KQED's The California Report

State Lawmakers Scramble as Eviction Ban Set to EndIn the wake of the coronavirus pandemic and the resulting job losses, courts in California placed a stop on evictions and foreclosures. But evictions will soon resume again unless state lawmakers can figure out a solution.Reporter: Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez, KQED New Data Shows Disparities in Nursing Home Workers Dying from COVID-19Los Angeles County has released new data this week on deaths tied to nursing homes, and it shows that nursing home workers who have died from COVID-19 are more likely to be people of color. Reporter: Jackie Fortier, KPCCSan Diego County to Begin Free Testing for People Crossing BorderMany people continue to travel between San Diego and Tijuana daily. Now the people crossing the border can get a coronavirus test without an appointment.Reporter: Max Rivlin-Nadler, KPBS Californians are Registering to Vote at Historic RatesMore than 83% of eligible voters in California are registered ahead of the November election. According to the Secretary of State’s office, the last time a higher portion of eligible voters signed up, was when Harry Truman was president. Reporter: Guy Marzorati, KQED Over 200 Workers at Merced County's Foster Farms Positive for COVID-19With the number of infections among plant employees at Foster Farms Poultry Plant increasing, some say they want all of the plants workers to be tested and for the facility to shut down so it can be cleaned.Reporter: Alex Hall, KQED COVID Diaries: California's State Library Documents the PandemicCalifornia's State Library has started the California COVID Diaries, an on-going project to collect and display items from Californians about what they've seen and experienced during the pandemic. Guest: California's State Librarian Greg LucasRemembering the Brown Berets Who Occupied Catalina Island for Chicano RightsIn 1972, The Brown Berets took on housing discrimination against Mexican-Americans, and occupied Catalina Island, arguing the land did not belong to the U.S government. Reporter: Ariella Markowitz, The California Report Magazine Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hughes Lake Fire Forces Evacuations North of L.A.This morning in rural north L.A. County, west of Palmdale, hundreds of firefighters are battling the Lake Hughes Fire. It’s scorched approximately 10,000 acres and is zero percent contained. Mandatory evacuation orders are in place for residents in the area.Uber Threatens Temporary Shutdown to Avoid Paying Overtime and UnemploymentUber and Lyft drivers in California could become employees of those companies instead of contract workers in 8 days because of a court injunction involving lawsuit brought by the state attorney general against the companies. Uber and Lyft are using their network of customers and drivers to fight the rulingReporter: Sam Harnett, KQEDUC Reinstates Striking Graduate Students After Union NegotiationUC Santa Cruz has come to an agreement with the union representing graduate students who have been on strike since February. Dozens of the students who were fired from their teaching jobs after withholding grades, are now eligible to work again.Reporter: Hannah Hagemann, KQEDSupporting Black Lives Sparks Positive Change in San Joaquin Medical CommunityIn the San Joaquin Valley, close to 300 medical professionals have signed a letter in solidarity with the Black Lives Movement. Some of those who signed say it’s already had a powerful impact.Reporter: Madi Bolaños, Valley Public RadioWorking From Home Means Shocking Electricity Bills for Some CaliforniansCalifornians are seeing their electricity bills rise as they’re forced to spend more time at home. This comes amid the uncertainty and economic hardship caused by the pandemic.Reporter: Scott Rodd, CapRadioFarmstand Thrives as Rural Residents Shop Closer to HomeThe COVID-19 pandemic and the state of the economy have disrupted the food supply chain across the state. In rural Plumas county, a farm stand is helping to reduce food insecurity by offering fresh produce on the honor system.Reporters: Nina Sparling, KQED, and Tessa Paoli Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Kamala Harris Makes History as Joe Biden's Running MateJoe Biden has picked California Senator Kamala Harris to be his vice-presidential running mate. It’s the first time ever that a woman of color will be on a major party presidential ticket and the first time that a California Democrat will also be at the top of such a ticket.Guest: Scott Shafer, KQEDCalifornians Support of Black Lives Matter Movement GrowsHarris’ nomination comes as Californians are increasingly concerned about race relations in the state — and supportive of the Black Lives Matter movement. That’s according to a new survey out this week from the Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies. Reporter: Guy Marzorati, KQEDCompanies Seek More Diversity on Corporate BoardsIn the wake of calls to recognize and fight systemic racism in American institutions, there’s growing evidence companies want to do more to add people of color to corporate boards of directors.Reporter: Lily Jamali, KQEDKaiser Is Investing $63 Million in Contact TracingHealth care giant Kaiser Permanente is now getting in the game of contact tracing. It is investing $63 million dollars in the effort to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Reporter: April Dembosky, KQEDCharter School Law May Escalate Tensions at LAUSDA new state law just took effect that was supposed to de-escalate tensions over charter schools. The LA Unified School Board narrowly approved a plan to carry out the new law. But there’s concern this new policy might actually escalate tensions in the district with the most charter schools in California. KPCC'sReporter: Kyle Stokes, KPCCAndroid Phones Now Come With Earthquake AlertMillions of Android smartphones users in California will now receive automatic alerts from an earthquake early warning system. Bay Area tech giant Google announced that earthquake warnings are now fully integrated with its operating system.Reporter: Kevin Stark, KQED Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

CA Public Health Director Resigns Following Data ErrorsThere’s much speculation about the resignation of California's top public health director last weekend, but Governor Gavin Newsom is staying tight-lipped. Her departure comes after a glitch in a disease tracking system that delayed the processing of data from hundreds of thousands of COVID 19 test results.Reporter: Katie Orr, KQEDShould Uber and Lyft Drivers Be Employees of Freelancers?Should gig economy workers be employees or freelancers? That’s an issue that’s consumed California politics over the past couple of years. A court injunction issued yesterday means Uber and Lyft drivers could become employees of those companies within 10 days. Reporter: Sam Harnett, KQEDYouth Who Vape Are More Likely to Get COVID-19Before the coronavirus pandemic, the danger of vaping was one of the big public health discussions in the U.S. A study released by Stanford University this morning says young adults who vape are more likely to get COVID19. Reporter: Lesley McClurg, KQEDFlu Season Could Further Strain Hospital ResourcesFlu season is coming, and experts say getting a vaccine is more important than ever. Flu patients can show up with severe coughs and fevers, just like COVID-19 patients, so demand for ventilators, beds and protective gear for staff could rise.Reporter: Sammy Caiola, CapRadioExcluding Undocumented People From CARES Act Cost The US Economy BigUndocumented people were not eligible to receive $1200 federal stimulus checks earlier this year. A new study from UCLA found that excluding this community from federal relief through the CARES Act cost the United States economy ten billion dollars in potential economic activity.Reporter: Nina Sparling, KQEDICE Detainee Barred from Receiving Outside Medical Treatment for COVID-19Last week a judge ordered U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to test all detainees at a facility in Bakersfield with a growing COVID-19 outbreak. One of the detainees who tested positive is a 22-year old man who an immigration judge already ruled should stay in the country.Reporter: Farida Jhabvala Romero, KQEDAdvocates Say Curtailing the Census Targets Latino and Immigrant CommunitiesConducting the 2020 U.S. Census during a pandemic isn’t easy, especially in California’s poorer and immigrant communities. But Trump Administration critics say the administration is making it even harder to get an accurate count by cutting the amount of time census workes will spend going door to door.Guest: Lizette Escobedo, director of the national census program at the NALEO Educational Fund Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

California Parents Anxious as Distant Learning Begins in Some DistrictsThis 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 CamposSouthern California Women's Prison COVID-19 Cases Climb to 160The 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, KQEDCalifornia's Top Public Health Official Abruptly ResignsDirector 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 OrderCounty 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 ExplosionBeirut, 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 JamaliOC Registrar of Voters Confident County Can Handle Mail-in-Ballot SurgeElection 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 ClergyIn 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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

COVID-19 Cases Top 200,000 in Los Angeles CountyLos 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 FarmworkersFor the first time since the pandemic started, COVID-19 outbreaks have been documented at agricultural workplaces in Santa Cruz.Reporter: Hannah Hagemann, KQEDJudge Orders Weekly COVID-19 Testing for Detainees at Mesa VerdeA 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, KQEDDisability-Rights Group Sues to Move People out of San Bernadino Psychiatric HospitalAbout 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, KQEDCalifornia Counties Allowed Fewer Polling Places this ElectionSenate 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, KQEDState Lawmakers Push to Remove Racist Language from Property RecordsSome 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 PandemicFor 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  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Lawmakers Demand Immediate Unemployment ReformThere are new demands for immediate reform at the state’s Employment Development Department which is in charge of providing unemployment benefits to Californians who’ve lost their jobs. Those demands are coming from more than 60 California lawmakers.Reporter: Mary Franklin Harvin, KQED Nancy Pelosi Calls For Extension Of Federal Unemployment BenefitsHouse Speaker Nancy Pelosi says additional unemployment payments for people who lost their jobs because of COVID are crucial as the country tries to deal with the economic fallout of the pandemic.Reporter: Katie Orr, KQEDAdvocates Say Early End to Census Strategically Targets Under-Resourced CommunitiesThe U.S. census bureau will now end its counting efforts on September 30th, a month earlier than previously announced. this puts local census efforts in San Diego, already constrained by the pandemic, under even more pressure to get the count done quickly and accurately.Reporter: Max Rivlin-Nadler, KPBSL.A. County's COVID Cases Might Be Higher Than ReportedLos Angeles county’s COVID-19 cases are growing by more than 2000 cases a day, but the real number may be much higher. As technical issues on the state level may have led to under-reporting of cases for the last two weeks.Reporter: Jackie Fortier, KPCCCalifornians' Views on the Pandemic Fall Along Party LinesA poll from UC Berkeley finds that Democrats and no party preference voters overwhelmingly believe the state moved too quickly to ease pandemic-related restrictions on businesses. But a strong majority of Republicans say the business restrictions needed to be lifted because of the damage they were doing to the economyReporter: Marisa Lagos, KQEDLocal Business Owners Bring Entire Staff To Mission District Testing SiteIn San Francisco's Mission District activists convinced public health officials to set up a pop-up testing site after research revealed that Latinos make up 15% of the city's population, but half of all its COVID cases. The owners of a local tortilla business recently brought their entire staff to get tested together. Guests: Theresa Pasion and Aida Ibarra, Owners, La Palma MexicatessanCA Attorney General Sues Uber and Lyft Over Worker StatusUber and Lyft are being sued by the state Attorney General for how they classify workers, and now California’s Labor Commissioner is suing the companies, too. The lawsuit comes after over 5,000 drivers filed claims of wage theft for being misclassified as contractors.Reporter: Sam Harnett, KQED Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Husband of L.A.'s Incumbent District Attorney Faces Criminal ChargesIn Los Angeles, the race for District Attorney just got more complicated for incumbent Jackie Lacey. California Attorney General Xavier Becerra is filing criminal charges against Lacey’s husband after he pulled a gun on Black Lives Matter activists who had gathered outside their house in March. Reporter: Saul Gonzalez, KQEDCA Attorney General Urges Feds to Expand Production of RemdesivirCalifornia Attorney General Xavier Becerra has sent a letter to federal health officials, urging them to allow other companies to manufacture and distribute the Remdesivir. Doctors say the antiviral drug is one of the few treatments that benefits patients hospitalized with COVID-19.Reporter: Peter Arcuni, KQEDData is Power for Latino Activists Fighting for More COVID-19 TestingEarly in the pandemic, we thought anybody could get coronavirus. We now know your odds depend a lot on things like where you live and how much money you make. In San Francisco’s Mission District, which is among the hardest hit in the city, community activists with the Latino Task Force have set up a pop-up COVID-19 testing site on the street.Guest: Jon Jacobo, Latino Task Force Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Apple Fire Caused By Malfunctioning Car Exhaust PipeIn Southern California the Apple Fire has burned almost 27,000 acres in Riverside and San Bernardino Counties. Firefighters now have the blaze 15% contained. CalFire says it was caused by diesel soot from the exhaust pipe of a malfunctioning car on FridayReporter: Benjamin Purper, KVCRState and Federal Workers Scramble to Contain Outbreak in Central ValleyThere are few parts of California that have been hit as hard by the coronavirus pandemic as the Central Valley. The region is a major hub of food production, and a lot of Californians who live there aren’t able to shelter in place. Yesterday Governor Gavin Newsom raised concerns about the valley's growing cases of COVID-19.Reporter: Katie Orr, KQEDNew Research Shows Young Children Are Less Susceptible to COVID-19Pediatricians say the death of a California teenager from COVID-19 last week is a reminder that children aren’t immune to the illness. Though they are less at-risk than adults. Reporter Sammy Caiola: CapRadioCPB Faces Scrutiny Over Munitions Used Against ProtestorsThe aggressive response by Customs and Border Protection to ongoing protests across the country has come under intense scrutiny from California’s lawmakers. In June, the agency supplied munitions that San Diego law enforcement fired on protesters. Reporter Max Rivlin-Nadler, KPBSTrump Administration Announces Steep Increase in Application Fees for CitizenshipUnder a new rule the Trump administration published yesterday, millions of immigrants in California will have to pay hundreds of dollars more to apply for U.S. citizenship and other benefits. Reporter: Farida Jhabvala Romero, KQEDHuey P. Newton's Legacy Resonates With a New Generation of Activists50 years ago tomorrow, crowds gathered outside the Alameda County Courthouse to greet Huey P. Newton, co-founder of the Black Panther Party for Liberation. Newton had been convicted, with murky evidence, for his involvement in a shooting where a police officer died, and the California Courts of Appeal reversed the decision. The significance of Newton’s release still resonates with activists fighting for racial equity and justice today. Guest: Pendarvis Harshaw, Host, KQED'S Rightnowish podcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

One Man's Desperate Pursuit of Unemployment BenefitsAt 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, KQEDBasic Questions Are Clogging the Phone Lines, Says EDD SpokespersonLoree 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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices