Some weeks or longer than others. Lord have mercy. This week could not
get to Friday soon enough. I am so worn out by this week.
You know what, I want to hear the intro again. We're gonna do
it one more time. Let's start the whole show over. Oh that's so
much better. Hey, if I am sex forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio
app. It's Friday, y'all. It's Friday, and I hope your week
was not as long as mine. But we're gonna get the party started soon
enough. There are some things that we do have to talk about in and
around Los Angeles and Orange County, some of the issues which have covered the
whole week, the whole week from beginning to end. We have a third
metro bus driver attacked this week, a third one. We'll have all the
information on that. LA City Hall, excuse me, LA City Council says
we need ethics reform here. No, you need criminal reform. It's not
the ethics which you're getting in the way. It's the laws that you're breaking
allegedly which are getting in the way. If you only had a problem with
ethics, people wouldn't be going to jail. See you can find people for
ethics violations when they go to jail for months and years. That's a different
malady, as they say, that's a different illness. We'll talk about that.
And Sesame Street writers avoided a strike with the last minute agreement today,
I think within the past hour. But Disneyland parades and characters cast members,
they're filing for vote to unionize. Go ahead, Mark, No, I
feel like you just respond to like a video game character when you redid the
intro. Okay, we want to do it a third time. No,
no, no, we don't need to do it a third time. And
Foo's just stepped away anyway, Well he's back. We can do it a
third time. A third time. Let's sort a third time. Let's do
it one more time from the top, all right, and the five,
then the sixth, and the seven and eight, and we'll get to your
positions, all right. Tawalla leaves the studio again. Mark, you gotta
start what you do is all right? Here we go. He's Kim six
forty. We're lived everywhere on the Heart radio apps later with bo Kelly.
It's a fabulous friday here in Los Angeles and Orange County. Can't wait to
speak to all of you as we do that Nay, that movie called Classic
in the third hour of the show every single Friday. Hey, is that
better? Mark? No, kind of slimy? Actually, okay, let's
try it again. No, no again, help you? No, no,
no, no, We're gonna get it right. It's the Quiet Star
on kf I am six lovers all night long. We're live everywhere on the
iHeartRadio app. Yeah, show you right and now coming to the microphone is
the one and only Mark leave them hollering. Runner. I don't know what
you're doing, but it's it's leaving me a little confused and a little aroused,
and I want you to stop it. Stop it right now. That's
a you problem. Well it's gonna be everybody's problem. But there's a lot
of good stuff that we are going to talk about tonight. We're gonna have
some fun tonight. We have to make up for this very long and news
heavy week. But at the same time, there are a couple things we
do need to touch upon which are serious in nature. We talked about Tawalla,
you and I. We talked about USC. We said, actually ought
to give you the credit. You said, USC may have created a larger
problem by canceling only one speech as opposed to all the speeches or many of
the speeches, And the very next day you saw these protests about the one
speech which was canceled. Well, USC has now removed outside speakers and honorees
from the twenty twenty four commencement, which seems to say nobody is speaking.
Maybe the university president, we'll speak. That's the only way it should be.
They should have done that from the beginning. By singling out one speaker,
they created a bigger issue than need be. If they were trying to
avoid any appearance of undue treatment, they should have just said, you know
what, looking at the tensions in the country, looking at where we are
right now, and to ensure a safe and successful ceremony, we're going to
cancel all speakers. We would just have the president come out and speak on
behalf, maybe one paid speaker, you know, have Oprah come out or
something. No, they said no, I know, and they said no
outside, which is actually better. But I thought they would have just had
the president and one notable luminary come out and then just go on with it.
Would I wouldn't have even advocated for the one outside luminary the first I
will say, the first recommendation we had would have been the correct recommendation.
You cannot cut out one person and then not expect that to blow back on
you. If they would have said from the very beginning, no, there
are going to be no speakers, no speakers at all, so no one
can claim unfair treatment or you're singling someone out. Now you absolutely can say
you were singling her out and the campus students they responded accordingly, and it
made bad matters worse. Now you want to come back and say, and
yes, I'll give you credit for finally getting there, but you should have
gotten there the first time around, not the second or third time around.
This is what USC had to say. Quote. Given the highly publicized circumstances
surrounding our main stage commencement program, university leadership has decided it is best to
release our outside speakers and honorees from attending this year's ceremony. It is important
that our full attention be on our remarkable graduates should have done that from the
first time. Yep. We will be celebrating their accomplishments in a way that
reflects the unity. We love so much about our Trojan family clothes quote.
That should have been the first response, not the second, third, or
fourth response. It's okay if you wait a day or two and make sure
you get it right as opposed to rushing and getting it wrong. They got
it wrong, and now they're trying to clean it up. I don't know
if they'll be able to clean it up. I don't know if they'll be
able to avoid the protest regardless. I think the damage has been done.
I think the university's reputation has already taken a hit, and I don't know
if you will win the student body back. I don't know. Don't you
think Mo, that there's also a little streisand effect going on with this,
how so, in that they've only managed to draw more attention to themselves by
what they've done than if they just let it go on as it was going
to happen. Absolutely, and that is to t Walla's point. They've created
this publicity which is not focusing on the graduation itself. The university did that
all by itself. Nobody said you had to come out and say, you
know what, we don't want the valedictorian to speech to speak. No one
said that, No one said you had to make a decision. No one
had to say you had to single her out. But that's what they chose
to do, and invariably it caused a greater controversy. I wonder who was
in that room who said, you know what, it would be a really
good idea if we just pissed off half the campus. Not great pr I
don't get it. I don't get it. We should have been in that
meeting. Tuala should have clearly they were listening to the show, because since
they were listening to the show, they came around and did the right thing.
And I'm going to take full responsibility for it. Well, I can't
do that because it was twallest idea, but it has see the effort.
Okay, all right then, just don't give Ronn or any credit. Please,
No, it's Later with mo Kelly. We have to talk about the
third metro bus attack this week when we come back. KFIM six forty live
everywhere in the Icart radio app. You're listening to Later with Moe Kelly on
demand from KFI AM six forty. And there's some subjects after a certain point,
and if you're a parent, you know exactly what I mean when I
tell you this, after a while, you run out of words to say
to your child. You know, don't do this, don't do that.
If you do this, then that's gonna happen, and you find yourself repeating
yourself over and over again, and eventually you'll come to the point where you
don't have any new words to share. All you can do is just shake
your head like because you said all you can say, You've done all that
you can do, and yet the behavior does not change. This is how
I feel when I have to talk about all things Metro, and if you
listen to the response from Metro, it's always everything except the elephant in the
middle of the room. It's always everything except the actual problem. We'll talk
about someone getting stabbed, and Metro will talk about, well, unfortunately it's
drugs and mental health, that it's a scourged that it's rampaging across America.
Can we deal with actually what is happening right in front of us, No,
we don't. We're not pushing aside mental health, we're not pushing aside
drugs. But neither of that has anything to do with me or my family.
When we're on the Metro, it's almost like I'm paying extra money intentionally
as insurance. I pay like maybe one hundred dollars per week so I can
use that as insurance so I don't get stabbed. But that's actually the cost
of gas and maintenance for my car about one hundred dollars per week. It's
almost like one hundred dollars per week insurance policy that I do not die on
Metro. This is the third Metro attack on a bus this week. I
have run out of words to share, but we were talking about three separate
attacks here, all going down on Metro buses, all going down since just
last Saturday, the latest one happening early this morning, and it now has
the union that represents the Metro bus drivers out saying, enhing enough watch this.
Paramatics rush to the er as lapd rushes in code three. That is
an outbreak of violence has hit Metro buses three separate attacks, turning either the
bus driver or a passenger three in just the last week alone. It's horrible.
It's getting bad, like really really bad, because there's people like you
intead of getting punched, getting stabbed, that's just some of the crime riding
aboard Metro. The latest attack early Thursday morning in Santa Monica, a man
tries to get aboard a metro bus by kicking the closed door than assaulting the
driver inside. That follows a bloody weekend on metro buses. Early Saturday,
Silver Lake, an elderly passenger carried off the bus in a sheet after being
stabbed by another passenger. The attacker taken down and arrested a short distance away.
Then just hours later, another attack, this time in South LA and
this time the bus driver is the target, punched and stabbed several times by
passenger. No wonder. The union that represents metro bus drivers is now demanding
better safety measures, saying, quote, these disturbing incidences must stop. No
one should have to endure these traumatic encounters, whether as a passenger or one
of our members. This metro rider has seen all the violence up close.
This homeless dude gout on the bus and he just like the bus driver's like,
where's your fair like, and he just got angry and just a boot.
What was that boot? What does that mean? That's what you do
to a kiddies nose. That's not that's not a boop they're talking about.
I don't think something. And he just got angry and just boot. Is
it a boot? Is this like Canadian? It's like a boot. Terrence
and Philip are being interviewed. Maybe I heard it wrong and he just got
angry and just boot. I was like ooh, woot. I was like
ooh. I struggle to understand woot. I was like ooh. And the
crying wave on buses brings this reaction quote Metro. Okay, here's Metro's response.
Let's listen closely. Let's see if they can identify the root issue of
the problem. Is saddened to hear about this senseless act of violence against our
bus operator, which was apparently fueled by drug abuse and untreated mental illness.
There it is by drug abuse and untreated mental illness. Yes, until society
deals with untreated mental illness and drug abuse, there's no reason to think anyone
can be safe on a metro bus by drug abuse and untreated mental illness crises
that are plaguing our nation. That is the La County shaff Wait wait wait
wait, drugs and mental health issues are plaguing our nation, but not everyone
is getting stabbed and shot and killed on metro buses all around the nation.
We know that, right crises that are plaguing our nation. That is,
the La County Sheriff's Department is now out with his special bulletin wanted for attempted
murder the suspect from the Saturday attack on the metro bus driver. It says
he's armed with brass knuckles and the blade all used against that driver. So
what do we learn? What did we learn about? This? Week?
Three is a magic You're listening to later with Moe Kelly on Demand from KFI
Am six forty and Los Angeles City Council Committee has taken steps on ethics reform
at city Hall. Do we have a lack of ethics at City Hall?
Well? Maybe arguably, But that's like going back to the metro bus issue.
You're not correctly identifying the problem. And if you want to dance around
and play around the edges and not get to the heart of the matter,
then you won't actually solve the problem. Because when I look at the history
of LA City Council and City Hall, LA City government more generally, it's
not an ethics problem per se. Well it is, and it is it.
Let me put it this way, City Hall doesn't have an ethics problem.
From where I sit. It has a crime problem. It's not the
same. All crime includes ethical lapses, but not all ethical lapses lapses are
criminal. It's not fair to say. I mean, I hate to go
all geometry on people, but all squares are rom bi, not all ram
By or squares. Same thing here. Okay, So when the LA City
Council Committee says that they want to reform ethics, I'd have to say they
have it. That's the wrong answer. It's the wrong answer. You need
to deal with the crime, not ethics, because people are going to jail
not for ethics violations. They're going to jail for criminal offenses. Do we
need to just take a walk down memory lane? Current Price charged with embezzlement
and perjury. It doesn't say anything about ethics. I'm quite sure they're you
know, included in there somewhere. But that's not the real problem here.
Or you can say, Kevin deal leone, it's not necessarily criminal in nature.
But the racist leaked audio referring to children as monkeys and what have you.
That's not an ethical lapse. That's something different. Okay, hopefully he'll
do something criminal and he'll be put away. Oooh said that? Uh it
was Mark Ridley Thomas he ooh ooh, ooh ooh. He was convicted on
seven of nineteen counts, including conspiracy, bribery, on a service's mail fraud
and on a services wirefraud. It didn't say ethics when he reports to prison,
it won't be because of ethical lapses in judgment. You can't argue that
it's inclusive of that. But that's not really the issue. Remember the Mayor's
office allegations Eric Garcetti that mayor. A bodyguard for Mayor Eric Garcetti had sued
the city alleging that Mayor of Garcetti he was repeatedly that the bodyguard was repeatedly
sexually harassed by one of the mayor's top advisors. The lawsuit claimed that Garcetti
witnessed some of the inappropriate behavior, including crude comments and unwanted touching, but
did not intervene. I guess maybe that's a lack of ethics technically possibly,
But what about former city council member Mitch Iglander. He was sentenced to fourteen
months in prison back in twenty twenty one after being convicted of lying to federal
authorities about his dealings with a businessman who provided him with fifteen thousand dollars in
secret cash payments and a debauch night in Las Vegas. Gotta love that word.
De Bousch didn't say anything about ethics violations. Nowhere are we talking about
actual ethics violations in and of themselves. And you know there are at least
two officials with the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, one former high
level lawyer in the city Attorney Mike Fure's office, and an attorney hired by
the city were charged charged in a different federal probe in which prosecutors said DWP
officials and city attorneys took part in various say it with me crimes, including
aiding and abetting, extortion, and bribery. I can go on and on
and on. But when I read that an LA City Council committee yesterday moved
forward a series of proposed changes to the city charger Charter and tended to bolster
the independence of the Ethics Commission and enhance its enforcement powers, I had to
shake my head. It's not about empowering an ethics commission. It's about eradicating
the criminal behavior or stopping the individuals who would be more inclined to engage in
criminal behavior, because honestly, if it were only ethical lapses, I think
most people would be able to deal with that. There's a fine line and
a lot of what politicians and elected officials do it's a fine line, but
when it comes to criminal behavior, that's a very big line. You have
to try some distance to go from legal to illegal, and getting found guilty
and convicted on multiple counts of fraud and bribery aiding in a betting that's not
in the same universe. The ad Hoc Committee on City Governance Reform voted six
to zero in favor of these changes, which include listen to this, doubling
the penalties for violations of the city's Ethics Code, increasing the size of the
five member Ethics Commission to seven from six to seven. Big changes here,
with the additional members appointed by the Commission, bolsting its independence, and tightening
conflict of interest rules. Let me ask you this, Stefan, do you
think we honestly have a conflict of interest problem in La City Hall? Not
sure? I don't think so, though, Okay, maybe it was just
me, Yeah, okay, because I was thinking we had a criminal problem.
That's what it sounds like. Okay, I just wanted to check.
I just want to be sure, because this doesn't make any sense. Committee
members also amended the proposal to update fines for violating ethics laws from what is
currently five thousand dollars per fine to fifteen thousand dollars per fine. Okay,
so you triple the fine, But does that stop people from criming. I
know that's not a verb, but today it is. If you could get
people to stop criming, then you wouldn't necessarily need to triple the penalties because
I'm positive the people who were arrested and convicted were not concerned with a fine.
The fine was not the deterrent that you thought it was. But they're
going to up the fine from fifteen to fifteen thousand, as well as shortening
a deadline for making an appointment to fill a vacancy on the Ethics Commission from
one hundred and twenty days down to ninety days. Oh, that's a big
deal. Additionally, there had been a call to eliminate an existing tear year
term limit for the Executive Director of the Ethics Commission, but it failed to
pass. I don't know what to make of this. Well, this is
what I make of it. It's like new windshield wipers for a car that
doesn't even run, and you're doing it in the proverbial middle of summer.
You're not actually getting to the root of the matter. You're not actually getting
to the real issue. If we could stop sending people from city hall to
jail, or having them stop engaging in the behavior which leads to them being
indicted, arrested, convicted, then we might be getting somewhere. But ethics,
now that's not really it. No, no, no, that's almost
like saying Harvey Weinstein had an ethics problem, Bill Cosby had an ethics problem.
R Kelly. If he just was more ethical, we wouldn't be here.
Come on, y'all, come on, do better. It's Later with
mo Kelly k if I AM six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
You're listening to Later with Moe Kelly on demand from KFI AM six forty.
Sesame Workshop Writers have made a tentative agreement with management. The WGA announced today
maybe an hour ago, and they narrowly skirted what would have been one of
the first strikes spearheaded by these unionized Sesame Workshop writers had they not reached a
deal. And you know, after all of the labor strife that we've had
in the past year or so in the entertainment industry, be it the Writers
Guild or the SAG after or the directors the DGA, the last thing entertainment
industry wants on any level, even if it's on a smaller level like this,
is another labor stoppage. And this is something that I did not know
until this issue was covered in the news. Sesame Workshop is a nonprofit organization
that produces Sesame Street. Unionized writers at Sesame Workshop, represented by the Writers
Guild and Writers Guild of America West, write scripts on shows like Sesame Street,
Helpsters, The Not Too Late Show with Elmo. Quote. We are
so proud to work for an organization that values its writers, and we believe
this new contract will positively impact writers throughout the children's media landscape. And that's
what the WGA Sesame Workshop Negotiating Committee said in a statement not too long ago.
All right, and it goes on to say, Sesame Street truly is
for solidarity. S is for solidarity. We are glad to have a contract
in place that allows Sesame to do what it does best. Lead close quote
but this is the future of I would say entertainment and anyone who works in
and around entertainment full disclosure. Member of SAG after myself and Keana. I
want to bring you into this conversation now because there's a second portion to the
story where Disneyland parades and characters cast members have also now filed for vote to
unionize. The Actors Equity Association made the announcement back on Wednesday. The group
has filed cards signed by a majority of the seventeen hundred employees seeking to have
the National Labor Relations Board conducting an election. I bring you in and for
those who don't know you have a history working at Disneyland, Yes, let's
refresh everyone. What was your capacity maintenance? So I used to do coram
No, I didn't know. It's cool. Would it have been cool to
work on the tramp the monorailout? I know? How about what if it
was a Monorailuh? The monorail I think is part of the trains, like
the conductors and stuff. I think they those were had in hand. Okay.
I did quick service food and beverage at Paradise Peer when it was Paradise
Peer and then Pixar peer, and then I was an entertainment or not entertainment
sorry, I was a cast costuming operations cast member. And then I was
a attractions host at Toy Story Midway Mania. Wow. Yeah, a lot
of titles. Yeap. So they fired you like four times? No,
I left. The reason I'm bringing you in and why I'm asking you about
this. You probably know and have seen more than most when it comes to
parades and characters cast members connected to those. I just watched the parade.
I can marvel at the talent which is on display. I can surmise at
how much work goes on behind the scenes to coordinate and you know, just
try to choreograph those routines. But I have no idea what the work environment
is like. What would you say the work environment was like from what you
could see as far as the people who are working on and in the parades,
So the environment from my perspective as an attractions host. We also did
like crowd control gosh, I cannot remember the actual title of that position,
but we were able to do crowd control with the parades because you're like a
cooler a bouncer pretty much, you're like throwing people out on their necks,
not to that extreme, but I was definitely like, don't walk in front
of the horses when they're coming out, Like, don't. This isn't a
walkway, you need to go the other way. A lot of people.
Yeah, yeah, that's where I get my tough skin from. But from
where I was standing because I was never a part of that department. I
was never in an entertainer in the parades, but from the back end,
when you would go on breaks and stuff, they were always in their costumes.
They were always in like rushing to just eat and then get back into
positions. They would be working long hours a day because they won, they
had to get into costume. They would have a parade at a certain time,
their first parade, and then hours later they would have another parade.
Do you know how long a typical shift may have been for someone who was
a main character in one of the parades, not that I am aware,
we put it this way? Yeah, Would they do two or three on
a given day? Would they do five or six? Unfortunately, I would
not have an idea of what their hours would be. I had. I
didn't know any entertainment like cast members to that extent. I did work with
entertainment costumers, and they were always very busy running around trying to fix costumes,
trying to get to the next character that they were supposed to be in.
Sometimes they would get moved around at the last minute to be able to
cover for other people that would have called out. Let me ask you this
as a closing question. When you were working, there was there ever any
explicit conversation around you that you and your other coworkers have conversations about unionization or
is this something which is relatively new in nature. No, we were as
cast members. We were always talking about the unions and stuff that we were
in because as a Disney cast member outside of the entertainment and character performers,
we were already unionized. But there was always issues with pay. There was
always issues with scheduling. There was always issues with how they the management would
treat us as cast members, and so we were always trying to seek help
from the unions. And while they did help to a point, sometimes it
just wasn enough and so but it helped a lot in the grand scheme of
things, because scheduling was the biggest issue. Scheduling managers would call at all
times of the day trying to get us to work over time, and trying
to do things and trying to pull stuff that wasn't right, and so we
would always go to our union and ask for help, and they would help
us. And so I think it's a great thing. So this should not
be any surprise to anyone who is familiar with the Disney matrix. As far
as the employee matrix now, it was always in conversation, all right,
this is something we'll continue to follow. Thank you, Keima. It's later
with Mo Kelly. We're live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app. Free range,
non genetically modified, handcrafted, artisanal route and free stimulating Talk k SI and
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