Am. 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 right on. Good Morning everybody. This is your wake up
call. My name is Jason Middleton. It's five am, it's Tuesday.
It's June thirteenth. New music bed to start today, got me chair dancing
already. We have a pretty full hour. Some cool interviews, We've got
some a new segment we're gonna try once in a while, maybe a couple
times a week. It's called Getting in Getting business E. We're gonna do
some wrap ups today on some business news. We're gonna make him relatable.
I'm gonna promise that it's not gonna be sleep inducing at all, because these
are things that are going to affect our daily lives. We'll get into that
towards the bottom of the hour. We also have an update from Miami,
so let's go ahead and get into the headlines before we get into some local
stories as well. Former President Trump is planning to plead not guilty in federal
court today in Miami. It is a thirty seven count federal indictment. It
regards the alleged removal and storage of classified government documents after he left the White
House. We're going to speak with ABC's Aeron Katurski, who is in Miami
in just a few minutes. The Federal Reserve starts its meeting for June today,
and it's expected that we're going to get a pause in interest rate hikes.
It's not guaranteed they have hiked raises. They've they've hiked interest rates ten
times in a row, so this will be the first skip in a while.
It's anticipated that the inflation report, which we're going to get at the
bottom of this hour as well, is going to enforce that idea that we
are going to get a skip. Now, I still think that a quarter
point raise in July is on the table. It's still sticky inflation, but
it is slowing, so we'll see how that plays out. I'll have that
for you at the bottom of the hour when we get the report. And
the Denver Nuggets are NBA champions. The Nuggets beat the Miami Heat last night.
Now, attention is going to turn to the NBA trade rumors, which
are just lighting up my social media. I see all kinds of stuff.
Is like, are the Lakers going to be adding another big that seems to
be it. All I know is that the Nuggets did not cover the spread
last night, and that was good news for a lot of people. Let's
start with some of the stories coming out of the kf I twenty four hour
newsroom. As always, we do lead local. An eighty four year old
doctor is suing the Santa Monica Fire Department, claiming EMTs made him a quadriplegic.
The doctor fell and hit his head on a bathtub last year or causing
a neck injury. Attorney for the family, Chris Dolan, says EMTs did
not stabilize the doctor's neck before transporting him, damaging nerves and his spinal cord.
He went from a very self sufficient man to now somebody who's bedridden,
very expensive to be in twenty four hour care. Dolan yesterday said the fire
department has not responded to the lawsuit or taken responsibility. The lawsuit claims the
doctor has suffered loss of intimacy and emotional distress in Santa Monica. Chris Adler
KFI News. A grand jury report in Orange County has raised concerns about OC
animal cares management and practices. Animal advocate Liz Huig says the shelter's appointment only
adoption system is just not working. The shelter needs to be open. People
need to be able to walk through the shelter make connections with a pet.
The adoption rates are down significantly because people cannot walk through the shelter. The
shelter has been closed to visitors without an appointment since the start of the pandemic.
The report claims euthanasia rates have spiked one hundred and eighty seven percent since
then. OC Animal Care says it will formally respond to the report within ninety
days. Walking through does make a lot of sense because often it's the pet
that adopts the would be owner in those situations, opening statements are set for
this morning in the trial of a man from Riverside County accused of fatally shooting
the mother of his infant son. The man is also accused of hurting his
dad, who tried to intervene during the attack in twenty nineteen. He's charged
with first degree murder, domestic violence, child cruelty, and being a felon
in possession of a gun. A prosecutor alleges the man would use his fists
and a baseball bat to hurt the woman on different occasions. Small amounts of
alcohol could be good for your heart. Researchers at Massachusetts General Hospitals say they're
not advertising for people to drink because alcohol can raise the risk of cancer,
but do say a small amount of alcohol could benefit your heart because it eases
stress in the brain. A study published in the Journal of the American College
of Cardiology suggests by understanding the benefits, researchers could find other healthier ways to
get the same benefit, like through meditation or exercise. Other studies have shown
moderate drinkers have a lower risk of heart attacks than those who drink a lot
or don't drink alcohol at all. Amy King KFI News The IRS is trying
to clear up confusion for California at taxpayers or ray for the Golden State.
Notices have been mailed out saying they owe a balance within three weeks, despite
an extension for most of the state. The agency apologized and assured those covered
by the disaster declaration that they do not have to file or pay until October
the sixteenth. The notices were sent automatically again, though it doesn't apply to
fifty five counties affected by severe winter storms that we just came out of.
Also in state news, relief is one step closer for public transit agencies in
California that are struggling to survive. They could soon be getting money under the
state's new budget. Lawmakers were able to make a deal over the weekend that
brought back two billion dollars in funding that would have been cut to transportation.
This will especially help San Francisco and La. The budget must be finalized and
approved by Thursday of this week. However, and a restaurant rome dubbed the
World's smallest restaurant still carries a big price tag. Dig This solo Perdue or
just for two in Italian, has fireworks, specially designed dishes based on your
taste, which is good because there's two people at the table, a silver
bell to summon the waiter, and just one elegantly set table that overlooks an
ancient Roman villa. The owners say they wanted to give people the chance to
have an intimate, fairy tale like experience after becoming frustrated by crowded restaurants with
long waits and poor service. I guess after COVID a lot of revenge in
restaurant dining was happening all over the world. Rome's a great place to eat.
Dig this. A meal for two at Solo Perdue costs more than five
hundred dollars. Champagne, top wides and floral decorations cost extra. I haven't
been to Rome in a while. That seems still a price you for Rome.
Even today is Tuesday, and it's also the day that former President Trump
will wind up in Miami to plead not guilt to the federal indictment. So
we have ABC's Eric Katurski on the line with us to make sure that we
understand what's happening on the ground there. Eric Aaturski, you are live in
Miami. Thank you so much for giving us a heads up of what's going
on there. And a matter of fact, let's start right there. What
is it like in Miami this morning. Well, there's a big crowd of
reporters. Of course, so far, there's no sign of any demonstrations like
the ones the former president has called for, and online there have been some
calls for people to come out and protest against the indictment and the special counsel,
and some of those invitations are echoing the former presidents and sendiary rhetoric about
the case and about special counsel Jack Smith. So the police are on alert
for any sign of trouble, but they say that's not the Miami Way,
and they're taking this seriously, preparing for a crowd of five thousand to fifty
thousand. They just don't know what's going to materialize. And if it was
going to materialize, it seems like it would be materializing as you and I
speak right now, right. I mean, it just seems like they're they're
prepping for something that doesn't seem to be coming through, even though Florida is
a lot trumpier as a state than New York was. Oh, I think
that's true. You know, he has a much more natural base of support
just here in South Florida, and so it's possible that, you know,
when he arrived this afternoon, there is a crowd of supporters waiting to try
and see him and to demonstrate against an indictment that he has denounced and denied.
We just don't know. But the concern, I think has been some
of the rhetoric that analysts have seen online. But so far we're told there
are no credible threats of any violence or trouble. It's my understanding that a
magistrate is going to handle the arraignment this morning, and not Judge Eileen Cannon,
who was a Trump appoint e. Has there been any talk about that
for many officials there. Well, in that way, it's just standard.
You know. The Judge Goodman is the duty magistrate, so he'll handle the
initial appearance here. We think this is also going to be an arrangement.
He would take the not guilty plea from former President Trump and the case was
then randomly assigned to Judge Alien Cannon. We don't believe the prosecutors are making
any moves, at least at this stage to try and for search or recuse,
but we don't know how they may handle that going forward. Thank you
for the pronouncer correction on the fly right there, Aaron, it's Alien Canon,
my mistake. What are you being told as far as the motorcade coming
in there going to go right underground and we're not even going to see the
president or is he going to maybe take a little bit of a tour Impulse
control is not his number one priority. Well, and that's just it.
You know, I think that the preference from the secret Service is to drive
him straight in an underground The preference from the former president would be to you
know, be visible walking in the front door. So I think it's all
probably a negotiation. But for safety and security, I think the preference is
certainly to keep him largely out of public view. Once he gets here,
he will be in the custody of the FBI. I mean, he's not
going to be in handcuffs, but neither will he be free, and he'll
go through processing, you know, fingerprints, possibly a mug shot, and
then you know that all is expected to unfold fairly quickly. Aaron, I
know you're outside the courthouse right now, and I was listening and watching another
network this morning as I was prepping for this interview with you, and there's
mention of some roosters roaming about. Have you seen the reported rooster thing?
I mean, can you hear him in the background. I thought that's what
they were downtown Miami. Is that I've never been to Miami accept a flight
through the airport, so I guess, I guess that's just news to me.
You're missing out. Eric at Turski, thank you so much for your
time. It's morning. Good luck today thank you. We'll have more from
Aaron and others throughout the day, no doubt today a quick update on something
we covered yesterday and was all over the news as well, and that's the
accident and collapse at Philadelphia. Please have recovered a body from that section of
ninety five were gas tanker crack caught fire over the weekend. The inferno that
came after that led to the collapse of an elevated portion of the interstate.
That happens Sunday morning. Detectives have not released a victim's identity. Governor Josh
Shapiro has since declared an emergency declaration with the goal of accelerating repairs to the
heavily traveled roadway. Of course, all eyes right now are on former President
Trump ahead of his scheduled arraignment today in Florida. He's expected to be in
federal court around noon Pacific. The former president wasn't dited last week on thirty
seven felony counts connected to the handling of classified documents. A now former cal
Fire Riverside County battalion chief is retiring and entering an alcohol rehabit program. The
move comes after fifty one year old Terran Mark League is facing sentencing related to
a November twenty twenty one arrest for misdemeanor sexual battery. Former South Carolina Governor
Nicky Haley quite busy hosting fundraisers in southern California all this week. Haley,
he was running for the Republican nomination for next year, will host a fundraiser
in Newport Beach this afternoon and at five thirty three ish, we're going to
do a getting business segment, and for this one, we're gonna look at
anti trust news. And the anti trust news is going to land on stuff
that we all know, names that we all know, Google, Microsoft,
and the PGA. So we can't sleep on antitrust. I know that word
might be like whatever, but these cases often shift how business is done period,
very macro kind of effect. This leads to policy, so we're gonna
look at that too. A couple of stories from the newsroom before we talk
with mister Dubuskie. Anaheim must decide to either boost the minimum wage for hotel
workers to twenty five bucks an hour or send the question to voters. They
are one paycheck away from homelessness. You're not here. Local eleven co President
Otto Bersanio says workers also face sexual harassment and unfair workloads. Many of them
are CouchSurfing or they're living in their cars. She says the hotel industry has
surpassed pre pandemic profit levels. We've seen Los Angeles, Long Beach Stand,
Monica, Glendale, West Hollywood adopt laws guaranteeing fair pay and we have seen
no fallout. Critics say the ordinance would increase hotel rates, threatened jobs,
and be detrimental for small hotel owners in Anaheim. Corbin Carson, k if
I News. Ten people in Denver have been hurt in a shooting close to
the arena where the Denver Nuggets won their first NBA title. ABC's Jim Ryan
says the shooting happened as fans were celebrating the team's win early this morning.
Police say the crowds were thinning up when there was some sort of altercation and
gunshots were fired. Three of the injured were in critical condition, and the
alleged shooter has been arrested. Now we're going to get an update on this
Reddit situation. Okay. Reddit, just for background, is an online community
site that has thousands of what's called Subreddit's niche communities for news and chatting things
ranging from everything from the climate crisis to macromay. ABC's Mike Debusky is with
us to talk down to help us break down why parts of Reddit are not
working today. Good morning, Mike, Good morning. Yeah. So this
actually goes back to a decision that Reddit made back in April. They said
they were going to reshuffle pricing for their API, or their Application programming interface,
which is a very technical way of saying, this is the code that
third parties app developers can come in and build their apps off of. So
if I wanted to make an iOS app out of Reddit, I would need
to access their API. And what has also happened in recent months is we've
seen an explosion in AI programs. Chatbots like chat, GPT and Google's Bart
have soared in popularity in part they are trained on Reddit's data, right,
they access Reddit's API. So Reddit looked at this and they said, these
guys, you know, can afford it, right, We're going to reshuffle
our pricing and they're going to pay their fair share. But those original third
party app developers, a lot of them, just sort of independent little guys,
have said these changes are too expensive for us. This could knock our
app offline when they go into effect, which is June thirtieth, is when
they say it's going to go into effect. Well yeah, so, well
I was going to ask you right there, because Reddit is planning on an
IPO, right, not an IPO, but they're planning to go public,
that's right. And this has been sort of bandied about for a little while,
and you can imagine that this decision factors into that they would want to,
you know, find a nice revenue stream for themselves to perhaps boost some
valuation, and you know, all the all the rest of it. But
this has had sort of an unintended consequence, which is that these third party
apps, you know, among them names like Apollo and Sync, you know,
these are relied upon by a lot of Reddit users, power users in
a lot of ways, and they've staged this Reddit blackout. So what that
means is that moderators are very popular Reddit communities. The subreddit dedicated to sports,
the subreddit dedicated to music, you know, funny, which is memes
and jokes and that sort of thing. They have set themselves to private,
which means that if you're not subscribed to them, you can't see them,
and that has a big impact on not just the Reddit community, but sort
of the broader Internet conversation. Jason, Yeah, that was the question I
was going to follow up. This might have knock on ripples for other sites
on the rest of the Internet. That's absolutely right. So the conversations that
we have, whether they be political or cultural or what have you, that
we have on Twitter and on Facebook, a lot of those conversations start on
Reddit. The broader Internet discourse exists downstream of this website in a lot of
ways. And I'll just give you a small example of that. Elon Musk
a former CEO of Twitter, one of the richest people in the world.
He gets the memes that he posts on Twitter from Reddit. So a small
example, but like you can imagine, you know, if one of the
richest men in the world, Elon Musk is is hanging out on Reddit,
and then you can imagine a lot of other people are too. Well.
I'm not necessarily trying to be you know, guilty by association, but I
use Reddit a lot when I'm doing show prep. Yeah, to do deep
dart deeper. It's very narrow and deep these subreddits, and that gets at
sort of an interesting conversation about exactly where Reddit exists in the broader Internet ecosystem.
Right, Facebook, Twitter, even Google are you know they serve you
algorithmically, you know, preferred results to whatever you're searching for, whether it
be a conversation or a website or whatnot. In some way, what you're
looking at is influenced by the algorithms that those companies have fed, right,
and Reddit has its own algorithm and what have you. But a lot of
what those communities that you see there, whether it be about music or macromay
as you mentioned, uh, you know, they are user generated, which
is in part why when you go to Google something now, a lot of
what you'll see is if I'm googling, for example, you know, birdwatching
in New York Central Park, I will first see Google. I will first
see you know, birdwatching in Central Park, and then the word Reddit because
a lot of people want to go to that human conversation, right. They
don't want to go to something that Google has predetermined for me. They want
to see what the actual people are talking about. So it's a really influential
platform. I don't really think that people think about it that way, but
I think it's it's important to talk about and you know, an event like
this where a lot of it is cut off from the broader Internet community is
signal. All right, We're speaking with ABC's tech analyst Mike Debuski. A
couple of quick questions before I have to let you go. Let's go back
to the developers. Are developers? Is this an unreality for them? I
mean, should they have an expectation that these are going to have to go
up for this or are they just pushing back against an existing culture. That's
a really good question. I think, you know, in part yes,
they should, you know, have baked in, you know, a certain
amount of uncertainty when it comes to Reddit's API pricing. Of course, Reddit's
API pricing is completely up to Reddit. They can charge whatever they want for
it. But one of the developers you know who I talked to yesterday,
Christian Selik, who is behind the iOS app Apollo, basically a Reddit style
app. Right if you wanted to get on Reddit on your iPhone, Apolo
is a pretty good option that a lot of people use. Um. He
said that the pricing change would cause them to have to pay twenty million dollars
annually for access to this API. And again, like we're talking about,
these are not big apps, right, This isn't the Facebook app or the
grubhub app or the Spotify app. These are kind of small, niche products
that a lot of people use. That pricing change, you know, really
directed at like the Googles and the Microsoft and the open aiyes of the world,
that has a really big impact on these kind of smaller third parties.
So yeah, I think it's a balance, certainly, but I think a
lot of them maybe we're not expecting quite such a dradic shift. Yeah,
well, I think that's that's fair, and I appreciate the context on that
too. I guess my last question is going to have to kind of shift
because I want to talk about artificial intelligence. I cover that on my other
show a lot, and it's disrupting a lot of places. So artificial intelligence
learns from the rest of the Internet. And it seems that this fee increase
from Reddit plays into charging others to train their aies. Is that is that
in play here as well as as Reddit gets ready to go public? Right,
So the you know question of like the AI companies that use Reddit's data
to make their to train their systems right. A lot of that comes back
to the fact that the human conversations that are had on Reddit are from humans,
right, and the responses that we get from the chat GPTs and the
google Bards of the world, they sound pretty human. So it's not to
say that, you know, it's a like if losing Reddit would completely disrupt
chat gpt. I don't think that's exactly the conversation that we're having, but
it certainly played a huge role in learning what humans sound like on the Internet,
both for good and for bad. Right. Not all the conversations that
are happening on Reddit are great ones, and that has shown up in AI
chat bots as well, but it certainly played a significant role, right.
These AI chat bots, these these AI systems, these large language models are
trained on huge swaths of the Internet. And one of the bigger questions about
the AI space right now is exactly what that looks like. We know it's
in part trained on Reddit, but we don't know a ton of specifics about
that. We know it's in part trained on you know, websites like KFI
dot com or The New York Times or ABC News, and like, we
just need to kind of drill down on exactly what that looks like if we're
going to get a better understanding of exactly what these systems know, and at
that at this moment, we just don't have that. The latest data I
see is seventy seven hundred subreddits have gone dark and how long will this last?
Mike? So some of the subreddits signed up for this and they said
it's going to be a forty eight hour blackout. So it started yesterday,
it's going to go into tomorrow. But others, like the ar Music subreddit
again, hugely popular subreddit dedicated to music, millions of followers, they say
they're closed indefinitely for Reddit's API policy change protests. So if you go to
that page, you're not going to see anything about music. You're gonna learn
about application programming interfaces and that sort of thing. So, yeah, big
moment here for Reddit ABC's Mike Dbuskie. It's always a pleasure to nerd out
with you. Thank you so much for giving us so much time this morning.
Of course, take care. Let's get a couple of quick stories before
we go into the next segment where we're going to get business. Nearly two
dozen US service members are injured after a helicopter accident in Syria. The military
did not provide many details about the incident that happened over the weekend, but
stead ten of the twenty two injured were sent to medical facilities outside the region.
It also reported no enemy fire was involved. There are around nine hundred
US troops in Syria to fight the remnants of the Islamic State in Iranian backed
militias as well. And A bus driver in Australia that rereported on yesterday has
been arrested for a crash that killed ten wedding guests at injured twenty five others
have been and has been released on bail. Police say the driver was speeding
before the bus rolled over at a roundabout this past weekend. He's charged with
ten counts of dangerous driving and one count of negligent driving. It was Australia's
deadliest road accident since nineteen ninety four. New figures show the toll fentanyl has
taken on the US Army. The Washington Post reports data it obtained shows one
hundred and twenty seven soldiers were lost to fentanyl between twenty fifteen and twenty twenty
two. That's more than the number killed in combat in Afghanistan during that same
span. The Supreme Court is expected to rule on the use of affirmative action
in college admissions any day now. A pair of cases, one at the
University of North Carolina and the other at Harvard allege that the practice harms white
and Asian students. And at five fifty or around there, we're going to
move into the summer travel season discussion. There's an ugly angle to that summer
travel and that's road rage. Air rage is also a thing, unfortunately.
So at five fifty we're gonna close wake Up Call Interviews at least with a
chat about road rage road rage with ABC's Jim Ryan. Right now, we're
gonna get business e and let's do an economic heat check, and then we're
gonna talk about some anti trust. So yesterday on the Bill Handle Show,
we talked about stock markets moving out of a bear market and into a bull
market. Technically speaking, now it's a bull just by a nose, but
that's often enough on Wall Street to build momentum. If you ever follow those
headlines, almost anything can change the winds on Wall Street. And this kind
of positivity is probably going to have a little bit of an effect, especially
when we talk about the next story, which is inflation. But here's some
let's do some math on the radio. The Nasdaq is up twenty eight percent
year to date, the SMP five hundred is up thirteen percent year to date.
And a few weeks ago it was popular I said it too to say
that big businesses were carrying the markets upward because they have huge market caps.
But those gains are actually spreading to small cap stocks as well. So a
skip from the Fed on interest rate hikes this month, even if they bump
it up a little bit in July, means we could start to steer towards
slow, steady gains on least on Wall Street for the rest of the year.
Part two of the heat check is that we have three data drops today
which will move markets. And first up is the Small Business Optimism Report.
That one's pretty much self explanatory, so I'll have to unpack that one next
hour when we have that in hand. And then we have the inflation report
for May, which is about to drop or at least be published out any
minute. I'll have that soon, probably at the top of the hour,
I would imagine, so it looks like Wall Street in pre market trading right
now is pretty quiet. It's going to stay that way until the inflation number
gets processed. If inflation comes in close to zero, we're expecting point one
percent increase. It comes in close to that, then the FED meeting that
starts today ends tomorrow may get the pause in interest rate hikes that we are
expecting. Okay, So now let's turn a little bit to some other business
stuff, and it's antitrust. And this is about how Google, Microsoft,
and basically Golf conduct their businesses, and the challenges right now for these businesses
is anti trust. So government's watch for monopolies or business not collusion, but
the business contraction or when big big businesses gobble up smaller ones and that chokes
open the open market competition. So let's start with Google and this go to
the EU about this. No, Google is set to be hit with a
formal antitrust complaint from the EU today that could pave the way for massive finds.
The EU, under its own rules, can find a company up to
ten percent basically of its annual revenue, which for Google is not small.
We'll get to that number just a second two. But what they're focusing on
is the core of Google's business, which is advertising, advertising technology. That's
eighty percent of Google's bottom line. The charge sheet that's coming out of the
EU, which should land later today, it could it could be delayed till
tomorrow. It targets the core of alphabet right, the ad tech business model.
Google's advertising business is its most successful business. It's not great at hardware
the pixel. Notwithstanding, Google's advertising business eighty percent of its annual revenue,
and that amounts to two hundred and twenty five billion dollars, So the fine
could be up to twenty two point five billion dollars. This is one of
the biggest antitrust regulatory look ats from the EU. Ever, and Google already
has appending eight billion dollar fine from a previous ruling. So I've been covering
the EU coverage of the tech industry for years, and the impetus here is
a little bit cultural, and it's a little bit more that European tech companies
just aren't as advanced as what we're getting out of silicon value, have been
getting out of silicon value for the last twenty five years, and so this
is a little bit of slowdown so we can catch up. It's not all
about that, though, there isn't a real antitrust issue happening here that needs
to be examined, at least that's what the EU thinks. Now Here in
the United States, the FTC has filed to block Microsoft from buying Activision.
This goes to cloud gaming, which is a small market right now. But
if you think about AI coming the aar VR headsets that Apple has introduced,
which is their biggest product drop since you know, well the watching the AirPods,
I gas, but it goes back to almost potentially iPhone big if it's
adopted, not at this price point of thirty five hundred, but it's still
a big deal. In a filing in California, the FTC has sought an
order to block the transaction from going through between Microsoft and buying Activision Blizzard.
One of the reasons is it's a seventy billion dollar deal. Another reason is
the Biden administration. This is their jam. And it seems to be that
Microsoft actually wants this to go to court because they think that they can prove
that this is good for business around the world and especially here in the United
States, and it will give them, of course the lead because they'll own
call of duty and others for cloud gaming moving forward, which has yet to
really be capitalized monetized. It's a small market right now, but when you
have Microsoft getting in at this level of investment, you can imagine they're not
going to let that go very easily. And then, of course the PGA
and the Live liv Golf deal. Senate Democrat Richard Bloemahal has opened an investigation
into that merger that was basically a surprise last week. They want to look
at the records of how this is going down. One. This is a
little bit political as well, but it's also antitrust politics. Part of it
is because Live Golf through a whole bunch of money from the Saudi Empire and
try to make a competitor to the PGA, and instead of competing, looks
like they're trying to be a merger here. But just out this morning,
the PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan has written in a letter to Congress that this
is not a merger, so he's going to have to explain that pretty soon.
Inflation did ease in May, but it's still unclear whether the economy can
slow just enough without causing pain to families. What I mean by that is,
whether we're going to get a short shallow recession later this year, no
matter what. Inflation did come in point one percent, which is right at
expectations, which gives the doves those who don't want to raise rates on the
Federal Reserve Board, those who vote gives them a reason to go ahead and
skip this one. Doesn't mean they won't come back in July and raise again
a quarter of a point, but one thing at a time. Looks like
we might get a pause by tomorrow this time, or actually by the end
of business tomorrow when the Fed meeting ends it starts today. A few stories
here before we talk about road rage. The trends for illegal street takeovers and
street racing in LA are changing. New data from the Board of Police Commissioner
shows overall complaints from the public declined by thirty six percent between twenty twenty one
twenty twenty two, and the most common areas for street takeovers are now downtown
and South LA. It used to be West LA and the San Fernando Valley.
Authorities are searching for an inmate who escaped an alternative custody placement facility in
Paris. Forty eight year old Robert sta Rica escapes the facility sometime on Monday
yesterday. He is known to spend time in Riverside Lake Elsinore and Burietta and
Miami police are racing for that influx of people ahead of former President Trump's arraignment
in federal court today. Just how big that crowd is going to get is
unknown. We talked with ABC's Aaron Katurski about forty five minutes ago and the
crowd has yet to form. Trump is expected at the courthouse at noon today.
Fifty on your wake up Call, and ABC's Jim Ryan is on the
line with us talk about road rage, summer travel, and we might even
get dip into some air rage. Good morning, Jim. Yeah, road
rage is certainly on the rise, and it has been really since the end
of the pandemic. Jason. These numbers reflect that eighty two percent of people
admit to committing an active road rage in the past year. Road rage,
Maybe aggressive driving would be a better way to put it, until you get
off into the violence end of it all. But yeah, honking the horn,
flashing a gesture, cutting somebody off, speeding up, tailgating. But
then you get into incidents like pulling over and forcing somebody out of a car,
and about thirty times every year it leads to a homicide, according to
the American Psychological Association. I've kind of rolled together a bunch of different reports
from the TRIPLEA, from NITZE, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Sixty
six percent of this was the stat that really shocked me. Sixty six percent
of traffic fatality are caused by aggressive driving, according to NETSA. And that
would be things like speeding. It may include something you know, at least
careless driving and involves drunk and driving. Right, So, yeah, it's
sixteen. I was shocked to see that more than half of the fatalities on
the highways are caused by aggressive driving or road rate. And you said,
you combined these, you roll these together, and so they're all showing this
trend across the board. They really are. Yeah, And if you look
back over the past decade, we've seen a five hundred percent increase in reported
cases of road range. So the numbers are rising. I think universally,
the numbers went down during the pandemic when people were working or going to school
from home. Now we're back on the road and we're venting on other drivers.
Is this mostly personal vehicles or is over the road stuff being covered by
this data as well? Well, it's mainly personal vehicles, because you know,
I know professional truck drivers people like that, and they all about that
sort of thing because they could lose their license. So I think if the
rest of us drove like professional truck drivers, if you act like you have
your commercial driver's license, you'd probably be a lot more careful on the road.
You'd let stuff go instead of engaging somebody who's expressing themselves to you.
You'd kind of back away physically and emotionally from the scene. There is a
state by state breakdown, Jason, you won't be too surprised to see that
California is third in the number of road rage cases involving a firearm in the
last four years or so. Oh, that's not great. And I mentioned
over the road types because I know a lot of those guys are and people
are drivers are listening to this show. I've met a couple at an event
recently. Dodger stated, very cool. I just want to make sure that
we called them out for being such good drivers. Do you have any personal
tales from road range? Way too many? I'm in Texas, the state
that leads the country road rage cases involving a firearm. Haven't had a gun
pulled on me. But you know the folks going to PA, they're blown
past you cyclist cutting it. I know this is fairly common in California that
they can kind of ease between cars and but you know, my daughter had
her mirror knocked off by a motorcyclist who went past. And did he stopped?
Of course not. But it's it's it's annoying, and it's kind of
a daily occurrence. When I was living in Oakland, I actually had I
was in the Bay Area, actually, I think I was just driving through
Oakland and I had somebody did show me a gun in the in lanes,
which was a little bit scary. I think I think I shrugged though,
and I think I just pissed him off more. But um, but then,
but but have you seen anything about the air rage. I've been watching
that as well, because those reports are up to and you may not have
this in front of you, but I was reading a Bloomberg report and I
just wanted to kind of lump it in because we are getting into the summer
travel season. M A air rage road rage, anything we can do about
it. Back off, just back off, you know, don't let your
emotions get ahold off. You leave early, not so much for air rage,
but for road rage. Certainly leave a little early so that you're not
putting yourself under the added pressure as if you board an aircraft, if you're
headed out somewhere, why not avoid going to the airport bar before you going,
before you board your flight down It just kind of a bite or something,
bottle of water, climb on board and keep it peaceful. I know
that the union that represents flight attendance is asking for people to be prosecuted for
just those kind of things, getting on board intoxicated and then being belligerent,
and that's just as dangerous, right yeah. I think you know the the
new announcement that all the airlines are making before you take off you may not
drink alcohol that you brought on board, and you start thinking, well,
they're just trying to charge us eight bucks for a drink or something. Well,
at the same time, they're trying to keep people from getting drunk on
board and being belligerent and dangerous. Right. ABC's Jim Ryan, thank you
so much for this and save travels out there. Thanks Jason. Let's get
back to some of the stories coming out of the KFI twenty four hour newsroom
as we get towards the bill Handle show. The OC Transportation Authority Board has
voted to declare an emergency just beat up construction of a wall to support a
sliding hillside in San Clementi. County. Supervisor Katrina Foley says the declaration could
be folded into the county's ergency declaration to get FEMA funding for storm damage.
A mud slide near Castle Romantica first happened in April. Rail service was shut
down and resumed again in late May, and then another slide caused roads to
be closed again. Former President Trump is scheduled to appear in court in Miami,
Florida, where he faces thirty seven felony accounts related to charges of illegally
having classified documents. When he arrives here at federal court, he's going to
go through the usual protocols for a federal defendant. He is going to be
placed under arrest by the FBI. Eric Katurski says the US marshals could take
Trump's fingerprints and have a mud shot taken. He says Trump will also be
asked to enter a plea also this morning. Regarding President Trump, he is
expected to be back in New Jersey later today following this historic arraignment on federal
charges. Trump was indicted, of course, last week, it was unsealed.
He calls the indictment of witch hunt, and after noon today, when
he's expected to peer at Pacific time, he'll be flying back to his golf
club in Bedminster, New Jersey. Judge and Utah has ruled a woman accused
of killing her husband then writing a children's book on grief will stay in jail
as she awaits trial for murder defending Corey Garden Richards shall continue to be tamed
without bail. The woman is accused of killing her husband last year by putting
fentanyl in his drink. New evidence was presented, including how the woman allegedly
searched online about life insurance if poisoned. And Denver police now say ten people
are injured after an early morning shooting. Three of the victims are reportedly in
critical condition after what investigators are calling an altercation involving several individuals. Police initially
reported that nine people were wounded, but said a tenth person was discovered after
seeking treatment at a local hospital. The shooting took place about a mile from
Ball Arena, where the Denver Nuggets beat the Miami Heat last night to win
the NBA Championship, and a suspect who was also wounded is reportedly in custody.
Southern California weather from KFI mostly cloudy in the morning and then partly cloudy,
high in the upper sixties to mid seventies today for inland and valley areas.
That's for La and Orange Counties at beaches, Cloudy in highs into the
low seventies. Tonight, partly cloudy early, then clouds and fog, lows
in the mid fifties to lower sixties, and a tomorrow pretty much the same
forecast as today and for the rest of the work week. A bit of
a warming pattern starts on Saturday across the south Land. At the moment,
your Belinda is at sixty degrees, Doheni State Beaches at sixty two, Hollywood
sixty one, and Long Beaches also at sixty two degrees. We lead local
live from the KFI twenty Farm News Room. I'm Jason Middleton. You've been
listening to Wake Up Call. You know you can always listen live KFI Am
six forty weekdays from five to sixty am, and anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app