hi. i'm deon lynn. welcome to our daily program called "getting answers" boy, b, we have a jam packed show for you today. of course we are getting you answers on the new rounds of stimulus checks just passed by congress and what it means for you, but we'll also talk to the author and photographer of the brand-new book on san francisco's china town. it looks at the history and the people and we're talking with the owner of

a shop advertising small checks for what he calls the china virus. those are his words. we're going to hear from him about his decisions. major news coming out of washington to that finally much-needed money in americans' pockets. we'll give you a walk-through of what this brand-new relief bill includes. president trump signed this into law late last night. it gives a one-time direct check of $600 to any american making less than $75,000 a year. it enhances the federal unemployment benefits as well as more funding for small businesses and vaccine distribution. the democratic-led house is also expected to vote tonight on its version of a virus relief package. that would increase the payment to $2,000. this is a plan president trump supported up until having a change of mind and signing the

gop-led version, so, whoo, to break down what this means for you, we're happy to be joined by a policy advisor for a if you different republican campaigns, marco rubio and mitt romney most notably. good to have you. >> thank you. >> what are the payment details for those checks going out to people and do we foe who is getting them? >> we do. this is going to be similar to the first round of stimulus checks we saw from the so-called c.a.r.e.s act in the spring. there are $600 payments to people making up to $87,000 a year. at $75,000 the payment begins to phase out and at $70,000 it phases out entirely. if you have a family of four make about $125,000 a year you

can expect $2,400 in direct stimulus payments. that's not as much as president trump said he wanted. he wanted $2,000 per person. it's something that policy mick makers are hoping will give a boost. >> i'm glad you clarified. there were a lot of moving parts to how much would be allotted. while you were talking the associated press made this alert that the house is increasing the checks to $2,000. this means it is going to be sent to the senate. what is your prediction on what will happen there? >> unlikely we'll see the senate pass this. this is something that republicans in the senate have been very cool to, the idea of additional funding for this particular direct stimulus. there are some who questioned whether, in fact,ing the payments ought to be more targeted, to those who have suffered job loss and those

affected more significantly by the coronavirus or coronavirus-related shutdowns. i don't expect to see this particular provision make its way out of the senate. i do think it's going to give some senate republicans' support. i think it will get some senate democratic support. mitch mcconnell has said that he's going to consider the legislation but he did not promise, notably, to bring the legislation up for a vote because he doesn't think a majority of the vote is there for the republicans. >> that will be interesting to monitor. we talked about the number of what will be on those stimulus dollars, but let's talk about the time line now. when exactly can people expect to see these checks? >> well, it should be a relatively quick process. we already have the systems in place at the internal revenue service at the federal level to distribute these checks. we had one round of these back

with the initial legislation. steven mnuchin has said that we should expect things to start getting under way seven to ten days after the bill was signed. the bill was signed last night. i hope by the second week in january, a lot of these payments go out, if, fingers crossed, everything works the way it should. >> this bill took something like eight months to negotiate. it finally gets approved. what has been the holdup all along? americans have been clamoring for more relief. >> americans have been. it's typical politics. first, the election was in the way. after the election, the president was so consumed with this notion of trying to ferret out election fraud, that that occupied a lot of his attention. more ream, there's been disagreement -- the president did negotiate this agreement. he negotiated the agreement via

the treasury secretary stephen mnuchin and subsequently after the deal he said i don't like the deal very much, so that put things many limbo for a few days. the answer is politics. as with everything else, we have such a divided country, such a divided congress, it was tough for republicans and democrats to get together even though we you sa a considerable public demand for congress to act and get relief done. >> this question coming in from a viewer on facebook. we are streaming this conversation live. someone is asking, my parents are retired. will they still get $600? >> they should. again, we have to go back and review the text of this. but it goes to americans as long as they meet that income restriction. it is designed to help get some money back into the economy. the fact that one is retired, i don't believe should have impact.

>> my question to you is do you think the stimulus is going to be enough? what would you like to see going forward? what do you think will be most beneficial to americans right now and going forward as this pan dam ek rages on. >> we're going to have to see how long this all lasts. the reality is in california, we're a long way from the end of this economic crisis, we're a long way from the end of a lot of the slowdowns we've seen. some are coming back out of it. illinois, for example, they're going to start to see the economy probably open back up a little earlier than we will. you know look, here's the thing. we are going to probably need to have some additional support for small businesses, additional support for those industries that have been hit hardest. travel, hospitality, leisure. not to mention all the mom and pop stores. you walk down castro street in

mountain view or different parts of the bay area, you see how many businesses have been affected by this. we're going to need some kind of relief for affected industries. it is for sure that a lot of people out there still hurting, and in california in the bay area we've got some time to go before getting out of in. >> i know we have about a minute left. is a topic we have covered extensively, the housing crunch, representle relief. representle assistance and eviction protection. those are in the bill. how is that going to assist the representers? >> well, the idea is it will make stronger the penalties that exist currently against eviction. it also, i think, is designed to flow through some federal dollars to state and local. and so the idea is let's give a little more support to make sure

people can stay in their homes because their income has been affected by this coronavirus situation. >> always a pleasure. thank you so much for joining us. >> thank you. >> all right. when we return, one of the most important lessons we've seen highlighted time and time again. the treatment of communities of colors, especially chinese americans. we're talking to the author of a book. we talk to a north bay mechanic offering checks for those affected by the

thanks for staying with us, everybody. a new book about china taupe is

seeking to entertain and educate through stunning images and in-depth stories. the coronavirus pandemic has taken its toll on businesses. in order to keep the vibrant community alive, stories of real people through pictures and in-depth reporting. to talk with us are the photographer and journalist. welcome to the program to both of you. >> thank you. >> thank you very much. >> let's start with you. this project began well before the pandemic began. what was your goal in taking this series? >> it's the third neighborhood in san francisco for which i've done a pretty detailed documentary photography book. this was started the end of 2017 and mostly through 20082018 andd

2019. the purpose is really to point out for the people who live in chinatown, point out the pride that they should have for what's there. for the people that don't live in chinatown, they point out the historical significance, the cultural significance, and educate people a little more on chinatown, the challenges that it faces, the social issues, the social justice issues that it faces, and the historical discrimination and challenges that it's faced, but equally important to talk about the fact that it's been a scent yent community. it gives me optimism for the future as well. >> it does for me all the same. you funded this out of your own pocket. we'll talk a little bit more an that in just a moment. first i want to get to cathy.

like me, you have followed the struggles of chinatown before and especially since the pandemic. you conducted well over 100 interviews for this book. did you change your approach when the onset of covid happened? >> i didn't so much change my approach, but it just drew me deeper into the community. i did a series of interviews at the beginning of covid and found out that china taupe was not hit as hard other other communities, which was really amazing, because the community banded together. the ccdc banded together to make sure that the sro residents had a place to go to pick up males, so there was more in-depth reporting but i didn't change my approach. i go in with eyes wide open.

>> something i've noticed in my own reporting, sometimes asian americans are reluctant to be too permanent, maybe the older generation. did you run into any of that during your reporting? >> i think what helped us a lot is that we had entry. we were introduced by people who knew people were ready. when you have that introduction, people open right up. so once you have the trust there, it is quite available to you well had an sro resident had us come inside her home, sat us down, gave dick and i plenty of snacks to eat, and showed us some family photos. she was so happy that we took interest in her. we gained her trust immediately. >> that's remarkable. i think sometimes all people want is to be listened to, to be heard. dick, this goes looping with my next question, because like you mentioned, this is a series of

work that you've done showcasing these places in san francisco. tell me the product of your mission and what you plan for the chinatown community with this book. >> yeah. well, the success of the book was what encouraged me to do another book. the vision book is in its third printing. when i went into that project, i looked, as i did in the chinatown case, for a local nonprofit that would be helpful to work with and to make introductions, as cathy mentioned. so with the mission, i happen to have already known precede eyes and susan servant servant s founder of it. they sold many books in their own store and significant amount of the money from sales went to them, so it was a win/win in that regard. they had a chance to also be

showcased as well as the work in the mission, which they were all very happy to see showcased. >> yeah. that's remarkable. >> in fact, the success of the book triggered the group of women who had painted a mural for the women's building, which is an iconic, now historic municipality nationally, but they were so encouraged. all seven of them are still alive. they banded together and produced a book on the women's building and the mural masterpiece that went into that. i helped in some fund raising and donated some photos. it's been a success. very impressive documentation to have that. >> i love the chain reaction of goodness that has come out of your projects. speaking of the chinatown project, as well, kathy, what

can they do based off your observations in this experience. >> first of all, go on our website, chinatown book sf.com and i wrote just this morning seven different things you can do to support chinatown. a few of them include buying things on line from chinatown vendors. go the to your corporation and see if they would support the nonprofits that help out chinatown. go there in person. take a tour. there are tours available now during covid in chinatown that are socialry distanced and mask friendly. so if you go there, i did -- bought all my christmas presents in china town. you would be surprised what you can find there. there's a lot to be had when you go there.

what was your second question? >> yeah. real quickly, can you share with us a character that you enjoyed showcasing? anybody in mind that sticks out? >> i really enjoyed reverend norman fung. if you're out there, i hope you're listening and watching. he has such a passion for the community as the director of the china taupe community development center. he's an activist and yet he's a reverend and yet he's also member of a rock band, so i think he just has so much color to him and was not shy. he said he's landed in jail so many times for the right cause, and i was truly inspired by him. >> that is so memorable. i'll have to read through after the newscast. thank you both for joining us. >> you're welcome. thank you so much. >> thank you. >> proceeds will be going back into the chinatown community to

nonprofits, including the chinese culture center. once again, learn more by visiting chinatown book sf.com. when we return, the solano county auto mechanic posting small checks. it's for those affec

welcome back, everybody. now on the a advertisement certainly getting a lot of attention for the way it's worded. moorehead auto group is offering checks to those quote affected by the china virus. again, throws the persons words. there are many people online denouncing his use of the term "china virus," also causing him racist. to face this situation on joining me is the owner of this auto motive group, jeff

moorehead. thank you for joining us. >> thank you for the invitation. i appreciate it. >> first, what did you want to accomplish with this ad? many people are offend by the term "china virus." >> we give back to the community periodically for just random, kind gestures and our goal of this was to help out people that did need help that have been negatively affected by the virus. there's businesses up and down the street that are being forced to not open and they're losing their businesses, they're losing their homes. never thought i would see this in my life, and our goal is just to simply help people that could use a little help right now with nothing expected in return whatsoever. >> that's something i can

appreciate. we have seen the financial tollt ta on so many businesses. this virus is not dependent upon race. it's been disproven for months. why are you choosing to call it that when easily you could have rephrased your ad to say covid virus or covid-19? >> well, first of all, i put out the ad and i had it written down as those affected by the china virus. then it never specific said a word about any race whatsoever. that would be racist. i did indicate the area of the world that it came from. but no mention of race whatsoever, because that was be racist and i am not a racist by any stretch of the imagination. i have close friends of mine that are from china and they're wonderful people. yeah. it's not a race thing

whatsoever. on the news and radio, probably 80% of the time now it's called covid-19 or pandemic. i hear -- even to this day i hear china virus or other terms i'm not going to say because they are derogatory i just looked on the website -- or online recently and there's a few different websites of very well-known news organizations, including new york post, that have something up today that says china virus on it. there's -- al jazeera has china virus, chinese virus. you know, it's still being called that. after doing more research that i have done. think the more appropriate name for it would be covid-19. but there was nothing was -- nothing was implied about a specific race.

that was never our intention whatsoever. >> i'm glad you mentioned that, because we spoke yesterday. you told me how you consider yourself to be a very good christian and don't consider yourself to be racist. i think the concern and coming as an asian-american woman myself, i've covered the pandemic extensively and i've covered it myself. sometimes violence against asian americans, 2,000 cases of hate and discrimination during the course of the pandemic. given all this, would you consider changing up the wording of your ad, given how hurtful the term is in perpetuating these stereotypes? >> you know, the ad actually should be taken down now. i have not taken down just so we could have this conversation, but it was only supposed to be up until 8:00 this morning.

it's already lapsed. it was the first people i called this morning to get what we had to offer for them. so it's going to go away. it was planned on to go away this morning. i left it up so we could finish our conversation here. i'm not hiding anything. we have done specials before where we randomly give away something. wie given away vehicles to people, mothers in need, single mothers.

well, thank you so much, everybody, for joining us on this interactive show "getting answers." we'll be here each and every day

on air and streaming live for your questions. tonight, the brutal covid surge growing, as the u.s. struggles in the race to vaccinate 20 million people by the end of the year. more than 65,000 covid deaths reported in december alone. several states, including california, on the brink of running out of icu beds. this, as millions of americans return from holiday travel, some from potentially dangerous gatherings. news tonight about the alleged nashville bomber's chilling christmas warning. the fbi naming the suspect killed in the explosion. abc news talking to his neighbor. what he said about one of their last conversations. and new clues in the search for a possible motive. in politics, 23 days before taking office, president-elect joe biden tonight accusing the trump administration of obstructing the transition. biden claiming t p