"press here" is sponsored by -- this week a silicon valley ceo tries to make education better, but teachers are suspicious. a chip company tries to make shopping in real stores more like online. and the computer project that polices the police. our reporters from japan's "smart news," and "fortune" magazine this week on "press here." >> good morning, everyone. i'm scott mcgrew. there was a huge development in

court this past week in a case called vagara versus the state of california. the question before the court -- are children's rights violated when tenure rules make it difficult to fire underper forming or even incompetent teachers. a judge said, yes, children were hurt. the evidence, he said, shocks the conscience. but the ruling was overturned on appeal, and monday the state supreme court refused to hear the case. what originally shocked the conscience went down in defeat. two young students are sisters from the los angeles area. they weren't alone in bringing the lawsuit. david welch is a silicon valley millionaire and the money behind the suit, when he's not trying to make education better, he makes the environment better as a board member of the national resources defense council. when he's not doing that, he's ceo of his company. why did you get involved in this

in the first place? >> education is what we do. we have to teach our kids how to grow up and live in society. education is probably the most important thing that the state can deliver to its citizens. >> let me specify, you are using the royal "we. >> this is all about us as a society and our responsibility. i grew up in a family as 1 of 7 kids and education was just a high priority for us because it gives you the tools necessary to be happy, productive lives. >> did you have kids that i assume went to very nice schools. what made you say i want to help things that didn't? >> i took care of my kids because i was able to and i think all parents have that same passion, to be able to make sure that all their kids can get the education they need. what's the public school systems for many of us is fine. number of people here from palo alto. i'm from menlo park area. and the good schools in there

but a lot of kids don't have access to good education. and if we can't figure out a system to educate all of the children, then we got a real problem. matter of fact, i think it is probably the number one thing that challenges the democracy of this country is the inability to educate all of our children. >> so how big of a blow is this decision? >> you got to understand, start with what is vagara. it is a movement to recognize that the education system is there for children. the first piece of that was to say, we're not getting anywhere having this conversation in the legislature. let's go put it in a court where they can listen to facts and remove it from rhetoric. that's why we went to the courts to begin with, because we had to get out of the politics of this. let's go look at the real reality. >> but how did you get out of the politics when the first thing of all the issues that you could take on in this matter you took on teachers and why start

there? aren't there a lot of other things that need fixing about. educational system? >> this is where i kind of crack up with the system. there is a lot of things that can be fixed. but if we spend all of our time trying to figure out what's the first to fix, we're not going to get anything done. >> you might want to pick one that didn't involve the teachers union. >> well, that's a possibility. but i'm more about what's the most impactf fuful thing for children. >> studies say when it comes to teachers, aside of the physical safety of the building -- >> teachers are our savior. our kids' savior. they are the men in ators that them the passion in their lives. >> time and time again you see people that want to make changes in the way that teachers unions are run and the way that education is run as it affects

teachers. and there's been uproar. there have been like near revolutions. right? so what made you think that you guys can do this? >> you know, i think people -- everybody i talk to -- matter of fact, the polls all indicate -- they have the same passions, they have the same sense of reality. the education system is there for the children, period. that's what it's there for. >> you lost vergaro. where does it go from here? >> we lost the case of vergara and it stalled in the state supreme court. the movement to get the education system and the to be child centric and child -- >> where does this case go? you do it or do you -- >> this case is done unless it is resurrected in some kind of federal scenario. could be. we've elected, and on tuesday we filed a case in connecticut in

federal court about creating equal opportunities for children in that state of connecticut where it is the greatest disparity between the education available to the low-income versus high-income. it is the greatest disparity in the country. here is an interesting scenario where they know how to make great schools but they've had a moratorium on having magnet schools in there for seven years because they haven't figured out whether it is successful or not. well, that's crazy. right? that's putting "i know the solution, how to give a child a great education, but i'm not going to let it happen." well, that's not putting the child first in the education system and that's where we're going. martinez versus malloy. >> so your first step was targeting the tenure system. as you said, that didn't happen. what's the next step -- you come out of the technology industry. isn't there something more

productive that the millions and billions generated by the technology industry could be put to use doing rather than filing lawsuits? >> the most important thing in a child's education is the teacher. from a technology point of view, do whatever you can to get the best teacher in front of the classroom. but it is the teacher, that human being that delivers that education, is the most important thing. if you don't have that, all the technology around isn't going to do it for you. >> when you did go against teachers -- and i understand, you were trying to go against teachers that shouldn't be teachers. not the teachers who are teachers who are doing a good job. people said mean things. i'm going to read you one of them. "welch comes from the other side of the tracks to the low-income students in the vergara suit purports to represent. he lives in a house worth over $ $ $10 million in atherton.

>> one, they don't have a -- their information is neither pertinent nor correct. i am a citizen of this state and i'm an american citizen. i have as much at stake in the education of our inner city and our low-income children as anybody other than their direct parents. >> i'm going to read you another one. "why is david welch spending so much money? you wonder why someone like this is involved in issues that affect a community according to him and others, that he has no part in." here's the tough one. "perhaps other than the fact that the people who look like us cut his lawn, you know, there's no connection." >> you know, that's just not true. i received beautiful e-mails over the last several days -- i had one from -- i don't remember her name, a hispanic family in san diego that said, please, please, keep the fight up. it is critical for the education of their children.

i get that all the time. i am not here -- i have no personal gain from this. my children as you indicated earlier, they're going to get educated well and they are being educated well. i just want to be able to make sure that everyone has that same opportunity. >> does it hurt your feelings -- just personally? does it hurt your feelings? >> there is no way you can take this on without thick skin. i'm okay with -- when the people that don't want to put children first in education resort to that defense, it just tells you a lot about them. >> are you surprised though by the level of scrutiny about sort of who you are and why you would even take this on as an issue and a cause? >> i'm surprised that an organization -- or organizations that represent teachers, who i passionately believe in, that are there to teach our education and educate our children would go to the misinformation

direction on -- i question -- my teachers are misinforming my children? i go into the classroom and say there's something wrong here. >> david welch is the head of students matter. studentsmatter.org. thank you for being with us. >> thank you very much. up next, making store shopping as easy and quick as online, an amazonian task when press here continues.

welcome back to "press: here." i have a friend, i'm not going to name him but he is a very intelligent store. he thought it was "frickin' mortar stores. when it is actually brick and mortar stores. malls and big box stores have got to figure out how to compete with amazon or they will not survive. our guest is an intel executive who works with companies like levi's and nordstrom's to make the "frickin' mortar stores" more accessible. one of the issues is -- do you have it in size large?

"i don't know." >> "let me check in the back." >> ridiculous. you can solve with technology. >> you can. you talk about the "frickin' mortar." i've never actually heard of that. i like it, i might have to steal it. but truly what you see are these retail battle lines being drawn between in-store and front door. it's that frustrating customer journey that's forcing people to say, i don't want to go in store, i'm just going to have it delivered to my front door. >> why would i drive all the way to the mall only to find out they don't have it. >> the interesting thing is 90% of purchases are still done in brick and mortar stores. but the real opportunity for reta retailers, when you walk in a store, what's the first question you usually ask -- where is -- i'm looking for a pair of jeans that are size 28. where are they? 6 out of 10 consumers will actually leave because of lack of service. but when you can actually answer

that in real time with a company like levi's, all of a sudden your customer satisfaction goes up and, guess what? if you when locate the inventory that's in the store, in the back room, your bottom line also goes up. we know that a 3% increase in inventory accuracy in stores equal to a 1% increase in sales. i certainly don't work on wall street but i do know when they look at retail as main street, a 1% increase in sales is a pretty fricking big deal. >> my problem though is that just getting to the store. like i don't -- there are certain stores that i still go to. but there is a whole category of things that i used to buy in person that i order online and i won't go back to buying them in stores. how does it solve that? or is this a different problem or different demographic or what? >> i think there are a variety of problems actually facing retailers today. one of them certainly is

declining store traffic. right? there's been an over 7% decline in store traffic. so retailers are trying to scramble to figure out how do i get people to come back to my store. for the items that you traditionally bought at a grocery store, most people are actually going to amazon. some of the statistics now of where cpg brands -- like a kraft box of mac and cheese previously was being bought in a grocery store, now it is actually being bought on amazon. >> you could make the arguments that gives us more time to go to other stores. it frees up -- if i'm not going to the grocery store, i might go to the mall. >> you might. part of what intel is actually doing with a lot of the retailers and hospitality companies and cpg companies is helping them actually rethink the store experience. we also know -- think about the favorite store that you most recently visited. you'll stay longer in that store if the store experience is good. and you have the service that

you want. >> what does that mean? does that mean like virtual reality headsets for all the customers so they can -- i mean how does it actually impact me when i'm walking in the door of that store? what are you going to give me to make me want to stay there and come back? >> sure. so i think it really depends on the type of retail you are talking about. but since you brought up virtual reality, there are cop out there that we've actually started working with using virtual reality to help frame up -- have either of you done a home improvement project where you want to know exactly where your kitchen cabinets are going to be. with intel and virtual reality, you can actually put these headsets on and actually start to see in real time what your kitchen will look like, when you're buying a new refrigerator. how do you actually know when you're in -- in san francisco, the stores are quite small so they're not going to have all of

the refrigerators. using our technology, you can actually kind of extend that aisle, put the goggles on. and when you pull out virtually -- you open the door, you can see, oh, here's all the different types of -- here's how big a refrigerator is, here's how much you can actually stuff in a refrigerator. >> what bothers you about the store shopping experience? if you could fix it, whether or not you had the tlonl echnologyr not. what would you fix? >> i have four young kids under 10 so i hate shopping. i'm the mom that's dragging the kid through the store. so for me, the more that you can change that store experience and provide technology that's engaging for the consumers -- >> and not just added on. >> yeah. it's not just the add-ones. the other thing that i think we're seeing a big trend in retail, we spend 90% of our time on our smartphones checking e-mail and messaging each other. it's the first time that we've

actually seen that exceed our time on social media. but to me, it is ridiculous that i still have to call a business versus actually message them and ask them on my phone really quick, hey, do you have that pair of size 9 1/2 shoes in stock. technology exists to do that but retailers haven't quite figured out what they're going to do. >> with about a minute left, why not? why doesn't a kohl's or whatnot have a person who sits in the back? >> or a bot. or a bot. i think the whole bot era is coming up. as far as what a company like kohl's is doing, it comes down to the labor that you put in your store. again, that's a big part of what intel is actually working directly with these retailers on, what's the role of the associate in the store, what's the role of the store. and how do you actually, frankly, bring the store to the consumer. so you gave the perfect example of you don't want to go to the store anymore. well, retailers are trying to

figure out now how to bring the store to the consumer. we're actually working with xrc labs, which is an accelerator out of new york city, and we found a really unique start-up. and it is a pop-up store that's actually generating $6,000 per square foot. it is a 6x6 -- >> this is where? >> in new york city. it is a 6x6 pop-up store. >> selling? >> selling whatever a retailer wants. it is enabling retail as a selves and we are equipping it with intel technology to drive anticipate lit ics analytics. up next, policing the police? "press: here" continues.

lshg back to "press: here." predictive policing is now relatively common place. these days, one of the most interesting uses of computers in police departments is to police the police. using big data and machine learning to determine which officers could be at risk of violence or even just simple bias. computers in fact were used to help the san francisco district attorney's blue ribbon panel investigate several police officers for misconduct.

rowan vogel was in charge of the investigation and is a world-rec fiz world-recognized. what an interesting thing to do, not just do crime prediction but to use big data to try to figure out what policers may need more guidance or just shouldn't be police officers. >> that's right. so technology is having a big impact on the law and in popular private sector we've seen a lot of new technologies being used, machine learning, big data. but it is coming to the public sector. policing of course a very important area. we've had the opportunity to work with san francisco d.a. office on a project that looks into 4,000 police reports. actually, you're probably familiar with the story of the 14 police officers that were suspended from the force for

racial text messages that the d.a.'s office came across by coincidence actually. started to begin the investigation. the d.a.'s office is very worried that those police officers would bring reports that are racially biased and they would see it through to trial and maybe even to conviction. >> could your stanford computers predict bias? >> when you talk about machine learning and big data, machine learning can help a lot in pattern detection and summarization. that helps us understand trends that are going on. it can also help in prediction. that's what makes a lot of people uncomfortable. people think about minority reports. and so the problem is that many of those algorithms that are in use in policing or in other contexts of the criminal justice

system, in sentencing and so on, are so-called black box algorithms. we don't know how they operate and we are actually talking about use of information in high-stakes context. >> sorry. are the algorithms the problem or the data that's feeding in to these systems? what's not -- >> well, it's -- frankly, we don't understand how the algorithm is using databasically. and how thelgorithm weighs certain information to come to the conclusion. when the human decision maker gives a lot of deference to the system, that the system -- well, we don't really know how it operates -- >> is it important that it be open in a government sort of thing. we understand what t-- does somebody understand what the algorithm does? are you making that open so that people can understand it?

>> so the research proj e ject still ongoing. the first step for us is to extract the information through the pdfs in the police report. that's a trivial task. experts in bringing unstructured data into structured data and only when the data is structured can we do any meaningful analysis. >> what kinds of things are you looking for? or what have you found? >> so it is a little bit premature to tell. we've been looking at 89 fields that the d.a. department -- the san francisco d.a. told us are of interest. we've been putting those in to a structured database. now the analysis is really only about to begin. we've learned -- i'm not a psychologist, but to show -- i think the ultimate goal of this

project is to create a screening tool for prosecutors where they could potentially look at police reports and identify police reports that might be based on bias. >> when will you have the data available or the analysis available? >> so i think we are looking at a multi-year research project. >> smuure. sure. >> and that will have to involve not only machine learning experts but also criminologists, psychologists to really understand what the patterns we are detecting, what they actually mean. then at the next step, how should those patterns inform prosecutors in the future and policy more generally. >> criminal justice system is beset by delays and bureaucracy. i mean you look at study after study has shown that. can any of this technology be used, deployed simply to make the system work faster and more efficiently? >> keep your answer really short. >> well, the hope is, yes.

the mission is to bring technology to the legal system, make it more efficient for all stakeholders and so, yes, think technology will help in making it more efficient. but there is problems in different data standards that are being used. in different definitions at different police departments following for certain kinds of information. so those are the problems we have to overcome. >> thank you for being with us. >> thank you very much for having me. >> "press: here" will be back in just a minute.

that's our show for this week. my thanks to my guests. roland vogil, rachal mushawar and david welch. i'm scott mcgrew. thank you for making us part of your sunday morning.

rujillo: hello and welcome to "comunidad del valle." i'm damian trujillo, and today, the san francisco international latino film festival, "cine+mas," is back on our show. glitz and glamour on your "comunidad del valle." male announcer: nbc bay area presents "comunidad del valle" with damian trujillo. damian: and speaking of glitz and glamour, we begin here on "comunidad del valle" with a local clothing designer, and she's gone a long way. with me is lia larrea on "comunidad del valle." welcome to the show. lia larrea: "thank you. damian: well, tell us about your line. you brought a whole--i mean, a whole wardrobe here. tell us about your clothing, who it's designed for, and where can we get. lia: sure, well, it's very versatile clothing, two pieces in one, reversible and water resistant fabrics, that is really easy to wear and is very comfortable. we recently just designed the hats that are made in ecuador.