next on "kqed newsroom" a look back at 2014. plus, after four decades of public service, george miller reflects on his his career. >> the passage of the affordable care act is key to me. that was a huge milestone. good evening. and welcome to "kqed newsroom." i'm thuy vu. tonight we reflect on the last year. joining me for the discuss are michelle quinn, san jose mercury

news columnist, and paul rogers, and carla. a quick review of some highlights of 2014. >> the year of the california drought and a statewide scramble over water. in january, governor brown declared a state of emergency and ended the year with voter approval for a $7 million bond to shore up the supply of water. schools were tested. a landmark legal case challenged teacher tenure. >> save city college. >> and the university of california set off student protests when it announced substantial tuition hikes. rising housing hikes left many

feeling priced out. some silicon valley high-tech darlings created controversy for disrupting traditional industry from transportation to hospitality. new surveillance technologies make it increasingly easy to spy on ordinary citizens. it was the 150th anniversary of yosemite national park. and the 25th anniversary of an earthqua earthquake. while a major quake in august shook napa valley anew. there was the passing of robin williams. concerns over the new span of the bay bridge. in sports, the giants won the world series for the third time

in five years. november's midterm elections were a treasure-trove for politics. one east bay district voted a republican into the state assembly for the first time in years. the bay area sparked national debate over taxing soda, banning plastic bags, and upping the minimum wage. violence against women spurned outrage on college campuses and the nfl. and 2014 ended with a flurry of storms that offer temporary but welcome relief to a state parched by one of the most severe droughts on record. and now on to the panel discussion. since we were talking about the drought just now, let's go to you, paul, first of all to talk about that.

we have had some major significant storms. there's a 75% possibility we'll have average or above average rainfall for the year. are you feeling good about what lies ahead for drought relief? >> i am feeling good. we have had three years of miserable arid news about wells going dry and farmers going out of business. i'm not here to tell you the drought is over, but what we can say is we've had literally the perfect storm that meteorologists would look for for the beginning of the rainy season. big, multiple soaking rain events followed by several dry d days so we don't have flooding. the problem is we have such a big deficit. basically in a lot of places in california, over the last three

years, we have only got half as much rainfall as we would normally get. we keep saying the drought isn't over. if your boss came to you and cut your pay by 50% for three years in a row and then in the fourth year for a couple of weeks said, i'm bumping it up and a little bit more, what would your savings account look like? it would take you awhile to recover. the snowpack in california is only about 50% of normal, but this outlook from now is very, very positive and it is not a guarantee, but it shows there is a good likelihood that the weather we've been seeing in december is going to continue into the new year. >> can we flush the toilets? can we put the bucket away in the bucket drawer? >> yes, you can. >> she doesn't want to be responsible anymore. >> i feel there's within this moralizing about how we should change how we live and i don't

know what's really or not. >> we've been in the worst drought in 1200 years. that's looking at the temperature because 2014, although all the data won't be known until mid january, is going to end as the hottest year globally since records were taken in the 1880s. it's been really bad,but these soaking storms are also really near record. and so many places are starting to ease back on their requests of people. santa cruz has said, we're going from mandatory to voluntary. >> jerry brown with the water bond, was that necessary? >> the $7.5 billion that voters approved was really important. we have a whole lot of things that will come out of that money. it's going to fund conservation

programs like when you buy a low flush toilet. it is going to fund water recycling. we take sewage and clean it up for grass. if it all comes down in a few big rain events here, you need more storage to catch it. >> we needed that infrastructure to be put in place. >> the voters certainly thought so. the other really important thing that happened this year in 2014 with the drought was jerry brown signing the biggest and most important water law in 50 years in california and that was the ground water regulation. it's been the wild west in a lot of the state, including the central valley. no rules. water tables have fallen by hundreds of feet. people are in a nuclear arms

race against each other to see who can put in more. >> let's take a turn here to politics. because governor jerry brown elected to a historic fourth and final term. we have senator boxer who seems ready to retire. we have is senator feinstein who hasn't said yet whether she'll run again. >> we have the big three. then we have a whole generation of baby boomer politicians. everybody is looking at governor brown and that seat to see what happens. what we saw in 2014 with governor brown was less is more. he didn't campaign. he didn't have to. he just talked about the water situation. barely makes any appearances,

hardly does any speeches anywhere. but there's a lot to do in california. when you talk about the budget, he still has to keep those democrats from overspending in sacramento. there's also education, the crisis of tuition. how to keep these prices from going up to a point where average families cannot afford to educate their kids. that's an issue. infrastructure and legacy issues. he wants that high speed rail. the congress is not going to give him any money on that. is he going to be able to do it despite some opposition on that one? water tunnels and the whole water project that he plans. the state is also looking at some very sort of big political issues when you talk about the protests that we saw about ferguson and race relations. police departments at a local level are trying to wrestle with how to handle these kind of protests, so this goes the whole

issue of what could be looming in the next year that could take a lot of money to solve? crime and issues like this is one of them, but another one is health care and pensions. the ageing population and the ageing government worker ranks are very expensive and none of these cities have figured out how to pay for those costs yet. >> there have been some clues that brown is going to make some of these pension issues a bigger issue. do you anticipate any sweeping reform attempts? >> he's going to face huge backlash from the unions on this one. in the election before, they flexed their muscles in november. they will do it again if he tries to corral these huge costs. i think right now we're not sure how it's going to be handled,

particularly health care is making the pensions look like a small problem. >> and pension reform was such a huge issue in the san jose mayor's race. it was the issue that pretty much drew the stark difference between the two candidates. >> some of these financial issues you're starting to see some breaks, even within the democratic party here in california. moderates are coming to the floor. all of this is a result of political reforms that have happened. we saw it in the last election and i think we're going to see it more. the top two primary is going to create a huge rush for some of the offices open in the new year. >> some analysts have tried to say they have had a pretty good election in 2014. no, they didn't. they lost the governor's race by 20 points without the governor breaking a sweat. there's not a single one in

california's 58 counties where republicans have registration. >> they did make some gains with active voters. >> all their bench candidates lost. peterson lost. >> on one big issue, immigration, they are still behind the curve. republicans are opposed to the new policy in cuba. >> i don't ever see -- i'm serious now. i do not see a republican governor being elected in california in my lifetime. >> maybe a moderate. >> we had a moderate. i know how this party ever turns around. >> that's going up against a legacy. brown is like, you know, an icon. but i wanted to mention this one thing about one of the most interesting elections was honda. here was a moment for the tech

industry to come up and show his muscles, put a guy in that they like, a former obama moderate. >> he was within four points of honda, who's been for seven terms. this may be one of the areas where you're going to see change. it was significant that silicon valley put up its own guy this time. >> do you think he's going to run? >> i think so. >> i don't think we have heard the last of him or neil kashkari either. >> the local governments are going to try to control the situation, either welcome it because they have their own

constituents who are uber driver, uber users, so they have a problem. they get in and they get popular, and then the politicians or the regulators are like, wait a second, you're not doing x, y, z correctly or you're not looking out for consumer safety, but they have a built-in base already. we're going to see more pressure on uber and lyft to do more regulation. >> these guys are supposed to be disrupters and revolutionaries but they have the same communication problems as corporate america does. what's with uber? they have had tremendous problems with public relations. >> uber is only five years old. they have gone from zero to 53 countries, and so they have grown really fast and so they really haven't seeded their

communications. their whole strategy is we're not going to ask for permission. we're just going to go in and start working, and that does not lead to good pr, making friends, in the beginning. >> they have hired more than 150 lobbyists around the country to work on their issues. the whole diversity debate, the lack of diversity genderwise and racewise. are we at a tipping point with companies like google, facebook, and twitter disclosing their employment data for everyone to see? >> it was an amazing year. we can look at pictures. this year the companies started to reveal their data, and it was -- it basically confirmed what most people thought. 70% men, 30% women. what's going to happen next year is they're going to do it again.

we're going to have a come p parti -- comparative point. there's not going to be a big jump, because these are some really hard problems, but i think the conversation is really ripe. what the tunnels and funnels going into the silicon valley? there might be professors who are recommending hoards of people. these are the people who are really making the decisions. so much of this issue to peel back, and it dove tails with the whole issue in the bay area of the tech industry and income inequality and what's going on here. as silicon valley spreads and ge gets bigger and more wealth, the two valleys -- we have been writing about the two valleys for decades. >> you have these flash points like the google buses obviously. technology had a great year.

the stock market soared. people got very rich. and the rest of the people did a little bit better, but the gap is getting further and further. >> maybe the housing prices here and the commercial rent will start to hurt the valley, but i don't think so. i think we're still going to have that echo effect of you've got to be here. >> for the gay and lesbian community, it was a huge move when tim cook came out to the community. >> people in the inner circle sort of knew and people had written about it on some level, but for some people to come out and say i'm doing this, this is why, there was a time when that would have been a huge issue. it was an amazing moment.

now we're going to look ahead a little bit because we have a tradition on this show where we want your predictions for 2015. pressure is on. we're going to begin with you, michelle. >> i don't think there's a tech bubble. i don't think there's a tech bubble, but teens are going crazy. there's not going to be a major correction this year. we're basically going to keep rolling along and there will be little moments where the market will drop 400 points and people will gasp, but people will keep going. not such great news if you're trying to buy a house or hoping the income inequality issue is going to work out. >> paul, you get time. >> the plastic bag companies who are trying to overturn california's law banning plastic bags will succeed and collect enough signatures to put it on the ballot.

they'll succeed in 2015 for that, but voters will eject it. they will side with the environmee environment and the sea turtles. >> carla? >> in january, barbara boxer will announce she's going to retire. you'll see a parade of democrats that will go for this seat. there's no guarantee feinstein will retire. >> i predict senator elizabeth warren will be run. hillary clinton versus warren race. we'll see. thank you all for being here. and now, a lawmakers reflection. east bay congressman george miller is retiring after 40 years in congress.

a lifelong bay area resident, he's been known as a tireless advocate for education, labor, economic equality, and the environment. he was part of the so-called watergate class right after nixon resigned. congress has become increasingly polarized. 2015 promises to continue on this path. scott shafer sat down with george miller to look back at his distinguished career. >> welcome. >> thank you. >> after 20 terms in congress, what does it feel like to be a short-termer? >> it is pretty exciting. i've had a wonderful career. i'm very proud of my body of work over those 40 years, those 20 terms, but i really believe it's time to come home. >> i want to talk to you about that decision in a minute. as you're leaving, a lot of people have talked about your career and what you have accomplished. in your mind, what stands out as

the thing that was most important that you helped get done or got done? >> for me, one of the ideas i worked on was access for poor and minority individuals in our society. my work on the disabilities community to get them access to school, to get them access to well trained and effective teachers. >> and you are one of the key architects of the affordable care act. >> it was a big deal. it's having a huge impact on families. >> what do you make of chuck schumer saying, maybe obama shouldn't have focused on health care? >> i think it was a huge mistake. i think he recognizes it now. you had the majority. you had the presidency. you had to go do it then.

there wasn't some other time you could schedule it. people have been scheduling national health care for 20 years and never has gotten it done. >> you were one of the post-watergate class. you got elected in 1974. what surprised you most looking back when you got to washington and in those first few years, especially, what surprised you the most? >> when i first got to washington, it was overwhelming to me. before getting elected to congress, i thought back east was reno. i think i understood you know what privilege i had been given to be part of the governoring board of the united states of america. >> you worked with republicans on no child left behind. as you say, that doesn't happen so much anymore. much less than it did when you

perhaps got there, so what will it take to -- is there anything else you can the democrats could do to make relationships better across the aisle? >> you have to work at it. you really have to work at it. they don't come from the same environment. they don't come from california. they don't come from the bay area. and it takes time. my legislation took four, five, ten years to get completed. >> you kind of wear them down? >> you wear them down and get them to realize their responsibility is still to the country. you continue to work. no issue is final in politics. this isn't baseball where there's a final score that lives throughout history. you win, you get the presidential signature, and the people who disagree start the next day trying to challenge the

policy. >> it is so dysfunctional. there is so much partisan gridlock. maybe it just wasn't as much fun as it used to be. >> i had fun up until last friday when i left. it really was about looking at the body of work that i created, recognizing that once you come home, you're very proud of this, let's go out the door with this. the passage of the affordable care act was really key to me. that was a huge milestone in my belief system and what a benefit it would be for the country. i think i should go home. >> let me ask you a question about age. i think you're 68? >> 69. >> 69. nancy pelosi is 64. there's a new generation of

democrats here in california. nobody wants to say you're too old to serve. >> sure. >> but is it time, do you think? >> i think you always have to be cognizant of it. nancy pelosi used to kid me. i used to talk about the incoming class. i'm trying to find those people who can fill in. we have to bring new people into this policy committee or the whips organizations and start integrating this. you can't -- >> hang on too long? >> -- hang on too long. it is important especially in a dynamic democracy like ours. you have to have generational points of view. very different this incoming class than me, okay? and you have to recognize it. >> so if barbara boxer and diane feinstein came to you and said,

i'm thinking of doing what you di did, what would you say? >> they have made a massive contribution in legislative policy in this country. you have done it. >> do you have any advice for the young people coming up, the new folks who are thinking of climbing the ladder or running for congress? >> when i went to congress, we threw a lot of chairman out. we overturned the seniority system. there's more opportunity today. make your own weather. don't be ham strung by the congress and its procedures. if you're interested in violence against women or early childhood care, make your own weather in those areas. it'll come to you and you'll be ready when the opportunity comes. you have to make the opportunity. the other way is a bump on the log. >> thanks for making good weather for so many years and

thank you for your service. >> thank you so much. it's been an honor. and that is it for tonight. for all of us at kqed, thank you so much for joining us. for our coverage, please go to kqednews.org. thank you so much for watching.

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