Fire it up. Its better than nothing. Reporter johnny and drew joa Third Generation farmer. My grandpa came out of texas. He told me years ago, whiz i sks for drinking. Reporter andrew is struggling to keep the drought green. Its lifting the water. Reporter he is turning to a last resort, drilling for ground water. You are looking at 200,000 to drill a well. You are looking at the pumping cost every month of about between 2,500 and 3,500 per well. Reporter farmers like andrews use 80 of the states developed water, growing everything from tomatoes to almonds. With the drought in its fourth year, farmers are drilling deeper and deeper. Running pumps day and night. These are running ought the time. Theyre running all the time. Theyre burning four gallons an hour. Reporter all that pumping has consequences. The ground water gets drawn up, the land sinks down. These fields in californias Central Valley have been sinking by more than one foot per year. That means that about five years ago, these fields were would have been above my head. No one knows exactly how much water is being pumped. But hydrologist Michelle Sneed is alarmed by how quickly the ground is sinking. Ive been studying land subsidence for 20 years. Ive never measured rates like this before. Reporter over the past two decades, the ground in one area has sunk from sneeds head to her feet. According to nasa, some parts of the Central Valley are now sinking more two inches a month. We saw that the area being affected by subsidence was enormous. Stretching all the way from i5 to 99, about 1,200 square miles being affected. Reporter thats an area the side of rhode island. And it has sunk permanently. How do you stop those areas from sinking . Well, the scientific solution is really easy. You stop lowering ground water levels. Putting that into practice is another ball of wax. Reporter farmers would cut back on drilling for water. The center is down south of here. Reporter what do we have going on here . Yeah. A few years ago it wasnt this bent. Its showing evidence of continuing to warp. Reporter the canals deliver water to farms and cities throughout southern california, including los angeles. This isnt the only one i see. I see it here. I see it down there. I see a third one. Theres another one up that direction as well. Reporter this can be hepening to the bridges, to the roadways, to the railroads . Correct. Theres a bridge right down the road from here that the water level is now coming up over the base of the road because that area has sunk. Reporter when i went to see the bridge, the flood risk was clear. The water level has risen so high that it would go right over the surface of the road if they hadnt built these retaining walls. Problems like these are already costing taxpayers tens of millions of dollars. Subsidence is also damaging a vital part of californias Flood Control system. The levees through here are about five to six feet lower than they were historically. Reporter chris white runs the Central California irrigation district. He says subsidence is weakening levees. This area, we have always had flood challenges. But with this subsidence thats occurred, its going to be more challenging to deal with floods in the future. Reporter forecasters are predicting a record el nino. The wet weather could bring heavy rains to the region. Red on this map is bad. Reporter he showed me areas most at risk of flooding. Theres an elementary school. Highway 152 crosses through the area. There is significant farmland assets. Im praying for rain, regardless. But its a high risk situation. From a Flood Control standpoint. Reporter nearly half the nations fruits, vegetables and nuts are produced in california. To find out what the state is doing to protect its vital farmland, i met with janine jones. Subsidence is not regulated historically under california law. No one is responsible for it. Reporter the state doesnt know how big the subsidence problem is. Were not monitoring all of the subsidence . There is there has not been funding or programs because there has been no statutory responsibility or requirement to do so. Reporter last year, california lawmakers passed legislation to manage ground water. But it wont require regulators to limit pumping for another 25 years. Until then, the sinking will likely continue. The independent nonprofit California Water foundation has estimated that damage due to subsidence across the state could cost taxpayers billions of dollars to fix. Do you think a billion dollars is a highest mat estimate . I dont have the data. Reporter for some farmers, drilling for water has provided a life line during the drought. The longterm conseqnces of that drilling are becoming clear. As large swaths of the state continue to sink, the risk of flooding increases. People like Johnny Andrews whose farms have survived four dry years are worried they could be wiped out about the i rain the state desperately needs. Were talking about the state and feeding the people in the state. If that flood is bad enough, it will wipe out the next years farming or a lot of it. And nathan is here with me now. Welcome. Those pictures that you showed are so stark. What are the current rules on ground water . California has recently passed the sustainable ground Water Management act. Its the first of its kind legislation in california. Other states have similar things on the books. But essentially, what its going to is eventually regulate how much ground water people can pump. But ultimately, it really isnt going to take affect for 25 years. Thats a generation away. Why isnt ground water regulated more strictly now . Well, the state constitution allows for the state of california to regulate surface water. But ground water is deemed sort of at least for now its own beast. The state cant regulate it outside of this law that, again, wont have any teeth for another 25 years. The piece we just saw, you showed that california produces nearly half of the nations fruits and vegetables and nuts. Were likely facing a wet el nino. How would potential flooding affect the food supply and food prices . Well, thats the Million Dollar question, i guess. I mean, if the flooding is bad enough, as Johnny Andrews the farmer stated, they remember he has been around since the drought of 78. Following that was a lot of precipitation. It destroyed a lot of crops. As a result, what you can get is a spike in food prices, a real problem. What is being done on local, state and federal levels to address infrastructure damage . Well, from what i have gathered, very little. Unfortunately i mean, i emails caltrans. Are any bridges being impacted . They said, heno. They are not being impacted by subsidence. But you can see theres a bridge about to go under water as a result of subsidence. A bridge that will cost millions to be replaced. Was that a falsehood or unaware . I think its unaware. I think that they are just not tracking costs as it relates to subsidence. But for the people that have begun looking at it, what they are saying is that given these historic rates of sinking in california, were looking at potentially billions of dollars in tax in cost to taxpayers. The subsidence were seeing as you pointed out started well before the current drought. This is simply exacerbating it. What, if anything, have we learned from past experience . That if we stop pumping as much ground water and let the system come back into balance so that as much water as we are pumpingnaturally going back in, the subsidence stops, eventually. Even if we stopped right now and we let that equal out, we could continue to have subsidence, because sometimes theres a lag affect. Even if we brought it back into balance, things could continue to sink is what i have been told by the geologists at the federal government. But in the mid term it will equal out. The sinking will stop. We hope. Keep our fingers crossed. Thank you for being here. Thanks for having me. Next year, californians will vote for president and choose a u. S. Senator. A lead over her democratic rival. And all the republicans in the field by a large margin. What do the numbers tell you . It says that voters are voting their Party Preferences in the early going. Its name recognition, party prevalence. These are the two better known candidates. They happen to be democrats. The republicans are known to a third of the voters. They are dividing up the vote of the republicans. They are at a disadvantage. A large percentage of people saying they are undecided, 34 . Is that typical for this point . I think if you looked at this race, you wouldnt be surprised. There hasnt been a lot of visibility of the u. S. Senate race. Its down from 58 back in may. At least some more voters are paying attention. So loretta sanchez, where does her support come from . Latinos. Shes two to one over harris among latinos. And also in southern california, her home base. Where shes better known . Shes actually almost in the lead there as well. But its clear harris is the leader in broad state wide measure. It would be surprising if she doesnt finish out on top in this race. Although, she has won state wide twice. You would think would you think her numbers might be higher given that . I suppose. Voters havent been paying attention much. I think it probably gives her opportunities to expand her support. But its an open primary, which is unique. I want to ask you about that. Everybody can vote for anybody. Democrats can vote independent, you can vote whoever you want. You have the prospect that in november of 2016, the top two finishers could both be democrats facing off against each other. If that were the case, how do the two top candidates who would do best . Who is doing best with republicans and independents . Were in uncharted territory. We have never done a head to head of the electorate among two democrats. This would be the first time in california history for a state wide election. Its hard to predict, because 57 of the voters would not be democrats. So there would have to be a strategy for each of the candidates to try to broaden their support among republicans, among independents. Thats a tricky call. You dont want to lose your base. Who would be good at it . Loretta sanchez used to be a republican. She could hint at that. But she doesnt want to lose support among democrats. Its a hard call. Lets go to the republican president ial race. Among likely voters, the outsiders are in. Businessman donald trump is first in your poll with 17 . Physician ben carson second with 15 . Former hewlettpackard ceo at 13. What does your data tell you about where the outsiders are getting their support from . I think most of it is frustration from voters on the republican side and most of that is coming from key Party Activists and strong conservatives. The poll will show those three are doing better among those constituencies. Theyre frustrated. They have had control of the two houses of congress. Theyre not seeing any of their own policies coming through the congress. Thats where the they want to take out their frustration. When you look at this field of republicans, who has the most room to grow do you think . Its hard to say. I think the establishment candidates are probably where you want to watch. March doe r Ma Marco Rubio is doing well. Jeb bush has not performed well. He was leading early in this year. Just collapsed. He has not done well. But i dont think he is done. He has endorsement support. He has money. He can change his image a bit, polish up the campaign. I wouldnt count him out. On the democratic side, Hillary Clinton remains in first place with 47 . Shes followed by vermont senator Bernie Sanders who is at 35 , up from 9 in your last survey in may. Its a fourfold increase. When you add joe biden who is considering getting in, Hillary Clintons lead slips even further. Where is biden support coming from . Is it coming out of her support . Is he getting a little across the board . Biden doesnt really influence he is only getting 15 , which is a little surprising in some National Polls he is doing better than that. He is not particularly popular in california. It comes more out of hillarys hide than Bernie Sanders. I think he makes the race closer and gives sanders a better shot. If he should choose to jump in, the threshold of victory would be probably in the mid to high 30s. Bernie sanders could potentially get to that level. If you had a twoway race, hillary is probably still the favorite, unless shes indicted or something else. Biden, although he gets 15 in your pole, 63 want him to get in. They think that would be a good thing. What does that tell you . I think democrats would like the attention shifted to the democratic candidates. They would like more debates. The republicans have been dominating the media in terms of the debates and the discussion. They want democrats to start voicing and i think biden would contribute to that. I went back eight years and looked at your 2007. Who was ahead, do you remember at this point . Probably not the winner. Jewrudy juliani. Its really too soon. So much depends, in california, on what precedes us. The early primaries, you have to assess who is going to win in iowa, who will win in new hampshire, who will win in the southern primaries. Thats not my expertise. You can give as good an opinion as i can. It could be wrapped up by the time it comes out here. It will be easier polling. We will be down to three or four. Obama is in town this weekend with kanye west who sedz he ays running in 2020. We wont poll on that yet. Not yet. For years many u. S. Corporations have paid less tax by holding their profits in other countries. Americas Top Companies are holding more than 2. 1 trillion in profits offshore. Thats according to a new record by two nonprofit organizations, citizens for tax justice and the Public InterestResearch Group education fund. There are lists of the companies with the most money abroad include a number of bay area firms. We contacted all of the companies. Nbcs on the record comments from one of them, chevron. A Company Spokeswoman told us, chevron pays our fair share in taxes. The income tax rates are as high or higher than many other u. S. Companies. In testimony before congress in 2013, apples ceo tim cook said the Company Wants to reform the u. S. Corporate tax system and would lower tax rates and implement a reasonable tax that allows Free Movement of capitol back to the u. S. Joining me to discuss how the practice works is stanford law Professor Joseph bankman. Thanks for being here. Thank you for having me. We saw the big numbers. How accurate are they . Theyre accurate in the main. Everybody admits theres a trillion dollars plus of more or less untaxed profits that our multinationals are holding offshore. Explain to us how this process of Holding Money offshore works. Are Companies Just using offshore mailboxes . Do they have companies in those locations . Its a great question. Here is how the system was supposed to xdwork. A company like apple would make money in germany and they would pay taxes in germany. Once their income is taxed in germany, it could come back to this country tax free. But if it isnt taxed anywhere, then we tax it when they bring it back. Whats happened is, our multinationals have been incredibly skilled at finding ways not to pay tax in the eu countries and other countries. One approach they are using is to put i. P. In tax havens. Thats a low tax country like ireland or the camen islands and have some of the income that would be recognized in germany shifted to that tax haven. But theres lots of other approaches our countries have been use our companies have been using as well. In effect, in those kinds of situations, theyre not paying taxes at all. Not in the countries that theyre doing business in and not here in the u. S. Thats right. How much tax revenue is lost every year in the u. S. . Well, we might be talking right now since theres a horde of cash, we would be talking about 400 billion or 500 billion. We might be talking about 100 billion a year every year, if we could tax it and if we thought we wanted to tax it at our current high marginal rate of 35 . Thats a lot of money that is not going into could haffers he. What is the consequence for the taxpayer . Everybody pays more. We have to get that income. All of our taxes are a little higher. Do you think the law needs to be changed . I think everybody t enks the law needs to be changed. What people debate is which direction to change it. Some people say that the right amount of taxes our multinationals should pay is zero. Thats by the way what germany levees on its multinationals. So some people think our multinationals should do the same. Thats roughly the bush position on this. It would have a zero tax on offshore income of multinationals. Then you have other president ial candidates who are supporting repatriation polly day. Bring the money back. Give them a tax break. Maybe 5 . What do you think of that idea . The problem is you show if you give them a break giving the money back, you are just really writing out a check to those companies. And thats just benefitting the shareholders in the company. Its probably not increasing investment in america. The notion of a repatriation holiday or a tax amnesty doesnt seem like the right idea. The real question is, whats the right rate on those Companies Going forward . Once we address that, then we can decide what to do about this cache of cash. We try a repatriation holiday. A lot of the companies, in fact, did just that. There were layoffs. They spent money buying back their own shares. I want to ask you about what is the best speaker likely to win support in congress . You have Bernie Sanders who wants the companies to be taxed at thetop 35 . You have president obama who wants a 19 tax. I think the political solution is in the middle. You can look at obama and the administrations position as somewhere in the middle between, say, bushs and sanders. Lowering the top rate on the other hand, leveeing some tax on offshore income, whether or not the cash is brought onshore. The one thing everybody agrees is it makes no sense to have 2 trillion offshore untaxed. Its enormously complicated. It has been going on for years. We will see if anything gets done in light of this report. Thank you for joining us. Thank you for having me. This week, governor jerry brown signed legislation allowing california doctors to prescribe life ending drugs to terminally ill patients. California is the fifth state to legalize medically assisted suicide. In a personal signing message, the governor said he consulted with friends, family and clergy before making his decision. He wrote, i do not know what i would do if i were dieing in pain. Im certain, however, that it would be a comfort to be able to consider the options afforded by this bill. I wouldnt deny that right to others. Joining me to discuss what happens next is april demboski. This takes affect next year. What needs to happen between now and then . There needs to be a big educational push to teach doctors what the law does, how to prescribe the medication, the protocols for how to talk to patients about it. Remember, new medications and treatments come out all the time. So Healthcare Systems are going to be folding this into their operations. Advocacy groups are going to lead the charge. Theyre going to partner with doctor groups. One of the groups actually has a 1800 hotline for doctors that they can fall if somebody asks them for the medication. Its answered by doctors in states where this is legal. Is there a Government Agency or agency that will be responsible for sort of overseeing the preparations . Theres the department of Public Health will play a role in it. Pretty much everything was laid out in the law. Its very prescribed, so to speak. This law will allow doctors to prescribe these medications. But they dont have to, right . This is optional for doctors. Obviously, for patients. Absolutely. Lawmakers wrote several protections into the law to allow religious hospitals to opt out or any doctor really who had any objections. Studies from oregon show that of doctors who receive requests for these life ending drugs, 37 said they were unwilling to write the prescription. So obviously, thats an option for them. What else did we learn from oregon . That law up there, the death with dignity law has been in place since 1997. What have we learned . What experiences have they had up there . One of the most interesting things to know is how few people actually take advantage of this law. In the first couple of years, only about 25 people took the drugs. Last year, 34,000 people died in oregon. Only 150 people received the prescription. Only 100 people took it. You would assume that thats partly because people had other options and didnt want do it or that they didnt know about it. Could it be a combination . Im certain it could be a combination. I think that the poll came out and showed there was support for this law. When it really comes down to it, people dont know what theyre going to choose. I want to ask about two issues that dont seem similar but have some overlap. That is Capital Punishment and, doctor, assisted suicide. There have been a lot of issues around states accessing drugs to end the life of inmates who are on death row. Some companies dont want to use or sell those drugs for that purpose. Why will that not be an issue here in california . How are the issues different . Right. Well, so, the drugs used in executions, its a three drug cocktail. Theres only one drug that is used for aid in dieing. In oregon, its an oldfashion sleeping pill. The other big difference is that in executions, the drugs are injected. Of course, there are a lot of moral issues and questions around whether doctors should be actively euthanizing patients. This is a purely optional law. Patients have to take the drugs themselves. They have to physically be able to swallow the drugs. Its a different compound when you talk about an injectable drug and a powdered drug. New drugs come on the market all the time. So im sure that this law will be implemented with those with that flexibility in mind as well. Also, as you said, this seems the public seems ready for this with very widespread bipartisan support, 65 . We will keep an eye on it. April, thanks so much. Im scott shaffer. Thanks for joining us. Police go to kqed. Org for all of our news coverage. Kacyra it kind of was, like, the bang that set off the night. Rogers that is the funkiest restaurant. Thomas the honeywalnut prawns will make your insides smile. [ laughter ] klugman more tortillas, please khazar what is comfort food if it isnt gluten and grease . Braff i love creme brulee. Sobel the octopus should have been, like, quadripus, because it was really small. Sbrocco and you know that when you split something, all the calories evaporate, and then theres none. Whalen thats right