KQED's Forum

Wildfires raging across northern California forced thousands to flee their homes Wednesday morning.  The most urgent situation unfolded in Vacaville, where a group of fires called the LNU Lightning Complex more than doubled in size overnight and destroyed over 50 homes and threatened nearly 2,000 more. Along with hot temperatures and low humidity, the fires are in part due to a “historic lightning siege,” which, according to Cal Fire chief Jeremy Rahn, included about 10,849 lightening strikes and caused over 367 fires across the state. Smoke from the fires has resulted in poor air quality across the Bay Area bringing the air quality index in San Francisco and Oakland to levels considered unhealthy for sensitive groups. We’ll get the latest on the region’s wildfires.

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While rotating power outages were averted on Monday, by Tuesday afternoon the California Independent System Operator, which manages the state's power grid, had again declared a "Stage 2" emergency and said outages were "imminent." California ISO later canceled that emergency and praised consumers for conserving energy that helped avoid another outage. The continuing heat wave sparked two nights of rolling blackouts over the weekend, which Gov. Newsom called "unacceptable and unbefitting of the nation’s largest and most innovative state." Newsom called for an investigation into why California ISO imposed the outages. We'll get the latest news on what’s happening with the state’s energy supply. And we want to hear from you: have you been impacted by the power outages?

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On Tuesday, the Senate Intelligence Committee released its final report detailing its three-year investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election. House Intelligence Chair Adam Schiff, who led President Trump's impeachment trial, says that the bipartisan report "affirms what we have all known for years" about Trump's vast network of contacts among Russian operatives and makes clear that his campaign's engagement with the Russians was a major counterintelligence threat. We'll talk to Congressman Schiff about the committee's report, and we'll get his take on the federal coronavirus response, including lawmakers' proposals for a new COVID-19 relief bill.

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In the wake of the 2018 Camp Fire that decimated the Northern California city of Paradise, PG&E officials framed such devastating blazes as a relatively new phenomenon exacerbated by climate change. A Frontline/KQED investigation found that in reality, PG&E was well aware of the threat and resisted implementing safety protocols to prevent wildfires for more than a decade. The investigation uncovered repeated pushback against regulations that perhaps could have saved lives. Also at fault is the California Public Utilities Commission, which was too overwhelmed and under-resourced to properly regulate PG&E. We discuss the investigation as we head into yet another wildfire season

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On Tuesday, U.S. Postal Service postmaster general Louis DeJoy announced that he would suspend until after the November election operational reforms and initiatives “to avoid even the appearance of any impact on election mail.”  Meanwhile, California and at least 20 other states will sue the Trump administration over those reforms--which include removal of mailboxes, sorting equipment and the elimination of staff overtime--in order to protect against service delays.  The moves come amid ongoing accusations by Democrats that the Trump Administration is refusing to fund the cash-strapped agency to subvert mail-in voting this fall.  We’ll get the latest.

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The right to vote is a fundamental part of democracy -- a right, however, that hasn't always been afforded or guaranteed to all in the United States. August 18 marks the 100th anniversary of the day Congress passed the 19th Amendment, granting women the right to vote. It was a hard-fought victory, but still only a starting place for Black women and other women of color. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 later sought to make access to the vote more fair and complete for all, but a key part of the law was struck down in 2013 and legislation to restore it remains in limbo as voter suppression efforts grow. This hour we'll talk to Carol Anderson, historian and author of "One Person, No Vote," about the state of voting rights and the significance of women's suffrage, then and now.

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Students with disabilities in California will be able to receive face-to-face instruction at schools this fall. Gov. Gavin Newsom and State Board of Education President Linda Darling-Hammond made the announcement Friday and acknowledged that some students with special needs are unable to adjust to distance learning. Families and students with learning disabilities and autism as well as students in foster care struggled when schools shut down last spring. We’ll hear about the unique challenges of remote learning for students with disabilities and what solutions are in the works.

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In June 2018, NBC News and MSNBC correspondent Jacob Soboroff became one of the first journalists allowed entry into Casa Padre, a Texas facility holding more than 1,400 migrant boys who’d been separated from their families at the Mexican border. The horror he experienced reporting on that facility formed the basis of his new book “Separated: Inside An American Tragedy,” which documents the Trump Administration’s zero-tolerance family separation policy during 2017 and 2018. We’ll talk about the political forces behind the policy, how it ended and why Soboroff considers it “one of the most shameful chapters in modern American history.”

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A new KQED investigation finds that more than a third of senior care facilities are at heightened risk for wildfires. Many aren't ready for emergencies.  That risk will continue to grow as California’s population ages. Officials estimate that, a decade from now, there will be 8.6 million residents over age 65, increasing the demand for home health and long-term care services. The coronavirus pandemic makes it even harder for facilities to prepare for wildfire emergencies -- efforts many say were insufficient. We’ll hear about KQED’s investigation.

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Why comedy, and why now? That's the question that media and social change scholar Caty Borum Chattoo poses at the outset of her book, "A Comedian and An Activist Walk Into a Bar: The Serious Role of Comedy in Social Justice." In it she and co-author Lauren Feldman explore how comedy -- by laying bare freighted issues like racism, sexism and inequality -- can help us work toward bridging divides and achieving social change. We'll talk about how comedy helps us make sense of a world turned chaotic by the pandemic and a deeply divisive government, and we want to hear from you: which comedians do you turn to these days, and why?

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