building a better bay area. this is abc7 news. welcome to our daily program. getting answers. we are asking experts your questions every day at 3:00 to get interest for you in real time. today, san francisco is moving into the yellow tier and easing mask restrictions. we are covering all of that and vaccines and talking about the green tier. we are also talking about the impact of bill and melinda gates's divorce on the gates foundation. interesting is one way to look at republican gubernatorial candidates as we look for the recall of governor newsom to

become official. specifically, cox. bringing a bare. a diak bear. it's been in movies before. essentially, around people. talk about a three ring circus. joining us now to talk about that and much more, rick klein. good to see you. >> reporter: lions, tigers, and bears. >> oh, my. we have seen it all. beauty and the beast. that has john fox's thing. he cast himself as the beast in newsom as pretty boy. >> reporter: i think he will have to do what he can to draw attention to himself. the 1000-pound bear, part of his campaign logo. a great history of bears in california politics. i think he will do what he can to make himself a central figure in a race that could be

dominated not only by the city governor but by caitlan general. >> he needs to buy attention. he does have the money. perfect no question. he has name recognition. he was the nominee before picking lost by 20 points. not many of the republicans are bowled over by john cox. the feeling is he is going to have to do something to break through and began to crystallize some support. the things he's hitting are probably familiar to anyone involved in the recall efforts. republicans were probably oppose governor newsom. of that takes a bear to get the headlines, whatever it takes. >> one more question about the bear. the bear has been in movies before. peanut, very interestingly, lodged a complaint about its use as a campaign prop, so to speak.

tell us about this. i'm also very interested because i am a californian. i am wondering why he didn't use a california grizzly. why did he use an alaskan kodiak bear? >> reporter: that's a good question. we don't know that they are's politics. we feel bad for the beer pick one concern we've heard from animal rights activists are the use of live animals. you have seen discretionary, the circus shows have come under, zoos. do we know that they are was happy with the way he was being used as a problem? a bear that is trained to be around people. it is still quite a sight. the animal rights activists are not happy at all. >> cox is casting himself as everyman, the beast you can get it done, just like that bear. caitlyn jenner also released a video. she cast herself as a disruptor. right? if we can show that video. basically, in the video, you

see governor newsom at the laundry. you see nancy pelosi at the hair salon in san francisco where face the mostly she had her hair done while it was technically closed. there is that. also, it strikes me as interesting, she leans in heavily on her olympic gold days. talk about what that message is. >> reporter: it was a long add. cinematic in its scope. definitely had some biographical functions, reminding people of the olympic exploits all the way through her transition, the juxtaposed magazine covers from 40 years, bruce jenner and caitlyn jenner. a lot of messaging. a lot about school reopening. government's intervention into people's lives. that is the overriding theme. a little bit of french laundry in there as well. i feel like caitlyn jenner has a challenge, not introducing

herself to californians, but in trying to describe why she is doing this. what is a she wants? people may know her history as an athlete. they know her as a trance athlete. they know her as a celebrity. what does she stand for in terms of her politics? i think we have a good glimpse of this initial introductory add. >> we are waiting to see how she will solve those problems. both jenner and cox paint california as a place that needs fixing, a dream gone bad. does that actually ring true? is that enough people's react ability here in california? >> reporter: it depends on who you ask. the pandemic has tried a lot of people's patience. some moves by governor newsom over to be polarizing. people are pretty eager to get on with their lives. i think your sing the push to reopen in various parts of california and statewide reflect on this.

people are going to bristle, from the business owner, to the parent who doesn't have his or her child back at school. some of the particular imagery of a french laundry seen make it look like a politician who isn't thinking the same rules apply to him. are people's lives as bleak as caitlyn jenner's add would suggest? i don't know if that is the case. he is going to put on a run to try to be back anything the republicans throw at him. >> he is the money to do that as well. interesting, what you don't see in those ads but i imagine you will see in newsom's adds is stuff about the pandemic. i guess it tells you that california is handling the pandemic pretty well. >> reporter: yet. only around the edges. you talk about businesses that are still closed our schools not fully open. that is the pandemic you are hearing about. i think the country, we are in a space nationwide are we are ready to pronounce the pandemic over and done. clearly, a lot has to be done in terms of

vaccinations and in terms of requirements on social distancing. i think some of those will come up as campaign issues. the country, generally, we have seen polling naturally, people are a little more optimistically. they feel better about the year ahead than they did about the year behind. specs definitely. governor newsom paints this as an effort by republican partisans power grab his, even sending qanon and those who want to invalidate the biden win. there were influences within the democratic party that don't want the race cast that way. some democrats actually signed the petition due to pandemic pain. what is the reality? why is it so important? >> reporter: i think governor newsom's campaign is going to say this is about trump and conspiracy theorists and people who don't accept reality. it's more complicated than that. the general what we have seen in

state after state and governor schwarzenegger's win 20 years ago with a leading indicator of the dis-satisfaction people have with the political theater. to distinguish his or herself as you say look, we understand where the anger is. i thought the way caitlyn jenner described herself my compassionate disruptor, that is not a term i've heard before shades of george w. bush, the compassionate capitalist. that is not something people would apply to truck. that might be the sweet spot. you might come across someone who is going to shake things up with a relief a more compassionate president trump. of course, it is california, a very democratic state. it is going to be difficult for any republican to break through. spring hill in silicon valley, we have positive connotations to the word disruptor. has a california governor's

office grown in importance in the wake of other seismic political changes nationwide? >> reporter: i think it has. saw during the truck years that governor brown and governor newsom used it as a perch to launch what democrats hope to be doing nationwide. i think because it's so huge, the largest state by far with his huge economy, such enormous diversity. there is a chance for governor to use it as sort of a laboratory for all sorts of governance ideas. i think now, in the biden era, where you get maybe more support from congress, it is still a huge platform. i remember it wasn't long ago that people thought california might be ungovernable. there was a lot of commentator. i feel some of that stabilized when governor brown was in office. and governor newsom, you hear less of that. there is challenges in governments. it is bigger even than the port

should only assign to the governor of the biggest state. i think symbolically and substantively, you have so much sway over the directions of many different americans. >> so much time. out of time for today. i am sure we will have this opportunity again. the recall election getting to be more of a three ring circus everyday. thank you very much. >> reporter: thank you so much. coming up next, major news here in san francisco. from mask changes to the yellow tier, we are covering all of that. and the

welcome back. san francisco moved into the state's least restrictive

yellow tier today. that is a major milestone that brings with it broader reopenings. also, major news. we talked about this and the possibility of a green tier with san francisco's acting public health, susan philip. i want to start e-schools. you have now aligned san francisco schools with the cdc's guidelines. can you explain? >> it's at low lines not only with the cdc but with the federal government, which yesterday changed itself or masking rules. what it means is that for vaccinated people, outdoors, in most situations, people do not any longer have to wear a face coverings or a mask. there are some limited exceptions to that, but generally, when we are passing by people on the sidewalk, when we are out walking our dog, walking around the city, no need to wear the mask, but have it handy because if you go into a building for any reason, you

have to put it on. >> vaccinated people, okay. what you are unvaccinated and you are outdoors and you don't respect to be in a crowded situation, but maybe you can encounter people what do you say about that? >> the state says, and again, in san francisco, every county is required to follow the state guides. are unvaccinated people is that that if you can't maintain distance between yourself and other people, that you don't know, that you should wear a mask. i think what that means is having the mass candy. we eberly said that if you find yourself in crowded situation, so you stop to look at something or at an event that is going to be crowded, like a festival, everyone should put the mask on, whether you are vaccinated are unvaccinated. if you are unvaccinated and just passing by people briefly on the sidewalk, no lead to pull up your mask. >> what if you were at a giants game, which is outdoors. there are thousands of people,

but they may not be next to you. you might be in your family bible. could you pull your mask off? >> this thing says in large events, the mask has to stay on. for now, yes, you do have to wear your mask. there are limited activities where you can remove the mask. certainly, if you are eating or drinking. in general, in large events, you want to keep the mask on. >> certainly, that would apply for warriors games, too, as those are indoors. san francisco did move into the yellow tier. the first bay area county to do though. is that because's are trending downward? which numbers are promising? >> it has. we have come such a long way since early january when we had those very high hospitalization and case rates in san francisco and everywhere across the state. it's been remarkable to see the progress. it really is our case numbers,

the people that test positive covid-19 that have really come down and allowed us to move into the yellow tier. it's been really great to see. we are excited to be at this place finally. >> what does it mean for reopenings in the yellow tier? most businesses have already reopened, of course, including indoors. is is mainly a capacity change? >> for some instances, they will be able to increase. most indoor operations will be able to be at 50%. there are new sectors coming on board. indoor bars are going to be allowed to open, even if they don't serve food. will be able to open at 25%, which is the capacity the state allows in yellow tier. in san francisco, people will have to be seated at bars to be served for now. other activities like indoor skating rink some roller ranks will be able to open. there's a few things that are new. a lot of it is increasing capacity, as you said. >> i don't want to get ahead of

ourselves, but what you know about the green tier that will soon be created by the state? what can we expect in that? >> the state is sort of saying they may not do a green tier per se, but everyone is very focused on june 15th when the state said they will retire the current blueprint. what i want to emphasize is that it's not going to be an on/off switch. the state may retain some elements of restrictions, including but is fully masking indoors. we will have to see over the coming weeks we do. in san francisco, we are going to keep doing what we have always done, which is look at our local data and make a decision based on that. very, very good sign is our high-level of vaccination in san francisco. what i can say to everyone is, if you know anyone who has not yet gotten vaccinated but are willing to do so, please help them. there are many appointments

together. we just need to work together to continue this great vaccination we have already achieved. >> san francisco's vaccination rate is very high. i want to ask you more about vaccinations. we understand that 12 to 15- year-olds to get the green light to the pfizer shot very soon. that were expected to come down this week. are you ready for that? >> we are so excited for this for multiple reasons. one is that the more of our residents that are eligible for vaccine, the better. we have been preparing with partners and thinking about ways in which we particular want to serve families and youth to be able to have their questions answered, get back the locations that are convenient and acceptable to them. yes, we are getting ready. we are prepare. i think the other thing we really want to do is to say that this is going to be great to becoming now. you want to do everything we can to prepare ourselves for a successful in-person school year in the fall and getting these youth vaccinated will be

a huge part of that effort. >> no doubt. the majority of your middle and high schoolers are not back in the classroom. can you see any situation in which that would be a requirement to coming back to school, the vaccination proof? >> i think that, again, this will have to be in discussion and thinking about recommendations of the cdc level, the advisory committee from the state level. this is not a decision that san francisco would make in isolation, most likely. for all people, we will need to see if the fda, once he gives full authorization, it's much more likely that businesses, employers, others may require the vaccine. we will see where schools fit into that. smacked you see anything on the horizon that could change san francisco's trajectory, which has been so positive and going in the right direction? anything that could derail that? >> i think the vaccines are so

profoundly effective. and again, my plea is for all of us to keep doing what we are doing. outpaced the rest of the country and the state and keep getting her vaccines. that will provide us the backstop to say we can keep opening safely and be successful at it and not have cases go up. at the same time, i'm watching very closely what's happening in oregon and washington and certainly around the globe, india, brazil, and other places. we cannot be complacent, even though we are doing well. we have to keep up with the vaccination efforts. when we are indoors, keep wearing the masks for now. >> dr. philip adds that they are welcoming tourists but check the city's guidelines and keep wearing

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announcement is a big shocker, not just for the public, but also to the nonprofit world. that's because the gates foundation they run is the largest private philanthropic foundation in the u.s. and the world. joining us now to discuss the potential impact of the divorce on the charitable work is benjamin sauskis from the urban institute center of nonprofit and philanthropy. thanks for joining us. >> my pleasure. >> full disclosure. your sister has received funding from the gates foundation. >> yes. >> how big is the gates foundation in the world of giving? >> they are the biggest. not the biggest in terms of their size. they are the largest philanthropic foundation in the world. they are the most prominent in terms of their status, their influence.

they really are the big players in the sector. that is why this news, although we don't have a good sense of what it would mean, is really shaking people. >> real quickly before we get into the areas they are focused on most, just where does the money come from? i know they have some $46 billion in assets. but where does it go from? is it personal wealth? is it microsoft stock? is it warren buffett's company? >> is all three. it comes from two main sources. one is the microsoft wealth, the investment income. and then it was almost doubled, the largest player made it even larger by warren buffett, who donated a huge chunk of stop. to be used every year. they need to basically continue

their large spending every single year. >> they have been focusing a lot on health, poverty. >> domestically, they focus largely on education. internationally, it's a global health and global development. >> they run the foundation together since they founded it as young parents when they realized millions of children's were dying of malaria in developing countries. so now, splitting up, what does it mean? what does it mean for the amount of money that i go out? >> two points. one, over the last couple of years, bill and melinda have each developed their own distinct on topic personalities and preferences and two areas. in a way, the decoupling has already happened. they very deliberately, very publicly have focused on a distinct set of interests. melinda gates has been a really leading public figure in terms of gender equity, women and

girls' health, and empowering women around the world. bill has recently focused a lot of attention on climate change and continues to be focused on global health and global development. it's entirely possible that nothing will change institutionally, that they will just basically maintain these distinct lines of interest. i think that might be the case. but the personal relationships and the way the interpersonal dynamics could affect that, we just don't know. it's also worth pointing out that the gates foundation is a small board. it is really just comprised of bill invalid and warren buffett. very little insulation between the public and the private. the second important point is, perhaps the most important ways in which the divorce could affect the nonprofit sector is

not through the foundation. it's the money they are currently sitting on that hasn't yet been allocated to the foundation, which is even more than what's in the foundation. the foundation has more than $50 billion worth of assets. bill gates is worth twice that. we just don't know what that means. will they continue to put money into the foundation? they have made public commitments that that is what they would do. each of them has kind of side projects and five vehicles. it is possible they will bulk of those channels for giving instead. a whole lot of uncertainty. we don't have clear answers. >> we have a lot more questions, which

thanks for joining us on this interactive show, gett tonight, several developing stories as we come on the air. the coronavirus, the president and the new goal. president biden now hopes to have 70% of all adults in the u.s. with at least one dose of vaccine by the fourth of july. how will they pull this off? and tonight, we will show you where in this country there is the most vaccine hesitancy. where americans are not convinced. and what about children and teenagers? could the fda give the green light to 12 to 15-year-olds in just days? and when for children who are younger? also this tuesday night, the horrifying images of that deadly train tragedy in mexico city. the elevated tracks collapsing. a commuter train plunging into traffic below. the death toll rising tonight. at least two dozen killed. and what we've now learned about those tracks. our marcus moore in mexico city