bellevue. test . tonight, the largest wildfire in state history continues to rage. a look at why it's proving so destructive and why it's to blame. and rent control and what proposition 10 would do to expand it across the state.o, alswe hear from a startup ceo about winning over consumers by ditching brand labels. hello and welcome to "kqed wsroom." we begin with wildfires earlier this week the mendocino complex fire, comprised of two blazes, became the biggestir in california history. california firefighters areba currentlling 17 wildfires across the state including the carr fire with weath-- fire whe

people have died. the ferguson fire starte four ago and has led to the indefinite closure of yosemite national pa during peak tourist season. we're only halfway into this may's fire season, and be on track to be the worst on record. joining me now to discuss this are fire scientist brandon erllins and publi of "the mendocino voice," kate maxwell, via skype. thank you for being here. >> sure. >> kate, can you give us ann update how things are going in mendocino and what progress firefighters have mad in recent days? >> sure. so the fires have slowed in recent days which is a big relief for people here inm docino and lake counties. a lot of the mandatory evacuations have beenlifted. a lot of the advisory evacuation vs. been down grade -- evacuatis have beenowngraded so people have been able to return to their homes. the river fire, the fire primarily to theth, has slowed in growth. and the's been a slowing of

growth of the ranch fire which has been active uptil this week. things are looking good on that front. >> some good news. redwood valley in mendocino was devastated last year by another deadly fire. kqed's investigation foundpr blems with evacuation orders and communications in that case. how havehings compare this year? has it been a better situation? >> the fires in the fall were terrifying because they started in the middle of the night in a fairly rural community that is populated, but people weren't able to get out quickly or be notified in time. i think one significant difference this year is that most of veuations have happened during the day. people are a lot more alert a aware about how to receive emergency evcuations, and the local agencies have been really doing a good job about tryih to get information out to everyone as quicklyp as sible. there has been a shift, but

people remain one e after the inciden >> terrify, second year in a row. naandon, you conduct research on forest ment, study these things. and i know in politics, there's talk in sacramento in recent weeks around issues like fire suppression and the history and fw that's sort fueling these bigger blazes. is that a fair characterization, i guess, to start? >> sure. it is. there's certainly ane com to fire suppression itself and the fact that it's sort of removed one of the regulating mechanisms for fuels andegetation development. there's other aspects, as well. >> yeah. talk about this. i mean, how mh of whate're seeing now in your mind is the result of climate change and drought, and sort of some of the extraordinary condiwons, and uch of it is because of what we have or havendone in terms of forest management and other, you know, policies? >> you know, it's hard to put a number on that, of course. but i would say, you know,

there's probably equal parts there. just for simplicity. you know, th fact that throughout the state we're pushing probably 10 years in many areas for fire suppression, that's quite a bit of time for accumulation of fuel and again for regeneration of other vegetation, as well. so there's noth doubt that's fueling it. the climate aspect of it is real, as well. >> yah. aur mind, i mean, we hear a lot of talk i think especially among republicans thatart of is is due to environmental regulations and challenges when people do want to do this vegetation management. do you think that the state need to be taking a lead and changing some of the policies? >> i think thare. in some ways it's happening now, it's probably not happening quickly enough. but it's being recognized that there is -- that's a hindrance to doing some of the treatments that we need on the landscapes. >> kate, i want to turn bk to you. you were there this week when senator -- u.s. senator kamala haf is visited onehe fire zones.

i know she called for moreal fed help both around fighting fires and paying for that but also the forest management issue. give us a sense of what she said and how hopeful she is that the federal government will come . through on th >> you know, senator harris was sheiddletown yesterday, and stopped by one of the evacuation service is and talked to people lake count many of whom have been evacuated multipler times oe last couple of years and also with the firefighters there. and you know, o of the things rat she emphasized was that federal funding lly essential in order to combat fires on this scale. this really is the new normal. and california has put a lot of money into fighting these fires. she also brought up the need for local control in terms of wild land management. beyond getting more federal regions, i these think she emphasized the need to listen to the expertise of the

wildfire -- firefighters andhe agencies here on the ground in california who have been dealing with these things andlso have a lot of information and o knowledge how to do better wild land management year round, sort of both controlledurns and also how to take care of those national forests. >> of course a double-edged sword. i know we've also seen locals allow building in aas that are very dangerous fire zones we have a few minutes left. i want to touch on the deald trump s, our president tweeted this week, basically blamingci environmental po around water for these fires. brandon, isthat fair characterization? seems not so much. >> well, you know, as with many ofthose, there's little bit of truth in there. but you know, to put the blame solely on that, of course, is not probably accurate. >> what we're talking about, kate, i know is whether there's enough fire -- water to fight these fires, you said earlier there's been a lot of conversation about t tweets in mendocino. what are you hearing from folks there about the president's characterizatio

>> you know, i think politics in mendocino don't always break down neatly along party lines. people here feel connected to the ndlandscape, they care about drought and water management policy. but i think there's also a lot of concern for people who can see the wild lands in their baco yards or re living in the forest and can see how the fire season is getting longer, and how water reserves are drying up in aha way is not necessarily directly linked to water policy. so -- >> yeah. water is obviously -- always a controversial issue in california. we saw already sort of some movement by federal officials to use those around policy. do you think this is something that the federal government could use to undermine environmental regulations in california other or do you think it's a one off from the president? >> i think there are enough safeguards in place now that we're not going to real able to surk imvent a lot -- circumvent a lot of protections from the environmental

stan oint. ess what i'd like to see is us work within the bounds that we have right now to justpa e our efforts. i don't think that we're solely imited right now by the regulation itself. there are -- there's enough we can do right nowth even w existing regulations. >> sounds like what you're saying is that it's more a will and the funding than policy changes. i know, you know, they're debating a lot of policy changes. i mean, is there one thing you think that lawmakers should be doing thisar >> i will honestly like to see a push just toward basically movement on treating more acres. i mean, i know that seems like a simplistic sort of answer, but i think we know enough now -- from the science and even from thean landement perspective to move forward without, you know, cause for concern that we're going to do something terrible. i thinst we can push forward and learn along the way as opposed to getting it all right beforet going. >> we're going to leave it there. brandon collins from u.c. berkeley, tha you very much.

and kate maxwell from the "mendocino voice," we appreciate you both joining . th november, california voters will decide the fate of 11 ballot easures. one of them, proposition 10, could vastly expand rent contr by letting cities cap the rent on any residential property, ones. proponents argue that the measure's needed to address the state's housing shortage and high cost of living. oppones claim prop 10 would discourage new development, lead to more evictions, and take rental units ohe market. joining me now with analysis are kqed politics and government reporter guy marsarotti. tenant right attorney, overseas tobner who supports proposition 10. and debra carlton, senior vice president of the californirt ant association who opposes the measure. thanks for joining me. >> thank you. >> thank you. thank you. >> let's start, i want you to sort of lay out what would proposition 10 do, and as importantly not do? >> let's start i think if proposition 10 passes it wouldn't put rent control in every city in california felt what it would do is let cities gi t the power back cities to

make that decision. so cities that haven't been able to put in place rent control would be able to if prop 10 passes. then there are the cities that haveic histly had rent control back in the day. a hand in the bay area. they would be able to expandel are e rent-control -- eand rent-control laws. there are things banned by the state for the past dades because of cost of hawkins that could be repealed by this. two things that people are fobusing on -- n one, around single-family homes. cannot be rent controlled berrently. condos cannot rent controlled currently. and also when a tenant moves out of a unit, land lords currently can then hike up the rent. all those things would be bann by if proposition 10 passes. >> really opening up a lot more options to cities who choose to exerchem. before we move to the other panelists, who put this on the ballot and who's puttingto mone oth sides? >> the yes side is being driven by the ai health care foundation. this is based in l.a. they've taken on big ballot initiatives around prescription

drug prices, state and local slow-growth measures. they're the big financial backers. they put in $10 million ca the aign last week. they're still going to be expected to be outspent by the no side.lo we have devers up and down the state opposing this measure. >> so joseph, you represent tenants who are being evicted and having tro with landlords. tell me why you're in favor of the measure. >> this is aboutg giv control back to localities. the it's created problems for localities and fraud in rentnt l. and it's taken a lot of units out of th rental housing stock ghat otherwise would be in the rental housintock because of conversion. oh >> -- and condo conversion. >> you think this would help the tenant. you have another position. why is this a bad idea inyour mind? >> well, you know, the legislature understood back in the '90s that this was needed because there were -- we call them extreme forms of rent control. that is cities were imposing it

on single-family homes. they were imposing it on new construction. and property owners were get ng each in berkeley, we -- even in berkeley, we lost about 3,000 single-family ownehomes because owners said i'm not going to work under this system. if prop 10 passes and turns it back to the city, i think we'll unfortunately see it again. we're alreadyow seeingrs getting out of the market. this will be worse. >> is vacancy controlled which was ntioned, the ability to essentially hold the price when somebody moves out, is tha the biggest fear, would you say? >> that's certainly a big concern for us. that's a line for us. vacancy decontrol means that an owner maybe had a tenant in place for historicalng time. so they may be below the market. in san francisco you can't raise your rents, but 60% of the consumer rents above 60% of the index. they could move it to the market or whatever the market will bear. >> it seems like you're saying the same thing but on opposi des. that you feel like this would

help tenants and saying this could hurt them. how do you -- what do you see as control?fit of rent >> regarding this notion that we'll see extreme represent control, that's just not true and not the reality. i think it's mostly a scare tactic. that's a scary word, extreme rent control. that's an industry word. and the reality is, is that cities and counties can't even pass vacancy control. they can't even administer vacancy control statutes. berkeley had vacancy onctrol, and they spent half a million dollars in the 1990s to defen their vacancy-control ordinance. there's lots of litigation surrounding vacancy control. ll landlords are allowed to come back and ask for a fair retren. and theyentitled to a hearing. the hearings are expensive, they last three days. i've been litigating in vacatnc control for the last 20 years in hoebl ho contracts. it's -- mobile home contracts. it's not going to come to reality. the fact of the matter is thatci for 20 yearses and

counties had the opportunity to pass the vacatincyvacancy-contr statutes and didn't. places that wil probably have vacancy control like berkeley or santa monica, but the larger cities and notion that extreme rent control will proliferate, it's not going to happen. t joe's talking about politics of this which leads into why this is on the ballot to begin with. i guess tostart, can you explain what's happened or not happened in the legislature ove the last20-some years? and also do you think it's cities c that a lot of will be rushing -- i mean it seems like there would be a fight at the local level on any attempts to change whatever hat.pens. >> ri i think it's been at the legislature a lot of not happening. we saw earlier this week an attempt to repeal the cost of hawken fail. and this is the initiative system. you know, i think a lot of lawmakers in sacramento might be willing to reform rent-controll s, maybe move buildings in on a rolling basis.

weept don't ha we don't have this. you repeal it or keep the status quo, all or nothing at all, that's our initiave system. as to what cities would do in reaction, i think there's a lot of unhaertainty. yo -- berkeley has been the only city in the bay area to move forward and kind of lay out a plan and say if prop 10 passes, there is what we would do. we would move buildings 20 years and older into rent control. we'd bring bck vacancy controls. other cities, there's a lot of uncertainty. >> deborah, do you feel like in some ways the real estate and development industught this on because of how hard any attempts to change this have i been foug the legislature? >> there was never a conversation or the ability to have a conversation about a middle ground or a compromise. the proponents of the bill was ab-1506 said to repeal or nothing. we never were able to have the conversation which i think would have been moreha beneficial going to the ballots. >> the realtors are one of the biggest spenders in sacramento.

they fought any attempts to change this. in hindsight, do you think that's what led us to the situation political? >> perhaps, but 1 5r506 was the first real attempt. we hadn't seen it before because rsis had been in place for 20-some-odd ye it's important that we have new construction. and unfortunately, we fear we're going to see less of it if this proposition passes. >> joe, what do you think would outually -- think vacancy control you don't see as likely in a lot of places. what wdo you thinkld happen sort of in a local level if this passes? >> i think the reality isn -- big cities, we're going to see ingle-family homes and condos return to rent control which is important for local communities. i've been in tenant rights for 20 years. ring the first dot com boom we saw splacement. people just moved down the o and in san franci oakland. now we're seeing people moving

out of the bay eastockton, people of color. our see it has been gentrified and this will return a huge amount of units to rent control to people in the city. >> you see that differently. if thisoes fail, whatdo you think needs to happen - a housin california. >> we do. what we've been working on in the legislature, obllously we rgue it's about supply. we have proposition 1 that's on the ballot. that's toring $4 billion to affordable housing. rent control, remember, there's means testing. andlord will still have the ability to decide who's in the unit. and we saw in t '70s under extreme forms of rent contro gentrification because owners get to make the decision. because there's no means testing and no way to determne who in those units, you know, the owner has a choice of the guy who drives the bmw or the person they're not really sure who can pay the rent grwng d. you'll take the sure bet. i think that's most unfortunate because we've never been able to talk about means testing.

>> you want to respond at all? >> i don't know how means testing could even be carried out. a landlord will pick a wealthy nant. in t reality, i doink it can ply out -- can play out in any way. there's no doubt that rent control keeps peop housed and keeps people low when it's not perverted by state statute costa hawkins is one of those paways and munities that administer rent-control statutes the l effect allows landlords to manipulate the system to take foits out from under rent control. years we've been seeing the fraud. you might remember the landlord that raised rent to $8,000 on the lady with cancer -- >> my neighborhoodactually. >> in burnall heights, exactly. we see lanords committing fraud to do fake transfers to relatives and convert to condominiums when they're not allowed to because condominiums are exempt from rent control.

rent control works in the perfect form. the state statutes have perverted this. this proposition 10 is an opportunity to give control back to the municipalities, to let them decide how their cities will looou >> i think have a different point of view on what things like the acts have doneto the market. can you briefly tell us your joe?onse to >> sure. joe mentioned the ellis act. that state laways you can't stop a property owner from going out of business. unfortunately, foreign policies. rent control, owners leave. and with, again, if prop 10 passes, strict forms of rent control, owners have the ability to go out of business. and the small mom and pop who have in most cases less than ten units which that is aarge majority of our population in ca fornia, we unfortunately believe they will leave. and we saw that in berkeley in the '70s. we lost about 3,000 single-family homes. and we think that's what'to goig appen again. they'll sell their homes, and tenants are going to gets an eviction notice instead of a to get an eviction notice

instead of a rent increase. that's unfortunate. h >> thank you very mu all of you. >> thank you. turning now to business. branlis is an e-commerce startup base in san cifransco. it got its start in with the mission to over quality product at a low cost. inventory includes a broad range of necessities from food to auty supplies tofice supplies, even with a price tag of $3. to hear morebout her company, co-founder and ceo tina sharky joins me. c thanks foing in. >> thank you very much for having me. >> so everything at brandless is $3. very low. tell me what kind of products oh're talking about. >> my gosh. first of all some are two for three, some are three for three, to be clear. yes. the whole idea was to crea a simple, organized, edited assortment of the things that you love from the snacks, whether they are all non-gmo,

mostl organic, lots of vegan, lots of gluten free, from chips to crackers to cookies, you name it. and then in the essentials so organic spices oregon ganic all-purpose flours and baking mixes. extra virgin organic olive oil from italy. ganic coconut oil. >> and beauty products -- >> we have clean beauty. everything doesn't have the things you don't want, no phthalates, not animal tested. personal care, toothpaste, essential oil, mouthwash -- >> how do you keep the price s low? >> it's funny you said we're the ant anti-brand. we're not really, but we're redefining what it means to be a brand based on truth, based o authenticity, and being in direct relationship with the people we serve. that direct relationship is actually how we manufacture. o we create all these extraordinary products for brandless, and we ship them directly to our distribution rs cen then we ship them to you.

so all those intermediate steps that you currently have to go through, that you're not even aware of, by the time you pull s aething off of shelf, it's taken a long road from where it was create and the markups and all of that makes the cost so ns much more exe. >> was there a particular moment that sort of drove you to create this brand? you've been in business for a while and done a lot of other things. they're different from this. >> yeah. would say it's interesting -- it started with co-founder. we decided that we adually wano change the world month our own small, humble way. other things at the time but said let's carve out the time and the space to actually figure out what's oken and what we want to fix. i came from building communities. i came from building commerce andmedia and direct consumer experiences, all digital. and he came from creating consumer package goods products, i said, what if weere to like fuse it and build a community that's based on something biggen

than any that we sell. the whole idea that we can democratize access to better things at fairor prices everyone. and so we set off to do that. and it's only beenr. a y we celebrated our first birthday a year ago. >> happy birthday. >> thank you. >> you kind of touched on this, but call yourself a social capit capitalive. how important is -- capitalist. how important is it from a business perspective, too, to have a company aimed at the broader good?st that's not j -- i know you guys give money to programs -- programs for feeding folks when you buy something. >> we build brands for profit and for purpose. ofttimes, people will pu purpose as a campaign, or they'll do it when they're profitable or a do it a one-day event. profit and purpose is built into everything that we do. and it's crit tally importan who we are and what our community stands for. we partner witheeng america, there's 41 million people in this country that if hungry every day. and feeding america is the rgest hunger relief organization in this country with the broadest network of

food banks. when you check out at brandless, we will purchase a meal throdih fe america in your honor because we believe that the doing in life is what matters. and we don't washington capitals for giving tuesday. every time you can dong a tle act of kindness is how brandless rolls. our community is always doings. thi as we celebrated our first anniversary, we'd already given away over .6 million meals. >> wow. you have a lot of experience as an entrepreneur and executive. you co-founded ivillage, at the time, the largest online community for women. you are president of ba center. how's the business landscape changed as a womannd in tech business broadly? >> it's funny, but i never really identified as a woman or a manin terms of who i was as a leader. i'm tina. i have my experiee, my passion. i'm also a mom. i'm also a friend. i'm also a sister. i'm lots of when i show up at work, i'm a

leader who's there to build an extraordinary business. and i don't think of it as -- it's a female-run business, it's a business thatfully expresses the commitment and passion of the people that come to work for us. and the movement that we're building. and so i think the landscapehas omanged in that having that real seat at the tablehing that's very important. i represent not only my own myiness experience but also personal experience. and my, you know, 89% of the purchasing in this country is do>> by women. right. >> so the idea that women wouldn't have a seat at the table for any consumer business, lesi alone any ss to begin with is kind of crazy i don't think about it as, oh, i'm a woman, therefore. i think i'm tina, and this is m experience. and i don't want to ber laned given an advantage -- to be labeled or given an advantage other than skills and passion an what i'm building and executing. >> the experiences you bring to it -- >> absolutely. that'st because of w i've accomplished. not just because of, you know, what profile or cohort i fall

into. >> right. what would be your biggest piece of advice for entrepreneurs? >> i would say always be your authentic self. authenticity scales. bring smarter people around u th complement your skill set. and complement what you can bring to the table. always make room in diversity and inclusion --'s not just about color or race or ethnicity. it might be about style. it might be about approach. and so not everody has the same approach to things. >> right. >> as an entrepreneur, part of your job is to sort of convene a diverse set of voices, a diverse set of experience, and a diverse set of opinions. and surround yourself with people who actually want to stay with you and your movement for the lulg game. >> fs. thank you very much for coming? >> thank you for having me. you can find more at kqed.newsroom. thanks f♪ joining us.

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>> a nail biter in ohio has publicans on edge. i'm robert costa. the midterm elections just three months away. challenges and the russia nvestigation loom over the president. tonight,we on "washingto." president trump: thank you. thank you, ohio. i love ohio. robert: a special election in a ruby-red part of ohio ends in a dead heat. president trump: we must electns more repub.ma : robert: democrats say the midterm elections is a bell weather. >> it's about guard rails because we have a republicanus and republican senate that are not putting any guardon rai his president. there's no accountability. robert: but democratsre facing opportunity and internal debates d