KQED's Forum

One of the busiest sections of San Francisco's Market Street is now car-free. Nearly a week ago, after years of planning, city officials closed a 2-mile downtown stretch of Market Street to private vehicles, including Ubers and Lyfts.

State Sen. Wiener introduced new legislation on Monday to make PG&E a publicly owned utility. The bill would employ eminent domain to seize control, forcing PG&E shareholders to sell their shares to the state of California. We'll talk to Wiener about his proposed plan, which is already drawing protests from PG&E's largest union, and about what's next after the Senate last week failed to pass his housing bill, SB50, for the third time.

The 2020 primary season begins in earnest Monday evening as Iowa voters gather at caucus sites to choose Democratic and Republican presidential nominees. Meanwhile, President Trump's lawyers delivered closing arguments in his impeachment trial, as the Senate prepares to hold a final vote on Wednesday. And on Tuesday, President Trump is set to present his third State of the Union address. We'll take up the issues.

In her memoir "In the Dream House," writer Carmen Maria Machado takes on what she calls the “archival silence” surrounding queer domestic abuse. Telling the haunting story of her own experience with an abusive ex-girlfriend, Machado takes us inside various vignettes, like "Dream House as Memory Palace" and "Dream House as Noir," to dissect her relationship and the mechanics of its psychological abuse. Machado joins us to discuss her book, her writing process and breaking her silence.

President Trump has not just violated the norms of his office with haphazard foreign policy, vindictive impulses and counterfactual narratives. He has also, according to Lawfare's Benjamin Wittes, begun to reshape our common understanding of the American presidency itself. In his new book "Unmaking the Presidency," Wittes argues that Trump has stripped the office of civic virtue, replacing it with a system that "elevates the expressive and personal dimensions of the office over everything else." We'll talk to Wittes about his book, the status of the Senate impeachment trial, and why he says it's time to defend traditional notions of the presidency.

The San Francisco 49ers may be playing in Miami on Sunday, but there’s another city on the mind of Bay Area football fans. That’s Kansas City, home of the Chiefs, the team that stands between the Niners and a sixth Super Bowl trophy. And just like there’s more to San Francisco than the Golden Gate Bridge and cable cars, there’s more to Kansas City than barbecue and jazz. For a snapshot of life there, and to talk some friendly Super Bowl smack, we'll check in with Steve Kraske, host of Up To Date on NPR member station KCUR.

The California Senate voted Wednesday on SB50, one of the most contentious state bills in years. The bill would upzone areas around transit and fourplexes in areas currently limited to single-family homes. SB50 aims to bring sweeping changes to the way housing is planned in California. The bill has been maligned as an assault on single-family homes and as a catalyst for more displacement of low-income people. The bill's author, state Sen. Scott Wiener of San Francisco, argues that reforming zoning is a critical method to solve hat he characterizes as a dire housing shortage. We discuss what happens next.

The Supreme Court voted to lift an injunction on the Trump administration's "public charge" policy on Monday, which will make it more difficult for immigrants to obtain a green card if they are likely to use public benefits. This is the latest in a long list of Trump administration immigration policies that either limit legal immigration or seek to deter asylum seekers from entering the United States. We'll look at the status and impact of the Trump administration's immigration policies.

A longtime fixture in city hall, San Francisco Public Works Director Mohammed Nuru was charged with fraud Tuesday along with the owner of Lefty O'Doul's baseball-themed bar and restaurant. We break down the Federal Bureau of Investigation's involvement in the case and what the arrest means for city hall.

According to journalist and author Andrea Bernstein, Donald Trump has long relied on cultivating personal and financial relationships with politicians to protect his business dealings from scrutiny. "He has managed through money and charm to keep law enforcement at bay, and he has never been called to account," says Bernstein, co-host of the podcast Trump Inc. Bernstein joins us to talk about her new book "American Oligarchs," which recounts the Kushner and Trump family histories and unravels the thread connecting their business successes to political influence.