KQED's Forum

On Sunday, an Ethiopian Airlines flight carrying 157 passengers, including eight Americans, crashed, killing everyone on board. The plan, being flown by a veteran pilot, was Boeing's new 737 Max 8, the same plane that crashed in Indonesia last October. China and Indonesia have already grounded all their 737 Max planes with other countries monitoring the situation.

Forum reviews, analyzes and answers your questions about the latest news from Washington, D.C.

As Director of Transportation for the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, Ed Reiskin is responsible for Muni trains and buses, parking policy, taxi regulation and bicycle and pedestrian safety. Reiskin joins Forum to take your questions and hear your concerns about transportation and parking in the city. What do you want to ask him?

Paul Manafort, President Trump's presidential campaign chairman was sentenced Thursday to less than 4 years in prison for financial fraud in a federal court in Virginia. The sentence is drawing wide ire for falling far short of the 19-25 year prison term recommended under sentencing guidelines.

A lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union last year continues to bear revelations on the practice of separating kids from their asylum-seeking parents at the U.S.-Mexico border. Despite District Judge Dana Sabraw's preliminary injunction last June to halt family separations, the practice continues. Meanwhile, Democrats took Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen to task when she testified before the House on Wednesday, questioning her on what they view as inhumane treatment of migrants. We'll bring you the latest on immigration inside the courts and at the border.

We'll talk with Scott Horsley, who has been a White House correspondent for the past decade, about the latest political news and his experiences covering the Trump administration.

Controversy has erupted over what some view as anti-semitic comments by Minnesota Representative Ilhan Omar. We'll discuss the controversy and the split among Democrats over a House resolution that would condemn anti-Semitism.

Cal Fire released a list of recommendations to help prevent wildfires Wednesday. The report, issued after a January executive order from Gov. Gavin Newsom, prioritizes fuel reduction projects like removing dead trees. This approach upset some ecologists and researchers who say the kind of forest clearing Cal Fire proposes could make future fires burn more intensely. We’ll discuss the Cal Fire report, and what the agency’s critics propose.

Just six days after Rushan Abbas spoke on a panel that criticized China’s treatment of the ethnic minority Uighurs, her aunt and sister disappeared. Abbas’ family assumed they were sent to the “re-education camps," or internment centers where the Chinese government holds around one million Uighurs in the country’s far western Xinjiang region. Abbas is an American citizen and activist who has campaigned extensively for the rights of Uighurs in China, who are reportedly subject to religious discrimination, invasive surveillance, torture and brainwashing. Forum hears Abbas’ story and considers the plight of China’s Uighur population.

Social services counselor Peter Planteen is most often driving around Bolinas, Pt. Reyes Station and other Marin communities, checking up on the area's homeless and mentally ill populations. Planteen relates to his clients, having had his own decades-long struggle with alcoholism and bipolar disorder. As part of Forum's First Person series profiling unique people in the Bay Area, we talk with Planteen about his work.

Professor Irshad Manji thinks the American left needs to examine its own intolerance. A vocal and controversial advocate of reform within Islam, Manji warns in her book "Don't Label Me" that progressives' emphasis on categories like race, gender and sexuality undermine their own credibility. Manji joins us in the studio to speak about her new book and how to avoid the pitfalls of tribalism when pursuing diversity.

Following a stem cell transplant, an HIV positive British patient’s HIV has now become undetectable.  The case — reported in the journal Nature — was the second time a patient has become HIV-free after therapy involving stem cells.  We discuss the case with Jeff Sheehy, a board member for the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine.  He was also the first openly HIV positive San Francisco Supervisor.

A large new Danish study confirms that the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine does not cause autism. The study, published Monday in Annals of Internal Medicine, looked at more than 650,000 children, some who were vaccinated with the MMR vaccine, and some who were not. It concluded that the vaccine did not increase a child's risk of developing autism or trigger autism in susceptible kids. Meanwhile, the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions is holding a hearing Tuesday on the rise in outbreaks of measles and other preventable diseases. We'll discuss the report and how lawmakers and California officials are addressing the issue.

As the voice of the San Jose Sharks, Dan Rusanowsky has seen the team's ups, downs and everything in between. His book, "If These Walls Could Talk," gives us an insider's look at Sharks' history, from the team's inception in 1991 to its trip to the Stanley Cup Final in 2016 to the present day. Tell us: What's your favorite moment in Sharks' history?

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra sued the Trump Administration Monday in hopes to block new rules that ban clinics that receive federal family planning money from offering abortions or referring women to abortion services. Twenty other states say they will also file suit over the change to Title X, the federally funded program for family planning. Forum discusses the suit and the broader legal fights over reproductive rights.