Ericka Cruz Guevarra: [00:00:38] I’m Ericka Cruz Guevara, and welcome to the Bay Local News to keep you rooted. And welcome to our September news roundup, where we talk about some of the other stories that we’ve been following this month. I am joined by Jessica Kariisa, our producer. Hey, Jessica.
Jessica Kariisa: [00:00:54] Hey, Ericka.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: [00:00:55] And our very special guest this month, Guy Marzorotti, politics and government correspondent for KQED. What’s up, Guy?
Guy Marzorati: [00:01:02] Hey, thanks for having me
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: [00:01:03] Thank you so much for being here. I am sitting here with two San Jose folks, South Bay folks. I take it you guys didn’t feel the earthquake, which had its epicenter in Berkeley. No, I definitely didn’t fell it.
Guy Marzorati: [00:01:21] No, that was a fantastic night of sleep.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: [00:01:24] I am curious. So I felt it, and I feel like a lot of people in my circles are just talking about it and freaking out about it. Are people in your orbits talking about the earthquake?
Guy Marzorati: [00:01:35] I was in the office the next day and there was a lot of buzz about it. It didn’t stand out to me statistically as like, oh, this is a massive number. But yeah, maybe it was just, you know, when it landed, people were talking about it
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: [00:01:50] Yeah, Jessica, you and I on Wednesday picked up emergency kits. So is it, it was on your mind, it seems like.
Jessica Kariisa: [00:01:58] It’s always been on my mind since I moved to California, to be honest with you, I just was aware of earthquakes being a possibility. So even though living in San Jose, I haven’t really felt much. I think there was one that was like really, really tiny. I just wanna be prepared. So I did pick up that go bag and it’s underneath my bed, ready to go.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: [00:02:18] Yeah, I have to say that even though I felt the earthquake, I definitely woke up and then immediately went back to sleep.
Guy Marzorati: [00:02:28] Yeah, no, I feel like that you have that like sense as working in news of like, okay, is this, does this meet the scale if I need to fully get out of bed? Like I remember that about the Napa earthquake. It was like, okay, this is not just a like roll back over type of shake. So yeah, your senses were on.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: [00:02:44] But definitely a California girl a little too used to it. I guess we could just dive right into the stories that we’ve been following this month. I’m gonna stick here in Berkeley with my story actually, which is a story about UC Berkeley where earlier this month, the university confirmed that it sent the names of 160 students, staff and faculty members over to the federal government for its investigation into anti-Semitism on campus. Individuals were notified that their personal info was shared with the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights earlier this month. And it’s drawn, as you can imagine, lots of criticism from folks who say that this is a violation of academic freedom and puts a lot of people at risk.
Jessica Kariisa: [00:03:45] So why is this happening? Could you tell us a bit more about this investigation?
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: [00:03:50] Yeah, so Cal is the subject of several federal investigations right now. It’s one of 60 universities facing a civil rights investigation into how the university handles complaints and allegations of anti-Semitism and or discrimination on campus. And these investigations really came out of the campus protests that we saw last summer over Israel’s war in Gaza. The university spokesperson said that its decision to share these names was really just in compliance with this federal investigation and its legal obligation to do so.
Guy Marzorati: [00:04:29] So why these specific people? What was the federal government looking for about these specific folks?
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: [00:04:37] So the San Francisco Chronicle got a hold of this letter that had been shared with each person whose name and information had been with the federal government. And the letter notes that the Federal Office of Civil Rights quote, required production of comprehensive documents, including files and reports related to alleged anti-Semitic incidents, unquote. There isn’t a ton of information about why these specific people had their names given to the federal government, but one grad student who got one of these letters from the university told the Daily Cal that they feel like the move seems to be targeting Arab and Muslim individuals who had expressed support for Palestine. If you recall, there were these protests on campus last summer. And there’s a feeling that many of the folks involved in that were among those targeted by this investigation.
Jessica Kariisa: [00:05:44] Yeah, I mean, I think a lot of us know the history of UC Berkeley as this center of student protests and just a lot of activism. What’s been the response? I can’t imagine that people are just sort of taking this lying down.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: [00:06:01] Yeah, I mean, you’re hearing a lot of folks saying that this effectively represses folks’ First Amendment rights. There’s petitions circulating, including one that’s been signed by 600 university professors from around the world and professors who have worked with faculty at Cal saying that they’re truly concerned about the decision to share these names, these professors. Acknowledge that Berkeley has an obligation to comply with this federal investigation. But they criticized how those names were shared, specifically that the folks whose names were shared didn’t really have a chance to dispute the information that the university had collected on them.
Guy Marzorati: [00:06:49] OK, so I know UC has a new president. How has he been kind of factoring into all this?
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: [00:06:55] So I will say that UC Berkeley said that their decision to comply with these federal investigations was made by the University of California’s system-wide office of the general counsel. And so now there is a national coalition that’s calling for the removal of the head of the UC. That’s President James Millikan. And the petition is basically describing the UC’s move as a violation of academic freedom. And so some folks are looking to hold someone accountable for this.
Guy Marzorati: [00:07:30] Wow, just a few months in already on the hot seat.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: [00:07:33] Right, intense time to run colleges, I guess, for anyone in that job. Well, that is it for my story this month. We’re going to take a quick break. But when we come back, we’ll talk about some of the other stories that we’ve been following this month Stay with us.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: [00:08:46] And welcome back to the Bay September News Roundup where we talk about some of the other stories that we’ve been following this month. Our special guest, Guy, we’re gonna turn to you. I know you got a story on the biggest economic driver in Benicia closing down for good.
Guy Marzorati: [00:09:03] Yes. So this is, you know, we’ve been following the saga I know you have on the Bay about the closure announcement from the Valero refinery in Benicia. And there’s a reporting in the San Francisco Chronicle by Julie Johnson that this refinery in Benisia is on track to close. There has been a lot of effort since Valero made this announcement to like keep the refinery open. Because when you combine that refinery closing with another refinery and LA closing, there could be like 20% of the state’s fuel refining capacity just gone overnight. So there’s been a lot of efforts to counteract that. There were some bills signed by the governor earlier this month to increase oil drilling in the state. But then we have this reporting in the San Francisco Chronicle where the city manager of Benicia said, quote, it seems there is now no path that remains for Valero to remain.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: [00:09:55] I mean, why is that guy after all that effort, after all this hubbub around trying to keep this thing open, the worries about the impact on Benicia, why couldn’t they make it happen?
Guy Marzorati: [00:10:07] I think this is something very immediate, right? This is a company that decided dollars and cents is not working for us. We’re gonna close our doors. I’ve heard about there have been some efforts to literally do like a bailout package, like literally have the state just give money to Valero to keep their refinery open because we are talking about jobs, talking about impact to the local city economy. That never came to fruition. And I think in absence of that, Valero made the decision, look, this still just doesn’t work for us and we’re gonna, you know. Close up our doors.
Jessica Kariisa: [00:10:38] I mean, with two refineries in the state closing, does that mean that our gas is gonna get more expensive?
Guy Marzorati: [00:10:45] I think that’s the big fear, right? To counteract that, I think there is more and more conversation about bringing in fuel from elsewhere, right. Like, you know, California, it’s often described as like islands for fuel production because we have these really strict standards. We can’t necessarily import from other states. And so as you see the decline in actual like oil being drilled in California, it has to come from somewhere because even as there’s less demand for fuel in the state, people are still driving, right. California is still a state where people drive a lot. So I think the conversation might turn to like, can we import more of this? The thing that I’m really curious about is the impact on like the local city economies.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: [00:11:26] Mm.
Guy Marzorati: [00:11:27] Because I think it’s often like, okay, well, what about the people that are gonna work at the refineries, you know, what’s gonna happen to their jobs? I read this interview with the head of the refinery in LA and he’s like, oh, basically everyone from this refinery can find a job pretty easily. Like they’re getting new employment. But this Chronicle story says that Benicia will lose more than $10 million in taxes out of a $60 million budget when Valero closes.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: [00:11:53] Yeah, I was gonna ask about that guy because I know that Valera was a major economic engine in the city of Benicia. I mean, what has the reaction from the local community been?
Guy Marzorati: [00:12:06] Yeah, I mean, it really seems like a scramble right now. Like there’s work being done to try to figure out, okay, how to, you know, prop up local businesses. But one city council member who’s quoted in this story said, we have a lot of businesses in Venetia where Valero is their only client. They might make a specific piece or part or some complicated refining equipment that’s really only built to serve Valero. So what is that business supposed to do right now? And when you talk about like the budget impact, yeah, you lose that much money overnight. Like how are you gonna pay the police, the fire, the like, you know, clean up people’s streets, fix the roads, all of that I think suddenly becomes like a really urgent question for the city.
Jessica Kariisa: [00:12:49] I’m curious too though, like at a statewide level, knowing that we’re a state that wants to move away from fossil fuels, how does the closing of this refinery like square with that? Like, does that get us closer to the goal in a weird way?
Guy Marzorati: [00:13:06] Yeah, I think it’s like, it’s a really delicate dance that the state is doing because they are pushing away from petroleum and they’re pushing towards like clean energy. At the same time, we still have a demand for those products and we still have, you know, people who are driving up to the pump every day and looking at the price and that’s affecting, you who they might vote for. So I think that when people say like, California is in mid-transition, like we are literally. In the middle of this transition and nowhere else is experiencing it like we are. Like people talk about, oh, climate change is coming, like we’re living it with wildfires and everything. We’re also living like what it means to transition away from fossil fuels. And it’s, you know, it’s kind of crazy being like living in the middle an experiment.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: [00:13:53] Crazy way to think about it, guy. But it’s true and I guess it means that like whatever happens in Benicia over the next few months and years is gonna be something to like really watch closely.
Guy Marzorati: [00:14:06] And I feel like there’s gonna be thousands of Benicas across the country in the next like few decades. So yeah, what happens here is important.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: [00:14:14] Well, guy, thank you so much for bringing that story.
Guy Marzorati: [00:14:16] Yeah, absolutely.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: [00:14:22] And last but not least, producer Jessica Kariisa, you brought a story about Waymo coming to an airport near you real soon.
Jessica Kariisa: [00:14:31] Yes, living in San Jose, I don’t see a lot of Waymos, but I’m about to see Waymo. I thought about that on the train and I delivered. Yes. I wasn’t ready. Anyways, yes, Waymos are coming to the airport. They were first approved at San Jose’s airport, my airport of choice earlier this month. And then soon after SFO followed up. And so there isn’t an exact date, but. Waymos will be coming to the airports in the Bay Area.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: [00:15:04] Why exactly. Is this happening?
[00:15:08] Well, I mean, yeah. Like around KQED, we’re in the mission. We see Waymos all the time. We know that it’s a thing here. It’s become like a tourist attraction. And I think with a lot of big events coming to the Bay Area next year, namely the Super Bowl and the World Cup, San Jose and San Francisco want to capitalize on like another tourist experience for people coming into the city. And also Waymo was always gonna roll out across the Bay Area. Its plan is to expand in general. And so I think, you know, this is one step as they get closer to more penetration in other parts of the Bay area.
Guy Marzorati: [00:15:46] I remember when Uber and Lyft, like when they were first trying to go to SFO and go to airports, it was like a huge deal. And it was a big fight with all the taxi drivers, a lot of the unions. Is there any opposition now this time around to these companies trying to create a foothold at the airports?
Jessica Kariisa: [00:16:03] According to the reporting that I’ve seen in the Standard and the Chronicle, I haven’t heard of any opposition. There’s already rideshare options at the airport. This will just be an addition to that. And Waymo released a report back in March saying that there were over 13,000 searches for SFO in their app. And also there were 700 people that downloaded the app while at the airports. So, you know, it almost just kind of feels inevitable. I think we had the big sort of push and opposition when rideshare first emerged. But with Waymo, it’s just another option, you now. So just pick which one you prefer.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: [00:16:44] Yeah, I remember that guy. Like it doesn’t feel that long ago when we were talking about like taxi medallions and people feeling really upset about, you know, paying a ton of money to have those and be able to drive folks from the airport. And now we’re talking about driverless cars at the airport, what is the timeline here, Jessica? Like how soon, I guess, are people gonna see Waymo’s at the airports?
Jessica Kariisa: [00:17:13] Yeah, so we just know that it’s gonna be this year. At San Jose, they did testing last summer. At SFO, they’re gonna start off with a testing phase where there’ll be a human in the car, a safety driver is what they call it. And then after that, they are gonna open up the rides to Waymo employees and airport staff. And then, after that it’ll open up to everybody else. We don’t have an exact date yet, but that’s the process.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: [00:17:42] Well, Jessica, thank you so much for bringing that story. Thank you so. And that is it for our September news roundup. Thank you so much to producer Jessica Kariisa for joining me.
Jessica Kariisa: [00:17:55] Thank you, Ericka.
Jessica Kariisa: [00:17:57] And Guy Marzorati, politics and government correspondent for KQED.
