KQED's The California Report

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Central Valley Trump Supporters React to Insurrection on Capitol Hill Jan 08, 2021

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California Educators Help Students Make Sense of U.S Capitol Insurrection

Teachers Help Students Process Violence at U.S Capitol

The storming of the U.S Capital by pro-Trump mob was an awful episode in American history. It also provides a teaching moment for California educators, who are leading difficult discussions about what happened, and why.

Reporter: Vanessa Rancaño, KQED

Some Supporters Defend Trump after Capitol Hill Insurrection

California is a progressive-leaning Blue state, but it also has big patches of red. Some Republicans in the Central Valley say the insurrection on Capitol Hill does not represent Trump supporters.

Reporter: Alex Hall, KQED

Doctors and Nurses Exhausted and Angry as Some Patients Ignore COVID-19 Warnings

In California, the virus is claiming about 360 lives a day and infecting thousands more. In overburdened hospitals, doctors and nurses are frustrated by people who are blasé about COVID's dangers or pandemic deniers.

Reporter: Lesley McClurg, KQED

California Orders Hospitals in Certain Regions to Postpone Non-Essential Surgeries

The state issued a new health order to try to ease the strain on over burdened hospitals. Hospitals that have room also must accept patients from other facilities that have maxed out their intensive care beds.

Reporter: Jackie Fortier, KPCC

How College Students Are Processing the Insurrection and Violence in D.C

Cal State Los Angeles senior, Marisa Martinez got reactions from two of her fellow students after the insurrection at the Capitol.

Reporter: Marisa Martinez

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Insurrectionists Overrun U.S. Capital as Trump Refuses to Admit Defeat Jan 07, 2021

Show notes

After Donald Trump’s words rallied them to action, rioters bent on overturning results of the lawful election stormed the U.S. Capitol building as congress tallied the electoral college vote. Lawmakers were forced to flee the chambers, and hunker down in offices. Some were evacuated to undisclosed safe locations.

In response to yesterdays attack on the U.S. Capitol, elected officials were removed to secure locations and told to shelter in place. One California lawmaker said the experience of hiding in her office as rioters roamed the halls, reminded her of school shootings.

Guest: Los Angeles Congresswoman, Nanette Diaz Barragan

Governor Gavin Newsom condemned the rioters in Washington D.C. and San Francisco Mayor London Breed tweeted that it was quote “an attempted coup encouraged by the president of the United States.” As chaos enveloped the U.S. Capitol. there were also protests in California.

Reporter: Scott Rodd, CapRadio

Yesterday’s insurrection has many Americans asking themselves how the country reached this point. One of them is a political scholar and author of the book “Black Nationalism in the United States: From Malcolm X to Barack Obama.”

Guest: James Taylor, Professor, African American Studies, University of San Francisco

Members of California law enforcement and civil rights leaders expressed dismay and outrage at the tepid response to the insurrectionists who stormed the US Capitol in an attempt to overturn the election. They say the response would have been very different if the crowd was made up of people of color.

Reporter: Marisa Lagos, KQED

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California Approaches Grim Milestone: 30,000 COVID-19 Deaths Jan 06, 2021

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The state’s pandemic numbers continue to worsen, with mushrooming infection rates and more than 27,000 COVID fatalities. California is averaging more than 35,000 cases per day, according to the state.

Reporter: Kevin Stark, KQED

Frontline health care workers are supposed to be some of the first people to get the coronavirus vaccines. But many of those workers are hesitant to get the shots. In response, the Los Angeles Fire Department has turned to prizes to encourage its personnel to get vaccinated.

Reporter: Angel Carreras, KCRW

many California grocery workers could soon get a temporary pay raise under proposals cities and counties are considering. That includes parts of Los Angeles, where COVID cases are higher than ever.

Reporter: David Wagner, KPCC

Cash bail has long been controversial because of equity and class. If you have access to funds, you can get out of jail. If you don’t, you stay behind bars. Yesterday, California Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a landmark cash bail case that tackles that issue.

Reporter: Kate Wolffe, KQED

More than 200 workers at Alphabet, the parent company of Google, have announced they are forming a union with the Communications Workers of America. In the past, service workers at companies like Apple and Facebook have joined traditional unions. But the Alphabet union is the first of its kind in Silicon Valley.

Reporter: Sam Harnett, KQED

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Campaign to Recall Governor Gavin Newsom Collects Nearly A Million Signatures Jan 05, 2021

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Californians who are unhappy with the way Governor Gavin Newsom has handled the coronavirus pandemic are gathering signatures in an attempt to qualify a recall measure in a special election. 1.5 million verified signatures need to be collected by March 17th.

Guest: Randy Economy, Gavin Newsom Recall Campaign

California's former top elections watchdog is calling for the state to investigate the largest donor to the campaign to recall Governor Newsom. An Orange County Company is suspected of failing to follow rules regarding campaign contributions.

Reporter: Guy Marzorati, KQED

The California corrections department has reported 19 COVID-related deaths of incarcerated people this week, more than any other week since the pandemic began. 45 people have died over the course of the month.

Reporter: Kate Wolffe, KQED

In many parts of California that were ravaged by wildfire last year, the rainy season brings a new risk: debris flows. Officials on the Monterey Peninsula are urging the public to follow debris flow evacuation orders, just as they would for a wildfire.

Reporter: Michelle Loxton, KAZU

California regulators have failed to meet a deadline to create new safety and health rules for oil drilling in the state. At Issue are setback rules for drilling near homes, schools, and playgrounds.

Reporter: Alex Hall, KQED

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Pandemic Pushes Hospitals to Brink of Catastrophe Jan 04, 2021

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1,200 Medical Workers Deployed to Respond to Pandemic

The extra staff includes more than 800 contract workers, but those workers are from the same pool that a lot of hospitals around the state already pull from to get extra help.

Reporter: Marco Siler-Gonzales, KQED

Last week, stay at home orders were extended for another 3 weeks for the Greater Sacramento region, due to low ICU capacity and rising coronavirus numbers.

Reporter: Kate Wolffe, KQED

Companies are now requirement to notify employees within 24 hours if there's been a COVID-19 exposure in the workplace. In labor news, the minimum wage is now $14 dollars an hour for larger companies.

Guy Marzorati, KQED

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Giant Sequoias Face New Danger in Bark Beetles Jan 01, 2021

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Bark Beetles Pose New Threat to Giant Sequoias

Giant Sequoias are found along a 260 mile range on the slopes of the Sierras. Many of the trees are ancient, and face threats like climate change, droughts and wildfires. Bark beetles are now posing yet another challenge.

Reporter:Ezra David Romero, CapRadio

Test Can Now Detect Deadly Mushroom Poison in Minutes

A team at the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Northern California has developed a simple, portable test that can rapidly detect a deadly mushroom poison. The test is now available for sale online just in time for mushroom season.

Chloe Veltman, KQED

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True Cost of Wildfires: Thousands Dead, and $150 Billion in Economic Losses Dec 31, 2020

Show notes

This year California saw some of the most destructive wildfires in state history, blazes that when combined scorched more than three million acres, an area larger than the state of Delaware. Fires also destroyed or damaged thousands of structures and killed dozens of people.

Guest: Yana Valachovic, UCANR Forest Advisor

A new study on the comprehensive cost of wildfires, estimates that the 2018 California wildfires led to thousands of deaths, far more than the official count. It also cost the state around $150 Billion Dollars. That larger number factors in the harm of air pollution, and the broader economic impacts of these disasters.

Reporter: Danielle Venton, KQED

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How COVID-19 Changed How We Get Around Dec 30, 2020

Show notes

This week we’re looking back on 2020 and how some of the year’s biggest news stories changed our lives. The coronavirus has had a huge impact on transportation and how Californians get from point A to point B. Public transportation systems have been hit hard. When many people began working from home, buses, trains, and subways saw dramatic decreases in ridership

Guest: Ethan Elkind, UC Berkeley Center for Law, Energy, and the Environment

Five years ago, Volkswagen was in the news for all the wrong reasons. VW's cheating was partly discovered by California air quality regulators, but not before the company had sold or leased 85,000 of its dirty diesel cars to unsuspecting drivers. Now the automaker is hoping it's new all-electric SUV will help repair its image.

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Black Lives Matter Reflects on Strength and Heartbreak in 2020 Dec 29, 2020

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As we look back on this difficult and confusing year we reflect on the events, movements, and people who helped shape it. Racial justice issues and civil unrest took center stage, and Black Lives Matter was at the forefront of the ongoing fight to end injustice against people of color.

Guest: Melina Abdullah, Professor, Cal State Los Angeles

Long before the Black Lives Matter movement, at the beginning of the 20th century, a newspaper called The Liberator served L.A.’s Black community, during a time when only a few thousand Black people lived in LA, and were barely represented in other media.

Guest: Shaya Tayefe Mohajer, L.A. Bureau Chief, Cronkite News

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How California Confronted the Pandemic in 2020 Dec 28, 2020

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A Look Back at Lessons Learned from the Pandemic

There was no bigger or more tragic story than the pandemic this year. KQED's Saul Gonzalez spoke with epidemiologist and public health expert Dr. Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo to talk about the coronavirus and how California officials responded to it.

Guest: Dr. Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo with UC San Francisco

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