tonight on "kqed newsroom," the florida school shooting raises fresh questions about how edge k educators keep students safe. berkeley declares itself a sanctuary city for marijuana. and the mayor of richmond on the opportunities channels facing hiscity, from the economy t air pollution. plus, at 96, she's the oldest active national park ranger. she refles on her remarkable life from world war ii to the civil rights struggle. hello, and welcome to "kqed newsroom." we begin with school safety. in the wake of the deadly shooting at a school in florida, president trump pledged to hold a summit on school safety. 17 children were killed and dozens more injured after an

expelled student opened fire on wednesday. it's the latest in a string of similar tragedies in the last few months alone while congress has been hesitant the tighten gun control measures, we turn to what schools are doing to k students safe. and joining me now is ji tucker. jill, good to see you. >> good to see you, too. >> i know that this morning you attended an active shooter training session put on by the oakland school district. tell us what you heard and w. oakland had been plan thing training for months. as they said unfortunate and yet importantmi coming two days after what happened in florida. it was sitting there with schoolteachers and principals, custodians and other school staff, and the knowing that what they were learning had justha ened somewhere else two days earlier.

the train really went through what could happen, what they should do, you know, what are some of the best. practic >> a trainer even showed video on florida. >> ly. he really wanted to reinforce these ideas andone of the things that he showed was a video thatud a t took at the school in parkland and the video showed the studentsin crouching the corner of a classroom. and you couldhe hear rapid succession of gunshots just boornl boom, boom, boom, children screaming. when he turned it of he basically -- and everybody was, you now, just had chills and just looks of, just, anxiety and fear and sadness. and he said, what was wrong? what did they do in there?

at he pointed out, and really drove the point home was that they were sheltering in the classroom, as often is the case is what you should do. but nhing was barricaded. he was really driving home the point, they're crouching in fver, but no kover the shooter had gotten ere wasnothi. he was driving home the point of -- >> be proactive. >> barricading, delay that entry. it was interesting watching the faces of these educators and absorbing the things, because he told them, we had the dna when somebody startsshooting, you duck. that isn't the best nstinct. yod to get through your denial very quickly, because we live in a world where this happens. >> what is the number one thing people should do, did he say? >> you know, what he said i

that is different. and that the t bestng you can do is to be trained, to be repared, to think about the things that you need to do. because in some cases, the best option is going to be and oftentimes that's not what peodoe want to and if you have kinder thgardne, may not be possible, but you have think about all of our options. and just ducking and crouching is probably not your soue went th various scenarios and showed videos of shootings and other things to drive home the point of what teachers and saff need to thi about. >> "the washington post" has reported that on average, there haseen at least one school shooting as you look around the bay what are they doing in terms of responding, reviewing and

strengthening the security procedures and equipment? >> well, unfortunately, this wasn't the first shooting. shootings have been going on for a long sctime. ool districts across the country, especially in california t bay area, have been very proactive in many ways about these you know, they're doing active shooter trainings. they do them with the kids. staff.o them with the they also, in san francisco, for example, h the an emergency coordinator, somebody who has beenhired very specifically. their only job is to prepare the district for emergencies, be that earthquakes shooters you know, there's debates about money, the best use of what is the best use, do you have armed guards at school in t case of parkland, there a made it tohere the shooter was. do you have metalet tors.

so we go through phases, different communities want thi. i think the idea that people are acknowledging this is g to happen, that we live in a world, the police chief sid for the school district today, in 2018, you have to go home and tellr- your 3-yd, this is what you somebody comes to try and kill you. >> it's so sad that's the new normal. we both have children, and it is sad that this is what we have to talk to kids about. i wanted to ask you, i shooter, like in the case of a, florif the shooter is a former student, in nikolaus cruz's case, and he's gone through the same security training, he knows the procedures, he knows what the drills are. how do you protect yourself when the shooter knows what the layout of the school is, and whathe procedures are? >> right. i think that's where the training comes in t try o, you

know, you're going to have to address the situation, because it's never going to be the samen coluwas not the same as parkland. all of these were very different. las vegas was a very different shooting for a mass shooting. so it think t being prepared, being ready, what he wa telling the teachers today, and the staff, isthe more you think about this and make changes, the better prepared you are to deal with whatever comes. that ly want to say this, we also need to prevent this, to look for the signs, and there were many in all of these shootings that peopl, miss prevent them in the first place. >> that's the message we've been heari over and over again. jill tucker, thank you. now to marijuana. on tuesday, the city of berkeley became a sanctuary city for cannabis. the mayor tweeted the move was in response to attorney general jeff sessions' "misguided prakdown on our democr ic

division legalize recreation cannabis." across the bay, san francisco has a plan to help communitiese affeby the war on drugs enter the lucrative cannabis industry. here to talk about this is daviw s. good to have you back. >> thanks for having me. at is does this declaration really mean in berkeley, is it symbolic, since a federal crackdown hasn't happened yet? >> a lot of activists have noted that berkeley has long been a sanctuary city for it'son definitely in re to what sessions has done in terms of the rhetoric around , cannabut it remains to be een if this crackdown is going to manifest in any tangible action. >> because at the end of the day, federal lawupersedes city and state laws.

>> that's right. that law hasn't changed through the obama administration until now. sswhat jeff sns has done is rescinded guidance to u.s. attneys about their priorities. so you might see u.s. attorneys make cannabis aigger priority. a lot of people are saying they don't expect u.ttorneys in california to go after state legal cannabis. there was a big confab of attorneys in washington talking about how toontrol interstate trafficking of this substance. >> you alluded to this earlier. berkeley has longbefore sortof a sanctuary city for marijuan any in 1979, voters passed a law to make marijuana enforcement low on the police priority. >> that's right. a number of citi passed things like this measure, which downgrades marijuanae orcement to the lowest priority in the state. we know that berkeley has some of t most generous laws when it comes ability to grow a couple ofto potyour plants i backyard, wch is something the majority of cities in california

have already banned. > let's talk about the so-called equity cannabis programs that we're nowin seein few cities in california, in oakland, san francisco, los angeles. what is the main reasoning hind these programs? >> minorities have borne a disproportional impact on the war on drugs blacks are often arrested multiple times of the rates ofe wh using marijuana, even though the usage on the street . >> between the two races. >> exactly. activists are sayinglet's give minorities and disenfranchisede groups up in the cannabis industry and coming up with these rules that inject more minorities into this legal business. there's a lot of anxiety about who going to end up with legal cannabis, and it's entering trational capitalism, where we have a lot of power that's concentrated in the hands of a very few people. >> what is the makeup of the cannabis industry now? from what i read and seen, ll's

st creating sort of a racial inequity of its own, in that the people who primarily involved areyoung, white male, fairly wealthy. >> i think the traditional cannabis industry under prohibition was rather diverse. as it enters main stream american commerce,eoe are hoping to head off the equity issues we already have thre. a so we have studies, we have surveys where we talked to people who are running cannabis businesses. womensent in a cannabis than in congress. ditto for minorities. that said, people don't want toe already started to see that under thehas of people with capital. >> how do the rules for these equity programs work. how do they address that gap? >> imagine you're a sssll busiowner and the city tells us how you employ people with criminal records from these

bad neighborhoods and subm documents to us and we'll give you a licenseh they meet reqm makes it harder for small businees to compete. we're seeing that the big businesses stand ready to caitalize on these capital programs and incue lakcubate the minorities. but the other 85% that doesn't have the money, they're thinking about leaving oakland. >> you seem to be saying while these equities, good in theory, th may not be working as planned? >> everyone knows that the road to heck is paved with good intentions it's a good headline to say we're going to do this. but where the rubber meets the road, it's been a real turbulent period. oakland seems to be making up rules as they go, and a lot of businesses are closing down. uncertainty is the death nil of busins.

these equity programs create terrible uncertainty for the busi and the reports we're getting from the industry that are actually operating in the cities, they're pulling their hair out. >> i want to go ba to the berkeley city council. they lowered the city's tax rate on recreational pot fr 10% down to 5%. what was the thinking behind that, and do you other cities thinking of following suit? >> tax rates ares high as 40% in cannabis in california, when you add state and local sales, plus regulations in the new supply when the final bill comes due, it's higher than the cannabis available the street, which sort of props up the black market, which is what we don't want toun doer proposition 64. as i have been saying, txes and regulations are going to be bad before get better, and we're srting to see locals think about adjusting those regulations to allowose to thrive. it takes a 2/3 vote to change

taxes at the state levet' so going to be hard to move things at the state level. s so a bumpy start. david downs of the san francisco chronicle, thank you so much. >> thanks for having me. moving on to local politics. rechmond is home to a chevron oil nery that employs 1200 people. but last month, rimond joined other california cities and f a allege harmir the ement and public health. joining me now to discuss this and more is the mayor of richmond. nice to have you here. >> glad to be here. >> the city ofhm rd joined citi, santa cruz andot rs. you're suing 29 oil companies. what are you hoping to ccomplish? first of all, i woulo say the richmond refiny is a good corporate neighbor in

richmond. we get along well, they're involved in a lot of things. so this is not about them. it's about the entire fossil fuel industry. chevron corporation is a tiny part of that. i think everybody knows the story, but the story basically is, thesndtries concealed the fact that they knew the effect that fossil fuels would have on global warming for decades. d they all were involved in efforts lobbyists andther organizations. they spent millions and millions of dollars trying to convince people that climate change was a fraud and that it was not something we needed to worry about. fact, a lot of them are still doing that. >> how does it affe your city in terms of what you have to extend to cut down on some of e effects? >> as you just mentioned,

richmond has 32 mil of shoreline, more than any other city on san francisco bay. we have two intercontinental railroad terminals in richmond. we have two waste water pltreatment ts. we have thousands of acres of regional parks. we haveds neighborh and we have a refinery, all of whie subject to inundation rer sea level rise. so we're y in the process of for that. you know, ourcity, along with other cities on the water, are going to have to spend a lot on infrastructure in the future to adapt to climate change. it'soing to beillions of dollars. >> and you want the oil companies to reimburse that? >> w want them to be part of the solution part of the problem. >> chevron hasse said th lawsuits will not curb climate

change, that it demands global engagement. >> they're right, but you have to start .somewhe if everybody says it's not my problem, it's a global problem, nothing happens. and let me just throw this out, one of the things that's happening, i was at the climate summit in paris a couple of years agoand one ofhe things they pointed out is not only all of the pioneering efforts to deal with climate change, but what'senoing to han the future is, it's going to be on cities. it's all going to happen in cities and mays are goin to be at the forefront. >> jcpenney closed last year, a w developercame in last july. what is going to happen? >> it's a new owner. they're in a two-step process. the frst start is they' going to put a lot of money into the existing infrastruc make it more attractive and to try to get it leased up t a higher level. and the second part i they're

going to do somewhat's happening to malls all over the country, they're going to take those parking lots and bring in high ndnsity housing create a whole community there. >> hoping for revitalization? >> yeah, they could build up to 10,000 units there. and it would totally change the nature of it from being just a retail destination, to being a mixed use community. >> what is you biggest priority right now as mayor? richmond once was considered the most dangerous cities. over the years, violent crime has declined. but that image still sticks for many people. how bis a challenge that for you? >> well, there's good news and his year, we had the lowest homicide -- the second lowestci ho rate in decades. and our violent crime rate is down also. and that's great and it's part of trend that's been going on now for a decade.

the flip side is we still have a lot of homicis in richmond. you asked what is my number myum oalne would be t o have at least one year where we do not have a single homicide in richmond and for it to stay that way. >> you talked about rebranding richmond as a big priority as mayor. affordable is rics ond and whate housing si richmond is th expensive place to buy or rent a home in the bay area. the median home price is just under $440,000. and the median apartmental re is about $2400 a month. richmond -- imean, inan francisco, you probably know it's about $3800 a month. finished a marketing and branding study in richmond. one the elements is pushingnd richas an affordable place to live, which it is. it's a great place commute to and from.

i took b.a.r.t. tohe city today and walked here in less than an hour. >> mayor, pleasure to have you here. thank you. finally, 96-year-old betty has seen a lot. the nation's oldest park was born in 1921. during world war ii, she was a wle clerk helping african-americankers, witnessed the civil rights movement, and helped create a record store ike bey that still stands today. currently, she's a park ranger at the national historic park in sin hmric w2007. her new book chronicles herre rkable life. and bettysuch a pleasure to re. >> thank you very much. >> you're a ranger at the rosy thete ri national park. you graduated from oakland in 1942. whatoid you after that during the 'forts? >> among thein t i did do was work at the union hall during

world war >> it was segregated at the time. >>yes, at that time. that would have been before the labor movement. so i worked there. all of the black workers were put in thoseio , and they paid dues, but they had no power, >> the image of rosy the riveter in denim, ships, doing this work, it was always the image of a white ouwoman. did identify with that? >> no, i never did. because i never did see a ship being launched. >> you weren't allowed noto. >> the union hall where i worked was in the city of the hall, nowhere near the ed that whole part of the home front story esce at time. >> so why did you decide to

gecome a park ranger at the of 85? because that was not your story. >> yeah. i never did decide. i came into richmond, d the park bloomed into my district. and i began to attend those first planning meetings, because it was something that was occurring in the 14th assembly district. abe graduallme involved in that planning operation. >> and you became involved for a reason. i mean, you spoke up and said look, there areuances to this story. >> the reason that richmond h been selected, though there were boomtowns around the untry, it was here in richmond that there was enough still standing structures to interpre history. the structures that would have told my story, the afr,an-american sto had been long, long agoso

in order to see that history was more more than the story of rosy the riveter, the white woman'sst y, there was the story of 120,000 japanese-americans being interned, the explosion where 320 lives were lost. the story ofer african-ans who had come out of the sharecroppers, out of the south to answer the call for those stories were going untold. to see that history was inclusive, i became part of t >> you grew up in the bay area in the 1940s, '50s. what was life like here? tried to ned when you build a house in berkeley? >> i grew up as a secondon genera californian, not as an african-american. i grew up knowing there were 10,000 african-americans betweed se and sacramento.

so there - segregation was not formal as it is in the south. so i didn't grow up with that eind of stigma ined after migration of so many african-americans out of the soutis that t was an unreal aspect of it was something that simply we had to grow into.re >> tas some redlining, right, that happened when you tried to buyou a in berkeley, then you moved to walnut creek. >> yes, we built a house in wal in the nut eek unincorporated area. we lived with death about five years. >> because you were an african-american family in the town? >> yes, because there were only two african-american families in the diablo valle and we were one of them. >> during the civil rights era, you decidedo become a bridge with whites in walnut creek and

the black panthers. what did you do? >> participated fund-raisi activities delivered them -- i was called a bag lady. becaus >> y pou notuthe t literally. but that was a time of ef reition for me. i had been in the suburbs as a white family and was -- put more in touch with my black roots than ever, than needed to be in so that was a period of redefinition >> you have lived through so much.re you national treasure. you were honored with a presidential coin from president barack obama. given the tumultuous political climate we live in today, what is youriew of race relations? >> i think that there are new voices, exciting voices that are

coming out, of thela movement now. they're really e xngcinow. black lives matter and joy ed. there are many voices coming out now. i think that since i have lost my sse offuture, because i'm 96, mysense ofast has been enhanced. and i am aware now that this country has been going through these cyclical periods of chaos since 1776, and we're in another but it's at those times that the democracy is being redefined, and we he access to the reset buttons. and we're one of those places ght now, so th for me, it's very hopeful and exciting, because all thosewethings that very negative, very ugly, are now available to be se by the entire nation when they used to be simply things that in the black community. we al saw charlottesville.

>> we are so lucky to have you, and your perspective,wi and i you the best of luck with your new book. v >> thank yy much. >> betty, thank you for being here. >> thank you. well, that does itor us. find more of our coverage at kqed.org/newsroom. thuy vu. thank you for

robert: indictments in thero russia and par alsills in washingt over gun control. i'm robert costa. 17 americans gunned dnn florida. another week where leaders face the question, what now?gh tonit on "washington week." esident trump: today i speak to a nation in gri. robert: in the wake of another mass shooting, an emotionally charged debate. >> can you tel us when the house may muster the courage to take up the issue of gun violence? robert democrats demand action. some republicans sayto her laws would not have prevented the massacre. >> the struggle up to this point has been that most of the proflingse enthusiastic offered would notave prevented not just's yesterday tragedy b