building a better bay area, moving forward, finding solutions, this is abc7 news. hi, everybody. thank you for joining us. i am trying for. you are watching us live on abc7, who live and whatever we stream . what we do is ask express your questions every day at 3:00 to get answers for you in real time. today, ll th beacheand in wi with twtens about how they are and

than 75 years in the making. first, the recall date is set for gavin newsom, so now what? joining us to talk about this is california political strategist gary schrager. thank you for joining us. certainly, the headline making news we have been watching so closely. this was a move to fast track this recall election, why the haste in all of this? >> great question. the answer is governor newsome and his board of advisors were very smart, looking at the current environment. they are today going, hey, we are in pretty good shape, looks like we will beat the recall, let's hold the election as quickly as we can before anything changes. >> it certainly feels like this have been in the works for some time, but the decision to hold the election september 14th seems like it happened quickly. do you think it came out of the blue, or was this strategic as well? >> this was strategic. we are sitting there, being the local advisors, going, everything is under control,

you know nothing terrible is happening in the last few weeks. that can always change, let's just go while we are on top of things and are feeling relatively comfortable with the state of affairs and with the government. >> that is true. it also seems like--oh no, apologies on my end. it also seems like maybe people are on summer vacation, not necessarily paying attention to certain issues that are happening. we don't have any massive wildfires we have seen already earlier in the season. we did have the news on monday i believe it was where newsom's camp sued his election's chief because he failed to identify him as a democrat on the recall ballot peered how did this happen? why is it significant now? >> okay, again, the deal is that governor newsome right now is in good political shape,

relatively speaking. he is up in the polls. he wants to hold the election soon, but there is lots of other pieces to this. one of them is that if democrats in california know there is a recall and are motivated to vote in the recall and they show up to vote in the recall, governor newsome will win the recall. the reason is there are about twice as many demoat te republicans. his mission is very simple, find democrats, tell them there is a recall, get them out to the poll and they will oppose the recall. the problem is through an oversight, and i will not point diggers is a democrat will not appear on the ballot, unless he wins the lawsuit. that is because the secretary of state of california administers elections. interestingly, in this case, was appointed by the government

to replace our previous secretary of state, who is now in the u.s. senate, is saying i can just put you on the ballot as a democrat. that is not what the law is. if you want to change the law, you will have to go to court and sue. it is all very ironic, but it is high stakes stuff. we are talking about whether or not gavin newsom remains our governor. >> i suppose the fact that even though i would assume people know he is a democrat is not enough. it needs to be very clear on the ballot because every single vote counts. i do want to shift gears a little bit of talk about california history because recalls rarely get on the ballot. they don't often succeed. i believe the only one we have heard of is governor gray davis back in 2003. what do you think the likelihood of this recall resulting in newsom being thrown out of office is? >> i learned a long time ago, never to predict the results. i will give you my best guess, which is borrowing some calamity of some kind, which could by the weight be either

atmospheric or some event that happens that was not anticipated, or the governor doing something that is self- destructive. he should in fact get the recall, but you can't take that for granted, which is why they are trying really hard to get his party affiliation on the ballot recalls, but if you look at the way our world is changing and how people are all gathering together through social media and creating movements, this may just be the beginning. >> is a very different landscape then back in the early 2000, that is for sure. we are getting some questions and for viewers at our facebook page. randy writes in to say, will the voting be done by mail only? voting at a polling place? do we know yet? >> everyone will get a mail in ballot. as far as i know, and i

check myself before i say this, i believe there will be in- person voting. you know what, i am an attorney and i don't swear to that, but everybody will get mailed a ballot. >> that is good information to have. i want to also talk about logistics. what are the next steps, the numbers that need to be hit and what needs to happen in order for this recall to actually go through? >> you know, the answer is that there are two questions on the recall ballot. the first one is, do you want to recall governor newsome? the number is for governor newsome to be recalled, 50% +1 of the voters and ask the recall. that is the threshold. if he is recalled, there is a second question on the ballot, if the governor is recalled, who will replace him? this is very interesting, and i

am not sure how many voters know this, if the governor is recalled, the person who would replace him on the second ballot does not have to win the majority, just have to get more votes than anybody else. >> that is interesting. it is good to know that number needing to be 51% or more, also the majority does not necessarily matter. a popular comment we are seeing on social media right now is quote, unquote quit releasing balance. will governor newsome addressed this issue now? does he need to? obviously, the flag is being waved a little bit in that he has addressed this recall, but will he address the specific issue, do you think? >> i think he will probably focus on the issues at the moment that are of concern to the largest number of california voters and again, he has got a very sophisticated campaign operator and they can the voters care about. right now, voters care a lot

about covid, recovery, wildfires and those are issues that i am going to guess his advisors will tell him he should address and he will choose to address on his own. as the governor, there is 1 million issues you have to deal with that are all very important. schools are very important, but he will be i think assuring voters he is on top of it. >> you touched upon candidates early on. i do want to ask you about the potential once because there are dozens already that have thrown their names in the ring. are there some notable content and you want to talk about? >> the republicans have several people who would like to be the next governor of california. the most prominent at this point probably, in terms of establishment support is the former mayor of san diego, kevin wagner. he seems to be, if you look at the amount of money he has ways raised, he has averaged favorite

, then of course you have a very famous person involved in this she does not seem to be taking off. you have the republican that ran against newsom last time, john cox, who is having trouble getting off the ground, chose to hire a bear to join him on the campaign trail to attract a lot of attention. there is a number of republicans who are interested in being that person to have more votes than anyone else. but caitlyn jenner does not seem to be gathering a lot of strength. my guess is, as i say , i am not taking sides here, just the republican establishment, including a lot of contributors, i think correctly don't think they can really win this. the contributors can put their money into other races and

other states because republicans want to take back the u.s. house, they want to take back the u.s. senate, the white house and california because of just california being overwhelmingly democratic . it may be a good fit for them to back somebody, one candidate in particular, maybe it is faulkner, to try and take on the primary. that is an important point that voters have not touched on yet, if governor newsome comes out of the recall as a winner and is not recalled, he is still our governor. he has to turn right around and start campaigning for the primary next year. >> i am glad you mentioned this. as implications going forward, of course we will continue to follow this recall effort at all of the details unfold themselves. darry sragow, political strategists, is always a pleasure . thank you for joining us. lots of people, moving on, will be partying on beaches

th weenso s an incr garbage left behind. the question is, who cleaned it up and what is the impact? that

the beach is a popular place for the fourth of july, but with parties of course comes trash. we have seen how some people who aren't very responsible, especially after drinking means a lot of garbage left behind. joining us now to talk about the growing amount of pollution on our beaches is dr. chad nelson, dr. of environmental science and engineer and ceo of surfrider and welcome to the

program. >> thanks for having me. >> you have to start right away with saying, what is surfrider? tell us about your organization. >> the surfrider foundation is a grassroots cultural conservation. we work with communities up and down the state of california and throughout the country and world to protect our ocean waves and beaches. >> it is not just in california, so it is an effort happening all over the globe. i am sure beaches are going to be packed over the weekend with fourth of july. how are you and the organization prepared for it? >> so this is obviously one of the biggest beach weekends of the year. if there is anything we learned during the pandemic is that people really love our beaches. we have seen in some cases beach visitation double, which is wonderful. but as you mentioned earlier, often times, that comes with a lot of litter and trash. we are trying to do two things, one is educate people to pack it in and be responsible for the trash and litter they bring to the beach.

the other is, we call it the morning after mass, but on july 5th, we will be up and down the beaches, cleaning throughout the state. >> we are taking a look at some pictures you have provided to us of beaches where your teams have gone to collect last year. tell me about those efforts and where will you focus and how bad the situation is. >> sure. we do about 1000 beach cleanups across the country every year. what we tend to find at the beach is the single used plastic items. these are straws and to use models, foam, plastic bags, all of these common items that sadly, if they are left on the beach, are one step away from entering the ocean. we are really again trying to encourage people to avoid those single use plastics, pick up their trash, get involved with the surfrider foundation to help us clean our beaches, because we want to keep that stuff out of our oceans. >> we talk about how people can get involved a little later on.

have you actually worked with cities and counties to get more trash cans on the beaches? is that even an option? it seems like your organization does more than just clean up. >> that is true. we do advocacy too. i think last summer was a surprise to many people. they did not expect bsosy this summer, we are thing that san diego county, orange county, all the way up to san francisco, the counties and cities are much more prepared. they are doing a number of things, adding more trash cans to the beach, upping their patrol, in many cases adding more lifeguards and subsidies like my home city of laguna beach are actually starting to ban and prohibit the single use footwear, which is what we find on our beaches. >> certainly a hot topic of discussion in california, really. especially in san francisco, the straw pan, because i saw those heartbreaking images a couple of years ago with the straws up their noses. how else can you motivate people to clean up? i know it is not an exciting

topic to think about, especially during a holiday weekend like this. >> yeah, i think san francisco has been a leader. it was the first city in the united states to ban single-use plastic bags, was a leader with straws and foam, now some of those prohibitions we have seen take off statewide and nationally. people at home, the first thing they can do is avoid those will use plastics. reuse going containers, reuse water bottles, try to avoid them in the first place, that is the best thing we can do. if you are out and you end up with some of those materials, just make sure you pack them out. even the trash cans at the beach, we often see them overflowing with trash. if that happens, critters get to them, singles get to them and they spread that stuff out. if you see a overflowing trash can, pack your stuff out and bring it home somewhere where it will not end up on the beach or worse, out in the ocean. >> single actions can make a very big difference. dr. nelson of surfrider, many

thanks to you for spending some of your holiday weekend time with us. surfrider.org is the website to check out if you want to learn a little bit more. thank you. >> thank you so much. coming up next, we are celebrating our independence this weekend and we are also celebrating our war veterans. we are meeting world war ii

ahead of this , we do want time to recognize the service of all of our military members and those who have served. this includes the more than 18,000 chinese americans who served in world war ii, all of this, despite the chinese exclusion act, that did not even allow them to come into this country at all. some of them are from the bay area and they are finally being recognized after all of these years with the highest civilian honor, the congressional gold medal. try to meet right now is

meeting one when, , accept the award on behalf of her late father, a pilot in world war ii. also joining us on each side of her paul and harry, members of the flying tigers, part of the 14th air service that flew the china burma indian missions. welcome to the program, all of you. >> thank you. >> all right, mitzie, i do want to start out with you. without you, we would not be doing this segment. tell us more about your father's service, how you learned more about this award because you actually had to apply for it. it was not automatically given to these veterans. >> that is right here at my dad was in the army, he was a private in the army. he did some tank destroyer training in texas. he was in the philippines for some latrine cleaning he said and actually he was a clerk typist in japan. as the war was ending and he basically helped transcribe

some information for the japanese. i learned about this through facebook, through a middle school friend who was posting about it and i kinda forgot about it. my uncle harry over here, his son actually reminded me to apply for it. so i did. you have to get your parents' discharge papers, apply for it, wait one to four weeks and the information was approved. i was very happy when it was approved. >> wow. what a process. i am grateful that social media exists now that learn about this so you could apply on behalf of your father and all of your relatives. i do want to go to paul next. i would like to hear more about your story. you grew up in oakland's chinatown and then went to fight for the united states and china. what was that experience like? >> what was your experience like? >> what? pardon me. okay!

[ laughter ] >> no problem, mitzi can be your loud speaker . >> what was your experience like in the war? >> my experience? >> in chinatown. >> china was 90% chinese, so it was no problem. if there were--and to answer that, when i was in grammar school and junior high, we pledged allegiance to the flag. i never knew what it means to pledge allegiance until i was in the service. then, i knew what it means when you pledge allegiance to a flag. you are in it! >> wow, i have a swell of

patriotism right now hearing him say that. it is true, you don't quite know the gravity of those words from the pledge of allegiance until you actually had that experience on the ground. harry, i would like to ask you what this award means to you more than 75 years after world war ii ended. you appear to be holding it in your hands right now. when did you receive this award? >> i received this two weeks ago. it was specially sent to me. >> wow, and what was the motion you had after you finally after all of these years were recognized for your service? >> well, i am proud and grateful that the united states finally recognized the chinese americans , the veterans that also participated in world war ii.

at that time, chinese americans were delegated as cooks or laundry men in the service because the army didn't realize that chinese americans could do other things. so i am very proud of it. i am proud that this metal medal represents all chinese americans serving in the war too. >> and harry was actually the pilot. >> wow, that is remarkable. >> i flew as well, carrying ammunition, gasoline especially . also a risk flying, we ta, we our chance, flying down.

>> you know, we always talk about bucking the minority myth. as i tell stories of the aapi community, that we are so much more than just being a stereotype, such as a cook in your case, or what people who have received those who served in the military to be who are asian american. this is not just an honor, it is a way to educate the younger generation, including myself. i have learned a tremendous amount doing research segment. mitzi, can you share with me what the personal significance of this award is for you, as the daughter of someone who served , especially during the time when there's been so much discrimination, so many attacks on the chinese and other asian americans? >> i think to echo what uncle harry said, chinese americans can do anything. this is just a reflection that we are like any other race in america. we are able to fight in wars, we are able to do

anything that any other race is able to do. this is recognizing , i think, especially for uncle harry and mr. nim, they did great service and this is something everybody can do and everybody is contributing towards in america. >> that is so well said. i wish we had more time with all of you. i am afraid we do have to go. congressional medal recipients on your screen right now. the ceremonies will be taking place for the bay area all throughout this weekend. hopefully we can cover those for you as well. mitzi, paul and harry, my deepest thanks for taking the time. >> thank

all right, thank you so much for joining us for this interaivshow"getting answers." tonight, the first hurricane of the atlantic season closing in on the u.s. coast heading into the fourth of july weekend. hurricane elsa gaining strength in the caribbean. winds clocked at 85 miles per hour. elsa expected to be within reach of florida by monday. it comes as millions of americans are on the move for the long holiday weekend. some 50 million expected to drive or fly, the most since before the pandemic started. gas prices at their highest point in years. the worst time to travel when you're heading home. more heartbreak in the search for victims of the deadly building collapse in surfside, florida. a firefight iron the scene when the body of his own 7-year-old daughter is recovered. report