first up stn anything op to california's wildfires fr devastating? we dig in with strategies of solutions. also the grand old party held its convention this morning and we will hays political anal and the latest of on the rate race for the white house. another police involved shooting of a black n sparks protests and a show of solidariof in the world sports. welcome to kqed newsroom. the scu and lm you lightning pl plot c fires now rank as they sat second and third largest fires in state history. merely one .4 million acres have burned statewide in nearly 2000 structures have been

destveyed. at least sen people have died as a result of the fires and were injured. fires like this seem to be a new normal in califoifia with siant delays is coming almost every fall. climate change has made weather hotter and drier conditions and housing developments ha pushed to fire prone regions. should we plan to live with this devastation and r quality for many years to come? is there any way out? joining the is scott stevens a professor at uc berkeley. we have seen several instances in which the devastation from wildfires has become personal incling the santa cruz firefighters who lost their own homes this year. about a campyou run. oncerns what is the latest? >> this is in a little town called meadow valley. we have a camp there we have f us 130 years now for an

undergraduate course and there is a fire called the bear fire to tuth that has been moving in our direction. we have been watching carefully. right nowe are not completely sure what will happen. i am hopeful. >> gov. gavin newsom linked climate change to california's wildfires saying the hearts are getting hotter and the dry is if getting drier an you are in denial about climate change come to california. i am curious if you could atdefine for us connection between climate change and california's wildfires as you see it. >> the climate change is no doubt impacting fire in the state. what it does is the temperaturup means we will have lower fuel moisturewhich means higher rates but spread and easier to ignite. all of these things are happening in the state and more variability in weather which is something we anticipate, more droughts and more high precipitation. all of this happening and it really is impacting fire. i still say all climate chant

impact rinow. >> you would point instead to issues with forestry management and the fact that we have for 100 years a policy total fire suppression is that right? >> that is right. most vegetation types we have changed so much in the past years or so. we have indigenous burning and fire suppression all has changed to a point where we have far more treating per acre and more fuel on the ground and this causes great to change in the ecosystems. >> california is working toward are talking about burning about 1 million acres by 2025. that is not an easy process. at tell us the obstacles are in the way of burning morland like this. >> you e very right. we really havea smalprogram here now. we have never really done this at gail. the first thing we need is a workforce thatn wideal

putting more fire on the ground and this is something the state has tried cito tate. maybe more get a certification to burn on private lands because of the need to protect. we also need tohave more people that will the more connected to fire, of course we see the big flames and destructiobut there is also this part that is so intercooled, even societal. parts of that has to be is getting better as a society deal with fire. >> our solution here then is to burn more? >> is and to also do other things like restoration where we can work and of course that doesn't work wi things like other aspects of some vegetation but burning more could make e of it lowing some fires to actually wildfires to do their work. we are on course moto do so this is the idea of getting together to try to get multiple aspects of information into ane

systembecause as you said 1 million acres is a giant area and i applaud back goal. we don'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 no doubt this will continue to more problems. >> could you describe for cr what pred burns are and how they are managed and how they will be used in the future? >> we have an objective for fire on the ground. we make a plan, the plan is developed and that we execute the plan. we are looking for things like whether, things li 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 willdo this asa group back in and you will make a e plan that is very specific and e

then uni-pers that iwhere we need to get more personnel in the state. >> can you tell us about examples you have seen in other places that have fought fires successfully that we could be ambulating in california? >> a place in the countrdoing a goodjob is thsouth west. if you look at florida, georgia, alabama, south carolina, these places have edbeen doing prescrburning for decades and decades. the state of florida last ye burned 750,000 acres of forest and 75% of that was privately owned. that is ex-ordinary. they are doing that year after year after year. geora says it did more. these are ples where firehas been incorporated into management routinely. they call it burning the rough. it is a different season of fire, it is te spring versus the fall but they do this routinely every year. people are accustomed to it and antihapate it. see places where parking

lots will have a fire next to a giant parking lot. people os golf courpointing their car at the fire because they want to get a sense of what is going on. it is a routine it has become commonplace. >> why wasn't that done here in california? >> we have a lot more federal land out here versus state land. i think the state land being higher proportionate groups are really focused on things like hunting and maybe conserva here we have more federal land with stronger connection to forest service and other outcome waing to move fire exclusion and suppression earlye have kind of lost that. we did have early discussions in the state in the early 1900se to use at scale but eventually those discussions. >> housing also plays into this. we have a housing crunch and moe people are ving into the wildland, what can communities protect themselves? to better >> i think we could do better ou

at preparinghomes and communities. in australia th do things like timidity fire brigade. this is a volunteer group that gets together twice a year taan they about maybe we are in a drought or re-aren't. maybe neighbor that is immobile and they talk about access and they also talk about coming together to make difference in getting our community prared. i think we could do that a lot better in this state to get people more in tune with what an is going on prepare. >> you really are hopeful as you look toward the future for a better tomorrow here iain califo >> i really am. even though climate change is changing systems we have the people better prepared and get homes better prepared. we can get our ecosystem better prepared into all of that so i am verhelp full. so many people right now are hurting and have lost so much do more preparation 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 only on the final evening. the presidents children's but tl prominthroughout 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 policies speaking from the new embassy in jerusalem. in hisconvention speech st night the president strongly denounced his presidential rival joe biden calling him a trojan horse for socialism. joining me now from mountain fellow and foadsor to tution

the presidential campaign of mitt romney and joining us by skype is oupolitics and government correspondent and cohost of tremont political breakdown podcast marie. thank you for joininus. >> thank you. >> what were the primary goals and who was the primary f audien the gl p in is week of convention and did they reach them? >> i think two audiences we saw, first it was the republican se and thba firm of support for donald trump. there was an effort to reach out to them with your typical fair you would see in a republican national convention. many speakers were oriented toward targeting that energized and excited to vote but you also have this interesting duality because you ha an effort toscreech out to swing voters in suburban x suburb areas. this is key because the republican party did not do well with these voters in 2018. there was effort to reach out

to this group to try to get em interested. yow efforts to soften the presidents image. his daughter did this and many others tried to do this to u y look may not like his style or his twting but judghim by his records, his results, and his plan and i think thats uarely to target those voters. >> there was also comment frequently that e president was not racist and of course this convention and the convention last week as hawell been playing out against the backdrop of racial unrest and racial injustice in america. there have been protests is past wein wisconsin which is were not mentioned during the convention this week except to talk abo the violence and looting not a racial injustice underneath. i am curious if you think the message of the gop, that amhaica does not a problem with racism and that donald trump is not racist is resonating with those swing

eiters who are 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 place but to say versus what we heard with e republictional convention is police are good, protesters are largely associated with looting and rioting, no seven times by police. shot no mention of the white teenager who came to some of those protests and is accused of killing two people and shooting a third as part of a militia. i think this is a calculated move that theywant to paint this sort of entire moracial justicment as sort of you know connected to unrest in democratic cities and saying joe biden will be responsible for more that when he is >>

elected. he gop made sure there were several black speakers during the convention. do you think their presence helped ensure swing voters that the gop is an inclusive party, or at least not racist? >> i think that was the goal. i thk there was a recognition after the first round of protesting happening in the wake of all of the racial unrest that saw over the last several months. i think after that the republican party felt that it was at a disadvantage and so it was important to showcase some of the diversity and so of the different voices and faces in the republican party. i e thought for most part those individuals did a good job, i thought tim scott give goeech with a memorable line of going from cotton to congress in one a generation which is quita remarkablestory. you had daniel cameron the

young attorney general from kentucky t t presented an alternate vision at the end of the day voters will judge on this. political parties can do what they want to owcase whoever they want to showcase, but voters are the ones that will have to make that determination and ultimately again it comes back to vote who in those swing districts this parts of the country will have an impact that will make that determination. >> several republican speakers made the case that joe biden and kamala harris would make america less safe and that joe police departments , which is a false claim. how do you think joe biden will do fighting back against these accusations and what does he >> i think the democratic party needs to talk about what they do stand for, which as you point out is not as a sort of radical vision is what donald trump put forward. i think there needs to be a lot of balance between attacking president donald trump, which they will do . the fact is president donald trump is saying the images we are seeing across the country when

protesting develops into violence is indicative of what democrats will bring to america, he is in chargeof the country and i think that is something they will have to hit. i also think americans don't want to hear negativity about the nation, they want to hear hope. they want to hear exceptionalism. i think a lot of people buy into that so i think that is him coming up thisweek hitting that middle ground. i think some of this is going to be him doing what he tried to do last week which was present himself as presidential. he didn't mention the president by name in his speech and i think that was thintentional. k 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. how effective was the presidents message on future economic growth under his leadership?

>> i think it was the best message he could have la artid precisely for the reason you indicated. the economy was performing quite well that viwe had 19 then the economy cratered. i think it will take some time for this economy to rebuild. the president is trying to strike opal notes and saying look i did it befo 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 drive this issue i think eventually it is going to be his strongest hope, even given state of the economy now, people have a tendency to give him the benefit of e doubt when it comes to the economy and his handling of the economy. i think that should be a and the president as they campaign in the fall. >> what you think are the

strategic objectives they need to accomplish in the nefew weeks? >> first of all they've got to shore up states where they are marginal but need to win. states like texas and georgia which have become etmore coive. florida which previously president donald trump d well in they have to pay special attention to those. arizona maybe another one of those states. then they need to be on message on message. sometimes to stay they really need to be on message. i think the law and orr appeal will appeal in some areas but theyhave to be careful because that could be a double-edged inord. targeffectively and staying on message would be the two big goals. >> marissa what both campaigns focusing on in the next couple of weeks? >> i think we expect them to hammer on the economy and that is an area where president dona trump still has a lot of al

strength espe with independent voters and the voters he needs. the biden campaign need to point out that we are in this mess because of a mishandled pandemic. there are some missteps the trump administration made and if you listened to the republican national convention they talked about it like it was over. think that issomething he i really needs to hit hard. >> thank you both. on wednesday the milwaukee o basketball team ycotted their playoff game against the orlando magic to protest the shooting of jacob b black man shot in the back by a white police officer in kesha sconsin. the shooting has sparked protesting which some have turned violent. the national guard has been deployed. the walkout led to the cancellation of nba games wednesday and thursday and it also inspired athletes in othert

sporjoin in solidarity. three wnba basketball games were canceled wednesday as werec major league and baseball games, including one with the san francisco giants. joining me now by skype is sean anderson an assistant professor of organizational communication at loyola who has studied e issue of racism in sports. and the thhost of mark willard to show mark willard. gentlemen thank you for joining. sean let's stt with you. president donald trump said like a quote political ecome organization which he did not in was a good thing for sports or the country. the unspoken sentiment here is athletes should stick to . spor you disagree th that concept, why is that? >> if we think about the history of spor would take you back to the civil rights era where athletes such as mohammed ali lost his gold medals to protesting and

the 1968 protesting at the olympic games. politics have always been a partof sport and these athletes back then recognized at they have the rm to fight injustice just as these athletes feel like ey have a platform now. to say thatthe marriage of politics and sports should it be there is totallnacve and as long as there is racial injustice sport will th at e forefront. >> mark this was a very powerful statement by several teams d players across severadifferent sports, is this an unprecedented statement in the world of sports? >> know and i thinkas sean said it is not unprecedented at all. it is unprecedented from the level of an entire team or an entirely walking out but you have seen incidents like this

throughout the years many many times. the syracuse eight in 1970 who would not play, again those were a few athletes t the entire team. same thing with missouri football players just a handful of years ago 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 wodown or they d not play and they re successful. it is an 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 toreflect but we have seen early versions of this for years. protests been over the years? >> the e missouri is one that stands out recently that absolutely had an effect. john mentioned mohammed ali and

i think the effectiveness of them cannot always be seen right away. i think a lot of people are confused at the entire point. on my show i get questioned a lot, they set out one game, what is that ? ing to >> it is not about sitting at one game, it is about taking a moment to not pride america a distraction of sitting down and watching a game and not paying attention to what is going on in the world. that reflection is what is necessary and overme that house and effect. >> sean what is the likelihood these athletes will be able to bring about change when elected officials and other leaders have not yet been able to do so? >> one thing is the fact th you are seeing prominent athletes who may be on their last leg of their career or not as popular as others taking a stand on social issues but you

see multiple athletes who have a lot clof t 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 it was an issue in times past with athletes. now they are saying we have had enough. this is enough to cause us to be able to make a change now. we need the government, need the organizations to listen to us and our plight. this now is thcatalyst 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 a lot of work in terms of social justice on and off the u

court. can tell us about their messaging and platform and how they are using that? >> of all sports thwnba might be the most unified l.of they don't have necessarily be platform the 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 k across. i the number one thing they diit is kind of an intricate issue not just necessarily fighting raonsm but of the owners of the atlanta dream is senator kelly loeffl who has been very outspoken about everybody standing at attention during the anthem anspnot using ts as the platform we are discussing. d the wnba got together wore shirts that said kelly loeffler's opponent and that is an owneof some of their

bosses they are rallying against. you can see how unified they are and how forwarthey e with their messaging. >> as a professor of communications whahas stood out foyou about the message the nba has sent since the season resumed late july? >> it isclear the nba has recognized the humanity in their players. these are not just players out there to entertain, they are humans who have lives, who have families, who have friends, who are suffing right now when it comes to racial injustice.s the nba made it clear their strategy is to support their players as people first and as employees second. that is the greatest message they are pushing forward. >> mark the buccs walked out wednesday and that was the same day four years ago that the s

form francisco quarterback colin kaepernick was seen sitting before a game the not standing for anthemi am curious about the evolution of the nfl during this time and what you exct to sewhen 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 caddell apologize and say he wished we had listen colin kaepernick and we wished we had done something differently and maybe he would still have a job. a lot more unication, 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 they are seeing. this league is feeling very empowered right now based on what has happened in our y counis year. >> tr nk you both your time. you can find more of our coverage at kqed.org . you can

reach me on twitter, facebook, and instagram. for all of us here at kqed, thanks for watching. good night.

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