♪ ♪ >> tonight on kqed newsroom, the nation has a new class of state lawmakers ready to tackle housing and health care. plus wildfires and yur ealth. a look at the effects of wildfires on your lungs, skin and heart long after the flames are out. and the rise of millennials in politics. berkeley voters just elected the youngest council member in city history, a 22-year-old cal grad. hello and welcome to stakqed. i'm thuyu. jeff sessions will be remaced who resigned under pressure. barr served during the george w.h. bush administration. the nomination came during a week when the nation paid tribute to mr. bush at his

funeral? meanwhile in california, the slate legislatureen the new session with the largest number of democrats in history. they are propos a host of legislation, including far-reaching measures to tackle heousing crisis. joining me now to discuss all of this are sean walsh, a republican strategistwi wilson walsh and kqed politics and gernment editor scott shafer and politics government producer and reporter, guy maserati. good to have you hear. >> good to be here. >> s sn youved during the first bush presidency and william barr was there then. what can you tell us h abo. >> it is inspired about president trump and he did somethg right. he's a tough law enforcement guy and he has the confidence of the law enforcement in a d not pushed around, that said he will not respond or react and try to curry favor of the president if he fires a tweet storm at him at

3:00 in the morning >> there is controversy about him regarding a 1999 memo he wrote about the sweepiti presid power and the constitutional authority to act without congressional permission or inia dce of certain statutes. >> i think don't think it is controversial at all. people believe the powers of presidency are very strongviand the on between the three branches. you will see that memo and criticism that he helped support president bush during iran-couldn't rairan iran-contra but he will be >> what about the fate of john kelly. the president might have another personal announcement tomorrow. >> there has bnl talk that the president hasn't spok his chief of staff for quite sometime and he's had a rough tenure in the last few months. he came in as the grown-up that avwill keep order and the trains run on time and it is really difficult to do that in this white house. m and it doee you wonder why

anybody, including mr. barr, c would want te into this white house. i mean, you leave with a worse reputation than you enter, almost in every ce with maybe one exception and you have to put with all of this midnight tweeting. look at what happened to jeff sessions and now john kelly. called rex tillerson his former secretary of state dumb and lazy today. >> dumb asr a k. >> dumb as a rock. excuse me. which is good for an oil man, i guess. itke you are drilling in the rock. okay. but the point is, why would you want toome into this. really it is maybe because barr is at the end of his career, not looking to move on to something bigger and better. >> sometimes they just wnt to sorve. that was questioned when john kelly took the job andome said he did it out of sense of duty to country. >> that is exactly right. if you are au patriot and feel the country is going over the sid of the cliff, would you try to help out and i know number of people have been asked whether they should join the trump administration and they say i don't want to put up with

that stuff but the country needs me. but the country does need a guy like barr now. >> if your concern about the norms of something like the department of tjustice,s is someone who headed the department of justice and he may have more respect from the rank ile and as a democratic process we're better off going through the hearing process in front of senate judiciary that this will instead of stking with an interim appointment. this week a senioride to kamala harris resigned after it was revealed that the state paid to settle a sexual harassment and kamala headed the department at that time. scott, given the me-too movement how damaging might this be for harris now that she's considering a run for president in 2020. >> i think there is a question of credibility here. because mr. wallace worked her back no to district attorney in san francisco and went with her to the department of justice when she was in a.j.ye and s

in sacramento when she won the senate. clthis womanmed he demeaned her and made her crawl underhe desk to change paper in a printer that he had put there. in december of 2016, after the election, she filed this lawsuin then after kamala harris goes to the senate, xavier becerra signed off on this she claims she didn't know about the allegations or the lawsuit and the payout. i think she should have known. at some point in that process, ould have known. and so she didn't know, why didn't she know. whether or not it is a big deal for her, we'll see. she's about to announce whether she's going to run for president in 2020. could become an issue. >> and also this week, governor-elect gavin newsom was the xico to attend inauguration of the mexico new president. might indicated that he pull california national guard troops from the border and he criticizepresident trump's

labelling of the migrant caravan as a national security emergency. can we expect newsom to stand up to the white house more th governor brown did on immigration policy in. >>it i think might be too early to see how he'll deal trump administration. i think i'm more interested within the state of california. one thing immigrantvo ates long push governor brown to do was expand medical and allow undocumented adults to get into medical and he risted thats part of the budget process and we'll see if newsom go as long with that and thais theore concrete to look at, how he deals with policy in the stee. >> andy brown, like most governors, i understand you neee the l government sometimes when there is a wildfire, earthquake and floods and all kind of disasters and jer brown is critical on climate change and less so on immigration so maybe ane adjus in terms of maybe newsom will withdraw the national guard from the border.

deploy them somewhere else. but i don't see a huge change. not calling for the abolition of i.c.e. i don't thihe. >> go. >> i think that gavin newsom has one eye on the white house and one eye on the state house and the problem with that is if your eyes are in two different directionsn ou hite head. leu had $40 billion on the first day of theslative session put forward by the democrats in spending. number one, number two, i think he wants to bring a foil against the trump administration and if you are a califor governor, i don't care who you are, you are automatically consi presidential contender. >> in the meantime he needs to run the state and now he's working with the state is leture, that is, that the democrats have a megaimagine ortd. three quarters ofoth houses are hold by democrats. how do you think that will work between the governor and that democratic megamajority. >> it is fascinang to watc this week i was making calls around housing legislation fromduced and you hea everybody how excited they are to work with governor newsom and follow up on his campaign

pledges to spend on housing. and if housing advocates are hearing that, you know childcare advocates are hearing that and higher education advocates are hearing that. everyo sees the new governor as their meal ticket to the get ing that they didn' under governor brown. that being said when he talked about priorities on the campaign trail, he was talking about them on a four-year basis. i don't think he expected to get to all of the priorities before spring training and so it is going to be interesting to see how he works that push and pull and also he doesn't want to be seen as coming in after jerry brown and spending a lot of money money, he wanted to carry that fiscal stewardship forward and i'm skipt cal -- >> and we mentioned health care. he's promoted single payer which is ace $400 billion pr tag. but the guy is right. he already this week was beginningo temper expectations with the legislature. the last thing he wants to do -- and jerry brown said don't screw dt up. he's worked h to bring some fiscal stability and i think newsom will be loathe toess that up.

>> before we go, i do want to take a moment to touch president george h.w. bush. we saw many moving eulogies this week and for you it was personal, sean, you just returned this morning from texas where you aended the burial. and as we mentioned, during pl bush's tenure, you were a white house assistant press secretary and had some photos of you from that era withe president. you were also a special assistant to the president. how wod you describe his legacy? >> i think his legacy is a op democratic e i think the european union is a direction result of him and not taking a victory lap after the war and not embarrassing gorbachev and doing the right thing when they arrested gorbachev and they had to fight back to take back russia and making sure he didn't mes the berlin wall. and he did raise taxes. taxes and s, no new people criticized him but when he did that the economy at that

time, believe it or not, needet t. it needed it because with the tax increases cameti ement spending reform and you got right after he left office, bill clinton with a surplus in money and the country was stabilized. so were is a man did what was right, even though all of his political aides and advisers said it is proitically. so it is quite a contrast from what we have in our politicsy. to >> speaking of bill clinton, he did leave that gracious note for bill clinton when he left office. but there were also elements of his record that some people don't remember so fondly, scott. >> sure. any that is true with president. but i think this week during the tributes that were appropriate for president bush, there were aides, activists and leaders in the lgbt community remembering he was not a leading on hiv/aids and a difference compared to the reagan administration and did he say things with more compassion an president reagan but that

is one area that is a hole in his record. but i don't think anybody can doubt that his -- he was a kind person, honest, integrity and all of the things that some people feel are lacking today. >> certainly very moving video this week as we're watching the burial and the feral. thanks to all of you. scott shafer, guy maserati and sean walsh. it was only two weeks ago that the bay area was cloaked in thick smoke from the camp fire. docto and air quality officials urged people to stay inside. medical experts sayok wildfire is bad for your lungs and heart, especially for children, the elderly and people with cardiac and respiratory ailments. like secondhand tobacco smoke, the effects of wildfire smoke linger even after the flames die down. medical researchers are trying to determine just how serious the risks are and what can be done about it. joining me now toss dis this are erin glance, and from the center of investigative

hammond and katherine from u.c. berkeley school of public health. welcome to you both. rein you've been talking to people in the bay as far as 200 miles away from the camp fire and still exposed to the smoke. what have they been telling you about the smoke and the health efplcts. >> pare explaining. they can't breathe. their schools were closed because it was unsafe to breathe inside or outside. we wanted to know what is the health effect of all of this. so we start calling hospitals and found out early for hospitals to give you good data. and so what we decided to do was took back at lyear's fire, the tubbs fire. >> in the north bay. >> north bay. napa and sonoma hospitals and we looked at all hospitals three to the fire toafter see what was happening to people. and what we found was a 20% rncrease of people going to the emergency room cardiac and respiratory issues,

words having trouble beating or with a heartbeat. three to five months after the flames werne. so the air is clear and you look outside and it is a beautiful day. and yet there is still more to people goinghe emergency room. >> and so professor hammond, what does that say to you. because you have lingering effects, three to fve months afterward and we know about the damaging effects of tobacco and secondhand smoke and vehicle exhau, how does smoke from wildfires compare to that? >> well, it -- we -- this -- the research is not complete. but, in fact, one could get as much exsure from thewildfires as if you smoked a few cigarettes on some of the ds that we've had in the bay area lately. >> really? >> yeah. and we know that even smoking a few cigarettes could cause a serious health effect. i was just reading that linda johnson died two days after he smoked a cigarette and hadn't smoked for 14 years and had given up smoking so sometimes

there is that delay that erin talked about. >> how muchld-- how long w you have to be outside breathing in this kind ofsmoke to have it comparable to smoking two or three cigarettes? >> t really depen on what you are doing. if you are walking for an hour, that might be comparable to taking in as many particle as if youad smoked two cigarettes. if you were running, that could be like half a pack. it depends on y wh are doing. >> so if children are outside playing, they're going to be getting quite a bit mndre. >>hat is a scary thought. and i know that, erin, you're this.till reporting on and you're asking the public and medical providers to share their stories about recent wildfires an how it is affected them and their health. how can they reach you. >> we're asking people to text us, text the wor"fire" to 63735. s "fire" to 63735. and the reason we set up this text linesecause the research is raelly incomplete. not only about this firebo but

these fires in general. and the reason is because we have never had fires like this before. camp fire is the worst fire in california history. the tubbs fire was only last the worstt that time fire in california history. five of the ten worst fires in california history are in the last two years. >> and with global rming, there are certainly concerns that we will face more of these fires and they'll be even more fears. e> so when you talk about the kind of review and scientific research coming out of the univsities, we might have to wait a few years to get that kind of quality data. in the meantime we need in the media need to get ahead of this and start asking questions and informing the debate and so we are leaning on the public to help us out. >> kathy, is there any data at all on the long-term effects of breathing smoke from fires? what happens 18 months orlonger afterward? >> there is none that i'm aware nf. but what we do is look again at particle eosurend i think

erin is excellent that he is doing this work and i think we need to go forward planning to do careful studies. but we can look at things like the fact that in the central valley, the particle exposures there have sometimes been comparable to wha we've be experiencing in the bay. they get that every year for several days a year,. >> now, why is that. >> that is air pollution.ha and so is an air pollution problem and i have a major study in fresno and the surrondding area we're seeing increase rates not only of asthma an attacks but also more children have asthma there. we're seeing preterm increase. >> because of smog and smoke. >> because of smog and smoke. and we certainly know these are also the health effects one gets from secondhand smoke. and the levels that we see are g er -- what we were see

during the peak were over ten times the highest level you are supposed to have in any day. >> howid you test about effects from wildfire smoke. i read that researchers could perhaps collect hair samples because hair grows at a certain rate and you could go look at that strand of hair and kind of look at the period of time where there f happened and when the fire happened and kind of determine things from there. >> well that --oing the hair is an attempt to look at exposure and to get the history of the exposure and to see if particular toxic materials are in the hair he more in hair during the time of the fire. so that is what -- but that would not tell youhe about health effects. but the health effects could be stuaned, for ine, as erin is talking about, but looking at the emergency roomhata as collect it. but looking at that very carefully and that - as they collect it, it is not as clean as it will be once it has been carefully vetted through thedi l system. but that can be looked at -- we also look at preterm birth a will there be a spike of that.

we'll have to see. we're seeing some effects from birth defects even. now those birth defects are hard because they are rare enough it is hard to see that. but those studies could be donea >> i want to there is so much that we don't know about these fires because these fires are new. it is a new type of pollution. we had50,000 acres of forest burn and 20,000 buildings, which are full of household cleaning produs, so we're breathing draino that went up in smoke or -- >> paint thinner. >> or gas stations exploded. >> flame retardantha >> all of went up into the air with 150,000 acres ofeaves andrees and it all went up and we're breathing it in and that is a new -- a special new mix fo us. so scientists who have been studying it, they try to build a comparison to pollution in fresn for example. but this is a new kind of

pollution and so because as you said, climate change is here, touse fires become more common, we have to get out ahead of this new mix of pollution which is now upon us. >> is there any data at all, kathy, on whether smokerom residential areas wit the kind of material erin just mentioned is more toxic than fm a pure forest fire. >> it is certainly true as erin said, all of the materialsat have gone up. we know in the mix we have all of the things that you would have in a forest fire with -- from the trees burning, but in addition we have all of the toxic materials that have been in the home that now are volatile and people are now are them.ing so that is definitely true. but in terms of really knowing exactly what and how much, that isot known. that is to be determined. but because, as erin said, this is new. is is a new world. when i want to study something, i write a grant proposal and get

it three years later. >> and so many people are still to this day talking about the smoke and tngs that -- and the ways they think it is still affecting them. so a lot of peoplesiare fo on this. erin glass with reveal, thank youal very much and professor katherine hammond with uc berkeley school of public health. moving on to millennials in politics. sev months after vigil robins graduated, he decided to put his political economy degree to use. heoined a surge of young people running for office in the midterm elections and won a sea e berkeley city council. this saturday he'll be sworn in making him the youngest council member in city history. he joins me now. along with his campan manager marsha -- good to see both of you. >> thank you. >> from one cal graduate to anotheongratulations. go bears. not only are you the youngest city council member in city histor you have the unanimous backing of all of the city council members and the city

mayor and unprecedented task. how did you accomplish that and how are you feeling? >> it is a really unique -- and something the city has beeng waitor for a long time. berkeley is an incredible really beautiful and magical close to my family for generations. but it is also aital cross roads right now. it is a city that is simultaneously itms on the cutting-edge of progress and new ideas but also deeply stuck in the 60s at the same time and also a city that is the host to the public university system in california. >> why did you decide to run? was itri pri because of that juxtaposition or were there other factors. >> a third of theopulation of the city of berkeley is students and it only takes one visit to city council meeting to get a sense of just how manyneighbors believe we need more student housing and don't thlieve that young people should have a voice i city. we hear it time and time again that a given student is only in town for a few years and so they shouldn't have a voice in city government.

>> and you feel underrepresented. >> exactly the student population is permanent and it is growing and it has unique needs that need to be heard and represented in the city hall. >> and marsha, you areye 2s old, a junior at cal a majoring in political science and prior do to this did you have any experience working on political campaigns. >> i had experience here and there. i had the good fortune of working for senator ron -- and turn campaigns here and there but this is the first time i sort of ran a campaign and had some real professional experience. so it was absolutely a learning curve. >> so goinound during the campaign, what was the reaction you were getting fr long-term sidents, your new and fresh faces but you look veryoung. did you have a lot of skepticism. >> we get a fair deal of that but we would generally find one knock on someone's door and get half of that first -- you're only 22 and you want toe repr me. we could talk to our neighbors hbout the issues affecting our

neighborhoods, were deeply receptive. >> what were you telling them. what w re the issurt of your platform. >> the defining issues of our time here in especially our housing and homelessness. you could ask any candidate running for city council in any district and that would be their answer. but we ran on a very specific twist on it too. because with a thir of the population being students, there is a different angle there that ne be represents and needs to be accounted for. based on theylatest sur data from uc berkeley we find 10% of students will experience homelessness and housingns curity at some point during their time at uc berkeley which is unacceptable. we need to build more student housing now which is to the benefit of the students and the long-term residents and thene hbors. the more we could build densely and creatively next to christmas, tchristma m next to s and limit the source of students living further and further from campus and pricing

out others. and you were active to fight tuition fee hikes on campus and also another issue that has really create a lot of tension at berkeley is the issue of conservative speakers and should they be allowed to speak and if so in what format. and this week uc berkeley reached a settlement on that issue. what are your thoughts, both of you, on howni the rsity has been h-- been handling this and shoulrsfar right speae allowed on campus. >> it is a challenging issue facing the campus and the community over the past few years.ve een a student since fall 2016 so i've seen this arc play out. i think in terms of the legal precedent, i think it is clear whether oraw is not they can come to campus and speak. but the reality is that these inslynces have been de traumatic for our campus and our community. i've had to hop police barricades to come to class and be in class with over campus. these are experiences that are deeply disruptive for all of us

who ca berkeley home, not just students and staff and faculty but ople living in berkeley for decades and we hope that -- youpeak to this, but these are not the issues that students are worried y about -- we're wod about housing and security and find a place to live in. and it is somewhat upsetting that this has taken over the oxygen our city. >> and so for you, vigil, want to get past this issue, too and now that you're going to be sworn in tomorrow, what are the top things that you will address right away aakerg office? >> housing will always be number one. and also the virtue of the city is measured by how we take care of our most vulnerablendin the south side neighborhood and in berkeley homelessness is an enormous issue in a city that isn't that big. we have about a thousand people estimated living on the streets and we neth to address from both directions. simultaneously working to service our mostab vuln on the streets but also building

the infrastructure that we need to address the roots, notjust the symptoms of the problem and help get people off the streets anand back into home jobs of their own. it is an elegant proposal that the campus is working on now to propose an installation of a homeless resource center to prode over a hundred beds of housing for currently homeless people on the land that is people's park and we're happy to work with the city and the campus and gown in a productive way. >> and we have about 20 seconds remaining.t you're both pf a larger trend of young people getting involved in elections, we had thehighest turnout in 25 years, and we have aas great of new house members who are millennials. do y think the trend is here to stay or reflective of the times we live in. >> wee not goinganywhere. >> we're not going anywhere. we're here to stay. >> young people alcover the ntry are realizing that they are -- they are their own best

advocates and recognizing the power they have and i hope people are listening. >> and you are a role model for that for sure right now. roger robinson and also marsha. with you both for being us >> thank you for having us. and that will do it for us. find our coverage at kqed.org/newsroom. i'm thuy vu, thank you for joining us. ♪ ♪ ♪

robert: new clues in the mueller probe. is it winding down or up? i'm robert costa. welcome to "washington week >> he was my first choice since day one. respected by republicans. and respeed by democrats. robert: president trump nominates william barr, a former attorney general under the late presidbush for another stint at the department of justice. and as robert eller plows forward, the president steps up his attack on the special council setting the stage for political and legal. but what do new court documents reveal aboutformer trump associates? and what's the game plan for the president's counterreport? plus, staff turbulence shakes up the president's circle.