeachment managers will be mostly focusing on the third part of their presentation, the harm done.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: The Washington Post caught up with some Republican senators at the end of the day and asked them how they were feeling so far about the House presentation. Senator John Thune called the House case a strong presentation that did a good job of connecting the dots. Senator Dan Sullivan said rewatching those videos was upsetting and made him angry. Senator Rob Portman told The Post he felt like he was reliving a horrible day.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But it's not clear if Democrats' arguments will sway enough Republicans to vote to convict Trump.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Let's move from the impeachment trial to the fight against COVID. Should businesses be paying employees to get vaccinated?
--:-- Shamita Basu: One of the keys to getting the U.S. economy running at full steam is increasing the number of immunized workers. So a growing number of companies are now telling their employees, hey, we'll give you a little something extra if you get the coronavirus vaccine.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: At Dollar General stores, frontline employees get four hours of pay to get vaccinated. Meat processor JBS USA is giving its nearly 66,000 U.S. workers $100 each if they do it. A Houston hospital system is offering its tens of thousands of workers a $500 bonus. And so far, 75% have taken them up on the offer.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And while this might push more people to get vaccinated faster, Bloomberg Law spoke with employment attorneys who say legally this is a gray area.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Yeah, these incentives are raising a few legal issues. First, can incentives be considered coercion? Second is the question of discrimination in the workplace.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The reason here is, if a company is offering a cash bonus, but one of its employees is not medically cleared to get the vaccine, is failing to give that worker the bonus an act of discrimination?
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Now, this is becoming such a big issue that this month, dozens of business groups asked the EEOC, or the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to weigh in on the matter.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Some companies are characterizing these payments as both a bonus for the hard work in a really challenging year and an incentive to get vaccinated. And the CEO of that Houston hospital group said he expects eventually they'll make COVID vaccinations mandatory, just like the flu. No bonuses, just get your band-aid and keep working.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Several state Republican lawmakers from different parts of the country introduced bills to stop schools from referencing the New York Times' 1619 project.
--:-- Shamita Basu: This exhaustive piece of journalism is named after the year the first known enslaved Africans were brought to the British colonies. It acknowledges the role of white supremacy in the founding of America. And these state lawmakers claim the project is racially divisive and shouldn't be taught in schools.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: The reporting about these proposed bills comes from USA Today and the 19th, which is a news outlet that focuses on gender and politics.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Since the 1619 Project was published a couple of years ago, a lot of the material has been used in classrooms. About 4,000 educators spread across every state say that they use these resources.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: And that's drawing a lot of attention from conservative media outlets and Donald Trump. The former president called the project, quote, toxic propaganda and instead wanted to promote what he called, quote, patriotic education.
--:-- Shamita Basu: President Trump went so far as to create his own commission to write a different version of history that would be used in classrooms. It was widely criticized for factual inaccuracies and for the erasure of people of color as well as women in history.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Biden removed the report after he took office. And now these state lawmakers are threatening If your school references the 1619 Project we will cut your funding.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Bills have been introduced by Republican lawmakers in Arkansas, Iowa, Mississippi, Missouri, and South Dakota. It's not clear if any of the bills will actually pass, though. The South Dakota bill has already been withdrawn.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: And this week, Jack Clay, a high schooler in Arkansas, spoke to lawmakers there who are considering the bill.
--:-- Jack Clay: If we continue to try and prevent our history from being told, because it is our history, if we continue to say this is what happened and there is no other alternative perspective in the history of the entire nation, we'll come to really limit ourselves in what we can accomplish.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The next generation of Arkansas's political minds are being cultivated right now. And without a full education, I fear that there will be a lot of opportunities that are snuffed out for them.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: That Arkansas bill ultimately failed in committee.
--:-- Shamita Basu: For the past few years, baseball fans have been noticing something kind of weird happening at major league games. Even some of the players agree. Baseballs seem to be flying farther. Deeper hits, more home runs. No one knew how this was happening.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: But there's this one scientist, an astrophysicist, actually, who was determined to find out. Sports Illustrated has a story of Dr. Meredith Wills and the lengths she and people secretly working inside MLB went to to figure out what the heck was going on.
--:-- Shamita Basu: You see, Dr. Wills figured out how to get sympathetic MLB employees to smuggle baseballs out of the stadiums. And then she would carefully deconstruct the baseballs. She would measure and weigh their insides, test and analyze how the composition could affect overall performance.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: And she noticed something strange when she started to pull apart the baseballs from the 2020 season. She sliced open 43 in total, and bingo. She says some of the balls were undeniably different. Their center was definitely lighter than previous ones. And the difference was big enough that Dr. Wills thought the change was intentional, not a manufacturing mistake.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And this is where things get murky. The piece talks to a lot of pitchers who wondered if something was up. Maybe the balls had been engineered to create more home runs to make the games more exciting.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: So far, MLB has disputed these findings. But the story explains how the league hasn't answered a lot of questions.
--:-- Shamita Basu: You can read the whole piece and see what you think for yourself. Plus, if you've ever wondered what the inside of a baseball looks like, I mean, there's some really cool pictures in this feature. Detailed cross-sections. I never knew I needed to see it, but I did.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: You can find all these stories and more in the Apple News app. And while you're there, check out some of our audio stories. We'll talk with you again tomorrow.
