Kqeds Forum

Forum reviews, analyzes and answers your questions about the latest in national political news.

The majority of California voters may label themselves liberal or progressive, but some of the results of statewide propositions in last week’s election may suggest otherwise. The initiative to repeal a ban on affirmative action failed. California voted to restore voting rights to former felons, but against other criminal justice reforms, like doing away with cash bail. And the effort to hike taxes on commercial properties to fund schools failed. Meanwhile, Californians chose mostly Democratic candidates while voting overwhelmingly to send Vice President Joe Biden and Senator Kamala Harris to the White House. They also sent more Democrats to Sacramento, which will solidify their supermajority in the California Legislature. We’ll discuss the results of the California ballot measures and what they say about where the state stands politically in 2020.

As coronavirus cases spike across California, Bay Area school districts continue to weigh when and how to reopen. San Jose Unified School District recently announced plans to open classrooms in January; Oakland Unified has yet to set a date. But what impact is remote learning having on the education and mental health of students? We’ll discuss the effects of remote learning on K-12 students and the inequities deepening these concerns and we’ll want to hear from you: how are your children doing with distance learning?

Coronavirus cases reached their highest level with nearly 140,000 cases nationwide reported on Tuesday. Much of the surge is concentrated in the Midwest, but the West Coast is also seeing an uptick. The number of infections has steadily risen nationwide since September and will likely keep climbing as cold weather forces people indoors and Americans travel for the holidays. Meanwhile, uncertainty looms over what will happen with President Donald Trump still in office and President-elect Joe Biden setting up a response that may come too late for many Americans. We talk about why the U.S. has struggled to contain the coronavirus and what measures California is taking to prevent a winter surge.

The Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District will vote Friday whether or not to raise the Golden Gate Bridge toll by $2. With car traffic, along with bus and ferry ridership, way down because of the pandemic, the agency is facing a $48 million deficit. Officials say federal emergency funds being used to pay employees will run out at the end of this month. We’ll get the details.

President Trump’s refusal to concede the presidential race, his unsubstantiated claims of election fraud, and his replacement of Pentagon officials with loyalists is drawing comparisons to actions by authoritarian leaders. We’ll talk with political scientists and former ambassador to Russia, Michael McFaul, about threats to American democracy and a peaceful transfer of power. And we’ll discuss the challenges president-elect Biden is likely to face in rebuilding world alliances and addressing threats from Russia and China.

After reporting increases in coronavirus cases and hospitalizations, San Francisco and Contra Costa counties announced Tuesday that they will roll back some activities, like indoor dining . Meanwhile, health officials across the Bay Area have issued guidelines for travel and gatherings during the upcoming holiday season. We’ll hear about the new restrictions, recommendations for the holiday season, and the latest COVID-19 data from across the region.

When Vice President-elect Kamala Harris is sworn in, in addition to being the first woman and first woman of color, she will become the second Californian in history -- and first California Democrat -- to serve as vice president. Gov. Newsom, who is now responsible for picking who will replace Harris in the senate, said Harris' new role will be "profoundly significant for the state." We’ll talk about what influence Harris' California roots and politics could have in the Biden administration. Plus: we consider who might take over Harris’ senate seat and the Californians being eyed for roles in the new administration.

President Trump's refusal to concede President-elect Biden's electoral college victory stretched into a third day Tuesday, as his campaign pursues a long-shot legal strategy to challenge the results. The President's intransigence, which is complicating the Biden team's effort to carry out an orderly transition, has so far drawn the support of Senator Mitch McConnell and other Republican leaders. Meanwhile, Trump continues to remove senior officials at the Department of Defense, a day after he fired Secretary Mark Esper. We'll talk about the latest developments.

Early tests show that a coronavirus vaccine from drug makers Pfizer and BioNTech could be 90 percent effective at preventing COVID-19, a disease that has now infected more than 10 million Americans and killed more than a million. While those results look promising, experts say the production and distribution of the vaccine -- which needs to be kept at negative 80 degrees Celsius -- will be complicated to say the least. Other challenges include convincing enough Americans to take the vaccine amid a climate of distrust and misinformation. Meanwhile, other drug makers are also pushing to bring vaccines to the market. We’ll talk about the status of a coronavirus vaccine.

Moms 4 Housing founder and longtime racial and social justice advocate Carroll Fife became Oakland's newest councilmember-elect on Monday. Upsetting two-term District 3 incumbent Lynette Gibson McElhaney, Fife campaigned on platforms of police reform, environmental justice and the animating concept that housing is a human right. We'll talk to Fife about her vision for Oakland and the progressive political movement she's building.

On Tuesday, for the third time in eight years, the Supreme Court will again hear a constitutional challenge to the Affordable Care Act. The Republican state officials bringing the case argue that Congress’s elimination of a penalty for failure to comply with the Act’s insurance mandate renders the entire law unconstitutional. The hearing takes place before the most conservative bench the Supreme Court has seen in decades and amid a raging pandemic that has left millions jobless and without health insurance. We’ll talk about what’s at stake.

As President Trump continues to refuse to concede, we'll discuss what to look for as he enters his lame-duck period. We'll also talk about the role of Republicans in Congress who are largely refusing to acknowledge President-elect Joe Biden's victory thus far.

As a 30-year-old first-time senator from Delaware, Joe Biden had high hopes that he would end up in the White House.  Over the course of more than three decades in the senate and two terms as vice president, Biden’s career was marked by his moderate political positions, personal tragedy and some controversy, including his support for a 1994 tough-on-crime bill.  We talk with New Yorker journalist Evan Osnos about his new biography of president-elect Joe Biden and hear how Biden’s life and career experiences might help him mend a divided country.

We'll talk with East Bay Democratic Congresswoman Barbara Lee about Oakland native Kamala Harris' historic election as the first female vice president, as well as the first Black person and first Asian American to hold the office. We'll also discuss Lee's own re-election this week, and her priorities for her next term.

In the race for the presidency, early this morning Georgia and Pennsylvania moved into Joe Biden’s column, where he holds a very small margin. With Biden’s lead in the presidential election growing, we’ll get the latest on vote counting and preview what a Biden administration might look like in a deeply divided country. We’ll also examine Kamala Harris’ historic run as the first woman of color on a major presidential ticket. Plus: how young voters and people of color helped boost the Biden/Harris campaign.

As the ballot count continues, we’ll bring you the latest on the presidential race as well as other state and national election results.

California voters have approved Proposition 22, the most expensive ballot measure in state history, that will set new labor regulations for a group of delivery and ride-hailing app companies. The measure garnered national attention as a harbinger of how the tech industry could influence labor laws. After the state legislature passed a law last year requiring more workers to be classified as employees instead of contractors, tech executives said they wanted a “third way” of categorizing drivers. But, critics of the proposition say that the deep-pocketed companies effectively did an end-run around state law. We dive into the significance of Prop. 22 in California and beyond.

Forum brings you continued analysis of state and national election results.

Pulitzer prize-winning historian Jon Meacham shed light on the current climate of partisanship and division in his book “The Soul of America”, where he examined pivotal moments in U.S history from the Civil War through Jim Crow to show how -- in Abraham Lincoln’s words -- the “better angels of our nature” usually win. Meacham, whose newest book is “His Truth is Marching on: John Lewis and the Power of Hope”,  joins us to bring historical context to this moment.