On today’s episode of the 5 Things podcast: 6 dead, 25 wounded in Philadelphia, Chattanooga shootings
Reporter Ryan Miller also talks about this year’s wave of gun violence. Plus, we look back at D-Day, investigative reporter Rachel Axon tells producer PJ Elliott about some schools’ failures to live up to Title IX and Apple is set to unveil its latest iPhone software.
More:True crime, in-depth interviews and more USA TODAY podcasts right here.
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:
Buenos dias. I’m Taylor Wilson and this is 5 Things you need to know Monday, the 6th of June, 2022. Today, more mass shootings, plus 78 years since D-Day, and more.
Here are some of the top headlines:
- British defense authorities say Russia is tightening its advance on Ukraine’s Eastern Donbas region, and most recently blew up bridges and shelled apartments in the city of Severodonetsk. The US is sending a new security package to Ukraine with four sophisticated medium-range rocket systems.
- Tropical storm Alex became the first named storm of this year’s Atlantic hurricane season yesterday. It’s forecast to pass just north of Bermuda today after killing three people in Cuba.
- The NBA finals are now all tied up at one game piece. The Golden State Warriors smashed the Boston Celtics 107 to 88 last night. Game three shifts to Boston on Wednesday.
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Police were hunting for multiple gunman yesterday after a shooting rampage on a crowded Philadelphia street killed three people and injured eleven. This witness describes the scene.
Witness to Philadelphia Shooting:
I just saw people running, and so my main job was to make sure that nobody ran into the establishment.
Taylor Wilson:
Hours later, a shooting at a Tennessee nightclub left three dead and fourteen injured in Chattanooga. One of the deaths involved a person hit by a vehicle during a scramble after the shooting started just before 3:00 AM. And in Socorro, Texas, police are investigating a shooting that left five injured at a graduation party.
In Philadelphia, authorities said there appeared to be multiple gunmen, and that a physical altercation may have led to gunfire. And in Tennessee, authorities also believe there were multiple shooters, but police said there was not an ongoing public-safety threat.
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This year has already seen a wave of high-profile, deadly mass shootings across the country. 5 Things producer PJ Elliott spoke with reporter Ryan Miller about what we’ve learned from America’s latest gun violence.
Ryan Miller:
There was a shooting on Wednesday in Tulsa, Oklahoma, which marked what was the 12th mass killing in the United States in 2022. That’s according to a database that USA TODAY, the Associated Press, and Northeastern University keep. That database tracks what are defined as ‘mass killings’, which mean four or more people have been killed, and that includes all forms of violence, not only guns. So, it’s more restrictive of a definition in some senses, but less restrictive in others.
When it comes specifically to mass shootings, which the Gun Violence Archive tracks and defines as four or more people shot or killed, 2021 saw the highest number of mass shootings of any year since 2014. That was 692. The Gun Violence Archive has been tracking this stat for several years now. It’s essentially only been increasing in recent years.
In 2020, there were 610 mass shootings. In 2019, there were 417 mass shootings, but between 2014 and 2018, it was averaging around 334 mass shootings a year. So, the data shows that these mass shooting incidents, in which four more people are shot or killed, are rising, but the mass killing database that USA TODAY, and the AP, and Northeastern keep has largely remained constant at about 30 or so a year.
PJ Elliott:
What can you tell us about what we’re learning about these mass shootings? Are they preplanned? Are they spontaneous? What have we learned over the course of time?
Ryan Miller:
yeah. Professor James Alan Fox who’s with Northeastern University, he’s a criminologist and he’s been helping keep this database. According to him, most of these shootings are not spontaneous acts. Often, shooters have a deliberate plan in mind.
There is another database maintained by The Violence Project, which tracks the details around the mass shooters themselves. In more than 80% of cases, they found that mass shooters had some noticeable form of crisis before their attacks. In most cases, that manifested in some form of increased agitation. The other thing that they found, which has been widely reported before, but just reaffirming, is that the vast majority of mass shooters are men. They found only four instances in which a mass shooter was a woman.
Taylor Wilson:
USA TODAY subscribers can find a link to Ryan’s full story in today’s episode description.
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Today marks 78 years since D-Day.
Radio Announcer in 1944:
The procession of surface vessels of the invasion fleet… battleships, cruisers, destroyers, transports… stretches for thousands.
Taylor Wilson:
In the midst of World War II, on June 6th, 1944, Allied forces stormed the beaches of Normandy in Nazi occupied France. More than 156,000 troops – notably from the US, Britain, and Canada – confronted Nazi forces, reshaping the rest of the war. D-Day set the stage for the assault phase of a wider Allied invasion of Northwest Europe.
The exact number of people killed in D-Day fighting is unknown, but research from the US National D-Day Memorial Foundation estimates there were more than 4,000 Allied deaths and between 4,000 and 9,000 German losses on D-Day. Additionally, more than a 100,000 Allied and German forces died during the Battle of Normandy, and some 20,000 French civilians were killed in associated bombings. On the 75th anniversary, Frank DeVita told the AP about his experience with him on D-Day.
Frank DeVita:
At four o’clock in the morning, they dropped our boats, so we started towards the beach for two hours. Then when we got probably, I would say, 200 to 300 yards from the beach, the Germans opened up with their big guns.
Taylor Wilson:
Frank died this past March at the age of 96. For more, search ‘D-Day’ on USATODAY.com.
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Title IX. The landmark law bans sexual discrimination in education, but a USA TODAY investigation has found that colleges and universities are still failing to live up to the law’s promise. Producer PJ Elliott caught up with USA TODAY’s sports investigative reporter, Rachel Axon, to find out more.
Rachel Axon:
Yeah, what we found in our reporting is consistent with trends people had told us about. The undergraduate enrollment at the biggest colleges, and most colleges actually, skews more female than the athletic department, which tends to be the opposite. So, one way that schools can measure compliance with Title IX is by proportionality, which means your share of the athletic opportunities should be roughly close to the share of your undergraduate enrollment. If your school is 55% female undergrads, then your athletic opportunities should look something like that.
We sought to examine the biggest college programs athletically. So, we did Division 1 Football Bowl Subdivision schools. And of the 127 we reviewed, we found that 87% of those could not meet the proportionality standard, and that 110 schools collectively would need to add 11,501 opportunities for women to get there.
PJ Elliott:
How long has this been going on, and what can be done to fix it?
Rachel Axon:
Well, there’s a couple of things. We’re working… this is part of a series of stories that we’re doing in the lead-up to the anniversary of Title IX. The 50th anniversary is later this month in June. It’s gone on for so long, it’s a trend that’s happened over time. There’s been years and whole decades where there’s not much enforcement of the law. This is one of three ways that schools can show compliance regarding participation opportunities. Although we found, on the other two, there’s some difficulty there as well. This is the status quo of what it’s been. Athletic departments before Title IX were made for men’s sports, and have grown to expand to include women’s sports. But if you look at the priorities of these athletic programs, it’s typically the most on one or two sports for men, football and basketball. Then, some women’s sports are among their top-tier ones, but not nearly the same numbers. As that focus has remained there in athletic departments, the trends in enrollment have shifted to where women used to be, when Title IX passed, a minority of students, as in less than 50%, but now are often above 50%. Some of the schools we looked at, they were 60%.
What could fix this? That’s part of our ongoing reporting, but from the people that we talked to, greater enforcement. Unfortunately for some of these women, the Department of Education is not well-resourced, or able to very quickly respond to these problems. So, litigation has been a more successful avenue. So, enforcement by some means maybe something that would help with this.
Taylor Wilson:
You can find the full investigation with a link in today’s show description.
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Apple is hosting a virtual keynote for its annual Worldwide Developers Conference today, and iPhone users will likely get a first glimpse of how their device will change this fall. The next software update, tentatively called iOS 16, will introduce a new look and feel to the phones, according to the company. Bloomberg reported that the messages and health apps will see changes, along with upgrades to the lock screen, though it’s still not clear whether much older models, dating back to the iPhone 6s which launched nearly seven years ago, will still run the latest version of iOS. Apple will likely also unveil new versions of operating systems for iPads and Apple Watches. You can watch on Apple.com or YouTube at 1:00 PM Eastern, 10:00 AM Pacific.
And you can find 5 Things seven mornings a week right here, wherever you’re listening right now. Thanks to PJ Elliott for his great work on the show, and I’m back tomorrow with more of 5 Things from USA TODAY.
www.usatoday.com
George is Digismak’s reported cum editor with 13 years of experience in Journalism