Iran's president killed in helicopter crash, Oregon's secession push | The Excerpt
On Monday’s episode of The Excerpt podcast: Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi is dead after a helicopter crash. Paste BN National Correspondent Trevor Hughes discusses a seccession push in Oregon. A Biden rule will let states cover adult dental care under the Affordable Care Act. Americans are getting more therapy than ever - and spending more. Paste BN National Correspondent Elizabeth Weise looks into storm chasing tourism.
Hit play on the player below to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript beneath it. 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.
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Taylor Wilson:
Good morning. I'm Taylor Wilson, and today is Monday, May 20th, 2024. This is The Excerpt. Today, Iran's president is dead. Plus we take a closer look at a secession push in Eastern Oregon and tourists are paying big bucks to storm chase.
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The president of Iran is dead after a helicopter crash in mountainous terrain near the Azerbaijan border, officials and state media said earlier today. President Ebrahim Raisi and other officials were killed in the crash. The death of Iran's president is not expected to upend the country's domestic or foreign politics, but it comes during raised international tensions and will likely increase speculation over who will eventually replace Iran Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Raisi was viewed as a possible successor to the 85-year-old cleric. The helicopter went down yesterday and it's not immediately clear what caused the crash. The officials have been missing for over 12 hours and search operations were hindered by fog, blizzards and difficult terrain throughout the night. Raisi's death comes amid the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza and recent direct military exchanges between Iran and Israel that risked sparking a wider regional war. Domestically, Iran's theocratic government has been facing anger over corruption, its sanctions hit economy and calls for an end to clerical rule.
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A ballot initiative in Oregon is the latest secession effort around the country. I spoke with USA Today, national correspondent Trevor Hughes to learn more. Trevor, thanks for hopping on.
Trevor Hughes:
Hey there.
Taylor Wilson:
So Trevor, what is this so-called Greater Idaho Movement?
Trevor Hughes:
Well, really what you've got is a group of folks in eastern Oregon who are philosophically, politically, culturally, agriculturally aligned with their neighbors across the state line in Idaho far more than they are with the people who share their same state or the zip code of Oregon. And so the Greater Idaho Movement would essentially move the Oregon border 200 miles to the west and keep all of these Eastern Oregon counties together, everyone would stay in their own town, but suddenly they'd be part of Idaho.
Taylor Wilson:
So Trevor, why do some in this part of Eastern Oregon feel this might be necessary? And what do opponents say on this?
Trevor Hughes:
Oregon is one of those states where you've got quite a significant divide between the eastern side of Oregon on the east side of the Cascades, which is rural, you've got farms and ranches. It's a very traditional way of life out there. And then on the western side of Oregon, you've got big cities like Portland and Salem and Eugene, big university towns. And those towns tend to be much more tech heavy and they also tend to be much more liberal. And so the frustration that many folks feel in Eastern Oregon is that the legislators in Western Oregon keep making decisions that are not in their best interest.
Taylor Wilson:
Do we hear any kind of pushback from opponents on this?
Trevor Hughes:
Well, there's sort of this idea that, well, the states are the states and we should probably not take them apart simply because we disagree with each other sometimes. I mean, this is a big country and lots of states have disagreements all of the time.
Taylor Wilson:
And is this move actually realistic, Trevor?
Trevor Hughes:
Well, it depends on who you talk to. It's important to remember that this vote that's happening right now is a non-binding referendum. And so in order for this to actually happen, you'd have to have the state government in Oregon, the state government in Idaho both agree. And then you'd have to get Congress to agree. And these days, getting Congress to agree on anything is a challenge. But of course that is exactly what this measure seeks to address, which is people are unable to find compromises. And maybe we should just live separately.
Taylor Wilson:
How have we seen similar efforts play out previously in other parts of the country?
Trevor Hughes:
There have been secession efforts in California with the state of Jefferson, the Texas Republic is something that comes up every so often. Here in Colorado where I live, there was a move a few years ago to saw off a chunk of Northern Colorado and attach it to Wyoming. And where I'm from in Vermont, there was a long-running and sometimes joking effort to turn Vermont into its own country.
Taylor Wilson:
What does polling Trevor tell us about how Americans on the whole feel about state secession efforts like these?
Trevor Hughes:
Depending on the poll, 20 to 25% of Americans say maybe it would be better if we split apart like this. Now I'm from Vermont and we have a saying up there which is good fences make good neighbors. And so maybe there is something to this idea that we should separate ourselves. On the other hand, I suppose it really comes down to a question of do we live in a country that is a melting pot of ideas and beliefs, or is it a mixing bowl, or maybe it is not a mixing bowl and it is much more of a buffet and people keep everything separate?
Taylor Wilson:
Trevor Hughes is a national correspondent with USA Today. Thank you Trevor.
Trevor Hughes:
You bet.
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Taylor Wilson:
Americans experience dental emergencies every year and advocates say that the US health care system is ill-equipped to help them. The Affordable Care Act extended health insurance to tens of millions of Americans through federal and state marketplaces that sell subsidized health insurance and Medicaid expansion adopted by all but 10 states. But President Barack Obama's 2010 healthcare law excluded dental coverage for adults. The law did require states to offer pediatric dental care as an essential health benefit for ACA plans. In a move last month, the Biden administration finalized a rule that would give states the option of adding adult dental insurance coverage as part of their Affordable Care Act plans.
And in another attempt to bolster dental coverage, Senator Bernie Sanders on Friday introduced the comprehensive Dental Care Reform Act of 2024, a bill that would expand dental coverage through Medicare, Medicaid and the Veterans Administration and increase the number of dentists, dental hygienists, and dental therapists nationwide. Nearly 69 million US adults did not have dental insurance or access to routine oral healthcare last year, according to a survey by the nonprofit CareQuest Institute for Oral Health. Millions more lost dental insurance last year when states began to unwind Medicaid coverage for people who signed up during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Americans are getting more therapy than ever and spending more. Together, the pandemic and Zoom have seeded an online therapy boom. The share of young adults aged 18 to 34 who sought counseling rose in the pandemic years from 12% in 2019 to 18.4% in 2022, the most recent figure available from federal researchers. The share of all adults seeking counseling rose from 9.5% to 12.6% and spending on mental health services also rose climbing by more than half, 53% from March in 2020 to August in 2022 according to RAND Corporation research on millions of workers insured by their employers. You can read more with the link in today's show notes.
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Tourists are paying big money for the chance to see dangerous storms. I caught up with USA Today national correspondent Elizabeth Weise for more. Hello Beth, great having you back on the show.
Elizabeth Weise:
As always a pleasure.
Taylor Wilson:
So how has storm chasing really become this tourist business in the US?
Elizabeth Weise:
Storm chasing is huge. I mean, we're talking thousands upon thousands of people desperately driving towards tornadoes. You'd think they'd be driving away, but they're driving towards them. Storm chasing tours and tourism where you actually go in a van with people who've got some meteorological training. There's maybe 15 companies that provide that service. It's not cheap. They're usually run like 7 to 11 days and 2,500 to $4,000. But what you're paying for is people who know what they're doing, can find the storms, can get you there and can keep you safe. But that said, it has been increasing. And I talked to a professor at University of Central Florida ,tourism professor who said this kind of, he called it "extreme or adventure travel" is definitely on the increase and he thinks it's because of social media.
Taylor Wilson:
And so can you just set the scene for us? What does a typical storm chasing tour look like? And what have some of the tourists said about their experiences here?
Elizabeth Weise:
They start the first night with a really long safety lecture. They will figure out where there's going to be big storms and you just start driving and you actually spend a ton of time in the van. Like you drive for hours and hours and hours and then you get someplace and they basically set you up, they try and get high up so you can see around you and you wait for the storm to come because they're looking at the National Weather Service and the radar. And then you wait for it to come and then hopefully you see it at a distance. They're always aiming to be a few miles away so that if the storm starts to change direction, you can get out of dodge and you always know what your escape route is. What's our plan B?
Taylor Wilson:
I am curious how these companies really balance the thrill and experience here versus the potential dangers not just for folks in those vans, but are they also putting local residents at risk with any of this?
Elizabeth Weise:
Well, it depends on who you talk to. So it's interesting, the National Weather Service actually has a page up about storm chasing, which has become a huge thing. They basically say, "Don't do it, stay at home, be safe." But they know that people do, and I was surprised they actually on their website say, "If you're going to do it, go with a tour where people actually have some safety training." So there was this movie that came out in '96 called Twister, and it was about storm chasers. And it kind of sparked a lot of interest, not just in the tour groups, but just regular people.
There is another movie coming out in July called Twisters. People are a little worried that it's going to pull even more people out onto the roads because everyone that I talked to said the danger is not so much the storms, it's the traffic. Because you get tour groups and they're pretty small. I mean, if there's 15 of them and they each have 2 vans on the road, I mean that's 30 vans, but they're not all in the same area. There's the weather reporters who are out, there's the first responders and the police and folks who are out. Then there's the storm chasers, and then there's the locals because when there's a big storm, they're like, "Oh, let me go out and look at it." And so you can get these little back country roads where suddenly there's 100 cars.
Taylor Wilson:
It's fascinating. You would not think of traffic as being one of the big factors here. So what is the future Beth of this type of thrill-filled tourism look like, especially as climate change is altering and at times strengthening these storms going forward?
Elizabeth Weise:
Warmer temperatures cause more fluctuations in the air. Storms are about warm and cold air coming together, and they're also about ocean temperatures heating up and then warm air coming off of the oceans. And so we are already seeing increases in storms. And this year especially because it looks like we're going into La Niña and the transition between El Niño and La Niña tends to be a time of intense storms. And we're also going to see perhaps more, but likely also more intense storms. And everybody that I talk to, they are concerned when this movie comes out in July, there will be even more people out on the roads wanting to have that experience that they saw in the movie.
And if you don't know what you're doing and if you don't keep your distance, like in the movies, they drive right up through the storms, which they're afraid that folks are going to do that. They're like, "Oh, I got to get that shot." It's not worth dying for. The people that I spoke with, including the tourism professor said, social media is kind of egging people on to do things that maybe are not as safe as they might be.
Taylor Wilson:
Elizabeth Weise is a national correspondent with USA Today. Thank you, Beth.
Elizabeth Weise:
You're so welcome.
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Taylor Wilson:
And today is National Rescue Dog Day, a time to celebrate our canine friends that have been saved from cruelty.
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Thanks for listening to The Excerpt. You can get the podcast wherever you get your audio, and if you're on a smart speaker, just ask for The Excerpt. I'm Taylor Wilson back tomorrow with more of The Excerpt from USA Today.