The Bay

This week, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced that the state plans to eliminate the sale of gas-powered cars by 2035 in order to keep cutting California's greenhouse gas emissions. Many environmentalists say we need to move even faster — and take bolder steps to ban fracking in our state. So what does this all mean for our climate future? And is this ban a big deal? Guest: Kevin Stark, KQED science reporter Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Before the coronavirus, orange skies from wildfires, and huge protests against police violence, housing was the issue in California. But still, even with multiple crises happening at once, so much of what's going on comes back to where we live. In the new podcast 'SOLD OUT: Rethinking Housing in America,' KQED's Molly Solomon and Erin Baldassari explore some of the solutions to our housing shortage that would make a meaningful difference — because we can't afford to wait. Guests: Molly Solomon and Erin Baldassari, KQED housing reporters and co-hosts of SOLD OUT: Rethinking Housing in America Help KQED by telling us about your podcast listening habits! Take our podcast survey here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Since the 90s, law enforcement groups like police unions, correctional officer unions, and sheriffs' associations have had a huge influence on policing and criminal justice legislation, both in Washington and in Sacramento. This led to laws like the 'three strikes' rule and the 1994 Crime Bill that passed through Congress and was signed by President Clinton. But law enforcement officials aren't speaking with one voice anymore. Some district attorneys want to focus on changing the system and focusing on rehabilitation. And now, a new group of progressive-minded district attorneys in California want to counter the 'tough on crime' voices that have usually held sway. Guest: Marisa Lagos, correspondent for KQED’s California Politics and Government Desk and co-host of the Political Breakdown podcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

After the Tubbs Fire in 2017, Lil Milagro Henriquez felt she had to do more than just tell her students to mask up for the smoky air. She wanted to empower her students to face the challenges of climate change head on. That’s what moved her to found the Mycelium Youth Network, which provides programs that empower Black and brown youth to tap into indigenous ways of living with the land. Guests: Lil Milagro Henriquez, founder and executive director of Mycelium Youth Network, and Phoenix Armenta, educator Recommended Reading: Helping Kids Protect Themselves From Dirty Air, One DIY Filter at a Time More information on Mycelium Youth Network's Apocalyptic Resilience Conference here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sixteen year-old Crista Ramos was in her high school Zoom class when her family got some stressful news: A federal court ruled in favor of ending the humanitarian protection known as Temporary Protected Status, or TPS. The program allows hundreds of thousands of immigrants who fled their home countries, including Crista’s mom, to work and live in the United States. For more than two years, Crista has been a lead plaintiff in a federal lawsuit against President Trump’s plan to end temporary protected status. With this recent court ruling, more than 400,000 immigrants could lose their TPS status and be deported as early as next March. But Crista vows to keep fighting. Guest: Farida Jabvala Romero, Immigration Reporter for KQED This episode originally aired in February 2019. At the end of the episode, we provide an update on the recent court ruling and how it affects Crista and her family. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Suburbs are some of the most diverse spaces in America. It's one reason why — more and more — they’ve become the backdrop of tensions between police and communities of color. That friction is at the center of a protest over policing in Antioch, where activists went on a hunger strike for five days and are camped out in front of the local police department. Guest: Sandhya Dirks, race and equity reporter for KQED Click here to check out Season 1 of American Suburb. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When KQED photojournalist Beth LaBerge woke up to orange skies in San Francisco Wednesday morning, she rushed out the door to document the extraordinary moment. In a year with the coronavirus pandemic, racial justice protests and wildfires, Beth has been on the frontlines documenting it all. And in some ways, it helps her process all that’s been happening. Guest: Beth LaBerge, photojournalist for KQED Click here for a few more of Beth's photos that she's taken for KQED. Resources: Bay Area Air Quality Map What To Pack In Your Emergency Bag What's All This Smoky Air Doing to Your Body? We Asked A Lung Doctor Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The pandemic has set off a chain of events that will make this year’s election in California different from years past. For one, the state can’t bet on its most reliable poll workers — older Californians — to volunteer. On top of that, many traditional polling places have been closed because of the risk of an outbreak. So now the state is mailing all registered voters a ballot. And while that will make voting safer for many people, some will still need to cast their ballots in person. And counties are trying to make sure that those voters don't get left behind. Guest: Guy Marzorati, reporter and producer for KQED’s California politics and government desk Click here for more info on volunteering to be a poll worker in California. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Uncle Bobby Johnson, also known as the People’s Uncle, has been standing up to police brutality ever since his nephew Oscar Grant was shot by a BART police officer in 2009. He's also spent a lot of time supporting families who've lost loved ones to police violence. And today he sees a movement that is much bigger than when he first became an activist more than a decade ago. Guest: Cephus Johnson, aka Uncle Bobby X, founder of the Oscar Grant Foundation and Love Not Blood Campaign. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For the last eight years, Uber and Lyft have successfully beaten state and local attempts to change its core labor model: treating drivers as independent contractors instead of employees with benefits. Then the pandemic hit. And now, California’s public officials — including state attorney general Xavier Becerra — might actually have the political will to force gig companies to change how they treat their employees. Guest: Sam Harnett, tech and work reporter for KQED Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Soon after the pandemic started and Californians began to lose their jobs, Gov. Gavin Newsom issued what he called an 'eviction moratorium' to protect those who couldn’t make rent because of COVID-19. But there are a lot of vulnerable people who were never protected by that order. And since March 4, at least 2,000 California households have been kicked out of their homes. Guest: Matt Levin, housing and data reporter for CalMatters Recommended Reading: Exclusive: More than 1,600 Californians have been evicted during pandemic Newsom Announces New Statewide Eviction Moratorium — But Major Concessions May Threaten Tenants Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Fire season doesn't have to be this bad. There are lots of things we can do to prevent more and more extreme wildfires. It'll take a big shift in the way we do things. California has spent decades reacting to and suppressing natural fires, which is one reason why the wildfires we're currently dealing with are so extreme. But it's still possible to rethink our relationship with fire and change our situation for the better. Guest: Danielle Venton, KQED science reporter Recommended Reading: To Manage Wildfire, California Looks to What Tribes Have Known All Along We Can Make California Wildfires Less Horrific. Will We? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

California is low on firefighters at a really bad time. It’s partially because the state released thousands of incarcerated firefighters to prevent the spread of Covid-19. But it’s also because this system of relying on incarcerated people to help fight fires — which we’ve had since after World War II — isn’t sustainable. Guest: Kevin Stark, KQED science reporter Recommended reading: Rare Honors This Weekend for Inmate Firefighters Killed on the Job Let's Talk About Wildfires and Prisons Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Earlier this month, President Donald Trump issued an executive order that could ban WeChat, the popular Chinese messaging app, from operating in the United States. But this potential ban would also have ripple effects on local politics in San Francisco, where about one in five residents are Chinese. Many use the app to talk with family and do business, but also to reach voters and organize around issues like tenants’ rights. So without it, Chinese-speaking residents would lose a pillar of their organizing infrastructure. Guest: Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez, Reporter for KQED For the latest information on wildfires currently happening in the Bay Area, visit kqed.org. The newsroom has also put together resources on protecting against wildfire smoke, along with a resource on what to pack in an emergency bag. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Back in 2017, Quinn Jasmine Redwoods saw a long line of people at a food distribution center in Oakland. Nobody in line had a mask, even though the most deadly and destructive wildfires in Californian’s history were spreading pollutants into the air. So Redwoods picked up 300 masks at a local store, and created Mask Oakland, a trans/queer led grassroots organization to distribute masks to mostly unhoused and disabled people. And now, fires are burning again — this time, in the middle of a pandemic. Guest: Quinn Jasmine Redwoods, founder of Mask Oakland Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

People across the state lost power with almost no warning over the weekend, and there’s a risk it could happen again soon. The California Independent Systems Operator instituted rolling power shutoffs to prevent an uncontrolled loss of power, and is asking people to limit how much electricity they're using. But why is this even happening in the first place? Guest: Dan Brekke, KQED editor and reporter Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, Jesus Guillen overheard a woman ask why those being held on the Grand Princess cruise ship docked at the Oakland Port with COVID-19 couldn’t just be sent to an island somewhere. It reminded him immediately of another crisis he lived through: The HIV/AIDS epidemic of the 1980s, where discrimination and stigma was made worse by the government’s inadequate response. Guest: Lesley McClurg, KQED science reporter You can read Lesley's full story here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A federal judge in San Francisco has ordered a privately-run immigrant detention center in Bakersfield to stop transferring people to the facility and to provide weekly COVID-19 tests to those inside. Now more than a dozen people detained at the Mesa Verde facility have COVID-19. Meanwhile, calls to get people out of immigration detention centers are overlapping with calls to abolish prisons amid a nationwide movement for racial justice. Guest: Farida Jhabvala Romero, KQED immigration reporter Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sen. Kamala Harris will be the first Black woman and person of Indian descent to run for Vice President on a major party ticket. Many Americans got to know her when she ran for president last year. But we here in the Bay Area have known her for a lot longer. Not just because she was born in Oakland and raised in Berkeley, but because her political career started in San Francisco. Now she's joined Joe Biden's ticket as the Democratic nominee for Vice President. So today, we're diving into how Bay Area politics shaped Kamala Harris. Guest: Marisa Lagos, KQED politics correspondent This episode originally aired in January 2019. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Many senior care homes in the Bay Area are in fire risk areas, according to a KQED investigation. These facilities are supposed to have emergency plans for disasters like wildfires in order to evacuate the mostly older people with medical conditions who live in them. But with dangerous fire season months approaching, and a pandemic in full swing, some worry that many assisted living homes aren’t prepared. Guest: Molly Peterson, KQED Science reporter Click here to see KQED's Older and Overlooked project, which also includes a guide to help you protect your loved ones in care facilities. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Almost all Bay Area schools are required to start the school year remotely to prevent the further spread of COVID-19 this fall. In response, many families are starting their own small, in-person "learning pods" instead. But not everyone has access to one. Some parents are paying extra just so their child can get access. And there are also fears that these pods will exacerbate inequities that have already existed in the education system. Guest: Sara Hossaini, KQED reporter Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A secret clique of Vallejo police officers commemorate killings by bending the tips of their star-shaped badges — and the city’s top leaders did nothing about it. That's according to Open Vallejo, a recently launched non-profit news organization. For many locals, the story only confirmed their mistrust of a department they feel continues to act with impunity. Last week, police Chief Shawny Williams announced he would launch a third party investigation into the allegations after two VPD employees came forward about the practice. But in a city where local officials have been reluctant to discipline its police department, what is the path forward? Guest: Geoff King, founder of Open Vallejo and civil liberties lawyer See Geoff’s article and subscribe to the Open Vallejo podcast here. Click here to leave The Bay a rating on Apple Podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Last week, Congress questioned leaders of four of the largest tech companies in the world - Amazon, Facebook, Google and Apple - about just how much power they’ve gained over the years. Today, we're revisiting an episode from December about how Amazon's race to be the biggest and fastest is hurting the employees doing the work. Will Evans, reporter with The Center for Investigative Reporting You can read Will's full Behind the Smiles investigation here. And to share your Amazon injury records with him click here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Some doulas are seeing an uptick in business during the pandemic. Hospitals are limiting the number of people who can be present at births, and many families are looking for options outside of traditional healthcare facilities. We'll hear from Sumayyah Monét Franklin who is a birth rights activist, doula and owner of Sumi's Touch. She talks about working during a pandemic and why she is especially concerned about Black mothers and children. Subscribe to Rightnowish for weekly episodes featuring conversations with neighbors that teach us about the world. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

From November of 2019 to January of 2020, two Black mothers occupied a vacant West Oakland property without permission from the company that owned the house, Southern California-based Wedgewood Properties. Since then — after a lot of public pressure — Wedgewood agreed to let them stay. The Oakland Community Land Trust will purchase the home and least it back to the moms. Today, we're revisiting the moral argument behind Moms 4 Housing's activism: that housing is a human right. This episode originally aired on January 3, 2020. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On October 14 of last year, Native people from across the West Coast gathered in San Francisco for a ceremonial canoe journey to Alcatraz Island. Each canoe represented a territory, tribe, community or family. They paddled to celebrate culture and values on Indigenous Peoples' Day, and to commemorate the 1969 Occupation of Alcatraz. This episode originally published in October 2019. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ashanti Branch started Ever Forward Club because he wanted the young men in his classroom to have what he didn't have as a student: a safe place to be themselves. After Ashanti gave them that, he saw them start to succeed. Mindshift, from KQED, focuses on stories about the future of learning. Today we're sharing the first episode of Season 5. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jason Mai didn’t know why his father was taken to jail when he was 12 years old. As a kid growing up in the Bay Area, he was told by his Chinese family to avoid má fan, which meant burdening or inconveniencing others by sharing the family secret. Only as an adult did Jason start to process his childhood trauma by learning about the intersections between incarceration and Asian American culture. To help him process it, he created a zine. This episode originally aired in November 2019. Guest: Jason Mai, creator of Yes, Asians Go To Jail Too Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We've produced more than 300 stories about the Bay Area. Today, we're taking a break from the headlines to revisit a show from March (before shelter in place orders) where we traveled to three of our favorite spots around the Bay Area. Guests: Alan Montecillo, Ericka Cruz Guevarra and Devin Katayama Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

At one point in Vallejo, the city was paying so much money in salaries and pensions for its police and firefighters that the city went bankrupt. It’s not just police shootings that have led to a deep sense of mistrust of Vallejo Police. So how’d it get so bad? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In 2017, Vallejo Police shot and killed Alicia Saddler's brother, Angel Ramos, in their mother's backyard. What began as a family gathering was quickly warped by police, whose narrative of the fatal evening prevailed in the news. Saddler and her family have spent the last few years challenging police's narrative. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Before Sean Monterrosa was shot and killed by Vallejo police on June 2, VPD officers killed Willie McCoy. Police fired 55 shots into McCoy's vehicle as it was parked in a Taco Bell drive thru where he was sleeping. But before McCoy became another face of police violence in Vallejo, he was a rising young rapper whose family said had a bright future ahead of him. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Gig work is often marketed as 'flexible work.' But it's also precarious and unprotected work, and today gig workers are continuing to put themselves at risk because they struggle to earn the income they need to survive. This pandemic has shown — even more — just how unequal our economy is. So where do we go from here? "How We Got Here" is a special five-part series made by Sam Harnett, Alan Montecillo, and Chris Hoff. These five episodes aired on The Bay from July 6-10. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Many Americans are in deep debt. Household debt has reached an all time high at over $14 trillion. This means many workers have to do a lot more just to get by. They work longer hours, have second or multiple jobs, and they take out loans. Many people never catch up to the debt they owe. And worse, some options that seem like a light at the end of the tunnel might just sink you deeper in the hole. "How We Got Here" is a special five-part series made by Sam Harnett, Alan Montecillo, and Chris Hoff. These five episodes are airing on The Bay from July 6-10. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Big companies spend more of their profits on enriching shareholders and executives than they do on increasing compensation for employees. Today, we talk about how this kind of capitalism became normal. This is the third in a special five-part series made by Sam Harnett, Alan Montecillo, and Chris Hoff. These five episodes are airing on The Bay from July 6-10. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Only 1 in 10 workers in America are part of a union. And for many people, having one would make it a lot easier to advocate for better pay and protections during this pandemic. But worker power has slowly been dismantled by employers and politicians over the years. This is the second in a special five-part series made by Sam Harnett, Alan Montecillo, and Chris Hoff. These five episodes are airing on The Bay from July 6-10. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Tens of millions of people in the US are either out of a job or still working without meaningful protections, benefits, or wage increases. And if something goes wrong, workers mostly have to figure it out on their own. This is the first in a special five-part series made by Sam Harnett, Alan Montecillo, and Chris Hoff. These five episodes will air on The Bay from July 6-10. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On Monday, we're airing the first in a special five-part series by KQED reporter Sam Harnett and editor Alan Montecillo. It digs into how workers in the US have lost benefits, power, and protections over the last few decades. Today, we're sharing a sneak preview. These episodes will air from July 6-10. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Tech companies in Silicon Valley are turning to Black employees and other workers of color to help them respond to Black Lives Matter protests nationwide. While some employees feel good about having their company’s ear, it also exposes tech's diversity problem at the top and how the burden of responding to racism often falls on workers of color, who may be jeopardizing their careers. Guest: Nitasha Tiku, tech culture reporter for The Washington Post You can read Nitasha's full story on this topic here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

New records obtained by KQED show local Bay Area hospitals have reported supply chain problems and the need for support and equipment from public agencies to deal with the coronavirus pandemic since January. Today, local hospitals can't sufficiently rely on federal or state help for obtaining adequate supplies of personal protective equipment or PPE. So they're largely left to figure it out on their own. Guest: Molly Peterson, reporter for KQED News Read more of Molly's reporting on this issue and the records obtained by KQED here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Within one week in June, the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases at San Quentin State Prison grew more than 700 percent. Prison authorities have now reported that more than 500 incarcerated men have the virus, and that doesn't even count the dozens of guards who have contracted it too. Between prison over-crowding and prison employees entering and leaving, the implications of the outbreak at the state's oldest correctional institution could extend beyond its walls. Guest: Kate Wolffe, reporter and weekend host for KQED Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In Oakland, a city that’s seen school closures and a rapid rise in homelessness in recent years, the police budget takes up around 44% of the general fund. Among those calling to defund the police there are artists in Oakland who have plenty of ideas about what a police-free Oakland would look like if that money were reinvested into the community. Guest: Nastia Voynovskaya, reporter and editor for KQED Arts and Culture See photos of art around Downtown Oakland here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Growing up, Sarah Mizes-Tan's father encouraged her to always stand up to anti-Asian racism whenever she saw it. That's because he had experienced discrimination in the U.S. since immigrating from Singapore as a kid. After the death of George Floyd and protests for Black lives, Mizes-Tan knew the racism her dad experienced, and the racism Black folks experience, are connected struggles. So they talked about it. But depending on one's class, education, or citizenship status, Asian Americans are relating to the Black Lives Matter protests in different ways. Guest: Sarah Mizes-Tan, Capital Public Radio reporter covering race and communities of color Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You can’t separate labor from the police violence and oppression that’s being called out this Juneteenth - the day that commemorates the end of slavery in the U.S. That’s why local Bay Area dockworker unions in San Francisco and Oakland are joining other local unions in shutting down the West Coast ports on Friday. This kind of action isn't new. The International Longshore and Warehouse Union has fought against racism and police violence here in the Bay Area for decades. Guests: Clarence Thomas, retired leader of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 10 and co-founder of the Million Worker March Movement and Peter Cole, professor of history at Western Illinois University and author of Dockworker Power: Race and Activism in Durban and the San Francisco Bay Area Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In January, the Anti Police-Terror Project launched a community first responder program in Sacramento called Mental Health First. Throughout the night, Friday through Sunday, Mental Health First volunteers respond to people in crisis — all without police. Guests: Niki Jones, Peer Crisis Counselor/Volunteer Coordinator with Mental Health First and Asantewaa Boykin, co-founder of Anti Police-Terror Project Read the transcript here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Lisa Fagundes is a San Francisco librarian who also helps track and prevent the spread of COVID-19. As more Bay Area residents leave their homes, the state is hiring thousands of people like Lisa to contact people who have tested positive for the virus. Health officials expect the work of contact tracers to become increasingly important as shelter-in-place orders loosen and mass protests continue. Guest: April Dembosky, KQED health correspondent Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

There have been dozens of Bay Area cities protesting against police violence since the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Most of the protests have taken place in the suburbs or smaller Bay Area cities not known for heavy activist scenes. But some of these cities have their own histories of police violence and activists are demanding changes to police policies. KQED Arts Senior Editor Gabe Meline lives in Santa Rosa and he covered eight straight nights of protests in the city. Today, what the national movement looks like in Santa Rosa. Guest: Gabe Meline, KQED Arts and Culture senior editor Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Oakland Unified is the only school district in Alameda County with its own police force. And for nearly a decade, activists with the Black Organizing Project have tried to get police out of Oakland's public schools. It hasn't happened. But now, with more calls nationally to defund the police, supporters are raising the issue with OUSD's school board once again. Guest: Ashley McBride, education equity reporter at The Oaklandside Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Vallejo Police killed another person of color last week. Sean Monterrosa of San Francisco was shot after police say they mistook a hammer for a gun. Days later, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra issued an "expansive review" of the Vallejo Police Department, citing the recent spate of high-profile police shootings and calls from the community. We checked back in with the families of loved ones shot by Vallejo police, which we featured last year in our special series on policing in Vallejo. Guests: Alicia Saddler, sister of Angel Ramos and David Harrison, cousin of Willie McCoy Click the episode links below to read and hear our three-part series about policing in Vallejo Episode 1 Episode 2 Episode 3 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Californian police officers are rarely disciplined, even internally, when they do something wrong. That's what KQED reporters have learned by looking at records released under a law passed in 2018. The records show a system designed to protect police and discourage citizens from filing complaints in the first place. Guest: Sukey Lewis, KQED criminal justice reporter Tap here to see the California Reporting Project. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices