>>> next on "kqed newsroom," as â democrats gather for their state convention in los angeles, what's ahead for the party? the debate surrounding oakland surveillance center exposes heated concerns over privacy. plus, going with the flow.
water recycling as the next frontier in the battle against detro drought. >> recycled water is going to be very important to silicon valley in the future. * >>> good evening, and welcome to
"kqed newsroom." i'm thuy vu. california democrats gather in los angeles this weekend for the state's party's convention. while it's not quite as glamorous as last weekend's academy awards, there is a lot riding on this election year.
scott shafer leads our analysis of what the party faces as it gears up for november. >> in many ways, it's the best of times for california democrats. the party holds both u.s. senate seats and every statewide office from governor on down, while the
republican party struggles to rebrand itself. still, there's plenty for democrats to worry about, starting with political scandals that have cost them their two-thirds majority in the state senate. joining me to discuss what
challenges may be ahead are democratic strategist chris lehane and scott detrow, sacramento bureau chief for kqed joining us from los angeles, where he's covering the convention. and scott, let me start with you.
what impact are these scandals, including the investigation of senator ronald caldron of southern california, what impact are they having on democrats, if any? >> i think democrats are definitely concerned about this, and you know that because state
senate leaders announced a big ethics reform package this week that would half the amount of gifts lawmakers can receive and lead to more disclosure, and this is clearly a response to the fact that ron caldron is facing massive criminal charges on ethics issues.
and rob wright, another senate democrat, has taken a leave of absence from the senate after being convicted of not living in his district. democrats pushed back on this, saying these are isolated incidents and you can't tie them to party leads, but the fact is,
caldron especially has made a point to try to drag other democrats into the scandal with him. he made the public charge that it was darrell steinberg, the senate pro tem and the next pro tem that were the subject of the investigation.
now the fbi says that's not the case, but that's a charge you can still expect on republican mailers. >> does that offer any opening for republicans or is this something really not on the minds of voters and won't be in november?
>> first of all, it's an incredibly important issue substantively because legal issues and any time it's involving the public, it's serious. but i think in terms of the political implications, i think somewhat very limited.
i mean, the most significant implication is what scott touched on, which is democrats losing their two-thirds super majority, which really will constrain some of the types of stuff that the senate democrats and the assembly democrats could potentially have looked at over
the course of the next four or five months going into the election, but in terms of what type of an impact? i mean, just look at the nature of these districts. you are in a state where the real question is going to be, are the democrats able to elect
enough people to get the supermajority back or not? that's really the issue that's at stake. >> and scott dutrow, in terms of losing the supermajority, from covering sacramento, what types of things might democrats not be able to get done, given that
they don't have the supermajority, at least in the senate right now? >> the big issues is always taxes, so the democratic leadership made it clear they will not push for any tax increases in the legislature, something jerry brown promised
when he campaigned for proposition 30, saying if we're going to raise taxes, we'll do it through the ballot, not the legislature, but you do need two-thirds for a lot of things, among them putting constitutional changes on the ballot, and that's something
that jerry brown wants to do. he wants to push forward with a proposition that would create a new rainy day fund. you need two-thirds votes for that. now, will that get held up because of the missing seats? unclear, because this is an idea
that a lot of republicans have voiced support for. but if republicans want to play hard ball on an issue that the governor has marked as a priority, they now have the leverage to do that. >> and chris lehane, jerry brown running for an unprecedented
fourth term. he's going to be 76 years old next month. is there anything, you know, besides his age and potentially a health problem that could derail him? >> not unless there is some alignment of the stars that no
one has ever imagined. no, i mean, he is in a strong position as a sitting governor running for re-election, really, frankly, anywhere in the country. and i think the real issue here is, you know, does the governor use this election year to have a
broader conversation with the state about where he potentially wants to take it at a pretty important moment in time, right? our budgets are under control, economic growth is going in the right direction, but we still have enormous, significant challenges.
and you know, with what is essentially a free shot year election, do you use that to set up that conversation, then do some big legacy pieces? >> and you have a big gap between him and lieutenant governor gavin newsom who tweeted last night he was
running for re-election, obviously no surprise there. he came out a couple weeks ago opposing high-speed rail, something the governor's embraced. what do you make of that dynamic and that relationship? >> first of all, the lieutenant
governor took a hard look at running for governor and, in fact, had a campaign four years ago where he and governor brown would have been in a primary. ultimately decided not to go. but you definitely have the sort of jerry brown as sort of, one end of his career, gavin newsom
at another end and sort of circling each other. >> champing at the bit. >> at some level. and look, it's understandable, particularly if you're lieutenant governor, you're always looking for what is next. and i think some of what the
lieutenant governor with gavin newsom is doing is really beginning to stake out positions that help define him statewide as he looks down the road, frankly, four years from now. so, i think you're seeing that on high-speed rail. i think you're seeing that in
terms of his embrace of the legalization of marijuana. i think you're going to see that in a variety of issues that consistently reinforce the brand that he's sort of ahead of the curve, has the courage to take on some interesting issues, and i think, you know, he's going
about this in a smart way. >> and scott detrow, there are going to be some endorsements potentially made this weekend in los angeles, and there are some hot contests in the primaries, like the state comptroller's race. but what effect do you think
those intraparty battles, because of term limits and other things that are pitting democrats against each other, are having on the party? >> i think you look at the two statewide races where you have competitive democratic primaries primaries, comptroller and
secretary of state. the party chair, john burton, has made a point of publicly asking these candidates not to seek the party endorsement this weekend. he's saying that he's going to stay neutral, but he's also acknowledged that he can't
really control what votes happen and who can contend for what. but i think in the push for neutrality and trying to avoid a party fight, i mean, that's a clear sign that democratic leaders don't really love the top two primary system where you can have democrats battling it
out with each other in the fall. >> i want to ask chris lehane -- >> most professional races -- >> i'm sorry, we're getting short on time. let me ask chris about that, because in the south bay, you have a battle. is that a good thing for the
party? >> i think competition is good as a general proposition. i think any time candidates are forced to have to actually campaign, it's good for democracy, it's how it is set up. you know, i would separate that
from the top two primary process, which i do think has become a bitter challenge for democrats and has had some unintended consequences, where you could have the scenario either where democrats have to run against each other multiple times or you have multiple
democrats running statewide and run republican and you end up getting a republican into a runoff when that person really didn't get the same number of votes. and you could see some crazy situations playing out as a result of that, so i would
bifurcate those two issues. >> yeah, all right. quickly, scott detrow, i know turnout is a big issue for democrats, especially in off-year elections like this. what are you hearing the democrats are going to do to try to get that turnout up in
november so they hold on to some of these close seats that they're going to be challenged for? >> well, i think they're going to start that process by reminding the people coming to this convention this weekend that they shouldn't take
anything for granted. obviously, democrats are in a great spot and the republican party is pretty weak here, but the message is going to be don't coast into the fall, because you never know what is going to happen. >> all right.
scott detrow in los angeles, have a good time this weekend, not too good, and chris lehane, thanks for coming in. >> thanks for having me. >>> and coming up, recycled water gets a big boost in silicon valley. but first, this week, after a
fierce debate over privacy, oakland city council voted to scale back a controversial program for citywide surveillance. the domain awareness center will now monitor only the oakland international airport and the port of oakland.
at the heart of the debate is whether the use of new technology from street and police cameras to the wearable computers google glass constitutes an invasion of privacy. joining us for analysis are aarti shahani, kqed news
reporter, and ali winston, freelance journalist. now, ali, let's begin with you. you've been covering this story for kqed and for the center for investigative reporting. how are civil liberties groups and opponents of the center reacting to what the oakland
city council did this week? >> so, there are some groups that are actually opposed to the plan to go forward with the domain awareness center in any form or shape. the oakland privacy working group, which is one of the groups that's been in opposition
to this initiative since the beginning, has actually vowed to sue the city for violating a nuclear-free ordinance from the 1980s or the 1990s, and their contractor right now has some history with manufacturing nuclear weapons. but --
>> what's their main contention, though? >> their main contention is that, "a," the city should not be hiring contractors that violate city law, that has to do with bringing nuclear weapons. but "b," they don't want to have any sort of surveillance
infrastructure in the city. >> because they feel it violates people's privacy, people collecting data on people who have done nothing wrong? >> yes. but the center, as of the council vote this week, is now restricted to the original
intent of the grant that was given out for this, restricted to the port of oakland's property, which is the port of oakland and the oakland international airport. >> and this was a grant given by the department of homeland security.
it's federal money. >> it's federal money. it started with a 2009 grant from the stimulus act, and then since then, the port has been receiving grants from the federal emergency management administration. >> homeland security money.
>> and aarti, you've reported extensively on this as well. oakland's mayor's contention, a big supporter of the domain awareness center, also known as dac, and she says police and fire officials support this, saying access to big data would help them respond better in
emergencies when they have realtime data. is that a good point? >> you know, it's a good point if it were applicable. and what i mean by that, listen, everybody wants to reduce crime, okay? no one is saying, oh, we think
that being a murder capital is a good thing. obviously, everyone wants to feel safe. i think the issue with the surveillance center, the domain awareness center, that it's called, in oakland, which i think is really -- you know,
everyone that listens and sees this thing popping up in their neighborhood should think about is that it's a pretty standard example of federal money coming in to prompt, you know, a technology project that, frankly, it's not enough money to fund, and the people on the
ground running it don't know how to implement. i actually went through the process of talking to different leaders in the city to understand, okay, what is this domain awareness center going to do for you? and something that stunned me is
that the money was going to the port of oakland, and the people at the port of oakland said we want this because we need help with 24/7 surveillance, because you know, if a tree branch or an intruder hits our fence at 4:00 a.m. in the morning, we don't have staff to look to see
whether it's an intruder or a branch, so we need 24/7 we need help with manpower to look at the video cameras. then you go over to emergency services, and they're like, oh, it's not going to operate 24/7. there will be a dark hour where we shut it all off.
and these basic things about how they didn't even know how they were going to cooperate with each other and then who would be in charge of this whole thing. they planned to launch before they announced they would no longer have such an expanded program, they planned to launch
by june of this year. who would be head of it, which agency? they didn't know whether it was police, fire or a contractor, a private contractor. >> so there's the personnel issue there, but also the larger issue that's been intensified by
edward snowden and the nsa leak. the intensified controversy over the sense of privacy, the lack of privacy that everywhere you go now there seems to be cameras, and it's capturing data on you and your daily activities. case in point, google glass.
that's raising a lot of worries. how does google glass work? i know you had a chance to try it. what are the worries? >> i did. i tried it. i went for a drive with a google glasswear the other day.
there are maybe three kinds of worries. you know, one is that it's privacy, right? it's that -- google glass is like a pair of sunglasses. by way of technology, it's revolutionary. it's truly this disruptive,
amazing invention where you can have a camera and a computer processing all sorts of apps just hanging out on the upper right-hand corner of your eye. that's a breakthrough technologically, but if i'm walking down the street, i don't want you to record me.
and so, it's gotten a lot of people upset from the question of are you recording me, so much so that there's now a petition that was started in san francisco called glass glasshole-free.org, and they'bars are signing up saying we don't want google glass here because of
these privacy concerns. >> getting back to the issue of the domain awareness center and even google glass, what kinds of privacy laws are in place? do agencies have guidelines? how do you control this, how data is collected, how it's retained and for how long?
>> so, law enforcement agencies, for example, have different guidelines for different technologies, for license plate reader datas, cameras that take automatic pictures of cars as they pass by other stationary objects or patrol cars, which have these devices.
the retention periods vary from 60 days to 3 years to none at all, there are no retention periods. for cameras, the individual agency can have their own retention period. this is really a gray area of the law, and that is a big point
of debate in, obviously, municipal governments around the country and certainly in congress, because we don't have laws or firm rules on these technologies, and the technologies have completely out-stripped the legal limits. >> and i would say an added
problem with this is that it's not just that these big data technologies cut costs, they create new costs. for example, 2013 wasn't just a year we discovered snowden leaks and hacking, it's also target hacking. the fact is, when you're
collecting all this data and throwing it into a centralized server, that becomes a target. and so, are you as a municipality or a federal agency, whatever the size is, are you prepared to handle that? because the cost of a breach will far outstrip, you know,
1,000% the cost of gathering it. >> and just a real quick question -- is the domain awareness center up and running already at the port of oakland or it's still in the construction stages? >> it is up and running right now.
in a certain respect, until the vote this week, the city had linked in traffic cameras and gunshot detectors into a central hub at 18th street and martin luther king jr. way, but after the council vote, they will have to disconnect the cameras from the city's traffic cameras and
the gunshot detectors from the system. so, now they only will have about 130 cameras on port property linked into it. >> okay, and certainly this is not the last of it because mayor jean quan has said they will work on developing privacy laws,
and once those are in place, they may try to resurrect other parts of the domain awareness center -- >> she wants to pull it back to the whole city. >> thank you so much ali winston and aarti shahani. >> thank you.
>> one more note on this, we will be taking a deeper look at these issues in an up ecoming special produced with the center for collaborative reporting. "state of surveillance" will air on friday, april 11th. >>> as california's drought continues, the recent rain
brought more hope and relief. last week, governor brown signs legislation that could provide millions of dollars for water conservation efforts and to expand the use of recycled water. silicon valley has a head start on that front with a new
facility in santa clara county. as craig miller reports, it purifies sewage water, making it clean enough to even drink. >> reporter: as california's drought drags on, washing and buffing the cars at a.j. auto detailing in san jose is a bit more of a challenge these days.
>> because you're not supposed to wash your car in your home, so people are taking a long time, and finally, when the car's really dirty, they bring in the car. >> reporter: helen masamori manages this business, which uses thousands of gallons a day
to clean luxury cars, but instead of going down the drain, 70% of the water is fed into these tanks for reuse. >> before we had the recycling water, we were spending almost $3,000 a month in water. we're spending i would say about $300 or $400 now.
>> reporter: masamori wants to use even more recycled water by hooking up to san jose's network of purple pipes that carry recycled water to more than 700 customers. >> we're going to be the first car wash in the san jose area who is going to use 100%
recycling water. >> reporter: san jose's recycled water is not yet used for drinking, but by using it elsewhere, the city can free up more water for drinking and be less dependent on outside sources, according to environmental services director
kerry rominow. >> we have some pumped ground water and some from the delta. the hat chechi and the delta have had environmental issues, but recycled water gives us control over a local resource. >> reporter: this starts off as sewage, treated so it's clean
enough to discharge into the san francisco bay. even though most of it ends up in the bay, 9 million gallons a day are reused in san jose's parks, fountains and cooling towers. >> here in silicon valley, we're not only talking about being
energy independent, but we're also talking about being water independent and really squeezing the last drop out of every opportunity that we have in our water world. >> reporter: so, the city of san jose and the santa clara valley water district are finishing up
a new $70 million facility to expand the use of recycled water by making it cleaner, a lot cleaner. >> this is the water that comes into the plant. it's already been treated at the wastewater plant across the street to some level.
and then we then clean it further. >> we're going to hopefully show and demonstrate that the water will be pure enough to be used for drinking water purposes. >> reporter: this new plant will also help the water district double its use of recycled water
to 10% by 2025. it all happens in here, huh? although it won't open until june, operations manager crystal yesmin showed me the three-stage technology that will purify up to 8 million gallons of sewage water a day. so, this is a sort of a cross
section, i guess, of what we're seeing here. >> the microcessation unit. inside, there are over 6,000 little fibers and there's holes on the side. and so, the water's pushed into the holes and comes out through the center of these fibers, like
a straw. >> reporter: okay. >> and so, we're filtering out large bacteria and particles. >> reporter: the water then goes to a second stage of filtration. >> all right, so, here we are, reverse osmosis. >> reporter: reverse osmosis.
and this is? >> a reverse osmosis element. >> reporter: so, that's what's inside all those? >> that's what's inside. >> reporter: looks like a roll of saran wrap. >> it's actually made of hard plastic.
and the pore size here is so small that we're really only letting water molecules through. we're removing viruses, bacteria bacteria, pharmaceuticals and also salt. >> reporter: and by removing the salts, even more recycled water can be sold to cool data
centers, for example, in silicon valley. but the water still isn't done with its high-tech treatment. >> inside each one of these reactors are 40 uv light bulbs, ultraviolet light bulbs. >> reporter: like this? >> this is an example of one.
it creates a glow at a certain wave length of light that can deactivate or inactivate bacteria supplement santa clara county's drinking water. it's already happening in orange county, where the water district there mixes 70 million gallons
of purified sewage water a day with groundwater before it reaches people's taps. >> and in a sense, all water is reused and recycled. they say that the water in the mississippi river is used five times by the time it hits the gulf of mexico.
>> reporter: this toilet-to-tap concept took years to win over wary water consumers in southern california, but it may favor better in technology-embracing >> raul sanchez. >> reporter: raul sanchez. do you live here in san jose? >> i do.
>> reporter: what would it take to convince you personally? >> you know, it's a proven method, making sure people didn't get sick. >> reporter: so, here's the ultimate test, okay? if i were to say to you, this was reclaimed water here.
>> right. sure. >> reporter: cheers. >> i'd have to smell it first. sure, why not? >> tastes great. >> reporter: yeah, well, i was kidding, actually. it's tap water.
i just wanted to see. kidding aside, as population soars and there's a strain on water sources, reusing water for work, play and drinking will likely become a necessity, not a choice. >> recycled water just has an integral role in the future of
the silicon valley in particular, but most of california as well. it is a renewable, sustainable source of water. it's something we're going to need if our economy and our population is going to continue to grow.
>> and joining me now for a look at other stories we're following is scott shafer. >> hey, thuy. >> big shake-up in the supermarket industry. a private equity firm is buying safeway, based in pleasanton. why would they want this?
>> they're getting pressure from above and below, from above from the high-end stores like whole foods and from below, costco, walmart. and also online, amazon fresh. so, the grocery business is not expanding, so if they can merge the acquired and maybe merge
with this company that also owns albertson's, maybe they'll be able to get some efficiencies and save some money, and hopefully, make some money as well. >> are there some antitrust issues, though, given that the company acquiring them does own
lucky as well, in addition to albertson's? >> there could be, and certainly antitrust regulators will see if it passes muster. we're already hearing from consumer advocates saying this is a little scary, because you know, when you have fewer
choices and more control in fewer hands, potentially, prices go up, there could be impact on labor and, you know, the workers and so on. so, they're going to be taking a close look at that. it's not a done deal. and kroeger's, we hear, the
number one grocer in the u.s., may want in on the deal as well. any immediate impact on shoppers, number of stores, employees? >> i'll tell you, the most nervous is probably the city of pleasanton, where safeway is based.
we remember what happened when b of a got bought by a company in north carolina. those communities count on that corporate support for all kinds of things, and i think that not only are they concerned about losing jobs, but also that corporate money that comes when
you have a local corporate headquarters in your town or in your region. >> a couple of developments this week as well on a couple of things we've reported. one having to do with pedestrian safety. we had a panel discussion on
that recently. san francisco mayor ed lee announced something this week about trying to make the streets safer. what did he announce? >> well, they're announcing $17 million to make intersections and streets safer.
you know, there's three people hit by cars a day in san francisco. there have been more people killed by cars so far this year than have been murdered in san so, there's a lot of pressure to enforce the laws better, make the streets safer by changing
the intersections, more timed lights, that kind of thing. so, there's going to be kind of a down payment. it's not going to solve the problem, but they're putting some money toward that. >> a little bit of progress there.
also, the other item is you had interviewed sunnydale's mayor last year regarding the gun measure that was passed by voters. the nra challenged it this week, and a court ruled on that. what did they say? >> the nra is appealing it,
saying it is constitutional and does not infringe on second amendment rights. the law is in effect, but as of yesterday, those magazine clips with ten or more rounds are illegal in the city of sunnyvale. they have to get rid of them,
destroy them, give them to police. so, that law is in effect. i'm sure the nra is going to appeal, but right now, that law is the law of the land here. >> thank you for being on top of all that. thanks, scott.
>> you bet. >> for all of kqed's news coverage, go to kqed.org. >> i'm scott shafer. thanks for joining us. >> and i'm thuy vu. have a good night.