Transcripts For KQEH KQED Newsroom 20140913

Good evening and welcome to kqed newsroom. Another report today of violence by a football player. Minnesota vikings star running back Adrian Peterson has been indicted on charges of negligent injury to a child for striking his son with a tree branch. This comes during alleged Domestic Violence in the nfl avid yo became public showing ray rice knocking out his then fiancee. Were choosing not to show the video. In the bay area, 49 er ray mcdonald was arrested on suspicious of felony Domestic Violence following a fight with his pregnant fiancee. He was allowed to play in the 49 er season opener. I spoke with a sports columnist about the Domestic Violence accusations and the fallout. Welcome to the program. Thank you. You have covered sports for more than 20 years. How would you describe the nfls reaction and their handling of the ray rice situation . Its been pretty much a disaster since the situation unfolded. The actual incident occurred in february. The League System dropped the ball first. But then the nfl, which commissioner goodell has had a tough policy, handed out suspensions. He knew that this woman was unconscious on an elevator. He knew that rice had said he hit her. And he gave him a slap on the wrist and then this other video comes out, a very damming video that shows how brutal an attack it was. I dont think they needed this other video to know what had happened on that elevator. So i think thats why theres so much outrage. Its been a slow build. Goodell claimed he didnt really know. He used the word ambiguous to describe what happened. There are reports that rice told goodell that in june that he punched his fiancee. Goodell said he didnt know what happened until after he saw the video on tmz. At this point, how important is it what he knew and when he knew it . Or is that beside the point . Its beside the point when you are talking about the bigger issue of Domestic Violence and how sports leagues discipline their players and how to talk about this issue and how to solve it. But i think when the commission is the face of the league. When a commissioner appears to be covering things up, appears not to understand the severity of the issue, appears not to care about it or understand how damaging it can be to his league, thats to the point. Thats relevant. This is an issue that hits home here because with the 49 ers we have ray mcdonald allowed to play after his arrest for felony Domestic Violence. The 49 ers say they have a zero tolerance policy. Was that good enough in this case . Should he have been allowed to play . What disturbs me most is that they present themselves as an upstanding community member, you know, a company that the community can be proud of. They havent taken a leadership position on this issue. They dont seem to understand that the climate around this issue changed dramatically a couple of days before their own player got arrested. They have kind of been conducting themselves as though its business as usual. Business as usual sadly in the nfl is brushing this issue under the rug. Its been going on for years. Things change. Things changed with the ray rice situation. Yeah, i would have liked to have seen them sit him out of deof deference to the severalty of the issue and out of an understanding that this is bigger than football. There are other organizations that do that. Police, for example, firefighters when they are investigated for misconduct accusations, they are suspended with way. They are not fired. Many companies would have the same policy. They would put you on a leave of absence while its sorted out. Wanted to return to the rice case. Do you think this is a Pivotal Moment where sports could be a cat list for social change . Or will goodell go back to making 44 million a year . I think it really can be a c catalyst. There are moments in time with different issues. I think for many people the ray rice video is very hard to watch. Having it played over and over again is kind of exploitive. However, many people had never seen Domestic Violence. Many people think its just a spat or an argument. They dont understand what it could be. So i think it opened the eyes of a lot of people. I think thats a good thing. And i think seeing a man who does make 44 million a year and oversees one of the most powerful organizations on the globe possibly lose his job over his careless handling of this issue is makes this very much a moment a Pivotal Moment where theres going to be a lot more awareness. Is it going to impact the nfl . Are people going to turn off their tv sets . Probably not in great numbers. It will make an impact, i think. There is an independent investigation going on. The nation is watching. Thank you. Thanks. Thanks for having me. On to politics. Its election season. This november there are two big city mayoral contests in the bay area. San jose and oakland. In san jose, mayor chuck reed is being turned out. The race is down to two. Sam lacardo and dave cortezi. In oakland, with rank Choice Voting, gene kwan faces 14 challengers. Joining me to break it all down are scott hairhold, columnist with the San Jose Mercury news and bob gammon, east bay express editor. What are the dynamics in the race in oakland . There are 15 candidates. Probably seven top candidates in the race. Voters will pick between those seven. Right now you have on the farthest left is dan segel, the most liberal. On the right but not really the right, moderate is brian parker. You have Rebecca Caplan. The mayor. Joe tuman. And the city auditor. Are there major differences between them . Thats a big field to choose from. There is. There are major differences between dan segel on one side and brian parker on the other. In between its gradations of liberal, really. Oakland is a very liberal town. There arent republicans really running in the race that have a chance of winning. There arent a lot of big differences between the candidates. What are some of the Major Concerns of oakland residents . How are they being addressed by the candidates . Is there one clear front runner . Well, according to the polls, Rebecca Caplan is doing well. She has a sizable lead. Its hard to know how valid the poll was. It showed her with a 20 point lead over gene kwan. Kwan was behind the polls in 2010 and came in and won at the last moment. What about the voters, are they most concerned about crime, education, the economy . A year ago crime would have been the dominating issue of this campaign. But since then crime is down about 30 or 40 across the board this year in oakland. The fact oakland hasnt had a homicide in six weeks, which is an amazing stat when you think about it. Summertime is typically the most violent time of the year in oakland. If you think about two years ago, there was a crime wave. There was a lot of anxiety and anger over that. Talk about rank Choice Voting for a moment here. It played a big role four years ago when gene kwan won. How is it likely to play out this year . Its unclear right now. Four years ago, it was a clear choice. Gene kwan and rebecca teamed up. They each told their supporters to vote for the other person as their second or third choice. In the end, it was Rebecca Caplan voters who put gene kwan over the top. Its unclear i havent seen any alliances forming. The seven top candidates, if you decide to i want to pair up with another candidate, you run the risk of angering the supporters of the other candidates. Its a dicey situation. It may not happen the same way this year. Gene kwan is so highly unpopular right now. There was the occupy oakland protest. Concerns about lou that was handles. Shes on a number of Police Chiefs leave. Anthony batts left under her watch. What else has made her so unpopular . But she also seems to be making some strides on the economic front as well. Are people recognizing that in oakland . Im not sure that they are recognizing economic changes in oakland, definitely. The restaurant boom is amazing in oakland. Its the place to eat now. Arts and culture is huge in the city again. The economy is really rebounding. Im not sure if people are giving her credit for this. One of the problems shes had is she hasnt been good at telling her own story, at saying, look how great oakland is and this is what we have done to help it along. So instead shes had an number of missteps and verbal miscues over the years. She gets in trouble. So people i think remember that. Dont count her out. Because shes a formidable shoos es an amazing campaig. Lets turn to san jose where its a much smaller field. Two candidates. And scott, what are the key differences between those two, sam lacardo and dave cortezi . Its a question of their allegian allegiances, what uniforms they wear, if you will. Dave is the standard bearer for labor. And sam is more the standard bearer for kind of moderate democrat who is endorsed pension reform. Big differences deal, in fact, with the former mayors measure b pension reform which passed in 2012. Labor does not like that. Sam lacardo has backed it. Labor is a significant force in san jose, whether they are going to carry cortezi to office is questionable. Lacardo goes into this, i think, with more people having voted toward his side in the primary than voted for cortezis side, even though cortezi himself was the top vote getter. What would the pension reform do . Why has it caused such a severe split . You have a lot of the former Police Chiefs who have come into town to criticize it as well. Right. Well, its plenty complicated. Basically, it would reduce the sort of top pension, particularly for somebody who is mid career. So if you are a policeman with ten or 12 years in, it could significantly affect how much you get when you retire. You would not get the 90 . If you opted out of this, then you would pay much more for your pension. Its a much less attractive deal. So whats happened is that Police Officers and firefighters have started to leave. Theyre finding it hard to have people stay with the force. Although, they have had a couple Police Academies theyre going through the academies and joining somewhere else. Also, the next Police Academy in san jose was 29 cadets. Are there other issues besides pension reform and debate over public safety, how thats been impacted . What else differentiates the two men . We were talking a little bit about this. Its very likely that the issues in san jose may be different in this coming four years than they were in the previous four years. For example, crime has been an issue. But crime in san jose is down overall this year. And it may well be that issues of development, which have traditionally driven politics, may be key. Theres a push and pull between people who want to have denser development, more houses, and frankly the basic suburban folks who like san jose for what it is. Is there a distinction between lacardo and cortezi on that issue . Subtle. I think you could probably say that lacardo is a little more atuned to the notion of careful planning, he was head of the general plan. Cortezi, i think, has in the past anyway tried to be a a deal maker with developers. He has the backing of labor. Labor would like work. It makes sense. It is interesting how similar the two men are. They are both of italian heritage. They both went to the all boys academy bellerman. One went to georgetown and harvard, the other went on to davis. Cortezi went on to davis and n lincoln law school. Both athletes. Scott hairhold and bob gammon, thank you for being here. Early voting, voting by mail starts in a few weeks. Thank you. This week, apple unveiled its much hyped smart watch. It marks the companys enter into the wearable devices market. Like many of its predecessors, it collects personal health information. Kqed newscaster Joshua Johnson sat down to discuss the potential for the devices and the concerns. Welcome. Thank you. Before we talk about the apple watch, lets talk about markets that it fits into, particularly whats been called the mobile health industry. What exactly is that and how big a market is it . Its getting to be a bigger market every day. Its a multibillion dollar market right now. It includes lots of things. Wearables like the health bands, smart watches, even google glass. The most apps designed early on were health apps. Surgeons were using it. It includes things like consumer direct to Consumer Test like 23 and me and you biom, which tests your microbiom and sends it back. You can go online and share information. Theres 40,000 health and fitness apps on smart phones available. Its quite a big market. It encome passiopasses a lot of samsung has one. Theres pebble. Apple is late to the game. What is the apple watch supposed to do thats unique . Well, am pple is late to the party. It will come in late and define it so people have High Expectations for apple. This watch, unlike others, does offer an ability to pay for goods with it, a new system that apple has launched. You can send and soreceive messages. You can monitor your health and fitness. Thats the part that i find the most interesting. That does exist on other smart watches. But what apple wants to do with that is different. This is not just another ped om ter to measure how many steps you take or how much running you do. There seem to be accomplishes that go not to fitness but to your actual medical health. It does monitor heart rate and whether you are sitting or standing or exercising. But then its going to share those that information, that data with other health apps that apple was designed, including health kit which was a platform it rolled out a few months ago. That they have partnerships now with several health providers. Thats a new thing, because these when you are taking the first generation activity trackers and really taking them to this next level which is maybe a little more action. Apple is working with medical providers as well as medical record companies. This is information that could end up being sent to your doctor where theoretically your doctor could know how active had you been or what your heart rate was like at certain times of day or how much you slept . Doctors are having to now at least in the bay area where people are more savvy with these things, figure out what to do with six months of fit bit data. Theres folks are coming up with ways to filter information to the doctors. Definitely in this day and age with digital health, the doctor patient relationship is in flux. My concern is always privacy. We hear so much about data breeches. Now you have a computer that sits on a an artery. Now you have this watch that basically you can pay for goods with. Most of the big banks are on board for this new apple pay. And you can share your health data. They have been consulting with lawyers and i think thats what people will be concerned about is what are Insurance Companies going to gather the data . Are we going to get dinged for not walking 10,000 steps that day . Those are the questions to ask. How secure is my data and how private is it . Before i let you go, is this an industry like the ipod where people will realize that they never realized they wanted this until apple created it . Is this what consumers have been clamoring for . There isnt a lot of demand. I think people that are into fashion watches are going to be into this and people into doing who are apple fans and into fitness tracking. The general public will need to be convinced. Watches have become less relevant. Its these Tech Companies that are making the smart phones that have made the watch irrelevant. Now they are back in the game, samsung and apple making watches. Thanks for talking to us. Thanks for having me. The 1959 publication of federaler Robert Franks book, the americans was a milestone. It changed the worlds perception of america and of art photography. Now an exhibit at stanford sheds light on the work. It features images from the americans and also dozens of rarely seen photographs taken by frank at the same time that did not appear in the book. In 1955, and 19 56, robert frank, a young swiss born photographer, living in new york city, set out to traverse the united states. His goal was to capture america. Its stark landscapes and its ordinary people as they went about their every day lives. Funded by a fellowship, the yearlong trip took him from coast to coast and back again. The results of this journey was a book of 83 photographs called the americans. Published in 1959, its regarded as one of the great achievements of 20th century photography. Raw and honest, the book depicts an unembellished view of america that was at odds with how most americans were used to seeing themselves and their country. After world war ii, it was a period of great prosperity and Great National pride. That was naturally the outlook of the leading magazines, too. The book is very critical of the united states. America often looks bleak. The people often look distracted or bored or alienated. Its not a pep pi promotional propaganda for the country the way most of life magazine was. Its a work of art. Its not a piece of political prop began saturday. What often gets forgotten when people talk about the book is how exciting franks vital curiosity about the country is. After the publication of the book, robert frank turned to film making. But whats happened to the thousands of photographs from his travels that did not make it into the book . In the 1980s, more than 150 robert frank prints were donated to the cancer art center permanent collection. They have never been shown together in a formal exhibition. This exhibition robert frank in america is really, really a landmark exhibition. I realize we have this Incredible Opportunity to showcase his work. I also knew that we needed someone who really understood Robert Franks work, who really understood photography in a very profound way. We invited peter to be the guest curator because of his deep knowledge of photography and the role he has played as one of the most important curators of photography in this country and in the world. The art center has a great robert frank collection thats particularly rich in photographs that are not in franks book. There are only 83 pictures in the book. And its a visual poem. Its not a compilation of his best pictures. Tell me about this show. How do you have this show organized . Its robert frank in the 1950s and the show is mostly organized according to the themes, what did he look at. Ordinary people. Religion. Politics. The key thing is, the individual is sort of the Building Block of society. So thats one kind of picture he makes over and over again. Whats unique about the show is that there are a number of photos that the public have rarely seen. There are lots of very unfamiliar pictures here, even to experts. Especial especially in this collection. Its one of my favorites of them. This is the south in the time before the civil rights movement. This is the jim crow south. Frank was a young jew from switzerland. He hadnt had any experience of skin color racism. He goes to the south. And it really hit him, the racial segregation and about this picture in particular he said that he just couldnt understand the fact that white southern women would entrust their baby to the care of a black woman but wouldnt sit next to them at the lunch counter. There are a lot of photos that seem to have a political theme. You are right. Because remember hes trying to give a sense of the country as a whole. He felt the bomb baft was something he wanted to skewer. He has the people cut off. Its a very different style of shooting. He was very good at selecting the telling detail. Here is the first picture in the americans. But its also a picture that shows one of his most powerful style is tick inventions. He brilliantly developed this template where you have one or two individuals who are trapped by pictorial forces that ends up being a very eloquent metaphor for Lonely People trapped in social circumstances. Why do you think these images still resonate with people today . Well, i think that good art always has the potential to resonate far beyond its own time. In this case, he wasnt just working on a little problem. He was trying to understand the whole country. And he was trying to explore how does an individual relate to the nation as a whole. Thats something that never goes away. Were still struggling with it now. You see here a young artist of enormous talent figuring something out that hes passionately interested in. You can see it in the pictures on the wall while its unfolding. I think thats thrilling. The robert frank exhibit runs through january 5th on the stanford campus. Go to kqednews. Org. We are off next week. Thanks so much for watching. Have a good night. What are we doing here . Its a surprise. Come on. All right. Hiya. What do you think . Great. Ah, there they are. You havent dragged them here as well . Is is your birthday. all greeting thanks for coming all this way. It was worth it just to see these two in a comedy club. Certainly having a laugh at these prices. Dyou know how much this round cost . Happy birthday, gerry. Suppose you want one, now youre here. Yeah, ill have a beer. Emily . Vodka. Large. Oh look whos on tonight. Havent heard of him for years ray harris. Used to be really big. Do you remember him . Vaguely. Was he any good . Not my cup of tea. Oh, no, hes all right. Proper oldfashioned comic. Youll love him. I will, anyway. Ha ha so i said to this woman last night, would you have sex with me for a quid . She said no. I know i was shocked. I said, would you have sex with me for a million quid