Transcripts For KQED KQED Newsroom 20140407 : vimarsana.com

Good evening and welcome to kqed newsroom. Im thuy vu. A federal grand jury has indicted state senator leland yee and 28 other defendants on a wide range of charges, including money laundering, firearms trafficking and public corruption. If convicted, yee could face 125 years in prison and more than 1 million in fines. Other suspects, including reputed gang leader Raymond Shrimp Boy Chow and former San Francisco School Board President Keith Jackson were charged with murderforhire, Drug Trafficking and other crimes. Meanwhile, concerns are being raised among Asian Americans about Public Perceptions of their community. Joining me now to discuss the latest developments are linda yee, kpix reporter, and josh richman, Bay Area News Group political reporter. Josh, i know you read the indictment. Whats new in it . Well, theres one new charge for state senator leland yee. They added a conspiracy charge to go with the six bribery charges that were already filed against him in the criminal complaint that prosecutors had put in last week. And then, of course, theres that final conspiracy to commit arms trafficking charge, which has gotten a lot of press since then. Todays indictment also included charges against three more people than had been named in last weeks complaint. Other players in this large, alleged criminal organization headed by raymond chow. What effect is this having on state politics . Its such a huge case. Well, in the short term, it meant the cancellation of a big golf tournament. By the democrats. By the democrats, yes. State Senate President Darrell Steinberg and incoming state Senate President Kevin De Leon said they were canceling the pro tem cup, a big annual event held in la jolla at the torrey Pines Golf Course wherein people pay tens of thousands of dollars to play golf with the most powerful members of the house and legislature. And they incredibly thought that would be bad optics right now. Although i understand they will be keeping some of the money given to them in advance of this golf tournament. What about calls for Campaign Finance reform . Because a lot of this had to do with allegations that leland yee, for example, just needed to raise so much money for his campaign for secretary of state, which he has since dropped, and he had debt from the Mayors Campaign for San Francisco. Right. There are bills pending. There were bills pending before this. There are now other bills pending as well that would require additional disclosure of Campaign Funds as theyre being raised and spent that would limit the ways in which this money can be raised, perhaps, in terms of the gifts that can be accepted, the ways that lobbyists can throw events for lawmakers. But ultimately, there is nothing pending, nor is there anything on the horizon of anything pending that would limit the need that politicians have for this money. Ultimately, it is very expensive to conduct even the legislative race, much less a statewide election, which is what leland yee was engaged in before he dropped out of the secretary of states race. It requires millions of dollars, and that means that these people have to be raising money every single day without fail in order to be competitive. Most people manage to do that without getting indicted, but occasionally, some do. Yeah, and the number there is a problem with most people. I mean, the perception out there right now, the publics, you know, theyre reacting very negatively to our elected officials. Theyre saying, what is going on in sacramento . So, do you think they do have to speed up something and oh, i certainly hope the public is incensed, and i think they will continue to be incensed. In canceling the golf tournament, senator steinberg and de leon said theyll be meeting with constituents this weekend instead, trying to talk to them about this Public Perception issue and about the issues that have caused this poor Public Perception. Theyve got to do something. Theyve got to start legislating and making this impossible to happen again. Right. Three guys, three state elected officials. The problem is, there is no law they could pass to keep this from happening again, because this was already against the law. Well you know, ultimately, it has to be you know, there will be lines that will be crossed. You can set up as much disclosure as possible to try to catch it as it happens, perhaps. Yeah. But to try to take money out of politics at this point is trying to take water out of the ocean. Its just not going to happen. But certainly, there are people decrying the fact that lawmakers can use funds from their campaigns to pay for their Legal Defense following criminal charges. So, do you think anything will come out of that . Its certainly something that they may choose to pursue. Thats something that people have talked about for many, many years, dating back to when the former state senate leader, don perata, was under fbi investigation for five years, although never charged with anything. He used to move money into and out of his legal fund, between that and his candidate and ballot measure committees. And ultimately, although people complained about it, it can still happen at this point. This may be the straw that breaks the camels back on that particular issue. And i want to take a look at the Asian Community as well and their reaction to this. You know, weve got leland yee, of course, arrested. Weve got Raymond Shrimp Boy Chow in custody. And what is the reaction that youre getting in San Franciscos chinatown . Are they relieved that shrimp boy is in custody, or is there still a fear out there . Okay, lets start with shrimp boy. There are people who are relieved, because you know, hes a recognized bad guy in the community. He is someone who has extorted a lot of money from businesses and from gambling dens and, you know, hes a threat. He was part of that 1970s and 80s, you know, gang warfare. The triad and the tongs. The triads, the tongs, the joe boys. All that was very much a fearful time, and he was the head of it. He admitted it to me in an interview we did with him eight years ago about how he did all these things. But you know, people, you try to get them to talk about, hey, arent you glad hes in jail now, hes back in prison . Probably convicted. Hell never come back out. And they wouldnt want to talk publicly about it. Yes, im relieved, but they wouldnt tell you that on camera. Why . Because they said raymond chow has a long reach, and that is our fear. As far as everybody else, you know, weve got leland yee, today we had ed jue, who had to surrender for the second part of his term, the former supervisor the former San Francisco supervisor. The supervisor. For perjury, and also he had served nearly five years in prison for federal charges, extortion and bribery. Federal charges, right. Its the same kind of thing. And the problem, the Asian Community, when you hear these things, theyre very proud, you know. Its a cultural thing. Youre very proud when you have leaders of your ethnicity Holding Public office, but when they come you know, when they have these crimes accused, they have to go to jail, its embarrassing, it looks bad for the whole community. The whole thing now is theres this perception that all asians must be like this, that theyre bad, that all they think about is money and theyll do anything to get it. And is that because culturally there is in many asian cultures a sense of saving face yes. And when one person does something shameful it brings shame upon the entire community . Yeah, because its all about how people perceive us as a Asian Community. Oh, you know, i just knew it, theyre just money grubbers, they cheat, they lie, they steal. And when you have wellknown faces like this parading in the media day after day after day, its embarrassing and it looks bad. And you know, as you know, as being an asian, its all about saving face. And more Court Appearances next week. Right. Tuesday. And this week, leland yee switched lawyers. Now, why did he do that and what do you know about the new attorney . Well, he had been previously represented by paul demeester, who appeared with him this past monday in court and hinted outside of court that day at the possibility of an entrapment defense. Two days later, he swapped out attorneys, and hes now with james lasert, who is, among other things, a former San Francisco and federal prosecutor. And in that federal capacity, had actually worked on an organized crime strike force. So, he probably knows that of which he will now be required to speak. All right. And Keith Jackson also now is represented by a very prominent San Francisco attorney, known for his flamboyance. Hes already, like you said, also hinting as well at an entrapment defense. So, we will keep everybody posted next tuesday. Josh rich meman and linda yee, thank you. Whats so funny about Silicon Valley . First, its been 20 years since california became the first state to legalize medical marijuana. The industry is basically unregulated in the state and illegal under federal law. Still, voters in colorado and Washington State recently approved recreational use. A new poll shows californians are divided on legalization. Governor jerry brown recently voiced his opposition on nbcs meet the press. How many people can get stoned and still have a great state or a great nation . A new book called weed land by Sacramento Bee Senior Writer peter hecht explores all these issues. Scott shafer spoke with him earlier. Peter hecht, welcome. Thank you for having me. Its been nearly two decades since voters passed prop 215, legalizing medical marijuana, and it seems like here in california, its sort of the wild west with marijuana being very lightly regulated, very little oversight. How did we get to this point . Its really a remarkable story. California was the first state in america to legalize marijuana for medical use, and at the same time, essentially allowed a billiondollar industry to morph and do so without rules. So, all of a sudden, california has fallen behind other states in regulation, in tracking where the marijuana goes, in tracking where the money goes. Weve just come off of two years of sweeping federal raids on the industry here, and yet, the feds are saying theyre willing to step back in other states that have what they call robust regulations. Yeah. Why is it that california has been so reluctant to have more regulation from the top . Theres been a lot of local regulation but not much from sacramento. Well, the irony about california is california tried to draft a law in 2003 that allowed medical marijuana patients to collectively cultivate. And what it was inspired by was a small colony of severely ill and terminally ill patients in santa cruz whose garden was raided by heavily Armed Drug Enforcement Administration agents. What happened was a collective became in many cases a massive retailstyle dispensary handling millions of dollars in medical marijuana transactions. And as the industry expanded, lawmakers became very timid, afraid to pass regulations, and Law Enforcement was of no mind to support that, because they saw regulations as le jgitimizi the marijuana industry. And we see the same thing happening in Washington State and colorado. They passed, legalizing marijuana, voters did in 2012. What did they learn from california . Why are they going about it so differently . Well, the two states do have their differences, but the main thing that colorado did, and because it was wary of california and wary of becoming the next california and california entrepreneurs going in there, is colorado passed very meticulous regulations. All medical marijuana workers are licensed and criminal background checked by the state. They wear state i. D. Cards. They have Video Surveillance that tracks the transactions and the grow rooms, the plants are tagged, the shipments are monitored. And both states wrote those things into their laws that legalized beyond medical use, for purely recreation or pleasurable use. The irony is that in washington, you have a heavily regulated recreational market that is about to open, and yet, they are like california, they havent passed rules for medical. So, you have a wild, untamed medical market there that will exist right next door to a notsoregulated or to a very regulated recreational market. As you say in the book, the push for medical marijuana, compassionate use, came out of the aids epidemic in San Francisco, in some ways the Research Done by ucsf to bolster the use of medical marijuana, and yet, theres always been a wink and a nod, it seems. That yes, this is medical marijuana, but its really for anyone who wants an i. D. Card, you can get one. Was that a mistake, do you think, in retrospect, to let it unfold that way . Well, it was the evolution by the way the law was written. And proposition 215, while it mentioned aids and cancer and glaucoma and very Serious Health conditions, also said that you could use medical marijuana for any other condition for which cannabis may provide relief. Anxiety, depression, headaches. Right. And, now, the studies did show that marijuana has much wider benefits, for painrelated and nerve damage and all sorts of other conditions. But what would happen was the birth of a medical industry, a cadre of doctors who gave out thousands of medical marijuana recommendations for cash, and within a period of yards, we have 1. 1 million medical marijuana users in california. Yes, they are our older, sicker patients. There are also a disproportionate number of young, seemingly fit, young people that have gotten the recommendations. There still seems to be a debate going on in california. Weve got the governor, jerry brown, as we heard the clip at the top there, worrying about potheads and stoners. Dianne feinstein also concerned about legalization. And yet, youve got gavin newsom, the lieutenant governor, leading a commission thats looking at legalizing it. Whats going on in california politically with regard to marijuana as we sit here today . I think gavin newsom is one of the few politicians who sees a reward in advocating this issue, just as he took the lead on samesex marriage. But for most politicians, they dont see a reward in advocating marijuana. They risk the wrath of Law Enforcement, which is a very key constituent. They dont want to be seen as siding with stoners. So, they may be a little bit flippant, as jerry was, or very determined, as Dianne Feinstein has been on this issue. So, its going to be a long while before marijuana is going to be a reward issue for politicians. You still in sacramento, as we sit here, youve got a bill thats being considered to clamp down on doctors writing prescriptions. The Police Chiefs are pushing that bill up in sacramento. So, is that tension between legalization and regulation going to continue for the foreseeable future . Very much so. Were going to see a fairly intense battle during this session on whether they will actually finally set rules for the california medical marijuana market, and in all likelihood, we will have a legalization beyond medical use, a recreational measure on the ballot in 2016. 2016, so maybe a president ial year with a bigger turnout and maybe younger voters. That is the idea, precisely. Peter hecht. The book is called weed land inside americas marijuana epicenter and how pot went legit. Thanks so much for coming in. Thanks so much for having me. Well, on now to the quirks of the hightech lifestyle. Theyre easy fodder for humor, and the new hbo series, Silicon Valley, premiering sunday, serves up a parody of it. Series cocreator mike judge has come up with a collection of awkward, geeky characters, who think theyve developed the next big app. Heres a clip from Silicon Valley. Okay, here it is. Bit soup. Its like alphabet soup, but ones and zeros, instead of the letters. Because binary, you know, binarys just ones and zeros. Yeah, i know what binary is. I recognized the code. Ask me what that is. Its 75. I do not need you telling me what binary is, just like i dont need you thinking about soup or taking pictures of it. I need you thinking about apps, software, websites. This is Silicon Valley, all right . But underlying the series is humor for local residents. Joining me to talk about the funny aspects of Silicon Valley culture are aarti shahani, a kqed news contributor, and steve gold bloom, host of everything but the news from pbs digital studios. I want to ask you, first of all, why do you think there is so much fascination with the culture of Silicon Valley . Lets take a big, structural issue into account, okay . Which is that everyone has smartphones. And on your smartphone, youve got facebook, twitter, youve got all these apps that are made in a place. That place is here. So, i think thats one thing, is that we see these companies, we think of the place, and the other thing is money, okay . When we think about america, the story about america is to climb. Its the 99 , its losing wealth. Where is there a lot of wealth in hightech. This is the land of billionaires, so i think that has people here. I think if you dont live in San Francisco, youre not used to it, but when you come here, you see theres young people and when you go to startups and you go to coffee shops and theyre actually incubators and accelerators posing as coffee shops. I was joking that i think startups are the new law school. People that used to go to law school and just kind of hang out because they wanted to be there, now they create their own startup and everybody has a startup in them. And theyre going to change the world that way. Exactly, yeah. Well, steve, you yourself spent a lot of time poking fun at Silicon Valley. Youre the creator of everything but the news, a webonly spinoff of the pbs news hour. In it, you play a cub reporter covering the tech beat, youre kind of fumbling, little clumsy, but you get what are you trying to say . Other than that, youre great. Yeah, thanks. Ill ask you more about your series in a minute, but first, lets look at a clip you did on the service uber. Hey, travis, how are you doing . Good to meet you. Here we go. This is not bad. How are you doing, buddy . We can really hug it out. Hug it out. So, where do you want to drive thats close . Were driving where you want to go. Whose idea was this . My cofounder and i were in paris, and hes like, man, i just want to push a button and get a ride. I mean, he looks like someone and sounds like someone who came out of central casting for a show about Silicon Valley. The hair, the flipflops, the confident attitude, i am changing the world. Right. Well, we got lucky with him. He was actually the first one we got. After he agreed to do it, everybody else did it because he did it. An influence for us for the show was the article in the new yorker on the culture of Silicon Valley, and a lot of it was that, you know, these are apps designed by and for 20somethings with a lot of cash to burn. And they arent necessarily saving the world, but theyre how do i get the salad on my phone ordered to me in the car so i can go to the club and do this thing. And these arent real problems. These are problems for a Certain Group of people that have all flooded into San Francisco, and you know this raises the larger issue. A lot of the parody is rooted in more serious issues that affect a lot of people and now bigger questions raised about the current tech culture. For example, what you just mentioned, all the fun apps. And you know, aarti, how much of the innovation are about things that will be truly transformative in the long term, and how much of it is just, hey, a cool app thats trendy today, but not so hot maybe a year or two from now . I think theres a general consensus that most of what gets made is fluff and doesnt survive and dies out in the app store before its ever known, and some of it might be that unicorn that emits someone over 1 billion. But there are two things that really contrast. One is, for example, that app secret, right . Thats a blip thats now going down in usership, it seems, but thats the app where you can basically gossip without having to say who you are, but you can see which friends, unnamed, are also gossiping. So, its kind of an app that brings out the worst in human communication, which is let me spew out some gossip without personal responsibility for it, and thats like a startup kind of thing. On the other hand, you have Companies Like google glass, very well respected, huge global enterprises. Google having glass out. And glass is, i think, like sort of either a really awesome innovation with only a few ounces of a computer on your nose, on your eye glasses, or its just a specious thing that nobody needs and will die out soon. I think thats the bizarre thing that maybe gives fodder for Silicon Valley. When you look at what were creating, we dont know if its idiotic or genius. And google glass is interesting, because it is sort of symbolic of this backlash now against tech, that it represents all the haves and the widening income gap separating the haves from the havenots. Are you seeing a lot out there . Because youre covering this, youre poking fun at it, but youre seeing a lot of this and talking to people involved in it. Our show is art imitating life. One of the scenes we joke with the producer, we beg for more money for our public media budget because were paying 2,000 a month for a singlebedroom apartment that we have to share because everybody can now afford, if its a renters market, they can afford to pay triple the amount. Is it a twin bed . We were forced to push the beds together and, you know, we had fun with that joking around with our producer, but anyways, thats true. And there are potent symbols of the income disparity in the city. When you see the google bus plowing down the street or see the person wearing the google glasses, most people arent on those buses, most people cant wear those glasses. So, it really does underline that divide. Another issue causing resentment is the ageism, sort of the unspoken secret, or maybe not so secret if you live and work in Silicon Valley that a lot of these companies, the startups, especially, are started by young people. They have things in surveys, things like its really weird to have someone, you know, my parents age working for me. Thats not someone i want to hire. I do worry about some of the coverage, though, in that. For example, theres like, i think a couple sundays ago in the times magazine, an article about the kids making apps and how they dont talk to mentors and what not. I have to say, ive covered a fair amount of millennials with startups. Theyre not doing apps that want you to click and theyre relying on mobile advertising, for example, some hardcore Cyber Security startups that are dealing with pretty difficult questions about credit card protection and fraud and security and things like that. So obviously, ageism is an issue that people feel, but just in general, how ho among nously we talk about the valley. Were talking about one of the most global places in the country. I have never met so many indians in my life and im from new york, but we dont see that here because we talked about bromance and brogrammer culture and forget who else is in the room. There is certainly a lot of fodder and attention for the series Silicon Valley. Well see what happens come sunday. Thank you for being here, steve gold bloom and aarti shahani. Thank you. Thanks. And joining me now for a look at other news were tracking is scott shafer. Hi, scott. Hi, thuy. Big news this week regarding a federal grand jury criminal indictment of pg e, concerning the san bruno blast that happened nearly four years ago. Eight people killed. Injured about 60 people. Dozens of homes destroyed or damaged. What does the indictment allege . 12 criminal charges, and they allege that pg e for years knowingly and willfully violated the Pipeline Safety act, that they didnt keep good records, didnt do enough checking of their pipes to see if there was a danger of explosion, and that they knew about it before the explosion happened in san bruno. So, serious charges. Each one carries a possible fine of up to 500,000. So, its a 6 million potential fine at the end of all this. Then what is pg e saying in response . And is this going to be a tough case to prove . Well, theyre saying that theres no merit to these charges. Theyre very sorry about what happened. They say theyre spending, you know, a lot of money to upgrade pipeline. This is going to be tough to prove. I mean, knowingly and willfully, thats a tough standard to meet and to convince a jury or a judge that, in fact, that was violated, especially if the records werent there. How could they have known if the records were missing, you know, all that. And pg e, you can be sure, will have very good attorneys and this is likely to drag on for quite a while. Other than the potential criminal penalty of 6 million that you mentioned, what else could pg e face . The state has also been investigating this and could levy a fine later this year of 2 billion or more. So, theres several avenues of penalty here, and this is just one of them, this indictment this week. Okay. Lets turn real quickly to new developments in another story that kqed has been covering, that beef slaughterhouse in petaluma that was shut down in february by the usda. Some good news there. The good news is, its going to be opening again on monday. Marin sun farms, already a producer of beef and poultry, is reopening it. So, these ranchers that have had to take their cattle hours, 200 miles away to get their beef, the cattle slaughtered, theyre going to be able to stay closer to home. Its better for the animals, less expensive and so on. Is it enough to alleviate concerns by ranchers . The concern is that the slaughterhouse is owned by a competitor and they worry that will drive up competition. Better than the alternatives. Scott, thank you. For all of kqeds coverage, go to kqed. Org. Im scott shafer. Thanks for joining us. And im thuy vu. Have a good night. On this edition for sunday, april 6th, new clues about the missing malaysia jetliner. Mexico hes growing economy, what it means for the united states. And water on one of saturns moons. What it tells us about the possibility of life there. Next on pbs news hour weekend