hello and welcome to kqed newsroom. i'm thuy vu. coming up on our program, the fierce election battle ahead and california's primary. length lating expiration labels to cut down on food waste. remember the fonz? henry weerng letter, best-selling author. history was made when president obama traveled to cuba, the first trip by a u.s. sitting president in almost 90 years. mr. obama met with president raul castro and took in a baseball game. it was clear that deep disagreements about human rights issues remain. >> i believe citizens should be free to speak their mind without

fear. to organize and to criticize their governments and to protest peacefully. and that the rule of law should not include arbitrary detentions of people who exercise those rights. >> oakland congresswoman barbara lee was one of seven california lawmakers who joined president obama on the trip. she joins me now. congresswoman, thank you for being here. >> happy to be with you. >> we'll get to cuba in just a moment. i wanted to ask you first about the brussels attacks. they happened while you were in cuba. how did you find out about them and whavls your reaction? >> officials the horrific attacks in brussels -- you know, are an example of kind of the real threats that the world is faced with. i heard about them immediately when i woke up early in the morning. turned on television and was shocked, quite frankly. here we were in cuba and the

terrible terrorist attack occurred. and it just reminded us all, even while we were trying to make progress, 90 miles way from america, that we face some very real threats that we have to ensure that, first of all, the country, our country, is safe. the rest of the world, our national security apparatus, our homeland security, they're doing a fine job. it also reminded me that there's no military solution and we have to really make sure that we embark upon and continue with an engagement that does not add more hostility, more violence, more threats in the world which means we have to have a comprehensive approach, solution, work with our allies in the region, and try to disable, dismantle, and destroy isis in a way that doesn't create more terror and more hostility. >> can you expand on that, on the comment you just made? there's no military solution. you were the only member of congress to vote against

authorizing use of force after the september 11th attacks. would you authorize using force against isis now? >> first of all we have seen as afghanistan a blank check and it authorized the use of force in perpetuity. and afghanistan is still a nightmare. iraq is still a nightmare. so the use of force in afghanistan and iraq did not work, quite frankly. we need -- and we cannot have these open-ended perpetual wars. we need a coordinated strategy that -- the military strike is always there. military action, use of force, the president can always use that. we have to find a way to address the root causes of terrorism and also a way to support the allies in the region to come up with a diplomatic solution as well as make sure that our counterterrorism initiatives and strategies are working in collaboration wilt those in the region. but most pentagon officials will

tell you that military action is not going to address the terrorism that we're faced with in the world. >> in the meantime we seem to be having some luck with the air strikes. . defense secretary ash carter announced they were able to take out a top isis leader in syria with an air strike. i wanted to also ask you about your cuba trip, of course. you've been to cuba at least 20 times. >> at least. >> two decades now you've been a strong voice advocating normalizing relations with cuba. what types of major changes have you seen over the years in cuba? >> my first visit to cuba was probably in 1977. and it was a very interesting period then. of course no americans were there at all. i went with my predecessor, a great leader, ron dellham. belva davis went with us and we

put together a film called "yankee come back." we took a delegation of health experts, bankers, experts to look at the realities of cuban society. fast forward to today. what you see now, you see many americans, you see -- i see just little things like more paint on buildings. for a white cubans could not purchase paint to paint buildings. and that was not a priority. a very poor country. but also during the "special period" as they call it after the soviet union left, i can remember very vividly that there were very few of those beautiful cars on the road because people could not afford the fuel costs. and more people were riding bicycles and walking. and while food was very hard to get, the rates of diabetes went down and their health indices in terms of some diseases went down because they had more exercise and they were walking more. >> what about the human rights issues, though?

you know, lack of freedom, reports that dissidents are still being repressed by the castro regime. despite the president's statement this week that there are no political prisoners. do you share those concerns? >> you have to look at human rights in an international context. we have an international standard of human rights. and i think every country, you look at vietnam, you look at china, you look at most countries in the world, we've got to address human rights in a very real way. and i'm very pleased that human rights and those issues are on the baseball. i also know and the president was correct to talk about human rights in our own country. when you look at mass incarceration, when you look at racism and institutional biases. we have issues here. the important thing is that people in a democracy, in our form of a democracy at least, we have a right to petition and try to change the government. i think it's important that human rights be discussed but it's also important, as the

president said, to talk about it in a comprehensive way where we're not the only country telling cuba they better get their act together on human rights, because we have issues we have to keel with our own self. >> speaking of president obama you endorsed him back in 2007 over hillary clinton. in the current presidential race you have not epdoersed anyone. why not? >> i am not endorsing because i want to see this primary process play out. i think it's very important for people to raise their voices, to get engaged, to get organized, to get mobilized. i bieve bernie sanders has really helped shape the debate, has helped put additional issues on the table that probably would not have been debated. i think what's most important that is we gain, we engage young people, seniors, people of color, and that we have a massive effort to get the vote out to make sure that donald trump and cruz are not -- whichever one or whomever -- will not be elected. so i'm going to engage and make sure that when i'm needed, to

make sure that people get to the polls to vote for a democrat, i am definitely going to do that. >> that's when you're going to step in. congresswoman barbara lee, thank you so much for being here. >> thank you already. california's june primary usually considered too late to make a difference could be critical this year. this week the public policy institute of california released a new poll of california voters. in the republican race it shows donald trump with 38% support among likely voters. ted cruz follows with 27%. john kasich has 14%. on the democratic side, hillary clinton holds a 48-41 lead over bernie sanders. kqed's politics and government senior editor scott shafer is here with our political roundup. you heard congresswoman barbara lee say she hasn't endorsed anyone, does that surprise you? >> not really. they served together in the house, bernie sanders and barbara lee r. i think

philosophically they're very close. my guess is barbara lee like a lot of liberal democrats, her heart is with bernie and her head might be with hillary as the person she knows can probably do better in november. i wouldn't be surprised if she endorsed bernie but voted for hillary. i'm sure with a lot of people she's split. >> hillary clinton has been tom nating the bigger, more diverse space. does she have the same advantage in california over bernie sanders? >> yes and no. i mean, she does do very well among latino voters but not a huge advantage like we've seen in other states. she does very well with older voters, 45 and older. he does very well with younger voters. you know, the electorate here, democrats and independents can vote in the democratic primary. independent voters tend to be younger, more male. i think he'll do well to get those votes into the primary. so she does have support from the years of both her being first lady and her husband being president. she did very well against ohm here in 2008.

so she does have some built-in advantages to be sure as you can see in that poll, 48-41, it's no runaway. >> how is the tumultuous campaign affecting is gop party in california? >> i think they're excited on one hand, wow, we're relevant, this june primary is going to matter, it never does. on the other hand i think there's worry, anxiety, hand-wringing. bus a lot of the folks worry about donald trump at the top of the ticket. at the same time they see him bringing new voters into the process. i think because the primary is going to matter you're going did see, more hoping, more republicans come out to vote in june. that could help some republicans down-ballot. maybe the two republicans running for the u.s. senate. overall i think there's a sense of dread about how this is going to turn out, how is this going to end up come november? >> it's a close primary, speaking of the republicans.

only registered republicans can vote. does that play to anyone's particular advantage? >> i think it does. by keeping it only to republicanu'res, yoetting a more conservative slice of the electorate. that's going to benefit the most conservative candidate, in this case ted cruz. and you kind of saw that too when they -- if in the ppic poll they took rubio's support out and redistributed it, trump got most of it. i think he's going to do pretty well in california because of that, because of the fact that it's closed. >> the ppic poll also showed that trump does well among women. does that surprise you? >> it does but i was out on tuesday, out in san ramon, a women's republican event, the u.s. senate candidates were there. i talked to a lot of folks, women. trump, trump, trump, trump, trump. i was shocked how much trump support there was. >> why is that? >> he's strong, he says what he thinks, he's an outsiderer, we need to shake things up. there's anger at the republican party. they feel, we've controlled

congress, we've controlled sacramento, governor under schwarzenegger, and nothing changes. i think they're so angry at the status quo that they're taking a good long look at donald trump. >> california's primary's a little different from other states in that we don't have a winner take all. there are 53 congressional districts. each district gets three delegates. what impact does that have on the way that candidates campa n campaign? >> the vice chair of the republican party said it's going to be hand-to-hand combat, the battle of stalingrad what is she said. what it means is every congressional district, even liberal san francisco has three delegates. just as orange county does. and the inland empire. if you're john case and i can you're looking to pick off some delegates here and there you might strategically campaign in certain places. if you're ted cruz you might go to places that a republican would never go, santa monica or berkeley even. because there are three deleg e delegates available in those places. so they're not just playing to a statewide audience. it's district by district by district. they're going to have to fight

for those delegates. >> let's talk about the u.s. senate race as well. because the ppic poll took a look at that. what does it reveal about that race? >> kamala harris and loretta sanchez, the democrats, continue to be one, two. harris with 26%, sanchez 17%. and there's a big chunk of voters, 31%, who just don't know who they're for. part of it is because it's been below the radar. trump is sucking the oxygen, the presidential race is getting most of the attention. but it's a little surprising to me kamala harris isn't doing better. >> she's raised a lot of money. >> raised a lot of money, spent a lot of money put not on things that reach voters. she hasn't been spending money on television. she's been spending money on things she's been criticized for, expensive holt rooms and consultants. it is surprising somebody as well known, who's run statewide twice, is still at 26% in the polls. she's got work to do. she's still i think the one to beat in that race.

but still pretty close. >> still some time left until november. we'll see. >> all right. >> scott shafer, thank you. turning to what we eat, americans throw out up to 40% of their food. according to the national resources defense council and the harvard food law and policy clinic, one of the reasons for that, confusion over sell, buy, and expiration dates. kqed looked a the this issue. here's a clip from that story. >> take, for example, the expiration dates found on packaged foods. >> when you're in the store you'll see a use by or best by date. just for the food quality, eat it before this date and you have the freshest product that the manufacturer can potentially give you. >> expiration dates can confuse consumers into thinking a food is no longer safe to eat. but for most foods that's simply not the case. >> if you think about a product that you can leave out in the open -- soda, canned foods,

walnuts. those products of a their use by date or sell by date, they're going to be just fine for the most part. if you're 30 days, 60 daze out, what starts to happen there is the food quality's affected, not the food safety. >> now california assembly man david chew is tackling this issue with new legislation to simplify how food is labeled. how would your legislation change the way that food exoperation dates are labelled? >> we wanted to address the massive challenge of food waste. we're talking about 40% of all food that's produced in the united states, it's been estimated to be over $200 billion worth of food that is discarded. for many consumers, as if you walk into a grocery store, buy four bags of groceries, and leave one in the parking lot. right now there are over 40 states that have different laws on this. >> and federal? >> there's no federal

legislation, hasn't been for 40 years of discussion on this. there are close to two dozen different types of confusing labels on productions. >> how would your legislation change that? >> what we're proposing is that we streamline and create really two uniform standards. first, a standard for food quality. essentially a best if used by. the other standard would be for that small subset of food for which there's actually a health risk after a particular date. and we propose there be an expiration date, expires by label. those two just on their own we think would really simplify things to address the situation. >> for example, we have a bunch of things here that i have to admit sheepishly came from my kitchen and that of our producer -- >> everyone has them. >> so we have macaroni and cheese that expired two years ago -- >> still good. >> salad dressing, expired december of last year. for example, how do i know this is still good to consume?

>> the reality is we probably don't know exactly whether that's good to consume because the labels are confusing. which is why we need to really simplify the standards. and if we're able to simplify the standards, we're able to put food to use. right now in the state of california we have 6 million people that go to bed hungry. 1 of 4 kids. if we could just, for example, not throw away one-third of what we're talking about, we could feed every hungry person in the united states. >> so these things probably are safe, including eggs after the expiration date? >> probably. again, i don't want to speak definitively. the issue is there is no standard, we need a uniform standard. >> what are the products that are -- that you absolutely should use by the expiration date? >> there's a subset of products that even when refrigerated still could create bacteria that could make you sick. typically often impacting pregnant women. for example, deli meats, unpasteurized cheeses, certain types of sausages that haven't

been fully cooked. the vast majority of foods don't even need a label. and our legislation doesn't call for every food product to be labeled, we're simply saying for those food products that have lab labels, the labels should be simple, clear, so people aren't throwing out their food. it's a huge environmental concern. california throws out over 5 million tons of food into landfills every year. we're talking over 8 million tons greenhouse gases emitted just in the state of california. >> a startling statistic. i want to point out that kqed asked grocery groups for their reaction. here's a statement from the california grocers association. any time a company that sells products across state lines is required to specifically create packaging for one state, it creates distribution challenges. what makes more sense is to have a nationwide standard and not just a state standard. >> we've been talking to grocers. everyone understands there's a problem here because of the fact there are 40 different state

standards, two dozen different types of date labels. these manufacturers already have to come into compliance with all these different state laws. if there was a federal standard we'd be completely happy about that. the fact of the matter is congress hasn't acted, we don't expect it to. >> and is they why you have this legislation. assembly man david chew, thank you very much. >> thank you for having me. ♪ sunday monday happy days >> he played one of america's most iconic television characters on the sitcom "happy days." lately henry winklering entertaining children with a best-selling book series. together with lin oliver they've penned stories about a boy named hank zipster, a smart, funny, and resourceful character who is dislex irk. they hope the books will encourage kids to go for their dreams despite obstacles that get in their way. welcome henry and lin. >> hi. >> so nice to have you here. >> we're happy to be here.

>> henry, how did the idea for hank zipster come about? >> there was a lull in my acting career. and my manager at the moment said, why don't you write books? for children. about your learning challenges. and i said, because i have learning challenges, number one. and because i was told i was stupid and i believed it, number two. i can't do that. >> you had dyslexia? >> i did. i knew that, but when i was younger i had no idea. all i knew was i was called lazy and stupid, not living up to my potential. the second time that along lan berg -- alan berger suggested writing books he said, i'm going to introduce you to my bad friend lin, linda knows everything there is to know about writing children's literature. >> i want to also point out that i was going through the books, it's very interesting, because these books are different from your typical children's book. i want to give an example here of how -- the font in this book

is different. lin, can you talk about that? >> the font was created by a man in holland who is himself dyslexic and has two dyslexic children. he's a graphic designer and it occurred to him you can make the process of reading a lot easier for kids with reading challenges by designing a different kind of type. so that type is more heavily leaded. it's weighted more at the bottom so the letters don't float around on the page. >> and henry, how many of hank's adventures are drawn from your own adventures and experiences as a kid growing up with dyslexia? >> the emotion is mine. the emotion i've lived through. and it is true. we do not write down to the kids. so kids write us and say, how do you know me so well? but the humor is exaggerated. lin and i have written every one of the novels in lin's office. and we either make each other laugh or it doesn't go in the

book. >> oh, so if only one of you laughs the idea is dead? >> that's right. >> except sometimes i do argue and i think -- i say, please, let's just try this joke. if the editor says it doesn't work, i'll take it out. >> henry, you said you have struggled in school because you learn differently, were called stupid growing up. >> that's right. >> you graduated from emerson college and went on to earn a master's degree from yale school of drama. >> right. >> what is your message to young people who face some of the s e things that you missed? >> it is simple. to the chirp, we say to every child that i meet on the planet, i promise you, how you learn has nothing to do with how brilliant you are. that your grades in school do not define you. you've got greatness inside you. it is your job to dig it out and give it to the world as a different. so that's the underlying theme. then we figure that humor is the

gateway for them, the reluctant reader, the reader who's having real trouble reading. it is the gateway for them to read from now on. >> and lin, you have so much experience in children's books. you've written a lot of them, you helped start the society of children's book writers and illustrators. you sold millions of copies of hank's books between the two of you. >> we've probably sold 5 million books, and growing. >> wow. and a tv series in the u.k.? >> that's right, it's on the bbc. >> why do you think they're so popular? >> first of all, i think families who have a child with learning difference really suffer. the books help them realize that they don't have to suffer. that what they have is somebody who's smart and creative and bright, who just learns differently. and in our society you're so defined by school. and your success is so

predicated on how you do in school. i think people have embraced this series because it offers true optimism. >> henry has estimated that 1 in 5 school-aged children in the u.s. are dyslexic. >> let me say this, and i don't mean to interrupt you. >> no, not at all. >> all children have a challenge. too big, too small, too tall, can't play ball. they have got acne or they're not good socially. children understand that there is more than one way to solve a problem by reading these books. that hank is resourceful. he gets himself into deep trouble. his glass is half full, he just spills it everywhere. you know? >> and he always overcomes it. >> he overcomes it. and nothing good comes to the bully. >> and i wanted to learn a little more about your journey as well. do you think there's been much progress in dealing with dyslexia as a society? since when you were a kid? >> there is certainly major

strides that have happened. there are teachers who are being trained to teach the child who learns differently. but here it is. in america, we are teaching our children to take a test. and the teacher, it's herculean. they have to teach the fastest kid and the slowest kid all the same information in the same amount of time. can't be done. somebody is going to fall through the cracks. 55% of everyone incarcerated is dyslexic. they must have fallen through some crack. >> lin, what's the main message that you want kids to take away from these books? >> i think the main message is that each person is unique and whatever differences you have, as henry said, whether it's a physical difference or a learning difference, that's unique to your personality. we each have our own fingerprint. that's something to be celebrated, not something to be equalized. we're all different and that's a

good thing. >> henry, i have to ask you, because adults at a certain age, myself included, will remember you as the fonz from "happy days." i was telling you how "happy days" helped me learn conversational english when i came to the u.s. as a child from vietnam. who's more excited at your book signings? parents who remember the fonz or the kids who read the books? >> it is a trick thierrific thi. the parents come because they watched me or saw me on "arrested development" or "the waterboy." the kids don't know me except maybe they've seen what the parents watch or the parents have shown them the fonz. the kids go, i love these books! how did you know me so well? but here's how great the fonz is. he reads our books. that's how loyal he is. >> now i am the beneficiary of this because i know you as the fonz but now i also know you as the author. henry winkler, lin oliver, thank

you bows for coming in. >> thank you for chatting with us. >> that is it for tonight. i'm thuy vu. thanks so much for watching. go to kqednews.org for more.

kacyra: it kind of was, like, the bang that set off the night. rogers: that is the funkiest restaurant. thomas: the honey-walnut prawns will make your insides smile. [ laughter ] klugman: more tortillas, please! khazar: what is comfort food if it isn't gluten and grease? braff: i love crème brûlée. sobel: the octopus should have been, like, quadripus, because it was really small. sbrocco: and you know that when you split something, all the calories evaporate, and then there's none. whalen: that's right.