You're listening to KFI AM six forty wake Up Call with me Amy King on
demand on the iHeartRadio app. Today's the thirtieth anniversary of the Norwich north Ridge
earthquake. It hit just before four to thirty one am on this day in
nineteen ninety four. I wasn't in la from it for it, but man,
the people who were pretty much everybody has a good, not a good
memory, but a very strong memory of what happened that day. I just
had a bingeie day. I'll be telling you what I just couldn't tear myself
away from. It's coming up in Amy's on it. That's at five point
thirty five. Hope you'll stick around because maybe you won't be able to tear
yourself away from it either. Pretty good show. Here's what's ahead on wake
Up Call. ABC News has canceled its Republican primary debate in New Hampshire because
the candidates won't commit to participating. It was supposed to happen tomorrow. Candidate
Nikki Hayley has said that she would only debate if Donald Trump is there,
and he has skipped all of the Republican debates for the twenty twenty four nomination
so far. Seal Beach police and businesses in the city of teamed up to
try to cut back on the number of retail thefts in the city. Seal
Beach Police say several operations over the holidays resulted in lots of arrests and the
discovery of soul and vehicles and merchandise. The city says the number of retail
crimes is up. Officials estimate retail businesses in California lose seven billion dollars a
year to organize retail theft. About eleven thousand people are going to be hired
in California and Nevada to build the rail line between Rancho Cucamonga and Las Vegas.
The Biden administration approved three billion dollars in funding for the two hundred and
eighteen mile stretch of tracks last month. Works expected to be given shortly and
be finished in time for the twenty twenty eight Summer Olympics in La At six
oh five, it's handled on the news coming up. A deal has been
reached to get some medicine in to some of the one hundred people still being
held hostage by Hammas. Bill's going to talk about that. Let's get started
with some of the stories coming out of the KFI twenty four hour newsroom.
Four men have been found dead inside a home in Palmdale. They were found
yesterday afternoon. A fire department spokesman says there were obvious signs the men had
been dead for a while. A neighbor said three of the four men were
related. Belis in Irvine say one thief has racked up an almost forty thousand
dollars illegal tab at dozens of Target stores, mostly by snatching iPads. The
first two crimes he was actually doing return fraud. Irvine Police Sergeant Carry Davey
says the guy had racked up a bunch of money on gift cards by grabbing
merchandise he didn't pay for from inside the store and returning it. Most of
the cases that we've had, they were just straight burglaries and shoplifts. This
one actually was a robbery. The cases ranged from last April to last week,
where the target employee struggled with this guy, but the guy made off
with the iPad. However, Davy says a clear photo of the guy's face
released over the weekend has generated new numerous tips and an arrest should happen soon
in Irvine. Core Ben Carson kaf I News. January is National Skiing Safety
Month. Officials at Boreowski Resort near Lake Tahoe say they're prioritizing the safety of
guests and employees. Tucker Norid says, don't be surprised if some chairlifts don't
open until later in the day. You might see a chairlift not open until
eleven o'clock or twelve o'clock because we are making sure that that terrain is safe
before we open it up to the public. Nord says, ski patrols are
dispatched every morning to assess chairlifts and terrain to make sure everything is working right.
He says ropelines are set throughout the resort to keep people out of areas
that may be closed or have exposed rocks. There have been two avalanches in
the Lake Tahoe area in the last week. One person was killed in one
of the slides at the Palisades Tahoe Ski area. The Biden administrations planning to
relist the Hoothi Rebels in Yemen as a global terrorist group. It's in response
to attacks on ships in the Red Sea and golf with aiden US Central Command
says the US has carried out another air strike targeting a Hoothy missile facility in
Yemen. A nine to one one recording has been released from the day Defense
Secretary Lloyd Austin was taken to the hospital following surgery for prostate cancer. This
happened on January first. The caller asked the dispatcher to have first responders arrive
in a discreete manner. I asked, then, anuance not show up with
white and sirens. We're trying to remain a little subtle. Yeah, I
understand. Yeah, Usually when they turn into a residential neighborhood, they'll turn
them off. The caller said. Austin was alert and not reporting chest pain.
Austin's been about two weeks that Walter Reed Medical Center. He has since
been released. It's five six on your wake up call. Let's say good
morning now to ABC's Mike Debuski. Mike, it's a week after CEES and
I guess Sam Sung wanted to wait so it could just have all of the
spotlight bingo. That is exactly kind of the strategy that we're seeing Samsung employ
and we've seen other you know, tech companies. Employee in recent years.
CES is obviously a place for you know, a lot of tech companies to
gather, but it's become a place for kind of the smaller startups to really
have a chance to break out. Bigger companies like Samsung, they like to
host their own events and kind of grab all the headlines for the day.
Today, we're expecting Samsung to release its latest S series phones. This is
their competitor to the iPhone. It's largely the iPhone of the Android space amy
in many ways, given how much these things are or how popular these things
are. So we're expecting three different variants of this new smartphone today, the
Galaxy S twenty four, S twenty four Plus, and S twenty four Ultra.
We're expecting them to have the latest Snapdragon processors. They're going to have
new O LED screens that get a little bit brighter, and we're expecting them
to look broadly speaking, the same as last year's models. If we're looking
at just the hardware here, it is kind of a boring update, if
I can say that. But when you look at the software end of things,
I think that's where we're expecting Samsung to make the most news here.
They are planning to launch what they're calling Galaxy AI, which is a large
language model, a generative artificial intelligence that it's planning to integrate directly into its
smartphones. So an interesting move from Samsung here, but perhaps no surprise given
how much we've been talking about AI for the last year and a half and
how much we've seen this largely software based sort of technology trickle into hardware products
in recent months. We saw the AI pin a few months ago. Last
week was all about AI at CES, with AI showing up in your car
and showing up in sort of new interesting devices like the Rabbit r one.
Now it's coming to your smartphone. What's a Rabbit r one? I don't
remember hearing about that Rabbit r one. It's an interesting new device. It's
kind of in a category two itself. It's from a startup called Rabbit,
and it's a little about the size of a stack of post it notes if
you can picture that. It's got a tiny, little two point eight inch
screen, it's got a scroll wheel and a camera, and it's designed to
use artificial intelligence to use your phone for you. So instead of opening up
your phone, you can just talk to this device and say, hey,
book me a trip to you know, Miami, Florida, and it will
go into your United account using your phone's browser. It will set up,
you know, a rental car for you in a hotel using the appropriate apps,
and then present you with an itinerary that you can then approve. And
that's just one application of it. A lot of questions around that particular device,
you know, specifically, like how you train it to do certain things
and whether this actually works it all, and you know, whether there's the
potential for this to go you know, horribly horribly wrong when we talk about
flights and rental cars. But they do plan to put it on sale and
it has proven to be, you know, kind of the big success story
of cees from last week. Ten thousand people sign up to get one within
the first twenty four hours of it being unveiled. Well, it sounds like
it's sort of like a half a phone in some ways. Yeah, it
is kind of like a phone for your phone. And one of the big
questions at least that I have is like, do you still have to carry
your phone with you? Is it like you carry both of these things now
or is this standalone on its own. I hate carking two phones, Yeah,
even a phone and a half maybe, but like it's it's still a
it's an unusual device. But you know, gadgets are back, which I
think is really exciting, So you know that's part of it. So here's
another question, then, because Samsung has its new phone with the Galaxy AI,
is the rabbit necessary because it sounds like Galaxy's putting AI on its phone
right Well, I think that will largely depend on exactly how Samsung is thinking
about Galaxy AI. We don't know exactly what features their planning or how Galaxy
AI is going to show up in the phone. Really, we only know
the name Galaxy AI. But we can look to some other examples in the
smartphone space of exactly how this is going to work, specifically Google. So
Google has the Pixel eight Pro, which is their top line smartphone, and
in recent months they've started to roll out AI features in that phone. I
think one of the more eye catching features AMY is what's called the Magic Eraser,
where you can go in circle people in photos that you've taken and erase
them and it will use generative AI to fill in the background behind it.
We can work It's an interesting idea, right, and you can see the
practical application that a lot of people would have. You can also highlight things
and move them around within your photo, all sorts of different photo editing tools
made possible using artificial intelligence. Of course, it raises a lot of questions
about the potential for this to be used for you know, misinformation. Right.
These tools have been around in photoshop for many years, but now it's
coming to everyone's phone, right, it's in your pocket, It's much more
easily accessible. There's also the question of like, what do we want to
photo to be at the end of the day. Do we want it to
capture a memory as we remember it, or do we want it to capture
reality as it happened. I think looks perfect, sure, but those things
are not often the same, right, you know, that's the big question.
So I think it's an obvious move for Samsung to put this into its
camera system as well. We've also seen Samsung and Google work together very closely
in the past, so there's the potential that Google can come out on stage
and say, hey, Magic eraser is now going to be on Samsung has
twenty fours. The other potential here is for it to be used as a
translation tool, right, you can listen to other people's words and have it
be live transcribed for you. Well, there's nothing to say that that can't
live transcribe into a different language, so that you can communicate with people who
are speaking a language that you don't speak. It's an interesting idea to keep
an eye on. And then, of course, yeah, virtual assistance is
the other part of this as well. We've already seen Amazon say that they're
going to bring Generative AI to Alexa, so you can have more naturalistic conversations
with it, more free flowing conversations that don't necessarily need to be you know,
adhere to certain language or you don't need to say specific words and phrases
to get you to understand it. It's just going to understand you. Well,
Samsung has a virtual assistant it's called Bixby, and using Galaxy AI,
there's the potential for Bixby to get a lot smarter, So a couple different
avenues that Samsung could go down here. Yeah, it's interesting too when you
say something that you're like, okay, well, that's going to make that
obsolete, and that's going to make that absolutely because like if it's on your
phone. Do you need an Alexa? Yeah, you know, possibly.
But you know, the argument there from the voice assistant companies is that,
well, you know, you've had the potential to do this on your phone
and on your smart speaker in the past, and smart speakers, you know,
are still around, right, They're still popular. So I think it
gets at this larger idea of ambient computing. Not to get too nerdy on
your ear, but it's like this idea that you know, your computer isn't
your phone, it isn't your smart spe it isn't your desktop or your laptop.
It's just everything around you. You can interact with your computer quote unquote
by just talking into the air and maybe your phone will pick up that request,
or maybe your smartphone will pick up that request. It's just an ambient
computer that exists around you at all times. It's kind of an interesting idea.
It's been floating around there for a while, but you know, we've
seen, you know, more people start to pick up on it, given
the rise of general artificial intelligence and the potential for it to really make our
smart devices our virtual assistants. The series the Google Assistance, now the Bixbi's
of the world a little bit more naturalistic and easy to talk to. Okay,
and Mike, when are these available? We don't know specifically. Again,
We're going to get a little bit more information during Samsung's event today,
but I think it's safe to assume, you know, pre orders start pretty
soon and they'll have these things on shelves within the next couple weeks too,
maybe three weeks. I know some Android people who will be very, very
excited. Mike Debuski, thank you so much for your time this morning.
Of course, take care. Let's get back to some of the stories coming
out of the KFI twenty four hour newsroom. The American Red Cross in LA
says it is experiencing an emergency blood shortage. The organization, Stephanie Grande,
says the nation is seeing the lowest number of people giving blood in twenty years,
with critical levels across the country. Hofully this need is reflected or seen
a low turnout in La and we really and Angelina's to step up and full
with a sleep. Grande says, every two seconds someone in the US needs
blood. She says most people can donate every fifty six days. Pakistan has
recalled its ambassador to Iran over an air strike in Pakistan that killed two children.
Iran claims it was targeting bases yesterday for militant Sunni separatists. The militant
group known as the Army of Justice says the holmes attacked housed the children and
wives of their fighters. A federal judge as sided with the Biden administration and
blocked Jet Blue Airways from buying Spirit Airlines. ABC's Alex Stone says the judge
ruled yesterday it violated a century old antitrust laws. The ruling has sent Spirit
stock price tumbling. It would have been a three point eight billion dollar deal
and would have created the nation's fifth largest airline. The DOJ had sued to
block the merger, saying it would cause airfares to go up. The judge
said getting rid of Spirit would have hurt cost conscious travelers who rely on the
airline's low prices. When we come back, we're going to be talking to
ABC's Jordana Miller. There could be some movement when it comes to more than
one hundred hostages, including Americans being held by Hamas in Gaza. It's five
twenty one on your wake up call. Good Wednesday morning to you. I'm
Amy King. Here's what we're following in the KFI twenty four hour newsroom.
Today is the thirtieth anniversary of the Northridge earthquake. The six point seven magnitude
quake hit just before four to thirty one a m. January seventeenth, nineteen
ninety four. Fifty seven people were killed in the quake. LA fires using
the anniversary to urge residents to prepare for future earthquakes and other natural disasters.
It was the first to knock out power in virtually every area in the La
metro. Hackers have infiltrated an online forum used by UC Irvine students and professors.
They posted gruesome videos of the desecration of human corpses and mutilation of animals.
About three thousand people saw it before it was blocked. A woman who
manages the forum says several students were taken at the hospital because of excessive vomiting
from seeing the videos. The university says the hackers demanded one thousand dollars in
ransom money. The new home of the La Clippers has been named the host
of the twenty twenty six NBA All Star Game. The Intuit Dome in Inglewood
will be ready for play ahead of the start of the next NBA season.
Inglewood's also going to be the host to the twenty twenty six World Cup and
twenty twenty seven Super Bowl at Nextdoors Sofi Stadium at six oh five. It's
handled aw the news Jet Blue and Spirit airlines have been blocked by the FEDS.
Right now, let's say good one warning to ABC's Jordana Miller and Jerusalem
So Jordana, we may have some positive news on the hostage front. That's
right. Cutter and France have been able to carve out a deal between Israel
and Hamas to get medicines to the hostages more than one hundred and thirty two
not being held by Hamas and Gaza. This would be the first time that
the hostages would get any of the medication and even be seen by an Alphide
organization like the mccrescent since they were taken back on October seventh. And hostages
we know some of them have diabetes, some high pretension, some suffer from
asthma, which you can imagine if they're held in any kind of underground places
tunnels without much air, that would be a real problem. Others were on
anti anxiety medication, the gastro issue. So there's significant medical needs of these
hostages, and the medicine has already arrived in Egypt and is now at the
Rafa border crossing. There's some kind of disputes now about whether or not the
trucks carrying the medicine will be that by israelas appears that they will not a
part of this deal. And for every box of medicine that it was brought
in for a hostage, Hamas was able to negotiate a thousand boxes of medication,
you know as the ratio, so one to one thousand is of course,
there's also a shortage of medicine. Okay, and Jordana, you're breaking
up just a little bit, so I want to just make sure that we
heard you right. So you're saying that Israel is not going to be allowed
to inspect the boxes, and there's some dispute over that. That's right.
There's a dispute about, you know, who will be trucks coming in with
the medicine at a ratio of one box to one thousand, So there's several
thousand boxes, thousands of boxes of medicine that's going to come in that's expected
by Israel. Basically everything going in to try to make sure there's no weapons
getting in, so they goutless strip. It appears that the Steel is agreed
not to inspect this truck that will be brought in by Couver and they are
really taking the lead on this, and they're trying to carve out, as
they did their role in the first hostage deal release, that they will be
a major player in a second hostage deal release as well. They are overseeing
the entry of the medicine. From what we understand, it will go will
be deposited for different hospitals in the Gaza Strip and from there it will be
distributed to the hostages, and that cutter will be the one to verify that
that has been done. Okay, And so they're getting the medicine. Are
they going to get medical attention or are they still the hostages still haven't been
seen by doctors or anyone from the Red Cross. You mentioned the Red Cress
in a minute ago. That's right, they have not been seen by anyone
from the Red Cross. And this deal does not include a medical evaluation of
how the hostages are doing. It is simply a drop off of medicine for
them. So it still falls short of really the responsibilities of the International Red
Cross to make sure that these hostages are at least you know, staying alive
and you know, an indecent condition. It's worth saying that the hostages who
came back, you know, the initial reports were everyone's in good condition,
but over the weeks that have passed, you know, it's clear that some
of these hostages were not in great shape, especially the elderly. There were
a few cases where they were hospitalized. But obviously psychologically the hostages also are
suffering, even the little ones, the three year olds. You know,
we hear stories, you know, here on the news, their parents come
on to talk about that. And does this agreement Jordana signal any kind of
movement in the release of more release of more hostages. Well, we're told
that Cutter sold the deal to Hamas saying, you know, if you get
these medicines to the hostages, it will you know, increase our chances of
being able to cut a deal to end this war. So you know,
you know, play along, right now, get the medicine to the hostages
and cut her promising the work to try to get a deal to end the
war. And you know, everyone really wants to end the war except Israel,
you know, because Israel feels it is not sufficiently damaged or dismantled Hamas'
military capabilities in the South. So Israel wants a little bit more time,
you know how much. We're not sure, but several months it seems,
uh, and Cutter here trying to tell Hamas, you know, hey,
maybe we can stop the intensity of Israel's military operation and the war. Uh,
and get you some kind of seafire, you know, play along right
now, and get the medicine to the hostages. So you know, this
is being seen at least Cutter is publicizing this as an intermediary step to their
leadership on a Hamas a on a hostage deal, flash ceasefire that will end
the war. And we know the United States wants that as well. Yeah,
I'm also and maybe this is the cynical part of me, but it's
like Hamas is saying, Okay, we're going to let the medicine in because
they need the hostages alive when they lose those hostage since they lose leverage.
That's true, they do, you know, they you know, sadly it's
often said here, you know, a hostage that's alive is worth a lot
more than a body. Yeah, and we have to say that Israel,
you know, Hamas is holding one hundred and thirty two hostages. Still.
Of those, we already know that twenty seven are confirmed dead. So they're
holding twenty seven bodies. That leaves them another more than one hundred of those.
You know, if we want to be cynical, let's hope for the
best. But there's likely not all of them are alive, and maybe maybe
sixty. Maybe there's sixty that are alive, seventy that are alive, so
you know. And by the way of the Americans, we know two are
confirmed dead, right, the couple from Judy Weinstein, a guy and her
husband God who are both Americans, and they were both murdered on up to
sevens and their bodies were taken to Gaza. So there are six Americans that
may be alive. Well, let's hope that morget to stay alive with these
medications and that it will lead to something. Jordana Miller, thank you so
much for the information. God willing, No thanks Hocking, all right,
you too. Let's get back to some of the stories coming out of the
KFI twenty four hour Newsroom. San Clementi has waited two decades for a sand
replenishment project, and that has now been delayed for at least two more months.
Beach erosions been tied to recent landslides damaged to the OC rail corridor in
other issues, Sant Clementi Councilman Chris Duncan says, but the fourteen million dollar
Army Corps of Engineers project used a hopper dredge that sucked up and spit out
gravel, rock and other cobble on the beach instead of fluffy sand. This
is not new information, but it's the first time we're understanding that the equipment
that's here is probably not the best equipment or our borrow site. He says.
Hopefully the project can still dump about four hundred thousand tons of sand,
widening the beach by fifty feet by summer, as promised in San Clementi Coorbin
Carson kf I News. The Jewish Community Foundation of LA has awarded one point
one million dollars to seven nonprofits seeking to improve black maternal and infant health.
The foundation says systemic inequities in the healthcare system have put black moms and babies
in LA at risk. Data shows mothers and babies of color dye at more
than double the rate of their white counterparts. Previous grants have focused on adult
poverty, education equity, homelessness, domestic and sexual violence, and human trafficking.
For President, Biden has invited top congressional leaders to the White House to
talk about one hundred and six billion dollars in supplemental foreign aid for Ukraine,
Israel, Taiwan, and for the Southern Border. Republicans have insisted any package
that includes foreign money to Ukraine also has to include changes in border policy.
Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer says the Senate is working to get a short term
funding bill to the House by Friday's spending deadline. When we come back,
Amy's on it. Yep, it's me. I'm on it, and it's
a bingeworthy show, and tell you all about it. Southland weather from KFI
mostly cloudy with highs in the low sixties at the Beaches Metro La Inlando,
c in the Valley's mid sixties. For the Inland Empire, sixties in fifties
and sixties for the Antelope Valley. Mostly cloudy with highs in the sixties too,
about seventy tomorrow. Then we have a chance of rain by late Friday.
A half to an inch of rain is expected through the weekend, with
highs in the fifties and sixties. It's fifty four in Garden Grove, fifty
three in Orange. ABC News has canceled its Republican primary debate in New Hampshire
because the candidates won't commit to participating. It was scheduled for tomorrow. Nikki
Hayley has said she will only debate if Donald Trump is there, and he
skipped all the Republican debates for the twenty twenty four nomination So far, the
Biden administration and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau have unveiled new regulations for overdraft fees.
Banks will have to offer overdraft loans or a courtesy service, and that
is expected to drop fees by over fifty percent. Experts say consumers have paid
about two hundred and eighty billion dollars in overdraft fees since two thousand. Yeah,
I'm part of that. The new regulations will go into effect next year.
Lana del Rey, Doja, Cat Tyler, The Creator, and a
No Doubt Reunion all named as headliners for this Coachella organizers say pre sale passes,
We'll go on sale Friday at eleven at coachella dot com, and festival
organizers say that Coachella this weekend or this year is happening the weekends of April
twelfth to the fourteenth, and the nineteenth through the twenty first. At six
oh five, it's handle all in the news. The nine to one to
one call for Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin to go to the hospital has been
released. First responders were asked to keep it quiet. At five point fifty,
we're going to be talking with ABC's Jim Ryan about that lunar lander that
was launched a couple of weeks ago. Remember it was a failed mission.
Well, the lander's coming back down. Ami on Itami on it? What
am I? I'm on streaming? There is so much out there streaming,
and now with the actors strike and the writer's strikes done, Uh, I
think we're going to be expecting to see lots more new things coming out.
And you know, some of the stuff is new, some of it's a
little bit older. Some of it you may have missed altogether. Like a
couple weeks ago, I watched Christopher Robin. I completely forgot that that was
even a movie, and it was adorable. So and I take recommendations from
friends because there's so much out there. How do you peruse all of it?
This year or this year? This week, I'm taking my recommendation from
the Television Academy because Beef just cleaned up at the Emmys for a limited series.
It's on Netflix, and so I thought, I need to see what
all the hype is about. And plus Cono, our normal producers not here
today, he said, yeah, it's a good one. So here's the
deal on Beef. It is a limited series, but it's really the whole
season of a show. It's either like eight or nine or maybe even ten
episodes. I can't remember how many because I just binged them all and just
kept it going. But some full on shows only last one season, so
this was like a regular season for a show. But it was in the
Emmy categories as a limited series. So the show is Beef, and that
is exactly what it is. It's a beef between a man and a woman
spawned by a road rage incident that starts in a parking lot, and then,
because we are also hyper connected with social media, and webs, the
web and all of that stuff. These people figure out who the other one
is, even though they didn't see each other's faces, and that's when the
chaos ensues. So it follows his life and it follows her life, and
then their lives start getting intertwined, some of it intentionally as they kind of
fight back and forth, and some of it unintentionally, and it kind of
reminds me of it stay with me on this one. It sort of reminds
me of everything everywhere, all at once, but obviously more toned down.
There's no interdimensional travel or anything like that. But the way that their lives
intersect and get tangled together is really fascinating. And Beef one an Emmy for
writing, and it is well deserved. The writing is fantastic in this and
the characters are interesting. They're tragic at times. It's fun to watch them
and learn how like this character appears to be one thing, but really it's
just a total mess behind the kind of when you pull back the curtain.
They try to be good, they fail, they fall down, they get
up, they try to be good again, and then they fall down again,
and you know there's there is that search for redemption, which I am
always looking for in a show and that it always kind of seems to fall
short, but it is a great binge Or you can be like a more
normal person and watch like an episode at episode or two at a time,
or you can be like me and be a bingemeister and watch the whole thing
in one day, which I did definitely recommend Beef. It's on Netflix.
It's Emmy Award winning and after seeing it, I can see why really really
interesting show. Let's get back to some of the stories coming out of the
KFI twenty four hour newsroom. Eagle Rock will be getting more police foot patrols
to combat you guessed it, retail crime. LA City Councilman Kevin de Leone
is allocating one hundred thousand discretionary dollars for the increased security. LAPED officer Heiner
Hernandez says Eagle Rock has had an uptick in break ins. You're seeing individual
people and people working together collectively breaking into the locations you're talking about, breaking
windows, making entry, going to the cast registers. At least ten businesses
have been broken into in the last few months. That includes a restaurant on
Colorado that had its front windows shattered by a wine thief. Ye added foot
patrols are set to begin no later the next week in Eagle Rock, Blake
Trolley kf I News. Department of Justice is expected to release a report tomorrow
on the twenty twenty two school shooting in Uvalde, Texas. The department announced
its plan to conduct a review of how police handle the situation shortly after the
shooting that killed nineteen students and two teachers. Officials say the idea is to
identify lessons learned and best practices to help first responders deal with future situations.
Tragic that there probably will be future situations. Republican Senator Chuck Grassley is in
the hospital. He's being treated for an infection. His office as Grassley is
getting antibiotic infusions and will return to work as soon as possible, but that
he will be following doctors' orders. Grassly is ninety. He's the oldest member
of the US Senate and has served eight terms. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
has proposed a new rule to over a lower overdraft fees. Some banks charge
as much as thirty five dollars a transaction. The Financial Protection Bureau wants to
make it a flat three dollars overdraft fee, and banks would also have to
clearly disclose interest rates and fees. Retail sales are up zero point six percent
for December as a strong job market helped fuel holiday spending. ABC News has
canceled its planned Republican primary debate in New Hampshire over a lack of candidate participation.
The decision to cancel tomorrow's event comes after the deadline to respond to invitations
passed yesterday without any confirmation from former President Trump or former South Carolina Governor Nikki
Haley. Haley had said she would only participate if Trump or President Biden did
so. That leaves just Rondi Santis on the degate stage alone, and former
presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswami is called on both Ronda Santis and Nikki Haley to drop
out of the race and endorse former President Trump. He says he thinks the
pair would be doing the country and this party a service by stepping aside.
His comments yesterday came a day after he dropped out of the race after he
fell short in the Iowa caucuses. So it's a new year, and you
might want to go somewhere fun for the new year, so we thought,
where are the best places to go? Well, personal finance company wallet hub
did a survey and found that there are a few super fun places to go
in the US. Las Vegas is ranked the most fun city in the country
number one on the list. Of course, known for partying, and it's
one of the only cities on the list where public drinking is allowed in most
or all places, obviously very important. Orlando is ranked second most fun cities,
apparently because it has relatively cheap hotel rooms and low average prices for staple
foods like pizza and burgers. Okay, Miami is ranked number three on the
fun list as it has a good balance of public beaches, it has natural
wonders like the Evergrades, and has lots of local sports teams like the Myammy
Dolphin. California. San Francisco ranked fifth as the most fun city and then
the bottom ranked cities, So places you don't want to go if you want
to have fun Oxnard, California, South Burlington, Vermont, and Pearl City,
Hawaii. Why is a city in Hawaii not fun? It's beautiful there
anyway. That's according to wallet hud. Hope it'll help you plan your next
vacation. Another day, another wake up call that has gone by really fast.
I'm Amy King, glad you're getting your day started with you. Hope
to keep you informed about lots of fun things going on and some not so
fun things as well. We're going to be talking todaby c's Jim Ryan in
just a second about something that's kind of scary, something else kind of scary.
Here's what we're following in the KFI twenty four hour newsroom. Today's the
thirtieth anniversary of the Northridge earthquake. The six point seven magnitude quake hit just
before four thirty one a m. January seventeenth, nineteen nine. Twenty four.
Fifty seven people were killed in the quake. La fires using the anniversary
to urge residents to prepare for future quakes and other natural disasters. Hackers have
infiltrated an online form used by UC Irvine students and professors and posted gruesome videos
of the desecration of human corpses and mutilation of animals. A woman who manages
the form says several students had to be taken to the hospital because of excessive
vomiting from seeing the videos. The University says the hackers demanded one thousand dollars
in ransom money. Students who test positive for COVID nineteen but aren't seeing any
symptoms are now allowed to go to school. Workers can go to work too,
According to new COVID recommendations from the state, it'll apply to those with
no symptoms as long as they wear a mask endors for ten days. The
state Health Department says this is a more relaxed approach to isolation and testing.
We're just minutes away from handle on the news this morning, Jet Blue and
Spirit airlines have been blocked by the FEDS. Right now, let's say good
morning to ABC's Jim Ryan. So, Jim, the lunar Lander mission is
a fail. We know that. And last week when you and I talked,
the thinking was that the lunar Lander was just going to be kind of
in perpetual orbit. But that's changed. It has. Yes, it looks
as now that as early as tomorrow is going to come back to Earth but
burn up in the EU's atmosphere. It's posted on a trajectory that it'll be
flat enough, it's not going to sort of skim into the atmosphere and then
crash down to the ground. It's going to undoubtedly, or at least the
expectation is that it will burn up before it touches the ground. When will
that happen, We're not quite sure. It could be as early as tomorrow.
Where will it happen, that's not clear either. NASA is working with
Astrobotic, the Pittsburgh based company that designed and built and launched this thing on
January eighth, to try to figure out the when and where this is actually
going to happen to me, okay, but the thought is that nothing's going
to come down, correct, Okay, So that's the Paragrium was a small
land. The things only about six feet tall and maybe eleven twelve feet wide,
and so I mean, in cosmic terms, that's pretty darn small.
It won't take much for it to just disintegrate, burn up, and become
essentially ashes. Okay. Now, then that makes it sad because remember last
week we were talking about the remains of certain people were on the lander,
like James Douhan and Michelle Nichols from Star Trek. So those are not going
to be perpetually in space as intended. Right, Will they get a discount
or will they get a refund. Will their families get something back? That's
a great question. I mean, the contract they signed to see these remains
the orbiting the sun eternally, that's not going to happen. So it's a
good question. It'd be interesting to see what kind of recourse those people have
with There were two companies actually that were handling that sort of thing. More
than two hundred The remains of two hundred people, including hair from the head
of John F. Kennedy, George Washington, maybe Eisenow or one of the
other presidents were on board that ship as well. So what happens in terms
of that, I mean, I guess it's six one a half times in
the other the remains will not be floating in space. They're going to burn
up. They're gone forever regardless. Well, and as we discussed too,
it was such a tiny, tiny amount. It's not like they were putting
an urn up in space. It was just a little tiny bit of like
you said, either a hare or something cremated remains or something like that.
So I wonder if there's more that they could try again. Probably so,
you know, I think this was the second time that Gene Roddenberry had some
portion of his remains on board a spacecraft like this. So yeah, I
think there are I don't know how many hairs are left from George Washington's head,
but there was one of his one of Kennedy's. So I suppose if
that as long as there are DNA ramens of all these folks, then there
could be lots and lots more trips. Okay, I don't know if you're
going to know this, Jim, but you're a smart guy, so I'm
just going to take a stab at it. So you know how we talked
that we thought it was going to be in an orbit, but something has
happened to degrade that orbit. Yeah, So the question is why don't more
like satellites and stuff that aren't working anymore, that are just floating around and
there, why don't more of them come back? Well, this still had
some propulsion ability to it. The problem the malfunction had nothing to do with
the Vulcan rocket that sent it off into space. Once the separation happened,
then the folks at Astrobotic realized that there was a propos propulsion problem. So
the tiny rockets on board the ship that helped us to guide it to steer
it. They were running out of propulsion, running out of fuel. So
there was enough to send the thing out into a trajectory that was as far
away as the moon and then to turn it bring it back around this way.
But it's quickly running out of fuel and eventually will you know, the
satellites don't have fuel on the middle, I mean once they're in orbit,
they're in orbit. But yeah, there was enough you know, oomph on
this thing to get it unfortunately, so it went as far away as the
Moon, but the Moon was often a different part of its orbit, so
it didn't actually circle the Moon, but it wanted as far as the Moon
before they steered it brought it back around here. So it's an intentional program
now to get it to burn up in the Earth's atmosphere. Oh, I
thought it ran out of not gas, I know that, but I thought
it ran out like really soon after. I didn't realize it went to the
Moon. Yeah, that's had enough in reserve. They kept saying, yeah,
forty hours, we got forty hours left to propellant. And well they
said that two days in a row, and I guess they've been able to
preserve or conserve enough propellant to make these tiny adjustments on the thing to ensure
that it could be brought back to Earth. All this stuffisode just absolutely crazy
and so just so so interesting. And then I started thinking about wasn't it
space Lab, like years and years ago that came back down and a big
chunk of that actually came back down into the atmosphere. Yeah, that thing
was big. That was huge, you know, space Lab. I remember
that thing. But this is again, it's fairly small. It's really small.
It's a little shorter than I am. It's a little wider than I
am, so there's not a lot that has to burn up on entry into
the into the atmosphere. It's a little shorter and a little wider than you.
Oh, Jim Ryan, you are a kick. Thank you so much
for the information. I'm relieved to hear that nothing's probably actually going to hit.
Nobody's in danger at least. Okay, good glad to hear it.
Oh so, Skylab dropped huge trunks of hardware into the Indian Ocean and across
western Australia in nineteen seventy nine. Wow, it's right, Google Fact of
the day. Nice, All right, Take care, Jim. Thanks to
yea, all right, let's get back to some of the stories coming out
of the KFI twenty four hour newsroom. Tesla is building a super charging station
in Hollywood that's going to have more than just car chargers. Fred Lemke says
supercharging hubs like this are needed as more more electric vehicles hit the road.
There's a couple of one or two charging stations or maybe three tops in an
underground parking facility, or they're in the parking lot at the gym that I
go to. But if they're filled, you know, what do you do?
The station on Santa Monica Boulevard's gonna have thirty electric vehicles, supercharging stations,
a twenty four hour restaurant, and two movie screens. Tesla owner Elon
Musk first mentioned the idea in twenty eighteen. He said he wanted a supercharger
location in La to include an old school drive in roller skates and a rock
restaurant. Tesla has not said when the facility will open. Now, speaking
of charging stations, have you been watching the deep freeze around the US and
guess what's not working? Ev charging stations? I was watching a story,
I think it was early this morning, even where where there's all that snow
and sub zero temperatures and people are pulling up to charge and the charging stations
aren't working. Apparently it's too cold for them. And then on super hot
days they tell us to conserve and don't charge. I think we need more
charging stations. Hey. The Pacific Northwest is getting ready for ice and freezing
rain. Parts of southwest Washington and western Oregon are under ice storm warnings and
freezing rain is forecast for the Seattle area. Schools are closed, bus services
limited, and warming shelters have been opened. In Oregon, two men have
been rescued from a burning home in Hollywood, ones in critical condition, the
other is listed as grave. The fire was reported around three this morning.
Firefighters say the men were trapped behind a security gate inside the home and forcible
entry tools were needed to get them out. An indoor and outdoor burn ban
has been extended for another day until at least midnight tonight because of a forecast
of high pollution levels. The burn ban is for the non desert areas of
La Ventura and Riverside Counties and all of Orange County. It doesn't apply to
mountain areas above three thousand feet a shipment of medicine for dozens of hostages held
by Hamas's headed to Gaza. France and Gatar arranged for the delivery. The
deal also includes the delivery of more medicine and humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza.
ABC's Andy Field says the agreement was reached as Israel reported that Hamas has
killed two more hostages, Kumen killed in their thirties and fifties. Israel says
more than one hundred and thirty hostages remain in Gaza, including some Americans.
A fireworks factories exploded in central Thailand, killing at least twenty people. A
regional police commander said there were twenty to thirty workers at the factory at the
time of the explosion, and that none of them could be found. The
cause of the explosion is being investigated. Police say another explosion in November killed
one worker and injured three others. This is KFI and kost HD two Los
Angeles, Orange County Southland weather from KFI some areas of low clouds this morning,
otherwise just mostly cloudy skies, highs in the low sixties at the beaches
Metro LA and Inland OC. Also for the Valleys, mid sixties in the
Inland Empire, fifties and sixties in the Antelope Valley. Low clouds than partly
cloudy tomorrow, a couple degrees warmer with high stoping out around seventy. Mostly
cloudy on Friday, with the chance of rain after midnight as a storm moves
into the Southland. Good chance we're going to get rain Saturday, Sunday and
into Monday. It's fifty three in Anaheim, fifty five or Dondo Beach,
fifty two in West Covina, fifty in Pasadena. We lead local live from
the KFI twenty four hour newsroom. I'm Amy King. This has been your
wake up Call, and if you missed any of wake Up Call, you
can listen anytime on the iHeartRadio app. You've been listening to wake Up Call
with me Amy King. You can always hear wake Up Call five to six
am Monday through Friday on KFI Am six forty and anytime on demand on the
iHeartRadio app.