On Saturday’s episode of The Excerpt podcast: Former President Donald Trump says he will vote against a ballot amendment in Florida that would overturn the state's six-week abortion ban. USA TODAY Senior National Political Correspondent Sarah D. Wire discusses what's at stake over felon voting in Nebraska. There's a new turn to the Adnan Syed case in Maryland. USA TODAY Senior Data Editor Doug Caruso explains why dam breaches are a national concern in the wake of the Rapidan Dam breach earlier this summer in Minnesota. Officials announced this week the dam will be removed, according to The Minnesota Star Tribune. The college football season kicks off in earnest. The Paralympics continue this weekend.

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 Saturday, August 31st, 2024. This is The Excerpt.

Today, a closer look at Trump's latest comments on abortion, plus debates over felon voting in Nebraska, and how a number of dams across the country are in danger of breaches.

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Former President Donald Trump said yesterday, he will vote against the ballot measure in his home state of Florida that would overturn the state's six-week abortion ban. His decision is a turnaround from just 24 hours earlier when he appeared open to the amendment. Trump this week also said he supports mandating that insurance companies cover the costs of in vitro fertilization. The issue entered the national spotlight after the Alabama Supreme Court ruled this year that the embryos created during IVF are legally protected like children after the overturning of Roe vs Wade. Conservative Evangelical Christian voters continue to wrestle with a shifting Republican stance on abortion, and this week's tensions are a continuation of a debate that erupted ahead of the Republican National Convention in July when the religious right urged the GOP not to soften its stance on abortion. You can read more with a link in today's show notes.

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Nebraska restored the right to vote to felons 19 years ago, but now the Attorney General and Secretary of State there say that the law is unconstitutional. I spoke with USA TODAY's Senior National Political Correspondent Sarah D. Wire to learn more.

Sarah, thanks for hopping on.

Sarah D. Wire:

Thanks for having me.

Taylor Wilson:

So Sarah, what is this felon voting law in Nebraska and what's the state Supreme Court weighing here?

Sarah D. Wire:

It's kind of a convoluted story, but back in 2005, the state legislature passed a law restoring the right to vote to felons two years after they finished their punishment. Once they had gotten out of parole, once they had paid all fees and fines and restitution, they could regain the right to vote. This has been in place for the last 19 years. So this April, the legislature got rid of that two year waiting period. It was set to become law this summer and two days before it became law, the Attorney General issued an opinion stating that not only the new law was unconstitutional, but the previous law from 19 years ago was also unconstitutional.

Well, you can imagine that a lot of people have registered to vote in the last 19 years, and so estimated 97,000 Nebraskans with prior felony convictions are now eligible to vote who wouldn't be otherwise. And so the Supreme Court is weighing whether it's constitutional and whether the Attorney General acted appropriately in declaring it unconstitutional just unilaterally.

Taylor Wilson:

You mentioned those 97,000 folks. What does this now functionally mean for felons in the state, including some who are currently registered?

Sarah D. Wire:

That is the biggest unknown. There is a lot of chaos and confusion that I heard from talking to people in Nebraska. The state says that only the State Board of Pardons can grant the right to vote, and the legislature says no, they're correct. So you have a lot of people who don't want to become crosswise with the law again and go cast a vote illegally, and they're just in limbo until the Supreme Court acts. It seems like the Supreme Court's going to act fairly quickly. They rushed this hearing. The advocates I spoke to say they're expecting a response within a month, but that's only days before voter registration ends in Nebraska.

Taylor Wilson:

Wow. So why will the court's ruling have a disproportionate impact on the state's black population?

Sarah D. Wire:

Unfortunately, like a lot of states, Nebraska's prison population is predominantly black. There's almost a 10-to-one ratio in Nebraska, much higher than the national average. And so the state population's 5% black, but the estimate is that it's probably closer to 50% of this population of felons is black.

Taylor Wilson:

What might this really mean for the presidential election nationally?

Sarah D. Wire:

So Nebraska is a red state and all the seats are held by Republicans, but it is one of only two states in the country that decides who gets the electoral college seats based on congressional district. Well, Omaha and the surrounding suburbs in Nebraska's second congressional district tend to lean more blue than the rest of the state, and periodically Democrats have won that seat. Barack Obama did, I believe Biden did in 2020 as well. And several of Kamala Harris's paths to victory include winning Nebraska's second congressional district in order to get the necessary votes to become president.

Taylor Wilson:

And so Sarah, you touched on this a bit, but what's next here? When can we finally see the dust potentially settle on this issue?

Sarah D. Wire:

Realistically, advocates are hoping to get an answer within a month. I'll be checking the website every Friday when the court releases their opinions. But one professor told me that the damage has already been done. This is already a population that doesn't trust the government, they don't trust politics, and they might not feel comfortable casting a vote in November because they don't want to get crosswise with the law. And some people I spoke to are, even registered Republicans, say they're not going to come out in November, it's just not worth losing their freedom again.

Taylor Wilson:

Wow. Fascinating story from America's Heartland. Sarah D. Wire is a Senior National Political Correspondent with USA TODAY. Thank you, Sarah.

Sarah D. Wire:

Thanks for having me.

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Taylor Wilson:

The Maryland Supreme Court yesterday ruled that a key hearing that led to Adnan Syed's release must be redone. The decision extends a decades-long legal battle that was once chronicled in the hit podcast Serial. The court agreed with a Maryland appellate court, which ruled the family of murder victim Hae Min Lee, Syed's ex-girlfriend who was killed in 1999, had the right to appear in person at the hearing. The latest ruling resets the case to before the hearing that ended with Syed walking free, giving Lee's family the chance to be present. That means Syed's murder conviction will remain reinstated. Still, he's remained out of prison amid the legal wrangling and the Supreme Court said its ruling would not change the conditions of his release pending future proceedings, which could ultimately clear Syed's name. Syed was freed from prison almost two years ago after a Baltimore judge ruled that the state had improperly withheld exculpatory evidence from his defense team. Prosecutors later dropped his charges after they said DNA evidence suggested his innocence.

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The Rapidan Dam breach in Minnesota this summer doomed a family's home, and it's a growing risk across the country. I spoke with USA TODAY Senior Data Editor Doug Caruso to learn more. Doug, thanks for hopping on The Excerpt today.

Doug Caruso:

Thank you, glad to be here.

Taylor Wilson:

Would you just start by telling us about the Barnes family and this Rapidan Dam breach?

Doug Caruso:

Reporter Danny Jimenez looked into the dam breach and it was one of several that occurred over this summer after heavy rain. The Barnes family had a store and their family home on the banks of the river, and on June 24th, after that part of Minnesota had gotten as much rain as it usually gets in an entire summer, the dam failed. Jenny Barnes described to Danny waking up in the middle of the night as water rose in the parking lot and then scrambling to save their family photos and other valuables from that dam break. Their home and store both had to be dismantled afterward, lest they become more debris flowing down the river to cause more damage to bridges and things like that. The county bought it out from them.

Taylor Wilson:

Yeah. So Doug, how did this breach happen and what have we learned since?

Doug Caruso:

Well, what we learned is that the dam was already in poor condition when all this rain fell. There was a lot of debris in the river that ended up clogging its gates, and then the water found its way through a breach on the bank near the Barnes family home. If you see photos of it, which you can see if you click on the links to our website, you'll see that there's just a big chunk taken out of the dam where the water flowed through because it was unable to go through the gates. The county apparently considered trying to clear the debris from the gates, but was unable to get somebody out there safely, and so the water rose and rose and eventually broke the dam.

Taylor Wilson:

Doug, nationwide, how often do dams actually fail and how many dams are at risk of causing serious damage if they do fail?

Doug Caruso:

I worked on an investigation about this a couple years ago for USA TODAY, and what we found was that there are about 30,000 dams in the United States that have a hazard classification of significant or high, and that means that they would damage property or potentially kill somebody if they break. So that's the hazard. Then there's also condition. We found about 3,000 dams that were in poor or unsatisfactory condition and would kill somebody or damage property when they broke. At the same time, what we found was that all of these dams are in areas that are getting more and more rain because of climate change and are projected to get heavier and heavier rains, kind of like what the Rapidan Dam experienced this summer.

Taylor Wilson:

So federal inspection reports show this dam in Minnesota was rated in poor condition as of its 2022 inspection. That's the second-worst possible rating. So Doug, what's the solution here? Is this a matter of highlighting low ratings like this one and finding fixes in those areas? Or is the bigger issue climate change? I mean what does this conversation look like going forward?

Doug Caruso:

Yeah, essentially the problem that we have is that we have dams that are aging and in some cases were not designed for the climate that they're now experiencing. By one estimate, there have been about 500 dam failures since just the year 2000 as those changes have taken place. The big infrastructure bill that the government put through had something like $3 billion, if I'm remembering correctly, for dams, estimates are far above that for what it would take to actually repair the dam infrastructure for our country. So the answer is probably that they need to maintain these dams, they need to bring them up, they need to be making sure that they're checked, and that the ones that have the highest danger and are in the worst shape are getting fixed, or even in some cases removed. In some cases, jurisdictions have decided that an aging dam that could cause danger if it breaks is less dangerous if it's just gone and if that river is left to do what it naturally would do.

Taylor Wilson:

Interesting stuff. USA TODAY Senior Data Editor Doug Caruso, thank you so much.

Doug Caruso:

Thank you.

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Taylor Wilson:

The college football season gets underway in earnest today after a handful of teams began their seasons already in recent days. Some marquee match-ups include number one Georgia against number 14 Clemson in Atlanta at noon Eastern, followed by a big prime time game tonight between number seven Notre Dame and number 20 Texas A&M. And the entire sport of college football sees a radical change this year as the college football playoff expands from four to 12 teams. For a look at our expert picks from some of the biggest games of week one, check out a link in today's show notes and stay with USA TODAY Sports throughout the fall for full coverage.

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Following Wednesday's Opening Ceremony, the Paralympics roll on this weekend in Paris. Last night, 21-year-old American sprinter Corbin Best recorded a personal best time in the T-47 100 meter dash, all while making his Paralympic debut. That was enough to win silver. Just like the Olympics, the Paralympic games are being broadcast across NBC's networks with many events shown on USA Network. And the folks at USA TODAY Sports have you covered. The games run through September 8th.

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The discovery of the fossilized jaw and skull of a Pliosaur, a giant prehistoric marine reptile, has set enthusiasts on fire. What might these bones teach us about how this ancient creature lived? One man with a front row seat to it all was legendary paleontologist Steve Etches, a plumber-turned scientist who has been collecting fossils from what's known as the Jurassic Coast in southern England for over 40 years.

Tune into The Excerpt tomorrow for a re-air of one of our favorite episodes of the year right here on this feed after 5:00 a.m. Eastern Time. And thanks for listening to The Excerpt. You can get the podcast wherever you get your pods, and if you're on a smart speaker, just ask for The Excerpt. I'm Taylor Wilson, and I'll be back Monday with more of The Excerpt from USA TODAY.