KQED's Forum

Forum reviews, analyzes and answers your questions about the latest news from Washington, D.C.

The Newsom administration has withdrawn permit applications for former Gov. Jerry Brown's plan to build two tunnels under the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. The project was designed as a more reliable system of transporting water to Southern California, but has been criticized as a water grab and a danger to the Delta's ecosystem. Earlier this year, Gov. Newsom signaled his support for a smaller, one-tunnel plan, which is now in the beginning stages of environmental review. We'll get the latest on the project and how the change from two tunnels to one will affect the Delta estuary and water access across the state.

In an attempt to get students to pay more attention to schoolwork and the non-virtual world, San Mateo High School will be locking up cellphones for the full school day beginning next year. Officials in other schools that have adopted the policy say phone-free kids are more attentive in class and less socially isolated, but some students complain the policy is too strict and penalizes those who use their devices responsibly. This segment is part of KQED’s "Youth Takeover,” a week featuring stories developed and produced with high school students from across the Bay Area.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler threatened Thursday to hold Attorney General William Barr in contempt of Congress for defying a subpoena to produce the full Mueller report and its underlying evidence. The move came a day after Barr announced he'd skip the Judiciary Committee's Thursday hearing on the special counsel's report. Meanwhile, in a press conference House Speaker Nancy Pelosi accused Barr of committing a crime by lying to Congress. We'll discuss the latest developments, as tensions between Democrats and the Justice Department escalate.

In Melinda Gates' childhood, she frequently watched rockets achieve their "moment of lift" when visiting her father at NASA. Her new book, "The Moment of Lift: How Empowering Women Changes the World," applies that concept to the process of uplifting women, both in her own community and globally. Filled with anecdotes about splitting household tasks with husband Bill Gates and tactics for fighting gender inequality worldwide, Gates' book argues that addressing gender discrimination makes any society more equitable for all.

Sixty Fortune 500 companies -- including behemoths like Amazon, Chevron and General Motors -- paid no federal income taxes in 2018. That's according to a report issued recently by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, which also found that those companies received $4.3 billion in tax rebates. We'll discuss the rules that enable corporations to avoid income taxes and the impact of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. And we want to hear from you: Do corporations pay their fair share?

Lawyers began presenting opening arguments in the Ghost Ship fire criminal trial in downtown Oakland on Tuesday. Defendants Derick Almena and Max Harris are on trial for 36 counts of involuntary manslaughter stemming from a 2016 fire at the Ghost Ship warehouse, an illegally converted artist collective and residence in Oakland. We discuss the case.

"It is worse, much worse, than you think," begins David Wallace-Wells's new book on the impact of climate change. From there, Wallace-Wells presents the scope of global warming's challenge to human civilization, from feeding 50% more people with half the amount of productive land to whole cities that will be unlivable in the summer. Wallace-Wells joins Forum to talk about the book and about why he thinks the science shows it's time for "climate panic."

A recent Pew survey found that 70% of teens view anxiety and depression as a major problem among their peers, ranking higher than other concerns like bullying, drugs and drinking. Forum talks with Bay Area high school students about mental health and whether they agree with research that links the increase in anxiety and depression to academic pressure and social media use. This segment is part of KQED’s "Youth Takeover,” a week featuring stories developed and produced with high school students from across the Bay Area.

Four years ago, New York Times columnist David Brooks published “The Road to Character,” an examination of the virtues – like courage and grit -- he considered necessary to lead a moral life. Now, Brooks says that when he wrote that book he was “enclosed in the prison of individualism,” falsely assuming that “character is something you build on your own.” His latest book, “The Second Mountain,” posits instead that good character comes from surrendering to and serving the greater causes of family, community and belief. Brooks joins us to talk about his own moral journey and what it takes to create joy and meaning in life.