. new troubling information from the san bruno explosion. >> pg&e misled the federal regulators by providing them inadequate and sometimes doctored documents. >> high tech. it's not booming for everyone. a lack of adversity and calls for change. plus, a san francisco artist makes the surprising decision to give away his art. we'll find out why. >> we'll probably make some people happy. who knows.

good evening, and welcome to kqed newsroom. i'm tui vu. e-mails revealing a close relationship between pg&e and the public utilities commission are leading to calls for the removal of the state. pg&e was hit with a 28-count indictment to look into the cause of the pipeline blast in san bernardino. he killed eight people, leveled several homes and destroyed a neighborhood.

she loretta lynch is a corporate influence. >> you've been a long time influence in the state of california. what troubles you most about the e malils that went back and forh between the public utilities commission and pg&e? >> it shows there are cozy relationships with the regulated entity. instead of cracking a whip and making sure every dime that's spent is just and reasonable, they are telling them how to spend the money. >> you're describing a lap dog. is that what's happened? >> it's absolutely a lap dog and now a toothless tiger. if anything, they're in the same cage. it's a real problem when the puc both pressures its line employees not to go after

documents, not to have evidencery hears, not to do anything that would require the utility to tell the truth. >> so what you're describing is not necessarily illegal, is it? it's perhaps unethical, it's unprofessional, it's not what was envisioned for the puc. put a word on it. what is it? >> it's up to the prosecutor to decide if it's criminal, but clearly it's unethical, clearly there is an appearance of impropriety and there may be an actuality of xdimpropriety. >> a grand jury this week charged puc with injustice. what do you see between the relationship of that fact and the utility? >> the obstruction charge is because pg&e misled the federal regulators by providing them inadequate and sometimes doctored documents. you can't mislead a regulator. you have to tell the truth.

but the problem with the puc's e-mails and how it leads to the indictment is the puc stopped requiring formal protcesses whee they're required to tell the truth. so they have hearings and testimony where they don't have to be under oath. they can tell them anything they want. thank goodness the formal regulators kept the processes where they could say, look, this is obstruction. ç you served the puc under governor davis and also under governor schwarzenegger for five years. how does it work? how do these lobbyists and corporate interests try to influence the regulators? >> the secret way or the public way? >> either one. both. >> the secret way is they call you up. and they ask you to meet or they ask you for lunch or they ask you for dinner. then they supposedly talk about process when they really tell you what they want, which is why i didn't engage in those

meetings, because it's inappropriate. often, and certainly in the san bruno cases, the puc commissioners are sitting as judges. and you would not want a judge to sit down with one party and work out a deal, which is exactly what's happening at the puc. >> michael peevey is the chair of the puc. he served with you for a time. he became chair when you were demoted by governor davis over some of these kind of issues and public openness and so on. and i want to be clear, you were pushing for more openness at that time. but i'm wondering, michael peevey, it'sñi not the first ti he's been under the microscope. he's accepted many, many gifts, trips to hong kong, australia, new zealand. is it just time for him to resign? >> yes. unfortunately, the integrity of the agency is at stake. people's trust in government sat stake. and when the regulator has a cozy relationship and there is a culture of co-option that goes from the head, the top, down,

it's time for the top to go. >> his term is up. the governor can't remove a commissioner, i understand, but his term is up at the end of this year. he also happens to be married to a state senator, carol liu. is that just coincidental, is this the senate kind of taking care of one of its own and not raising criticisms? we haven't heard the governor criticize, either. >> if the governor and the president don't see eye to eye and aren't working in lock step, the president should take him out. i became commissioner because at some point the governor and i did not see eye to eye on the energy crisis and how to stop deregulation. so if the governor would like to show the people of california that he does not see eye to eye on this culture of co-option, he should take michael peevey out as president. >> just a few minutes left. what does this suggest to you in terms of policy legislation in

sacramento? >> we have to come back to first principles. the puc should not be entitled to deference by a court if it's going to have workshops and hearings and back deals. you're supposed to be able to get documents and look at those documents. if the puc is not even going to ask for the documents, how are they going to know when pg&e is cutting corners, as we now do know? but not courtesy of the puc, it's courtesy of the feds and of the absolutely tragic event in san bernardino. >> and you obviously feel it's time to turn that around. >> exactly. we have to go to first principles and the regulators need to not do the bidding. while tech lies in the bay area, not everyone is enjoying the boom equally. they're being criticized for lack of diversity when it comes to age and ethnicity.

a number of high tech companies including twitter, google and facebook released their employee demographics. they show silicon valley companies are largely filled with young caucasian and asian males. joining me for a look at the reasons, the impact and possible solutions are eric abram, director of initiatives at the university of berkeley school of business, and laura seidel, digital culture correspondent for npr. laura, why are so many high-tech companies predominantly asian or caucasian men? >> i think we can start with the caucasian men. the history of the valley is one of caucasian men. it started when william shockley, who investigated the tr tr tr transistor and he opened up shop here. we also have people who have come from outside the country to technical colleges. some would say they're not

science majors. >> it's funnyñi you would menti eric shockley. if you look at him as the father of silicon valley, that might indicate some of the problems we have today. >> it could, although he didn't last long. he really disappeared pretty quickly and i just think it was this group of men who founded fair trial msemiconductor, and people tend to hire people they're comfortable with. if you're going to be diverse, you have to open yourself to people who are culturally different than you. i was going to add sometimes in a startup, particularly, a startup culture, who are you going to start a company with? you're going to start a company with a friend, someone you feel comfortable with. >> because you're working such long hours and in such close quarters. something that interested me about the data, they reveal some things about race, about gender. there isn't a lot of info on age. what do we know about age, and

is there a lot of age discrimination going on at high-tech companies? >> i think there is certainly age discrimination, but it's probably a soft age discrimination. like you said, people are used to hiring what they're comfortable with. there's the 25-year-old guy in a hoodie who is a recent college grad who is brilliant. there are brilliant women, people who are of color, people over age of 40 that can have an impact. >> mark zuckerberg sort of famously made a comment that he did think young people were more brilliant. and i think there's also a feeling that if you get people right out of college, they're up on the latest tech. so there's discrimination on that front because they think somehow you've got the latest stuff if you're coming hot out of college. >> michelle, let me ask you this, then. what is the impact of this lack of diversity? is there an impact from a business standpoint or impact from a social standpoint?

>> i think what's interesting to me, the business standpoint, i don't know. the companies, particularly google, says we are hurting our own innovation by not having a more diverse work force. this is hurting innovation. and that's arguable, but they pull out research. >> innovation in what sense, though? >> they said where was homogeneous and missing out on key pieces of innovation. we don't even know, but we've made these kinds of choices and we need to change. >> there may be services or products they haven't thought of because they don't have a diverse work force. >> that's what google said. i think they're aggressive in terms of that point of view. socially we're at a point, as you all know, where the whole bay area is asking who is benefiting and who is not benefiting? it's a social issue about income equality, and i think that puts the tech industry really on the spot. if the whole area is becoming

silicon valley in terms of where people are living and working, then who gets to do it, and if it's a white male and maybe asian, i think that causes more resentment, necessarily. so it's a big step ask brand brr the companies to say, here we are. they have not given us any historical information, so we don't know is it better, is it worse? so i imagine they do have that information, and that would be helpful to know. >> on that front, there used to be more women in computer science. >> the percentage of women majoring in computer science has gone down significantly. it was over 30% in the '80s. maybe higher, i think it was the 40%. >> why is that? >> i think it wasn't seen as a prestigious career. steve jobs and bill gates were on the covers of magazines. >> because if you look at medicine and law, more than 50%.

and i don't even know at the business school. >> it's a significant problem at business schools. some business schools are celebrated when they hit 40% female. at hoss, generally our student body, depending on the program, is between 30 and 35% female, and that's not good enough of the we wou--. we would like to have more women, we seek more women, but we haven't done a good job yet. >> does a company reflect its customer base? twitter is 70% white, but latino and asian americans make up 20% of its customer base, so it seems like it's doing well even though that doesn't make up its workers. >> people like twitter have to penetrate the market now, but it doesn't mean they'll have good market penetration five or ten

years from now. if i ran a company, i would like to look at the future and where the company will gome. when my kids started using the computer, there was myspace. and they weren't responsible for their customer base, so it kind of went away. it's hard to see this, but facebook could go away, twitter could go away or be much less influential unless they figure out how to bring a wide variety of people in the work force. >> i want to touch on what we said earlier, that some guy wouldn't think of an app. there is an app called be safe. it was invented by a woman, and it uses social media and gps so that when you leave someone, you can alert the closest person you're leaving and they can track your way home. >> something a man wouldn't have thought of, necessarily. >> that's right. but it's a great business opportunity, right? >> i'm interested in will

shareholders start caring about this issue, or shareholder advisory groups. people say this is a bottom line issue. are we going to go to that next level? and then i guess the other question is, and what i'm very interested in, is why do these companies basically look the same? e bay got celebrated as more diversity. it had more women and more women in leadership. basically we're all looking at the same thing and that made me worry about the talent pool and uncommon biased in terms of comfort. >> the reverend reggie jackson is very vocal about this now, and he's trying to get more diversity in companies. he says it's the next step in the civil rights battle. what do you make of that? >> i think there is a lot of truth in that statement. when we look at these studies, these demographic studies the

companies just released, one of the things that's interesting to me is what wasn't said. there wasn't information about aids. none of the companies even mentioned native american. the companies all lump asian americans as a category, but those are people who are defended from 60% of the population of the world. you can say someone who went to ittb ar trkt bangalore knows an culturally. >> so what needs to be done about this? >> i'm going to talk about the president of harvey college. she's a computer scientist. when she got there, something like 18% of women were majoring in computer science, and she said, that's crazy. she set up a program and in five years -- i think in the latest

figures it's up to 40%. she just made a few changes. among them, she actually had different categories of introductory classes. so that women weren't big. a lot of the guys would speak out loud and they made the woman feel intimidated. she also spoke to the professor. she had the women go to the grace hopper celebration gs. so any woman who loves computing -- that happens once a year -- can go. it's a really good program, but it shows if you're determined to get more women and more people, you can. >> that's the case where the extra effort made a dimps. >> i want to thank you all. acciden thank you. now, a surprising act of

generosity and a rare opportunity for contemporary art fans. for the past six decades, san francisco artist ronald chase has worked in a variety of mediums, from abstract paintings and drawings to media and photography. some of his largest work is in maench major museums, in paris, in canada and new york. >> this is work i did in the '60s when i was first working with photographs. this is just sort of discovery pieces, and then i was exploring what watercolor can do. but now that he's approaching 8 80,: this saturday, anyone who stops by the museum can take home a piece of art for free. he notes there are at least 600 pieces of art weekly, and he's taking home some each day.

>> it's never been an exhibit and this is a surprise group. >> so what is inspiring ronald cha chase to give away his art? >> thank you very much for having me. when you think about it, i'm not really giving away all my art. i'm giving away works on paper. and in about a 50-hour career, if oou done all your hoechl work, you're going to have a lot of work. my special tease when i strike thechl out and i'm being destroyed. >> you've been doing this for decades. it going to be about 5 or 600 i like to give away, but i havej@

accumulated at least two and a half to three thousand on trial of the. >> i think it dilz us a variable way of strushd that money has. the way that works is that a serious artist starts out doing the work that they love. they hope that perhaps a gallery might see their work and start representing them. they hope that collectors might start collecting their work. they hope that their prices may rise so that they can become prosperous because i don't think most people know that galleries take half of your work -- half of your income. so that point is just what everybody tries to do. however, now it goes into astronomical places where your work is almost like a commodity

chained on the sex. >> is this part of your mission, then, to make art more accessible? >> not really. yes, it is, my art more accessible. >> but i think it's about a dialogue that tells what this means. it comes with some obligations. people are going to have to promise never to sell it, never to ache a frame. >> they don't have to frame it in that kind of frame sochlt in a accepts, that he is an investment. young people had thought that collecting arts. i hope it makes them rethink a

little bit, that you could start a collection with paper that's really quite a serious collection. >> speaking of young people called accessible hart to love and museum. uts a couple gag reez to dig in this room. they know that people have to experience to be coming apart on their looiz. sdplz so on the one hand, you're excited about keeping -- artists feeling like they're priced out of sack rent oe. what's your feeling about that? >> i think it's the woi the

world passes. our work is always on the cusp of development. they make a police interesting and then everyone else wants to come. i think that's just a rule of the game. you know that you're going to have to move to a new environment, and that environment, you geez are coming and art is just the incorporation olifat rorks o. >> before we go, when and where can people find your art this saturday? >> it starts at noon. we're going to try to accommodate as many people, and that will be on 4th and alabama. people can only be taken and the

american people to take. ronald, thank you very much for joipg us. >> thank you for having me. joining me now for a look at what's coming up on kqed news is scott schaefer. hi, scott. >> hello there. >> a three-judge panel came back thursday and overturned a hearing that blocked the sale of bonds to pay for the train. what did the judges say? >> the judges reversed that lower court ruling, as you said. that judge last year said the state was proceeding with a plan that the voters didn't approve. so he blocked the sale of the bonds. now this three-judge panel ruling 3-0 allowed that to go forward. and it came at a critical time because they're just getting ready to build that first stretch between modesto a&

sacramento. not so good for the governor's opponent who has been calling this the gravy train. people are turning to undergroundwater, aquifers, and there's really a lot we don't know about this water. >> there is concern we don't know how much is getting punched out, how quickly, what happens when it runs out, how fast is it being replenished. so there are issues and it not normal in terms of precipitation. there's talk of putting a

regulation in place so we have a handle on what's going on there. >> a hotly dispute, so whenever you talk about water. >> the conservation commission goes back next week. >> everyone agrees prop 43 is too big. they want to do some underground storage of water, perhaps build a residue or van. if they can decide on a new package, they'll put it forth and maybe the members will vote on that in december. a few months after that terrible shooting at uc santa barbara, there are several pieces of legislation to allow people with health problems. we'll see if it passes and what

the governor will do because he's vetoed several in the past. >> they certainly have their work cut out for them when they get back. >> they do. >> i'm scott schaefer. thanks for joining us. >> and i'm tui vu. have a good night.

>> on this edition for sunday, august 3rd. israel begins a large scale withdrawal of troops from gaza, but the conflict continues. how both sides are fighting it out on the social media battlefield. >> well in's a contest for world opinion on numerous levels, certainly the governments are waging that contest. >> and islamic jihadists make important new gains in iraq. >> next on pbc newshour weekend. >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by lewis b and judy and josh weston. joyce v hail.