On today’s show: The long list of pardons and commutations announced by President Biden last week includes some controversial choices, such as a former judge who was found guilty of accepting millions in kickbacks for sending kids to juvenile detention. A ProPublica investigation analyzes the dangers of formaldehyde, a toxic chemical that causes cancer and can be found in your home and workplace. Doctors in Boston are prescribing solar power to patients who can’t afford to keep their medical devices running. Also, the latest on mysterious drone sightings over the East Coast, the Wall Street Journal on a secret spy agency operating within the Kremlin, and how a lawsuit over the color beige could rock the social-media influencer world.
Chapter 1: What controversial pardons did President Biden grant?
Good morning. It's Monday, December 16th. I'm Shamita Basu. This is Apple News Today. 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.
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. Like Michael Coneham, a former judge in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania.
Chapter 2: What was the Kids for Cash scandal?
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. 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, and Conahan's role in it was seen as one of the worst judicial scandals in Pennsylvania history. His house arrest was set to end in 2026. Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro says, if anything, Conahan was given too light of a sentence from the start.
Chapter 3: How did families react to Biden's clemency decisions?
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. 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 told the local newspaper The Citizen's Voice about how her 17-year-old son was sentenced by one of the judges for possessing drug paraphernalia and later died by suicide after being released. She called the judge's commutation, quote, an injustice for all of us who still suffer.
Chapter 4: Who are some notable figures on the clemency list?
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.
I anticipate she's dancing in the streets of Dixon with her commutation because she just also conned the president of the United States.
That's Jason Wodillo, a former U.S. marshal who investigated Cronwell's crimes, talking to CBS News Chicago. He says he thinks Cronwell 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.
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. Some lawmakers say presidential clemency powers need reform, including Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar.
Here she is speaking on CBS's Face the Nation on Sunday.
I think that this whole process cries out for reform because otherwise you undermine the justice system. 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. 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.
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. Sharon Lerner covers health and the environment, and she told us about the risks of formaldehyde.
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Chapter 5: What are the dangers of formaldehyde?
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. We'll include a link to that in our show notes. A group of doctors in Boston are writing somewhat unusual prescriptions for their patients, solar power.
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. It involves more than 500 solar panels spread across one of the medical center's rooftops.
Chapter 6: How is formaldehyde found in everyday products?
It's simple. The solar panels create power, and then we direct a certain percentage of that power to a particular patient's meter.
Dr. Anna Goldman is a primary care physician who co-founded the project. 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.
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.
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. They launched their $1.6 million solar panel project in October of that year, largely using tax credits from the Inflation Reduction Act. 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. Biggio told WBUR he's already planning to expand the program.
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.
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Chapter 7: What challenges does the EPA face in regulating formaldehyde?
He says that could increase the number of patients they help with utilities tenfold. There's another type of unusual prescription some patients get at this medical center. Fresh produce grown on the rooftop farm. 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. Before we let you go, a few other stories being featured in the Apple News app. 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.
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. Unnerved residents have reported seeing drones overhead, sometimes in clusters, but so far no one has explained what's happening.
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.
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. And I said, Houston, we have a problem.
Federal officials say there is no threat to public safety from the drones and no evidence that they have ties to foreign countries. The Wall Street Journal has exclusive reporting on the secretive Russian spy agency that carries out the Putin regime's agenda. That agenda includes arresting American citizens on Russian soil, which is what happened to journal reporter Evan Gershkovich.
The entire time he was detained by Russia last year, for 16 months, he was conducting his own reporting on who ordered his arrest. 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. And finally, it's been dubbed the sad beige lawsuit.
Sydney Nicole Gifford, an online influencer from Minneapolis, has sued another influencer, Alyssa Scheel, for stealing her signature beige-colored aesthetic. Both influencers' homes, clothing, and entire lives, basically, are awash in neutral beige, creams, and browns. Gifford says Shiel ripped off her brand identity and is asking for up to $150,000 in damages for mental anguish and lost income.
She also wants Shiel's content taken down, which has been described as the ultimate blow to an influencer. 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. You can find all these stories and more in the Apple News app.
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