Kqeds Forum

Families across California will finally be permitted to visit loved ones in nursing homes, after months of being unable to have in-person visits. Updated guidelines released Friday allow indoor visits in California’s 46 counties currently in red, orange and yellow tiers; it also only applies to long-term care facilities, like nursing homes, but not to assisted or independent living communities. We’ll hear about the new guidance and how the state is keeping elder care facilities safe during the pandemic.

New York City, an international travel hub and region with 19 million people, was particularly vulnerable to a fast-spreading pandemic like coronavirus.  New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s new book “American Crisis” takes stock of what his state  and its largest city have been through, details the shortfalls of the federal response, and offers a blueprint for future outbreaks.

Major recent polls suggest that former Vice President Joe Biden will defeat President Donald Trump by a decisive margin in next week's election. A simulation by FiveThirtyEight shows Biden winning 88 times in 100, and a model from The Economist puts Biden’s chances of winning the electoral college at 95%. But for the obsessive poll watchers who in 2016 were shocked by Trump's win, today's numbers are fraught. We'll talk about how election polls are constructed, how to interpret them and how methodologies have changed since 2016.

Published two decades ago, political scientist Robert Putnam’s bestselling book “Bowling Alone” struck a nerve with its stark warning about loosening social and political cohesion in America. In their new book “The Upswing”, Putnam and co-author Shaylyn Romney Garrett offer solutions for improving civic life in a country beset by COVID-19 and a divisive election. Putnam and Garrett join Forum to talk about the book and share lessons from history about how the U.S. can recover solidarity and a collective national identity.

White House chief of staff Mark Meadows told CNN Sunday that the U.S. is “not going to control the pandemic,” because “it is a contagious virus just like the flu.” But thinking of COVID-19 like the flu and employing a flu-pandemic playbook is not an effective response, according to sociologist Zeynep Tufekci. In her latest piece for The Atlantic, Tufekci highlights a factor she says is key to this pandemic: COVID-19 is an "overdispersed" virus, which means it tends to spread in clusters. When dealing with overdispersion, she writes "identifying transmission events (someone infected someone else) is more important than identifying infected individuals." Tufekci outlines how countries like South Korea and Japan have used aggressive contact-tracing approaches that include backwards tracing to the original contact, as well as clamping down on potential super-spreader events, to slow the spread. That's in stark contrast to the U.S., where the federal response has been the idea of creating "herd immunity" and where

California prison officials frequently fail to enforce mask requirements for prison staff and inmates to stop the spread of coronavirus. That's according to a report issued Monday by the California Office of the Inspector General, which noted that the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation has reported that 69 incarcerated persons and 10 staff members have died of COVID-19 as of Oct. 7. We'll review the report and also discuss last week's state court order that San Quentin State Prison reduce its inmate population by half to combat the spread of the virus.

San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo joins us to discuss how his city is faring as the coronavirus pandemic wears on. Last week, the city unveiled the first of three emergency housing projects with 78 rooms to provide shelter for homeless people. Meanwhile, the city emerged as an economic bright spot in September by adding 9,000 jobs, but close to half of the city’s downtown storefronts remain shuttered. Coronavirus cases in Santa Clara County have steadily declined since peaking in late July. About 58 percent of confirmed cases are among Latinos even though that group only makes up 26 percent of the county’s residents. We talk with Liccardo about ongoing efforts to suppress coronavirus, tackle homelessness and rebuild the local economy.

New reports of foreign election interference emerged this week when national security officials announced that Iran and Russia obtained voter registration data that could be used to threaten voters and sow discord ahead of the November election. In an advisory Thursday, the Department of Homeland Security further called out Iranian actors for spoofing legitimate media sites to spread misinformation about voter suppression and ballot fraud. But according to The New York Times, security experts say that Russia remains the more dangerous threat to the integrity of the 2020 election. We'll talk to New York Times national security correspondent David Sanger about foreign attempts to influence this November's vote.

In her new podcast and radio show “Our Body Politic,” journalist Farai Chideya reports on how women of color experience the major political events of today and how they’re impacting those very issues. The show also explores how we might collectively rebuild America in ways that nourish women of color and their communities. Chideya, who has covered the past six presidential elections for outlets including CNN, NPR and FiveThirtyEight, joins us to talk about her new show.

While it may seem too early to draw conclusions from a global crisis still in process, journalist Fareed Zakaria is seizing the moment. In his latest book, “Ten Lessons for a Post-Pandemic World,” the CNN host outlines how the coronavirus pandemic will have lasting impacts that could take years to unfold. He examines the prospective political, social, technological and economic consequences of actions governments are taking now. On his weekly show, “Fareed Zakaria GPS” for CNN Worldwide, Zakaria has focused on international and domestic affairs for 12 years running. He also writes columns for the Washington Post and serves as a contributing editor for The Atlantic. Zakaria joins us to discuss his new book as well as international news. 

Julián Castro is one of just a few Latino politicians with a national presence. The former Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development was the only Latino to compete for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020. Though his bid failed, Castro is still hitting the campaign trail. He’s working to increase voting rates and on turning Texas blue. Castro joins us to talk about housing policy, immigration reform and the latest political news including the final presidential debate.

Protesters around the country have demanded the defunding of police because of excessive force used all too often in situations that critics say could be dealt with nonviolently. Now San Francisco is launching the country’s largest experiment in reform by taking most psychiatric , behavioral and substance abuse crisis calls out of the hands of police. Instead, unarmed mobile teams -- made up of a paramedic, a mental health professional and a peer advocate -- will respond to the calls. We’ll talk about San Francisco’s program, which will be phased in next month, and similar efforts around the country.

On Thursday, President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden take the stage in Nashville for the second and final presidential debate of the 2020 election. They will participate under new ground rules announced by the Commission on Presidential Debates, where each candidate’s microphone will be muted for portions of the debate. The candidates will face questions on topics including the fight against COVID-19, race in America, climate change and national security. We'll recap the debate and hear your reactions.

Three years after the Trump administration began separating migrant parents from their children at the U.S.-Mexico border, lawyers tasked with reuniting the families say they still haven’t been able to find the parents of 545 children. Amidst an uproar over the “zero-tolerance” policy, a federal judge in 2018 ordered the Trump administration to locate parents and children who had been separated. We’ll talk about the continuing effects of Trump’s policy and how the global pandemic is hampering efforts to reunite families.

Sen. Chuck Schumer said on Tuesday he had a “serious talk” with California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, following last week’s confirmation hearing for Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett. Schumer refused to defend the former San Francisco mayor, amid calls from liberal groups for her to step down as the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee. Some on the left have criticized Feinstein for being too accommodating during last week’s controversial hearing, which concluded with her praising Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham and hugging him without a mask. We’ll talk with KQED politics correspondent Marisa Lagos about the controversy.

Second Harvest of Silicon Valley now helps feed about 500,000 people every month -- double what it served before the pandemic. Across the Bay Area, food banks are struggling to keep up with increased demand for food and volunteers. The core Bay Area has lost close to 350,000 jobs during the past year as of September, according to the state Economic Development Department, which has led many more people to rely on food banks. We’ll talk about how food banks are responding in this time of crisis and how you can help.

In an interview for a documentary released Wednesday, Pope Francis said he favors civil unions for same-sex couples, a step toward more inclusion for LGBTQ people in the Catholic church. We’ll talk to Jesuit priest and LGBTQ advocate Father James Martin about the significance of the Pope’s comments.

More than 33 million Americans have already voted as of Tuesday -- roughly 70% of total 2016 early voting. On Monday, the Supreme Court denied a request by Pennsylvania Republicans to shorten the deadlines for mail-in ballots in the state. We’ll get the national picture on voting from NPR’s Miles Parks and hear how voting systems are handling the record turnout. Then, president and founder of the nonpartisan California Voter Foundation Kim Alexander joins Forum to take your questions on voting. We’ll cover topics like locating and using official ballot drop boxes, voting in-person after applying to vote by mail and correcting a mistake on your ballot.

Facing a pandemic-induced plunge in ridership and ticket sales, Caltrain is asking voters in San Francisco, San Mateo and Santa Clara counties for a lifeline this November.  If approved by a two-thirds majority, Measure RR would impose a one-eighth cent sales tax increase to fund Caltrain’s operations, maintenance and capital projects. Caltrain says that the tax would generate about $100 million annually.  We’ll break down Measure RR and what’s at stake for the beleaguered commuter railroad.

Advocates of expanding rent control in California are back with this year with Proposition 21 two years after voters turned down a similar ballot measure. Prop. 21 would allow cities to put limits on how much landlords can annually increase rents. The measure would also allow cities to include single-family homes under control provisions, which are currently exempt. In 2019, the state legislature established a statewide rent cap of 5 percent plus inflation on buildings that are at least 15 years old. We look at both sides of the debate on Prop. 21 and what it would do compared with existing laws.