You're listening to kf I Am six forty wake Up Call with me Amy King
on demand on the iHeartRadio app KFI and kost HD two Los Angeles, Orange
County. It's time for your morning wake up call. Here's Amy King.
It's five o'clock. This is your wake up call for Thursday, August thirty.
First, Good morning, I'm Amy King. Last day of August septembers.
Here. Hey, I woke up this morning without my alarm and I
get up like two thirty. It freaked me out because I was like,
Okay, I could try to go back to sleep for another five minutes,
or I could just get up. Worst feeling in the world. Do you
get up without an alarm? Oh no, no, no, I get
a bit. I have three alarms, two twelve to eighteen and two twenty
two. So if you're an early riser, do you wake up without an
alarm? I just it's very foreign to me, having to get up this
early and like going, oh hey, I'm awake. Okay. It's kind
of good though, because then you don't hit that panic you know sometimes when
you when your alarm goes off and you just freak out. I didn't have
that this morning, so it's kind of nice. Here's what's ahead on the
wake up call. Tropical Storm Dalia is barreling through the Carolina is on its
way to the Atlantic Ocean after leaving a trail of flooding and Devid's station around
the southeast. At least one person has been killed when a tree fell on
him in Georgia. We're gonna be checking in with ABC's Jim Ryan in Florida
and just a couple of minutes to get the latest to don't go away.
An eleventh bust filled with migrants has arrived in La from Texas. Thirty five
asylum seekers, including more than a dozen children from Peru, Guatemala, Honduras,
Russia, and Venezuela, arrived late yesterday morning. Lease west of Toronto,
Canada have worn drivers to keep their car windows closed after a truck spilled
crates carrying five million bees onto a roadway. Pedestrians in the area also asked
to stay away. At six oh five, it's handled on the news.
Just mentioned that bust full of migrants, while La City Council is pushing for
legal action against Texas Governor Greg Abbott who keeps sending them to Los Angeles.
Let's get started with some of the stories coming out of the KFI twenty four
hour newsroom. What is now Tropical Storm Dahlia has swept through parts of Georgia
and South Carolina. ABC's Alec Alex Pursche says the storm surge breached the dunes
and a couple of spots along the coast of South Carolina, causing flooding in
downtown Charleston. Massive flooding combined with sixty five mile an hour winds resulting in
life threatening conditions from Charleston to Myrtle Beach. Adalia was a Category three hurricane
when it first made landfall yesterday. Trees were blown over, buildings were damaged,
and some areas were flooded. Nearly a half million homes and businesses in
four stays were without power as of last night. Nearly seventy animals have flown
to northern California because Tropical Storm Hillary. Remember our little storm rained cats and
dogs on a shelter in Orange County. Three hundred and fifty strays were brought
in OC animal cares Jackie, Transas. Most had run off during the storm.
Usually pets are able to find their way back home, but when it
comes to the rain, it's the smells start to be different for them and
that's how they get lost trans As several nonprofits banded together to put the animals
on a plane Monday headed for eight shelters and nine Norcow counties. The pets
that were sent we're at the shelter before the storm and we're healthy, vaccinated,
and ready for adoption. In Orange County, Corbin Carson kof I News,
we believe there is a public safety risk. LA County Sheriff Luna says
a man wanted for the fatal staff of an elderly man in East Wittier may
have also attacked another elderly man the same day. We have the same suspect
description and they were both violently assaulted. The guy was scared off in the
first case. Investigators say they believe the murder happened Monday afternoon and the killer
got in through an unlocked door. He was later seen driving the murdered man's
car in Ontario and Chino. The sheriff says the killer maybe homeless. He's
in his thirties, about five foot eight, one hundred and fifty pounds,
with short hair and facial hair. The US could soon change its alcohol guidelines.
Current USDA recommendations have been in place since the nineties and say men should
stick to no more than two alcoholic beverages a day, while women should cut
themselves off at one. The director of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and
Alcoholism says when the guidelines are reviewed again in twenty twenty five, they could
suggest no more than two drinks a week. This comes after a recent study
showing binge drinking is on the rise across the country in people ages thirty five
to fifty. It's five oho five. Let's now say good morning to ABC's
Jim Ryan, who's in Tampa, Florida. So, Jim, the storm
has moved out of Florida. Where is she now? Right up along the
Carolina coast, just skirting along the coast there and causing some coastal flooding.
So everywhere it's gone, it's caused some kind of damage here in Tampa as
it was passing northward toward the north off the Gulf coast, the storm caused
search flooding here in the Tampa area. Waters as high as they've been since
nineteen twenty one in Tampa Bay. So some flooding was the issue there up
where the point of landfall came in the Big Bend section of the state.
That's where you had a lot of wind damage. Now in the Carolina's Yet,
lots of tornadoes that were reported, in fact, one confirmed amazing video
of a car being tossed over. And now you're looking at coastal flooding.
So depending upon where you lived, is that determined is the kind of damage
that you suffered from Adalia Amy And in Florida, there's still about one hundred
thousand people out of power. One hundred and fifty thousand here in Florida across
the state. That's customers, that's homes and businesses, apartment buildings, that
sort of thing. So one hundred and forty nine thousand customers up in Georgia,
about one hundred thousand. The Carolina's Beach have about twenty five thousand,
so and you're still looking at something like four hundred thousand customers without electricity right
now. But they're doing a pretty decent job of getting the power back on.
It seems like last night it was like five hundred thousand, and it
was like four hundred thousand in at least in Florida alone, So I think
it sounds like the governor kind of had those teams ready to mobilize exactly.
Yeah, you can chalk it up to the power companies themselves bringing crews in
from around the country to be ready for this and putting them in place up
around the Panhandle and in Georgia and places that were expected to lose power and
did in fact lose electricity. So yeah, there's the planning. I think
the lesson to learn from this whole thing is planning as far in advanced as
possible, even if it's just a few days, to get people in place
and ready to respond. National Guard members from around the state and across this
region. We're in place and have been doing search and rescue operations and thankfully
they haven't found anything of real significance. That we have three fatalities, at
least three fatalities now. Two work from car accidents here in Florida that happened
right around the time of landfall. The other fatality came up in Georgia,
Amy, and that was a tree fell on a person, right, Yes,
and very often that's how these things happen. That you know, the
ground gets saturated by the rains of a hurricane, and and then suddenly these
these trees that were weakened anyway have come tumbling down on people's cars or their
houses. The governor had a bit of a scare with the tree he did.
Outside the Governor's mansion. One hundred year old oak tree stood there,
and it was split by the winds of the storm over in Tallahassee. So
even ninety miles away from the point of landfall, they had enough wind that
it would do that kind of damage. Split this tree open, and part
of it apparently fell into the building next to the governor's residence. And the
family was home at the time, weren't they. Yes, the first lady
was there. She was there with at least one of her kids. They
saw what happened. In fact, she Casey de Sant has posted some images
online of this big, old, beautiful, huge oak tree that was just
broken right down the middle. Yeah, you know what, I was amazed
watching because you're watching all the coverage and seeing the flooded out streets and the
water rising and stuff. And then later in the day I was watching and
the water had receded already. I was amazed at how fast it goes back
out. Well, you're right, and depending upon high tider low tide,
that's going to govern what happens there with that. But also it's fairly low
lying area right at sea level here in Tampa, for example, and so
when the water comes in because of a storm surge, once that storm moves
away, the surge is able to subside, the water recedes and things get
back to normal. And you know, I've seen a lot of traffic moving
around here today in Tampa. People are coming back in to see if they
had any damage. They're probably gonna find they didn't. And there was a
lot of talk about the King tides because of our super moon. Did those
play out? Well, some of these it may have affected the height of
the high tides. The one when it when it passed by here by Tampa,
we were at low tide, and yet still the water came up four
or six feet, which is higher than it's been here for you know,
decades. And it was at high tide when landfall came up on the Big
Bend section of Florida. But you're right, the moon that's full moon,
that bluemon effect may have impacted the intensity of high tides wherever they happen,
and even though the water recedes quick glee, that damage is done. Like
all the do all those houses have to just be torn down and started and
rebuilt. Or if the water moves out quick enough, are they okay?
Well yeah, yeah, I mean once once drywall is soaked, it's soaked
and there's really nothing you can do but replace it. Take it out and
replace it. You know. I'll go down to the studs and just hope
that the studds weren't soaked so badly that you have to replace them. Cedar
Key is facing that sort of damage. Cedar Key is is a lives right
at sea level. It's a community of seven or eight hundred I believe there.
Then it's a fishing and tourism community. Beautiful place. But it was
close enough to the point of landfall, and the storm skirted close enough alongside
that You've got a lot of damage there. Buildings that were torn down by
the wind, others that were soaked by the flood and the rain. And
cedar Key is going to be one place I think to watch and then the
months ahead as they try to recover. Okay, and where's where's a dahlia
headed next? It's headed out into the Atlantic right now. I'm looking at
images from the National Hurricane Center and it's just skirting right along the Carolina coast.
It's going to roll out into the Atlantic. One model, just one
model shows a coming back in potentially up in New England. Others short kind
of spinning itself out. Franklin is still out there. It's a full blown
hurricane out in the Atlantic. It's not going to touch the US mainland.
And then here comes Jose. There's a storm called Jose, a tropical storm
that is formed right in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. The modeling right
now suggests that it won't do much either. Okay, well, let's hope
for that. Jim Ryan, thank you so much. Appreciate all the information
this morning. Thanks Amy. All right, let's get back to some of
the stories coming out of the KFI twenty four hour newsroom. Investigators say a
man accused of causing the crash that killed three Uber passengers in South la was
on probation at the time for attempted murder. Gregory Black also has other felony
convictions. He's now facing three counts of vehicular manslaughter for the crash Saturday,
police say he was driving nearly one hundred miles per hour when he ran a
red light at Vermont Avenue in Century Boulevard, hitting the Uber vehicle. A
loaded gun was found in his Mercedes. The National Weather Services warning gusty winds
and low humidity are increasing the risk that fires could spread rapidly in the western
parts of the Hawaiian Islands. Wind gusts are forecasts up to fifty miles per
hour. The warning comes three weeks after that deadly fire on Maui. The
Orange County Fire Authorities raised one hundred twenty thousand dollars for firefighters on Maui whose
homes were destroyed in the wildfire that devastated Lahinah. Forty thousand dollars to the
fund was donated by the OCFA by the Montecito Firefighters Charitable Foundation. That money
will be delivered to the Maui Fire Department tomorrow. Researchers across California say Moore
has to be done to study the health impacts of wildfire smoke and protect the
firefighters who protect us. UC Davis School of Medicine Professor doctor Kent Pickerton says
studying smoke and its risks is crucial to understanding what can be done to mitigate
the risks of the occupation. There are a number of gases that can be
very toxic as well as the particulates itself. Pinkerton says there are no long
term studies on the impacts of smoke exposure, but limited studies have shown firefighters
maybe at a higher risk for respiratory illness, cardiovascular illness, and even cancer.
The Biden administration has moved to extend mandatory overtime paid to three and a
half million salaried workers. The rule, proposed yesterday would require employers to pay
overtime premiums to workers who earn a salary of less than one fifty nine dollars
a week or about fifty five thousand dollars a year. The current salary threshold
of about thirty five thousand a year was set by former President Trump in twenty
twenty. The Labor Department says the increase is necessary to make sure workers are
fairly compensated. And police in Nebraska have pulled over a man driving a compact
car for a traffic violation. Police say the guy had a massive watusi bull
riding shotgun in the car. The big old bull named Howdy Doody was sitting
in the car with his huge owl head and horn sticking up through where the
roof and the windshield used to be. Police let the guy off with a
warning. Tropical Storm e Dahlia has brought over nine feet of storm surge to
Charleston, South Carolina. The Governor of North Carolina has urged residence to stock
up on supplies and stay off flooded roads. A twelve year old boy has
died after collapsing during pe in Lake Elsinore, and a Westlake High School football
player has died after having an asthma attack last week. Federal vehicle regulators have
demanded Tesla turnover data about a secret feature in its cars called Elon Mode that
lets drivers use the autopilot feature without having to keep their hands on the steering
wheel. At six oh five, it's handled on the news what a mall
in Moreno Valleys doing to try to cut down on massive teen fights at malls
around the US. Right now, it's time for biz buzz. Let's say
good morning to CNBC special correspondent and our very own Jane Wells. Hi Amy,
Hi Jane, So you have a story to tell us about a company
in California that's going to save a lot of lives. Yes, I'm down
here in lak gonna be today for CNBC doing the story on a company called
Genesis based out of San Diego, and they provide sort of like public address
systems for state and local governments all over the country. And this is based
on what happened in Maui and just how everything that could go wrong did go
wrong there. And one of the things in Maui with during the line of
fire is they didn't turn on their air raid sirens and one reason for that
is because they were afraid people would think that it was a tsunami and they
would rush to the mountains away from the water and go right into the fire.
Well. Genesis sells a systems that includes speakers that are on poles,
but they talked to you. A message goes out, they tell you that
you need to evacuate, or that it is a fire, or that it's
a tsunami, or that you need to shelter in place because there's a school
shooting. And these are not a cheap systems. It's a combination of hardware
with the speakers and software with the text dealers that go out, and they're
being used all over California, including Lugua Beach. They've been used in two
fires last year to tell people to evacuate. They're using Colorado. They're used
at Fenway Park and lambeau Field. And this is a solution for a part.
This could have saved lives in Hawaii. I mean it seems like in
Hawaii and Lahainah. Yes, everybody really only had one road out, but
at least people could have gotten the word early. And here's the other thing.
Amy if the power goes out, if the cell system goes down,
these speakers still work because they're on a satellite channel. Nice. Okay,
so this is not texting or anything, and like you just said, it
doesn't need the power. So that could make a big difference too, because
the other problem in Lahina was even though they sent out text alerts and put
out I think they put out stuff on the radio, there were so many
power outages and cell service was down that people weren't getting the messages exactly.
The Genesis system does include that, but it's it's sort of like several layers
that you have this until that doesn't work. Anymore, you have that until
that doesn't work anymore, and the speakers will work until they burned it,
until the polls burned down, you know, And so it would have been
I just think when you hear it. They did a test for me yesterday,
When you hear the actual voice and you know what's going on, it
makes a huge Why are we still as a CEO told me, I saiday,
why are we still using sirens from the nineteen forties at twenty twenty three?
And is this again not cheap? Laguna Beach has spent one point three
million dollars to have an array of twenty four of these speakers around town with
the software that goes with it. But it could have saved well, we
don't know and we'll never know, but the thinking is it could have saved
lives in Lahiah. So you said that they're in Laguna Beach, twenty four
speakers. What's the reach, like, how many people in that community would
be able to hear them? They you'd hear it. They do a test
quarterly. It's really loud, and they're up on poles in different places strategically,
not just up in the hills, but also down on the beach at
lifeguard towers, and so you'd really there's there's one. He didn't click it
during a while we were getting v roll. He was afraid he was going
to click it. There's one system that you can do for the all twenty
fourth arrays or speakers. Well there's more than one speaker in each place,
all twenty four places. But you can also do it individually to a particular
neighborhood and you can say different messages to different neighborhoods. Oh okay, that's
cool. Are there any other cities in California that have this or are planning
to get it all over all over? For example, Burke, it comes
to mind they not only have it for the city, but they have it
for the university. I mean, this is the sort of thing where if
there was you know, you needed to stay in your classroom or in your
buildings because there was an active shooter, that they could put this over the
speaker as well. It's being used and Japan has them. They have a
thousand of them in Japan, which they fought after Fukushima for because of the
nuclears. You know what happened this last week and I was up where I
live in Avelue Beach. I lived near, not far from Diablo Canyon,
and they warn't everybody, They're going to run a siren test up there,
and they did. But the sylum doesn't tell you anything. So what am
I supposed to I don't have any information. It's just a siren. All
I'm gonna do is freak out. And I can do that on my own,
I know, and even when you do. You know, we got
that quake warning when we were having the hurric quake and it said stop,
drop and take cover, and I just like went oh and went and looked
for my cats. I didn't stop, drop or take cover. Still,
I don't know. I guess having those instructions would be helpful. Yes,
it would move on to something else real quick before we let you go.
And that is that Amazon is raising some prices kind of quietly. It is
if you are not a Prime member and paying one hundred and forty dollars a
year or whatever, the threshold to have free shipping is going up ten dollars.
Usually you can get free shipping if your order is twenty five dollars,
and now it is going up to thirty five dollars. And part of this
is amy because people are ordering so much stuff that they're returning. I don't
know. I've done a whole series of stories on the return economy. I
mean, the billions and billions of dollars of stuff is being returned. And
I think what Amazon is doing here is just starting to raise the bar a
little bit on different things so that they make it a little bit more difficult.
You think a little bit more before you order, and maybe then you
won't order five pairs of shoes and different sizes that you turn four of them
that you don't you know, that don't fit. I just did that with
Beaar shorts. I ordered two sizes because I'm like, I don't know which
one's gonna fit. So that's what we do. Yeah, and for one
hundred and forty bucks. I know it sounds like a lot, but it's
it's the best money I've spent. I think I've I've saved that shipping in
the last month. So I'm with you. We are in Amazon's clutches,
we are, and we have fun. Poy. Yeah, all right,
Jane Wells, thank you so much. You can find Jane and find out
the latest from her on substack at Jane Wells dot substack dot com. And
I love this because I love to hear Jane on CAMFI. Jane's gonna be
with Gary Hoffman on Monday, right, Actually, I'm with Laylah Muhammed against
what ire both off on Monday. Oh okay, So I often get the
two of them confused. Yeah, they look a lot alike. So yeah,
We've got to Jane and Layla on Monday. So I'll see you Monday
morning. Thank you so much. Okay, take care, all right,
take care. Thousands are still in the dark and Florida's Big Bend area after
Idalia made landfall as a Category three storm yesterday. About one hundred thousand people
in the state are still without power. The storm's now moving across the Carolinas,
and eleventh bus filled with migrants has arrived in La from Texas. Thirty
five asylum seekers, including more than a dozen children, from Perue, Guatemala,
Honduras, Russia, and Venezuela, arrived at late yesterday morning. SpaceX
is getting ready for another Falcon nine rocket launch. If Algos as planned,
it'll lift off from Vandenburg Space four space at seven twenty six this morning,
carrying global military communication and missile warning satellites. At six oh five, it's
handled on the news Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has frozen again. It's a second
time in front of a crowd. How many times has it happened off camera?
I wonder? And is he okay? At five fifty, we're going
to be talking with ABC Stephen Portnoy about what happened with the Senate Minority Leader
yesterday. Right now, I'm Amy king, I'm on it? What am
I on? I'm on streaming shows, movies, documentaries, series, sometimes
sometimes network shows, although there's not a whole lot new coming out on the
networks these days. But here's a show that I wanted to share with you
because I just recently watched it and I think Mo Kelly told me about it.
It's a show called Painkiller, and it stars Matthew Brodrick's Brodrick's Brodrick and
uh, it's a full series. It's available on Netflix six episodes, and
it's the fictionalized story of the origins of the opioid crisis. And of course
it's a big deal to everybody. My own story about this is I am
parent. It's just scared to death because they're so addictive. So even when
I went in to have surgery for when I had the big Sea, I
was like telling my doctor, I don't want I don't want oxyconton. I
don't want oxyconton. I think they ignored me because I did get some,
but only for a very short time, like it was for immediately after the
surgery, and they got me off it right away. So it can be
used in a very good effective way. This series talks about how it is.
It was designed to be abused, so it's based on true events.
Each episode starts with a disclaimer admitting though that the characters, the situations,
the dialogue, the story has all been modified and it's very upfron about that.
And then on the first episode, the woman or the man I can't
remember if as a man or woman who was talking about it. They said,
what is real is that my relative died of an opioid overdose. So
it kind of hits home right out of the gate. And the story is
really compelling. It's the story of Richard Sackler, who's the guy behind oxyconton.
It's kind of an nerving it's really fascinating, but it does feel it
does feel over the top to me, like Brodrick and his family are portrayed
as evil people who just wanted to mass market the painkiller, get him hooked,
make a lot of money. And there's truth in that, I'm sure,
but it felt like it was it was hollywooded up, like they took
it over the top. So the story follows, also follows a man who
gets injured and gets on oxy and gets hooked, and then how it becomes
dependent on that, how it affects his life, how it affects his family,
and that I think is something that doesn't get a lot of play a
lot of times. I mean, you go, oh, this person gets
addicted to drugs and it destroys their life, but it destroys the lives of
the people around them too, and I think it showcases that. Again,
while there is truth in this, it does feel kind of Hollywood to me.
I think some of the story was done for effect rather than substance.
But I still think it's an important movie. I think it's a devastating epidemic
really of the abuse of these opioids, and it's worth a watch because oxy
is an epidemic and it didn't have to be that way. Yes, Kono
have you seen Dopesick? I haven't seen that one yet. Did you see
that one? I've seen both. I just wanted to get your take if
you've seen it, and okay, well what's your take? Is it better?
I'm a big Michael Keaton fan. It's just different, like Pink Killers
more on the abuse of the drug, where Dope Sick is more about the
Sackler family and like the produced pharma side of it. Then that's next on
my list is to watch It's really good, all right, Okay? And
then real quickly, Cinderella in four K came out on Disney Plus and I
was like, hey, I haven't seen Cinderella in a long time, So
I watched it. Do you still Cinderella? I still like the story.
It's cute, very old fashioned, very traditional, But I mean it's a
fun watch. I think it's still really cute for the kids. And the
animation looks great. It's just they cleaned it up. It looks a little
brighter and tighter, and you know, the lines are the lines are more
distinct, and the colors are better and that kind of stuff. So I
think that if you want to sit down and watch a nice animated show,
Cinderella in four k now on Disney Plus. Let's get back to some of
the stories coming out of the CAFI twenty four hour newsroom. A cluster of
spot fires that began in a homeless camp and burned alongside the sixty Freeway and
riverside damaged at least six properties. The first of the fire started yesterday afternoon
along the retaining wall of the Pomona Freeway near Stoddard Avenue. Firefighters got there
to find one firehead branched out and become three or four others that burned both
sides the retaining wall, the shoulder of the freeway, and also behind some
houses. The LAPD says an online story suggesting it inflates the value of c'sed
illegal drugs for publicity is not true. Every time police announced a drug bust,
you always hear the street value and it's always different. Commander Lillian Coronza
says that's because there are many factors when it comes to pricing. You cannot
compare purchasing it at when it's pure and it just came over the border and
mass quantity to the price that it's being sold on the street. After he's
been cut or deluted three, four aim and sometimes five twin. Coronza says
it's not about the street value as much as the pounds and kilos of the
deadly drugs being removed from the streets. Steve Gregory kop Ie News Businesses and
homes across the San Bernardino Mountains are flying Pride flags in honor of a business
owner who was murdered earlier this month. The six year old woman was shot
to death on August at eighteenth after a man disparaged her for flying a Pride
flag outside her store in the Lake Arrowhead area. The man was later killed
in a shootout with deputies. Some businesses in places like Cedar Glen, Lake,
Arrowhead and Running Springs are also giving away Pride flags in the woman's honor.
The Biden administration has canceled student debt for more than twenty three hundred former
students who were miss led by Ashford University in San Diego. Officials say recruiters
lied to the students about tuition, financial aid, and debt students would accumulate.
A g Robanta says what the school did was unconscionable. Students, they'd
be able to what the teachers nurses or dragon alcohol conclers. Despite the school
locking the necessaries, did approval or crediditions in exectory of the reality. A
court found the school made more than one million misleading claims one million misleading claims
to prospective students. The school paid a twenty two million dollars fine last year.
Yesterday's agreement cancels seventy two million dollars in student debt. Attorneys for the
man accused of killing four University of Idaho students have filed emotion to remove courtroom
cameras. Ryan Coburger's defense team says the operator is not following the judge's direction
to only use wide angle shots. The cameraman has allegedly shot multiple close ups
of Cooburger. His lawyers say they want camera's band from all future court proceedings.
Japan's Prime Minister assembled seafood and talked to workers at a fish market in
Tokyo on a visit to assess the impact of China's ban on Japanese seafood.
He's promised government measures to support fisheries. The ban is in response to the
release of wastewater from the Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan. Started a few weeks
ago. The release of treated wastewater into the ocean is expected to continue for
decades. Five million bees have escaped into a neighborhood in Canada when the crates
they were in fell off the back of a truck. People and drivers in
Burlington were told to keep their windows closed as experts worked to recover the bees.
Local beekeeper Luke Peters as some crates were left behind intentionally so the bees
could return to them on their own to communicate by smell, by sight and
all that. So they will start to communicate in those ways and figure out
their home. I love that you could hear a little bee buzzing around him.
A police officer in Burlington says he has never seen anything like this.
Beast bill. That's a whole lot of beads. Right now, let's say
good morning to ABC's Steve Portnoy. And before we get started, Steve,
I wanted to play the sound from what happened yesterday during an appearance for Mitch
McConnell about what running for re election in twenty six Sure, and this is
where he freezes and stands at the podium. Did you hear the question senator
running for re election in twenty twenty six. I think he says yes,
there, but just stands there almost thirty seconds. Stephen, do we know
anything more about what happened to the Senate Minority leader yesterday? Well, the
only thing we've been told is that he is This is from his office,
that he experienced some lightheadedness while he was at the press conference, and we
were told he would be seeing a physician. No readoubt of any consultation with
a doctor. But this is not the first time this has happened in public.
We should say it's not the first time it's happened in public. We
don't know how many times it may have happened. That's what I was wondering
too, because this is the second time that it was caught on camera.
But how many times does this happen when we're not seeing? That's right?
And look, it's tough to watch. The senator stands there at the lectern,
his hands grasping both sides. He is attended to, not just by
the aid you heard, but also by another aid, seemingly a member of
his security detail from the Capitol Police, who comes over and asks if the
senator needs to go, and McConnell after about thirty seconds, comes to re
engages and in a frail voice, continues the press conference for another minute or
so before he's led away. Look, we don't know what happened. There's
a great deal speculation that maybe it was some sort of maybe a mini stroke
or other sort of neurological event. You and I are not qualified to diagnose.
Absolutely, certainly, certainly not just by watching it on video. But
it raises questions about the health of a man who is the leader of Senate
Republicans and has been since two thousand and seven. You know, we we
You've heard a lot of talk about Senator Feinstein and her health at age ninety.
She represents the largest state in the country, your state. But you
know, every single one of these one hundred senators has an equal responsibility and
equal power in the Senate. But it's an outsized power for Mitch McConnell as
the leader of the Senate Republicans to guide his conference. And the bottom line
is, you know, you know, we are out a period of time
where a number of our senior most leaders in the country are of an age
where increasingly nature runs its course, and it's raising questions among voters about you
know, the appropriateness of it, and the idea that so many of our
people in these key positions, including the President United States, are of an
age where where at a certain point, the you know, as I say,
nature takes hold. So there's not much more to say about it except
that here in Washington, DC, senior Republicans are expressing their good wishes for
Mitch McConnell. The President himself expressed good wishes, said he would check in
with his old friend Mitch McConnell, and Mitch says, Mitch, like I
know him. Senator McConnell is says he's going to go to a doctor this
time because the last time they said, oh no, he's fine, don't
worry about him. Well, and he tried to laugh it off. I
mean, there was an incident last I guess it was mid July where the
President was attending a Service Academy graduation and he tripped on a sand bag that
was on the stage. Very alarming for an eighty year old man to be
seen falling, but Joe Biden bounced back up and you know, made a
joke about the sandbag, and Senator McConnell joked to reporters that he too was
sand bagged when he had that moment last month. But now you have it
happening again, and it's not easy to watch. No, it's not.
It's so uncom I mean, you feel so bad for these people. And
like you said, it's nature taking hold. You're just getting older. I
mean Bernie Sanders, I think is an outlier because he is just still like
smart as a whip and just going firing on all cylinders. Just see that,
And that's the argument. Listen. You know, you could think of
some rare examples of people who are even older who are spry and with it
and can engage. But look at a certain point, sometimes maybe oftentimes,
you know, you get to an age where the body does decline and the
mind does decline. But McConnell, again, once he was able to re
engage, was able to answer the question he was asked. I thought was
What was interesting too, is that nobody asked him, Hey, what just
happened? You know, like they just I think everybody was so uncomfortable they
go, oh, let's just go ask him, and was old the question
that we were going to plan to ask him. It was yeah, I
hope whatever happens with him. I hope he's okay, And personally wish these
lawmakers would let go of the power. I think they're so worried about letting
go of the power that they stay too long. I will just say that
there's a long history in the Senate in particular of senators, and mainly they've
all been men. I mean, Diane Fine stands for example, of a
woman who's ninety years old, still serving, the oldest currently serving senator,
and there are questions about her health and cognition and all this. But you
know, the Senate is a history of men being wheeled in in wheelchairs,
practically catatonic. I mean, not that long ago. I mean you're talking
about people like strom Thurman, Robert Byrd, who you know, were unable
to communicate practically and would be wheeled in and just you know what their thumbs
up or down, would somehow vote. So there's obviously precedent for this,
but in our modern era, where Americans expect to be able to engage directly
with their politicians, where they expect their politicians to be at the top of
their game, performing right, engaging directly with voters on a variety of different
media platforms. It's not thought of as a common thing for someone to be
infirmed while they're serving in high positions of authority in our government. Well,
I think this is bringing this to light and we'll see what happens and maybe
maybe things change. Who knows, Steven, Steve Portnoy, Thanks so much
for the time today, bet Now let's get back to some of the stories
coming out of the KFI twenty four hour newsroom. The latest update from the
official US Drought Monitor shows California is nearly one drought free. Officials save drought
conditions have continued to retreat across the state following our historic wet winter. Data
released just last week shows just six percent of the state is still considered abnormally
dry. No area in the state is in extreme or exceptional drought. Yet
another bus carrying migrants from Texas has arrived in La just as the city council
proved a motion to investigate whether Texas Governor Greg Abbott committed any crimes when he
sent the first bus. Texas has so far sent an busses with a total
of four hundred and thirty five migrants. The La City councils asked the city
Attorney's office to find out if legal action could be taken against the State of
Texas, Abbott or any others involved in sending that first group of forty two
migrants on a twenty three hour bus ride. Back in June, Federal vehicle
regulators have demanded Tesla turnover data about a secret feature in its cars. The
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says elon mode. Called Elon Mode allows Tesla drivers
to use the autopilot feature without having to keep their hands on the steering wheel.
CBS is putting a tribute show on for Bob Barker, who died over
the weekend at the age of ninety nine. The show Tonight's going to honor
the life and career of the longtime host of The Prices Right. He did
it for thirty five years, beginning in nineteen seventy two. Barker earned fourteen
Daytime Emmy Awards and a Lifetime Achievement Award in nineteen ninety nine. He also
a big advocates for pets and one last thing. Big Fans of Big Hero
six get a treat starting today at California Adventure, San Fransokio Square is complete
open for business. It's modeled after Big Hero six the San Francokio. There
comes complete with a Baymax. He's the big white inflatable healthcare robot. He'll
be walking around the newly reimagined Pacific Wharf food Court, and we'll be available,
as Disney said, for squishy hugs, fist bumps, and photos.
This is KFI and kost HD to Los Angeles, Orange County. We lead
local live from the KFI twenty four hour newsroom. I'm Amy King. This
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