night on kqed newsroom, coronavirus cases sore in alcalifornia's cenvalley, we hear from lawmakers in the region about the surge and its impact on farmworkers. thus, extended unemployment benefits for llions come to an end, a key member of congress talou to us abt the crisis. w 00 cuts, a documentary profiles the struggle of journalists under attack in the philippines. welcome to kqed newsroom. this week, governor gavin newsom announced state assistance to contain, quote, alarming coronavirus outbreak in california's agricultural heartland. the state wi deploy three teams to eight counties in the central valley to boost contact tracing, testin and outreach. the state will a

million in federal aid for affected communities. essential workers in agriculture and meatpacking industries who are mainly latino are especially vulnerable to getting sick and dying from the disease. the fresno county health department says latinos make up roughly half of the county's population but account for nearly 70 percent of covid-19 deaths. with me now by skypeis fresno city council president and enining by skype from fresno is steve randel. thank you both so much for joining us. >> thanks for having us paid >> you are a erformer farmwo úabout the conditions that make itrd to contain the virus among farmworkers. >> these conditions are very specific to farmworkers including living in high density substandard housing with intergenerational living

conditions, thfact that they are uninsured and have limited access to healthcare, a lot of them have pre-existing medical conditions le diabetes and high blood pressure and they livein an area with the highest pollution rate in the country and they do not have meaccess to paid off on a problem with language access for language in tracing and they have all been declared essential workers and been given no direct support at the federal level to remain home when they do become infected. >> what would you say needs to done in order limit the spread of the virus among farmworkers? >> we have to treat them like essential worklis like front- workers like medical workers, we need to provide them relief when they can't go to wk and that means housing relief, medical relief and ensure trdt they can afto remain at home when they get infected and that they have a t suppstem. we also need to ensure that they have access to testing and tracing, where they are working and on the fields where they

are picking the crops and in packing foodthe processing plants. without that direct relief for them to stay home when they are sick, without testing and tracing at the workplace, they will never be able to get access to the nessary healthcarethey need in order to curb down the infection rates of our county. >> fresno county, the county represent has mothan 13,000 active coronavirus cases, the most heavily impacted county in san joaquin valley, there's been reports of outbreaks at meese meat processing facilities in your county as ll as neighboring counties, wha requirements if any does your county place on reporting meatpacking and agricultural facilities? >> fresno county is by far the largest county in the central valley, we cover over 6000 square miles, roughly the size of the state of connecticut so we have a lot of rural commasity as well the city of fresno, our largest city. we've done a lot on all of the miguel and with meatpacking,

the requirements from our public health department and our public health officer are that if somebody test positive for covid-19 or believes they have it, everybody that rkhas near that person in the same shift and same location of the facility needs to be told that they have come in con with somebody that's tested positive and th they arthen required to stay home and take time off of work. it does not mean we shut downth whole plant or even that every employee of the plant would be notified and our public health director says this is a case by case service. >> miguel, heyou have d from workers at some of those meatpacking plants, what are their concerns? >> that's one of the . imary concer one make meatpacking plant employs 2500 people under one roof, amazon employ3500 they only notify the person to the right and left of u you, are far too late to be able to contain the spread and that's the challenge we are

eing, that's why ere's been such a big spread in those meet packing plants and processing facilities and it's really important for the general public to also be notified feof an ion spread in those locations so they also don't have to risk their lives in work and it's one of the go to challenges when it comes to public safety, officers or medical staff on the front ge line, theytime off, they get support in order to be home. l essentrkers get zero dollars and zero support in order for them to stay home knowing that they live paycheck to paycheck and there's no re relief mortgage really for them. >> steve,would you like to address that? >> i would love to address that because obablyan maybe miguel is unaware of the families first coronavirus response act, it's mandated by the federal governs nt, the

employ not have to pay the salaries of those who have to stay home, the federal government is king care of that, it's a project that's been underway for months and is extended through december 31, so any emoyer with 500 employees or less are mandated to pay the price of the daily wages of these employees. >> could you broaden our perspective on the central valley and tell us what your constituents are saying about the virus paand its ? >> great question, the people that i represent as you might guess are split 50/50 on. covid- we are told daily with phone calls why aren't we doing more and that we are told daily on s, phone cawhy are we overburdening people? we've got people who believe that coronavirus is ana hoax we have other people that believe that if you step outside of your front door you're going come incontact with the black plague, we know both of these are not accurate, that we are fighting a ic pandbut at the same time we have to be aware that we have to keep our govement and

our economy running as well. >> what are your own thoughts about the viruand about wearing a mask? >> i'm probably right in the middle, i've been wearing my mask at the right times since a month ago, so when i am in ly able to socidistance, i will wear a mask. i don't wear a mask in my car or in my office and i feel i'm right in line with the majoty of my constituents. >> miguel, there seems to be an ideological split that is driving policy decisions that in are made every day, is that accurate, do you see an ideological divide and if so, could you describe ? that for >> i will give you an example, when the public health director a few months ago mandated mask wearing in the county of fresno, the board of supervisors overturned his decision and made it optional for people to wear. that has beenbig difference for us in the city because we understand that as the city

that has the thmajority of population, our county, we understand that if you give the option to residents, they will condly, we've been very aggressive about enforcing business closures that are noto supposed be open like gyms and indoor dining with the county has chosen to look the other way and not do any enforcement of the state emergey order and lastly, our city, our cares act dollars in providing direct relief for residents, so they could stay home. e for exam are providing $5 million in housing relief funds, we are providing millions of dollars for childcare r essential workers and ensuring that small businesses have the resources they need and we are spending on additional testing an tracing, all things that most cities have not done, where the county of fresno has only directed $5 million for small business relief funds under the cares act and finally, steve is right, the supervisor is right that employers should be giving their emoyees time off. the challenge is that

approximately half of our agricultural workers are undocumented and the s deral government indicated that cares act funds cannot be used on undocumented residents, knowing that is half of the workers of essential workers int agriculturt maintain the food supply chain in the country. >> so a pifew different here that have been addressed, talk about the enforcement e of rules to close when necessary, the way that money has been spent and this question of undocumented workers and supporting their needs. >> absolutely. let me start with cuthe unnted workers, that is beyond our pay grade at the fresno county board of supervisors, we would blow la through every penny of our cares act dollars within the next week if we had to support a healthcare systr undocumented workers, that needs to be addressed at the state and federal level, it's way beyond my pay grade. at the county of fresno, we do not, like the city of fresno have a robust code enforcement

team andyou will nd that throughout most counties, we do not deal with the same types of things that the city thnormally deals we do not have the bandwidth to make all these enforcements that the governor has demanded. since at has ma those, we come more in line with his requirements and trying to meet the standards laid out to us, but our fresno county sherfs are spread thin, they are attacking crime at its source and we do not have the bandwidth to to every little restaurant where there is a complaint to make sure that they are shut down. ha the governor a strike team in fresno county and he can do that if you want to, and he has been. >> stthat asce is coming in, i understand early next week, just in our last few seconds before we go, woulyou share with us what you know about that team coming in to help your county? >> that's called the united support team, it's different from his enforcement strike team and the unitedsupport team is working via the phone with our public health officer now ekd next they begin in

person meetings when they get on the ground in fresno county, they will go ovms the prob and they're going to come up with solutions, and we welcome them in fresno county. >> thank yoboth somuch. >> thank you. apart from the human suffering wrought by the virus there is also its devastating toll on the economy the mate nation's gross domestic product fell nearly 10 percent in the second quarter, the labor department says there are now 30 million americans claiming on employment benefits. compare at to the sametime last year when there were just 6 million people claiming unemployment. americans unemployed due to the virus have bereceiving an additional $600 of relief each week, that federal stimulus funding ends today and there's no agreement yet on a new relipackage. ks thso much for being with us. the enhanced on implement $600 benefit and did toda there is bipartisan support to do something to replace it with some amount of money and yet

the measures still expired without a replacement, is there an intentional slowdown, and intentional lack of urgency aroundwahis work in ington? >> i don't understand what the rod blagojevich republicans in the senate are doing, we passed this bill d it's nojust the on implement extension, it's also funding for covid, it relief for renters, it's helping out states and local governments whose revenue has collapsed so they don't have to do massive layoffs and cutoffs of service, funding for the schools so they can do jotheir we passed that over two months ago to give plenty of time to have discussions to reach common ground. they didt even start talking to the middle of this week, and they came up with something that is completely inadequate. i don't undersnd why they would want to have the economy go further in thditch, the economist tell us that if we

don't pass something like the plan that we enacted two months ago, we are going to see a 3.5 to four point additional reduction in the gdp, that's not what our cotry needs. >> your chair of the committee on house administration and voting security is one of the key issues on urommittee, what is your reaction to the president's tweet yesterday suggesting that thtinovember presid election should be moved because of his concerns about voting by mail? >> the president has no say inwh the election is held, that's done by statute and it's been the same for a long, long time. we are not going to changethe statute, so the election will be november 3 and that has been emphasized not only by mylf chairing the committee, but even senator mcconnell mentioned that the president cannot change the election and the election will go forward as planned. e i don't understand president, whetherhe's trying

to divert attention from his pathetic failure in managing e pandemic crisis, by stirsung up other so people won't watch his massive failure there. i suspect that's it. >> you are also the chair of subcommittee on immigration and as of mid-july, immigration customs enforcement officials confirmed more than 3500 coronavirus cases in its detention center and its website i says it has released more than 900 detained individuals to minimize the spread of virus and they are also housing detainees at risk of exposure separately from the rest of the on popula tell us about your reaction to their handling of vie coros among detained immigrants and reports that the agency is deporting individuals who test positive for it. >> we had a hearinin the subcommittee about this a while ago, and it's a massive failure. not ly are they transferring people to igfocountries and

spreading the infection around the world, they are also ee transferring detaand these are detainees who have been convicted of no offense, around the country and spreading covid throughout the united states. infecting not only the detainees, and also the staff and of course when the staff gets infected, they go home to intheir neighborhoods anct their families and neighbors, so ice has been a vector for the spread of covid. we suggested that they release all detainees who do not po a threat, theynot only did not do that, they did not even answer the letter, they are not testing, it's really a massive failure. >> last month the supreme court saved the daca program from

administration, at ler p now, what do you say to young undocumented immigrants who would like to apply for relief under dacabut cannotdo it because the trump administration is not accepting new applicants for it right now? >>'s there'sa lawsuit right now in the district court in maryland that has ordered ice to reinstate the program as the united states supreme court directed, so right now, the at plaintiffs in case will go back to the district court. i personally think it looks like the department is simply defying the order of the united states preme court, they argue that they have some wiggle room, so we will see what the district court says about that. i would hope that dreamers will have faith in the future, the election is less than 100 days from now and we could have different approach after november 3.

>> this week, attorney general barr testified before the house diciary committee which u also sit on, what is your reaction to the use of homeland security forces in portland cl where they havehed with protesters for weeks, and the attorney general's defense of sending those federal troops? >> is an traordinary abuse of power, i don't think this has ever happened in the history of united states before where federal police, without jurisdiction have been sent into americcities over the objection of the governors and mayors to essentially guard against vandalism and graffiti, and with that pretext, have then gone into other parts of the city, arresting people and brutalizing them. i think it's worth noting, i mean there were problems in portlandno doubt about , but the insertion of the federapresence actually

instigated a further reaction, it made things worse according to the mayor and the governor and now,those forcesare going in retreats, which i didn't think is helpful. no one defends vandalizing a building or graffit but the response to that has en extraordinarily overdrawn and i think it has instigated investigations by the rainspect ge and we will see what he concludes. >> this week, texas congress member louis gomer revealed he has tested positive for the coronavirus and this comes after he had read nocomments aboubeing willing to wear a mask and he said he may have gotten it from handling muthe mask s, why has wearing a mask become so politicized and how is it possible to keep the n country safe when politicians are not willing to follow the guidance of health officials?>> his view on that is just

dumb and unsupported any science. he not feonly has ed himself, he may have infected other people, not only members of congress, but staff in the house, everybody is getting tested, so that was him being su r dumb which is not the first time, ununfoely. why he would take that position, i would never try to explain his thinking, but i think the president has tried to make ofthe wearing a mask a political act when it tohas nothindo with politics, it has to do with health. and all of the emerging information indicates that wearing a mask provides a level of protection, not only for others if u are infected, but for yourself, so why people would not do that is beyond me, and it's helped prolong the epidemic and delayed our ability to get backto some

semblance of normality. >> thank you for joining us. >> thank you ve much. a new documentary highligh the struggle for press freedoms in the ilippines, where many journalists are under attack by the president, leading the fight against him is an award- winning former cnn bureau chief whose media organization has been targeted by the government for exposing a brutal war on ai drugs that has cld thousands of lives. she and her team of reporters have faced death threats, arrests, and multiple legal allenges. in june, she was convicted on libel charges and this month, lawmakers refused to renew the f franchise licens the largest news broadcaster in the philippines. with me by skype is a producer, writer, and director of 1000 cuts, u mona diaz, thank for joining us. >> thank you for having me. >> the viewers here know a

little b about president duterte a, he has a reputation for beinan incredibly violent leader, he he's very popular locally, tell us about this tension that has arisen between him and journalist there, in particular, maria russell. >> she and her organization questioned the drugwar, es who questioning the numbers because the administration was saying the numbers were closer to 4000 which is in itself still a very horrific number but the organization are pegging it more like 27,000, so there was a discrepancy and they started questioning matt d the minute they question that pounded. >> what does that mean, what did that look like? >> maria talks about it i she got like 90 hate messages per hour.

so who are these messages from? from trolls, but these were amplified by people who were allied with duterte. >> there's an incredibly strongi power of media that is very present through this film, i want to watch a clip now where the present berates one of the journalists from the news organization that has been publishing documents against s the president, war, the one that maria runs, let's take a look at that and come back. >> jubecause you have the power of press freedom, you are a filipino who has allowed to abuse our country and you are an active participant inhat in the name hoof the grail of press freedom.

with how the prident of the t united states has attacked the press over and over again, with their familiarity is for u also? >> absolutely. when trump called cnn fake news, duterte caed rattler fake news a few days later so they are probably playing, they have the same playbook. i go back and forth between the philippines and here and if i sit here in s.the and i watch cnn reporters being arrestedn live television i sometimes forget where i am, it's become so the same, it is alarming. and we knew that what we were

filming, that there was something very similar about the two countries. ex >> you also ore social medias outside influence on the election there, we've obviously had their own issues here in e this country, what your concerns going forward into the election in november with the affects that social media could have here? >> i think social media has been westernized and there's no longer any public spe where we can have discourse, like reasonable discourse because i think we are all in los, we only see the things that people we agree with. as maria says in the film, this is really about content because if you go after content, that's a workable game and you will be playing that forever and once you put something t there it will always be out there, even if you put it down. if you take down your tweet for example, but it's a network that you have to look at, the network of sharing and how one account can really influence

thousands and millions of othe accounts in the spread, it spreads like a virus, quickly and exponentially so it's very t hacontrol. >> mia fights that by putting forward alternate content, content she and her journalist feel very strongly is the truth. >> yesbut the ing on social media is bad news and anger and hatred spread so much faster than warrintruth, or the less insightful, right? for some reason they spread faster on social media and people share , it fastso really the problem with the social media platforms, like the engineering has to change. >> to come to today's news and world, president duterte has instituted one of the longest and strictest lockdowns in asia to stop the spread of the coronavirus, how haofhis

handlingthe pandemic impacted his standing there? >> they are on their 19th week of lockdown, ngest, and the president's response to covid hiis like response to the drug war, it's a police response, it's not a public health response and it's ally affected because people arnh verypy, he's shut down the biggest broadcast in the country in the middle of th pandemic, people are starting to realize that what slipping away and there's a kind of anger that you are noticing that a lot of protest, they stay in their cars, there are noise barrages, but people i think are starting towake up in the middle of a pandemic. >> thank you so much for being with us. >> thank you for having me. 1000 cuts opens next friday, august 7 with virtua i screeninthe bay area and around the nation, for more

information, visit athousandcuts.film. from all of ushere at kqed, thanks for watching.

♪[music] brinkmanship, as the election looms. >> this election will be the most rigged in history. >> president trump relentlessly at ocks the integrityf the vote. and keeps his ope party on edge. >> but i guantee you t election will be november 3 of 2020. >> can congress cut a deal? >> seems to me that senator mcconnell really doesn't want to get an agreement. >> aco themy shutters, and the virus ravages our nation, next. ♪[music] >> this is "washington week." corporate dending is provid by... ♪[music] >> when the world getsli co a