Will step down on august second. It comes after days of protests following a scandal over chat messages. Ricardo rossello and male members of his staff, made homophobic and sexist comments in Group Chat Messages which were obtained by the Puerto Rico Center for Investigative Journalism and they include more than 900 pages of messages including one that joked about the bodies of Hurricane Maria victims of the morgue. The governor apologized for the messages. But Puerto Ricans say the latest scandal was just the final straw after suffering through years of fiscal mismanagement, severe cuts to public education, and the aftermath of maria. That frustration was evident when i traveled to puerto rico earlier this year. I sat down with the rossello and he acknowledged the tough road puerto ricos been on. Lets talk about debt. Debt has long been an issue for this island and i think the numbers around 70 billion is what thats an accurate number. So whats the strategy now to manage that debt with this Oversight Board making recommendations on that. Gov. Rosello well first we have to establish a fiscal plan has certain measures. We are committed to reducing costs. That was something we did even prior to the to the Oversight Board that was part of our commitment and weve done some but soledad what got cut in that in that effort to reduce costs. I mean universities Education Services are the things that people tick off. Gov. Rosello the Oversight Board established that you needed to cut from the university and there needed to be cuts in health care for example and some other places. For me the priority is education. That is why i wanted to have an education reform here in puerto rico. I think that the way you move forward a society is if its an educated and healthy society. Soledad how many schools have you closed a hundred and gov. Rosello oh, no its more, its, in the in the past two years its about three hundred and sixty. Soledad so weve had people might hear. Listen education is my priority and ive closed just under 400 schools for a bunch of children frankly who were out of school for a long time in the aftermath of a storm and say those two things seem completely counter. Gov. Rosello listen soledad, transformation is sometimes messy and sometimes you have to make certain decisions that i know taken in an individual format seem harsh but the objective is my objective is that i can give every kid in puerto rico the opportunity to have a quality education. They didnt have that in the past. The decision to cut that enormous amount bus was placed by the Oversight Board. Right. So this is this is an Oversight Board decision as i said. Soledad do you support it. Gov. Rosello i support more investment on education in general but that means that we need to have the flexibility to do that. I know that. Soledad sorry, forgive me but do you support the Oversight Board. Did drastic cuts to universities do you support that . Gov. Rosello there are cuts that need to be made that are unnecessary expenditures that are cuts that dont need to be made and that i worry will affect the education process. Soledad when i talk to people here they talk about just not believing in their government. The federal government the local government. They just dont believe it. They say listen weve been dealing with debt for 20 years and everybody says oh, were gonna fix it, were gonna fix it. And it never gets fixed projects start. And then they stop and they just feel like theyve been continually lied to and its a sense of when people lose their faith its a very sad thing. Its a sad thing. How do you go and layer on top of that. I think psychological damage from being in the middle of a devastating natural disaster. How do you rebuild faith and trust and and help people who are struggling emotionally with the aftermath. Gov. Rosello it takes time, soledad. I mean, im not good enough of a spokesperson to just stand and say just believe me because im saying it i am trying to be the best executive and the best leader i can be. And saying heres what were doing and here are the results that were showing. And that is that is what i can do right now because youre talking and i think you know the premise of your question is is right on. This has been going on for decades and people have lost their faith. I actually ran on the commitment to transform puerto rico. We were barred in debt and fiscal crisis and economic crisis before the storm. The storm just accentuated that but my view is that that path of tranormation still needs to go on. We cannot stay in this position after the crisis after the storm and say well lets just rebuild things as they were. No, i think we need to be more aggressive. I think we need to change chronic problems weve had in puerto rico right now and even if its tough we got to do it. Next on matter of fact divided they stand whos winning the battle between never trump versus pro trump republicans . Whether you love trump or hate him trump recognized that there was this inherent aversion to confrontation within the Republican Party. Plus, you are what you eat how a diet of bullets almost plus, you are what you eat how a diet of bullets almost illed this species of birds. Ahoy gotcha nooooo. Noooooo. Quick, the quicker picker upper bounty picks up messes quicker and is 2x more absorbent. Bounty, the quicker picker upper. I switched to geico and saved hundreds. Thats a win. But its not the only reason i switched. Geicos a company i can trust, with over 75 years of great savings and service. Now thats a winwin. Switch to geico. Its a winwin. Your but as you get older,hing. It naturally begins to change, switch to geico. Causing a lack of sharpness, or even trouble with recall. Thankfully, the breakthrough in prevagen helps your brain and actually improves memory. The secret is an ingredient originally discovered. In jellyfish. In clinical trials, prevagen has been shown to improve shortterm memory. Prevagen. Healthier brain. Better life. My dbut now, i take used tometamucil every day. Sh it traps and removes the waste that weighs me down, so i feel lighter. Try metamucil, and begin to feel what lighter feels like. Reagan famously said there was an 11th commandment in politics. Though shall not speak ill of any republican. That was 1966 when reagan was running for governor of california. Fast forward fifty years and the Republican Party saw itself in middle of a civil war that ultimately led to election of donald trump. Its a shift that leaves many republicans asking how did the party that prided itself on a message of compassionate conservatism, fiscal responsibility, and family values become the party of ballooning deficits and family separations, whose members regularly turn a blind eye to the president s blatant racism and sexism. Thats according to tim alberta, politicos chief Political Correspondent and author of the new book american carnage on the front lines of the republican civil war and the rise of president trump. Tim thank you. Soledad this is not a thin book this know a lot to carry around in my handbag but its full of a lot of history. And lets jump right into it. What civil war exactly are you talking about . Tim so when george w. Bush leaves office he is deeply unpopular not just across the country with middle of the electorate of course with the left but really among conservatives. There is a deep concern that george w. Bush has essentially abandoned the principles of limited government conservatism. And so when bush is preparing to leave office in 2008 obviously you have a republican primary and there is a great deal of infighting about what the post bush Republican Party is going to look like. And in fact none of the president ial candidates themselves wind up defining what that post bush party is going to look like nearly as much as the eventual Vice President ial nominee sarah palin. And she more than any politician other than donald trump i think really exposes this fundamental disconnect between your upscale managerial Country Club Republican elite and your downscale culturally conservative blue collar base. And there is a great deal of not just ideological friction between these wings but cultural friction. Soledad so lets move then into the trump era and i think it was may of 2016 trump goes after judge curio whos latino judge and sort of the mainstream republicans decry some of the things that he says that are clearly racist and ill read some because its in your book so you helpfully put it in chapter 14. Its time to quit attacking various people that you competed with or various minority groups in the countries. Thats mitch mcconnell. South carolina senator tim scott said those remarks were racially toxic. Lindsey graham said its pretty clear hes playing the race card and paul ryan says claiming a person cant do their job because of their race is sort of like the textbook definition of a racist comment. Fast forward not very long down the road and theyre embracing him. Tim i think whats important to recognize is that the evolution of the Republican Party in this instance specifically with their ile to hold donald trump to account consistently is emblematic of really trumps takeover of the party. When trump began thinking about running for president in 2016 soledad, he looks across the landscape the Republican Party and he says you know what these people are weak. Soledad he said i gave him hope. They are brought the party back. Thats a quote. Tim and you know and he identified something that i think was very prescient. Whether you love trump or hate him trump recognized that there was this inherent aversion to confrontation within the Republican Party. If he never backed down if he never apologized then he was going to win out over these people. That he just he projected more strength than they did. Soledad paul ryan i mean really i think of his cowardice so frequently because he would talk about what he thought a Trump Presidency was doing to his own family, he personalized around he has a daughter et cetera et cetera and then literally gives him a stamp of approval. Tim the whole campaign had been this bitter rivalry between the two of them ryan was as outspoken as pretty much any republican had been. As soon as trump wins ryan recognizes that he has a choice. If you are a paul ryan if you are a jim matters if youre a Rex Tillerson if youre an h. R. Mcmaster. A lot of these folks felt like look we have to have adults in the room around this guy because if you think its bad now imagine if a bunch of his sycophants and enablers were the ones who were surrounding him in the west wing every day. And so we might not buy that argument. You might think thats a copout but paul ryan would tell you look if there werent this group of fivor sixf us who were sort of buffering him from his own worst instincts then. Everything youre seeing today could be infinitely worse. Soledad i dont give it much credence right because they dont take opportunities to call out things that are horrible and that that our values that their whole lives they said that theyre against. I mean at some point you have to stand up for a thing tim theres a breaking point soledad thats the entire point tim you would think. Soledad and then when what is what is the point of having values if at the moment that theyre tested you cant bring yourself to defend them . The book is such a great read. Tim thank you. I appreciate you saying that. When we come back. This mom raised more than 40 thousand dollars to pay off student lunch bills. And its still not enough. Adelle every year theres another three hundred thousand dollars in school lunch debt. Once soaring toward extinction a comeback for the condor. Soledad when a school board in pennsylvania sent a letter telling parents their children could end up in foster care, if they didnt pay off their school lunch debts, it sparked a public backlash and it put school lunch shaming back in the headlines. The u. S. Department of agriculture oversees the Federal SchoolLunch Program and discourages practices that stigmatize students. Schools say theyre strapped for cash and cant take on the debt. Theres also evidence that some of the students lacking lunch money actually qualify for free lunch but theyre parents just havent filled out the application. But what about parents who dont meet the requirements and may struggle to make ends meet . Kerry williams was one of those parents. And adelle settle started an organization to pay off student lunch debt in Prince William county virginia just outside of d. C. Its nice to have you both with me. So, kerry, wanted to kick it off for me. Tell me a little bit about your financial situation. I know that youre a veteran and i know that you have a job youre a working mom. Kerry yes, i am. I actually started my career here in the Northern Virginia area. Im a few years ago. I did get a job here at one of the local hospitals which was the entry level position. Me and my daughter moved here kind of alone. Not much family and i was able to secure a job. So i really started out making probably about thirty five thousand dollars a year when i first moved here. Got my daughter enrolled in school did all the things that i needed to do of course i would always apply for her free lunch. Soledad you applied for a free lunch. What did they tell you made too much money. Kerry i made too much money. Yes. Soledad were you able to pay . Kerry so i was able to pay it. It wasnt always whereas every day i was paying it. There would be maybe a week that would go by before payday where the lunch date would accrue. Soledad how much money did you end up owing . Kerry the most i remember is maybe a little over two hundred dollars. Soledad adelle, how typical is this story . Adelle oh very very common. The School Lunch Program is an amazing thing. Its wonderful for families who qualify but the limits for free and reduced lunch are very low and theyre set nationally. And so in areas like ours in Northern Virginia where cost of living is very high theres just so many families who they earn just a little bit too much to qualify for free or reduced lunch. But they dont earn enough to ensure that they can cover the cost of feeding their child at School Without hardship. Soledad was your daughter embarrassed at school . Kerry so i remember coming home one day and saying mom you know i went to lunch today and they gave me a tray. She said i sat down to eat and the lunch lady came out and told me i had a balance on my lunch account and she took my tray and gave me a yogurt and. I was floored. Like i couldnt believe that another adult would do that to a child especially an adult that a child is supposed to trust to have their best interests in mind. They took it and threw the tray away and gave her yogurt. Soledad most americans can not afford a four hundred dollar emergency coming your way in and School Lunches a thousand dollars roughly nine hundred dollars a year as well. Youd be paying its sort of in that same vein as how i do that math. Kerry of course. I wanted to pay the debt. I paid it as i could but there were still consequences because i wasnt able to maybe pay it off the time that they thought i should have paid it off. There were many consequences of that. Soledad what other consequences . Kerry she said mom i cant go to the dance and i said well why cant you go. She said well they said i have a lunch balance so im not allowed to participate which that is that the point that i reached out to adele because i just was thinking why is she penalized you know for something thats not her fault. Soledad will you be able to now keep up with the debt . Kerry yes. Things have changed i recently got married and have gotten a promotion where my circumstances have changed. So now im in a position to where is not you know as hard as it was before but i have coworkers and friends we talk about this all the time. They have two or three kids i only have one. So to hear their stories it kinda motivates me to want to be able to do more to help others who may be in that situation until they get to that point where theyre able to function a little bit better. Soledad in a School District of ninety thousand children. How many people do you believe dont qualify for free. Lunch but are poor and are genuinely struggling to pay almost thousand dollar a year bill. Adelle we have 300 thousand dollars every year and thats 300 thousand dollars of families that absolutely cant pay that bill. And then theres a whole lot of other families that im sure are making very hard choices to decide whether they are paying that lunch bills that their kid can go to the dance so that their kid can go on the field trip. You know the free and reduced Lunch Program is awesome but the levels are just too low. And so theres a lot of families that are left in that kind of doughnut hole between you know qualifying for help and being totally fine. Soledad adelle settles and kerry williams, thank you for being with me. Coming up next will a 5 billion dollar fine fix facebook . Or is your privacy still for sale when it comes to social media . New sichuan hot chicken. For a heart breaking limited time only at panda express. Soledad now to a weekly feature we like to call were paying attention even if youre too busy. Facebook has just been slapped with the largest fine the federal government has ever given to a technology company. The federal trade Commission Fined facebook 5billion dollars for privacy violations. And while it may seem like a lot, its a small drop for facebook which had more than 50billion dollars in revenue last year. The fine comes after a year long investigation into facebooks privacy and data policies after 87 million facebook users had their personal information sold to third parties without their permission. The ftc said they hoped the fine would force facebook to change its culture but critics say the settlement doesnt go far enough. They wanted Mark Zuckerberg to be held personally responsible for facebooks policies and the ftc to limit his control over the company. Facebook has denied any wrongdoing. When we return back from the brink of extinction we take flight with the california condor. Soledad and finally, a big comeback to tell you about. California condors, the largest flying birds in north america, are fighting their way back from extinction. There were an estimated 600 condors in 1890. But in 1982 there only about 22 left in the wild. That set off alarms for scientists who captured the remaining population to breed them and research their demise. It turns out its not because of lack of food or humans destroying their habitats but instead lead poisoning. Scientists say the birds peck at decaying animals left behind by hunters sometimes swallowing the lead pellets or bullets. California has now banned lead ammunition. And since the rescue program began, onethousand california condor chicks have hatched. There are more than 300 hundred birds in the wild and more than 500 in captivity across the world. Thats it for this edition of matter of fact. Well see you next week. Robert handa hello, and welcome to Asian Pacific america. Im robert handa, your host for our show here on nbc bay area and cozi tv. We start with one of our favorite events and an important one for the community. We look ahead to the nihonmachi street fair in san francisco, which many call the original melting pot of street fairs. Then a visit with an artist of national prominence. Lenora lee is a well known artist, dancer, choreographer from coast to coast. Well talk with her about her upcoming shows in san francisco. And another big, popular street fair is coming up, the fremont festival of the arts. Well show you what to expect. And we continue with our tradition of showcasing artistic and cultural performances with hawaiian music from pomaikai live in our studio, all that on our show today