tonight on news room, the battle over the next supre courtustice and here in the bay area, the mayor of a adividd cit the scramble to reunite separated family as u.s. immigration authorities face another deadline. plus as alta bates plans to close its ber ley emergency room, how some residents in richmond are reacting. welcome to kqed news room w begin with politics thi morning justice department issued d eemts for 12 officers for offenses related to the meddling in the 2016 election. it comes a few days before president donald trump is scheduled to meet with russian president vladimir putin this earlier this week the president

nominated brett kavanaugh who has a conservative record and has expressedtrong supportor presidential immunity. his confirmation would push the court to the right and a showdown is under way. and here in the bay area, london brie made history when she was sworn in a mayor wednesday, the first african-american woman to hold the post. during her speech, she had a message for the trump administration. >> we are going to the president wet here in san francisc don't put children in cages. we put them in the classroom. joining me to discuss the week's legal and political developmen are, nyu school of law professor melissa murray. kqed politics and government senior editor, scott schaefferd olitical consultant, shawn walsh. let's start with the big news, ie justice departmentued 12 indictments against russian intelligence officers for offenses related to the hacking

of the democratic national committee, the targets during the 2016 election. shawn, what are the legal consequences of this? because it's not like russia is going to extradite these guys. ot>> new york city there's much they can do. i was looking at thepresident' statement he put out. it was all defenses, we didn't do anything wrong. it doesn't look like any americans knew what was going on a i think heost a real opportunity to hammer putin and hammer the russians before he goes to meet with them saying 's utrageous, you're try og to interfere in oural electo process. from a legal perspective there's not much i think that the u.s. government can do to access people in russia. >> i guess to the other question, what are the political optics? you said lost opportunity are there other political consequences here as well? >> this will loom large in the coming nominations hearings for bre kavanaugh. one of the issues t on tle are his views on executive power if it looks like there's been

some kind of collusion between the trump administratio the trump campaign and the russians, the idea that a potential iepreme court justice would take a broad of executive power and excuse the president from answering to those charges would be a fairme for democrats. >> i think republicans are test practice the to change the subject off of other things and the hearingay yesteith the fbi agent. former fbi agent. >>te strzok. >> indicates that they really want to take attention off the other things like some of the family separation issues, down at ther and there's, democrats are eager to keep on this issue. 'm not sure voters, i think it's a little fatigue among ters, even among democrats. the number of democrats who think it's time to wrap this up is going u partly because of the success i think that republicans are havingn convincing the public that this is gone on too long. i think the indictments today remind everybody that there may be some fire with all the smoke.

>> it's something that democrats are seizing upons we talk about the battle for the confirmation hearings, right? for brett kavanaugh and you are referring to the lawjournal articles that he's written in the past, suggesting that a itten president should not be indicted. suggesting that the president should not be distraced by iminal proceedings, so shawn, is this issue subpoenaing a sitting president, going to reach the supreme court and kavanaugh is in place and confirmed how could it play out? ? the audacity of a politic hack, talking to leg expert, i'm audacious, i believe fundamentally that saiding president cannot be indicted. i think talked about a decision re that theone junct sitting vice president could. there's a process in place to go ter a president and remove a president from office and that's the impeachment process. impeach in the house, convicted in the senate. once the president is out of office, if there are criminal

charges to be filed. those criminal cha can be filed. i think mr. kavanaugh will be consistent with that view, think with an executive power perspective, he has a long history going back to jefferson and others where president sitting in office can't for political purposes, or even fors criminal pus, be indicted. >> i think all of that may be fair negame. f the things that will come up that the democrats will make hay onhis is the idea that any president, particularly this president could be above the law. and if theres someone on the supreme court who is providing crucial vote for excusing the dent while he is president, i think that's going to raise some issues both for the public and for the democrats who have to vote for this. and again, this iso goinge a tight nomination, every vote is going to count. getting to 50 or 51 will be a huge haul. these questions are going to loom large. >> i think democrats want to run out the clock aet try to

this as close as they can to the election. i think it will be tough given they don't have control of the senate this is an issue that motivates the base, women, suburban women ihink, which is going to be key to democrats winning back the house. but you know in the end, i think he's going to be confirmed. if he's not there will be another conservative nominee who ngmes forward. democrats are ho they might get control of the senate which is a long shot. >> let lee me do a babe ruth analogy. he's going to be confirmedof he six major candidates, he's the most appealing to the broadest base of republicans and i would argue the democrats. he's the most reasonable, probably the most moderate. the swampiest of the candidatesb ause he's a washington insider. i don't think there's any way that the democrats are going to be able unwind mr. kavanaugh unless there's something i his background we haven't seen yet. other than america favorite

past-time, which is consumer debt and baseball tickets. they should save their powder for ruth bader ginsberg. >> they're doing a hail mary as well suggesting that. cavanaugh, if he's confirmed, he should recuse himself from any cases coming up that involve mr. trump. resident trump, what are the chances of that? because there's, doesn't that re usually req some kind of obvious conflict of interest? >> yeah. >> i think it's very lyunli this came up a lot with justice scalia. when he was on the ulwer. sh he recuse himself. it's come up in terms of jusce omas and his wife who is an operative with a conservative think tank in washington. it never goes anywhere but it's a lot of political theater. >> it's strictly up to them to dece whether to recuse themselves. >> scott, we know that on the republican side, we have sue colins of maine and lisa murkowsky, they're perceived as key swing votes. what about democrats, whatsuind of pr is there or democrats running for

re-election in statthat president trump won in 2016. >> joe manchin, jim donnelly ina ina. heidi heitkamp, these are all states that trump woy' t going to have to decide if they've got the votes to confirm him. can i be the 51st, 52nd, 53rd vote. why should i take all the for voting against him, then you lose it both ways. so it's toug for the democrats, because they don't want to bydisspirit their base having one of their own vote for somebody who they fear is going to roll back roe v. wade. >> i want to touch on a bay area election. ith the elections over, london breed was sworp in as mayor this week. made history, first african-american woman toold t post? inn san francisco. >> homelessness is the number one issue on voters' minds, she's going to have to show progress in terms of cleaning up encampments on the streets and

she's got to you never know what's going to happen in terms of a crisis, sh's got a show that she's in control. she's got good people around her. if she does, think she probably won't have a serious challenge next year. >> she's got to hope it's aat rely smooth 18 months. she's up for the task. she's very inspiring. i went to herin swein this week. a lot of excitement and goodwill. even among people who didn't gte for her. she the want tove her a chance and they want her to succeed. >> shawn i know you have a n perspective this, on san francisco, the direction it's headed in. what's your o perspective london breed? >> well the best of times, the woyost of times. just had a report that came out that says that san francisco, the bay area economy will be the 19th largest economy in the entire world. it has an $11 billion budget. it is gleaming. and tech thgs are booming.

yet you've got 16-pound bags of fecal matt on the reets, you see people walking a line of heroin addicts sooting up. getting off the b.a.r.t. station. you've got medical conferences that are canceling in sa francisco. this image is projected not just around the country, but around the world. so you know, if she takes some decisive action with regards to not just homeless issues, but drug addiction, mental illness, quality of life issues, i thin she can make a dramatic impact fairly quickly. the question is some of the real liberal activists in the city willing to let her do or not have very talented liberal lawyers stop her? >> is think this her biggest problem. the attack from the left that she's inevitably going to get. her challenge like jam kim and mark leno are right there. >> the majority on the board of supervisors she's going to be battling them as well, anything she wants to get done. >> thank you all. scott schaeffer, nyu l school professor melissa marie and shawn walsh.

political consuhaant. you. >> thank you. now to immigration. this week thet federal governm has been working to reunite children separated from their families at the border under a zero tolerance policy. officis had faced a court ordered deadline it reunite children under five with their parents. the trump administration said there are about100 separated children under five and roughly half of them could not be reunited for various reasons. meanwhile, a bigger deadline isn looming o july 26th. to reunite the nearly 2,000 other children who were recently separated from their parents at e border. >> joining us to sort throu this, are the host of kqed's california report. john sepulveda, leaning "times" ana.rder cindy from sant and attorney talia inlander who represents mothers seekingy m in the u.s. who joins us via skype fromleos an happy to have all three of you on. thank you. john, let's begin with you, give

us a status update at of this moment what is the trump administration saying about why me of these families with very young children can't be reunited? >> well, they're essentially saying a couple of things. the firs that some of these parents have committed crimes. in fact one man from guatemala is wanted for murder. anoth man is supposedly allegedly had a d.u.i. case that's been verified. there's a lot of other reasons besides shese ten or parents who have had committed crimes. another reason is that 12 of these parents have been deported. that means that their children are in this country, but they are in their country of origin. and there's no clear reunification pathway for those people. one man has a communicable people, and two other it's been determine reasonable doubt not actually the parents, the grandparents. so the trump administration sys it'sard it make reunification happen with these particular cases, because tey don't meet the judge's definition of the parents that are needed for reunification to happen.

>> so the aclu filed a lawsuit that led to these various deadline force reunification. john, fewer than half of the really young children are back with their parents. what's the outlook then f older grade school children and teenagers to be reunitedby the second july 26 deadline down the road? >> well the government actually said in hearingsth headed into weekend that they have a plan which is the first time that they've said that they have some type of organization for these 2900 other children. who need to be reunified. at least 2900. theedlan is still n to be evaluated. the aclu is going to look it and they've been quick to note that the government has said they've had plans before, only to have some unfornately spectacular fails in these reunifications. there's a lot that remains to be seen about whathe government's plan is. but it is notable that for the first time the government has presented some type of evidence to a plan to this judge. >> talia, you represent three mothers from central america, who are separated from their

daughters. why did they cross the border? and wh is their situation now? >> they crossed for similar but slightly different reasons. two of them e fleeing severe domestic violence at the hands of their partners. one of whome was aer of the military in the home country. the other lost h hersband to gang violence and the gang was then going ter their n. but all of them claiming severe violence in the home country. and when they crossed the border here instead of finding safety. they were separated from their children, torn apart from them and sent states ay. so one of the mothers is detained here in california, and twoup until yesterday in the afternoon when we secured their release were detained up in shington state while the children have two of the daughters in texas and the third in the state of arizona, they're being kept very far if one another. >> you've filed a federal lawsuit on their behalf. what are you claiming in that ctit? >> that's cor we filed a federal lawsuit on

their behalf, we filed late last night. seeking trauma informed care for these parents and family, care for the children as well. >> what does that mean. what is trauma-informed care? reunification is the first step to get these folks out of custody and into a fe environment. given the trauma that they have suffered and our clientsve suffered severe trauma in their home country. also suffered trauma anew the hands of our government. who tore them away from their children. and we believe that because the government acted in that way and inflicted that harm on these individuals that they have a right for theovnment to help remedy that harm. >> cindy, you've been speaking with families t theu.s./mexico boarder in tijuana, has the president's zero tpoerance cy and family separation slowed the flow of people trying to cross the border seeki asylum? >> i think it's too early to

tell. >> i canell you what i've seen on the ground and the people that i've spoken with. ave actually told me that reallyt going to stop them. they're very pragmatic about it. ipoke with aoman who was going to give herself up, san ysidro port of entry for asylum. she was weaning her 6-month-old daughter from her breast, stop i breastf her in case she were to be separated. she says i can't go bk to my home country. because my abuser is there. and he might kill me. >> so those kinds of stories, also another woman who i spoke with who is escaping gang violence. they think she says, i'm going to give myself up at the port of entry because even if itng mean b separated if my child, because if i go back i might be killed and that's paration

forever. so it's a -- the people i've spoken with have told me that this is not going to stop hem. >> it's not a deterrent. do you think that -- the opposite effect, meaning there's a mad rush since some people may feel this is perhaps their last chance to cross the border as e trump administration keeps rolling back various avenues of immigrationli ? >> yes. indeed. there are pele who are, they're very desperate. they see that there's a methodical closing ofca ame doors. asylum laws are being tightened. there are tolerance policy. all aroundthem. they almost see it as okay i really need to act now.i i'm ever going to get to safety. >> john, as grants are coming into the system, children and parents are in detention all over the country. how is themigration system handling all this. >> the first thing is that migrants aren't coming into the

country. we're hearing aboutsylum seekers, mothers trying to flee horrible situations, i've seen wi my own eyes customs and border patrol officers turn these mothers away. which is their legal rig to seek asylum. the second thing is that when they do, are essentially coming into the port of entry, they're often th fatened withily separations still to this day. my colleague dkquine alex hall confirmed this with a woman had was seeking asylum, threatened with family separation. the final thing is that we have confihat there are still family separation cases happening, albeit much fewer numbers than it was a few weeks ago. just from that vantage point it's not working ver well critics would say. the second thing ise whenle do enter the process of the system they're faced with quick court hearings, they're fac with not enough sleep. they complain about the conditions. so there's a concern that theseg people are be coerced to essentially plead guilty to crimes they didn't commit,in

luding the misdemeanor of crossing the country illegally. that's what defense attorneys tell me in court here i san diego. is the aclu taking any additional steps in that aregar? ing the government to do anything to change that? >> the aclu wants to hold t government accountable. that's the thing they keep pushing forhe in court hearings. the aclu wants to have a hand in reunification. they've asked the government and the court to essentially be allowed to work hand in hand with i.c.e. to reunify some of these people who it's been very difficult for the government to find. people who were lo in the system because bad data was collected or because they were unaware that these were parents. sometimes children l the parents are. the aclu has said that they want to really take a bigger hand in using third parties andn governmental organizations. to reunify. >> this weekend officials with

i.c.e. questioned the whole notion of ,reunificati saying there's no obligation to bring deported people back to the u.s. to be reunited with their children. what's your reaction to that? >> the reason these folkere separated was because of the government's action and they do have a duty to reunify the parents.gi reunif them the services that they need to recover from the government-inflicted harm and then allow them to proceed with their immigrationcase, win or lose. >> thank you to all of you. john sepulveda, cindy kacku and talia inlander, we value your time. o we tu attention now to health care. in 2016 alta bates hospital announced it would close its emergency room i birerkeley and expand emergency services in oaklan it's generating dismay in many berkeyresidents. further away in richmond are also worried about being

negatively affected by the change. ve this report from uc berkeley journalism students. >> i don't see no chickem cnuggets in that ear. let me look in this ear. see if we have chicken mcnuggets. make sure there's nohicken mcnuggets. >> this doctor has patched up richmond residents for decades. >> my mission is and has always been to provide health care to this richmond community. listen to your heart, ma'am. there you got a good heart. >> it's gotten harder and harder for doctors like cars ton insurm rind residents get the care they need. carson f worked carson medical center nor 15 years. it served a community of 400,000 west contra costa residents until it shut in 2015. the day it closed, they moved across the street to a newly opened urgent care run by life lock.

sophia waldron who runs the front desk says they're working with fso less ces in a much smaller space. even though the community's a nee the same. >> you're theal only hospit nearby for people to get to. that cannot drive andhere are needs here for a hospital because we're w congested have longer waits. >> the closure of the hospital meantrichmond residents lost their one mor emergency room. besides kaiser richmond. which only has so much capacity. the nearest emergency rooms the community relies on are more than 10 miles away. life lock's staff say they do what they can to get people bac eir feet. but it isn't an emergency room. we're strugglin every day and if somebody comes in through our doors, with a gunshot wound or stab, we address it immediately. we call 911, we dohat we have to do to make sure that that

person gets the care they and are able to get to the place they need to get. >> one of those places is alta bates medical center in berkeley, a 20-minute drivewi hout traffic. but now that option is fading away. recently sutter health which owns alta bates announced it would close the emergency roombe in eley and move those service to itsoakland location. dr. brian pots who ru the ergency room in alta bates says this move is a necessary development. >> you got to build to develop this new campus. that's going to take nine to ten years. there is no short-term switch that's going to happen. >> alta bates spokes people say the expanded oakland er would only be two miles further away. but some st bay residents and dmunt leaders argue the closure shouldn't happen at all. >> to say that we will not let our community become a hospital desert. >> alta bates were toclose you're not going to have any emergency rm to go to. this isue an ishat's beyond berkeley that affects the entire

east bay. >> without alta bates, this rich bed resident isn't sure she or her baby would alive. after months battline a rar and dangerous pregnancy complication, milton gave birth to her child mariah, born three mhs prematur >> what is she thinking about? after mariah was born, milton drove 13 miles every day to visithi her c in the intensiveun care it at alta bates. >> all that traffic. going down 80, it was our only option at the time. we didn't havea choice, had to do it. >> every day mariah gets a little bit erstro but she still faces serious health risks. ould other fears what happen in an emergency. being so far away. >> there's nothing close by or local wherei can go get in right away. even if i call the ambulance. it probably won't make mu of a difference. >> like milton, residents in

west contra costa county feel they're being left behind. in the u.s. hospitals have been pull out of poor neighborhoods for cears. s the 1970s, the number of hospitals nationwide hasy cut nearly half mostly in poor urban neighborhoods. more than 80% of doctor's hospital patients were medi cal recipients. >> in west contra costa. the schools are [ bleep ] up. and the hospitals are [ bleep ] up. east of hathat, you nordstroms and health care ands gohools. where there's money, there's alth care. >> in the case of alta bates, the community fears it's a similar story. that the closure of the e.r. is about saving dollars. but dr. potts says it will benefit the community and physicians to have one big emergency room. >> we're looking t at largest emergency department in the east bay, serve about 100,000 people

a year. >> they argue having things centralized is bettor for patient care. if you live in san pablo or el cerrito or richmond. nd driving on the i-80 corridor and it's backed up. very second counts? >> for dr.carson, it's a reality he's already come face to face wit wh doctors hospital closed. >> a good friend of mine, his wife has a heart attack. i humbly, humbly believe that if we were open, she would have had a fighting chance. >>ime is muscle. your heart is a muscle. if you could open the blood vessels that go to the heart, quickly then you could save the heart tissue. if you can't save that heart tissue, you can't s the heart, the patient dies, my friend's wife had to go, she was dead before she got to alta bates. >> it's hard to say exactly how many lives have been cut short because doctor's hospital wasn't

there. but dr. carson says he sees the impact every day. >> i can go on forever with who got shot, who had a stoke, who dn't make it to the hospital. who didn't have transportation. to the other hospitals ound. we deserve to have a hospital. >> and that'sun the coy continues to grabble with changes to their hensth care opt alta bates has emphasized the move won't happen for another ten lyears. that w do it for us, as always can you find our coverage at kqed.org/news room. thank you for joining us.

captioning sponsored by wnet >> sreenivasan: on this edition fosunday, july 15: what do president trump and russian president vladamir putin want from the upcoming talks in helsinki? and in our signature segment, as demand grows for lg term care for the elderly, we take a look at adult foster homes. next on pbs newshour weekend. >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: bernard and irene schwartz. sue and edgar wachenheim iii. the cheryl and phip milstein family. dr. p. roy vagelos and diana t. vagelos. the j.p.b. foundation. rosalind p. walter. barbara hope zuckerberg. corporate funding is proviuad by mof america-- designing customized individual and group retirement products. that's why we're your retirement company.