tonight on kqed newsroom, governor gavin newsome talks to us about tackli challenges ahead. a filings fr uber and other tech companies with a back lash. an alarming picture off how humans and climate change are accelerating climate change. we begin with state litics. on thursday govern gavin newsome had a budget $4 billion higher than the one in january. he wants to address what he says is the state's quote affordbability crisis, especially for working families. one would spend upto four

months paid family leave for parents. they have until mi une to send it a final version to the governor that includes their plan to tackle problems off wild fire to housing. scott shaffer. >> reporter: thanks for joining us.dg the b you released at the state capitol, 4 billion or so larger thanb the one in january. are there things you would like thenclude that you can didn't because of lack of revenue of politicalback from the legislature or elsewhere? >> we need do a lot moren k through 12, teacher training, retention, pay. special education. weut a historic amount of money in to special education and training. we put eclose ton $700 mill tee special ed. but it's still aodest amount

considering the totality.e i'd le move forward more expedishesly with universal tsalth care. the budget reflhat. but obviously it's going to take a few more years to have the resources which are in the multiple billions of can dollars to ultiactely ieve that goal and advance the real goal, which is changing our financio a single frame financing. >> some of the critics say your goals are a little too odd agss. do you feel like you may have to scale that b>k a bit? we've reached some of them. the fact is we're producing less than 100,000 housing units. address the price inla bce or demand in price in balance. that said i want to be realistic but at the same time i want to e odd agss.

we've got a regional strategy that we've laid out. $1.75 billion in the budget for howing. what we call rerks e nerks a goals. upand we'lte our state-wide gel. > you suggest e ested in january that tying gas tax revenue to their prngress on houonstruction. a lot of pushback on that.r some democrats or freshman worry about getting recall or not reelected. >> it's okay. it's carrots and sticks. i had to sue huntingten beach. because they weren't can compliant with their housing element. it's onef the reasons we're 49th out of 50th iper capita housing units. the state of california can't build.lo l municipalities, counties, they're the ones creatinging the condition for investment.

we're putting an unprecedented amount mount of work to support them. if you refuse to do it, how can we leverage that? >> is there a concern you might bein fore worth while transportation projectses? >> no. we'd spend every penny. the point iss there rar job housing linkage. the fact is you don't need new transit funds if you're not building more capacfry individuals to utilize the roads. those producing housing, i think they should be reward and incentiveized. justfi trying to ways to link the two up is important. >> as you know coming back again withsc 50 to encourage more high density housing, especially aroujd job centers and transit hub. it's already been amended to excludcounties like sonoma, more rural countedies.

and there's concern about state over reach and trying e dictate to ate governor. is that concern > legitimate? t me express this. there's a bigger concern. california dream. it's quite literally in peril. i listen on the friks on the far t criticizes the state. middle class are getting squeezed. the have and have nots are manifesting a rehrd number of eless. we've got t our housing issues. with respect sometimes, i'll say it. we all have to row together. i appreciate what scott's trying toing do. we'll see where that bill ends up. but i really appreciate him inspiring the debate anew. and the state shouldn't have to do this. but it in the absence off real local leadership at scale that obviously forces our hand in

sacramento to do something t. enovel, differ >> you've got mini for wild fire prevention. how much liallability they should be on the hook for. some placesike san francisco are considering a public power grid.y whe think about all this and look down the road, what do you see pg&e looking at? >> different leadership, brd, culture we changed a lot of leadership but the can culture hasn't chand. they've got to get serious about safety. serious about investing in the future and frustructure, technology. serus about dealing with the immediate crisis which is two-fold. one, making whe the victims of he fires. aking sure they get the settlements moving forward to make those victim whole. get seriousabout moving out of bankruptcy so they can start getting whole and iesting in the green egrowth future. at the same time we have a very

chal mpging reality and that is very difficult to operate a utility with the hots gettingnd hotterhe dries getting dryer and you have two other major utility i in california that are one bond rating away from junk wabond statuses itself. >> question about police accountability. there a two competing builts. one that calls for more training. another supported by the a krerks lerks u and calls for moreccountability and holding police officer accountable when there's deadly force and it's not just in self dense. where do you fall on those two competing measures? >> nber one e support because it's relevant. ourudgeteflects a record amount of money for what we call our post program. that's anta imp enhancement in the budget. i'm try doing my best to get the rties together. i've got key staff members working -- i don't think it's

exaggerating -- full timenb this to people workingcollaboratively to see if its rrb posable to find compromise. d dispute over a bill off transparency and release of personnel recordoris retroactive not. javier is taking the position it is not retroactive. do you agree with where thene attgeneral is right now or would you strike the personnelo r released? >> edeep respect for the attorney general. he's a friend. personally. and i have great respect and addmeration for t policy and political perspective. we put out oomo in contrast of the attorney general's position.th we believe law allows for re activity. >> thank you so much for joining us. >> grateful. >> now to the tech agency. ride hiling it uber is the

bigge ipo of the year. lyft posted a loss ofore than $1 bill yen in its first earnings report as a public company. drivers went on strike wednesday over wages and labor practice. also this week facebook co founder became the elatest high profile voice to call for regulatinging the tech giant. and san francisco business columnist and casey newton from "the burj." so let's start with facebook co founder. he said facebook has not only harmed it democracy but is now a monopoly and mark zuckerberg's power is unprecedented and unamerican.ig how much w do you think this will carry in the growing calls to break up facebook? or are we loking at more likely

scenario of >> i think regulation is more likely than a break up. this ust in forcement in country is very weak right now. it puts him in a o line early facebook employees sounding the alarm about the company. they say it's too large, powerful and the government needs to step in. so hoouz rr isn't the first person to say this but he is a co founder of the company. and while peopl inside facebook tend to discount hisies, i think his voice care eies widely today. >> ance early fok investor has been out saying the same message. but does achbt break up make sense, kathleen? >> i was kind ofed surprhe never brought up the point. kangress to out law the super voting majority shares that lets

zuckerberg control about 60% of the company, e sn though d most of it to the public. tech compaes, media companis are using the share structure where the owners can still get over 50% control of the company, eve even though they don't owe much of the stock. >> so they don't have to anlser to anybody, not even the sharelders. >> that's not true. i don't knowe' th any one person that can manage a network of more than 2 billion people. that's a point you make is it's hard to thing a person you would want to intrust with all off that power. it would be great eif there was more accountability on all boersds at public companes. but i think at facebook the problems mightje larger than t that. >> kathleen, uber went public this morning at a stock pras of $45. but by the end of the day it

fell 48% to $41.50. it's rather disappointing for a highly anticipated ipo. >> the dow is down big most of the day, almaough iged to close up. i thinkhe big thing happening is obviously lyft went public and is trading way below its price. and also einvestors are just somewhateimistic about the profitability for ethese company.lo it's and winding and full of hills i think. >> yeb think it's actually a story about the market working. they said we're going to lose 1.8 billion over the next year and i think public took a and said what exactly are we here? a piece of they want to tell you uber eats will make money or with micromobility, scooters and other things like that.

but rht now ube is a challenged-looking business and its growth is slowing. >> and there are questions abo how long it can continue to classify its workers as indt endent contractors and employees. and in fact kathleen this week uber drivers went oen a one-day strike. they were protesting their pay, working condigs. and you had an article today in the chronicle about how much drivers actually get paid. how much dohey make? >> the story was more about the discrepancy aboen what the par pays and what the driver makes. and it varies a lot. it's all over the map. no pun intended. that's because the drivers get paid primarily on time and distance. but passengers get charged whatever they charge for the fair. 50 to 60% of the fair. >> the driver could be decent or

very little. >> what they make depends on hof n they work, when they work, etc. >> and theor l department on that issue of independent contractors, the labor department recently issued a letter that pretty much allows uber and lyft, economy companis to keep classifying workers as independent contractors and not employees. ould public opinion make a difference? we saw had it huge uproar and they changed their policies. >> i think theber case a little different from the instacar one. there are a lot of uber drivers who don't want tfuhave it as a -time job. they like the turn it on overh eekend and make few extri bucks. it's hard to think how yo it devise a perfect solution. given somean driversto be employees and some don't.

>> and speaking of public opinion e there's a tech back lash happening san francisco. a higher ip 0 tax to raise for housing and other cost. is this reflective of a broader public opinn push. wanting in the public to hold it tech companies more accountabilitiable for nt fication and things fliekcome and equality? >> tech companis a and rich now. so if you're a supervisor and you want money, they're the obvious place to look.pp i st many of the taxes in the city but to me the ideaia would tax ipos, which are very unprictable, as a way of solving our hardest prob elements seems crazy to me. we know how to solve the housing crisis. ideas rr like the hear supervisors. >> it wasn't that long ago it

theity was passing tax breaks for tech co to market.ove them and we've kind of gone full circle on that. >> and speaking of i perks "o" there are currently lotsnt of insillionaireses. what impact will at have on bay area housing crisis? on reals a big topic estate maerkets. you're seeing all kinds of estimates about what they're going to do 92 housing market? i think redfin put out a study that current squeformer uber employee could buy all of the homes on the maerkt right now in san francisco, oakland and berkeley. and estimated that they could raise the mian home price from 7,000 to $25,000. but honestly, we donnow. we don't know how many of those employees have stock, how many

are going to buy a house. how many are going to take that money andove taa low tax, no tax state. also you have look at what's going on thij market in general and it'st not as vibr it was last year. i think the median home price dipped for the first time in a bunch of years last month. so maybe what you'll see is instead of prices going maup, e they won't go down a mitch hoar maybe they will. itill be interesting to see. >> kathleen with the san francisco chronicle. thank both. >> thank you. >> we turn our attention to climate change. this week a united nations report warns as many as 1 million plants and animal species are at risk of extinction laerjly due toman action and global warming. it included thousand of

scientific studies. and food securaty and clean r. we talk more about this with an energy professor at u.c. berkeley. and founder and president of the political action commitae nextgen america. i know youve been lousy lobbying for president. there was his assertionhe and house committee vote to hold attorney general barr in contempt of congress. t they're still side stepping the issue of impeachment. what do you think it will take to change their mind? >> i think as speaker pelosi said we're in a constitutionals c because this president has -- in an almost blaengt fashion says he does not recognize the separation of powers and he sin eeffect a war

with an equal branch of government. i believe weriare in as and that crisis will enlyen de as the sscong decide how assert their power. and -- >> but yet speaker pelosi is not willing to start imeent hearings. o you thing she's making a mistake? >> i think facts are going to over take her. i've always felt if you don't think there's enough information yet to impeach him, wait until tomorrow. she's being over taken by the fact that this president saidch her br of government doesn't exist as far as he is concerned. the new united nations report goes further than previous studies about the earth's ecosystem. details how close thefate of

humans is is combined. >> the push to understand the extinction revolution as part of our energy and biodiversity futuris here. we see it in honey bees and the impalk onriur food se and on the incred haebl small andg remain patches of nature where we uew see the vaf a bioodiversefry a whole variety of features. and they're high lying this is not just energy. but we have to preserve the planet we're going to live on to >> so there a way to stop this it decline otbiodiversity at this point or is the best we can hope for is damage control? >> helping fiegs geup fish ladders and spawning to settii biodiverse scrips. t stwree dmit to ntsdsic that

we're part of nature, it's not a part of us. and the panel on climate change warns only have about ten years left before we can cat averttrophic climate change. polls show many americans don't view this as their top priority. what do you think it will take for them to make the a top prioort? >> one thing that has changed is for democratic primary voters this is the number one issue. so i think we've seen a real change. d the vast majority of americans understand we need clean energy. what we have is an absolute system failure where the donors from lhe fos fuel community are controlling the republican party and they're refusing to accept the idea that dan and other scientists can know something about science

insisting on makingor sterm money. >> how do we address that, dan. >> >> one, as tom said this is theoup of the agenda and presidenti candidates high eletting 100% clean energy endas and also means more jobs t it means better opportunities for low income americans and stloe is a real nexus around clean sustainable air and that rossage is one that can push beyond simpthry enmental. >> and speaking of the technology that we'r seeing -- because it isn't all bad news. clean energy chnology is getting bet eer, cheaper. frers so what are some of the two or three bright spots that you see right now in terms of progress on fighting climate change? >> there are a couple different ways to answer the question. if you're asking about technology, you can see

renewable energy gen rag is the cheapest there is. so when people say we're go tagging haveo give something up, no you're not. you're go having to to give something up in ord to plot. and another thing that's amazing. the nevada state house voted for a proposition that we put forward on the ballot last year. because 50% rewable energy by 2030. and every republican voted. every republican in both the state senate and the state legislature voted 50% clean energy by 2030. i was shocked. but maybe we're seeing a revolution on both sides of the aisle. >> what about nuclear power though? is that a feasible option? >> it'sut feasible it's in a tricky spot. bah it's so uch more expensi than renewables.

and as energy storage becomes not only cheap but legislature afer legislature, california, new york, arizona are all picking energy storage over natural gas. nuclear is go having to to get safer and caper and easier to install. i would love to see to see it succeed but ite uant match energy maerkt today. >> we have progressive democrat calling for a goverent-led program to create new jobs and clean energy. what do you think about that? >> it's fantastic. do i agree with everything they proposed? no but they came win a huge prupoel for a huge problem.ir and so it's a draft. and everyoneb with a better idea, come wnh an improvemeimprove from thgreen new deal. but for those on the sidelines

who pollute and sharp shoot those trying toolve the problem, i'm not going to give you a single word until you stop polluting and come in with an actual suggestion that's they did. >> i think what'sci ng about the green new deal also is it takes the environmentalnt move to environmental plus social movement. understanding h lec trek vehicles can serve people who ffen can't necessarilyd to buy a car. and moving the environmental movement to the environmental plus social, that's what we have been hoping and waiting to see. and the number of youth that are really taking a lead role from the europe to school strike in the united states, we eare seeing something business leaders, politicians have to listen. frers >> if you watch how it's worked in california and we dee have the most progressive energy legistion in the world. it's been ledy legislation

from the poorest it districts in california. .ey didn't go along with you look at who dhitd redo. people said they ghu knew the airollution was hurting their constituents. >> it's growing. >> that's here.should be leading we should bewi leading justice knowing we'll get the it right policies for climate and justice.h >> do you think about beto oroerk and jay insly. they seem to be mieving away from cap and trade programs and focusing on the cbon tax and more in terms of the framework of electric cars and new technology. >> i don't know if it's better.n those plans quite well. i would say they're not moving away from them. they're recognizing what

california is doing,is can whic that we have a carbon price. you need protect boy odiversity, make income generating for low income people. this is much more holistic. >> pleasure to have you both on. >> thank you. and that ll do it for us. as always you can find more of our coverage on kqed.com/newsroom.

robert: standoff between the u.s. and china, in the white house, in congress.rt i'm ro costa. welcome to "washington week." president trump: we have a great attorney general, now the democrats are saying, wean more. robert: president trump asserts executive privilege over the mueller report, and democrats mo to hold the attorney general inontempt of congress. >> there may be some other contempt of congress issues we want to deal with at the same time. robert: republicans want to move on. >> the mueller report has been filed. d i thinkis closed it's time to move on. robert: plus -- trade diste. top u.s. and china officials negotiate as markets remain on edge. next --