And now we're down to the home stretch of the 2020 presidential campaign...........both party's nominating conventions are in the books, the first debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden is one month away.............election day is slightly over two months away.

Where do we stand?

We'll break down the current state of the race and then focus in on the candidates:  what does President Trump need to do to make the themes of his convention---that the coronavirus pandemic is behind us, and unrest in city streets is the fault of Democrats---stick?  Does former vice president Biden need to get out of his basement and start hitting the campaign trail?

California is about to loosen the reigns........again.  Governor Gavin Newsom just laid out guidelines to allow for the gradual reopenings of businesses like hair salons.......but there's still a long way to go with COVID infections still running high in many counties.  Can we get it right the second time around? 

And the end of the show we'll talk with the superintendent of San Diego's public schools; they're headed back for remote learning on Monday, but they're going to try a novel program to allow some students to get back in the classroom.

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This season of the NBA, probably the most unusual season in the history of the sport, has seen the evolution of players from mere athletes to athlete-activists--and that transformation was complete after players on all of the playoff teams decided to boycott games last night, in the name of protesting for social and racial justice.  Can these athlete activists have an impact for change.

For the second time within just a few days, a government health agency has had to walk back a heavily criticized announcement.  First it was the FDA, apologizing for inflating the potential of convalescent plasma treatment; today it's the CDC, kind of reversing course on its COVID testing guidelines.  Can these agencies still be trusted?

Speaking of testing, a cheap, quick and massively produced testing kit just got the go ahead to head to market..........could this correct what's been a lacking COVID testing network? 

When you think of the social media phenomenon TikTok, do you think of Walmart??  Yeah......neither do we, and yet the mega retailer is making a bid, in a potential partnership with Microsoft, to buy TikTok.

And it's the final night of the Republican National Convention when President Trump will make his case to serve another four years.  How will be frame his heavily criticized response to the coronavirus pandemic, and will he focus heavily on this summer of unrest? We'll talk with a senior RNC official to preview the president.

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For the third straight night the city of Kenosha, Wisconsin was the scene of protests, chaos and violence, all in the wake of the shooting of an unarmed black man in the back.  Two protesters were shot and killed, a teenager was arrested for those murders; all while the family of Jacob Blake, the man shot in the back, calls for peace.

The second night of the Republican National Convention featured appeals to voters on President Trump's economic record and lots of attacks on Joe Biden and Democrats.  There were also several questionable uses of the White House in a political campaign.......we'll talk with a former head of the Republican Party for a recap.

Six feet of social distancing has been the gospel since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, but new research suggests we might need to be spacing out even further. So we'll go to London. Plenty of distance.

And we've talked about this a lot over the last few months: COVID testing has never got up to where it should be.......well today the CDC updated its testing guidelines, recommending that fewer people get tested........and a lot of scientists...not pleased.

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Don't look now.... but the rates of infections, hospitalizations and deaths from the coronavirus are starting trend downward, which is the same thing we said at the end of May........and we all know what happened after Memorial Day.  Will we make the same mistake twice? 

Speaking of reopening, major universities keep trying it and keep running into COVID outbreaks.  At least 500 students at the University of Alabama have caught the virus, and here in L.A. there are......so far......dozens of reported cases at USC.  Can colleges have a safe semester?

And one more on reopening: movie theaters are now mostly open for business, for the first time since March.  We'll talk with a national theater group that insists theaters are safe again.

We were just talking May...now let's go back to late February, when the coronavirus was still viewed as a mostly foreign event.  There is new research out that traces a biotech conference in Boston, that was a vector responsible for spreading COVID cases across several states and countries.

And how'd you feel about the the first night of the Republican National Convention?

 

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The White House called it a breakthrough treatment for patients suffering from COVID-19, but in reality it's been around for decades.......and as far as it's use to treat the coronavirus, it is largely unproven.  It's convalescent plasma, and we will go In Depth on its prospects.

And then there's the issue of the FDA, which critics say was essentially strong-armed into rushing the approval for plasma's use. Is the nation's science agency still independent? 

Lots of interesting coronavirus stories today, so next up is something we've speculated about for a while:  the possibility of being reinfected.  We now have the first confirmed case of that, what's it mean for developing a vaccine?

Something else we talked about early and often:  COVID testing.....unreliable, at best. That point was further made after 77 NFL players got false-positives over the weekend.

And day one of the Republican National Convention kicks off today and already, just a few hours in, we've heard a lot from President Trump. 

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The first virtual convention is in the books and, considering how badly it could've gone, Democrats seem largely pleased with how their mix of recorded speeches, video packages and live addresses came across.  As for the candidate himself? After weeks of Republicans driving down expectations for Joe Biden, he delivered what was largely viewed as a powerhouse speech.  Next up, Donald Trump's week.

Biden also laid out a broad outline of a nationalized coronavirus response strategy, which rested on two big efforts:  a national mask mandate and a testing network.  How would that work.........we'll ask.

Qanon, once an ultra fringe conspiracy centered on liberal politicians and celebrities who are alleged Satan-worshiping pedophiles is slowly creeping into the mainstream -- so we'll get a primer.

And the first few days of remote learning around here is in the books and........and have been some hiccups.....to say the least.  We're going to check in with parents and students about how thing are coming along.

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Steve Bannon has joined the ranks of those in the Trump orbit charged with major crimes.  Bannon, who was a Trump campaign advisor and White House strategist, was arrested today for defrauding donors to a private border wall project.

President Obama left little doubt about his feelings on his Oval Office successor during his speech at the Democratic National Convention last night; it's just the latest broken precedent in a long list of them lately....we'll check in with historian Douglas Brinkley about rapidly changing political norms.

One unusual way in which the pandemic is impacting firefighting efforts in California:  inmate fire fighting crews, once the source of hundreds of men, are largely unavailable due to outbreaks in state prisons -- we'll check in with Cal Fire.

And California was this close to not having any Uber or Lyft drivers on our streets -- the rideshare companies were ready to close up shop --  as the fight continues over how they classify those drivers........a reprieve....but the future remains uncertain.

And she was very nearly the VP pick, but today Congresswoman Karen Bass helps us preview Joe Biden's big night at the DNC.

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A stifling, protracted heatwave and an ongoing pandemic was already a bad combination; now throw in several massive wildfires and things are looking pretty dicey for us. Horrible air quality - along with the heat - is chasing us inside.... where the risk of coronavirus transmission is higher if we're in groups.

And why, in the midst of this recession, are stocks soaring to new highs? Tens of millions remain out of work, tens of thousands of small businesses have closed; so why is Wall Street so giddy?

 

Reopening college campuses hasn't been going so smoothly, with several  major universities quickly reversing course on in-person classes after COVID outbreaks.

Hair salons here in California are supposed to remain closed, but several went rogue and reopened this week ---- we'll talk with a salon owner who got a health department visit.

And Congressman Adam Schiff comes to In Depth to talk the DNC, the postal service and to address why Congress isn't working around the clock to extend those boosted unemployment benefits.

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The big-tent message from the Democrats on night one of their virtual convention was clear: from socialists to Republicans, a diverse coalition of speakers took turns talking about the urgent need to defeat President Trump. Michelle Obama sealed that message with her speech; but interestingly enough, Joe Biden, wasn't that prominent.

The Senate Intelligence Committee released their final report on Russian interference in the 2016 election, which goes deep into contacts between the Trump campaign and Russian intelligence -- so we'll take a look at their much debated conclusions.

If you want to beat the novel coronavirus, you have to understand how to build up immunity to it; and that's exactly what researchers at Cedars Sinai are hoping to do.........but they need your help.......

And perhaps no one in the history of the House of Representatives had a quicker rise and fall than Katie Hill.  The former Democratic Congresswoman from Santa Clarita was part of a vibrant freshman class in 2018, only to resign about a year into her term over a sex scandal linked to what she says was a pattern of abuse by her ex.

Katie Hill comes to In Depth to talk gender equality.......and lessons learned.

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Just what we needed in the middle of a pandemic: a scorching heatwave touching off power shortages and the need for rolling blackouts ---- but not so fast on blaming the temperatures. Were those blackouts really necessary? There's a lot going on when it comes to the grid, so we will go In Depth.

Over six months into this pandemic and the coronavirus testing system in this country is still ....... lacking.  But a team from Yale believes a simple, at-home testing kit that could prove to be a game-changer........so we will talk about that.

Millions of kids here in California and across the country will head back to school this week.  Most will be remote learning for the entirety of the semester, and the challenges for the students, teachers, parents and administrators will be tremendous.

We'll check in with a Superintendent of one of the largestdistricts in California....and we'll be talking with two sets of parents about how they're going to balance working from home, overseeing remote learning .... and hanging onto their sanity.

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