first up can anytng stop to california's wildfires fr devastating? we dig in with strategies of solutions. held the grand old party its convention this morning and analysis ave political and the latest of on the rate racehoor the white e. another police involved shooting of a black man sparks protests and a show of solidarity in the world of sports. the scu and lm you lightning plot complex fires now rankas they sat second and third largest fires in state histy. merely one .4 million acres have burned statewide in nearly

2000 structurehave been destroyed. at least seven people have died as a result of the fires an were injured. fires like this seem to be a new normal in california with significant delays coming almost every fall. climate change has made weatherb more unpredi and led to hotter and drier conditions and housing developments have pushed to fire prone regions. should we plan to live with this devastation and air quyeity for many s to come? is there any way out? joining the is scott stevens a professor at uc berkeley. we have seen several instances in which e devastation from wildfires has become personal including the santa cruz firefighters who lost their own homes this year. you are also facing concerns about a rucamp you what is the latest? >> this is in a little town lled meadow valley. we have a camp there we have

used for 130 years now for an undergradue course and there is a fire called the bear fire to the south that has been moving in our direction. we have been watchiit carefully. right now we are not complete sure what will happen. i am hopeful. >> gov. gavin newsom lied climate change to california's wildfires saying the arts are getting hotter anthe dry is getting drier and if you are in denial about climate change co to california. i am curious if you could define for us that connection between climate change and california's wildfires you see it. >> the climate change is no doubt impacting fire in the state. what it does is the mperatures up ans we will have lower fuel moisture which means higher rates but spread and easier to ignite. all of the things are happening in the state and more variability in weather which is something we anticipate, more droughts a more high precipitation. all of this is happening and it really is impacting fire. i ill say all climate change

>> you would point instead to issues with rery management and the fact that we have for 100 years a policy of total fire suppression is at right? >> that is right. most vegetation typewe have changed so much in the past years or so. we have indigenous burnin and fire suppression all has have far more treating per acre and more fuel on the ground and this causes great to change in >> california is worktoward removing some of that and they are talking about burning about 1 million acres by 2025. that is not an easy process. tell us what the obstacles are in the way of burning morlan like this. >> you are very right. wereally have a small program here now. we have never really done th at gail. the first thing we need is a putting more fire on the ground

and this is something the state has tried to facilitate. maybe more get a certification to burn on privatcalands e of the need to protect. we also need to have more people that will the more connected to fire, of course we see the big flames and destruction but there is also this part that is so intercooled, even societal. parts of that has to be is getting better as a society to deal with fire. >> our solution here then isto burn more? >> it is d to also do other things like restoration where weancan work of course that doesn't work with things like other aspects of some vegetation but burning more could make use of it allowing some fires to actually wildfires to do their work. we are on course to do more so this is the idea of getting

togeer to try to get multiple aspects of information into the system and because as you misai 1 ion acres is a giant area and i plaud back goal. do if we t start doing this at scale we know exactly what will happen. if we don't do this at scale and make a concerted effort to make ecosystems more prepared there is doubt this will continue to more oblems. >> could you describe for us what prescribed burns are and how they are managed and how il theybe used in the future? >> we have an objective for fire on the ground. we make a plan, the plan is developed and that we anecute the we are looking for things like whether, things like topography, fuel loads and we are looking at how we will put fire on the ground in terms of ignition pattern. monitor the fire and then we learn from it as well. you will do this as oua trying to facilitate the fire back in and you will make a

plan that is very specific and then ini-personnel. re personnel in the state. >> can you tell us about examples you have seen in other places that ve fought fire successfully that we could be ambulating in california? >> a place the country doing a good job is the south west. if you look at florida, georgia, alabama, south carolina, these places have for decades and decades. the state of florida last year burned 750,000 acres of fo and 75% of that waprivately owned. that is ex-ordinary. they are doing that year afte year after year. georgia says it did more. these are places where fire has been incorporated into management routinely. they call it burning the rough. it is a different season of fireit is late spring versus the fall but they do this routinely every year. people are accustomed to it and

i have see places where parking lots will have a fire next to a giant parking lot. people on golf courses pointing their car at the fire because theyant to get sense of what is going on. it is a routine it has become commonplace. >> why wasn't that done here in california? nd out here versus state land. i think the state land being gh proportionate groups are really focused on things like hunting and maybe conservation. here we havemore federal land with stronger connection to forest service d other outcome wanting to move fire exclusion and suppression early. we hakind of lost that. we did have early discussions in the state in the early 1900s to usfire atscale but eventually those discussions. >> housing also plays into this. we have a housing crunch and moe people are moving into the wildland, whatn communities do in those regions to better

protect themselves? >> i think we could do better at preparing our homes and communities. in australia they do things like timidity fire brigade. this is a volunteer group that gets together twice a year and they talk abmaybe we are in a drought or re-aren't. maybe a neighbor thatis immobile and they talk about access and they also talk out coming together to make a difference in getting our community prepared. i think we could do that a lot better in this state to get people more in tune with what is goiep on and e. >> you really are hopeful as you look toward the future for california. orrow here in really am. even though climate change is changing systems we have iathe poteto do better and get people better prepared and homes better prepared. we can get our ecosystem better prepared into all of that so i am very help mfull. y people right now are hurting and have lost so much

but still if we don't start to p do more ation and get people better prepared i can't imagine how this will ever change. >> professor scott stevens thank you for your time and insight we appreciate it. >> happy to be here. >> the republican national convention took place this week. president donald trump broke with tradition by making an appearance every night rather than onlyon the final evening. the presidents children's but prominently throughout the event along with other national leaders. it another break with tradition the current secretary of state mike pompeo became the first person in his position to address such a convention in 75 years. he praised the america first licies speaking from thnew embassy in jerusalem. in his convention speech last night the president strongly rival joe biden callhim a trojan horse for socialism. joining me now from mountain

view is a hoover institution fellownd former advisoto the presidential campaign of mitt romney and joining us by skane is our politics government correspondent and cohost of tremonn political breakdpodcast marie. thank you for joining us. >> thank you. >> what we the primargoals and who was the primary audience for the gl p in this week of convention and did they reach them? >> i think two audiences we saw, first it was the republican base and that firm base of pport for dold trump. there was an effort to reach out to them with your typical fair you would see in a republican national convention.e many speakers were ed toward targeting that population to get them energized and excited to vote but you also have this interesting duality because you had an effo to screecout to swing voters in suburban x suburb areas. this is key because the republic party did not do well with these 20voters in .

there was effort to reach hit togroup to try to get them interested. you saw efforts to soften the presidents age. his daughter did this and many look you may not like his style or his tweeting but judge him by his records, his results, and his plan and i think that ta was squarely toet those voters. >> there was also comment frequently that the president was not racist and of course n this conventand the convention last week as well has been playing out against the backdrop of racial unrest and racial injustice in america. there have been protests this past week in wisconsin which is were not mentioned during the convention this week except to lk about the violence and looting not a racial injustice underneath. i am curious if you think the messagof the gop, that america does not have a problem with racism and that donald

trump isnot racistis resonating with those swing voters who are seeing things play out on tv in front of them night by night which are different. >> watching this convention it does feel like we are living in two americanus. the americas are taking to the streets largely peacefully and protesting what they see as systemic racism, not to say this is a bad placbut tosay we have problems we need to fix versus what we heard with the enrepublican national coon is police are good, protesters are largely associated with looting and riotin no mention of jacob blake who is now paralyzed after being shot seven times by police. no mention of the white teenager who came to some of those protests and is accused of killing two people ansh ting a third as part of a militia. i think this is a calculated move that they want to paint this sort of entire racial justice movement as sort of you know connected to unrest in democratic cies and saying

joden will be responsible for more of that when he is elected. >> the gop made sure there were several black speakers duringti the conv. do you think their presence helped ensure swing votethat the gop is an inclusive party, or at least not racist >> i think that was the goal. i think there was a recognition after the first round of wake of all of the racial unrest that we saw over the last several months. i think after that the republican party felt was at a disadvantage and so it was importt to showcase some of the diversity and some of the different voices and faces in the republican pay. i thought for the most rt those individuals did a b,good i thought tim scott give a good speech with a memorable line of going from cotton congre one a generation which is quite a remarkable story. you had dael cameron the

young attorney general from kentucky that presented an alternate vision. at the end of the day voters will judge on this. political parties can do what they want to showcase whoever they want to showcase, but voters are the ones that will have to make that uldeterminati anmately again it comes back to voters who in those swing districts in this parts of the country will have an impact that will make that determination. >> several republican speakersse made the that joe biden and kamala harris would make america less safe and that joe biden would support defundmeg police depas , which is a false claim. how do you think joe biden will do fighting back against these cusations and what does need to do? >> i think the democratic party needs to talk about what they do stand r, which you point out is not as sort of a radical vision is what donald trump put forward.e i think thneeds to be a lot of balance between attacking president donald trump, whh they will do . the fact is president donald trump is saying the images we are

seeing across the country when protesting develops into vi ence is indicative of what wi democrat bring to america, he is in charge of the country and i think that is something they wi have to hit. i also think americans don't wavi to hear nega about the nation, they want to hear hope. they want to hear exceptionali. i think a lot of people buy into that so i think that is something we are seeing with him coming up this we hitting that middle ground. i think some of this is going to be him doing what he tried to do last week which ess t himself as presidential. he didn't mention the president by na in hispeech and i think that was intentional. i think we will see more attacking on kamala harris directly and maybe more positivity from pride in. >> the economy is also an important part of the president's agenda. the economy was growing until the coronavirus struck. presidents message on future economic growth under his

leadership? >> i ink it wathe best message he could have articulated precisely for the reason yoindicated. the economy was performing quite well that we had covid-19 then the economy cratered. i think it will take some time for this onomy to rebuild. the president is trying to stanke opal notes saying look i did it before and i can do it again. the reality us this is the strongest issue i think for republicans going into the election. if president donald trump is going to continue to ive this issue i think eventuly it is going to be his strongest hope, even given the state of the haeconomy now, people a tendency to give him the benefit of the doubt when it comes to the economy and lis ha othe economy. i ink that should be a principal theme for republicans and the president as they campaign in the fall. >> what you think are the

strategic objectives they need to accomplish in the next few weeks? >> first of all they've got to shore up the states where they are marginal but need to atwin. like texas and georgia which have become more competitive. florida which previously president donald trump did well in they have to pay special attention to those. ot arizona maybe r one of those states. then they need to be on message which could be difficult for ti the president sos to stay on message. they really need to be on message. i think the law and order appeal will appeal in some areas but they have to be careful because that could be a double-edged sword. targeting effectively and staying on message would be the two big goals. >> marissa what is both campaigns focusing on in the e next cou weeks? >> i think we expect them to hammer in on the economand that is an area where president

donald trump still has a lot of strength especially with independent voters and the voters he needs. ed the biden campaign to point out that we are in this mess because of a mishandled pandemic. there are some missteps the anump administration made if you listened to the republican national convention they talked about it like it was over. that is not a reality and i think that is something he really needs to hit hard. >> thank you both. on wednesday the milwaukee basketll team boycotted thei playoff game against the orlando magic to protest the shooting ofjacob blake, a black man shot in the back by white police officer in kenoshah wisconsin. shooting has sparked protesting which some have turned violent. the national guard has been deployed. t the walkd to the cancellation of nba games

wednesday and thursday and it also inspired athletes in other sports to join in solidarity. et three wnba baskball games were canceled wednesday as were major league soccer and baseball games, including one with the san o francigiants. joining me now by skype is sean andersonsistant professor of organizational communication at loyola who has studied the issue of racism in sports. and the host of the mark willard to show mark willard. gentlemen thanyou for joining. sean let's start with you. president donald trump said yesterday the nba had become likee political organization which he did not think was a good thing for sports or the country. ok the un sentiment here is athletes should stick to sports. you disagree with that concept, why is that? >> if we think about the history ofsports it would take you back to the civil rights era where athletes such as mohammed ali lost his gold

medals to protesting and injustice or bill russellto the 1968 protesting at the tiympic games. po have always been a part of sport and these athletes back then recognized they have thplatform to fight injustice just as these athletes feel like they have a platform now. to say that the marriage of politics and sports should it bethere is totally nacve and as long as there is racial forefront. port will be at the >> mark this was a very powerful statement by several teams and players across several different sports, is enthis an unprecd statement in the world of sports? said it is not unprecedented at all. it is unprecedented from the level of an entire team or re en walking out but you

have seen incidents like this throughout the years many many times. the syracuse eight in 1970 who l not play, again those were a few athletes not the entire team. same thing with missouri football players just a handful of agyears where maybe a little bit less felt like there was racism inside the athletic department and called for the head of the university to step down or th would not play and they were success ul. it extension of things happening through the years. it is rare that an entire team and definitely an entire league would suddenly just stop to allow people to flreect but we have seen early versions of this for year >> how effective has have these protests been over the years? >> the miouri one isone that stands out recently that absolutely had an effect.

john mentioned mohammed ali and i think the effectiveness of them cannot always be seen aw righ. i think a lot of people are re confused at the enpoint. on my show i get questioned a lot, they set out one game, what is that going todo? >> it is not about sitting at one game, it is about taking a moment to not provide americsta ction of sitting down and watching a game and not paying attention to what is going on inrehe world. thatection is what is necessary and overtime that house and effect. >> sean what is the likelihood e these athletes willable to bring about change when elected officials and other leaders so? not yet been able to do >> one thing is the fact that you are seeing prominent athletes who may be on their last leg of their caer or not as popular as others taking a

stand on t cial issues you see multiple athletes whhave a lot of clout and a very big platform coming out speaking about these particular issues and the sacrifices they are making monetarily, which could be an issue before anit was issue in times past with athletes. now they are saying we have had enough. this is ough to cause us to be able to ma a change now. we need the government, we need ganizations to listen to us and our plight. this now is the cataly to actual change and the movement for systemic racism and its change as well >> mark let's talk about the wnba which also canceled the games but has really been doing a lot of work in terms of

social justice on d off the court. can you tell us about their messaging and platform and how y re using that? >> of all sports the wnba might be the most unified of all. they don't have necessarily be platformthe nba or major- league baseball or nfl has but they have been very very forward anvery unified in their beliefs and messaging and what they are trying to get across. i think the number one thing they did it is kind of an intricate issue not just y necessarghting racism but one of the owners of the atlanta dream llis senator loeffler who has been very outspoken about everybody t standingtention during the anthem and not usinsports as the platform we are discussing. the wnba got together and wore shirts that said kelly loeffler'spponent and th is bosses they are rallying

against. you can see hounified they are and how forward they are with their messaging. >> as a professor of out for you about the message the nba has sent since the season resumed late july? >>t is clear e nba has recognized the humanity in their players. these are nojust players out there to entertain, they are humans who have lives, whhave families, who have friends, who are suffering right now when it comes toracial injustice. the nba has made it clear their strategy is to support their players aspeople first and as employees second. that is the greatest message they are pushing forward. >> ark the buccs walked out wednesday and that wathe same

day four years ago thatthe former san francisco quarterback colin kaepernick was seen sitting before a game and not standing for the anthem. i am curious about the evolution of the nfl during this time and what you expect to see when the season resumes this fall. >> i think you will see a different thing. we talked earlier about how sometimes demonstrations affect the season right away and four years later you see roger e caddell apologand say he wished we had listen to colin kaepernick and we wished wehad done something differently and maybe he would still have a job. i think you will see this year a lot more unification, a lot more involvement in probably see more coaches and owners who are at least going to bite their upper lip if they are having a problem with what theyg are se this league is feeling very empowered rit now baseon what has happened in our country this year. time. nk you both for your

you can find more of our coverage at kqed.org . you can reach me on twitter, facebook, and instagram. for all us heat kqed, thanks for watching. good night.

>> the president makes his case for four more years. presidentrump: this eltion will decide whether we will defend the american way of life or whether we will allow a radical movement to completely dismantle and destroy it. >> as americans wrestle with another police shooting of a black man -- >> they shot my son. seven times. seven times. like he didn't matter. >> the republican national co nvention rallies around a message of law and order. but as thousands arrive in washington calling for racial justice, and the number of americans killed by the coronavirus tops 180,000, the democratic ticket pushes back. >> donald trump has failed at the st