Capital Public Radio: Politifact California Podcast

By Manola Secaira David Soohoo is, first and foremost, a chef. Over the course of decades, he’s owned and run a variety of Sacramento restaurants, like Bamboo and Ming Palace. One lesson he’s learned: It takes more than skillful cooking to succeed. His work also requires a knack for adaptation.  “Life is a challenge,” he said. “And the thing about being a chef is it has never been easy, so I welcome that challenge.”  He learned that first from his dad, a Cantonese master chef who opened Sacramento’s original Tea Cup Cafe in the early 1950s. At the restaurant, they had gas stovetops that burned hot enough to make food in a wok, which traditionally requires flame. But at home, their stove was much less powerful.  So, they got creative. Soohoo said his dad took their cracked, gas-powered water heater, drained it and sawed it in half. Then, he used its burner as a stovetop.  “That burner actually was incredibly hot,” said Soohoo. “You put your wok in there and you can do everything a restaurant can do. That's the

By Randol White The overwhelming evidence, as reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, shows the COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective, both for adults and children 12 and up. Also, the FDA is expected to authorize a COVID-19 vaccine for younger children in the coming weeks. But false claims are circulating on social media saying the COVID-19 vaccines are harmful to children and caused the death of a Sonoma County teenager.   CapRadio’s PolitiFact California reporter Chris Nichols fact-checked those claims in this week's Can You Handle the Truth segment. He spoke with anchor Randol White. Interview Highlights There are false claims spreading on social media saying the vaccines are harmful. You found one high-profile example. Tell us about that.  A story went viral on Twitter and Facebook after the tragic death of a 15-year-old boy in Sonoma County this summer.  He had received the second dose of his vaccine within 48 hours of his death, and some anti-vaccination groups used that informat

By Sasha Hupka If Your Time Is Short: In recent weeks, several California school districts have announced that students over the age of 12 will be required to receive the COVID-19 vaccine to attend school in person. Some districts, such as the Los Angeles Unified School District, will only accept medical exemptions to the shot, while others, like the Oakland Unified School District, will also offer personal belief exemptions. California for decades has required schoolchildren receive vaccines for a range of diseases from measles to mumps to chickenpox, but experts say it’s unclear whether districts can individually mandate vaccines under current state law.  California law allows the state Legislature and the department of public health to set vaccination requirements for schoolchildren but does not include a process for local school boards. Legal scholars expect that the mandates will be challenged in court. When the Culver City Unified School District announced in August it would require all eli

By Chris Nichols Updated at 10:54 a.m. on September 24, 2021 Reports about vaccinated Americans catching COVID-19 are energizing vaccine skeptics and leading to more misinformation about efficacy and breakthrough cases. CapRadio’s PolitiFact California Reporter Chris Nichols examined the facts about breakthrough infections in this week’s Can You Handle The Truth. Nichols sat down and spoke with CapRadio’s afternoon anchor Randol White and broke everything down. This interview has been edited for clarity and length. Interview Highlights On how rare breakthrough COVID-19 cases are feeding into misinformation One example is a popular and misleading post on Instagram. It wrongly claimed that the vaccines are “the first in history to not prevent people from catching or spreading a virus” and that they only last a few months. PolitiFact found that is completely false. No vaccine is 100% effective. That’s the case for the flu vaccine and also the case for the COVID-19 vaccines. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control

By Steven Rascón False information about COVID-19 vaccines continues to spread on social media, and comes as cases are on the rise across the United States. CapRadio’s PolitiFact California reporter Chris Nichols and contributor Steven Rascon fact-checked several claims in this week’s Can You Handle The Truth segment.  They spoke with CapRadio anchor Randol White. This interview has been edited for clarity and length. Interview Highlights On a false Instagram post that makes a questionable claim about vaccines and miscarriages Chris Nichols: This post cherry-picks and manipulates some data from a scientific study to make a false and alarming claim. It says there’s a high miscarriage rate, more than 80%, for women who got an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine early in their pregnancies.  The Instagram post arrives at this flawed conclusion based on a small sample of completed pregnancies known by researchers. But in reality, the majority of study participants are either still pregnant, or have not yet had follow-ups with t

By Chris NicholsMisinformation played a crucial role in the January 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, which took place six months ago this week. CapRadio’s PolitiFact California reporter Chris Nichols breaks down the extent to which false claims influenced those who took part in the riot. This interview has been edited for clarity and length. Interview Highlights On what PolitiFact journalists in Washington, D.C. uncovered about the insurrection In a recent investigation, PolitiFact reviewed court filings for 430 defendants arrested on charges tied to the riot. These defendants range from current and former law enforcement officials to a Washington, D.C. music teacher to conspiracy theorists here in California. PolitiFact found many of them saw their actions as patriotic, but they also found they were driven by the lie that the election was stolen and motivated by other misinformation. On how the lie that the 2020 presidential election was fraudulent fueled the insurrection [The lie] was really exploited. T

By Sasha Hupka If your time is short: The California Independent System Operator, which oversees the operations of the state’s power grid, issued a Flex Alert last week amid the first heat wave of the summer. The alert asked Californians to conserve electricity when possible. It included several tips, including a suggestion to avoid charging electric cars during peak power usage hours. Most electric car drivers top off their battery regularly rather than charging it from empty to full. Therefore, many cars are equipped with charging timers and only require a few hours of charging each day, so Californians can easily avoid charging vehicles during peak hours. Experts say California’s power grid can comfortably support up to 5 million electric cars on the road. Currently, there are roughly 635,000 electric vehicles registered in the state, according to the California Energy Commission. As Californians grapple with the increasing impacts of climate change, few things have come to be dreaded more than summer

By Sasha HupkaA TV ad supporting Gov. Gavin Newsom in the recall election claims the governor is “getting 65,000 homeless Californians into housing.” CapRadio’s PolitiFact California reporter Chris Nichols fact-checked that claim in this week’s Can You Handle The Truth segment. Meanwhile, PolitiFact California contributor Sasha Hupka fact-checked a claim about Newsom’s power to extend the COVID-19 state of emergency. Nichols and Hupka joined CapRadio’s afternoon anchor Randol White to discuss both claims. This interview has been edited for clarity and length. Interview Highlights On the ad supporting Newsom and if the numbers check out Chris Nichols: The ad was produced by Stop The Republican Recall of Governor Newsom Committee. This is a group formed by Democrats supporting Newsom. They’ve produced several TV ads that talk about how the governor is helping Californians. The ad focused on things like the state stimulus checks he approved, but then they also make a claim about homelessness that caught our a

By Chris Nichols Some emails that Dr. Anthony Fauci sent during the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic have been released, leading to a new round of misleading posts on social media. PolitiFact California Reporter Chris Nichols joins CapRadio Anchor Randol White on this week’s Can You Handle The Truth segment. This interview has been edited for clarity and length. Interview Highlights On how these emails came to light  Fauci, who is the longtime director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, wrote these emails in the winter and spring of last year. But they were not released through some unsanctioned or underhanded way. Instead, the federal government provided these emails to The Washington Post and BuzzFeed News after they filed Freedom of Information Act requests. That act gives the public the right to request access to records from any federal agency. The news outlets then published many of these emails in their news reports. On the false claim’s misrepresentation of Fauci’s e

By Chris Nichols Vice President and former California Senator Kamala Harris recently claimed one-third of all small businesses have closed during the pandemic. CapRadio’s PolitiFact California reporter Chris Nichols fact-checked that and other statements in this week’s Can You Handle The Truth segment. This interview has been edited for clarity and length. Interview Highlights On when Harris made this claim and if it’s correct She made it during a TV interview that aired this week on MSNBC, and she was talking about the toll the pandemic has taken on small businesses. “This is one of my areas of focus I care so deeply about, which is … let’s just be clear about where we are. Half of America’s workforce works for a small business or owns a small business,” Harris said. “Sadly, during the course of the pandemic, one-third of our small businesses have closed.” It really is a stark figure, and we found a couple of sources that do support her statement. A spokesperson for Harris pointed to a Harvard University p