tonight on kqed newsroom, coronavirus cases climb california, bringing more uncertainty as the federal government grapples with a new virus belief package. the santa clara district attorney announces new criminal justice reforms, will they be enough to address concerns over police misconduct in san jose? the crowds are gone, but sports lives on, how athletes are playing ball like never before. this weekend, it will mark six months since the first confirmed for the virus case in california, there have now thbe more 400,000 cases and 8000 deaths in the state, this week, we have seen the ghest number new cases in california and across the nation. in washington, d.c., the senate is working toward a new

coronavirus relief package, the white house dropped its demand for a payroll tax cut, which gop lawmakers had opposed,big visions remain as unemployment benefits are set to expire next week for pe20 milliole. hill are championing a $3 pitol trillion relief plan thatin udes eight. closer to home, governor gavin newsom announced on tuesday, california recorded more than 12,000 new cacoronavirus, its highest daily total get, california now has the most number of cases in the nation, surpassing nin york. jous now by skype to discuss this, our political and government correspondent, marisa lagos. with us by skype from palm springs is scott shafer. so, let's start with the national picture, i want to ask you, president trump nchas ed threpublican

national convention that was to be held in jacksonville, citing that this s not thright time to bring so many people together, he also this week wear face maskpolitically, to what is behind this shift from his earlier message in which he had downplayed the severity of the virus for months? >> reporter: i think it is poll numbers and litics, he has been getting pushback and not just from democrats and blue states, but republicans who sca reallymbling to contain the virus, we saw with the jacksonville decision,thiswas supposed to be in north carolina, officials raised questions about the health concerns, they said fine, we will go to florida where governor ron desantis, a republican and trump supporter, is fine with us, even the sheriff's didn't feel like they had the time rlly make sure they coulprovide security and do it safely, i p think tr is looking around and realizing th , as muas,

at the beginning of this, i think he and others tried to make things like masks a sort of red versus blue question, people are really concerned about health and jobs and the safety of their families. >> scott, the senate made incrental progress towards a new coronavirus relief package, but the benefits, the unemployment benefits are linked to the former relief package, are due to end next week, how important is it litically for the nepackage to be announced before the benefits run out? >> reporter: certainly to the ople that are affected most directly, people who are unemployed, there is also eviction protections expiring next week as well, the house passed a bill, the h.e.r.o.e.s. act in may, with trillion, in it, it includes an extension there is a lot of disagreement within the republican caucus and with the president and the republicans, they are having a hard time deciding what to put in the package, how big it should be, mitch mcconnell is saying more -- no more than $1

trillion, even republicans are saying that is too big, they also, the president wanted to initially cut ck on money for testing, also wanted a payroll tax deduction, the republicans pushed back on that, a loof disagreement within the republican caucus, i think they have to get that worked out, in the meantime, there are opreal who are going to be affected bthe expiration of these benefits. >> just to follow up on ythat, think we will see a new release package announced next week? >> reporter: i withink we , there is a lot of pressure on people, on both sides, the house is going tohave to compromise as well, the democrats were united, i think there was a unanimous vote in the house back in may, ey're going to have to ve and nancy pelosi is no stranger to compromise, she knows how to do that, i think especially on the republican, and to idthe prt, we are seeing and implement applications continuing to be above 1 million a week, so, there is a r lot of sure, the pain will start to be felt, that is when the pressure will increase. >> despite the ndemic, as

have come out and voted in the primaries, casting absentee ballots, fundraising has been going very well for both ll parties as vice president joe biden is leading the polls nationally right w,hat does he need to do to keep up his momentum and conversely, what could trump do to eak his stride? >> reporter: i think the is a couple of things, it is not ri sung at this moment that you see this deficit, i think we saw similar polls in 2016, none of the amdemocrats i speaking to think that these numbers will necessarily hold, that this lead he has established nationally and perhaps more importantly in many swing states, is, it will i narrow by ue of people shuffling into where, it might already be leaning towards this biden is going to make a t of

news when he announces a vp pick, i think he has been rolling out really detailed policy proposals and getting attention, i think the campaign arfeels like they on a good road and need to keep pushing forward, for trump, as we discussed, i think there is this question the pan and whether he can demonstrate to voters who do not feel like is handling thwell, that he is taking it seriously and is trying to stem the tide, interestingly, polls that show overwhelmingly, despite all of this, voters do really trust trump with the economy, i think that is going to become a key question, that link between the ecpandemic and the omy and how well both men can use that to define the arguments to orders. >> marisa just e mentioned vice president pick, biden is expected to announce, sometime around august 1st, his pick for the vice president, you and risa talked with one person on that list, congresswoman karen bass, can you tell us wh

more about she is and what her odds are? >> reporter: she is a late would say, really hadn't surfaced until george floyd was killed, she is the chair of the congressional black caucus, she has been working on reform issu for decades, going all the way back to los angeles after the rodney king riots, she has street credit, she is popular with th the progressives, who really like her, as well as more moderate, even republicans, kevin mccarthy, the minority leader wowith her when she was assembly speaker in sacramento around 2008, says she is his am favorite democrat, not sure that helps her, the point is, she is able to workwi different groups of people, she is very, she has an easy manner, she laughs easily, very smart, knows policy, she has a healthcare background, which is inimportant, could be this moment when we are dealing with a pandemic, she is also up against kala harris, who many feel has been at the top of the list, they are in the prg ess of vettthe candidates, going through things like

income tax, spouse's income tax, health records, siblings, they do, it is a comple360 review, i think it is going to come down to who is i did most a comfe with, who does he think he can govern with, it does look like he has a pretty c good cof winning. >> marisa, this has been a tough week, another tough we for california, we have had more coronavirus cases than we have ever had before, or hsspitalizations, more de i am curious, will give a gavin newsom repaying a political price for these increases in pandemic numbers here? is in sort of the world, there is a lot of questions about whether he bowed totoo soon pressure to reopen, certain sectors of the reagan -- economy over the summer, the anger around people o feel went too fast is centering around schools, the fact we can't send kids back and what does that mean more broadly, not just for education, equity n wiur system, also for pants and how they can work and get this economy going, the

good news is he is not on the ballot for a couple of years, i think he is going to continue to walk this line with the feds in terms of hitting trump, on the campaign trail a little more, you know, he has tried to work with that administration, i do thina lot of the criticisms, the strongest critics are people who already opposed him. >> california has 12 thsignificant measures on ballot this november, i want to housing, one is an effort to pare back proposition 13 and another is to expand and control, how likely are the two paths? >> reporter: they're going to track a lot of money, the rent o comeasure, voters rejected it a few years ago, it is going to be an uphill climb, the other one tois going increase property taxes on commercial properties, labor, putting a lot of money into it, as you can imagine, property owners and commercial, chamber h of commerce, 're going to put a lot of money to defeat it, it is going to be a battle royale, it will be close.

>> thank you both so much. the alnationreckoning over i ra injustice and police misconduct has verberated through society, and sharpened demands for criminal restice rms nationally and locally. this week, the santa clara district attorney, jeff rosen, announced he would no longer seek the death penalty. a new board for greater ion public oversight into police misconduct. but some, including santa clara o'neill, argued more needs to be done to change the culture of policing. last month,poa blog on medium revealed racist and anti- muslim posts, made by current and former san jose police offirs on facebook. joining now by skype from san jose are santa clara county district attorney, jeff rosen, hello, jeff. and molly o'neal.

just, as recently as a year ago, you publicly supported the death penalty, whatd you to this change of policy and change of heart? >> my thinking about the death ings that were very ome impactful, i visited the equal justice initiatives legacy museum in montgomery, alabama, very recently with the church group and a synagogue group, and also the national lynchiri me, and was incredibly moved by those periences and what i learned about the history and legacyof slavery, reconstruction, jim crow and mass incarceration, and then the last several months, all of the attention and focus onlaw enforcement in our society and the righteous calls of protest, i was very moved by, really devastated by, the murder of george floyd, and i had a visceral reaction when i saw that.

and the reaction i had was, i am not seing the deat penalty anymore, i don't think that i have the moral authority or society has the moral authority given the systemic racism that is in every aspect of our society, which is reflected in our criminal justice system. soi said, am not seeking the death penalty anymore. >> molly, you support this change, can you tell us why you think it is so im>>rtant? t is huge, i really applaud our district attorney for making this move, the death penalty has always been a racist killing machine, it has been applied disproportionaly always and ithas been a slow movement in the country to abolish it and th is a good ep in that direction. >> jeff, you also announced other criminal justice reforms this week, could you take us through one or two highlights? >> i think a g one is, when file criminal charges, we are going ask ourselves,

what should we prove, not n wha we prove, and those are two very different things, so, we are going ng look at our charecisions, what sentencing enhancements to charge or not charge, the lens of race in equity and ask what should we charge, not what can we charge, an other significant reform that is really othe other end of the spectrum in terms of seriousness of crimes is we are not going to chargedriving a suspended license for failure to pay fines and fees as a misdemeanor, we are going to charge that as an infraction, that is 4000 cas is about 10% of the cases we prosecute, this is a way of keeping people out of the j crimintice system and not building up a criminal record, it is a way of not penalizing poor people who get these

offenses. >> i know you're also not going to be going after standalone charges for resistin molly, will any of these reforms make a significant difference in how your office conducts business? >> i applaud all of the rerms and particularly the standalone one, we have caspent s dealing with cases where ntour cltell us they were pulled over for no apparent reason, they were stopped in their own neighborhood, they were african-american, they live in palo alto, so that is a really important move, as i understand, there are roughly 450 tos 500 calike that a year, that will, that will remove a huge figharound those cases, that is a very big deal, the other reform announced that i really applaud is the decision not to attach gang enhancements to misdemeanor cases, those gang enhancements are almost always attached to cases of communities ofolor, and so,

that is a big deal, uld like to see further discussion and we are engaged in that discussion with the district attorneye office about the of gang enhancements. big news. >> jeff, the san jose police officers association is strongly critical of these reform measures, how do you d resp their assertions that these changes will make it harder for officers to do their job? ha >> i been a prosecutor for 25 years, i have worked closely with police officers and for all of my professional life, i have great respect d admiration for the work that police officers do, and think that in our county, the vast ce majority of poofficers have are excellent, but there is no organization that is perfect, and i view the refos i am putting forward, specifically as they relate to police oversight, as a way of helping police departments weed t bad officersd help the good officers in those

departments become rate omofficers who b guardians and protectors of our community, as a way of increasing trust between the community and law enforcement, which is ultimately what will make all of us, including police officers, favor. >> some of that trust was broken recently with the news mm about racist ts that were made by some san jose police officers on facebook, four officers have been placed on th leave followindiscovery of discriminatory statements against muslims and lack lives matter that were made in this group, molly, doyou think this is a case of a few bad apples, or do you think racism runs widely through thsan jose police department? >> i think plthere are ty of good men and women who serve as police officers in communities all across california, i do not think this was an isolated incident, we had, not only active officers, active-duty

officers, but retired ofrtcers are ipating in these posts which included comments about lack lives don't really matter and pulling her jobs over muslim women's faces, i don't believe that isolated, i think part of the de rooted issue is that there is a code of silence, if you are a good cop and you know bad coare making racist comments, you are pretty much silenced, that is the culture i believe really hato change, must change, and we are at that point in time where there is momentum to not just make sml changes, to the criminal justice system, but make huge once. that is a fundamental part of that. >> yin, you haven't this call nationally that we have heard to defund the police, y not? >> i wouldn't say i am not the defund police camp, i would say i don't like thgelang because people, different

people use the language to be, until we have a clear meaning what we e talking about, i think it is, it is used too widely, what i would say i am very much in favor of repurchasing some of the funding that currently goes to lice and putting it to better use, for example, the money that pays for internal affairs, i think that money should be repurposed, money that pays for officers on campus, think officers campus don't make the process safer, i think that money should be repurposed, also money that is used for mental health response is it best use of that way, my thinking is we really should take a good hard look at how taxpayer dolls are used to fund the police and repurpose. >> santa clara county district attorney jeffersonanpublic defender molly o'neal, thank th you for joining us.

baseball begans shortened and delad regular seasonthe oakland athletics will play their opening game against the los angeles angels at ring central coliseum tonight,s new rud protocols are making this a season unlike any other, for fans and players alike. closed to the public to help lower the spread of coronavirus. some mlb teams, including the a's, made cardboard cutouts of loyal fans and psos to bring familiar faces along for the highly unusual start of the season. wi me now byskype is the host of the mark willard show, mark willard, thanks for being withs. >> reporter: thank you for having me. >> this is a season unlike hean 60 games, multiple rule changes, and expanded playoffs, how well do you expect this to work? >> reporter: they are off to a good start, i rtn say nly there were a lot of people who didn't think we would get to this day, where the seon starts, itis an evolving

challenge that will continue, they have crossed a lot of bridges, now everybody has got to get on planes, and you never know what is going to happen y a to day basis, one of the best players in the game with the washington nationals on opening night, all of a sudden, tested positive for covid-19, he was completely asymptomatic, doesn't know where he got it, that is something every team is going to have to deal with, thth there is moving line of, what is too much, what is too dangerous, so far, so good in terms rcof the t of positives that they have gotten within all of these baseball camps, it has been very low, they have done a good b, it is they are off to the start that ey wanted. >> in addition to folks like juan soto who might get fixed,

there are other baseball opplayers who have d out of playing like buster posey, how much of an impact will the absence of some of these big names ve on thgame and also on fans and morale? >> reporter: i think for fans, they will be missing sothing, fans are different right now than they have ever been, stands right now are just glad that there issomething there and that welcome distraction is there, you were looking at a pretty low bar in terms of gathering fan interest entertaining people and whatnot. i think there is something emotional that is certainly lost, i don't know if fa are going to look at this season as real season, whoever wins the championship, is that a real champion? little stuff like that, because there are big-name players d such a small sample of games that are going to be played, as i said, i think we are not looking at enwiki au,

everybody is willing to deal with whatever they get. >> i am curious about the changes that ha been made like the cardboard cutouts, the crowd sounds being played, ball hit into the stands and there is no one there to catch it, it is going to rolland roll, the changes like e cardboard cutouts and sounds, are those being made for the players to feel more like it llusis or are those being made for the tv audiences? >> reporter: i think it is a mixed bag, to tbe hones cardboard cutouts are there because the owners are looking for a way to recoup some of the dollars. that sounds gimmicky, we don't want that, when you actually sit down and watch the game, for the mostpart, they have done a pretty good job, it is

interesting, you don't necessarily feel like these plthers are in cavernous, open, empty stadium, so, you understand why they ve done it, for the television and itdoes go for the players as well as they tried to make them feel some sort of normalcy. >> let's gaturn to kapler who made history as the first manager to take a knee during the national anthem beside w a his players, that has received both praise and criticism, do you see this trend of players and coaches e the thing is reacting? oto >> reporter: i think the fan reaction will be predictable, as you just saidjust like what mirrors our nation, you're going to have a lot of people on both sides of the fence and me people who have a hard time understanding what this is really all about at its core, hosaver, i would also if there is going to be a team and a market that takes the lead on this, it is kiof appropriate

it is the san francisco giants, actually are accepting gabe kapler a way they never have before, until last night, he had never managed a game, an actual game for the giants ha before, fans't really gotten to know him, through this process, they are a little bit, and he had parents reo ctivists, this is not something i don't think that is not authentic, it is real, i portion of the fan base and so, i definitely think, from his standpoint and others, it will continue, as we have seen rough all sports throughout the last four or five years, once one barrier breaks down, then more continue to break down and the invitation seems open to more, i would expect this to continue. >> another baier that wa broken down was that the first

base coach, she is the first woman in mlb histy to do this, do you see it happening during the regular season and will that open the field up? >> reporter: maybe t this year, but yes, the short answer is it definitely, i see this ntinuing, this is yeanother barrier i think the san francisco giants are proud of and so, alyssa just turned 13 years old, she has been in the organization for five years,e s worn a number of hats within the organization, but it was just over the last few months that this spilled into her actually beg on the coaching staff and the giants current staff is a very forward thinking, evolved type of a group, i think, again, they welcome this, they want to be the group that makes people look at things from a different angle, so, that is absolutely going to open the door, i cently asked alyssa, where is this going, what, do you want

to manage something? she might have stopped short of saying yes, she said very smart, she is a very good representative here, if you will, forthis movement and so, i absolutely see an opening door and more of this to come. >> let's turn to other sports, basketball is going to start next week, hockey is starting august 1st, and football? where do we stand on rthis? orter: basketball and hockey are doing more of a double format, which, in theory, allows them, if you can keep the virus out of the bubble, you have a pretty safe environment, even though those are contact sports, so far, so good, the mbers have been good coming out of those two spots, as we mentioned, baseball is getting on meairplanes, that, to is the biggest challenge, the biggest clearly sets with the nfl, which is trying to open traing camps soon, they want

business as usual, if they are getting on planes, combined with the contacted nature of ei sport and the lineman breathing on one another right there, before every play, that is the sport that has got to the biggest challenges of the mall. >> mark willard, thanks so much. you can find more coverage e at kqed.org newsroom. you can reach me on twitter, facebook, and instagram. thanks for watc good t kqed, night.

robert: american cities and the trump presidency under siege. >> what cities are doing is absolute ianity. robert: the president open as new front, the streets. but his call for law and order sparksutrage. >> that kind of activity is the activity of a police state. robert: andhe pandemic remains relentless as top docto sound the alarm and lawmakers bicker over aid for struggling americans. >> republicans need to pull their head out of the sand, get their act together -- robert: next. announcer: ts is "washington week." corporate funding is provided by -- >> when the world gets complicated, a lot goes