[captioning made possible by democracy now!] ♪ amy: from papacifica, ththis is democracy y now! >> today's dedecision mararks a turnaround for texas and our country. a win does not memean the struge is or.r. first, clinics donon't reopen overnight. we have a daunting task ahead of us. the most significant abortion ruling in a generation, the supreme court has struck down sweeping anti-choice restrictions in texas in a major victory for the reproductive

rights movement. we will speak with the lead plaintiff in the case, amy hagstrom miller, founder and ceo of whole women's health in texas. d delivers aililliams powerful address on n racism at the bdt t awards. -- bet a awards. >> we hahave been floaoating ths cocountry on credidit for hundrs of yeaears, yo. extracting a a coulter, i've dollars, our entertainment like oil -- black gold. amy: finally, climate chaos. record, we year on go to west virginia, where historic floods have killed at least 23 people. to california, deadly wildfires rage. all that and more coming up. welcome to democracy now!,

democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. in the most significant victory for abortion rights in a generation, the supreme court has struck down provisions of a sweeping anti-choice law in texas. justice anthony kennedy joined stephen breyer and all three women justices, striking down the restrictions as an undue burden on access to abortion. the lead plaintiff in the case celebrateded the ruling g outsie the court. >> from day onone, whole women's health rejected ththe insulting premise ofof house bill 2. we took on the bully politicians and we have struggled againstt anti-choice reregressiveve polis and our opposition's efforts to shut us down and we won. totoday, we make history and tomorrow, wewe get back toto w ,

so that everyone who seeks abortion services can get the health care she deserves with dignity and respect. amy: the texas legislature passed the sweeping anti-choice law in 2013 despite a filibuster and an 11-hour standby state senator wendy davis. the supreme court ruling strikes down the costly standards of hospital style surgery centers and mandating doctors obtain admitting privileges at a nearby hospital. already about more than half of texas' 40 abortion clinics have closed. if the law had gone into effect, 10would have left texas with clinics clustered in the four metropolitan areas. we will be joined by the lead plaintiff, amy hagstrom miller, after headlines. in another case monday, the supreme court ruled against two men who argued they should be able to buy or own guns, even though they had been convicted

of domestic violence. attorneys for the men argued they should be exempmpt from a federal ban because their acts of violence were committed "recklessly," not intentionally. but the supreme court disagreed, ruling 6 to 2 that even "reckless" domestic abuse counts. sonia sotomayor joined clarence thomas' dissent over issues with treating reckless acts as violent offenses, but declined to join his defense of the second amendment in the case. the e ruling comes afterer the massacre of 49 peoplple in orlan byby omar mateen, who had d a history of domomestic viviolenc. the fbi estitimates at least 57 percent of mass shootings in recent years involved a shooter who killed an intimate partner or other family member. to s see our interview w with wr soarayaya chemalaly about ththe connection betweween domestic violence and m mass shootings go to democracynow.org. the supreme court also threw out the corruption conviction of former virginia governor bob

mcdonnell, in a case that could make it harder to prosecute public officials for corruption. mcdonnell and his wife accepted more than $175,000 in loans, vacations and luxury products in exchange for providing favors to a jonnie williams, a businessman seeking to promote his diet supplement business. but in a rulling written by chief justice john roberts, the court narrowed the definition of what constitutes corruption, saying it applies to formal activities, like filing a lawsuit or making an official determination, and not to acts like arranging meetings, hosting parties, or calling officials to discuss williams' business. in london, thousands of people rallied outside parliament to show support for opposition leader jeremy corbyn, who faces a no confidence vote amid a revolt within his own labour party after britain voted to leave the european union. addressing supporters, corbyn called for unity against racism.

intolerance, and the violence often associated with it and, sadly, this has increased over the last few days. are going toree we unite together as one people, one society, one community to oppose racism? amy: britain's vote to leave the eu continues to send shockwaves throught the global economy. on monday, standard and poor's downgraded the uk's credit rating from the perfect score of triple a down to double a. in the united states, massachusetts senator and progressive favorite elizabeth warren joined democratic presidential candidate hillary clinton on the campaign trail on stage with clinton in monday. cincinnati, ohio, warren took aim at clinton's republican rival, donald trump. sesenator warren: donald trump calls african-americans dogs, muslims terrorists, latinos

rapists and criminals, and women bimbos. hillary clinton believes that racism, hatred, injustice, and bigotry have no place in our country. us and we will fight for hillary clinton. [cheers and applause] meator warren: pleasase join in welcoming to the stage our next president. amy: a new repeport has s founda surge in the use o of dark money donationons at the state a and l levels.. the brennanan center finds secet spending at the local level increased in recent years in , part because of so-called gray money from organizations funneling money through other groups in order to conceal where it's coming from. examples of local spending on races include "mining companies secretly targeting a legislator who opposed permits. food companies battling a ballot measure to add labeling requirements. and payday lenders supporting an

attorney general who promised to shield them from regulation." because of the lower cost of state and local elections, such donations can have an even bigger impact. in florida, a jury has found a former chilean army officer liable for the murder of folk singer and activist victor jara in 1973. jara was tortured and shot more than 40 times in the days after dictator augusto pinochet seized power in a u.s.-backed to -- coup. the verdict against pedro pablo barrientos nuñez marks what the called guardian newspaper called "one of the biggest and most significant legal human righghts victories against a foreign war criminal in a u.s. courtroom." speaking on the steps of the florida courthouse, jara's widow, joan jara turner, said, "what we were trying to do for more than 40 years, for victor, has today come true." barrientos could face extradition to chile, where he could be brought up on criminal murder charges.

the u.s. military says it is investigating reports at t least seven people held in a taliban prison in afghanistan were killed in u.s. airstrikes over the weekend. as many as 16 people were killed , according to reports. afghan officials have denied the reports. president obama expanded the u.s. military's power to conduct airstrikes. undocumented immigrants and their supporters have staged actions across two states to call for a moratorium on deportation. the protests came after a split decision blocked president obama's plan to shield millions of people from deportation. in hartford, connecticut, protesters shut down main street outside a federal immigration office. in atlanta georgia, four people were arrested after chaining themselves to ladders at a busy

intersection. in deming county, texas have rejected a proposedd 500-family bed detention center. it rejected a planan to use a house women ando children fleeing violence. commissioners did not join a bid to join federal officials and a british security form -- firm, which has faced d scandals in australilia and lobbied heavilyo enter the lucrative u.s. market. volkswagen has agreed to pay up to $14.7 billion over its diesel omissions cheating scandal, marking one of the largest consumer class-action settlements in u.s. history. the payouts include buybacks for impacted vehicles and cash

compensations. volkswagen has admitted to rigging some 11 million vehicles worldwide. regulators say volkswagen vehicles were committing up too 40 times more pollution than standard allowed. the former indiana versus the -- has taken atudent clean deal. john enochs was accused of repeatedly raping a woman while she told her to stop. he is accused in another case of raping a woman before blacking out. the plea deal, the rape charges will be dismissed and he will be sentenced for a year probation for battery. the case has drawn comparisons to brock allen turner. witnesses caught him in the active raping an unconscious woman and he was sentenced to

six months in prison. judge aaron persky is presiding over a similar case in which a latino man is due to be sentenced to a much harsher term for a similar crime. raul ramirezez -- faces three years in state prison under a deal overseen by judge persky. stanford professor who is overseeing an attempt to recall judge persky says the case vindicates concerns over the judge's bias. city, local, and federal officials gathered to unveil the stonewall in as the first national monument to lgbtq writes. was the site of a police raid that triggered an uprising and helped launch the modern-day gay-rights movement. new york city mayor bill de blasio thank to the obama

administration for the historic designation. >> i want to report to you that the government got it right this time. something very good is happening today here in new york city. i want to say, on behalf of 8.5 million new yorkers, thank you, president obama. thank you for helping this nation forward. because this monument is part of our healing, part o of making us reallynene country. amy: pat summit, the trailblazing basketball coachch who presided over eight national championships at the university of tennessee and won any other collegethan any other coach -- man or woman -- has died. she stepped down in 2012 after learning she had early-onset alzheimer's disease. she was 64 years old.

those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. in the most significant victory for abortion rights in a generation, the supreme court has struck down provisions of a sweeping anti-choice law in texas. justice anthony kennedy joined stephen breyer and all three women justices striking down restrictions as an undue burden. the lead plaintiff in the case, amy hagstrom miller, celebratedd the ruling outside the suprereme court. ms. hagsom mililler: today's dedecision marks a turnaround fr texas and our country. a wind does s not mean the struggle is nonot over. clinics do not reopen overnight. we have a dauntiting task aheadf us t to determine whetheher andw to reopen ouour health centers that were forced to shut theheir dodoors over the past several years. renewingng leases, hiring g sta, -- woworking withth communities

sesecond, thisis decision only addresessed to of the mamany restririctions t that women faco get abortion care in texas. now, we must redouble our effoforts to end similar restrictions across the state. >> the decision was a complete and totall vindidication of thee plaintiffs' claimims. record was strong, the facts are there, it is clear the law was passed with thehe intent to shut down clinics that had that devastating effect and we are pleased that the supreme court could see through what was happening. thisis is going to make a difference. today's victory is going to make a hugege difference.

we hope that polititicians whoo haveve beepassssing these underhanded laws will l start to do the responsible things. amy: the texas legislature passed house bill 2, the sweeping anti-choice law in 2013, despite a people's filibuster led by an 11-hour stand by texas state senator wendy davis. court rejected the ruling that they have to meet hospital surgery center qualifications and have admitting privileges. clinicstexas' abortion have closed. beene provisions had allowed to come into full effect, advocates warned it would have left texas with about 10 abortion clinics clustered in

for metropolitan areas. supreme court justice ruth bader ginsburg wrote "it is beyond rational belief that house bill 2 could genuinely protect the health of women and is certain that the law would make it more difficult for them to obtain abortions." similar rerestrictions in other states are most likely also unconstitutional based on the ruling. oklahoma, alabama, arkansas, louisiana, mississippi. let's go directly to washington dc, we are we are joined by amy hagstrom miller, the founder and ceo of whole woman's health v. hellerstedt, the lead plaintiff in this landmark case. miller has been working in abortion care. welcome back to democracy now!

first, your reaction. ms. hagstrom miller: i'm beyond elated. not only did we get a victory for the women and families across texas, but the ruling was broad enough to give relief across the country. we were able to illustrate the undue burden put upon by onerous regulations and tell the stories of the women and families across the state affected directly. i'm proud of being able to lead the lawsuit and tell the stories and bring them to the forefront. amy: tell us exactly what this means in texas. what effect did this restriction have? ms. hagstrom miller:: these restrictions closed down many facilities. what that means is women have rights on paper that don't exist for them in reality. they h had to travel hundreds of miles to obtain basic health care. they had to take multiple days

off work, go on multiple visits. the vast majority of womemen we serve are already mothers. they had two good child care and arrange for transportation. manyhappened is you have women having to spend more, travel longer, and some p people having to take matters intoo their own hands. 2013 when go back to texas' antiabortion bill was passed. it was temporarily blocked by a filibuster by state senator wendy davis, who spoke for nearly 11 hours. i want to go to the clip of senator d davis spepeaking at a rally after ththe victory. senatotor davis: i know a g gret numbmber of uss -- some of f use feltlt mad, today is differeren,

ththough. don't you feel i it? , the e opportrtunity to be inspirired by y each oth's actitions in our dememocracycy. we witnessss howow much we canan accomplish w when we reclalaim r powewer and require accountability. amy: state senator wendy davis stands on the floor for 11 hours and they r run the clock out. hundreds o p people, if not 1000 people in the texas capital. the e law cocould not t passhat night. governor perryry then called a special session of the legislslature and they passed i. what happened next in these three y years? there werem miller: thousands and thousands of people in the capital that they. the law went into effect the next month and they were closed.

the ambulatory surgical center requirement went into full effect and we went down to six facilities that were able to be open through the state. this is the second largest state in population and land mass. there were six facilities and they were in the major metropolitan areas. they were the major metropolitan areas they were distributions of clinics that were locals before that. we were able to get an injunction that blocked the ambulatory surgical center requirements from going into effect and that blocked the admitting privileges from going into effect on behalf of the women in the rio grande valley and el paso.

we were able to demonstrate that it had a disproportionate effect on those popululations. this restored some access. with todayay's victory that w wd yesterday, on paper, we have the ability to reopen the facilities shattered by this law initially. my statementn yesterday, it is going to take time to restore the fabric of health care that was destroyed by this law. it will take time to rebuild those clinics. st of us h had to let our leases go. i i had to sell a building. you cannot pay a mortgage on a building for three years when you do not have any patience. have gotten other work, our staff have other jobs. the rebuilding of relicensing of the facility is going to take time for us to rebuild the

community, but the victory is here, not only do we have the ability to reopen facilities, but we have stopped this wave of antiabortion legislation that has spread across the midwest and the south for the years now. i think it sends a strong signal to p politicians. amy: i want to go to a clip from the film "trap." "trapped." we can't have any freestanding oxygen machinines. the section has s to be in the wall. that is for every bed and rio -- pre-op. i don't know if we have used any of t the things in the walalls n

the clinics ever. our phpharmacy has to be locked up. the drugs alwlways expire becaue we never used to them. to replace those drugs, we spend about $1100, throwing out expired medications and replacing them. another thing you will see are the linen bucket. wewe have toto have a a linen cy come outut. we cannot use disposables. in a clinic, because it is such a quicick p procedure, here shes to get completely undressed and into a hospital gown before she can go into the operating room. room.s our operating the question we hear from patients all the time is are you going to cut me? ththat is what an operation is. we h hear thatat more timemes tn not, unfortunately..

this is ththe same exaxact builg and the sasame set up p you woud bring for someone who was having open-heart surgery. no different. same set up. amy: viewers can stream the film online for free for a limited time at pbs.org. , having t to turn away a a patient seeking an abortion. >> in order r to see her, i i nd to putut her to slp. i need a nurse and a a assist -a nurse to do that. it i is impossiblele to find p e to work withth us. she is 13 years old and she is a victimim of rape and sheep drove -- s she drove to sann antononid wewe had to turn her away and there was nothing i could do to save her. if she h has the procedure, that is a h huge -- she will h have o all the way to mexico and pay

$5,000 andnd get there and spend three days. it will never happen. we know it won't. "trapped"clip from which premiered atat sundance ad is playing on pbs -- this means all of that stops as a result of the supreme court in texas? ms. hagstrom miller: i'm so proud of marva, it was delightful to talk to her yesterday. we had everybody on speakerphone. what this means is that we are no longer forced to provide abortion care in ambulatory surgical center environment only. we are allowed to resume care in clinics. we can have the appropriate physical plant. the onenerous physical plplant the complicated

medical set up, it does not really apply to abortion care services. offer tea inle to the recovery room, we will be able to allow loved ones into the room with them. amy: so there were 40 abortion clinics in texas before this began. to 20.e state is down you say it is going to take time. how quickly do you expect there to be more clinics overall? currently,m miller: there are 19 facilities open. none of them are ambulatory surgery centers. 10 clinics have made it through these last through years -- three years, this age of

uncertainty. most of us who had other facilities that had to close have had to let the facility go, has had to sever the lease or sell the building. many of us are going to be trying to figure aware we will , what will theen process be for restoring the building and the lease and the staff? what is the process going to be now for us to apply for a new license for abortion services in the state of texas after this win? none of us really know how the process is going to be. i think we will see a couple of us probably try as soon as we could. part of the abortion facility work is operational.

we have to figure out how to raise funds for acquiring the equipment, the medicines, the staffing, those kinds of things to run a top-notch facility. that is not something that can happen overnight. amy: what dodoes this mean for other states? a mississippipi, it hasn't been religious law that could shatter the last abortion clinic in the state. ms. hagstrom miller: we wanted to bring this suit because it was the right thing to do to stand on the right side of history and against these politicians that lied to the texas and american public. one of our hopes as we could get a good legal standard that would allow relief beyond the texas borders to our sistersrs and brothers in mississippi, alabama, wisconsin. yesterday, i was surrounded by other independent providers from other states who made the

pilgrimage to stand arm in arm to talk about the cause. we were with some of the people you have seen in "trapped." a lot of these people have gone through this kind of onerous regulation across the country. to all of usus, this ruling has meaning. we saw the supreme court take a stand. they said the burden have gone too far. give us a definition of undue burden. we seldom eviscerate the idea that health and the was the purpose of what the texas legislature was up to. they really shed light on the sham and took our evidence and the evidence of science and fact and put it forward in this decision in a way that is going to give relief to many people. amy: we want to thank you for being with us, founder and ceo of whole woman's health. she is the lead plaintiff in the landmark case whole woman's health v. hellerstedt. she has been working in abortion

care since 1989. tomorrow, we will speak with a womann who argued the case befoe the supreme court. it was her first time at the court. she will be our guest. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

found alorida jury has former chilean army officer liable for the murder of the folksinger victor jara, who was tortured and shot more than 40 times. the verdict against pededro pabo nunez.ls s -- barrientos this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report.

i'm amy goodman. now to jesse williams. he is best known for his role on the tv show "grey's anatomy." on sunday night, he earned a standing ovation when he addressed the bet awards as he accepted the humanitarian award. he played homage to police , who would have turned -- including to mere rice, who would have turned 14 years old -- tamir rice, whwho rned 14 years old. i b brought my paparents up toninight. i want to o thank them for r beg here, for r teachi m me to o fos on comprehension o of her caree, that they makeke sure i learned what the s schools were afraid o teach. i want toto thank my amazing g e for chananging my life. this a award is nott for me. this is for the real o organizes all ovover the couountry.

this is for the actctivists, the struggling parents, teacrs,, studenents realizizing t that am built to divide and impoverish and therefore -- divive us cannot stand if we do. all right? of basic mathematics. the m more we learn aboutut whoe are anand how we got here, the more we e will mobilizize. this is in particulalar for the black womenen who have spent thr lifetimes dededicated to nurturg eveveryone before themselves. we can and w will do betteter fr you. , what we have been dodoing is looking at the datata and we knw that police somehohow managed to -escalate, disarm, a and not kill w white people every daday. what is goingg t to happen is we are going to have equal rights and justice or we willl restructure their function and hours. -- ours. ,, i've got more.

been tamiruld havave rice'ss 14th birthday, , so i dt how fararhear more about we've come whenen paid publblic onvants can p pull a driveve-by pupublic television and thenen o homeme to make a s sandwich. tell thehem how much it t is so bebetter to live in 2012 and 162 or 1712. tell that to eric garner, sandra bland, dorian hunt. the ththing is though, all of fs here get money, that i is not going g to stop thisis alo. lives, dedicatiting our liveves to gettingng money t to give it r right bk for someone'e's brand d on our b bon we s spent centuriesraying with brands on ouour bodiess and nowe prpray to get paid fofor brandsn

-- there e has been noo war that w we have not f fght ad di onn the front lines of, there has been n no job we h hae not done, no t tax they have not levied a and we have p paid allf them. but freedom is somehehow always coconditional here. you are freeee, they keep tellig -- , but she would nott have she would have b been alive for she had not acted so free. , freeeedom is always coming inn the hereaeafter. but, the hereaeafter is a hustl. we want it now.. let's get a couple thihings straight. just a little sidede note. the broom of the brurutalized is nonot comfortrt the bystandnde. that is not ourur job. if you have a critique for the resistance, then you better r he

an establisheded record of critique for ourppression.n. ifif you have e no interest t ia rights f for black people, do nt make suggestions to those who do. sit down. we have been floating ththis coununtry on credidit for centus anand we are donone watching a d waiting whwhile this invnvention calleded whiteness uses and abus us, buryining b black people e f sight and o out of mind well extractiting our c culture, our dodollars, o e entertaininment e oil ---- black g gold, get a wig ,nd d demeaning ourur creations gentrifying her genius, then trying us on likee costumes before d discarding our bodies like rindsds of strange fruit. , , the things, though is that just because we are magic does not mean we are not real. amy: that is actor jesse

williams speaking at the det awards.- bet jesse williams stars in "grey's anatomy." he is a board member at the advancement project and was the "stateve producer of woke." when we e come back, c climate chaos.s. the massive loads that have taken more than two dozen lives and we will go to o california r the wildfireres ragege. stay w with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: this iss democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. weatherto extreme sweeping the united states.

in west virginia, 23 people have died in a once in 1000 year flood. governor has to cleared a state of emergency in 44 counties and has deployed the national guard to help with search and rescue efforts. a number of people remain missing. wildfires are raging up and down the state of california. two people have died and hundreds of homes have been deststroyed. kern county fire chief brian marshall spoke out. >> this is going to go down as the most destructive wildfire in kern county history. these people have been displaced and they want to go home. today. why we are here amy: scientists confirm may wass the 13th straight month to smash

global temperature records. guests.oined by three we are joined by michael mann, a professor of atmospheric science . in sacramento, we're joined by the director of the california department of forestry and fire protection and a 30-your fire service veteran. ridgewood, west virginia, we are joined by the mayor elect. richwood is one of the towns hardest hit by the flash flooding.. we are going to go directly to west virginia. i just heard we are having a little trouble with the line. atwill turn to michael mann

penn state university. can you talk about the significance of where you just were, arizona. >> thanks, amy. it is good to be with you. i was talking about the reality of climate change and the fact that the impacts are no longer settle. , poininted toto various exampls some of which you listed. one of them is the fact that one or two days later, phoenix was going to be experiencing recocod heat. we have seen a doubling of the rate of recordrd-breaking heat n the u.s. over the past several decades.

we have literally loaded the dice so that sixes, twice asas often as they ought to. we have double the odds of extreme weather events. extreme heat and many other , unprecedented floods, droughts, superstorm's. amy: you were e at the democratc platform committee that took place in phoenenix. what did you tell them? was 106 and i told him that a day later it would be flirting with 120 degrees. it used to be the case that climate c change was an abstract coconcept and you needed to reay dig into the data and the model

output. we see the signal of climate change with our own twtwo eyes. it plays out in headlinenes. that was a a part of my message. part of my message was that it does notot too late to solve the problem, but it is going t to te concerted action. we need to put a price on carbon, w we need to level the energy market playing field, so that renewable energy can more fairly compete with fossssil ful energy.. i recocommended that the platfom embrace this. what kind of language had democrats put into t the platfo? >> it t was a pretty strong platform. to a rapid de-escalation of every earning -- of our burning of fossil fuels.

it commenced to meeting our energy needs with 100% renewables by the m middle of te century. it is pretty tough in condndemg fossil fuel interest that have knowingly misled theheublic. strongught it was a platform. there are e others who feel, w o would d have liked to see morere specific language about a carbon tax. about policies about fracking. i think it's a good big picture approach. we will need to work out those details toto tackle the problem. -- thell need too tackle devil is in the details. amy: what do you say to the presumptive republican nominee, donald trump, who dismisses climate change -- human induced climate change almost entirely? it was one of the reasons he said he would not go to war the pope was because he talked about

climate change e and human beins exacerbating it. >> to use the languauage of winston churchill, this is an age of consequences. it is an age for serious people and no problem is more serious than the threat of catastrophic climate change. we don't have time to squander or engage in silly debates about whether t the problem even exis. unfortunately, donald trump evens that the problem exists. there is a worthy debate about policy to be had. there is no longer a worthy debate about whether the program -- problem exists. unfortunately, we have a republican party that seems committed to the notion that climate change is a myth. not all republicans.

some real leaders even within the republican party on the issue of climate changnge. unfortunately, their party has been seized by the koch brothers and fossil fuel interest who are doing everything they can to prevent progress from being made. q what exactly are the --amy: what exactly are they doing? >> they are poisoning the atmosphere and the public discourse. the koch brothers have literally spent tens of millions of dollars in a massive disinformation campaign to convince the public that climate change is a hoax. it is precisely what the tobacco industry did in decades past. industrye fossil fuel trying to fool the american public into thinking there is not a problem. that we don't have to incentivize this shift.

we areeed to do that if going to avert catastrophic climate change. amy: in a moment, we will go to and california. two dozen people have died in west virginia and in california, the wild raging fires. can you connect these two? >> yes. has literallyge changed the fabric within which all weather occurs. has 5% morere moisture than it did a century warmer air of the holding more moisture. we see more extreme precipitation events. these 1000-year floods that we are seeing in south carolina, in texas, around the world, that

bears the fingerprints of human caused climate change. it might seemme, contradictory, but it is not. even though you get more rainfall when it occurs. regions events in many become less frequent, especially duringng the summer. so you get more extreme drought, the unprecedented drought california is s dealing with and the wildfires are a consequence of the unprecedented drought and record heat. we are changing the atmosphere in a way that we get more extreme rainfall events. often, the rainfall is fewer and farther between and we get more prprevalent drought. amy: in addition to professor are joined bywe

the director of the california department of forest street and fire protection. can you talk about where in california these fires are raging? ande is the erskine fire what is happening? >> it is in kern county, which is in the south end of the san joaquin valley just north of los angeles. we have about the fires, eight large fires burning right now in the southern half of the state. conditions are changing throughout the state. rapidly dryings the vegetation throughout california. our fire activity is increasing throughout the state. last week, we had 300 new fires. several fires are escaping that.

we anticipate fires to continue for the days to come. it is parching already parched fuel. we are getting into peak fire season conditions right now. amy: how do these fires compared to the last 30 years? >> we are seeing several things. the most damaging fires -- about half of the state's largest fires have occurred in the last decade. we are seeing a significant change. fire seasons may add and flow from year-to-year, but the trend is larger, more damaging fires and more acres burned. amy: can youou talk about the connection of the five-year drought that has been going on. >> the connection of the drought

is profound. it has left the living fuels very dry. even some of the rainfall we received last winter was not enough to change the condition of the vegetation. it helps prolong our winter period a little bit. these hot conditions have dried the vegetation back down to what it was. we are seeing fires burn at exponential rates. top 10two of the state's most damaging fires in our nations history. they were burning at rates that 30 your veteran firefighters have not seen. in one afternoon, we had a fire 27 acres. in 2014, the king fire nearly tahoe burned 15 miles in one afternoon.

these fires are burning with intensities and that rate that have spread. temperatures in sacramento -- it is like 105 degrees. >> yes. recordsot be breaking every day, but we are well above normal. we are flirting with 100 degrees in many locations or more. reading will be reaching 108 degrees. amy: we are going to go across the country to the mayor elect of richwood, west virginia. can you talk about what has -- this onces one in a thousand years flood. place where richwood is. you seem to be in the middle off it. >> richwood sits in a remote area.

we were a mining town. we were one of the f first towns to suffer from t the loss of col jobs. what else can i tell you? us what is happening, the experience of this flolood. when did it start? you believe 23 people have died. >> we were very fortunate in richwood, it turns out. that hadnursing home 90 people in it. we had nine inches of rain in 12 hours. the floodwaters came up so fast and so hard. we had 90 people in a nursing home that had to be literally, in their wheelchairs and bad, handed through water that was chest high. , our city is ripped in half, absolutely, but we did

not have any loss of life. is where majorw loss of life has occurred and they even had more flolooding. it flooded last night again. amy: the governor expressed about many being out of jobs due to damaged businesses. >> there are thousands of homes thousands of homes will need rehab done to them. things that concerns me as much else considering our current economy in west virginia with the amount of people we have laid off. now, with all of these small businesses who employ about 90% you have people without jobs. baber, youb henry

are the first person to be elected to public office from the mountain party. can you talk about what you stand for in the mountain party? we stand to putting an end for mountaintop removal, the worst thing that ever happened to west virginia, it is stripmining on steroids. we want to transition to a tourist economy, an economy that people have work in. we have no jobs. the state has been a colony for oil and gas companies for over 100 years. we have hard-working people, beautiful scenery, we are the colorado of the east and we are in a three legged race with mississippi to see who can be the p poorest and unhealthiest n the nation. do you see that relating to

the flooding you are experiencing now. >> we do have the mountaintop removal site above ridgewood. there has been massive clearcutting. i do want to put the whole onus on it area we had a lot of rain. richwood was already completely devastated economically even before the flood came. 99% of our children are on free or reduced lunch. there is no work for anybody. thee few that get through schools under smart, they get their degrgrees and they are out of west virginia. amy: what t are you calling for righght now? >> for rich wood? amy: yes, for rich w would, whih

used to be the clothespin capital of the world. >> we are unique among the 75 in westal towns virginia, east kentucky, and southwest virginia in that we sit at the foot of the national forest. we had a wonderful historic district.. the state has not beeeen susupporti o of looking g at any kind of alternativive green visionons. of anorship is a bit anomaly in the system. because theosity state has become redder and redder. it: we will certainly follow

, but we have to leave it there. west virginia is experiencing a once in 1000 year flood. thanks for joining us. that does it for our broadcast. wed