tonight on kqed newsroom, as the risk of wildfi res mounts, pg&e shuts off powers to hundreds of thousands of customers acrothe state. also, we will hear from two of the candidates in the race to elect and discuss p prosecutor. plus, a new book by journali aar ex tanhe d inspiring and iconic career of actress meryl streep. welcome to kqed newsroomi michael krasner. we begin tonight with the unprecedented mass power outages across the stat on wednesday, pg&e began shuttingff power to roughly 800,000 customers in northern and central california. úaffected areas include napa an

sonoma counties where the tufts fire in 2017 cited neighbors like coffee park in santa rosa. the utility giant shut off power to parts of counties -- 34 counties to reduce the risk of wildfires in ndy conditions. according to cal fire, majority of the states destructive while wildfires have happened in octothber. joining me now areanthony to bot h of yoa u, cox welcome sense of how this wildfire season is a shaping up compared to lt year with the camp fi and now we are approaching november, which was when the camp fire broke outeain y november. that's right. in comparison to the last few years we experienced under 200,000 acres of land burned in california. this time last year, we were overllion acres of land burned, a relatively mild season in comparison to the . fsolame ew

ther sweats year s that's due to the rain and much we haven't had earlier into the year. hover we are now to the titend to get fefiysinre th infr meatthe e ba an d now in southern california some of the largest fires we es pp hareti aartost have power ou affected cal fire's ability to monitor and fight fires? >> yes. we actually ha put lot of effort into preparing for blackouts ourselves as an agency. the ouar run r operations, even fiatwhen the is no power. >> let me press you a bit, what about monitoring, are you better off -- for example, if s b down because they don't have power, ability to quickly respond tofi >>e always have a backup is maybe the besta way to put it. whether thnoa t berabadised o

internet, we have that ability. so, we are a redundancy agency when things are not working le vels that they typically are, and we obviously prepare for them. the cameras that are out western u.s., the alert wildfire cameras for wildfire verification or tool that are very helpful, if ey are not available then we revert toin puaircraft in the air to see if there is something going on to see if there is something go ig on. all about redundancy, this is the largest scale that we have seen for a power outage across the state. and it ju means that we have had to revert to the plans that we have been e tting in pl since the beginning of the year. >> let me go to jeremy, jeremy has been talking to people in oakland, there's a lot of anger and frustration about these outages, what have you en hearing? >> a lot of anger and fr jtration. whathan was saying that cal fire has backups in place, a lot of these residents do not communication from pg&e rat regarding these blackouts was

confusing for residents who th felt like got short notice t abe blackouts, and then once they were for sure going to be happening in parts of the y ba, &eeapgonlinere, the webs was down, and that made it ff extremely ult to find out ho w to be losing power, so th s a source of frustration for residents and then once the frustration -- power was actually off pg and e was warning that it could take days to restore even after extreme úpeople to be out of power dafo , can bedifficult because food you have in your fridge that will go bad during that period of time. >> particularly the people ityo said medical ededdevices, e what has been california office of emergency services role in all this ri the power outages. did they get any advanc warning?>> the california offic emergency services does get advance warning meaning they were finding out about this

event likely earlier than residents affected so that they can prepare for what will happen when the target is also an event of this they were helping local jurisdiction enepare for the of a blackout. doing things l ke helping lo officers get intersections, where the lights are going to be down, to put up temporary stop signs and let people know that theyshould treaties intersections as four-way stops. then they were also doing things like getting information out wh in mm their ities to charge their phones and have access to aicoonnditioning. i wafrom callaway asked, he was saying for them this was the second highest level, which is close to an all hands on deck situation. it was not the level of at we saw last november with a camp fire which was a mass casualty incident, but you know, cal oes was certainly putting a lot of resources intothis. >> back to you jonathan, governor reason newson recently

signed 22 new bills. your thoughts on what is ng actually in the ofr those bills, in terms of helping you? >> exactly. i think maybe the mo exciting part that we are attacking this problem from all angles right now which includes erything from the jor projects going on statewide for vegetation management, as well as new helicopters, additional fire engines, and other things that get as much attention, like things such maa land-use planning. we have a whole bure auw juri icintinos on land-use decisivery high fire hazard severities oneas rn serv goes way beyond just 911, into some much larger social issuest >> speaking of, how much tougher has your b been from climate ange? >>more difficult, the data of the science reaffirms that the m wildfire probsed on the changes we are seeing, and i think more important than all of that is the temperatures. with the temperatures, thch ge in vegetation, as well as the nighttime temperatures, when you change nighttime

temperatures higher than what a th, feel moisture recovery does not come through in our fire behavior increases. >> does cal fire have th resources to thinkek weep are adding to it evy anstage d that we see. and i think, this increase in legislation and all the different tions being taken are a very g step in the right direction to confront ro this pblem. >> jeremy what have we learned from these outages about what we need to do about the infrastructure, the old saying wealthiest economy infifth world, we have kind of a third world and for structure. >> just like how living climate ch this, so two mismanagent by ispoangepgof&e a are seeing in the aftermath during this criticism from residence, criticism from local and state lawmakers of the utilities sayingth at theieyr frastructunere, to

resort, so that it is not that we are eiseng massive ac time, you know, extreme fire seasons might be becoming the new normal here, you ve lawmakers saying these blackouts can absolutely not become the new normal. sa at the me time, i think the fact that were ion over potentially in e you might say i don't have much fire risk where my home is, why am loi ng power not in the cells with the extreme wins, enthm e way thi'at pg&e's the structure works is you ur might have lecture city lines connected to somewhere in the hills where there is more risk oe trf sowi emcausnde of p bla acinkoctutsts than ru peoplelike to see in these situations. >> i like tod hear what woyou to say about residents worried about businesses fothis matter, three things that they can do. >> yeah, i think one, isheigen

wildfires that we ve seen probably ever in califo right now. the three biggest things i would saisfirst of all, have a plan to get out of your wur neighbors, and ensure that o homay be wh elderly or have a disability in your area. two, clear the vegetation around your home, there is no substite for aggressive -- space. thirdly it just being hyperaware out of doors inernt alfis inthis fo statlie are . human rncausedia degree. our own worst enemy when it comes to fiarre e soe i >> what spout defensible e, there's a lot of concern that there may not be enough fire inspectors particularly in rral areas. >> that is beinaddressed at the moment at a much higher level as to what is the best way and how we n actually inspect more property statewide it is without a doubt one of the best things that can be

e-atonhow -otheyon can defend home. >> notwithstanding using people rious and profound change nd of looking at civilization are private ownership of utility, anything like tha >> you expect when lawmakers return to the nextsession that there will be conversations about this and the possibility f anreciifsccio mutantkiisng nio hearings ever discovered of the same time governor gavin newsom in a press conference last ev night, was saying if you say it did switch over control of pacific gas & electric to the state you arste ill that is potentially outdated, and for structure that needs significant work. even if the executives are not running the utility, there still might be that persists and takes a long time to fix. >> we will have to see where it all u goes, thank so much for o

appreciate the work you are ini > inless than it four jo san francisco votell head to the polls in addition to deciding the fate of local measures, they will alsoelect the city next district attorney, it is an open contes with four candidates vying to be the cities top prosecutor but it is now mired in controversy. mayor london breed appointed one of those candidates, susie lofton as interim da after incumbent george gaskin resigned to explore a run for the da race in los angeles. with us now as the interim district attorneys easy susie loftus, and one of her rivals sc the san frand da race. think welcome to both of you. nice to have u both. i will begin with you, we will get to the issues here, but, how do you react to the us interim da post, unfair in terms oc the electoral s? >> michael, th ri eay inwell ka to withdraw the appointment, and to cease and desist her interference with what would

have been e first open district attorneys race and hundred years. voters in san francisco were excited about having the chance to elect their district atton slate, and clearneythat n a awaya wa. ngi would have said no you you >> correct. >> san franciscans are concerned about what is happening on the streets, they are concerned about the fact that we ha70 car break-ins happening every day. so, when a vacancy opened up in what is an incredibly important office for our city, the mayor followed her ob gation and pick the person she the most experienced and ready for the job, that is me, change has to start are doing is not at vemb 5, the opg le inanrk our city will wedecide who keeps a job and wh at i will do point e at is >> no feeling that you get it and under sanford's advantage? >> i thk what i'm getting is another job, to do well in campaigning, mother of three am used to having a lot of jobs and i'm committed to doing it all well. >> let me ask you and ask, what is the one top priority you i would wichange t perhaps did not do as well

under george gaskin as it should have or might have. >> i've been nning for th office for not ofupsorsbee pele viand ing sentces e go are boset up. they are fed up with seng glass on ery street from a car break-in. they are fed up with stepping over needles and having a city infrastructure that says there is nothing we can do about it. what we hato do is get back to bringing neighborhood prosecutors to partner with sentences go. o build safety in people are looking for a change, and the change starts now. >> asked him about his fr your perspective what done d and needs to be done. >> we know that george gaskin has done a woefully inadequate job the face riving rising property crime. the surgeon property crime started back when susie was on the policecommission and it has continued to this under george gaskin on estes attorney. the other thing he has failed to do is toprosecute and hold

unmed civilians.fo i will say, one thing r that george gaskin r serves credit at he often does not get credit for is his willingns to filiminal charges against the deputy sheriffs asdepartment legal teud ing ntm ce requirining thdlenevcath, id district attorney todismiss criminal charges. ceidite overwhelming e haenev committed. >> tis actually what sentences can's are ejecting across the board, continuing to think that people are looking for is the blame game and if we have someone to blame an find fault this enough. san franciscans are looking for solutions. they are looking for a erthlee commission for the first time in 20 years, i reformed the use of force policy that has es i, ltrepoliceed use of force and a decrease in

injury to officers. what they're looking for someone who is going to invest in neighborhood prosecutors, deal with some of e civil rights issues people ar feeling and tenants feeling pushed out. it is time for leadership oad an ap, that is completely different, the stat quo is about finding someone to blame i am about delivering results. >> what about the concern many seem to have about you not having done any prosecutions. >> i've done more years in the a sentences go of justice, th overlast seven or eight years and all the other vei ontrlyd,bi chae ne candidate who comes at the job witha wide variety of experiens, personal and professional that have. f the other candidates i vited my haowve defended people wrongly accused of crimes. thtygu advised people who e il federal judges here in san francisco, we presided over nine jury trials. i have seen the criminal justice syst for multiple

different perspectives, i know it is broken, i have a concrete set of proposals for how to fix it and i've got a track record r th is jtre fightfoing and what ma safer. many of the policy proposals i ishave made in campaign, things like bill reform, and standing up to the trumpet ministration around immigration policy, are things that all the other candidates now say they support. rehave got track they k vererd haof being on the wrong side of th fos susie, in terms of triage what are you going to be looking at the change? stlae have got i said the te n rs70um per day in frsascann cn twitter. >> we are at the top of the crime is per capita, while we often talk about property crime

as something that seems to be smaller or minimal, it is affecting people's ability to afsard to live in francisco. whether it is retail theft happening from small businesses in chinatown, whether is package theft happening on the you know, whether itis the retail theft that is happening in midmarket, we have to have a strategy and a plan to work our community members, to hwork actually deal with that which has not been done in the >> plans or consumer ships in terms of homelessness? what are you proposing? >> i support the expansion of the use of conservatorships. i'm from san francisco, and i am raising my family here, i've never seen the level of suffering happening on our streets and it is clear thata number of people are what the legal definition is, gravely we need to makere that we can get people to help they

dosomeont e esfrom whn'ere they it's a board meeting up at his office and taking itouof criminal setting of putting it in the state attorney's office h and i think we have to make people to hethey need ting cause that is an important public safety strategy. despite a final question to both of you,communities of color, how can you work better alth we haveha recimostou evoke tthose ruin prpeison , who esa african-american percent and only six percent of the population is african-american.y >> that's what support has been really about, blto k firefighters t oofficers for justice i'd a 15 year grateful to have support sly e in this race. what i have announced is that i want to have the first-er civil rights unit within the das office. we will not build a city that is safe for all of us until we have a that works for all of us and stem ju dispe arits population is african-american 53 percent of who is in our

jail we have work to do and tt districtney i will work every day to eradicate disparities. racial disparities article defining feature of the criminal justice system in the united states. in senteines go, we rcerate africaanern- s ica athiin the countrsg it is a ce, and it needs to change. no i have ced the confidence of series of specific policy ideas that are on my websd e, they attack racial disparities at every single step of the criminal justice system. thospolicies have won me the support of leaders like felicia latina democratic like john e unlegendco, viange as well as five members of our board of supervisors. people who know that i've tht idea is to track -- the track record the vision and to make our both for g in th

>> meryl streep is one of the most celebrated performers of nc our time, her stage debut in 1975, streep has won three oscars and 21 nominations, making her the most nominated actor in the history of the academy awards. over the years, she has been ignoring for known for fighting ageism and d xism in hollywoo and for taking on pivotal roles in films like the bridges of madison county and the devi writer erin carlson spent nine months researching the traits that have made meryl streep such a commanding presence on stage and on screen. joining me now is erin carlson. welcome. >> thank you for having me. >> meryl streep indeed is a leading iconlegendary asi said but why queen? queen of stage and screen are queen more. >> i mean, the 21 oscar nominations says it all,three wins, there is something regal about her, isn't there? cepting awards, lifetime et,

achievement award, in 2017, s g the title of the book, and would also resident, with fans, who look to her, you know, i was like a queen elabeth type character, larger than li. >> she rt greatest living actors, are overrated. ent trump calls any thoughts about that? >> oh, that was, you know, trump and twitter isa xitoany merrill, in her 2017 spch of the golden globes went after him, she was championg diversity, and,you know, going ther him on his bullying of e post was his disabled washington post acto cainllhollywood. by inheea

aftethat, her fans closed ranks about day because they knew that was patently untrue and it sort of made her legend grow, or stronger. >> speaking about her legend, this is a book that i would scribe as high praise. she is icon to you and you adore her comes across in your prose, was there a dangin of wra piece that was to puffy?is perfect. for years, she s to be famous. t other people make big miese al, starting inthe 80s and 90s, she projected the image of the virtuous mother, you know, she can do it all,a he is working mother, has four children, is

incredible marriage, and, she e is o so, she really kn how to navigate th media persona. >> the marriage came after she lost a grt love of her life and whjohn tisdale played freda in the godfather. the adaptation of not only being a mother and having four children, four pretty good kid a by my sts is pretty anomalous and call itin hollywood, y don't hear i don't know if i call her perfect. but, you're talking about her life being perfect, to >> her life, if by having it all, a great marriage, children, a great career, then her life is pretty perfect. however, what i found was that she is more -- yes, she is perfect if you look her

media image, but she is more flawed than you might think. she has also said arrogant and my mother was arrogant right? >> heram i mother was a very la- than-life commercial artist and stay-as home mom, she a second central flip figure in merrill's life. she told merrill from a very young age that she could do anytng, and merrill said that gaar result, she became ndntroe ashreanything, and play any role. >> what's amazing is the versatility of what she has r done throughout ting career which you capture in the book and also the fact that like many people know in mamma mia she was singing and writing in a letter script and so forth i'm interested in hearing since you talk about all these movies, what movies e thnge sh passionate about or is most memorable toyou to you chair is most? >> oh, the mefirst ill movie i ever saw was the reveler river wild when was 13, and iwe

sort of confused, because there was a in a leading role, that a man would man wohave pla the rir wild was her first goshlast action movie. e ald, she lyhared a edstunt d but she mostly did her own stunts. so, you know, i saw this movie, and i was just loud. here is a woman in a man' role, it is not arnold's words and anger, not bruce willis. that stuck with me. and, then, the next merrill movie that i really channeled her talents, to me will that i loved was the devils whe -- the devil wears prada because i was working in new york is a 26- year-old anne hathay's age in the e moand i just felt that vie. you know, it got something so right abt working for a demanding boss in the media which i understood and she ro played tha effortlessly. despite it's amazing how

effortless she is and how many accents she can do in languages she can do. you tethlle y styour or book? >> yeah. merrill, she is 26, she is out of yale school of drama, or yale school of trauma, however you want to say it, and she decides she maybe wants to be in movies, she is stl doing theater, but let me try movies. she goes into inauguration for king kong. d deorenzo's remake. he is an italian producer, little does he know that she learned italian at vassar so she ts down anhe is sitting there with his son, and he says to his son in italian. why did you bring me this, this she understands every he look, this is what you see, m, this is what you get. and then, she gets up and walks out. and jessica lange takes the rri guesles to

>> also a story that reveals a lot about her character she di a lot about her feminist principles and eals and sexism, it stank -- thank you r this book i really enjoyed it >> thank you so much. >> you can meet aaron at hear more about her n book cl merrill at music hall in hill valley for more information visit event bright.com that will, o it for as always you can find more of our coverage on , kqed.org /newsroo thank you for joining us.

robert: the impeachment debate heats up and the psi his own party. president trump: from day one, the wretchedashington swamp has been trying to nullify the results of a truly great and democratic election, the election of 2016. they're trying. they're not getting very far. prrtbu tt entheset impeachment s nal laershpdy t giunsliani, are indicted, raising new questions about mr. trump foreign policy. ukrainian government official,

lobby congressman one t