“7 stories to know” is a new Monday series showcasing stories that may have been ignored in the crush of news over the past few weeks, and stories that have continued to evolve over the weekend. Expect to read coverage about health, science, and climate that frequently take second chair to what’s happening at the top of the page, plus information from local sources that the national media may have overlooked.
1. “Trump Employee 5”
On March 11, Brian Butler, who was employed at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort for 20 years, sat down for an interview with CNN. But he wasn’t there to talk about the endless shrimp buffet or the exquisite guest rooms. Instead, Butler was outing himself as “Trump Employee 5.”
Here’s why that matters.
When Donald Trump was first indicted back in June for illegal retention of classified material, the original indictment contained 37 felony counts. Also named in that indictment was Trump’s assistant, Walt Nauta. A month later, special counsel Jack Smith’s office filed a superseding indictment that not only added an additional charge for Trump, but brought in a third defendant, Carlos De Oliveira. It’s this second indictment that contains six references to “Trump Employee 5.”
Donald Trump’s legal team has made several unsuccessful motions aimed at revealing the names of potential witnesses in the case. But Butler is going public on his own, telling CNN that he believes the public needs to hear his testimony before the election.
Butler served in many roles during his two decades at Mar-a-Lago, from club manager to valet. Among those roles, he ran a car service at the resort. In his interview with CNN. Butler also said he assisted in taking Trump’s luggage to the airport.
On June 3, 2022, Trump and several members of his family were preparing to fly to his Bedminster property in New Jersey. Butler received a call from Nauta, asking him to borrow a Cadillac Escalade from the car service. Butler said this request was unusual because Nauta wasn’t usually involved in moving luggage. Butler also told CNN that Nauta asked for the car “in a guarded way.”
In his interview, Butler said that Nauta and De Oliveira loaded the Escalade and Nauta drove it to the airport. At the airport, Butler helped Nauta unload the contents. Those contents turned out to be “a bunch” of white boxes.
Butler did not know that Nauta had allegedly removed the boxes from a storage room on June 2, one day before a scheduled visit from senior Justice Department lawyer Jay Bratt and FBI agents. On the same day that Butler and Nauta were loading the boxes into the plane bound for New Jersey, a Trump attorney took Bratt and the agents back to look at the storage room, where some boxes remained.
“We got to the airport. I ended up loading all the luggage I had—and he had a bunch of boxes,” Butler told CNN. “They were the boxes that were in the indictment, the white bankers boxes. That’s what I remember loading.”
Another Trump employee identified in the indictment reportedly helped Nauta load the boxes into the Cadillac. So Butler’s testimony about providing the car and helping Nauta load the boxes at the airport is part of establishing the movement of these boxes from the storage facility to the plane, directly before the DOJ made a scheduled visit.
Showing that Trump had Nauta and De Oliveira remove the boxes and transport the documents they contained in advance of any FBI search is powerful evidence of conspiracy.
And that makes Trump Employee 5 a lot more than a number.
2. 2024 is on track to top 2023 as the warmest year on record
On March 8, the NOAA announced that this has been the warmest winter in U.S. history, with overall temperatures 5.4 degrees above average. The winter was also wetter than usual. That may generate temporary relief in some drought areas, but it's unclear if this will continue into summer, when more record heat is expected.
The seasonal outlook for the next three months continues to call for much higher than normal temperatures in the Northeast and Northwest areas of the United States. There are no areas of the country where temperatures are expected to be cooler than normal.
With spring officially beginning in a few days, local wintery weather is still possible, but on a broader scale, we're heading into spring with record-low levels of Arctic ice, record high sea surface temperatures, and the prospect of a drastic change ahead.
The National Weather Service sees an increasing possibility of a rapid change from a strong El Niño to a La Niña current in the Pacific, a transition that could start as soon as April. Even though La Niña is a cooler current, that could still result in a hotter summer for much of the nation because of shifting airflow.
3. COVID-19 vaccines save lives, even for those vaccinated after being infected
A study published in BMJ Journals indicates that COVID-19 vaccines aren’t just helpful in lessening the effects of the disease for those who contract the virus after getting vaccinated. The vaccines can also save the lives of those who have already been infected.
Using a massive statistical database (10.17 million vaccinated and 10.39 million unvaccinated people), the study looked into cardiac issues following infections by the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
What they found was that vaccines, even if received after an infection, helped reduce the risks of that infection generating a cardiac issue over the following month.
Conclusions COVID-19 vaccination reduced the risk of post-COVID-19 cardiac and thromboembolic outcomes. These effects were more pronounced for acute COVID-19 outcomes, consistent with known reductions in disease severity following breakthrough versus unvaccinated SARS-CoV-2 infection.
4. Hummingbirds overwintering in Kansas
Hummingbirds are extraordinary in so many ways. The smallest of birds, their high-speed maneuvers require so much energy that they are always on the brink of starvation. Simply failing to get a good meal before bedtime could mean these little powerhouses might starve to death in their sleep.
The necessity of a constant source of energy is why most of the hummingbirds that are seen in the eastern United States make the long journey to Central or South America each fall, chasing the bounty of blooms and nectar.
Except, as KSN.com reports, some hummingbirds in Kansas have stopped making that long journey. With climate change, local bird watchers noted that hummers were departing the area later and returning sooner. Now some of them aren’t leaving at all.
[Kansas State Professor of Biology Alice Boyle] said there have been scattered reports from Kansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, and Arkansas of the birds staying in-state all winter.
“There was a hummingbird of another species (Anna’s) that spent a lot of time this winter in central Kansas,” Boyle said. “It is hard to say exactly why. With hummingbirds (as in other small migratory birds), migration is innate.”
It’s also hard to say exactly what these birds might be eating to sustain them through colder months when the energy demands are even higher than in the summer. Maybe humans in Kansas have also changed their behavior and started leaving feeders out year-round.
In any case, Boyle notes that while hummingbird migration routes seem to be innate rather than learned behavior, these traits seem “to turn on and off across species relatively quickly and easily.” Which is definitely a good thing if you’re a migratory bird in the middle of a climate crisis.
Though Boyle doesn’t mention it, it’s worth pointing out that changes like these are a well-known source of speciation. With some birds heading south and some remaining in one location year-round, it seems possible that two distinct breeding populations could be established. Even though both groups of birds would continue to occupy the same area during part of the year, that might provide enough isolation to create separate genetic pools that would slowly direct away from each other until “Midwest hummingbirds” could be distinct from their migratory kin.
5. France considers sending troops to Ukraine
While Ukraine assistance continues to languish in the House thanks to Donald Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson, French President Emmanuel Macron has been taking an increasingly more aggressive position.
In an interview on French television, Macron would not rule out sending French troops to fight in Ukraine. He seemed to pull back at a later point, saying he was talking about trainers, but since then he has said that he refuses to rule out putting French troops into the fight.
“Today, to have peace in Ukraine, we must not be weak,” said Macron.
The French leader’s statements have alarmed some other Western leaders, who are concerned about the consequences of putting troops on the ground in Ukraine. On Friday, an “emergency meeting” was held between Macron, the much more cautious German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, and newly elected Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk.
Tusk has repeatedly taken Johnson to task for his role in blocking vital assistance to Ukraine and he recently visited President Joe Biden to discuss potential options in breaking through the Republican roadblock.
Macron reportedly hopes that the meeting with Tusk and Scholz will facilitate sending long-range weapon systems and ammunition to Ukraine. With U.S. intelligence estimating that Ukraine’s shortages could be “catastrophic” before the end of this month, it’s critical that they get everything possible from every source.
6. Giant cloned sheep and the illegal trafficking of sheep parts
On March 12, the Department of Justice issued a press release that has to be way up there in terms of the weirdest things ever to appear in any criminal case. To quote the DOJ, “Defendant worked to traffic Marco Polo Sheep parts from Kyrgyzstan, clone Sheep, illegally inseminate ewes to create hybrids and traffic Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep Parts.”
Yeah, that about covers it.
The Marco Polo sheep is a subspecies of the wild Mongolian sheep known as “Argali.” They have massive spiraling horns. Though they are considered “near-threatened” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, hunters like to shoot them because not only are their horns impressively large, they’re also tough, meaning that they are often found with complete horns, rather than horns missing their tips as on other wild sheep.
A male Marco Polo sheep can weigh over 300 pounds and have horns that span more than 5 feet. As ego-satisfying as that may be for people who like to pin dead things to their walls, the status of these sheep means they can’t be imported into the U.S.
Arthur “Jack” Schubarth of Vaughn, Montana, runs a ranch where hunters are invited to shoot “alternative livestock” of several kinds. He got his hands on unspecified “parts” of a Marco Polo sheep. Working with a lab, they created 165 cloned embryos and set about trying to grow them using domestic sheep to host the embryos. One of those resulted in the birth of a single male sheep, which Schubarth named “Montana Mountain King.” He then began hybridizing these sheep with other wild sheep, as well as peddling Montana Mountain King sperm to other ranchers inclined to conduct these kinds of penned-in trophy hunts.
On the one hand, it’s astounding that this effort was successful at all, and the cross-species birth is probably a hopeful sign to those trying to clone a mammoth or other extinct fauna (though good luck finding 165 female elephants to play host to your experiment). On the other hand … WTF?
7. Best Superman ever
Yes, this is a video about a comic book. And if you don’t like comic books, or comic book movies, or the whole idea of superheroes, watching a video about a comic book superhero may seem like a waste of time.
But I’m going to urge you to watch it anyway. Steve Shives, the content creator behind this video, frequently focuses on comics, or “Star Trek,” or other topics that may seem like sidelines when faced with the daily erosion of democracy and feeling like everything is growing darker and more serious by the day. But he’s also a dedicated progressive with a keen insight into how culture and politics overlap.
Just watch it. Watch it to the end.
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