You're listening to KFI AM six forty wake Up Call with me Amy King on
demand on the iHeartRadio app KFI hand KOST HD two, Los Angeles, Orange
County. It's time for your morning wake up call. Here's Amy King.
It's five o'clock, straight up. This is your wake up call for Tuesday,
April sixteenth. I'm Amy King. Good morning. We're live everywhere on
the iHeartRadio app. You can listen there anytime, you know. The skies
in La after rain are my favorite. Last night after the showers cleared out
and there was a beautiful sunset and there was just enough clouds that they were
turning this brilliant shade of orange spectacular. And we're going to be back to
sunny skies today. So that's great news. Here's what's ahead on wake Up
Call. LA Mayor Bass says her Inside Safe program is moved thousands of people
off the streets into temporary housing. During your second State of the City address,
she also asked businesses, charitable organizations, and wealthy individuals to help by
buying or leasing buildings that can be converted into homes for homeless people. Our
Michael Monks is going to take a closer look at the state of the city
in just a couple of minutes, because she talked about a lot. Jury
selection continues for a second day and former President Trump's hush money trial in Lower
Manhattan. No jurors were selected yesterday, This might take a while. At
least fifty perspective, jurors were dismissed, saying they felt they could not be
impartial. Have you noticed there have been a lot of close calls at airports.
We're going to be talking with ABC's Jim Ryan in just a couple of
minutes about how the FAA is trying to fix that, and also the Wallace
Annenberg wildlife crossing has taken another big step forward. We're going to be talking
with the California Regional director of the National Wildlife Federation about what's happening now on
the one oh one and when our mountain lions are going to have safe passage
to safe spaces in southern California. At six so five, it's handled on
the news. Well, the bidens did pretty good last year. The President
has released his taxes. We'll take a look at those. Let's get started
with some of the stories coming out of the KFI twenty four hour News Room.
More than one hundred and forty people have been arrested during the latest round
of pro Palestinian protests across the country. Activists chose tax Day to shut down
traffic in California, New York, Seattle, Chicago. In the Bay Area,
they blocked the Golden Gate Bridge, stopping traffic for five hours. They
also gathered outside of Tesla factory in Fremont. This Tesla factory is one of
the most productive factories in the state, and so in this area we wanted
to target a big center of production and really cause an impact. Protesters say
they want to use economic pressure to bring end to the war in Gaza.
The La City Fire Department is mourning the death of a recruit who was hit
by a car and killed in Studio City. The recruit was struck when he
got out of his car to help people who were involved in a crash.
LA City Fire Captain Eric Scott says despite efforts by paramedics, the recruit was
pronounced dead on scene, and we did have a formal and traditional procession from
the incident site to the La Coroner's office. The recruit was driving to training
when he was hit yesterday. Officials say they want people to remember his courage
like Charlie k if I. News oh speaker Mike Johnson has unveiled a new
plan for foreign aid, calling for four separate bills with funding for Ukraine,
Israel, Taiwan, Gazen Moore. He says, the world is watching to
see how the US will react to international conflicts. We have a terrorist in
tyrants and terrible leaders around the world like Putin and g and in Iran,
and they're watching to see if America will stand up for its allies and in
our own interest around the globe, and we will, Johnson says, instead
of one ninety five billion dollar bill, each bill would be voted on separately.
That's going to happen before the end of the week, says Johnson.
Jury selection has continued in New York in the hush money trial against former President
Trump. ABC's Aaron Katirsky says a lot of potential jurors were dismissed yesterday,
jud Van Marshaan explaining a fair juror is a person who has no bias or
prejudice in favor of or against a party or witness. More than half the
potential jurors then raise their hand, signaling they could not be fair and impartial.
At a dozen potential jurors were excused for other reasons. It's expected to
take weeks to select the twelve jurors and six alternates needed for the case survived
tax Day. Yes, me too. Let's say good morning now to ABC's
Jim Ryan. That little chuckle you heard is our buddy, Jim. So
Jim. There have been, or seem to have been a lot of near
MISSUS close calls, both in the air, on the ground in US airport
or at US airports recently, so the FAA is trying to do something about
it. They are. Yeah, Well, go back to August eleventh,
there was an incident at San Diego air Traffic Controller Cleared assessmental Land. Even
though a Southwest Airlines flight already was on the same taxiway, was on the
same runway, there was no little bit mess. Yeah, they managed to
stay separated the last minute. Similar incident in near Collis in Austin, when
a cargo plane in the Southwest Bowing seven thirty seven, came within about one
hundred and fifteen feet of each other. Again, disaster averted, but barely
so the FAA has decided to do something about this. You know, the
worst single aviation disaster, commercial aviation disaster in history happened when two seven forty
seven's on the ground collided in the Canary Islands in nineteen seventy seven, So
you can see how horrible this could be. Was one landing and one taking
off? Or why was that so bad? Yes? One was they were
both taxing. One was turned around preparing to take off. That was a
KLM plane smashed right into a pan AM flight that was still on the runway
in thick, thick fog. So yeah, again, this was the Canary
Islands tenor reef. I remember hearing about it on the radio when I was
a kid. But so it can be a horrible thing. More often than
not, you hear about wings clipping or you know, a little minor things
that happen on the ground at airport. So they just had that back in
I can't remember which one, but back in New York or New Jersey,
just like in the last couple of weeks. Yeah right, yeah, And
I mean that's a minor thing. It's an inconvenience that probably those passengers had
to go onto other planes. But the what IFFs are just staggering to consider
amy And so the FAA has been working on this new system which gives air
traffic controllers up in the tower. You know, they have to control not
only the planes in the air coming and going, but also the planes taxing
on the ground, you know, trucks that are out there. So in
many cases it's the same person doing that those two jobs. In a bigger
airport, LAX has people controlling the ground and controlling the air and departing and
arriving and all that. But at a smaller or mid sized airport, they
don't have that luxury. And so the fa has come up with this new
system which gives those controllers a map and it shows where everything is on the
field if it doesn't have technology like LAX does to tell them where planes are,
where trucks are and tugs. This system is intended to fill that gap
and perhaps reduce the number of runaway incursions. Okay, And they're doing sort
of a test run of it at a few airports. They are Dallas love
Field one of them, Austin, Austin's Austin Bergs from Airport Nashville and Indianapolis.
Internashville. These are all again kind of mid sides to airports. They're
not the biggest, they're not the smallest, but they're somewhere in the middle,
and they can use this kind of technology because they don't have other means
of really policing traffic on the ground. Okay, so this isn't replacing a
current system. No, it's an addition. It's an addition, right,
it's and again I mean unfortunately, it's something else for those air traffic controllers
to keep an eye on. Right, But this surface awareness initiative is intended
to sort of tap them on the shoulder. They may use. Somebody suggested
this morning, what if they use artificial intelligence to watch those screens, right,
So that if the AI catches two airplanes that seem to be rolling too
close to each other or being assigned to the same runway or taxiway at the
same time in the same place, it could tell the controllers, Uh,
look over there, make sure you don't let those two come together. Okay,
So you said it's going to be a map, So is it going
to be like I don't know, like when you are waiting for your uber
driver, you can see where they are. I mean, it's literally a
digital screen that shows where all the action is. Sure, yeah, and
whether it's overlaid on top of their existing ground screens. You know that it
may be a completely separate system altogether. But they're going to roll this out
at these four airports by July, so just within the next few months.
If it all works out well, then more airports will get the technology by
the end of next year. Well, let's hope it works so we can
all fly the friendly and safe skies and taxiways, taxi waves, runways,
aprons all the rest. All right, great, well, that's cool.
That sounds like a good plan. Thank you Jim Ryan for the information.
Thanks you me. All right, take care. Let's get back to some
of the stories coming out of the KFI twenty four hour newsroom. LA Mayor
Bass has delivered her annual State of the City address. The mayor touched on
current issues and future opportunities. In her second address is Mayor, the state
of our city is stronger today because we have made change and we have disrupted
the status quote. The subject that got the most of the Mayor's time last
night was homelessness. Now, I refuse to hide the fact that it's forty
six thousand people. Now. We will not hide people, but what we
will do is house people. She says the cost of homelessness is not just
the billions in government spending to address it, but also the harm done to
businesses and tourist destinations where people have become too afraid to visit. I just
will not accept this, and our city can't afford to accept it. Bass
announced the new initiative she calls La for La, and she hopes to attract
wealthy philanthropists to join the government in raising funds to acquire more properties to develop
as housing for the homeless. La for La can be a sea change for
Los Angeles, an unprecedented partnership to confront this emergency. The mayor is also
expected to release her proposed budget for the next fiscal year in the coming days.
She offered some of her priorities during last night's speech. She says staffing
goals that the LAPD will be maintained after new contract guaranteed pay raises. As
a result, we're attracting record numbers of applicants to the Police Academy, and
my budget for next year maintains our LAPD staffing goals also says she's working collaboratively
to find the police department's next permanent chief, and this isn't the closed door
conversation. I've been meeting with officers, business organizations, community leaders, community
members to ask them directly what they want to see in the next chief.
While she wants to fill the police chief's position, Bass expressed her support for
the elimination of nearly two thousand vacant city jobs, saying, with the savings,
the city will be well positioned to review how its departments operate in a
lean period, so we can take advantage of the tough times to determine how
departments can function in a more efficient and effective manner. The mayor says addressing
LA's most pressing issues will determine how millions of visitors coming for the World Cup
in twenty twenty six and the Summer Olympics in twenty twenty eight view the city
and that LA should position itself to maximize the economic potential of the events.
The Games will mean more than five million visitors pumping billions of dollars into our
economy in our hotels, eating in our restaurants, visiting our museums, and
exploring our neighborhoods. Michael Monks KFI news and clogging up our roadways. Okay,
she didn't include that part. So much going on in LA and I
don't know about you. I'm excited for the Olympics to be here. My
hope is to get to to get to see gymnastics in person. A teenage
boy has been fatally shot in South LA. He was on Western Avenue near
one hundred and eighth Street yesterday afternoon when he was shot. Investigators say when
deputies got there, they saw a large group of kids breaking up. The
injured teen was lying on the sidewalk. He died at the hospital. Investigators
said there were several fights before the shooting and that a person of interest has
been detained. The armorer on the set of the movie Rest has been sentenced
in New Mexico to eighteen months in prison for the deadly shooting of cinematographer Helena
Hutchins. Hannah Gutiera's Reid was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter last month. She
cried in court yesterday as she asked the court for probation, saying her heart
aches for Hutchins, her family, and her friends. I am saddened by
the way the media sensationalized our traumatic tragedy and portrayed me as a complete monster.
The judge wasn't swayed. I find that what you did constitutes a serious
violent offense. It was committed in a physically violent manner, a fatal gunshot
done with your recklessness, the judge said. Reed did not accept responsibility for
her actions and has not shown remorse. On a happier note, it's free
cone Day at Ben Jerry's. Ben and Jerry's free cone Day tradition goes back
to its origins in nineteen seventy nine, when it gave away cones to thank
its customers during its first year of business in Burlington, Vermont. Now it
is global. Ben and Jerry says it's hoping to give away a million free
scoops today, and to reach to that goal, they're encouraging customers to invite
family, friends, and neighbors to come along and get a free scoop and
feel free to get in line more than once. The State of California has
filed a lawsuit against Huntington Beach challenging the legality of a voter id measure recently
approved by residents. The lawsuit claims it conflicts with and is preempted by existing
state law. The voter approved measure amended the city charter to authorize the city
to implement a requirement for voters to show ID when casting ballots in person.
Lawmakers in California are working to make it illegal to make child porn using artificial
intelligence. The bill was introduced after several reports of AI generated photos circulating in
public schools including Long Beach, Beverly Hills, LA, and Laguna Beach.
Caitlin Clark is still number one. She was picked first in last night's twenty
twenty four WNBA draft. The Iowa guard will be playing for the Indiana Fever.
In her senior season, Clark became the all time NCAA Division I men's
and women scoring leader at six so five it's handled. On the news,
Nike's taken some heat for their new US Women's Olympic uniforms. Let's just say
they're a little skimpy. Let's say good morning now to the host of How
the Money on KFI, Joel Larsgard. Good morning, Joel, morning Amy.
Okay, so we were talking about credit cards because I saw a story
about canceling them and how it could be tough and whether you should keep them
or cut them up. And so let's talk about credit cards and when it
makes sense to cancel those accounts. Yeah, the short answer is almost never.
And a lot of people think, oh, guess what, I just
paid off some debt. Time to cancel a card. Typically that actually backfires.
Why, Well, so it's all about your credit score, and because
of the way the credit scoring model works, it actually can reduce your score
significantly by closing a credit card. Do you want to keep that card open
even if you're not using it? Okay? So, like I have a
card that I just don't ever use in all I do is pay the the
yearly fee, So it's still I should keep it open because it's keeping my
credit score up there, that's exactly right. Yeah, And the only reason
you might want to cancel a credit card is if it has an annual fee
and you're not getting the value for that card, right, So is that
the case for you? Yeah, it's one that I just I've had forever
and I just don't use it ever. Yeah. Yeah, And so if
that's the case, sometimes you might have an annual fee ninety five bucks or
even more, and if you're not getting the value for it, you might
want to cancel that card. But the other thing you can do is you
can call your credit card issuer. You could say, hey, is there
a chance maybe that you could offer me a different credit card that doesn't have
an annual fee, and that way it won't impact your score. Oh so
you're not you're not closing the account, you're moving it over to something else.
That's exactly right. And the reason impacts your score so significantly. It's
something known as your credit utilization rate. And so the credit Bureau's factor in
the biggest the number one factor in your credit score is how much of your
available credit that you're using. And so if you have a credit card,
let's say with a ten thousand dollars limit, and you close it, that
impacts your credit unililation rate, It can impact the age of your credit history,
and so that can damage your score. And your score is so important
when you're getting a mortgage, when you're getting a car loan, when you're
renting an apartment, you want to make sure your score is tip top shape.
And closing a card and negatively impact that. Okay, all right,
So don't cancel those credit cards. Now turns out people are using those credit
cards to go have a good time, and that might not be such a
hot idea. So what's the deal that people are saying, I'm not going
to save up for vacation or for fun stuff necessarily, I'm just going to
do it. Yeah, that's right. It was a recent bank rate survey
and they found that like a third of people said I'm totally comfortable going into
debt for fun stuff. So that's like concert tickets. You know, it's
a vacation that maybe you're I'm there for And this is the kind of mentality
that's going to get people into trouble, right It's like, hey, yolo,
I'm going to go ahead and spend the money even though I don't have
it, And this is going to get people in trouble over the long line,
right, Like, so a few thousand dollars here, a thousand bucks
there, And let's be honest, concert tickets, those prices have gone up
dramatically, So just going to see a show these days can be incredibly costly,
not to mention the ticket master fees to go along with it. And
so if you're not planning ahead for those things that you want to partake in
and saving money consistently. It's just not worth going into debt because you might
be paying off that concert of that vacation for months or years to come.
Okay, So then what's the happy medium? Because all work and no play
makes Johnny a dull boy. Yeah, so it's not about not doing fun
stuff, like I talk about this all the time on the show, and
there I think sometimes there is a personal in the personal finance space. There
are people who are kind of like, so, don't have any fun and
save all your money for your retirement that may or may not come. You
never know how long you're going to live, so it's it's obviously important to
enjoy your life, but you want to make sure. How stressful is it
though, to have debt hanging over your head? It is how thousands of
dollars a credit card? Yeah exactly, But that's the way the average person
lives. Stressed to the max. And so I want you to save money
on the everyday things, shop around basic services so that you can clear more
margin in your budget. That will you have more room to be able to
pay cash for those things that matter, for the fun stuff. Okay,
but keep the credit card just because you need to keep the credit score up.
Don't need the credit card. And here's the thing, a lot of
people don't use credit cards particularly well. I want you to pay the balance
off on full in time every single month. That's a crucial part of family
credit. Well, but keeping the credit card around makes sense just for from
your credit score perspective. Yeah, So it's it's a it's a convoluted system.
Because we need credit, we need access to credit. We also want
to use it wisely and we don't want to get into debt with it.
So paying your bills off consitionally every single month and not buying more, not
biting off more than we can choow is crucial. Okay. So to learn
more about how to use your credit cards wisely, we're going to get great
financial advice from Joel Larscard. He's got a show here on KFI Sundays from
noon to two, always packed with great advice. You can also follow Joel
on at how to Money. Joel. Thank you, Joel. Thanks Amy.
All Right, let's get back to some of the stories coming out of
the KFI twenty four hour newsroom. A marine's been sentenced to nine years in
prison for throwing a Molotov cocktail at a planned parenthood clinic incost to Mesa.
If that's called chance Brandon with banned weapons, silencers, neo Nazi paraphernalia,
and writings declaring an unbelievable desire to murder journalists. We will not tolerate violent
acts of hate in our country. US attorney Martinez Strada says Brannan and two
others bragged about bombing the clinic in twenty twenty two. He not only had
the ideology to commit these attacks, but had the ability to carry out these
attacks because of his training as a marine. The other two men are set
to be sentenced next month at the federal courthouse in Santa Anna. Corbin Carson
KFI News a construction worker trapped under a forklift in bel Air has died.
Fire officials say the worker was carrying steel rebar yesterday afternoon when the forklift fell
over. The man died at the scene. LA is going to receive one
hundred and thirty nine million dollars over twenty five years for its groundwater replenishment project
in the San Fernando Valley. The funding is to support the development of facilities
that will purify recycled water to recharge the valley's groundwater basin aquifer. Hey,
the Dodgers are taking on the Nationals tonight. First pitch goes out at seven
o'clock. It's Hello Kitty Night ticket pack Ooh always love a good Hello Kitty.
Listen to all the action on AM five seventy LA Sports. It's live
from the Galpin Motors Broadcast booth and you can stream the game in HD on
the iHeartRadio app keyword AM five to seventy LA Sports. Anti Israel protests of
shut down the Golden Gate Bridge for five hours. Southlown southbound lanes were closed
yesterday when protesters parked cars and basically chained themselves to their vehicles. Similar protests
were held in Long Beach, on New York's Brooklyn Bridge, on Wall Street,
and at Chicago's O'Hare Airport. USC's valedictorian will not be permitted to deliver
a speech at the university's commencement because of security concerns. It apparently stems from
complaints of anti Semitic views posted by the student on social media. The provost,
Andrew Guzman said, in his words, while this is disappointing tradition must
give way to safety. Commencement is May tenth. Jury selection continues for a
second day and former President Trump's hush money trial in Lower Manhattan. No jurors
were selected yesterday. This could take a while too. At least fifty perspective
jurors were dismissed, saying they felt they could not be impartial. At six
oh five, it's handle on the news. Eleemir bass Is asking rich,
pace full nonprofits and others to buy up old buildings so we can provide more
housing for the homeless. Let's say good morning now to ABC's Tom Rivers.
Tom, we've got the war raging on, but of course we're not hearing
about it as much because all the focuses on Israel. But in Ukraine they're
still fighting and it's getting more and more dangerous because attacks are being launched against
a nuclear power plant or near them. Exactly has happened around the seventh of
April, and there were three different drone attacks at Zabaritzia, the largest nuclear
power plant in Europe, and of course there are UN watchdog inspectors on that
facility along with Russian forces as well. The Russians took it over about two
months after their incursion over two years ago. Now, but it came to
the fore, came to the Security Council yesterday, pointing of fingers in both
directions. Therussian Ambassador to the un vasily Nebenzia said, basically, over the
last few months such at texts have not only resumed, they've significantly intensified and
flip side of the coin. The Ukrainian representative said basically that it was a
It was a Russian attack against a Russian facility, UH, designed to distract
the world from its invasion of its neighbor. So there there it lies,
and the Kremlin basically says, look, your inspectors on the site know who
did it. Quit trying to, you know, have this facade of being
a neutral referee in this and and tell it like it is. But we
are where we are, and of course everybody over here thinks back to Chernobyl,
we don't want to see that again. So in essence, the bottom
line is, and we've heard this before, UH, go fight somewhere else,
but don't fight by the nuclear power plant. Well you would think that
they wouldn't want to fight by a new clear power plant. Well exactly,
and again it depends which side you you think did it. Uh, it's
hard to imagine Russia bombing its own facility. Ukraine is kind of in a
deep hole right now. It cannot you know, gain any yardage on the
line of scrimmage, so to speak. So we've seen more asymmetrical attacks,
drone strikes far into the territory of Russia. And uh. And again there
could be you know, drone attacks against this facility as well, which could
drag other players into the conflict. Yeah, so it is pretty it's pretty
pretty dicey right now. And as you say, the world is focused on
a different part of the world than Ukraine right now. Yeah. And where
is the Zapparisha power plant. It's in Ukraine. Yeah, southeastern corner of
Ukraine occupied by by Russian forces, as I say, Okay, and if
they did have some direct hits on this thing, and I know that there's
been a lot of concerns that kind of heated up early on because they were
worried about it and the power going out and all that. I do remember
that. But are we looking at like a Chernobyl level kind of thing or
could it be worse it could be. Well, it is probably not that
bad. As all of the six reactors are shut down, that's the end
of the story. They still have to get power in from different power plants
to cool those nuclear rods down, and if that fails, they have to
have backup generator supplies to do that work. So there are not quote unquote
active if you will, nuclear plants. But anytime you drop explosive material on
a plant, yeah, you can have a radioactive cloud. And if you
remember the modeling to Chernobyl, yes, some of it went to Russia,
but it also circled to the southern part of Europe. Part of it came
up through Ireland, the UK, Norway down again. Eventually it did spread
around the world. There was some radioactive material, registers say in the US,
although it was much much diminished by that point. But this is this
You really are playing with fire. Yeah, and there's nothing that security council
can do to make sure that they stay away from there. I mean,
besides saying don't do it. That's it. That's it. We know how
don't growth speaking Yeah, GROSSI says, look, you see, put in
the simplest language, don't fight here or else you're going to fight us.
Update, don't fight here. And that message got through about over year year
and a half ago, and I guess it has to be repeated now because
we had these these three drone incidents early part of this month. Okay,
well, we will continue to watch it because you know, we're thankful that
you're there watching it. Since like we've talked about it, it's not getting
the attention that it probably should because our attention is turned elsewhere exactly. All
right, thank you, Tom Rivers, appreciate it. Take care. All
right, Let's get back to some of the stories coming out of the KFI
twenty four hour newsroom. Charges have been filed in La against aman accused in
two separate attacks on women walking in Venice. Will we see Anthony Jones knock
the women out before raping them within an hour of each other. He was
arrested last week near San Diego, days after the April sixth attacks in the
Venice Canal's neighborhood LAPD Interim Chief Dominic Choice as business owners and residents offered surveillance
video helping investigators identify Jones. This is a prime example of public, private
or law enforcement partnership working together to create a safer community. Jones faces multiple
charges, including attempted murder. One woman is still in the hospital in a
coma. Michael Monks KFI News. The body of a fourth construction worker has
been recovered at the site of the Key Bridge collapse in Baltimore. Unified Command
says the man's body was found Sunday in a sunken car in the river.
Two of the six people presumed killed in the collapse last Monther still missing.
The Department of Justice is getting ready to file a federal antitrust lawsuit against Ticketmaster's
parent company, Live Nation. The move is over allegations the company has leveraged
its market share to undermine the competition for tickets. Ticketmaster currently holds more than
eighty percent of the market for primary ticket sales in the US. The laws
soup could be filed as early as next month. And we have an Eggs
Benedict update for you. So I've been waiting for Okay, so ConA we
talked about that. It's it's Eggs Benedict Day. If you might have heard
our daily calendar, which is on a English muffin, It's poached egg and
Neil Savager weighed in and says it has ham on it as well along with
the sauce. And he says, and it's delicious. Isn't it like a
like a egg and ham McMuffin. Well, it's a isn't No? Am
I wrong? Is that it's a little more icy than a than an egg
and ham McMuffin because they it doesn't have the is it the Burnet sauce or
whatever the Hollandai sauce on it. Yeah, hollandais thank you sauce. Yeah,
it's still it is. It's good. But like, yeah, I'd
take a good omelet any day. Nick. Oh, No, I'm down
for both. I mean you think about it hypothetically, all right, Yeah,
I was like, no, you could do an omelet or a folded
egg kind of to go with Kono's idea of something for McDonald's, But predominantly
it's going to be that poached egg. But you could easily do a folded
egg or an omelet on top of that eggs. Benedict and I've seen everything
from salmon as your protein to you know, all sorts of salmon and eggs.
For me, I mean I just went to the bois and berry brunch
over not it's berry farm and they had an eggs benedict that had a boisonberry
hollandaise sauce, So okay, we'll sweet. It was savory, was fun,
yeah, all right, And maybe today's a good day to explore and
sample since its eggs benedict day. You know what today is, It's also
five days until the Wiggle Waggle Walk. And I just want to say,
take us a moment because we've been talking about this, and of course we
want you to join our team, and we want you to donate. I
know that the price of everything is higher, we know that everybody's asking you
to give, so it is even more special when you choose to give to
the Wiggle Wagglewalk and Pasadena Humane Special shout out to De d and stare It
who made large contributions which we sow so so so appreciate. But we'll take
any size contribution. I mean, if it's five bucks, if it's a
price of a Starbucks, if it's twenty bucks, if it's fifty bucks,
we don't care. We just want to raise money because what Pasadena does is
they take care of thousands of animals and get them ready to get into a
new home like my Alexander the Great the Cat. So we're asking you to
join us. We're going to be walking with the wake Up Call Crew on
Sunday, April twenty first. It's at Brookside Park in Pasadena, right by
the Rose Bowl and we're gonna wiggle and waggle our way around the Rose Bowl
to benefit the Pasadena Humane Society. And we've got so much great stuff,
So bring your pups and dress them up. We've got a dog costume contest,
there's some game. James, the Pasadena Canine Group is going to be
out there and they're going to be doing demonstrations. There's an agility course,
there's food, there's a whole lot more. We would love for you to
join our team, the wake Up called Wigglers. And if you can't join
us, you can still donate and you can find out all the information on
how to come walk with us, where to donate. All of that is
at KFI AM six forty dot com slash Wiggle. We hope you'll make your
plans to join us this Sunday morning, April twenty first, for the Wiggle
Waggle Walk. Law enforcement in southern California continues to do increased patrols around places
of worship following Iran's military strikes on Israel over the weekend. The LAPD says
there are no credible threats at this time. LA County Sheriff Robert Luna says
they are watching closely to ensure the safety of our communities. LA Fire Department
is mourning the loss of one of its recruits killed in that crash on the
one oh one in Studio City that messed up traffic all morning yesterday. He
was apparently trying to give aid to victims of the crash when he was hit
and killed. The recruit was the son of an active duty firefighter. The
Olympic plane flame has been lit. The fire was ignited early this morning in
Greece at the ancient birthplace of the Olympics. The ceremony starts a torchury lay
that will end in Paris, just in time for the summer Games, which
start on July twenty sixth. We're just minutes away from Handle. On the
news this morning, how Speaker Mike Johnson says that instead of one big bill,
they're going to try for four smaller bills to get aid approved for Israel,
Ukraine, Taiwan and others. Right now, let's say good morning to
Beth Pratt, California's regional director or executive director of the National Wildlife Federation.
Good morning, bath mon Ami. Thanks for having me on. Oh thanks
for getting up early and coming on to share the great news, and that
is that it's a big week for the Wallace Aanenburg Wildlife Crossing. It truly
is. You know, the construction has been going on and people who drive
by know that the vertical supports have been being built. They're quite big.
But boy, this week we are looking at the first horizontal structures called girders
being placed, and that's going to make it start really looking like the bridge
it will become. So for those of us who've been working on this for
so long, it's a pretty big moment. Okay. And of course we're
talking about the one to one freeway and the girders. There's like eighty two
of them that have to go across the freet Yeah, there's eighty two of
them, and they are enormous. They're over one hundred tons each. They've
been manufactured off site for a while and they will be trucked in each night
and placed and cal Trans is estimating about four to five a night, okay,
and so how long is this phase of the project going to take because
we know it. Luckily it's happening in the middle of the night, so
it's not affecting traffic too badly, but it is shutting down the one on
one for like, yeah, five we are trying to you know, obviously
we're celebrating this milestone, but also recognizing it comes with another milestone, which
is we are closing at least half of the freeway for the first time,
and we know that comes with disruption for people, even though it is in
the middle of the night every night, but we know it. I think
most people are putting this in perspective that it's for a good cause. If
there is ever a good cause for a closure, this is it closure for
cougars, closure it closure for cougars, or is another news outlet put it
Critter Dead and I thought that was a good one. But yeah, it
is going to be going on for about thirty to forty five days and eleven
to each night to four am. There are alternate all freeway routes that Calchans
has posted. So we just thank everybody for their patients as we moved through
this first closure. Okay, and then Beth, let's talk a little bit
more about the wildlife crossing, just in case people don't know or are not
that familiar about it. Once you get those girders across, then you're gonna
put all of everything else that needs to go, because this isn't going to
be an overpass. It's going to be a wildlife crossing. So what's a
going to look like. Yeah, we just released some new images last night
which people can check out on ptree two's Facebook page and other places, and
yeah, this is not just an overpass. It is not just a bridge.
It is literally putting the living landscape on top of the freeway. And
you can see from these images it is really green space, which comes with
a lot more challenging design considerations than if you were just putting a bridge over.
But it really is a hopeful project. It is going to reconnect the
Santa Monica Mountains to the rest of the world and make for a healthy ecosystem
and ensure a future especially for mountain lions, but for all wildlife. I
like to say this is being designed for everything from monarch butterflies to mountain lions,
it's a really hopeful project. Okay. And then, Beth, I
know we've talked about this before, but I want to ask you about this
again. How do the animals know to go to that crossing because there's it's
not like you can put a sign up and say cross here, Mountain Lion.
I don't know why not? No, I mean you could, but
who knows if you'll read it. Yeah. No, it's a really good
question. And what we know wildlife crossings are nothing new. I mean,
and where you look at these over the decades, they are enormously successful.
You're looking at eighty ninety ninety seven percent success rates. The wildlife really seek
them out. They do not want to cross our freeways, but we also
know a few ways to ensure that they do. One is what we call
exclusionary fencings. You basically fence off their options and lead them to it.
But we know from this site, from the National Park Service research over decades
that the wildlife we're already trying to cross here. It's kind of a funnel.
It's the last sixteen hundred feet of protected green space and they get to
the freeway and they're like uh uh and turn around. So we we'll naturally
look for a safer place, naturally look for it. Yeah, so the
wildlife themselves are pretty savvy. Okay, Well, I'm just excited that they're
going to have a safer place to cross in. And like we've heard before,
if you build it, they will come, they will come exactly.
Okay, all right, well we'll we'll be watching, and completion time is
still sometime next year. Well with twenty end of twenty twenty five was our
original, but with the two record of you know, Wet Springs, it
looks like it may be flipping into twenty twenty six. Okay, all right,
Beth Pratton, thank you so much for your time and your information.
We'll be watching because we got to give those mountain lions a place to go.
Thank you so much. Yep, you have a good day. Talk
again soon. Take care. This is KFI and kost HD two Los Angeles,
Orange County. We lead local live from the KFI twenty four hour newsroom
for producer and and technical producer Cono. I'm Amy King. This has been
your wake up call, and if you missed any wake up call, you
can listen to any old time on the iHeartRadio app. You've been listening to
Wake Up Call with me Amy King. You can always hear Wake Up Call
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