The president s diagnosis comes just two days after the spectacle of the first president ial debate held in cleveland, ohio. The candidates couldve chosen to provide some inspiration or guidance, quantities in short supply in the strange and difficult year. Instead, ignited by a bellicose President Trump, the night devolved into a meanspirited shouting match that would not be tolerated in a middle school mock debate unprofsional, unpresident ial, and frequently unlistenable, this debate was so profoundly troubled, that the commission on president ial debates that it will change the format before the next one. And with just about a month until election day, most counties will start mailing out ballots to all registered voters in california next week. Joining me now by ske from San Francisco is kqed newsroom Senior Editor of government of politics, mayor canning also joining me is government and politics reporter, guy marzorati. Scott, lets start with you. This has been another whirlwind week , yet were not talking about how much trump did not pay in taxes, his Supreme Court nominee, were not talking about the debate. Not yet, at least. Were starting off with how he says he and the first lady have contracted the coronavirus. How do you see this playing out in his campaign, and particularly in battleground states like wisconsin, which has seen some of the worst coronavirus outbreaks in the nation . This was a shocker. I dont think anybody saw it coming, but given the present rarely wears a mask and is often seen in groups of people who arent wearing masks, maybe it should not have been a surprise this happened. But it did hell get has upended the campaign with you know, just a little over a month ago. People are already putting in many parts of the country. And really, how this affects the campaign gog forward really i think depends on the course of his disease. Is he going to get sicker . Is he going to geso sick hes incapacitated in some way . That is what happened to Boris Johnson in great britain, so it really depends. Right now, there are reports hes getting some sort of experimental treatment for fatigue. Thats not a good sign because immediately, we know he does have symptoms. He is 74 years old and overweight, so people will be watching this very carefully. In terms of the impact in aces like wisconsin, you know, he wanted to go to wisconsin this week and the mayor of la crosse, wisconsin begged him not to because the numbers of cases there are going up through the roof, the last thing they want is a big gathering, so i think this is going to bring home, obviously make a focus of health care, covid, the covid pandemic , and the way he has handled this. He sort of a victim of his own sloppiness and refusal to listen to experts and scientists. I like to turn now to the president ial debate that happened earlier in the week. President trump seemed to send a chilling message when he said, quote, proud boys, stand back and stand by. Words which were immediately celebrated by White Supremacists on social media. And the president later said that he had used those words to encourage this group, which he said he does not know who they are, but he used those words to encouraged them to not interfere with Law Enforcement. Scott, what sort of impact did this language have on the race . Well, keep in mind theres a relatively small number of undecided voters at this point. Very unusual, and so i think people who are up for grabs, the voters who perhaps voted for trump four years ago, they are a littlebit on the fence, im thinking now suburban women in particular are really going to be turned off by this sort of thing. This is not what they want to hear from the commander in chief , and it has happened time and time again. I dont think the word racist is too strong to describe at the very least his actions and his comments, and so i think in that sense it does refocus the problem that hes had for four years now in addressing this very radical, rightwing part of his base and refusing to condemn them, so i do think on the margins, it is going to hurt improbably with voters who are up in the air or perhaps were leaning toward biden pick i think its going to push them a little further in that direction. Guy, with the language presented during the debate, did you feel either candidate was reaching more towards undecided voters are more towards encouraging their base . Is there a constituency they are aiming for . Interestingly enough, i felt the president spent a disproportionate amount of time trying to appeal to Joe Biden Space when he talked about bidens record in criminal justice and some laws he authored in the 90s. Even when he spent the entire vote by mail section kind of talking about the false claims that theres going to be widespread vote by mail frd. I think the audience for that was really may be unlikely voters or liberal voters, and just trying to generally discourage people through misinformation about the voting process, ultimately bring down turnout. During the debate, President Trump pointed to his accomplishments in shifting the american judiciary to the right , and id like to listen to that for a moment. And i will tell you something took some people tell me by the end of the first term, i will have approximately 300 federal judges and court of appeals judges. 300, and hopefully 3 great Supreme Court dresses. Justices. That is a record the likes of which very few people , and you know one of the reasons i will have so many judges . Reporter whether or not he wins the election, his legacy is going to be felt in the courts for many years to come. Is is one of the cornerstones of his campaign, along with economic progress, economic growth, and how is it resonating . This is exactly wh his base , the evangelical voters, wanted him to do. Remember in 2016 toward the end of the campaign, he came up with a list. There were people who did not feel convinced he was actually a conservative. He used to be prochoice, and he was not always a republican, but he came up with a list of judges from which he would choose for the courts, including Supreme Court, and he has stuck to that, and hes right. He has a historic number of appointees now sitting at the District Court level, the Appeals Court level, and perhaps two or three on the Supreme Court. So that is a record and legacy that will last long beyond him, whether or not he gets reelected in november, so it is certainly a promise made and promised kept, which is of great consternation to democrats and people who care about the issues that could come before the Supreme Court, for example the Affordable Care act which will be heard right after the election, week after the election, and is at risk of being struck down that would have huge implications for people who are currently relying on health care from the Affordable Care act, and the list goes on. Womens right to choose, so on. He is right. The thing is i dont think that appeals to swing voters. That is his base that cares most about that. Guy, lets turn to mailin ballots, which has started to be sent out and will continue over the coming weeks. You have been doing reporting specifically on this. What have you learned about how california state officials are insuring the integrity of the voting process here in california, and perhaps you can broaden that out to tell us about other battleground states as well. Here in california, were expecting a historic participation in vote by mail pagosa poll this week from the Berkeley Institute of governmental studies that found 78 of california voters are planning to vote by mail, so how are officials preparing for that . On the front end, its a lot of encouragement to get ballots in early. They are going to be allowed to preparing the four final counts, not releasing or finalizing any accounting till election day put that the key difference with other states, where ballots are pretty much going to be untouched until election day tickets white in many states, many swing states, you might see a longer vote count. The issue in california, its not voter fraud when it come to vote by mail. Its the issue of rejected ballots, and i would be because a ballot is postmarked too late or maybe theres an issue with the siature. There is with Election Officials are trying to get around that. On the front in, its really saying to voters if youre going to head in or phthalates, close to election day, use the dropbox book do not use the usps. There could be a longer time frame of delivery. When it comes to issues of signatures, the socalled curing process of signatures, theres going to be opportunities for Election Officials after election day to reach out to voters if they forgot to sign their ballots, if theyve an incorrect signature, to try to get that and make sure their vote is counted. Scott, listen to voter measures in the state, specifically prop 15 that takes aim at the old prop 13 passed in 1978, which looks at how property taxes are pegged, basically. Property taxes would be pegged at the Purchase Point for a house. Now, theres a new prop on the ballot this year, which is prop 15, which takes aim at a portion of the people impacted by prop 13, and it says its only for commercial landlords who have 3 million or more in holdings. How is this being received . Is there a chance it will pass . There is a chance it will pass. s been hovering right around 50 which is what it needs in a couple of polls in the past couple weeks. Prop 15 would be the first major change to prop 13, which was 42 years ago. What it would do is create a split role. Something that democrats and liberals have wanted for a long time. Prop 13 was sold as a way to help seniors stay in their homes because property taxes were really at the whim of local assessors, and they were going up really quickly in the late 1970s, and corporations have benefited tremendously from this because their taxes are based on the purchase price. Those properties dont turnover very much. Is a loophole that allows them to avoid triggering a reassessment. Prop 15 would reassess all those corporate properties, and would generate between 6 1 2 to 11 a half billion dollars a year in new revenue that would go 60 to local governments, 40 to the schools. Is this is, not surprising, are opposed. They say this is the runtime to raise taxes, but labor unions and a long list of democrats, including joe biden, governor gavin newsom, Kamala Harris or supporting a. Guy, lets turn to another prop being watched across the nation, prop 22, related to gig workers bill can you tell us what it is and its chances of passing . This was to gig workers specifically working for company like uber and lyft. He would basically accept those companies from state law and allow them to classify ese workers as independent contractors instead of employees becoming uber and lyft would not have to pay on employment insurance, workers comp, but they say they are unsuccessful in getting this measure passed, they would have to raise prices, drivers losing inflexibility, and viewers have probably seen the yes on 22 commercial purposes already the most expensive Ballot Measure Campaign in california history. Scott, talk about Governor Newsom signing some criminal justice legislation this week which includes a ban on the use of choke hold in the state that what elses in this package . Probably the most important one is ab 1506 with advocates the root cryer dement of attorney generto the independent investigation of Deadly Police shootings of unarmed civilians but that is something Kamala Harris opposed , Xavier Becerra post, but the governor signed up there were number bills that died in the legislature to restrict rubber bullets, further up oper police records, and it died at the end of august because there is a lack of time and a lot of opposition from Law Enforcement groups. The university of utah has confirmed today they will still host the Vice President of the bait set for next week. Guy, what are you going to be watching for as you view this debate . What should be we were watching at home . Its been interesting to see President Trump despite all his law and order talk also attacked joe biden for his tough on crime policies on the 90s. It will be interesting to see if mike pence go after Kamala Harris is career as a prosecutor . Hes more of a traditional republican. I dont know how that will go, but well see. For Kamala Harris, this will be the biggest audience shes had just got to press the case for joe biden and be seen as someone plausible who could become president of the United States if that need were to arrive. Shes got to be credible as a commander in chief. Scott shafer, guy marzorati, thank you both so much. Youre welcome. As firefighters continue to battle blazes that have burned millions of acres in california, an investigation by kqed and calmatters fod roughly 2 Million People aged 65 and older live in areas at high risk for wildfires that the investigation also revealed that wildfires are a significant hazard for more than a third of Nursing Homes and other longterm care facilities in california. State law requires the facility to have emergency plans and conduct training in fire drills, but enforcement by state regulators is scae. Emergency plans are a big question mark, leaning foldable seniors potentially exposed to Deadly Wildfires joining me now by skype or the lead others of the older and overlooked investigative series, kqed science reporter Molly Peterson and kqed senior producer and data jrnalist, lisa pickoff white. Ladies, thank you both for joining us molly, what prompted this investigation . Two things. Reporters have been looking at the risks and hazards associated with wildfire over the last several years. We have thought about where people build, what kind of requirements are around weldon urban interfaces. Of course, naturally that leads to who lives in these areas and whos at risk and how we protect them. Before that, i lived in louisiana after katrina, and i covered this very big nursing home to see esther saint ritas nursing of disaster where people drowned in floodwaters of Hurricane Katrina. We have had more climate driven disasters in the last decade and a half, and in california that is certainly true with wildfires. Ive been thinking about this intersection of climate getting worse and growing elder population in california. The data was not just there to be simply. Up. This is something you needed to dig into. Lisa, can you tell us about that process . When molly came to me well over a year ago to talk about this project, i was really excited because we knew the first thing we needed to do was seewere wildfire was a significant hazard in california, and so we worked with a large team to do that. We also worked with Health Reporter april them bousquet, later we brought in someone who worked at calmatters and now the Washington Post whose a mapping expert. One created by the state, and another created by scientists. We looked at those maps, then we looked at where facilities are, and where people live in california. Combining all of that together, we were able to see about a third of these longterm facilities and about a third of people 65 and older, that is 2 Million People 65 and older in california, who are living in these fire prone areas. And so an example of that right now, molly, youve been reporting on the glass fire this week. Have you had a chance to talk with residents and people that had been part of the investigation earlier to follow up with them . Earlier this week, we saw all older folks leaning on walkers and canes and slumps in chairs outside veterans in santa rosa. We saw these buses driving through these embers. Late at night on sunday night. Weve been following up with facilities in the santa rosa area to see how the have evacuated, how they were prepared, what they thought they were going to do if they had to evacuate not to one location but possibly to two if the fire spread. I had a chance to speak to jerry canaday, a 68yearold man who originally just saved his own life after the tubbs fire by waking up in his coffee park home alone and walking outside to the sound of, you know, trees snapping and these chunks of ash flying through the air. He is now evacuated four times. Hes a senior, 68 years old. Lisa, there are multiple obstacles that get in the way of improving safety at some of the senior care facilities, one of those obstacles is the demand for the services. And you talk us to the demographics of seniors in california and why that gets in the way . Wyatt bumps up against the safety protocols . Yeah, we really have two shifts occurring at the same time. We have increasing climate change, which is making fires worse when they happen and more likely to. We also have an aging population. There are more seniors in california currently been in florida, and were expecting to see a doubling of older people in california in the next decade pretty soon, well have a pretty high proportion of people who are older in our state. At the same time, we have housing problems that are changing where people live, and we also need beds for these people. You know, on one hand, were talking about how a lot of these facilities are in dangerous areas, but on the other hand as our population ages, we also need Skilled Nursing facilities and Residential Care facilities where people can go and live safely. Molly, what percentage of seniors are cu