KQED's Forum

Governor Newsom announced Friday that the state will release 8,000 people incarcerated in the state's prison system, including 700 in high-risk prisons like San Quentin and Folsom. The move came as Bay Area lawmakers and activists called on Governor Newsom to step in to reduce the prison population at San Quentin, where there have been more than 1300 cases of coronavirus and  at least seven COVID-related deaths.  We’ll get the latest on the situation.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Close to 2 million unemployment claims filed since the shelter in place orders were issued have not yet been paid out, according to a San Jose Mercury News analysis. And while a new report from the U.S. Labor Department finds first-time jobless claims by Californians have dropped for two consecutive weeks, the continued economic shut-down could cause more workers to lose jobs. The state unemployment agency says it is updating technology and hiring thousands of staff to deal with the deluge of claims. Loree Levy of the California Employment Development Department joins us to answer your questions about the backlog and how to file claims.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Author Karla Cornejo Villavicencio joins us to discuss her new memoir, “The Undocumented Americans.” Villavicencio arrived in America when she was five and is one of the first undocumented students to graduate from Harvard. After the election of President Trump in 2016, she began writing about her own experience as well as those of other undocumented immigrants in New York, Miami, Cleveland, Michigan and Connecticut through a series of reported essays. Now a doctoral student at Yale, Villavicencio’s work insists on breaking conventional and sanitized narratives of immigrants in her book, which she calls a punk rock memoir.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Amid a spike in coronavirus cases and calls by President Trump to reopen schools this fall, school districts across California are contemplating the best course of action for next year. San Jose's Alum Rock Union and East Side Union High school districts already announced that a majority of their schools will continue online learning. And while other options include a staggered or hybrid schedule, most school districts are monitoring the pandemic and county health guidelines before making an official announcement. We'll discuss what schools around the Bay Area and the state are planning to do this fall.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Throughout California, statues of controversial historical figures such as Junipero Serra and Christopher Columbus are being removed. This follows a trend across the nation to demolish what some consider symbols of racism, oppression, and injustice. Indigenous leaders have fought for decades against celebrating Serra and Columbus, who they see as having committed genocide against Native Americans. Others argue that destroying statues and monuments could silence some parts of history instead of expanding our knowledge of it. In this hour, we’ll dive into the debate over toppling statues and monuments as well as who we memorialize and why.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Stanford Graduate School of Business professor and social psychologist Brian Lowery studies the psychology of racial privilege.  Undergirding his work is the notion that although many people support the ideal of a fair and just society, they sometimes end up unconsciously reinforcing extant inequality.  In a Washington Post opinion piece last month, Lowery describes some of the racism he has experienced and calls upon white Americans to engage in a proactive way to address inequality.  Lowery joins us to discuss his research and why he thinks “the time for talk has passed”.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In a 7-2 opinion issued this morning, the Supreme Court ruled that President Trump must turn over his financial records and tax returns to a New York state grand jury investigating his business dealings. Writing for the majority, Chief Justice John Roberts said that “the public has a right to ‘every man’s evidence’” and that “since the earliest days of the Republic, ‘every man’ has included the President of the United States.” In a separate case, the court ruled -- again in a 7-2 opinion with Chief Justice Roberts writing for the majority -- that President Trump can -- for now -- block release of his tax and financial records to Congressional committees. In this segment we’ll talk about the legal and real-world implications of these cases with Andrea Bernstein, Co-host of Trump, Inc., and University of Texas law professor Steve Vladeck.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dr. Erica Pan has been appointed the new California State Epidemiologist.  She joins us to talk about her experience leading Alameda County’s coronavirus response--including clashes with Elon Musk over the opening of the Fremont Tesla factory and being targeted on social media for shelter in place mandates--and about her vision for the new job. And we’ll ask her about California counties on the coronavirus watch list, recent COVID-related deaths among San Quentin prisoners, and emerging evidence of greater airborne spread of coronavirus.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In a 7 to 2 vote, the Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday in favor of two California churches arguing they should not have to face employment discrimination lawsuits brought by former teachers. The ruling makes it so that religious schools are exempt from most employment discrimination claims, expanding religious freedom. The Supreme Court on Wednesday also cleared the way for the Trump administration to expand exemptions for employers who have religious or moral objections to complying with Obamacare's contraceptive mandate. We talk with David Levine, professor at UC Hastings College of the Law, about these rulings and other Supreme Court decisions expected to come.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Trump administration officially informed the United Nations on Tuesday that the United States is withdrawing from the World Health Organization, effective July 6, 2021. President Trump first announced that he planned to halt funding to the W.H.O. back in April, criticizing its "China-centric" response to the coronavirus pandemic. The withdrawal comes as the United States nears 3 million reported coronavirus cases and almost 540,000 COVID-related deaths worldwide. We'll discuss what led to the U.S's decision as well as the financial and global public health implications of the withdrawal.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices