tonight kqed newsroom, after a marathon session, the y house judicicommittee passes articles of impeachment against president trump. also, pg&e is offering more than $13 million toli wi wildfire victims are kqed arts looksback at th milestones, trends, and activists that have galvanized the bay area as the decade draws to a close. good evening and welcome to kqed newsroom, i am michael crosby. we begin tonight with the latest developmen the impeachment battle on capitol hill. friday morning the house ss judiciary committee two articles of impeachment against the president. abuse of power and obstruction of congress. democrats claim president trump abused his office for political gain when he tried to pressure ukraine into opening an

investigation into political rival joe biden. and that he obstructed congress by defying numerous subpoenas for documents and testimony as part of their impeachment probe. united in their opposition, republicans say democrat are rushing through the impeachment process and using it to overturn the results of the 2016 election. president trump has defended his dealings with ukraine and called the investigation a quote wihhunt. here to discuss this our republican consultant and senior contributed to bulwark tim miller. he is with us. and also ron aldinger who joins us via skype from washington. thank you for being here with o . why just articles of impeachment for the democrats abuse of power and obstruction of congress over president trump's dealings with ukraine? why not obstruction of justice in the mueller repo, there were 10 instances listed. or bribery that the democrats were exciting even before this began. >> the democrats made a choice.

they could've ached to the shotgun, loaded it up and given you suggest. both there was lots in the mueller report are there have been a number of other nasubp conflicts between the two branches of government. there was much else theyul ve done that they chose the rifle. they chose what they thought they could make clear to the public in short form and say we looked at all of the inother and thought we could tolerate them. but now the whistleblower has comeorward and made is so imperative so we had to go raine. nd concentrate on >> is here from tim, your thoughts on these two articles. what do you think? >> i think the democrats have tried to make a judgment that nancy speaker pelosi in particular did not want this to drag on, did not want this in impeachment. i thought this was a clean hit and wanted to move forward. i think that there isif this was a legitimate attempt to try

to remove the president, if the goal here was we realbelieve the president should be removed before the 2020 election, i think a longer effort looking reinto and investigating of the presidents taxes, investigating his actions saudi arabiaturkey, ukraine would have been about to go in the hopes that something is uncoved that may be jostled some publicans through. clearly, no republicans will be jostled by this and i think we will have what is pretty close to a partylvote in both houses. >> is tim says, just how fast this is moving. i wonder what yo thoughts are with the fact that there seem to be two directly been viable cases here. >> most people are focused on the holidays and focus on s,the own lias you would expect. among those people who are paying a lot of attention, be there seems to a slight break in favor of impeachment for those who haveformed an opinion. most people would rather shrug their shoulders and concentrate on everything else in their life. weill see whathappens when we get back after the holidays. they are talking about a fairly

short trial. but even in a short trial, manye people will being their first introduction to some of the evidence, some of the facts in the case and whelse might ump. t there aboupresident just toda the supreme court has decided to hear the case in respect to the presidents withholding of tax returns. the have a lost in couple of appeals courts and is going to the supreme court for review. we will see what they decide to do as r as it comes to the president keeping his tax returns secret when they are under subpoena from several different sources. >> since you senate trial, i'm curious to know what your thoughts are about the senate majority leader mcconnell already saying this is going to come under thet house counsel, at least as far as he's concerned. they will be directing things. >> he said he was coordinating everything he did with the white house counsel. that would not be normal behavior for a juror l and 100 senators are sworn in as

jurors to preside in this case. he is going to get some criticism for that. is but mitch mcconnelused to criticism and used to withstanding it and he is more than glad to take the slings and arrows as long as it ans he can be the leader of the republicans in the senate and therefore the leader of the nd senatethe closest ally that president trump has. at least on capitol hill. >> tim, let me goback toyou. your thoughts about the strategy of bringing up all the amendments that the republicans did that were obviously going to be shot down as maybe the president is going to be tried in the trial and that will be shut down by the democrats. i don't want to make a predictive tea reading here but the fact is when we look back on tt, why those amendments? >> i think this was a quote for them 92 impeachment where they switch se or the republicans accuse the democrats are putting on a clown noseand putting on a circus. that is it strategic for the republicans as well. >> showcasing. >>eah, we will call hunter

biden. if you want to call mitch mulvaney we will call the ukrainian prosecutor. trying to make the impeachment implicated for the voters, but also seem like a riculous procedure. my issue onthe democratic side, it doesn't seem like they are really working, obviously mcconnell is blockading here. the democrats aren't forcing the issue. forcing john bolton to testify, subpoena some of the higher level officials and the trump administration. that leads me to believththat are rather happy with the fast pe cess that impeaches president and then gets blocked in the senate and they can accuse mcconnell of obstruction. >> wew all know it will turn out in terms of witnesses being called for the senate trial. but i' interested infinding out from you, you are a republican consultant but the the republicans try to talk about the president looking at i corruptiukraine and trying to do things to ameliorate corruption? where else does trump look for corruption in any nation in rlt >> for the viewers that don't e

follow twitter i am a hostile to the president republican. it is e most absuargument, corruption is absurd in the extreme, he never showed that anywhere else. but looking specifically at ukraine and that call, he never mentions any corruption in any context aside the prisma issue and hunter biden. it's not as if they president on this phone call also discussed, mentioned a whole list of oligarchs and hunter biden's boss was just one of them. it was a very narrow request ou biden and then the second request s on absurd conspiracy theory asking the president to look into whether the dnc server was hidden somewhere ukraine. >> there are moderate democrats talking about censure and other conservatives in swing states in a series caproblems e they had strong support of president trump that they had

to buck. >> the president picked up 40 seatin the electionin 2018. when you do that you are suddenly taking over for a lot of districts that voted dofor ld trump for president and voted for a republican florida congress as recently as 2016. so that is quite an achievement on one hand, but it also gives yooua rather tehold on many of those 40 seats. so a lot of these democrats are taking a sincere sk, a true risk that they are probably going to vote for impeachment anyway, but th are going take their time announcing it. they will consult with the people back in their district, they will try to think of the very best arguments to put forward for why they are doing this. but they know that many of their voters are going to be uncomfortable with that vote and they know this is going to them in 2020. difficult for speaking of 2020, following some of the quick questions. what do you foresee as far as the possibility and thinking about steve bannon and the foteer white house stst who said there is a real possibility that democrats can

lose the house majority. ron appel for example show thingsinere starting to against him to some degree and steve banner was worried they would lose the white house again and lose the hoate. >> would be steve bannon's opinion. but i would also say that if president trump is reelected, thatutomatically would mean that the pressure would be on the democrats in their effort to keep control of the house and if the esident is bein reelected, that should mean good news for republican candidates up and down the ballot. certainly in the senate, certainly in thhouse of representatives. >> tim, i know you want in here, the democrats have a messaging, don't? eir úparticularly in impeachment. i think right before i came over here i saw that representative arruda in orange county, this is a prime exampleo of s in a tough spot. he came out and said he would be for impeachment rather than center he is representia district that has been voting for republicans since the 50s. lance voters, people like me

or maybe mitt romney voters are republican voters that don't like trump that flipped in 2018n in orange and voted for representative arruda. they probably don't want somebody that goes to washington and is just anti- republican agenda, and tied republican agenda for impeachment. he will walk the lihe. onother hand i think he's stuck with this democratic caucus were you really start to lose support oficyour democr donor base and grassroot base if you don't vote for impeachment. i think the democratic reps andh voters i are in a tough spot. i do have to say i think the bannon call to the house would as it stands y, seems to be a little bit of a stretch. i think the most likely ck up backup seats in cans districts like orange county but also oklahoma city, charleston, places that are very crdeic and unfriendly where they picked up seats last time because of trump's unpopularity that they are likely give back. >> let me think both of our gues for their expert analysis.

tim miller thank you for being with us, ron albee, thank you for being with us. thank you so mu to bothof you. >> thankou. last friday, pg&e announced it released a $13.5 billion settlement agreement with wildfire victims. the deal would resolve claims made again the utility by victims of the 20 17th northbay wildfires, last year's campfires, and other recent blazes. it also launched a inturning in pg&e's efforts to emerge from bankruptcy protection. pg&e has until june 30 last year to tap into the wildfire insurance fund established by lawmakers y help utilities for future wildfire claims. joining me now is kqed politics rray's marissa lagos. ndent always happy to be with you. let's talk about the settlement it's self. who is eligible and how are

they going to pay it what >> we are talking about thousands of wildfire victims and actually the ghost ship fire from oakland is also part of this settlement. rs some past buas well. essentially what will happen is if the government finds off and coming days there will be a 60 day period for wildfire survival to file an addition claim. they had to file a claim by december 31 with the bankruptcy court but then they get to vote on this fund. they will really have the last decision-making power over whether to accept this an proposal. if they do, i think you are right, this will be, pg&e will be well on its way t of bankruptcy. >> we will talk more about the victims and so forth,but who is getting rich off of this or making money off of this? monday, 60 % stock in pg&e upwe nd that was the most in two months. >> that's right, stock prices have fluctuated wildly this year stock prices fluctuating as an opportunity to make money. people trading on the stock or making money. meinterestingly, the sett is offered as half cash, have stock. victims would own 20 % of the company this goes through. this was also a big win for a group of sheholders i have

really been struggling, along with pg&e management to maintain control of pg&ewhen it exits and pepsi. they have been fighting with bondholders who also obviouy are part the pg&e infrastructure and they, we have seen a lot of money being made on the stock market and this bankruptcy. legal it's happening and i have a big story coming out next week that will kind of deta some of the ways people are making money on wall street. an >> other gubernatorial disapproval, what could unsettle the settlement here? what could disrupt it? >> if victims are not thhappy t that could certainly end the settlement and really spell big problems for pg&e. as i id, they get a vote. but i do think this is the biggest piece of this bankruptcy . priously there was a lot of concern over the fact that insurance companies had also reachedsettlements with pg&e there was a concern that $11 billion settlement would undercut the victims. i think what we are seeing here

, since this binumber is er, is a pretty good likelihood that it goes forward. >> what about the likelihood of privatization or municipal station? the governor talked about taking over pg&e, mayor n jose has been talking about going on a private path to public utility did is the settlement having much impact as you see it question make >> i do think that this is, again if everyone at the table t agret the framework here, it really undercuts the argument of r people like malocarno who would like to see a customer owned co-op or even san francisco who wanted to buy pg&e's infrastructure. the idea of ng more urban with places that are quite frankly bigger customer base and easier to serve because they don't have the same wildfire liability sort of issues to separate from the rest of the grid. so i do isthink this going to make it a little harder for people who would like to see a drastic change co thisany. although, to be fair, we could still see them looking up into a gas and an electrmpany

orven into smalleutilities. i think the idea of a public power is not going to be as ttractive if yo have wildfi victims lining up with all these other stakeholders. >> is on the l.a. times poll? >> yeah, people are definitely not pleased with the company but i think they also don't have, there is no consensus among voters or even pairs of what they would like to see happen. i think honestly making something public makes a lot of people nvous for a lot of reasons. >> fema is looking for about a $4 billion payoff on all of this in the oes is oking for money. there are a lot of places that are at least trying, to some extentfrommit to take the money available to victims and the victims are upset about this. >> yeah, i think again, it's not surprising the governm entities are going to try to after a private utility to get back to feel what they are owed. i think when you end up hitting a fema and operion emergency services against wildfire victims and becomes more complicated. the truth is, a lot of details of where this 13 billion goes are still going to be sort of left to a trustee that will be

so we don't know if the government will be at all successful or if individual victims will see the lion share, i would guess it would be the latter. >> we will have to wait and mee. in thetime, they are talking about achieving confirmation in the organization plan in advance of the 2020 deadsene and they to be on track for that. >> i think if everything moves forward, if the government e signs off, dge signs off, victims sign off, they could exit bankruptcy before june. >> can you talk about the yeah, we saw an audit that said essentially pg&e has taken $123 million that they were supposed to use under grounding power lines and used it for the priorities. you know, i think this is par for the course with this company. in some ways it raises bigger s questiout the regulators and state oversight than even pgself. we know they have always sort of moved around money, we saw that with the san bruno d explosion e problems with

the gas lines. i think the issue here is does this add more fuel to foe fire critics of pg&e to push more oversight, to push the governor to exercise more power over the utility. >> back to the victims ich i promise we will talk more about to find out who is eligible they are talking about kethings ental anguish. i don't know how people prove the legitimacy of that. and paying for vernal funeral expenses can can you prove dying becausof the wildfire. sometimes i can be ambiguous. >> one man filed claim for a 200+ million dollar emerald he said he lost in the cafire. that will be up to the trustee who oversees this wildfire fund to sort of sort out. the victims attorneys will have some oversight of that trustee decision. there's a lot of people involved and i think there will be effort to make sure that the money is spread around as evenly as possible and to the ha peopleneed it. >> the deadline for filing is one? deny the deadline for filing for a claim at all is decemb 31 and in the new year we will see a 60 day period where the

victims o have filed for those claims will be able to essentially exercise a right and vote on the settlement. >> we have a little time left, can you talk about the effects this will have on the insurance industry? >> we are seeinghuge problems with the insurance industries, a lot of areas where they don't want to issue surance but they have also been paid out a lot in their claims against pg&e and they have reached this $11 million settlement. think there are open questions about that market and really what the state can do to make it vimore even forward. >> likely that pg&e, as a result of the settlement, will move forward on a lot of things they have been, shall we say, not exactly stup to on? >> i think that will be a key question for the bankruptcy court and governor right frankly.beyond the dollars and this bankruptcy, what kind of changes is pgwilling to put in place moving forward around their management and the management instructor for the safety structure. back to regulators, they have been sitting on a eslot of problems and i think there are

some real key questions about what controls they need to exercise moving forward on safety questions, wildfire safety, and quite y fran broader safety. >> blackts? >> i don't think those are ending anytion. we have a lot had a lot of rain lately so we are not in that situation right now. but again, they don't make a lot of significant investments and changes to the way their business is done, they warn the government doesn't want to see that, no one wants to see bu that. it's hard because we have had a much more successful season in terms of the loss of property and life than we did the last two years. >> always great to talk you, thank you for joining us. >> thank you for having me, michael. the giants first world series victory in 56 years to the deadly ghost ship e warehous. the bay area has seen a lot of ups and downs over the past decade. big tech and the big economy disrupted the traditional workplace. devastating wildfires brought living with climate chion to in the 2018, oakland emergeas

a filmmaking talent with hits like black panther. the kqed team who reviews how the last 10 years have redefined the bay area in our turbulent decade joining me now isitkqed lead of the project nausea bonus gaia. welcom >> thank you. >> a tabby with us. let's begin with finding out how you curated this. i think itis difficult to pick 10, one from each year, when you have so ny things that happened through the decade. >> absolutely. i think anyone that has been living in the bay area the past decade thinki back on everything that happens can almost give you whiplash. there have been these crazy highs with the sports victckies in bpanther in the bay area this big hollywood moment. but under that there has also beenthmass displacement, widening wealth inequality. we really want to select a wide range of stories that captured all these eventsthat have impacted culture and day-to-day life for most people living here. >> you mentioned the things that rocked e bay area.

for example, point to the occupy movement in oakland and how that had such an extraordinary effect. look in the tea leaves a little for us, do you think that things tenure frnow would ng still be the case for arctic's and activists who find themselves displaced with nowhe to go? >> by the way things are going, i would inc. yes. affordable housing is not being built up or being made available at the rate that it needs to be to accommodate all e people that need it. there is a growing homelessness crisis where there is no end in sight. in the bay area, houses that were affordable are not affordable any longer. i think unless drastic measures are taken, then yes this is a problem we will be looking at and 10 more years.t' >>grim. and artists being this waste, not onlyu artists, but talk about the space is so difficult to find for galleries in any kind of art shows >>period.

bsolutely. i think in addition to she tage of affordable housing, the commercial rents are so expensive there are not many express themselves. can story in the series that kicks off. at the same time, we have these skyrocketing commercial and residental instances in san francisco. d the region. ts left the city >> ghost ship becomes a metaphor for this too. there were no places to go so an ghost ship then the fire of course, it was the main highlight of 2016. >> yes, so in 2016 alreadin the years leading up to that, these types of unpermitted artist where hearses were already ing evicted because you know, landlords saw opportunities to bring in higher-paying tenants and then strip really cemented that trend where these unpermitted warehouses became more of a liability for landlords and it

really accelerated displacement of artists at the lowest end of the income spectrum. >> there was a positive thing thatyou highlighted, let's talking for example about films, it was a big year for films. you write about this and also right about the empire of empire building. empire is a record company and suddenly becomes major in san francisco and changes the ole terrain. >> yeah, empire has been a huge positive addition to the bay e area cultural landsc the last 10 years. i think historically there has been this narrative of bay area major labels so i think it's really incredible that , a san francisco native, r of evenly built this business from the ground up and created this really smart disional tragedy at a time lawhere digital ls did not know how to adapt to streaming and he harnessed the baste of bay area talent an

the major-label systems so that's huge. >> talk about film a little more, sorry to bother you but the film last black man in san francisco, we had lots of things tat were really prty francisco is a lm city. >> absolutely. i think especially starting with black panther and the films that followed, it really t put a ght on the bay area as this hub of filmmaking talent. at the same oftime, kind similar to music, the bay area is not represented in hollywood very often. i think these filmmakers really took that opportunity to say something deeper often about displacement and inequality. we saw in rry to bother you, it's all about kind of how the workforce is being exploid . and then black panther in san francisco and blind spotting as well. they deal with gentrification in san francisco and oakland. there were nods to that in black panther especially at the end when they come back to build the wakonda science center . >> let me go back to the ghost ship for a momentthat not

only epitomizes the struggle of artists finding a place, but what else did it representas far as you are concerned? >> i think it represented a huge cultural loss. the 36 people who passed away in ghost shipwe really oakland and more broadly in the bay area a lot of them were maki work that may not be mainstream or commercial, but it did have a lot of impact just on the region. they created this really tightknit community where people could make experimental work that is really pushing the envelope in a lot of ways. in addition to the personal loss e of all people that were affected by these 36 deaths, it was a great cultural loss for the region as >>ll. n 2016, you spotlight the problem with release, racial s,shootieaths. talk about turbulence and devastating things that occurred e in

racist attacks put up by the th police. but e was an upside to that. the hunger strike brought on some serious changes. not only resignation of the police chief but serious reform in the police department. >> it really did. that was one of the stories i was very excited to highlight with the hungstrike. it started in 2016 when the wrapr clipped out brought four other activists tod ther ey camped out in front of the police station. before long, thousands of and they waged one of the est longest huer strikes in sa francisco history. i think at the time it was a little unclear what effects it would have and where it was going but shortly after it did lead to the chief resigning from spd and shortly after, the department of justice gave the police department 272 accommodations for reform. as of now, they have only completed abt 10 % them. although there was a pretty significant drop in officer , involved shootinpecially

in 2019, there hadn't been one until a couple weeks ago when there was a nonfatal shooting from s fpd. ha>> it certainlbeen a turbulent decade but thank you so much for outlining it for us and the work your team has done. appreciate it. >> thank you. that will deliver us. you can learn more about the lestones and movements had impacts on the bay area in 2010 by going to kqed.org/ r turbulent decade. as always, u can fimore of our coverage at kqed.org/newsroom. i am michael krasner ian, thank you for joining us.

robert: articles of impeaoment head the floor. >> the third time in a little overnd a century a half, the house judiciary committee has voted articles of impeachment against the president for abuse power and obstruction of congress. >> aye. robert: battleines are drawn. >> the evidence is overwhelming and uncontested. >> this is a travesty. >>o use the power of impeachment on this nonsense is an embarrassment to this country. robert: and republics turn the spotght to the justice department inspector general report. ♪ t. "washington s is week." funding is provided by -- >> before we talk about your