Camp. I am six forty. You're listening to wake Up Call on demand
on the iHeart radio app. It's time for your morning wake up call.
Here's Jason Middleton. You'd morning everyone. Monday morning, July third. I
hope you have a great weekend, a little warm, played so many golfa.
I hope you guys got out. Maybe I don't know, so it
sounds like some experiences we're had. That's cool. Long holiday weekend. I'm
working. A lot of us here are working well. I couldn't get in.
That was fun. My ID card didn't work. And the first thing
I thought it was like, what was it? It was five after three.
I'm trying to get in, can't get in. Security guards nodded at
his desk right now he's doing rounds probably, And the first thing I thought
was, Wow, this doesn't work. Can I go home? I mean,
in the past, when I was a manager type and I've had to
let people go and whatnot. First thing he did was got rid of their
card. Privocal this stuff. I guess it was just muscle memory. Surely
they would have let me know over the weekend. It's got a couple of
headlines and then I'm going to run down the rest of the Today's show for
you. We have more than you would think on the day before a holiday.
Let's start with those headlines. Thousands of hotel workers have gone on strike
in southern California to demand better pay and other benefits. Members of Unite Here
Local eleven began striking yesterday at more than a dozen hotels through LA and Santa
Monica. They represent more than thirty thousand workers. Police in two states are
investigating weekend mass shootings. In Maryland, two people were killed and twenty eight
others wounded when multiple suspected gunmen opened fire at a block party south Baltimore.
Meanwhile, a shooting at a Witch Tall, Kansas nightclub left several people injured
early yesterday, and parts of the US are at risk for more severe weather
ahead of tomorrow's July fourth. The National Weather Surface issued hazardous weather alerts for
more than one hundred million Americans during the extended holiday weekend. More on that
board south in California soon. Let's start with some of the other stories coming
out of the KFI twenty four hour news room. More than two hundred and
thirty pounds of illegal fireworks have been seized in Long Beach. The bust Friday
night was the second of the week in the city. All fireworks are illegal
in Long Beach. Anyone cited or rested four fireworks violations could face jail time
and a one thousand dollars fine. The grandmother of a teenager fatally shot by
police in Paris, leading to days of violent protests across France, is pleading
for an end to the rioting. She spoke to French media on Sundays.
She is actually calling for calm and peace. She's asking these riders to stop
wrecking buses and schools. She says she can't bear it anymore. ABC's in
as Delicatea says. A private funeral was held over the weekend for the seventeen
year old killed by police. Israel launched air strikes on a refugee camp in
Janine. That's a city in the West Bank, killing at least six people
and injuring twenty seven others, according to Palestinian officials. Israel's army said it
was targeting terrorist infrastructure belonging to Janine Battalion That's a militia. Violence has flared
in the region in the past months. For sure, last month's six Palestinians
were killed during Israeli raid on the same camp. Hong Kong police have offered
bounties of one million dollars Hong Kong, that's one hundred and twenty eight k
here in California each for information leading to the return of eight pro democracy activists
who fled to Western countries. The eight are accused of various offenses under the
Territory Swinging National Security Law. They include Nathan Law who moved to Britain,
Dennis Quack, who is in America. It is the first time Hong Kong
has offered such a reward. Okay, first topic for today on wake Up
Call, It's going to be real estate, as in homes and home sales
now not usual. The Walkee numbers that I nerd out on is not going
to be that. This angle is realtors and realtor fees. You think about
like I said, online home sales disrupting the real estate market about twenty years
ago. Two recent class action lawsuits are going to really rattle real estate and
realtors. That's because realtor fees are on the line. We have an interview
that has to do with two class action lawsuits about the National Association of Realtors
and their practices of fees. Now we are up against the clock, so
I'm gonna get right into it with James Rodriguez from Business Insider. James,
thank you so much for your time, and thank you for writing this story.
I have been wanting to know more about the realtor fees and where it
all goes and the internesting dealings of residential real estates. So again, just
first of all, thank you for the story, and thanks for joining us.
Thank you for having me. All Right, I'll tell you what.
I'll let you give me the lead of the story, and let's talk about
the class action suits. So my story is really about these two multi billion
dollars class action lawsuits that have been simmering for a few years now, Sixer
versus the National Association of Realtors at All and Merle versus the National Association of
Realtors at All. And they basically accused the NAR and some of the country's
largest brokerages think Keller Williams Remax of conspiring to charge exorbitant agent commissions. And
now the Plantists, who represent a large group of home sellers, they say
that it's grossly unfair for the home seller to pay the commissions of both the
buyer's agent and a listing agent, which has has been a common practice for
decades. And the defendants, led by the NAR say that that's actually the
most efficient way and it's will complicated. So I'm happy to kind of explain
more from there. But that's basically the gist of it. And if the
plaintiffs went out here, I mean, they're asking for tens of billions of
dollars damages, but it could lead to an entire reshuffling of the real estate
industry as we know it now. I have a pretty smart audience, luckily,
so we can dig into it. Let's go into how this could change
things, because SOOP right now is not very satisfying to customers and those selling
and buying home and it seems like this might be peeling the cover off of
it and giving us some more transparency. If that happens, how does the
real estate market change. Home sellers have paid both agent commissions, usually totally
between five percent and six percent of the sale price here in the United States
for decades now, and this practice is a result of NAAR rules that say,
if you list your house on the Multiple Listing Service MLS, you need
to promise to pay the buyer's agent something. Now, the NR doesn't say
how much you need to offer the buyer's agents. It could actually be as
little as one dollar. But the planists argue that sellers who are the plants
in these lawsuits, class action sellers, you know, they have little choice
but to promise the customary two and a half to three percent if they want
their home to get traffic from from broker versus. The theory is, you
know, if you're if you're not offering a competitive percentage to the buyer agent,
they're just going to show their clients other homes where they can get a
satisfactory play. It's pay to play. It just seems like pay to play.
I'm sorry, I get this. It's righteous indignation. I think when
it comes to this again, we're back to the top. Why I thank
you for this is the National Association of Realtors who are being sued in class
action suits. I need to be clear, nothing's been proven just yet in
the court of law, but they are. They are being sued, and
their existing operating practices have already been disrupted once and that was the wave say
Redfin and Zillo. Is this them just trying to hold on to some of
their literal like an figurative real estate. Despite kind of the advent of the
of you know, internet home shopping and all of these technological advances that we've
experienced over the past couple of decades, you know, the commissions for agents
have been markably steady. You know, it is dropped a little bit,
you know, but still kind of between five percent and six percentage is customary.
And what the planeffs are seeking here is to click day couple buyer and
seller agent commissions. So have the buyer just pay their agent directly. And
the theory is if each party, if each party just pays for their own
agent directly, there will be more transparency and commissions, more incentives for clients
to negotiate with their brokers. You know, up until just a few years
ago, actually a buyer agent was allowed to tell their clients that their services
were free. You know. Of course that's not really true because the buyer
at the end of the day is the one who's fronting all the money via
their mortgage, and then they pay the seller who then cut the check to
their listing agent, who then splits that with the buyer's agent. Typically,
you know, the National Association of Realtors says that the coupling commissions would actually
be a disaster from low income and first time buyers specifically, since it would
force them to come up with additional money for an agent on their own instead
of effectively having that commission bundled into their mortgage. So then it kind of
gets down to a question of, you know, how how much do you
need an agent? Could you maybe pay an agent by the hour? Could
you know if a buyer sees that number in print, would they be more
incentivized to negotiate that down There could be a need for far fewer buyer aids
if the plane off student went out here. Let me reintroduce you real quick.
I ask you a couple of follow ups. For four, I have
to let you go. We're speaking with James Rodriguez. He's senior real estate
reporter at Business Insider dot com. You mentioned there in that last answer that
the NAAR says any kind of change right here is going to be bad for
lower income buyers, And I think it's a be careful what you wish for
a situation, because if I hear that, and I have any interest in
the lower end at real estate market for residences, I'm saying more policy needs
to come in, More regulation needs to come in, because if that's the
case, if the market can't protect those buyers, then that's what policy and
regulation is for. So not only are these class action suits against NAAR,
doesn't seem like they have a hell of an argument going on. Well,
you know, it's interesting because talk to Stephen Brobeck, who's a senior fellow
at the Consumer Federation of America, and he basically argued, if you know,
low income and first time buyers can't come up with the money for an
agent, but they still are in need of that professional guidance along the way,
that the industry would be very incentivized to come up with ways to get
around that, to to finance help them, you know, find financing or
continue a practice of having you know, in some cases maybe the seller just
chooses to pay the buyer's agent anyway, but you don't have kind of this
promise at the outset, and there can be kind of more negotiating along the
way, and they ask the consumers. Brobeck estimates that consumers could save between
twenty billion and thirty billion a year. If commissions drop in line with some
other countries where many people don't use a buyer agent, or if they do,
they typically negotiate lower commissions. You know, for agents, it could
be kind of a total upheaval of the current system and many could leave the
business altogether, or you have to deal with the lower commissions. Yeah,
I'm sorry, but that I'm not exactly going to cry or river given those
arguments, and I realize I might be soap boxing a little bit, and
that's not your job. That's my job because it's my show. But buying
and selling a home, especially first homes, is absolutely foundational to building wealth
in the United States, and having more barriers up against this and less transparency
and more fees around it makes zero sense if you want to have a class
of middle income earners who can actually have a quality of life and contribute back
to their local economies. Okay, end of soapbox. All right, all
right, mister Rodriguez, tell us which one of these cases is coming to
court first, and what we can maybe expect or at least give us a
little bit of a drive by, sure so Sitzer, which was the case
that was filed in Missouri. It's the smaller of the two cases. Only
I'm saying only here, but four billion dollars in potential damages that's going to
come to trial or schedule to come trial in October. The bigger case,
Merle is locally to come up for trial in the first half of twenty twenty
four. That case potential damages could reach more than forty billion. That's James
rod Regrez from Business Insider. I guess you fell off there. Thousands of
hotel workers in La and Orange Counties are on strike. Members of Unite Here
Local eleven officially walked off the job and onto the picket lines yesterday, one
day after their contract expired. The heat is sticking around in southern California,
and excessive heat warning in place for the Santa Clarita and Antelope Valleys and parts
of San Louis Obispo County have been extended through three sorry eight o'clock tonight.
Four members of the LAPD bomb Squad have been disciplined for their role in a
botched fireworks explosion a little more than two years ago. The type of discipline
not yet clear. A crew was trying to detonate illegal fireworks that had been
seized from a home in South La inside a blast containment vehicle, but they
overpacked it with too many fireworks and the truck was destroyed. Seventeen residents and
first responders were injured, and twenty two homes, thirteen businesses, and thirty
seven vehicles were damaged. Like I said, we're going to get business e
and there's plenty of business talk we can get into a little bit later,
but right now, let's start with the news feature from KFI as Chris Adler,
Long Beach is going to continue with its Big Bang on the Bay firework
show despite pollution and other concerns. It's thirty minutes of cracking and popping against
the night sky just above Alamitos Bay, and to some it's a celebration of
freedom, but to wetlands protectors it's a hazard to the environment and a threat
to birds in the area. And we go out every thirty July since this
event has been happening. We hold blankets under the trees to make sure that
the parents in the Egrett stove fall because it's a nesting season and their sledgelings
in there. They can't fly it and they'll st down on the edge of
the branches and you can see the terror in their eyes when the fireworks go
off. Advocates spoke at the La Harbor Commissions meeting last week, pleading with
board members not to sponsor the event. Board President Sharon Weissman was the only
commissioner who voted against the sponsorship, saying laser light show alternatives are safer for
people and pet Disneyland is already looking at all the Disney properties at last,
excuse me, drone light shows instead of fireworks. The Dodgers have cut back
on their fireworks for this year and are going to drone light shows. As
I think some of us know. Rodondo Beach just canceled their fireworks show because
of this very issue having to do with pollution. Some Long Beach residents say
they support the show because proceeds will go to several charities, including the Autism
Partnership Foundation and the Ronald McDonald House, but advocates say it's not worth the
risk to animals or local waters. We don't want these fireworks. The community
doesn't want them. You go right ahead and enjoy your meal. Ken Of,
you get to eat. Thank kenn Of, you get deep for free.
That night. A judge dismissed a lawsuit against the show's organizers in April,
alleging the event had been illegally polluting Alamitos Bay and they are polluters.
That is why they are required to get a pollution permit. That's what the
federal permit is. The board passed the motion four to one to approve the
sponsorship and the show is still on for tonight at nine pm at the Boathouse
on the Bay. Restaurant President Weissman says future shows will be up for discussion
in Long Beach. Chris Adler KFI News Dodgers are scaling that back Okay Drone
show though tomorrow night at Dodgers Stadium after the game. It's more news from
the KFY twenty four hour news room. The governor of Texas has bust more
migrants to La. A bus carrying forty one people arrived Saturday at Union Station.
Officials stated migrants are from Mexico, Cuba, Venezuela and other countries and
included eleven children. La City Councilman Kevin da Leon says he's asked the US
and state attorneys general to stop Texas from moving migrants around the country. This
is trafficking individuals against the will from one state to another state. This is
kidnapping as far as I'm concerned. Another bus carrying migrants from Texas arrived in
La on June fourteenth. Texas Governor Greg Abbott said he's sent the bus because
California has declared itself a sanctuary city for immigrants. An ABC poll shows the
country is almost evenly split on the Supreme Court's decision to strike down affirmative action
in college admissions. An increasing number of Americans view the Supreme Court as political.
A majority fifty three percent now say they believe the Justice his rule mainly
on the basis of politics, not the law. ABC's Alex Preche says Republicans
have been celebrating the Court's decision on affirmative action and the ruling against President Biden's
student loan debt forgiveness plan. Now as a way to tease into the getting
business segment at the bottom of the hour, I thought we'd talk a little
bit about remote work as well, because after the pandemic, the work from
home situation is still in flux. Some like it, some hate it,
Some companies are okay with it, Some are very much not business insiders dot
com at eto covers. I'll tell you what, Rather than me take it
away, why don't you go ahead and give us the lead of your story.
I'll give the headline first. In the war over remote work, companies
are turning full time jobs into low paying gigs. What was your takeaway?
Sure? So you know in this shift to remote and hybrid jobs, m
something really interesting has been quietly happening in corporate America where companies are kind of
moving away from the full time traditional employment model and they're opting to hire more
independent contractors, more part time employees, more temps, trying to outsource a
lot of positions to domestic or overseas firms. And it's kind of like,
you know, in a romantic relationship. So I feel like a weird analogy,
but I'm into it now. Spill the tea, Spill the tea.
You might think of companies kind of going from like, you know, a
committed marriage, a committed relationship, to kind of like casually dating around.
I guess there's been a lot during this pandemic of employees distancing themselves from their
employers, but in some ways employers are doing the same thing they're distancing themselves
from their employees. Interesting and now you always have really great sourcing. And
Nicholas Bloom is somebody that I've spoken with in the past as well. He's
a Stanford University professor. He calls it the uberization of the workforce. What
do you think he meant by that? And what did you extrapolate? Sure,
so, you know a traditional employer employee relationship that's based on full time
employment. You know, you have somebody come into your office every day,
you get to know them. The cliche is that they become a little bit
part of your family. You're really both sides are kind of invested in making
that match work. But you know, once they're contractors, once they're attempts
um, you know, that relationship really becomes a lot more casual. It
kind of starts to fray um and it's like uber. You know, you're
you're just kind of there for the hour, for the minute. M.
You're paid for just what you do, uh and nothing else, and you
don't get kind of the traditional benefits and the perks that come with full time
employment. Of those perks in yeah, so, I mean a really important
one is health insurance, right more than half of the Americans get their health
insurance from their employer. Um, you don't get that if you're an independent
contractor. Often you don't get that even if you're a part time employee.
M So that's a really important thing. Um, you know obviously, something
like you know, for when K matching, disability, unemployment insurance. Those
are all protections that only come to full time employees. And then there's some
you know, kind of intangible less financial perks too, like you know,
your employer investing in your growth. If you're a full time employee, your
boss, you know, is definitely invested in your growth as an employee.
They might spend a little bit more time on your learning and development, you
don't, you know, Boston definitely don't do that for contractors, for TEBs,
so you kind of lose out on some of that on the job training
and mentoring as well. Yeah, FaceTime really does matter, right, I
mean, I mean, your your story mentions it specifically, so I won't
I won't dwell on it. Don't forget though. We will have a link
in the show notes for this week as well. One are the data points
you pulled out a category that includes gig contract freelance and temporary workers thirty six
percent of the workforce as of this year. That's up from twenty seven percent
just seven years ago. And I remember I was up in the Bay Area
when Uber launched and gig workers. This was all the buzz like, Oh,
everybody's going to be gigified and nobody's ever going to have healthcare and everything.
It took a while, but we're getting closer and closer to that point,
it seems. Yeah. So I think this kind of gigification of the
economy definitely came first for you know what we would normally consider blue collar workers,
people who have less education, who are paid lower wages. But I
think the shift of remote work means that the gigification is coming for white collar
jobs as well. I think, you know, this was starting to happen
before the pandemic, but the pandemic is really what accelerated it. Because companies
always wanted, you know, to hire more contractors, to hire more attempts,
to hire people more on a part time via basis because that's cheaper.
You know, they don't have to pay for all the benefits, they don't
have to go through the hassles of these you know, full time employees who
have all these kinds of employment protections, but they felt like they couldn't because
you know, they didn't trust people. They've never meant to get their work
out of sight. The pandemic change that because remote work showed them that people
are actually capable of getting their work from done from home. And you know,
bosses are looking at this and saying, well, like, if they're
going to have our employees work remotely anyway, we might as well not pay
them, you know, we might as well not cover their benefits. We
might as well, you know, hire somebody who we can just keep on
contrast and sever the contract tomorrow with no consequently. It's Akieto from business insider
dot com. She covers workforce issues, workplace issues, and other labor issues,
labor market overall too. Actually, you can find her business insider dot
com. Her stories are always very well sourced and have lots of great data
that we won't dig into here, but there should be notes floating around.
You can always check a if I am six forty dot com for those as
well, or on the iHeartRadio app anywhere and anytime you like. A new
poll shows a slight majority of Americans agree with the Supreme Court's decision to remove
race as a factor in college admissions now. The new ABC if SO poll
found fifty two percent in favor of the decision, while thirty two percent disapproved
of the Court's rulings. Airports being hit with more travel issues. Record number
of Americans are traveling during this extended fourth of July weekend. Flight Aware reports
more than six hundred flights within, into, or out of the US were
canceled yesterday. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is planning to visit China this week.
The Treasury Department made the announcement yesterday, saying Yellen is expected to discuss a
number of financial issues with senior Chinese officials. And this comes right as well.
I'll tell you what. Let's hang on to that. There's something coming
out of China over the weekend when it comes to foreign policy and if you're
doing business, there's a new law. We're going to dig into that in
just a second. A reminder that retail expert Trade Bodge will get us prepped
and ready for prime Day for Amazon Prime Day coming up soon. Also back
to school, there's some July fourth sales floating around, probably a lot more
Right now on wake up call, we're going to get business. And now
the markets got pushed higher last week jo one Wall Street's major just closed out
a strong first half of the year, and it went up on Friday,
powered by tech stocks mostly. Apple achieved a historic three trillion dollar market capitalization
by more than a little. They've done it once before, but that was
intrud Day didn't close out at three trillion dollar market cap to By the way,
math on the radio market cap is when you take all the shares that
are available and multiply them by the price of one share. So all the
shares out floating around for Apple times one ninety plus is what it finished at
on Friday, gives it three trillion dollars Moreover, the Federal reserves favorite inflation
gauge, and we all have one, the Core Personal Consumption Expenditures Index,
moderated in May. That's on a month to month and a year to year
basis, showing that the sticky inflation, the core inflation, is coming down.
Core inflation. When you see that in the story or hear that in
a story, core inflation basically means all the volatile stuff and the usual stuff,
not just manufacturing orders and chipping goods around. But it's also like what
happens at the grocery store and what happens at the gas pump. That's core
inflation. So when that starts to moderate a bit, that's a good sign.
All eleven SNP sectors ended in positive territory on Friday as well, Tech
again up two percent. Notably, however, the SMP five hundred, the
Dala Jones, and the NASDAC all notched gains for the week, for the
month, for the quarter, and for the first half of the year.
So the headwinds from inflation are not necessarily flowing around Wall Street. Not after
the AI boom and bump that is happening. Still, investors are still figuring
out where AI is going to land and who's going to most benefits, so
they're kind of covering bets anything that might be influenced or impacted by AI or
automation of an AI sort. Well, they're all doing that too. And
last week, don't forget it was Russian roulette last week, because we had
that would be mutiny slash flex from a mercenary army that was diverted away from
the Kremlin and toward Belarus. That really didn't rattle markets very much at all,
which tells you something about out the supply chain having adjusted to the war
in Ukraine and the oil flow that comes out of it. Now we can't
get the world Most of the world is not getting oil from Russia, so
Russia is selling it to other places where you can get oil from. So
there are workarounds when it comes to those kind of things. Let's go to
Apple real quick again, because Apple is it costs the three trillion dollar companies,
the first one to do it. It did it once in twenty eighteen,
and then it did it again in one trillion dollar company in twenty eighteen,
and then in twenty twenty for a second it was three trillion, and
now it's legit three trillion. It's also slashing production targets for that new product.
It dropped the Vision Pro. Manufacturers are struggling with the novels gadgets and
it's complex design. This is according to Financial Times, saying that the design
is hard to onboard. Apple is preparing to make fewer than four hundred thousand
of those units. They are retail priced at thirty five hundred bucks a pop,
and they're going to start flowing early next year. There's a Chinese firm
that's initially assembling this device as well, so there's a little bit of a
headwind in there. We'll see if anything happens over the weekend. With this
coming week with Jenny Ellen in China to China base suppliers of components that Apple
was asking for parts for one hundred and thirty two one hundred and fifty thousand
units at first. This is one of those tip of the spear things.
I remember the iPhone was pretty popular as far as a marketing device for a
while, but it didn't really get fully functional until about iPhone five, and
that's when it became the biggest seller in the world. Also, we have
a few other stories that I have to go around Elon Musk on this one.
So in this week in Elon Musk, we'll start with Tesla handily beating
estimates. Tesla is powering higher before the bell this morning, shares of Tesla
up about six and a half percent. The automaker has registered record electric vehicle
deliveries in the second quarter. It's already the biggest in the space. In
fact, the stock is more than double the value year to date. And
that's splitting analyst on what's going to come next. So that's good news on
the Tesla front. As far as Musk's other interests go. Of course,
Twitter landed a new CEO, poached an advertising executive from NBC Universal, which
was a good sign because Elon had not really proven that he understood that Twitter
was an advertising platform. That said, he has temporarily set a daily view
limit for Twitter users. So this has got corporate accounts really not feeling great
about Twitter, and it's another headache for the new CEO, Linda Yacarino to
deal with because he wants to push back against AI large language models being able
to scrape all the content that is produced by Twitter users and Twitter handles every
day. Now, how much of that has already done by AI is not
known, and how much of that is going to be generated coming up is
not known. And don't forget that Elon did sign the letters saying hey,
we need to slow down everything when it comes to artificial intelligence. Not a
great look for him. So that's this week in Elon Musk, and hopefully
we don't have to do another one this week. We'll see what he generates
next. And I can't even touch that cage match thing. It's just so
silly. Let's get some more news coming out of the kf I twenty four
hour news room before we go to break. Experts say climate change keeps making
wildfires and smoke worse, and scientists are calling it the new abnormal. As
smoky as the summer's been so far, as scientists say, it'll likely be
worse in future years because of climate change. They say as the world warms
and weather gets more extreme, America will see nastier bouts of drought that lead
to wildfires and then cause billowing and deadly smoke. The amount of land burned
in the United States and Canada has more than tripled since the nineteen eighties.
One study estimates that globally, more than six hundred thousand people per year die
from wildlife smoke. Mark Roner KFI News. Striking hotel workers are back on
the picket lines in La. Members of Unite Here Local eleven started protesting yesterday
at several high end hotels. They an immediate five dollars an hour raise,
another three dollars an hour in subsequent years, and improvements in healthcare and retirement
benefits. This worker tells NBC four they deserve it, especially since the pandemic
and our occupancies increase, but our staffing has stayed the same, and we
are tired of being tired, and it is time for us to voice our
opinions and to speak up and go ahead and do what we need to to
get these wage increases and better at health insurance. Hotel reps say they've offered
raises of two fifty an hour in the first twelve months and more than six
dollars an hour over four years. The hotel's accused the union of being inflexible
in its demands. Police in Baltimore say they believe at least four guns were
used in a weekend shooting that killed two people and injured dozens more at a
holiday block party. People where we were running out of breath, crying because
they witnesses. A lot of people were shot. More than a dozen of
those shot late Saturday night our teenagers. Baltimore Police Commissioner Richard Whirley says there
was no permit for the party. This was a huge crime. Sing we're
talking about multiple blocks. The Mayor of Baltimore called the shooting a cowardly violent
act. Thousands of hotel workers have gone on strike in southern California to demand
better pay and other benefits. The National Weather Service is issued hazardous weather alerts
for more than one hundred million Americans. Sidebar and excessive heat warning is in
place for Santa Clarita and the Antelope Valleys today as parts of San Luis.
San Louis Obispo County has been extended through eight o'clock tonight. Now let's bring
on national retail analysts and expert Trey Boj. We have a full plate of
retail questions for you, Trey, so thank you for coming on. Thanks
so much for having me. Why don't we start with Amazon Prime Day.
I was opening up my app last night and it just tells me, right
there, it's a splash screen Amazon Prime Day. What should we be looking
for and are there competitors we should be looking at? Oh my gosh,
so much so. Amazon Prime Day this year will be July eleventh and twelve,
and like we've seen in previous years, we've seen a lot of competition
happening. So Target, Walmart, Cole's, Overstock, Spy and more will
be launching competitive deals in some cases on those same days and in some cases
even longer. So shoppers have a lot to think about next week. Okay,
yeah, a lot to think about it. Did you preload your cart
and then maybe say for later, or how do you prep for Amazon Prime
Day? Because you don't know what's going to drop for sure? Right,
that's true, and there will be millions of deals, and so what I
like to do is, like you said, preload my cart and then on
Amazon Prime Day and can go to my cart and I'll be immediately be able
to see what's for sale. I've also heard that with the Amazon app that
you can load items into your wish list and you'll be notified when those items
go on sale. But I can't say with authority as that actually will work,
but I'm going to try it. Yeah, I think I think it's
a good way to I mean, what's the harm, right it's on your
wish lists? That way, at least you have a pin in it for
later if you don't get a sale. Okay, absolutely, I would say,
though, because there are so many competitive deals, to not sink all
your attention into Amazon Prime because we'll see sales from so many other retailers.
And so another thing that you can do is use a tool like say Google
Shopping, enter the name of the item you're looking for, and you'll see
where it's available and for how much. And then something else that I like
is a website called slick Deals has a feature called deal Alert. You can
enter the name of the items that you want there and you'll be alerted where
those items are on sale and for how much. Very cool. All right,
let's change gears just a little bit and talk about back to school essentials.
I was out with some family yesterday that still goes to school, and
they can't believe it's already July fourth, and that means that I have to
get ready for back to school essentials. What are we looking at? Yeah,
I mean, to me, it's a little bit too early to be
talking about back to school, although I'm seeing it everywhere. I mean,
my daughter just finished school about a week and a half ago. I know
in different areas of the country they end early, they start early. So
I don't think it's necessarily important to get a rush on right now because the
better deals are going to be later in the summer. I start looking for
back to school deals closer to the end of July to mid honest, even
that's where you're going to find the better prices. Okay, So if it's
not, look, why don't we get more contemporary then and July fourth sales?
Anything that we can watch for when it comes to July fourth sales.
I did notice a lot of my feeds over the weekend. We're getting populated.
Yes, so we're seeing a lot of July fourth sales as well.
So the main categories that I would focus on for July fourth because obviously we
have so many sales coming up next week as well, So I would focus
on things like large appliances, mattresses, furniture, some home goods. That's
where I'm seeing the best activity. Also in the outdoor category, if you
happen to camp or hike, you should see some good deals there. And
then I am seeing some activity in the beauty space as well, so look
for deals. Maybe if there's a product that you've wanted but it's a little
pricey, look for a deal there, or stock up on your favorites herey
thanks a lot for joining us so early this morning. Where can people find
you for more pro retailing tips online? Sure? So you can find me
on Instagram at true tray. And I also publish a bi monthly newsletter at
truetray dot com that you can sign up for. And I promise that I
will not stand you. That's fair. I appreciate that problemise too. Thanks
Trey, talk to you again soon. Thanks Jason. If you're looking to
search for her online, it's a t r ae is how you spell her
first name. Let's get back to some of the stories coming out of the
KFI twenty four hour news room. July fourth is filled with American food and
flags freedom, but unfortunately, fireworks can sometimes fudge up the fun three two
one. Every year, the OC Fire Authority blows up a mannequin, watermelon,
even a chicken one with a firecracker. Flacks. It wasn't a live
chicken, it was from the store. O Fire Authority Chief Brian Fantasy says.
Still, firecrackers started three times more house fires in the state last year,
plus Nationally, eleven people were killed and more than ten thousand hospital and
fireworks instance, with forty seven of those hospitalizations occurring right here in Orange County.
All types of fireworks caused these injuries. From the illegal mortar style firework
that hospitalized a fourteen year old garden Grove boy last year to the safe and
sane sparklers that burn at twelve hundred degrees and some kids to the hospital every
year. How did it come to this Fourth of July fireworks date back to
a letter John Adams wrote to his wife asserting that our nation would forever celebrate
its independence with quote bonfires and illuminations, a seemingly harmless prediction. But here
we are, some two hundred and fifty years later, and many of those
bonfires have grown dangerous, and some of the illuminations have even grown deadly.
O Orthopedic Institute hand Sergeant Nicholas Rose as all fireworks carry the risk of injury.
Some of these injuries are like war injuries that we see and some veterans
severe burns, high energy blast injuries, and even appy. He says one
case, for example, a blast injury in which a teenage boy lost three
fingers. We had to do several reconstructions, and we're talking really ten to
fifteen surgeries down the line to really make that hand functional. Certainly that gentleman
will never have a normal hand. Rose says a professional show would be safer,
but for those who get burned, wrap the injury in a slightly damp
clean cloth and keep it moist and don't apply ice to it, especially to
a burn. Have a bucket of water or a garden hose nearby where put
out any remnants of that firework. Never point or throw fireworks at another person.
Never try to relight or pick up fireworks. There are many who don't
like fireworks at all. Pasadena Humane spokeswoman Jamie Holman says that especially goes for
pets, fireworks are very loud, and those loud booms and bursts of fireworks
they can frighten our pets and may cause them to run away, So it's
really important that we take steps to be prepared and minimize our pet stress to
keep them safe. She says. People can keep pets inside and make sure
they have current ID tags in case they get out. Fortunately, she says
if pets du get out, twenty shelters in LA are partnering with pet Co
Love Loss. A pets owner can upload their photo into the pet Cove Lost
database and they use image recognition technology to match that pet's photo with animals that
are in their database. OCI Fire Authority chief Fantasy says, ironically, there
is one more group who is not feeling fireworks, particularly for the military veterans
who fought to defend the very freedoms we are celebrating. It is well documented
that loud explosions can trigger post traumatic stress disorder for veterans, giving all of
us yet another reason not to light illegal fireworks in our neighborhoods Now, everyone
I spoke with says people can still celebrate Independence Day, but hopefully this year
this joke will not be funny. What do a humane society, fire authority,
and hand surgeon all have in common? Every July fourth, business is
booming in Orange Corbin Carson k FI News A wildfire that's burned at least four
acres in the Angels National Forest above Arcadia is fifty percent contained. The fire
started in steep and rocky terrain yesterday near Santa Anita Canyon. Water dropping helicopters
and more crews are on the ground and helping. A bunch of new state
laws went into effect over the weekend. Enjoy Bacon Well. Prop twelve mandates
fresh port sold in California has to come from pigs farmed in at least twenty
four square feet of space. Similar rules will also apply to vital calves and
egg laying hens. AB twenty forty three. He says bounty hunters, known
legally as bail fugitive recovery agents, will now have to have a license and
liability insurance to track down bail jumpers. AB twenty nine sixty now allows people
to file and access restraining orders electronically where domestic or gun violence plays a role,
and speaking of guns. AB fifteen ninety four prohibits gun manufacturers, distributors,
and sellers from false or misleading advertising and mandates close scrutiny to those who
buy the weapons. AB twenty two eighty allows the take Controller to wave interest
on unclaimed property as long as the rightful owner can explain why they didn't claim
it sooner. AB sixteen fifty five officially makes Juneteenth a state holiday. It's
already a federal holiday. SB seven thirty one requires criminal records be sealed four
years after an offender completes their sentence, as long as they don't reoffend in
that four year period. The new law does not apply to violent felonies or
registered sex offenders. AB sixteen sixty seven makes it so teachers who are overpaid
in retirement benefits because of a miscalculation exempt from paying back that money. SB
three oh one requires online marketplaces like eBay and Amazon to keep track of high
volume third party sellers, including contact and banking information. AB twenty eleven allows
for the construction of multifamily housing units on lands already zoned for commercial use,
and a new law permanently protects the Joshua tree by designating it an endangered species.
Finally, s B two allows California to put a cap on gasoline profit
margins and also requires the oil industry to give advanced notice a planned maintenance.
Steve Gregory camf I News Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is traveling to China. Yellen
will become the latest Biden cabinet member to visit Beijing on July sixth, for
what a statement said will be meetings with senior officials in the People's Republic of
China. The statement says Yellen's trip follows President Biden's directive to deepen communication with
China on a range of issues, including the global economy. ABC's Mark Remillard
says Secretary of State Anthony Blinkoln met with Chinese President she last month to try
to improve relations with China. That trip was followed by China registering a formal
protest over President Biden referring to the president of China as a dictator. Mexico
has criticized a new immigration law in Florida backed by Governor Ron de Santis.
The law that took effects Saturday, requires companies with twenty five or more employees
to use e verify, makes it a crime to take illegal immigrants into Florida,
and requires hospitals that receive Medicaid funds to check immigration status for data gathering
purpose, says. Mexico's Foreign Ministry says criminalization is not the way to resolve
the phenomenon of undocumented migration. The ministry says the law is driven by white
nationalism and that Mexico will help illegal immigrants in Florida. We lead local live
from the KFI twenty four hour newsroom. This has been your wake up call.
You've been listening to wake up call. You know you can always listen
live on kf I Am six forty weekdays from five to six am, and
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