The California Report

How Some Families are Coping with Unhealthy Air Quality in Southern California Air quality may finally be improving in the Bay Area, but things are still smoky down in Southern California. That’s especially true in in the foothill communities of the San Gabriel Valley, where the Air Quality Index has hit 500 this week.  Reporter: KCRW’s Benjamin Gottlieb, KCRW New Poll Shows Tough Fight for Proposition to Reinstate Affirmative Action The poll from the Public Policy Institute of California shows just 31 percent support a proposition to reinstate affirmative action. The poll also shows a slim majority of likely voters support Proposition 15, which would change how property taxes are assessed on commercial and industrial properties in the state. Reporter: Katie Orr, KQED  Neighbors Step Up to Help One Restaurant Worker Out of Work Since Pandemic Began The restaurant industry has been hard hit during the pandemic, losing nearly 400,000 jobs in the state since March. As some businesses reopen, those workers are competing for fewer positions. Victor Moreno is one restaurant worker finding unexpected support from people in his neighborhood. Reporter: Farida Jhabvala Romero, KQED 250 Marines and Sailors Sent to Battle Creek Fire 250 marines and sailors are being sent to Central California to help fight the Creek Fire, which has grown to over 220,000 acres and is now 18% contained. Reporter: Alex Hall, KQED Firefighters Fight to Save Historic Mount Wilson Observatory The Bobcat Fire has gotten dangerously close to the observatory. It’s surrounded by firefighters and helicopters there to defend the structures, which contain scientifically important telescopes. Sharon McNary, KPCC

Kamala Harris Visits Fresno to Meet with Emergency Personnel Battling Wildfires Democratic Vice Presidential hopeful Kamala Harris met Tuesday with emergency service personnel who have been battling the Creek Fire in the mountains near Fresno.  Reporter: Alex Hall, KQED Women's Groups Vow to Defend Kamala Harris from Racist, Sexist Attacks As the first woman of color on a major party’s presidential ticket, Kamala Harris is already facing subtle and not so subtle personal attacks that observers say most white men would not encounter. Women's groups are geared up to defend her. Reporter: Scott Shafer, KQED  New Alliance of Progressive Prosecutors Founded to Lobby for Criminal Justice Reform A group of California prosecutors say they are fed up with their peers’ opposition to criminal justice reform and are starting a new group dedicated to pushing political change. Reporter: Marisa Lagos, KQED Home Daycares Are Shutting Down When Essential Workers Need Them the Most The pandemic has opened up leeway for some parents working remotely. But many can’t do their jobs from home. Those parents need childcare facilities more than ever, but the daycares say they may have to close if they don’t get more support from the state. Today will be the  first ever bargaining meeting of the Childcare Providers Union with the state. Reporter: Deepa Fernandes, KQED  Farmworker Advocates Say Workers Aren't Receiving N-95 Masks from Employers The Fresno Bee reports the California Department of Food and Agriculture have shipped more than 3 million N-95 masks to 35 counties. But these masks don't appear to be making it to workers. Guest: Estella Cisneros, California Rural Legal Assistance 

California City: a would-be city of the future, where empty desert land is sold as a ticket to the American Dream.

Scorching Heat Sets off Power Outages Across California Hundreds of thousands of people across California lost power beginning Friday evening and again on Saturday as hot temperatures became unbearable. The California Independent Systems Operator, instructed utilities to power down parts of the system. 'Firenado' Spotted as Crews Battle Blazes Throughout State Observers of the Loyalton Fire in the Tahoe National Forest reported a fire-induced tornado on on Saturday. That blaze is one of several burning throughout the state, and firefighters have yet to gain any ground on it. Meanwhile, four fire fighters have been injured battling the River Fire in Monterey County.  Federal Court Strikes Down California's Ban on High-Capacity Magazines State Attorney General Xavier Becerra says his office is reviewing a decision by the 9th Circuit of the Court of Appeals that struck down California's ban on high-capacity ammunition magazines. A three-judge panel ruled  on Friday that the blanket ban is an unconstitutional violation of the 2nd amendment. Golden State Killer to be Sentenced this Week Joseph DeAngelo will be sentenced by a Sacramento County Superior Court judge this week. The former police officer was arrested in 2018 after DNA evidence linked him to a series of brutal rapes and murders that took place in the '70s and '80s across the state. Reporter:Julie Chang, KQED  Democratic Party National Convention Kicks Off Tonight — from a Distance The Democratic Party begins its national convention tonight, and what was supposed to be a massive gathering in Milwaukee is now a dramatically pared down event. Reporter: Katie Orr, KQED  Fresno School District Superintendent Outlines Priorities for Distant Learning Today is the first day of school for a lot of students around California. It's all remote for now, and Fresno Unified Superintendent Bob Nelson says he's taking it one day at a time. Guest: Bob Nelson, Fresno Unified Superintendent Bob Nelson 

California Parents Anxious as Distant Learning Begins in Some Districts This morning the Oakland Unified School District and others across the state start their school year.It won’t be typical, and all instruction is being done remotely because of the coronavirus pandemic. Guest: Parent Stephanie Campos Southern California Women's Prison COVID-19 Cases Climb to 160 The number of infections at the California Institution for Women in Chino has soared to 160 women, and 13 employees at the prison have active COVID-19 cases. Reporter: Kate Wolffe, KQED California's Top Public Health Official Abruptly Resigns Director of California's Public Health Department Sonia Angell stepped down from her position last night. Angell’s resignation comes just days after it was announced that the state had a backlog of as many as 300,000 coronavirus test results. Ventura County's Godspeak Calvary Chapel Remains Defiant Against Shutdown Order County authorities say the religious gatherings could turn into coronavirus super-spreader events that pose a threat to public health. Godspeak Pastor Rob McCoy is encouraging church goers to continue to show up for indoor Sunday service. Bay Area Lebanese Woman Plans Shaken After Deadly Beirut Explosion Beirut, Lebanon is still reeling from the massive explosion that destroyed vast swaths of the city last week. The blast killed at least 150 people, injured thousands more, and destroyed countless homes and businesses in the heart of Beirut. It's also scrambled future plans for so many Lebanese, including one woman living in the Bay Area. Reporter: Lily Jamali OC Registrar of Voters Confident County Can Handle Mail-in-Ballot Surge Election Day is 85 days away, and it will be like no other in American history because of the coronavirus pandemic. Neal Kelley is Orange County's Registrar of Voters. He oversees voting in the fifth largest election jurisdiction in the country with more than one and half million voters. Guest: Neal Kelley, Orange County's Registrar of Voters Calls to Defund Police Draws Mixed Reaction from Black Clergy In this moment of reckoning over racial justice and equity, many people are looking to churches for guidance. Black pastors in particular are speaking out against police violence. Some of California's Black clergy do not support the push to defund the police. Reporter: Ashlea Brown, CapRadio

COVID-19 Cases Top 200,000 in Los Angeles County Los Angeles County has the highest number of reported COVID-19 cases of any county in the U.S. Since January, the coronavirus has killed 4,869 people in L.A. County. That makes it the second leading cause of death after coronary heart disease and far deadlier than the flu. Reporter: Jackie Fortier, KPCC  Coronavirus Outbreak Hits Santa Cruz Farmworkers For the first time since the pandemic started, COVID-19 outbreaks have been documented at agricultural workplaces in Santa Cruz. Reporter: Hannah Hagemann, KQED Judge Orders Weekly COVID-19 Testing for Detainees at Mesa Verde A federal judge in San Francisco has ordered U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to test for COVID all detainees at a facility in Bakersfield. That’s after at least nine people held there were diagnosed with the coronavirus. Reporter: Farida Jhabvala Romero, KQED Disability-Rights Group Sues to Move People out of San Bernadino Psychiatric Hospital About 115 patients and 150 staff have tested positive for COVID-19 at Patton Hospital in San Bernadino. An Oakland-based disability rights group is suing the state to move people out of the psychiatric hospital. Reporter: Kate Wolffe, KQED California Counties Allowed Fewer Polling Places this Election Senate Bill 423 from Democratic State Senator Tom Umberg (D-Santa Ana) allows counties to consolidate voting locations if they allow at least three days of early, in-person voting. Reporter: Guy Marzorati, KQED State Lawmakers Push to Remove Racist Language from Property Records Some Democratic state lawmakers are proposing a system that removes racist language from property records whenever a property is sold or transferred. Reporter: Scott Rodd, CapRadio 'Everyday was on Repeat' Healthcare Workers Confront Isolation of the Pandemic For the last five months doctors have seemed unflappable as they confront daily horrors that most of us can’t imagine. They've become our heroes, but now they’re exhausted. Reporter: Lesley McClurg, The California Report 

One Man's Desperate Pursuit of Unemployment Benefits At least seven million Californians have lost their jobs since the pandemic began earlier this year. It took Antonio Rael an estimated 5,600 calls before he could get an Employment Development Department worker on the phone to  re-certify his claim. Reporter: Mary Franklin Harvin, KQED Basic Questions Are Clogging the Phone Lines, Says EDD Spokesperson Loree Levy, a spokesperson for EDD, says the agency is in the process of hiring more than 5,000 new workers. She is also encouraging applicants to review the agency's FAQs closely before calling in, and says people have been tying up the phone lines with questions already answered online.

California Lawmakers Look to Tax the Ultra-Rich More than a dozen Democratic lawmakers have signed on to a bill that would tax earnings above a million dollars an extra one percent. There would also be an additional, higher tax brackets for income above two million and five million. Reporter: Nicole Nixon, CapRadio COVID-19 Spreads at Foster Farms Poultry Processing Plant A COVID-19 outbreak at a big Central Valley poultry processing plant has grown to 73 confirmed cases with one worker dying. Livingston Mayor Gurpal Samra and other city officials met with Foster Farms representatives this week to make sure the company is following adequate safety protocols. Reporter: Alex Hall, KQED California Lawmakers Demand Fix to Unemployment Benefit Process Over a million Californians still want to know why they haven’t received their unemployment benefits. The director of the Employment Development Department said at a hearing yesterday it will be until September to process even the backlogged claims that have been resolved. Reporter: Julie Chang, KQED Fight Intensifies Over Gig Worker Classification Bill California’s Attorney General opened a lawsuit in May against Uber and Lyft for allegedly misclassifying workers. Now supporters of Prop 22, a referendum that would allow these companies to classify workers as contractors, are suing the attorney general for how he worded the title of their ballot initiative. Reporter: Sam Harnett, KQED Documentary Chronicles Closure of Public Hospital in West Contra Costa County Doctors Medical Center in West Contra Costa County shut down five years ago, citing budget concerns. This hospital mostly served patients who were uninsured or on Medi-Cal. Now former hospital employees have set up a tiny urgent care clinic, where they try to triage patients with just a quarter of their former staff. Reporter: Sasha Khokha, KQED  Reporter Still Haunted Months after Being Shot by Police with  Foam Round Journalists have been injured by police using tear gas, batons and projectiles to disperse crowds these last few months. KPCC's Adolfo Guzman Lopez was hit in the neck by a policeman’s foam bullet while covering a protest in Long Beach in May. Guest: Adolfo Guzman-Lopez, KPCC and LAist 

Governor Newsom Announces Strike Team to tackle Unemployment Backlog The state agency that sends out unemployment insurance checks has been overwhelmed with applications since the pandemic began, which has led to lots of complaints about late checks and terrible customer service. The Newsom Administration says it’s taking actions to improve the situation. Reporter: Scott Shafer, KQED Tenants Call for Statewide Rent Forgiveness On August 1st rent will be due for lots of Californians. But since the pandemic  began, millions of people haven’t been able to pay, and they’ve been protected by a moratorium on evictions.  Many renters say more help is necessary and are calling for a statewide program of rent forgiveness. Guest: Pea Nuñez, Boyle Heights Rent Striker Proposed Bill Seeks to Extend Eviction Moratorium State Assemblymember David Chiu introduced a bill which gives qualifying tenants protection from eviction until the current state of emergency ends, or until  April of next year. Tenants unable to pay rent because they’ve lost work, or who can’t pay because of expenses related to COVID-19 would have an extra year to pay back past rent. The Future of Commercial Real Estate Looks Grim With so many people working from home because of the pandemic, the demand for office space has plummeted. A new UCLA survey reports people in the California commercial real estate market are feeling grim about the future.   Reporter: Matt Guilhem, KCRW

Trump Administration Defies Supreme Court, Rejects New DACA Applications Advocates for immigrants in California are blasting the Trump administration for its decision to reject new applications for the DACA program, which allows undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children to stay in the country. The Administration’s decision comes in spite of a Supreme Court ruling last month striking down President Trump’s attempt to end the program Reporter: Tyche Hendricks, KQED California Sues Trump Over Order Excluding Undocumented From Census Count Last week President Trump issued a memorandum ordering that undocumented residents not be counted when it comes to determining seats in Congress. California’s Attorney General Xavier Becerra responded yesterday with a lawsuit arguing that counting everyone is a constitutional mandate, and not including the undocumented could cost California seats in Congress.  Farm Workers Face Uncertain and Dangerous Pandemic Working Conditions According to a study released this week, farm workers in the San Joaquin Valley are three times more likely to get COVID-19 than in other industries. Those workers are also facing job losses. Reporter: Madi Bolaños, Valley Public Radio L.A. County's Atlantic Avenue is Quiet Amid High Unemployment we've been checking in on how the pandemic has affected  people along L.A. County's Atlantic Avenue, a thoroughfare more than 20 mile long that cuts through a variety of working class communities, with large Black, Latino and immigrant populations.  Today we hear from Reginald Hall, who lives just off of Atlantic. Guest: Reginald Hall, Atlantic avenue resident Three Food Processing Plants Didn't Report Outbreaks Among Employees Food processing plants in Los Angeles County have been shutdown due to coronavirus outbreaks, involving at least 40 workers at each business. Employers are required by local health orders to report outbreaks involving three workers or more.    Reporter: David Wagner, KPCC COVID-19 Test Results Will Now Include Gender Identity and Sexual Orientation State health officials announced Tuesday that California will now require labs to include gender identity and sexual orientation, along with race and ethnicity data, when reporting coronavirus test results. Reporter: Peter Arcuni, KQED Fresno County Faces Scrutiny Over Jail Outbreak More than 900 inmates at the Fresno County Jail have tested positive for the coronavirus since last month. 445 of those are considered “active cases.” Advocates question how well the county is getting a handle on the outbreak. Reporter: Alex Hall, KQED Esselen Tribe Purchases 1,200 Acres of Ancestral Land For the first time in more than two centuries, the Esselen tribe in the picturesque Big Sur area has land to call its own. Through a state grant, the Monterey county tribe this week purchased almost 1,200 acres of its traditional territory.  Reporter: Matt Guilhem, KCRW