KQED's Forum

A fiscal management team issued a dire warning earlier this month about the finances of City College San Francisco, the city’s two-year community college which offers free tuition to all city residents. The devastating report concluded that the college could not meet its obligations to students, faculty and staff and remain solvent without making drastic changes. In March, noting it faced a $33 million budget shortfall for the upcoming academic year, City College announced that it would cut 163 full-time faculty and 34 administrative positions. As students and faculty rally to save classes and programs, the administration says its hands are tied by the financial problems caused by decreased enrollment and revenues. We talk about the future of City College. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Even after the Civil Rights Act in 1964 banned employment discrimination, women in the workplace still found it nearly impossible to get the kind of jobs they really wanted and were qualified for. When National Public Radio launched 50 years ago, four women found their way into a world previously closed to them — broadcast journalism. They became icons — using their voices to fight sexism in the workplace and cover decades of news. We examine the amazing careers of “Susan, Linda, Nina & Cokie” with Lisa Napoli, author of “The Extraordinary Story of the Founding Mothers of NPR”. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Asian American mental health care providers in California are seeing an increase in demand for services in the wake of surging anti-Asian hate incidents, and the killings last month of six Asian women in the Atlanta area. The requests are notable for a community that’s been least likely of all racial groups to seek out mental health services. We take a deeper look at the heavy emotional and psychological toll of anti-Asian racism and what can be done to remove barriers to care. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

To help fight disparate testing and vaccination rates within the Black community, organizers realized they would need grassroots activism. That’s when Dr. Kim Rhoads, an epidemiologist at UCSF, turned to filmmaker Kevin Epps, who directed the documentaries “Straight Outta Hunters Point” and “The Black Rock” and is a trusted Bay Area community member. Working with Umoja Health, a partnership that includes a dozen community organizations, UCSF and the Alameda County Health department, Rhoads and Epps have been able to help reach residents at higher rates than other sites aimed at underserved communities. We’ll talk to them both about their work and the importance of community activism.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

California is adding $536 million to the budget for wildfire prevention. The money will go toward efforts including forest and vegetation management and the retrofitting and fireproofing of homes. As the state enters a second year of drought following 2020’s record number of acres burned, some experts are raising concerns that the state isn’t going far enough to avoid a crisis. We'll hear about efforts underway to prevent another catastrophic wildfire season. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In heated debates about gun laws and gun violence, one group of victims is often overlooked: children. Each year in America, thousands of children are killed or injured after finding unsecured guns in their homes. Millions of kids endure psychological wounds after losing loved ones to gun violence or from the mere threat of school shootings. In his new book, “Children Under Fire: An American Crisis,” Washington Post reporter John Woodrow Cox tells the story of those children. We talk with Cox about strategies that could save lives and protect kids from life-altering trauma. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Now that California is reopening, how will dating change? After a year of social distancing, many of us are longing for emotional and physical intimacy, while others are suffering from FODA: fear of dating again. What are the rules, if any, around post-pandemic dating and intimacy? Are Zoom dates here to stay? And will you require proof of vaccination to swipe right? Well hear your stories and get advice about how to approach dating, love and sex in a post-pandemic world. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Last year, in response to concerns about the spread of COVID-19 among unhoused people, officials in Santa Rosa created a sanctioned encampment in the parking lot of a local community center. Those living at the site reported feeling safer and having better access to services, and neighborhood residents who initially opposed the idea came to view the program positively. Elsewhere in the state, San Francisco set up “Safe Sleeping Sites” last May, and Sacramento recently created two “Safe Ground” sites, with one being for people living in cars and RVs. The idea is being floated in Los Angeles, as well, after police and protestors clashed over the clearing of an encampment at Echo Park last month. We’ll talk about Santa Rosa’s experiment in addressing homelessness and how other cities in California are implementing or thinking about sanctioned encampments. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Whether it’s tribal in nature -- or a nasty divorce-- many Americans feel trapped in repetitive conflicts that can seem irresolvable, with no end in sight. Investigative journalist Amanda Ripley spent four years studying these types of high conflict situations, discovering tools to defuse their potency and learning how to recognize what kind of problems are solvable. Ripley joins us to talk about how to resolve our deepest divisions and her new book, “High Conflict: Why We Get Trapped, and How We Get Out.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

California is pausing the use of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine following a recommendation to do so from federal health officials who reported extremely rare blood clot complications in six patients. Meanwhile, California plans to expand vaccine eligibility to everyone 16 and older on Thursday. So far, roughly 40 percent of Californians have received their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and more than one in five are fully vaccinated, but experts say the state has a ways to go. We’ll hear the latest developments about the J&J vaccine and talk about what we can expect as the state prepares to open up eligibility.For more information about booking a vaccine appointment, check out KQED's guide to vaccines.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices