Complications remain for ship that caused Baltimore bridge collapse | The Excerpt

On today's episode of The Excerpt podcast: USA TODAY Pentagon Correspondent Tom Vanden Brook reports on the latest from bridge clean-up efforts in Baltimore. An Israeli airstrike on Gaza killed seven working for chef Jose Andres' World Central Kitchen. A new report says Russia is behind 'Havana Syndrome' attacks on US spies and diplomats. Donald Trump posts $175 million bond to protect his assets. Plus, did Trump's attacks over a New York judge's daughter violate a gag order? USA TODAY Money, Markets and Personal Finance Reporter Medora Lee talks about the cost of health care and what it means for the great wealth transfer.

Hit play on the player below 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.

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Taylor Wilson:

Good morning. I'm Taylor Wilson, and today is Tuesday April 2nd, 2024. This is The Excerpt.

Today, the latest from Baltimore where bridge cleanup efforts continue. Plus a new report points the finger at Russia for Havana syndrome, and how millennials may miss out on the great wealth transfer.

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Recovery efforts continue to clear the massive container ship and rubble from the collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, but complications remain. I spoke with USA TODAY Pentagon correspondent, Tom Vanden Brook for the latest.

Tom, thanks for hopping on The Excerpt today.

Tom Vanden Brook:

Taylor. Good to be here.

Taylor Wilson:

So Tom, we'll talk about the remaining bridge structure in a second, but what are the key goals for the Army Corps of Engineers when it comes to this massive container ship, The Dolly, at this point?

Tom Vanden Brook:

Well, one of the first priorities that we learned was they need to stabilize the ship itself to keep it from drifting and pivoting, as they put it. So they're using tugboats and anchors to do that. Obviously they need a stable platform to remove the parts of 4,000 tons of steel truss that are across the ship itself and also all the stuff that's around it. So they need that ship to be stable before they really get after it.

Taylor Wilson:

Tom, there are tons of cargo still on the ship, do we have any idea what's going to happen to all those containers?

Tom Vanden Brook:

They need to analyze what's there, what they have to remove in order for it to be safe to move the ship, because they're going to try to refloat the ship too and see what the damage is there, so they need to analyze exactly what's on it. They know mostly what's on it, but what pieces of it need to be removed to move the ship safely.

Taylor Wilson:

And what is the plan for the steel truss structure that fell across the ship? You touched on this a bit, but it's still in the water, it's blocking the channel. What does this plan look like going forward?

Tom Vanden Brook:

Well, right now the first part of it is to remove the stuff that you see that's on the ship. I'm sure a lot of people have seen the photos of it. Now, that 4,000 tons of steel and that needs to be cut up into sections because the biggest crane that they have to remove it can remove 1,000 tons, as the chief of the Army Corps of Engineers told USA Today, last week. So, obviously quick a little arithmetic there, they've got to cut it into at least four sections in order for that crane to move it, and they've got to put it on a barge and float it away.

Taylor Wilson:

So cranes are involved here. Tom, what's the role of these underwater divers at this point of cleanup efforts?

Tom Vanden Brook:

They have to analyze the stuff that's beneath the surface. Most of the steel truss is beneath the surface and it goes down as much as 50 feet. So they've got to go down there and see exactly how they're going to cut it up. Some of these steel trusses are under tension, so they have to be careful about how they cut them so they don't spring away and kill somebody. They're also very sharp edges because a lot of this is twisted, so that's part of it. But they've already begun cutting some of the steel on top of the ship that began on Saturday.

Taylor Wilson:

And going forward, Tom, how are officials talking about the timeline at this point? Do we have any idea when we can expect the Port of Baltimore to reopen?

Tom Vanden Brook:

No is the short answer. There's no timeline, they've told us about this. They are working on creating a smaller that would allow barges to reach into the harbor and get some commerce going, but that wouldn't be nearly as deep as what's needed to get big ships through.

Taylor Wilson:

Tom Vanden Brook covers the Pentagon for USA TODAY. Great insight as always. Thanks, Tom.

Tom Vanden Brook:

Thanks, Taylor.

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Taylor Wilson:

Seven people working for a food aid group were killed in an Israeli airstrike on central Gaza yesterday. A US-Canadian dual citizen is among those dead after traveling in armored cars with the logo of celebrity chef Jose Andres', World Central Kitchen. The group said that despite coordinating movements with Israeli defense forces, the convoy was hit as it was leaving a warehouse after unloading more than a hundred tons of humanitarian food aid brought to Gaza by sea. Israel has long denied that it is hindering the distribution of aid in Gaza saying the problem is caused by the inability of international aid groups to get supplies to those in need.

Erin Gore, chief Executive of World Central Kitchen said, "This is not only an attack against WCK, this is an attack on humanitarian organizations showing up in the most dire of situations where food is being used as a weapon of war. This is unforgivable." Israel's military has pledged an investigation by an independent, professional and expert body.

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A former senior CIA officer who was forced to retire over a brain injury caused by a suspected Havana syndrome attack has called for congressional hearings. That's after a new report linked Russia to mysterious neurological symptoms that have hit US diplomats and spies for nearly a decade. The report comes a little more than a year after the US intelligence community concluded it was very unlikely a foreign adversary is responsible for the sometimes debilitating headaches, dizziness, memory loss, and buzzing in the ears reported by dozens of American officials.

A joint investigation by 60 Minutes, the Latvia based news site, the Insider and the German news magazine Der Spiegel reported Sunday that senior members of a unit of the Russian GRU military intelligence agency have received awards and promotions for their work related to the development of non-lethal acoustic weapons. The reporting points to attacks by Russian intelligence against American diplomatic personnel and their families, the victims have long alleged. The report said that US intelligence officers who had served in Kyiv in 2014 appeared to have been tracked and targeted in subsequent postings.

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Former President Donald Trump and several co-defendants in a New York civil fraud case posted $175 million bond yesterday. That's after an appeals court ruled they did not have to come up with $464 million in order to block New York Attorney General Letitia James from seizing their assets. Pressure had been heating up over the past month for the presumptive Republican presidential nominee to come up with cash or find a bonding company willing to cover the approximately $454 million judgment that Trump and several of his business entities face.

On his March 25th deadline to come up with a deposit or bond, a New York Appeals court ruled he and his co-defendants could have an additional 10 days to post just $175 million to shield themselves from collection.

Meanwhile, Trump repeatedly attacked the daughter of the judge in his separate New York criminal hush money case last week. In one post on his Truth Social media site, Trump attacked Judge Juan Merchant's daughter by name and he called her a rabid Trump hater Manhattan District Attorney. Alvin Bragg's office filed a letter with the court Friday asking the judge to clarify or confirm that a gag order prohibits those attacks. Trump stated that the judge's daughter, Lauren Merchant, works for prominent Democrats as a political consultant. The judge acknowledged in an August ruling that his daughter heads digital marketing agency Authentic Campaigns, which works with democratic candidates and nonprofits. But the judge said that did not provide a realistic reason for his recusal.

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Young Americans may miss out on the so-called Great Wealth Transfer. I spoke with USA TODAY money markets and personal finance reporter Medora Lee to find out more.

Hello, Medora.

Medora Lee:

Hi, how are you?

Taylor Wilson:

Good, good. Thanks for hopping on The Excerpt today. So let's just start with this. What is this great wealth transfer that researchers have predicted?

Medora Lee:

So, because all of these baby boomers are retiring and supposedly also have the greatest amount of wealth. And so when they pass away, a lot of researchers think that there's going to be this big wealth transfer when they have to leave money and assets to their heirs. So, since all these baby boomers are coming of age and they own 52.8% of the wealth in this country, researchers have been talking about this great generational wealth transfer, that they've accumulated up to $84 trillion in assets that they're going to have to dole out to heirs and charities over the next 20 years. They think the bulk of that is going to be to generation X, millennials, and Gen Z. They're expected to inherit $72 trillion of that amount with the rest going to charities.

Taylor Wilson:

And you're right, that reality might not be meeting the expectations here, healthcare costs a big part of this conversation. Medora, can you just talk about the role of mounting healthcare costs when it comes to really softening this wealth transfer that was expected to many millennials and other younger Americans?

Medora Lee:

That is true. I think that this is the part that a lot of people when they did this research weren't really expecting, that healthcare costs for older adults has skyrocketed, even increased over the rate of inflation. So, I think KFF estimated that since 2000 medical care prices have increased by over 114% versus the 81% rise in overall inflation. And that also doesn't even include necessarily long-term healthcare, which means if you have to go into a senior home or an assisted living facility or something like that, that's even more expensive. So with that big increase in cost, plus people are living longer now. I mean, I just read somewhere that three in 10 millennials and Gen X'ers and 21% of boomers expect to reach 100 years old. We're looking now at extremely expensive healthcare in these late stages of your life. So, some researchers are saying now that they think that a lot of that money that was supposed to go to the next generation will maybe go into the medical system.

Taylor Wilson:

And I mean, trying to look at the glass half full here, Medora, trying. What can individuals do to better prepare for some of these mounting healthcare costs later in life?

Medora Lee:

The idea is that if you're still in your 50s or younger and you're still pretty healthy, you might still be able to buy a long-term care insurance policy to help with the costs. But if you're older than that, it might end up being too expensive. Usually like when you get late 50s, 60s, those policies become very expensive.

Another idea is about six to 10 years before your retirement, you could look at buying an annuity, which can guarantee you some monthly income for the rest of your life. But if you haven't planned that so far and you're past that stage, from here you really only have Medicare or self-pay options for your health insurance, which is where a lot of people are right now. Some people that I interviewed for my story, she was middle class, she had a house, she had a car, she sent two kids to college and she thought she would be maybe in wheelchair but still retiring on some island with some Mai Tais with her husband. But her husband had a stroke, then he was diagnosed with prostate cancer, and all of this completely ate up their savings and more.

And so now she's looking everywhere to save money. She's selling things on Marketplace for pennies on the dollar. Like her mom's old dishes that she inherited, her grandson moved in and pays a hundred dollars a week and helps with his grandfather, which helps a lot. She sold her car, and so now she's worried that she may not have anything left for her children. So it's a scary thing for people like that. And the only other thing is if they get on Medicaid, but you have to be extremely low income for that and have basically no assets. And Medicaid would pay for everything.

Taylor Wilson:

Yeah, it's a distressing story. Medora Lee covers money markets and personal finance for USA TODAY. Thank you, Medora.

Medora Lee:

Thank you.

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Taylor Wilson:

And then there were four. The women's final four is now set in March Madness. One seed Iowa knocked off LSU last night behind a whopping 41 points from superstar Caitlin Clark. And Yukon upset one seed USC in the late game. They join NC State now as another school this year with both men's and women's basketball in the final four. Games will be held Friday in Cleveland before the National Championship game on Sunday.

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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.