was the state joining us live now to offer their perspectives, state assembly member rebecca bauer kahan from san ramon and

san mateo high school principal yvonne hsu, whose school was one of the first to take phonesutdeu both for joining us y. thanks fk you. >> assembly member bauer-kahan, i think i'll start with you. you chair the assembly privacy committee. so there are two things on the table here with the same goal. do you support one? a warning label when users kids open up tiktok or instagram, and two, do you support legislation to curtail phone use during school hours? >> yeah. you know, i'm a mom as well as a legislator, and i see the harms of social media is doing to our children. and we have been incredibly restricted by federal law and how we can really get at that issue. and so the warning, i think, is a good first step for the federal government to take. but i think it is a really small step in what is a huge problem as it relates to youth and their mental health and the addiction that is resulting from these devices. and so i absolutely support that. they have hours through the day while they're at school where they are not on

these devices, and they get a break to socialize and be with the other students and really grow in the ways we need them to grow as parents and educators. >> yeah, well, the governor signed a law five years ago, right? it encouraged school districts to consider limiting phone use and come up with policies. what is the range of policies you've seen? any in your district? and you know what kinds of actions. >> yeah. so we have not seen the public schools in my district take the action that principal hsu has taken, and i know there are districts that are acting to prevent kids from using these devices at school, but many schools allow it. and i really think that when we've given them the opportunity to act and they have not taken the actions that are necessary for our children's best interest, it is time for the state to step in. >> yeah, it is shocking to me because common sense media has found that 97% of students use their phones during school for a median of 43 minutes. so principal hsu yeah, san mateo high school was an early adopter of such limits. tell us how it works at your school, we consider ourselves a cell phone free environment free environmer

than saying that we ban cell phones because students do have their cell phones on them. but we use a yondr pouch, so? so every student has in their possession a yondr pouch. and we have students, put their phones in these pouches every morning. our teachers are fully on board by checking yondr pouches during the class period, to ensure that cell phones are locked up, we do have consideration cards because there are students for medical reasons that do need access to their phones, or have family emergencies that do come up. but, every student is assigned a yondr pouch, and they are required to put their phone or their device in these pouches during the entire school day, we also encourage our staff members not to be walking through the hallways using their cell phones and to kind of use them in their offices. >> i see good adult modeling. that's what you're talking

about, right, so yes. absolutely. okay. so you don't differentiate between, class time versus like recess or lunch time like those pouches are locked the whole day. unless there's an emergency or a special need to use it. >> that's correct, so during brunch and lunch, we don't allow them to, yonder, to use their cell phones, which has led to a lot more of social interactions, given covid, where everybody was a screen on a tv, on a monitor, we have students that are now talking to one another sitting in circles laughing, you know, you know, talking about schoolwork, playing lawn games, frisbee football. so they're much more active. our hallways are certainly a lot louder with a lot of laughter and voices. and so it's something that we prefer, and seeing students beautiful faces, when they're walking through the hallway, they're not looking down at a cell phone, as they're passing each other by, but they're

looking up, smiling and acknowledging each other's presence. >> can you give me a pouch for my phone? i got to be honest. i do sometimes walk down the hallway here with my face and my phone. i imagine principal shu, that when you first enacted this, you probably got some complaints or protests or concerns. do they still exist, no they don't, we before we brought a cell phone free environment to our campus, we did a number of town hall meetings with our parent community to ensure them that their student safety was our priority, if there is a school emergency, cell phones are accessible, so they can. but our first priority would be the students listening to the adult in the classroom for direction, and we still do have phones. the old fashioned kind attached to the wall. so parents are welcome to call at any time and leave a message, students are also able to come to the office if they felt there was an emergency where they needed to, yonder to

give a phone call home, we also allow students to take, zoom appointments, like, with their, physicians, therapists, where we set them up in private rooms to and yonder at the appropriate time on yonder that is about to become a popular verb. >> if governor newsom moves forward with this assembly member bauer-kahan if congress doesn't heed the surgeon general's warning, going back to the warning about these platforms really hurting kids mental health if it takes no federal action, what do you and your colleagues intend to do on the state level? >> we continue to move as many bills forward as possible to protect california's children. and so, you know, i was asked yesterday, would i support a warning similar to the one being offered up in the federal government? and, you know, i do i think teaching our kids about the addiction and the harm that these social media platforms cause to them is part of what we need to be doing to get them to understand the attention economy and what is happening online. and so i do support it here at

the state and will continue to look at all the ways that we can protect our children, including giving them those school hours to do everything that principal has mentioned. >> all right. state assembly member rebecca bauer-kahan and san mateo high school principal yvonne chiu, thank you both for coming on the show today. >> thank you for having me. >> still ahead, san francisco mayor london breed will join us live here in the studio. we'll discuss last night's mayoral debate. her efforts to improve safety in the tenderloin, the revitalization o

san francisco supervisors are tonight voting on approving a curfew for certain retail businesses in the tenderloin. it's part of mayor london breeds efforts to crack down on drugs and crime in the area. joining

us live now to talk about this and many other issues on this day after the second mayoral debate, is mayor london breed herself. thanks for coming in today. >> of course. happy to be here. >> i know you're super busy, but a lot to talk about because the state of the tenderloin is something your rivals did point to in last night's debate. i think daniel lurie talked about walking through it with his son, and the son asked, is someone on meth or fentanyl? they couldn't tell and that it's commonplace. so i know you have some proposals that are meant to address some of these, including a possible curfew for businesses that the supervisors are considering. so tell us about it. >> well, first of all, the supervisors just passed it. so i'm really grateful. oh just now okay. yes it just happened. and it came from the people who live there who have businesses there and people who are tired of what's been happening there. the good news is we're starting to make progress, especially in the daytime, with our coordinated efforts with federal, state and local law enforcement agencies. in fact, there was a big operation where 57 arrests were made last week. 43 of those individuals had outstanding warrants. so we continue to push

the envelope, build momentum, come up with the right kinds of solutions that are going to need lead to change and this solution came from the people who actually live there. and work there. >> so the idea is like between 12 and 5, whatever the overnight hours, the liquor stores, etc. would be closed. >> yes, under the law and our law enforcement officers can actually shut them down. okay. and if they violate the law, there are certain progressive, you know, violations that you can get where we can end up completely closing down your operation. >> all right. well, we'll see how that goes. definitely update us. but also your opponent last night, mark farrell, brought up policing that you haven't devoted enough funds to it. haven't managed to hire enough officers. so the city is still 500 officers short. i know in this year's proposed budget you did not cut police. you had to cut some other departments, but do you think it's enough? >> so. so just to be clear, when mark farrell was temporary mayor

in san francisco, my budget today in what we're proposing is $200 million higher than it was when he served. and more importantly, i negotiated some of the best contracts. we are now san francisco is the highest paid police department in the region, and retention bonuses to help retain people so that we have less police officers retiring. our current academy class has 40 individuals. the next one will be fully staffed at 50. we've cut the hiring process by half and we expect to be fully staffed with the police department in the next two and f momentum, but police departments all over the country have been impacted. after the death of george floyd, and many are trying to build up their departments. but also, just to be clear, we're working very hard and we're seeing change with our department. but policing and safety uh- safety in san francisco is more than just about policing. it's about

alternatives to policing. taking things that used to be the police department's responsibility, like wellness checks, responding to people in crisis, those kinds of things are now there's a crisis response team and other alternatives to policing to remove responsibilities from the department. so we've been doing a lot of different things and it's just not one thing. yeah. >> and to be fair, hiring police in all high cost of living cities has been a challenge. and i think we just had a study yesterday that we reported on that, you know, san francisco is impossibly unaffordable by some metric. and that's not something one person can fix. but it is an area, you know, reality. but i want to point out you talked about alternatives. and one of those is community ambassadors and several supervisors held a rally today to say, hey, mayor, why are you you know, cutting combat the community ambassadors program in the budget and wanting to outsource that, if you will. >> so to be clear, we have ambassadors. some work better than others. uh- urban alchemy is a perfect example. they're located in the tenderloin.

they're very effective. our downtown and union square ambassadors. and what we're doing with these particular ambassadors, we're funding it for the next year, and we're not funding it for the following year. if our budget situation changes, then then we will make some adjustments and more importantly, all of the individuals who are hired through oca, which is a different kind of ambassador that we will make sure that we work to ensure that they receive other employment opportunities, including the possibility of working with a couple of our other ambassador programs. so i think there's just definitely a difference of, you know, what kinds of ambassadors we should be funding. we have retired police officers who are ambassadors in different neighborhood corridors. but my desire is to centralize some of our ambassadors and to cut costs in doing so and to ensure that you know, if we decide to eliminate this program in next year's budget completely, then our work is to ensure that these ambassadors receive employment through some of our other

programs, because we do have a lot of them, i see. >> all right. so hopefully the services will still be available, maybe under a different bucket. yes. or name, but okay. i want to talk about reviving downtown and the union square area. i know for union square you've proposed business pop ups, a filipino cultural center. i think a facelift for powell street. but just today, our media partner, the san francisco standard, is reporting that the independent budget analyst is saying, hey, you know, some of this may not be possible because of the budget realities, like maybe, you know, some of that $15 million cannot happen. how concerned are you about that. >> so let's be clear. this is not an independent budget and legislative analyst. they are paid by the board of supervisors. it's the budget and the legislative analyst for the board of supervisors that sole purpose is to analyze those dollars and do everything they can to find more money for the board to cut, so that they can use it for their pet projects. this is something that has been happening even when i was on the board of supervisors. this is what happens and they try to look at easy pickings like they

look at downtown and our economic recovery as easy pickings. but downtown town and what downtown generates as it relates to revenue is what pays for all the things that the board cares about. so we need to make sure we revitalize downtown . we're looking at activation and many of those storefronts paying for some of the build outs so that people can choose to work in downtown or bring their businesses like our vacant to vibrant program, where people are providing free space and businesses are coming, and the city is providing resources. so we have a lot of options that are going to help business prosper. that is the goal, and that is what this money is so desperately needed for. >> i was going to say related to that, the old westfield center that had the nordstrom that left the emporium center, there's been some new occupants, right? >> oh, definitely. and you know it's not just going to be retail. you know we have historically black colleges and university students who are here taking classes is in a space in the former westfield. it's now considered emporium. we have some new pop ups that are opened

and have spaces. and there's our video from uh. >> i think that's the kickoff to black san francisco. >> yes. and we are loving it. and we're trying to show other universities throughout the country that our downtown is a place for students to take classes. lab spaces is possible dorm room space where we can convert some of the office buildings to dorm room space. we can do so much with downtown, but this is a place of excitement and innovation. and so we're really happy about what this will entail. >> all right. look i just want to let our viewers know that, you know, we conversed with you regularly as mayor of san francisco. but now, as we get into election season, you know, they'll be candidates coming on. and i also talk to you as a candidate. >> what do you want to waste your time? look no further, kristin. look no further. oh, i just want to ask you, look, if you could wave a magic wand. >> and there's one thing you can fix about san francisco. what would that be if you were given a second term? >> i have consistently said it's about housing, how it all starts with people having a safe,

affordable place to home. i would wave the magic wand and there'll be 100, 200,000 units all over san francisco because when you try to attract and retain talent, you need good housing. when you're trying to get people off the streets, you need good housing. when you want families to stay in san francisco, you need housing. the buck stops with having as much housing as we possibly can, which is why we'll continue to be relentless in my pursuit to get housing built all over san francisco. all right, mayor london, barry, thank you so much for coming in today. >> all right. thanks. great talking with you. all right. coming up next. still ahead, a state assembly member is raising questions for the way he is spending his campaign funds. is he holding legit campaign events or misusing donor money? we'll talk to our media partner,

a heatwave, it's kinda chilly in here. oh, that's because i'm pre-cooling the house with the ac before 4 pm. then i'll turn our thermostat to a comfortable 78 or higher

that way i could stay cool later. ooh, what about me? you're never cool. oh. raising eyebrows. assemblyman matt haney, who represents district 17, including the eastern side of san francisco, had one heck of a weekend in

late january, and our media partner, the san francisco standard, started asking questions and they had this new article detailing what they found. and when i say they, i actually mean he. and that being josh cain, senior politics reporter for the standard, who joins us in the studio today. hi, josh, thanks for coming in. >> hi, kristen. >> thanks for having me. so what's this weekend in question and what exciting, expensive things happened? okay, so let me lay it out. >> in late january, assembly member matt haney had a big weekend in which he went to a lakers warriors game. it was a double overtime game with lebron and steph dueling it out. he also had a party at a rooftop bar in mission bay. then next morning, his campaign picked up a bunch of liquor from tenderloin liquor, went down to a 40 niners playoff game against the detroit lions to see who would go to the super bowl. had a big tailgate party. and then there was some uber charges. make sure they're doing it responsible. but essentially thousands and thousands of dollars on one weekend for tickets to sporting events,

which was part of a much larger pattern in his campaign spending. >> okay, before we get into that pattern, just how did you find out about all this? like, are you on the circuit like, hey, josh, come party with us? or were you just scrolling on social media or what? >> i do not get invites to these games. no, i'm not part of the crew. i'm uh- campaign finance nerd, and i just stumbled upon one charge looking for something completely different. and then it turns out there were more than a dozen charges for 40 niners tickets. dig a little deeper. there's also giants tickets, warriors tickets, broadway shows, and matt haney has said that these are fundraisers. however, he declined to refuse any of the people who attended. he declined to say how much money was raised. we couldn't find the price that he was charging to match up with contributions in cases. >> okay, so if they are fundraisers, if they were, then can you spend campaign money on it? a campaign funds is that legal? >> state law requires it to fit into a few different boxes. one of them would be political, which means fundraising. so if you are raising funds and it is

a true fundraiser, you can spend campaign money for sporting event tickets. however there again questions because matt haney was posting pictures on instagram of his family and his best friends. he went back after being contacted for this story and edited the instagram posts featuring his friends. we were a little uncertain about that, right? and it's not just these events, though. i mean, when you look at just the spending on drinks and food and then other perks, which we could probably go into five star hotels, exclusive memberships to the battery, which is just around the corner from here. that's where his campaign office is, right where i want to look through the window but can't even because there are no windows. you and me, both you and me. both. >> exclusive. yeah so have you added up the math and seen how much he's spent over the past year or two? >> yeah, since the beginning of 2023. $75,000 on sporting event tickets. almost 5000 in broadway shows uh- 7000 plus on his membership to the exclusive

social club, the drinks. i don't have that number off the top of my head, but. >> and this is all campaign funds, right? so what did his political consultant say, or did they justify it or explain it? >> they say that these fundraisers are no different than a big dinner or a party in which you get donated ones. however, we've spent a fair amount of time calling up individual contributors to the campaign and we have not actually reached one yet. that has been at one of these sporting events that would have been donating around that time, i see. >> and how did they categorize this with the secretary of state , which they have to write? >> yeah, the sry of state would put this in a box of just saying it is a fundraising expense, and that's how it's been reported. that is how haney's campaign said, you know what we have reported everything. we're not going to tell you who was there and how much they gave, you know, there is an option for the fair political practices commission, the state political watchdog, to ask for receipts, to ask for this kind of information if they were to investigate. >> okay. by the way, i mean, does this happen with

politicians, you know, fundraisers at restaurants, bars, you know, sports venues? >> yeah, absolutely. i mean, this is not unheard of, as one campaign expert told us, however , for ann ravel, the former chair of the federal elections commission, said that she thought this was excessive and also, another campaign expert said, you know, they know of sporting events being fundraisers, but not to this level and not to that large s of a charge. >> so are your investigations have led to, you know, official investigations before? do you know if anything's happening with this? >> i don't know if anything's happening yet. the fppc declined to comment for the story. they just referred us to the rules. however, as you may have seen, the social media outpouring of responses was pretty vitriolic. i think a lot of people feel like matt haney has been living a lifestyle that maybe doesn't mix with his kind of stated, humble renter, reputation. and, you know, this is someone who's been living large, who posed photos of hanging out with the kardashians on instagram. so

there's some real questions about whether or not he's using his campaign to have quite a bit of an affluent lifestyle. >> and we have about 10s. but he is up for reelection in november, right? that is correct. tough race. >> no. probably not. he has one republican opponent and he does run in san francisco. it is san francisco. >> thank you josh. appreciate it. and you can check out more of josh's story and of course more of the san francisco standard's other original reporting on their website. sf standard .com. and abc7 will continue to bring you more segments featuring the standard city focused journalism twice a week right here on getting an

oilers extend the series. coverage begins at five right here on abc seven. that's followed by after the game, including special guest new sharks head coach ryan warsofsky joining larry beil live in the studio. then, at 830, it's destination disney cruise line, followed by wheel of fortune at nine and jeopardy! at 930. we have a special hour long abc seven news at ten. then stay with us for abc seven news at 11. thanks for watching. getting answers. we'll be here every weekday at 3:00, answering questions with experts from around the bay area. world news tonight with david muir is next. and i'll see you back here at four. tonight, breaking news as we come on the air. this life-threatening heat. the northeast, the midwest, the mid-atlantic. and for many, it's about to get worse. ginger zee is here. also, just in, the house explosion in upstate new york. the images coming in from syracuse. and justin timberlake arrested for dwi. the new