You're listening to wake Up Call on demand from kf I AM six forty kf
I hand KOST HD two, Los Angeles, Orange County. It's time for
your morning wake up call. Here's Jason Middleton. Good morning, everybody.
Welcome to Wake Up Call. July twenty seven, five am. This is
a professional news broadcast to be Waking Up Variety. Yeah, that's right.
We t up the day. Been a week too. It's been Fed week
and as you may know, I nerd out on the FED pretty hard,
and earnings week as well. So we have some financial news later this hour
or too, but just as a flyover, everything's just fine on Wall Street.
It's the most wins in a row up arrows for the Dow since nineteen
eighty seven. And we're looking to open with a banger today too. Nasdacs
up more than two hundred points on strength of Google and Meta earnings engineer kno
is given that given that high sign, I think he's got some money at
play there. Acono Driver read it. An eight k and AK is a
form that the company's put out after they do earning the report. It's really
kind of boring. I read them because they are boring. But there's a
lot of attention to the details in there, and you can get up in
there. So we have a little bit more on that coming up too.
Let's get some headlines though, coming out of the kf I twenty four hour
news room before we get into the heat of the meat. The Department of
Justice is filing paperwork asking a judge to order Texas Governor Greg Abbott to have
the floating barrier in the Rio Grand removed. DJ wants to barrier and the
anchors out period. You can no longer use MasterCard to buy cannabis products.
The company is telling financial institutions it's no longer allowing marijuana purchase is on its
debit cards. A MasterCard spokesperson said yesterday that the federal government considers cannabis sales
illegal, so these purchases are not allowed on our systems. Got to find
a different way to fund your stash. More than one hundred and forty million
Americans are under heat alerts as extreme temperatures linger across the US. Forecasters say
the fields like temperature is accounting for a humidity, of course, and it's
supposed to be more than one hundred degrees from Midwest to the northeast. Some
other stories coming out of the KFI twenty four our newsroom. Before we go
to our first traffic check, The LAPD has arrested black and Hispanic people at
what a report from the city controller says is a disproportionate rate. They make
up more than seventy eight percent of all arrests from twenty nineteen to twenty twenty
two, despite those groups making up fifty six percent of the city's population.
Fifty six percent of those arrested were Latino, twenty seven percent black, and
sixteen percent were white. City Controller Kenneth Madiah's office released Excuse Me released a
map and analysis yesterday of nearly three hundred and arrest by the LAPD in the
past four years. Hundreds of homeowners in Anaheim Hills could decide to tax themselves
to fund a groundwater pump system that protects them from landslides. If there is
no funding, they will turn off. Anaheim spokeswoman Aaron Ryan says if that
happens, the groundwater levels would reach the levels that we saw in nineteen ninety
three that triggered the landslide, and that could happen in sixteen to twenty six
months. After the pumps shot off. The city paid three point five million
dollars back then for thirty seven pumps, which remove about twelve million gallons of
water per year. Homeowners today could choose to pay a few hundred to a
couple thousand dollars annual tax to keep the pumps pumping in Anaheim. Corbin Carson
ka if I News. Renters in Los Angeles could be evicted if they do
not pay back rent that was on hold during the pandemic. Early this year,
the LA City Council introduced a package to give tenants a grace period of
August first to pay back rent owed during COVID. The Apartment Association of Greater
LA's Daniel Yukelsen says landlords have been taken advantage of and renters have had enough
times. We're seeing going to work, yet they weren't paying their round there,
buy your cars and still not paying their round traveling, you name it.
Tenant advocates say most people have not recovered from the pandemic, and with
inflation, there's no way they can pay back their debts in La. Chris
Adler KFI News. A judge in Oklahoma is being investigated by a State Ethics
panel over courtroom footage showing her scrolling through social media during a murder trial.
Officials say the judge was presiding over her first trial. It was for a
man accused of beating a two year old to death. The judge had instructed
jurors to turn off all electronic devices, but then used her own. Da
Adam Panter says it's shocking and disappointing behavior. ABC. Jim Ryan is on
the line, and I just did some googling. Jim, I did the
googles, and there's an average of six hundred thousand, nine one one calls
made every day in the US as of last year. You have a report
that shows that maybe response times are not as high as they should be.
Well, you're right in some cities seeing forty five some sixty second to delay,
some people being put on hold, and some their nine one one calls
are going unanswered. All together. It all goes back to staffing shortages,
Jason. We're seeing that all over the place. Nine one one calls in
Los Angeles, for example, or routed to the police department dispatched system.
Some communities are trying a different approach. Kansas City, for example, is
working with Motorola, which provides the equipment that they use there for nine one
one system, it would automatically answer a call. The caller would be asked
by the computer, what's your emergency? So as the fire, is it,
you know, a police emergency something like this, or is it non
emergency altogether? And then the call is routed to an actual human in you
know, the communities they're they're taking this what normally is the civilian job,
turning it over to police officers, or redesignating the people who do the job
from office workers they aren't. Some communities too first responders that may go a
long way toward boosting morale for one thing, Yeah, no doubt. And
you know, I mean, if you've ever called a phone tree or a
customer service thing, it doesn't exactly instill confidence, but it sounds like rerouting
these automatically might help with the response time. How are we getting these numbers?
It was there a poll or is there a federal study about it?
Well, there's an organization called the National Emergency Number Association whose members are nine
one one call takers. They asked eight hundred and fifty of their members how
the work environment is right? Now, and they were not too surprised to
hear what it is like. Seventy five percent of those workers say the high
stress nature of the job is a main factor in staffing shortages. Sixty five
percent say low pay was this significant deterrent. Then, of course, Jason,
you've got far more available jobs than people available to work them right now.
So people who aren't happy as one dispatchers have a fairly easy time finding
a different career path fall together. That's cutting into the emergency response that any
community has. We also have a lot of labor disruptions happening this summer as
well, So maybe some wage increases here might be able to help with the
burnout rate. I mean, if you think about it, Gym, there
are three were three thousand short on air traffic controllers. Those jobs pay really
well, and they still can't fill those jobs. No, you're right,
even the well paying long term jobs with great benefits like being an air traffic
controller, but that takes a lot of commitment, a lot of education,
you know, training and before you can and then a spent through the ranks.
You might start out in a small airport somewhere and then work your way
up, you know, Interestingly, back on the issue of nine one one
dispatchers. We hear so much and you hear those famous calls or audio from
calls from a dispatcher or a dispatcher who saved somebody's life over the phone,
they coach somebody through doing CPR. Well, about thirty eight percent of the
members or nine one one call takers say they are not well prepared to handle
active shooter calls. For example, twenty five percent say they need more training
around mental health calls. So sure you hear those well publicized and often aired
reports of call takers saving lives out there over the phone, but still active
shooter calls, mental health calls, We're here seeing a lot more of those
every day, you know, Jim, Just last week you and I were
talking about the suicide hotline and how that needs to be staffed and funded as
well. So this is a good report for you to call out. I
appreciate your time this morning, Jim, as always, Thanks Jason, BBC
News Correspondent Jim Ryan there. I don't want to say that AI can fix
everything, but it seems like generative AI applied to this problem might be something
that we could look at down the line. A little bit too. I
don't I don't know for sure how that would would work out, but when
it comes to those phone trees, any help would be welcome. Let's get
back to some of them stories coming out of the KFI twenty four hour newsroom.
The FEDS have rated a local street gang allegedly tied to the murders of
two police officers in Almonte. Operation Silent Cadence was started last summer when a
gang member shot and killed two officers responding to a domestic violence call. US
attorney Martina Estrada says the gang is small, but very active and very violent,
based off of crimes committed in the last year, murdering two police officers,
attempting to murder arrival gang member, and murdering a bystander in a vehicle
in the city of Commerce, Estrada said yesterday ten people have been indicted,
twelve others have been arrested, and three members remain fugitives. Chris Adler ki
FI News well, the Federal Reserve has raised its key interest rate for the
eleventh time in seventeen months to try to slow inflation. Seems to be working.
The fed's benchmark short term rate is now five point three percent. That's
the highest level since two thousand and one. Fed sherman Jerome Powell says economic
activity is expanding at a moderate base growth in consumer spending of peers who have
slowed from earlier in the year. Although activity in the housing sector has picked
up somewhat, it remains well below levels of a year ago, lord reflecting
higher mortgage rights. Powell says the next time the Fed meats, there will
be two months worth of data. He says that means there could be another
hike in September. He also is definitely calling out that they are very data
dependent, so the next two months of inflation data and home sales data will
matter a lot. Surfers from all over the world are heading to Huntington Beach
for the US Open of Surfing, including a sixteen year old from San Clementi.
That's Bella ken Morthy's family watching the surfer come out from a barrel of
a wave at least twice her height or double overhead. Bella has been surfing
since she was five years old. My dad used to take me every morning
before kindergarten. The teen says the first time she caught a wave, she
knew she wanted to become a pro surfer. She's been competing since she was
about seven and has won seven national titles and is the only surfer to win
four of them on the same day. I mean, I like surfing the
most, but I love to compete too. I feel like, I don't
know, just like competing and like the feeling you get is like so fun
and I just love it. Bella competes all over the world. She says
having the US Open in her own backyard here in SoCal is extra special.
I mean, all my sewings are really close, so we've grown up doing
everything together, so it's super nice when they can all come. The event
is July twenty ninth through August sixth. For more, you can go to
Spectrum News one dot com Joe Kuan KFI News. Federal funding to bolster port
safety has been designated for the ports of La and Long Beach. LA is
going to get two million dollars. The Long Beach Port will get four point
three million dollars. The awards announced yesterday are part of the Department of Homeland
Securities Fiscal twenty twenty three Preparedness at Grant Allocations. A former Long Beach mayor
says the funding will protect the community and the economy. The Hollywood strikes are
delaying more movies and more TV shows. Disney has reportedly pushed back Avatar three
to twenty twenty five and two Star Wars films to twenty twenty six. Fans
of The Mandalorian will also have to wait longer for season four. This is
the way same for the second season of HBO's The Last of Us and the
fifth season of Ranger Things on Netflix. California based streaming giant Netflix has been
making headlines over a new job listing as actors and writers continue to pick it
over issues that include not being replaced by artificial intelligence. Netflix is offering to
pay nine hundred thousand dollars for an AI product manager, Mark Ronner KFI News.
The aguifier in Santa Claridum has burned four hundred and twenty one acres of
land is twenty percent contained. The fire started Tuesday afternoon near Solidad Canyon and
Agua Dulce Canyon roads. Talk about cancel culture, the Federal Reserve is no
longer forecasting a US recession this year. That's what FED Chairman J Powell told
reporters after the Central Bank raised interest rates by a quarter of a point yesterday.
Also this morning, the European Central Bank upped its rates by a quarter
point. Disneyland's popular Fantasmic Show will return in the spring of twenty twenty four,
but it will no longer feature a forty five foot tall dragon prop that
caught fire in April. The huge fire prompted depart to temporarily shut the attraction
down. Seems justifiable. At five thirty ish, the paw heard round the
world, Senator Mitch McConnell froze during a news conference yesterday for twenty three seconds.
ABC correspondent Ike Jaci will join us for updates on that story. Right
now, ABC Tech specialist and reporter Mike Debuski is back with us on wake
Up Call. Wook. Good morning, Mike, Good morning, Jason.
How are you. I'm good? Thank you. This is kind of a
big deal because it up until these companies get together to build a supercharging grid.
This was Tesla's domain, wasn't it. Yeah, that's right. So
as ev charging stands right now, Tesla owns the sort of widest and most
robust charging infrastructure in the country. They own eighteen thousand superchargers as they call
them across the country. JD Power and Associates ranks them highest in customer satisfaction
for EV owners, and that's not the case right now for non Tesla chargers,
things like Electrify America and ev Go. If you don't have a Tesla,
you're gonna have to use one of those stations. Generally speaking, JD
Power ranks them pretty much lower than Tesla's charging infrastructure. In fact, APT
from them earlier this year found that one in five non Tesla owners who used
a public charging station they were unable to charge their vehicle. They were left
stranded because of malfunctions with the technology or payment platforms, or something was going
wrong with those chargers. They're generally speaking, they have a reliability problem.
Well. Now, seven major severn excuse me, seven major automakers from around
the world are banding together to build out new EV charging infrastructure in the United
States. These are some big names Jason Cars that you will probably see every
day, General Motors Stillantis, BMW, Mercedes, Hyundai, Kia, and
Honda. They say they're going to build thirty thousand chargers across the US by
end. Canada by the end of the decade, and that's a big shot.
At Tesla, you can imagine they're watching this announcement pretty closely. But
it also relates back to the Biden administration, who is set a target of
building out half a million chargers here by the end of the decade, four
times what we have right now. That's a big number. Half a million,
I mean, so this directly addresses one major thing, that's range anxiety.
Right, So, if you're going to force people to buy evs,
and likely that's I mean that is the case, and of course climate change
and everything in alternative energy sources, how do you think this will address range
anxiety? Do you think this will help boost sales of evs? Right?
So, if you go back to the Tesla example, the supercharger network started
to be built out in sort of the early twenty tens. It launched alongside
the Model S, which was sort of their flagship breakout vehicle. Wasn't their
first car, but it was like their first like relatively mainstream vehicle, and
to sort of demonstrate what that technology could do, Elon Musk, the CEO
of Tesla, did a road trip across the United States using solely supercharger networks,
thus proving that you can drive across the country. You can do that
classic American road trip in an EV. Of course, there are some stipulations
with that. It takes longer to charge an EV, you have to maybe
stop a little bit more often than you would in a gas car, but
it's due Well, if you didn't have a Tesla, that was a much
harder proposition, and these automakers are trying to challenge that. Right thirty thousand
EV chargers across the United States would more than allow for the easy, you
know, sort of transit across the country back and forth, hopefully get to
some areas that are underpopulated with EV chargers right now, some more rural areas
perhaps, But there are hurdles here Jason. Of course, Tesla when they
build a supercharger, they that charger right now only has to accept Tesla vehicles,
right They control the whole widget, They control the thing that gets charged
and the charger. If you're building a charging network for a variety of vehicles,
for everything from you know, BMW sports cars to GM pickup trucks,
that's going to be a harder proposition, right like that. The reason that
a lot of these EV chargers are unreliable is because they have to service a
whole variety of different vehicles, and that's going to be a hurdle they're going
to need to clear. What's more, a lot of automakers don't have like
rest stop partnerships with brands like McDonald's or you know, whatever else you see
at Hudson News or whatever else you see at a rest stop, So they're
going to have to figure that component of it out. Because of course,
it takes longer to charge an EV, which means that you're going to have
to entertain people what their evs are being charged. And of course, seven
automakers teaming up to build out essentially gas stations for cars, you can imagine
there's some antitrust concerns. There's some analysts who raised concerns that the DOJ might
want to take a look at this, despite the fact that the White House
really does support this move. Things like price fixing and how they divide up
certain markets. That's going to be a concern I think going forward. I
love that you name checked Hudson News right there too. Both I have enough
fruit Penn station a lot, so I'm just a well versed in Hudson.
This right, you didn't say, Dwayne, read seven point five billion dollars.
That's the federal funding for EV chargers set aside in the bipart is an
infrastructure law that's going to cover up to eighty percent. So my question is,
is the announcement of these seven major automakers going to create some FOMO for
the other automakers to help us get to scale with this. That's a good
question, I think. I mean, the automakers that are showing up in
this, this sort of team up, this avengers of automaker EV charging are
are big in the EV space. General Motors obviously has their ultium technology that
underpins sort of their future evs that underpins hummers and and you know, low
priced equinoxes from Chevy and then Cadillac limousines. It's a very modular piece of
architecture. BMW has been building out its EV efforts as well. Mercedes Benz
as a whole slew of evs right now. I believe they have six in
fact, so the the automakers that are getting on board here are already very
steeped in what the EV you know sort of world looks like in twenty twenty
three. Others out there are are somewhat further behind. You know, you
can imagine someone, you know, like just off the top of my head,
Mitsubishi does not have an EV on the market right now. Um yeah,
you know, just like you can imagine that they you know, would
want to get you know, their valles on the road first before they maybe
you know, hitch their wagons to this larger sort of infrastructure effort. But
of course, the exception that proves the rule there is Stilantis, which is
formerly Fiat Chrysler. They own Chrysler and Jeep and Dodge. They don't really
have a robust EV on the market right now. They say they have a
couple planned. They've pickup truck coming out I believe next year or two years
from now, but they're kind of not in the EV space. They're more
in the plug in hybrid sort of world at the moment. And it's interesting
to see them on this list because it means that they are paying attention to
the infrastructure component. Whether others will get on board, it's it's unclear,
of course. The other thing that's happening in the background here, Jason,
is that a lot of automakers are moving the style of charging over to Tesla's
proprietary system. I think we talked about this a few months ago. The
North American charging standard is what Tesla uses, it's their proprietary technology. In
recent months, we've seen automakers like four General Motors, Volvo, Nissan,
Mercedes, Benz get on board with EV charging technology, saying that their future
evs are going to use Tesla chargers, which means you'll be able to charge
them up at supercharger stations. So sort of two things happening at once here.
Both these automakers trying to challenge Tesla on the infrastructure component, but when
it comes to the actual plugs that you get at these charging stations, seems
like everybody's moving in Tesla's direction. Yeah, I feel you on that the
gravitational pull is within the market for sure. Mike. Always a pleasure.
Thanks so much for giving to us some time this morning on this one,
of course, Take care, ABC Tech reporter and analyst and all around super
informed coolcat Mike Debusky. Right there a couple more numbers around this. I
think we should pull them out. Seventy two vehicles per charger right now,
so that's why this thirty thousand, additional thirty thousand charging stations will will definitely
ease that number a little bit. Right up front, it's going to cost
about a billion dollars among those seven automakers. And Mike just mentioned how many
fast chargers that Tesla owns across the US, and Elon Musk says he's going
to make open to other networks. There's twelve thousand of those. So far,
fewer than one hundred had been chaired with others. Let's get back to
some more news coming out of the KFI at twenty four hour newsroom. The
investigation into the origin of an illegal recording of La City Council members is heating
up. Investigators from the LAPD's Major Crimes Division served search warrants at the home
of a married couple who worked for the La County Federation of Labor. The
federation's president, Ron Herrero, was one of those caught on tape during a
racist rant. We will continue that investigation. It is ongoing. I'm aware
the public reports. Were not going to comment on them other than to say
that the investigations is progressing. Chief Moore said yesterday. The state Attorney General's
Office is also investigating. More said the warrants served on July thirteenth had to
do with eavesdropping in the destruction of evidence, both of which are felonies.
Steve Gregory King of FI News, a man accused of assaulting at least eight
women in downtown La East LA and the Pico Union area has been arrested.
The woman attacked earlier this month included and the women and an elderly woman who
was punched several times in the face. Please say. The twenty one year
old predator was found in Tijuana, Mexico, and the US Marshals brought him
back to the US yesterday. He's facing multiple charges, including robbery and assault
with attempt to rape. The European Union has opened an anti trust investigation against
Microsoft over the bundling of office and teams that allegedly gives it an unfair edge
over competitors. The investigation stems from a complaint filed in twenty twenty by Slack
Technologies, which makes workplace messaging software. Of course, Slack alleged that Microsoft
was abusing its market dominance to eliminate competition in violation of EU laws. That's
the second antitrust investigation going on for Microsoft right now. Police in Texas have
arrested someone they say tampered with evidence and an accidental shooting involving two kids.
Twelve year old Treyshan Yunis, who was killed last month when a three year
old found a loaded handgun at a music studio and pulled the trigger. We're
losing our children at a rapid rate because of gun violence, whether it's purpose
or accidental. Eunice's mom, Lakeisha Bay, says that she will never get
over the loss of her son and urged gun owners to put safety first.
Bass says the cheapest gunlocks she saw online was about ten bucks. She says
they should be free so nobody else has to experience the pain of losing their
child. The search for a girl who disappeared in Phoenix, Arizona, nearly
four years ago has ended. The now eighteen year old showed up at a
small town police station in Montana yesterday and asked for her name to be cleared
from a missing miners list. She said she wanted to tell her mom she's
okay. Police say the reunion was very emotional and the team was apologetic for
what she's put her mother through the girl was not facing any charges. We
only have ABC's Ikeajaci with us for a few minutes. Good morning, Ike,
good morning, how are you. I'm good? Thanks, thanks for
joining us too. Can you help us paint a picture of what happened to
miss McConnell yesterday on Capitol Hill? Yeah, that's right. It was a
really shocking moment set of minally to mins. McConnell is unable to finish his
opening remark serious weekly press conference, the eighty one year old approached the microphone
and as actually began a sentence about the National Defense Authorization Act, although before
trailing off for about twenty seconds, staring blankly forward without blinking. Now,
Senators Johnnie Ernst and John Barrasso had to actually help him away from the microphone.
Barrasso, who was an orthopedic surgeon and actually served as the president of
the Wyoming Medical Society, said that he helped him to his office and that
he seemed to find on his way to the office. McConnell then came back
after several minutes and got back on the microphone and began taking questions from reporters,
and he was actually responding clearly and sometimes with munthy answers, but he
dodged all questions about what everyone saw just a few moments prior to him coming
back. Yeah, it was unsettling for sure, and I'm going to save
the sound for whenever. I know we have to let you go in about
ninety seconds, so I'm going to save the sound for after our discussion.
What about updates for today? Has he been in front of the press again
today, Well, at the moment, there's no word yet if he saw
a doctor after that event or even uptil today. Senator mister Combells communications director
has not issued any kind of stating whether or not that happened. But it's
really up to the senator to really give his constituents and the rest of the
Senate an update on his help. You know, he does have some kind
of responsibility to his constituents to let him know that he's in good health,
and that is something that their office is going to have to decide whether or
not they do it to them. Now, they did mention that he has
fallen a few more times than was first made public as well. Was that
news to you? Well, that's the thing. So he was actually treated
for a concussion and a broken rib. After that fall in Washington, he
was later discharging the hostel and went into an impeat patient rehab center. But
in the past two months, a lot of centers have been noticing the difference
in his physical appearance. It is true he overcame polio as a kid,
which is why his gate has always been stiff, But in the past couple
months since that incident, he's been visually more cautious, and on multiple occasions
he actually hasn't been able to hear questions that reporters have asked to him.
At one point back in the news conference in June, so of John Tuna
had to actually lean in and explain to McConnell what the question was. Wow,
okay, thanks for the update. Ike. I appreciate your time this
morning. I know you got to scoot. Thanks for having me. Thanks
here. Maybe SE's Ike Jochi there, So Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.
We asked producer Nate to pull the sound, so rather than take up time
with Ike, let's go ahead and play that sound now for as long as
we can. You're finishing the NBA this week. It's been good bye Barge
in cooperation and a string of good much news. He else you want to
say, you're sure s go back to it. Do you want to say
anything else to the press? Go ahead, clear, Let's go back today.
Let's go ahead, John. So this is the We're coming up on
the one year anniversary of the IRA. That was the Senator Mitch McConnell yesterday
in the rotunda of Capitol Hill. We'll have more news on that later this
morning, no doubt. A couple of commentators on CNN SA they did speak
with the Senator last night and he seems to be in good health. Let's
get back to some of the stories coming out of the KFI twenty four hour
news room. Roads are still closed in the New Hall Pass because of a
fire that's burned about seventy acres. Sierra Highway north of Needham Ranch is closed
this morning as part of the cleanup effort. The fire started Tuesday afternoon and
quickly took off into dry brush. One person was hurt. A brush fire
in the Santa Clarita area has grown to more than four hundred and twenty acres.
It was twenty percent surrounded as of last night. The fire started Tuesday
afternoon in the area of Solo Dog Canyon and Agua Dulce Canyon roads and burned
into the Angelus National Forest and coming out of the FED meeting, Wall Street
continues to bang. The dall Is on a thirteen day winning street that's the
best performance since nineteen eighty seven, and the NASDAC is riding high this morning
and pre market trading as well on the strength of strong earnings reports from Meta
and Google. Gang members allegedly connected to the shooting deaths of two police officers
Inda Monty had been arrested. LA County Sheriff Robert Luna says the gang members
were also involved in other crimes last year where they killed a witness to an
earlier shooting. Any attempt to intimidate, dissuade, or harm a witness is
investigated and prosecute it to the fullest extent of the law. People say twelve
people are in custody and facing federal charges, while three others do remain fugitives.
Two murder cases on opposite ends of La County are related. Pasadena Police
Lieutenant Keith Gomez says they arrested six people Tuesday night in connection with the shooting
death of a man found on the Angelis Crest Highway Saturday morning. The suspects
were inside a vehicle, the vehicle that was actually involved in the homicide,
and they were in the valley. In the city of Los Angeles. Man
and women were found shot to death inside a car early Monday morning at a
lookout in Rancho Palace Verdes. Sources close to the case say the five men
and one woman are members of MS thirteen and may have been targeting people at
lookouts as some sort of thrill kill. Steve Gregory king off I News.
A new creepy crawley species has been discovered under the Southland. The Los Angeles
thread millipede has been found in parks in LA and Orange Counties. It's blind,
looks a little like it would glow in the dark, has glassy looking
skin, and four hundred eighty six legs. Paulmeric is one of the researchers
who helped identify the millipede. He says the bug crawls around just under the
soil surface and feeds on dead organic material. It has a helmet like head
and resembles a creature from a Hollywood monster movie, just a lot smaller.
It's about the width of a mechanical pencil lead Marek says the discovery reminds us
there's an undiscovered planet underground. Amy King KFI news sounds so cool. Can't
wait to google that during the break and find out what it actually looks like.
The Federal Reserve raised interest rates yesterday, but the Federal Reserve is also
no longer forecasting a US recession this year. The European Central Bank raised its
interest rates point two five percent this morning. It cannot be so optimistic about
its recessionary opportunities. One hundred and forty million Americans across the country are under
an official severe heat advisory today. Feels like temperatures are going to be in
triple digits from the Midwest to the northeast. TikTok is launching its own e
commerce business that's going to compete with other Chinese companies like Temu. We'll see
how Capitol Hill responds to that too. Let's get back some of the other
stories coming out of the KFI twenty fire our newsroom before Brad Garrett from ABC
joins us to talk about Hunter Biden and the investigation therein. The US Securities
and Exchange Commission wants public companies to be more transparent and forthcoming about material cybersecurity
incidents. That's according to the federal agency yesterday. It's new rules, passed
by a three to two vote, dictate that companies must disclose details of incidents
and their effect on the bottom line of the company in a section of a
form called eight K. The AK form is a It's a broad form companies
use to notify shareholders of major events within four days of a cybersecurity event,
and eight K needs to be published so you can set a Google alert for
that. That's how I do it. At least A staying operation in southern
California has snagged more than one hundred and thirty alleged online child sex predators in
less than two weeks. Arrests are made in five counties, including La County,
Orange County, and sama Nardino County. Laguna Beach Police Captain Michael Peter
says people would be shocked by the six people arrested in his city because they're
not what you think they are. They're they're normal people with normal jobs that
have lived in normal neighborhoods, some with families. The operation was carried out
by a regional task force led by the LAPD. It went down from July
tenth to July twenty first. In La Blake Trolley k if I News,
Welcome back to your wake up call. And on the line is ABC's Brad
Garrett. He's ABC's News Crime and Terrorism analyst and he joins us as often
as we can get him on the line. Good morning, Brad, Good
morning Jason. Let's talk about the Hunter Biden investigation. But I want to
start not with the plea deal. We'll get to that eventually. I want
to start with the Foreign Agents Registration Act and how that plays into this investigation.
So I think for clarity in reference to your audience, what that says.
Basically, yes, you can do business with foreign governments. People do
it every day, present Trump's children every day while he was president. You
know, there's nothing wrong with that. Hunter Biden was doing it in a
lot of different countries. But when it comes to if you'd end up becoming
you the US citizen, become basically an advocate for the government of these countries,
you're now acting as an agent for them, Well, you have to
have permission to do that, and if you don't have permission, you violated
the law. I mean General Michael Flynn, Paul mana Fort. I could
name off a lot of people who have been charged and convicted of this Act.
A Manaphort went to prison, as well as some other charges obviously,
so there is that aspect to this. Hunter Biden in this multi year FBI
US Attorney's Office investigation in Delaware apparently didn't find anything that would go up to
the ability and other evidence to charge him with what I just described. And
so what do you end up with, you know, a tax charge and
a gun charge. Now the House, who now are controlled by Republicans,
are going after Hunter Biden, claiming the vice presidents or then vice president Biden
was involved in these business deals, that he got money out of these business
deals, and so you get into peddaling influence and violation of this Act and
probably some other acts or other laws, and I just I don't see any
evidence do support it. So that's what you got going on. Now,
government didn't charge from some of that. Publicans are convinced he did have something
to do with that, and that's the dividing line at this point. So
the talking points I saw from video and interviews in the hallways yesterday on Capitol
Hill was quote unquote sweetheart deal. So what happened with this plea deal?
I thought it was kind of a kind of done before it went to the
judge, but then I guess there was pushback. Yeah, it's not totally
uncommon for judges not to like plea agreements. And you know, he or
she in this case, she has the final say as to whether the agreement
will be accepted or not from her vantage point, and so as a result,
you have she's saying things like the immunity to her is not clear in
this plea agreement, and she's talking about immunity from other types of charges,
the ones you and I just talked about, the foreign influenced stuff. And
the US attorney, the US attorney that's appointed through the president, who is
a Trump appointee they left in office in Delaware. I think, just to
handle this particular case, I said that, no, that's not included in
this plea deal. If in fact, we find evidence and we could potentially
charge him with foreign influence and other violations. So I assume that was clear
to Home Biden. I mean, I would be shocked if that weren't the
case. That's one of the questions you always ask in a plea agreement,
Well, what does it cover? And I think it covers tax and gun
charges. If there would be any others, he might have immunity from those,
So that's the issue that Judge also made a comment about the constitutionality of
the police agreement and Jason, I'm not sure what she means by that,
but well, I guess we'll find out here when he has another hearing,
I think sometime in August. Yeah, I think you're ready to get his
August. We're speaking with Brad Garrett, ABC News Crime and Terrorism Analyst.
My last question, I guess is just a quick follow up about the about
the Fort Agents Registration Act. Is that like a lobbyist for policy changes on
behalf of a fort country? And what is an example of something like that.
Well, he would be like if you were in a business relationship,
let's say Ukraine or China, and then the Chinese ask you to intervene on
some policy or something that has to do with the formal relationship between in this
example, between China and the US. So you're basically have become China's advocate.
It doesn't say you can't do it, but you have to have permission
to do it, and you can see why because you'd have people running all
over the world, you know, advocating for governments back to the US.
I mean, it could create all sorts of corruption and misinformation and you know,
giving foreign governments perhaps additional power to manipulate our government. So anyway,
the point the point being, if you don't have the license, you violated
the law. I think the additional potential charges that the Republicans are alleging is
that, and I mentioned this earlier that then vice versa Biden was getting money
out of all of these deals. I'm not seeing one stitch of evidence that
supports that, but that's where they're apparently trying to head. Yeah, politics
are going to politic I guess it says here your social media handle is at
Brad Investigates. Is that for Instagram or for x slash Twitter? It's for
I guess x slice Twitter. Right right on, Brad, Thanks a lot
for your time this morning. Always a pleasure to have you on. Take
care of Jason absolutely. ABC's Brad Garrett. ABC News Crime and Terrorism Analyst
Brad Garrett. There, let's get back to a few of these stories coming
out of the KFY twenty four hour news room. Before we get to handle
on the news, a self imposed attacks could help. Thirty seven groundwater pumps
continue to protect homeowners in Anaheim Hills. Anaheim spokeswoman Aaron Ryan says the city
paid three and a half million dollars for the pumps in nineteen ninety three,
when a landslide destroyed multiple homes. The assessments that are being considered by residents
range from three hundred and eight dollars two more than twenty three hundred dollars per
year. It is paid for through the property tax each year, and says
without funding, the pumps will shut off and another landslide is likely. Homeowners
will decide tonight on the tax, which ranges from a few hundred to a
couple thousand dollars depending on each home's risk. Irvine as next years of negotiations
with Live Nation for a one hundred and forty million dollar amphitheater in favor of
a smaller, quieter venue, it's sex starting all over. Irvine Mayor fare
Con says the goal was to make the Great Part a national destination. I
don't feel this small, community run amphitheater is going to be the draw that
we were hoping for. Dolcaman Larry Igeran says the lopsided deal gave Live Nation
all parking and naming rights, revenue and full control over booking acts and most
important, the sound impacts would be simply too intrusive to the surrounding neighborhoods.
The council this week asked staff for plans for a smaller venue within ninety days.
In Irvine, Corbin Carson k FI News, fans of Disneylands Haunted Mansion
can stay at an Airbnb in Fullerton inspired by the popular ride. The four
bedroom house is known as the Ghostly Retreat and it features elaborate decorations with spooky
sound and lighting effects which can be turned off at any time if it gets,
you know, a little too spooky. It costs six hundred and thirty
two dollars to book for a night, and up to eight people can stay
at a time. The owner is a production designer and says it took him
two months to transform the house into the perfect look alike a Disney's new Haunted
Mansion movie hits theaters tomorrow. Irish singer Sinad O'Connor has died. She was
fifty six and Her family says they're devastated. No cause of death was given.
O'Connor says it was best known for her shaved head and her nineteen ninety
hits on Nothing Compares to You, which was written by Prince. In recent
years, O'Connor talked about her struggle with addiction and mental health. Her seventeen
year old son, Shane, committed suicide last year. This is KFI and
kost HD two Los Angeles, Orange Counting live from the KFI twenty four newsroom.
I'm Jason Middleton. This has been your wake up call. You've been
listening to wake up call? You know you can always listen live on k
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