Hey, it's Jennifer Jones Lee. You're listening to KFI, a M six
forty wake up call on demand on the iHeartRadio app. She likes to call
it Friday. Here's Jennifer Jones Lee with your Thursday morning wake up call.
So I keep checking the forecast because if you thought last weekend was gorgeous,
this weekend maybe even a little hot. If you're inland as will be in
the mid eighties to maybe the low nineties. But that also means that those
beach temperatures are in the seventies. So again my advice to you, if
you are going to Huntington Dog Beach, what happens is there are three parking
lots and if you get you everybody gets in a line on the shoulder.
So they've got all these cars and then you whoever the first car in the
parking lot is they're waiting for somebody to pull out and take their spot.
Right. But I was talking with Oscar Ramrez yesterday. Are is Oscar Operations
manager? I never know everybody's title anyway, And he said brilliant idea that
he and his wife Kat, when they go to Huntington Nog Beach, they
go ahead of time and get sandwiches somewhere and then they sit in the car
while they're waiting in line and eat lunch. Then by the time lunch is
over, they found a parking space. Anyway, my point is, if
you are headed to Huntington this weekend, just give yourself like an extra half
hour because you have to sit there in the line. It's crazy, but
it's I guess it's a thing. And normally I guess I don't go on
days that are super crowded, or I haven't gone on weekends necessarily, but
yeah, I just have a feeling. That's my public service announcement for you
this morning. You're welcomes Kofi Am six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
This is your wake up call for a Friday Eve. April twenty seventh,
the La Kenny Sheriff's Department says a woman seen on video being assaulted and
forced into the car and commerce this is the story that Blake was doing all
yesterday morning has been found. The woman has been found, and the guy
has been arrested. Also a judge. Now Lay says journalists can continue to
distribute photos of LAPD officers, including those on undercover assignments. Five oh five,
we're going to talk with ABC's Karen Travers. We've got a couple of
things that we will talk to her about. First of all, the President
talking about his run for reelection and his age. He says he respects people
taking a hard look at his age and that he's done the same thing.
And also, we'll get the latest on the debt ceiling negotiations. And Mitch
McCall has essentially wiped his hands of being part of this debate over the debt
ceiling. So we'll get into all of that in just a few minutes,
but let's start with some of these stories coming out of the KFI twenty four
hour newsroom. The Lakenny Sheriff's Department says that woman's seen on video being assaulted
and forced into a car, and commerce has been found and the guy who
allegedly took her has been arrested. Security video showed the woman on a sidewalk
just talking on her cell phone. All of a sudden, guy drives up,
gets out of the car, hits her with a gun pistol, whips
her, and then takes her. The man was arrested yesterday afternoon I'm dying
to know if this was random, did they know each other? Was there
some motive in this? How old was she? How old is the guy?
So much like to this one? The backstory on this one's big,
I think or maybe. A judge in La says a journalist can continue to
distribute photos of APD officers, including those on undercover assignments. The city had
filed for an injunction to stop the photos from being further downloaded, but a
judge ruled Tuesday night the city cannot unring the bell by trying to reclaim thousands
of photos that are already out there. The journalists obtained the photos through a
public records lawsuit. The more than nine thousand images were posted in March on
an anti police website, including those undercover. The city said it was trying
to protect the undercover officers, but the journalist says the injunction is nothing more
than retaliation for posting the photos. Steve Gregory Campine News I Wanted fell In
has been fatally shot by Riverside County Sheriff's deputies during a pursuit in Paris.
Deputies were serving a warrant yesterday when they saw a guy driving away. They
tried to stop him, but he took off. Officials say the guy lost
control of the car, ditched it, and then shot at deputies. They
fired back. Santa Monica has agreed to pay more than one hundred twenty two
million dollars to settle claims against a former youth program volunteer accused of sexually abusing
hundreds of kids. The payment will go to one hundred twenty four people who
say Eric Ohler sexually assaulted them as kids from the late eighties to early two
thousands. Attorney Brian Claypole says the city has now paid out about two hundred
and thirty million dollars to more than two hundred and twenty accusers. How can
we have such a colossal failure from top to bottom? Claypole says reports made
at the time of the attacks were not taken seriously. Uhler committed suicide in
twenty eighteen after being charged with molesting four boys in La Blake trolley. K
if I News and after we've talked with Karen Travers, we've got the story
of the former gynecologist at UCLA who was once the highest paid doctor there,
who's been sentenced to prison. For sexually abusing his patients. So that's coming
up. Karen Travers, Good morning to you. So let's talk about the
president's age and what he has to say about the fact that a lot of
Americans are taking a hard look at his age and how old he will be
if he runs for press or when he runs for president again and at the
end of his turn. Yeah, so you know, there was a poll
out this week that said seventy percent of Americans don't believe he should run again,
and that included fifty one percent of Democrats. So my colleague Mary Bruce
asked him yesterday about that poll and what he says to those people who hear
him say, watch me when they question his age and they're watching him and
still aren't convinced and don't think he should do it. And he first started
out by joking, he said, I can't even say how old I am.
I can't say the number. It doesn't register with me. But then
he acknowledged that he respects people taking a long hard look at it, his
age, him jumping back in for a reelection race, because he said he
took a long hard look at it before he decided to run. He said
he feels good, he feels excited, and he respects that people are going
to judge whether or not he says, I have it or I don't have
it. Now on his polling, he says, you know, people get
caught up in the job approval ratings, but when you drilled down into what
he has done, he says, Paul show the people like what he has
accomplished and that he has a strong record to run on. I think the
most interesting thing was how reflective he was on the Donald Trump factor. He
was asked by Mary if he believes he's the only candidate who can beat Trump,
because he had previously said, you know, that was a big driver
of why he ran in twenty twenty, and he said he may not be
the only one, but he knows him well. And she said, you
know, you say you know him well. Would you be doing this if
he weren't running? And the President said he thinks he still would be running
even if Donald Trump were not running again for the White House. But he
says he basically is doing it because he wants to finish the job. But
all that was really interesting, right right, well, And I did think
that that was interesting. I think I want to finish the job. Part
is what you hear every president say when they want to run for a second
term. But in the case of the Donald Trump portion of it, that's
what I thought he would be more like, hey, I beat him once,
I got to beat him again, kind of go on that mantra.
So I too was kind of surprised by that. And when it comes to
the debt ceiling, I feel like Mitch McConnell yesterday sort of just wiped his
hands clean of it and said, hey, guys, this is on you
McCarthy and President Biden, you to figure it out. And that's going to
be a common refrain over the next year and a half of like, you
know, hey, I'm in the Senate, this is up to you guys.
You're in charge over there, and you're the president. And McConnell had
limited power, he's a minority leader, but saying you know, you guys
have to work this out, and saying the president has to negotiate with Kevin
McCarthy. The President made it very clear yesterday again, and he hasn't been
this explicit because he hasn't addressed this in sometime, even though his presecretary has.
He said he's happened to meet with McCarthy, but not on the depth
ceiling that has to be raised. Then they can talk about budget cuts and
overall the deficit and things like that, but he is not budging on those
other things on the depth ceiling. Yeah, not even a little. All
right, Karen, thank you so much. I appreciate it. Kay,
high five Mary Bruce when you see her. She asked great questions. I
love that anytime that you get well started to say, your guy, your
lady, your person, your reporter. I don't know. I I get
so caught up, and am I supposed to call them that they how PC?
Am I supposed to be? Who cares? It's wake up call?
I can be me. But you get your reporter to ask the questions.
Or if you're watching a news conference or something like that and it's your reporter
that you can hear or that you see or the hand gets raised, it's
like, heck, yeah, we're the ones who get the scoop? Do
you hear about this? Wildfire in the San Bernardino County Mountains kind of felt
like our first one of the fire season. It started just after ten yesterday
morning in a remote area and your lytle Creek south of right Wood. Fire
crews had to fight it from the air because the terin was so steep and
the brush was so thick. Some roads were closed, but no evacuations were
ordered. A former gynecologist who was once the highest paid doctor a UCLA,
has been sentenced to eleven years in prison for sexually abusing patients. Ex gynecological
oncologist James Heaps was convicted of abusing two patients. Lawyer Jennifer McGrath represented almost
one hundred former patients of Heaps, who she says are pleased with the prison
sentence imposed. Thus far, we look forward to when Heaps is held to
account for the nine charges that hung. At least now with the sentence imposed,
our clients can finally find some closure. Hundreds of lawsuits against Heaps and
UCLA were settled for almost seven hundred million dollars. Prosecutors yesterday said they could
decide in August to retrive the charges involving two other patients. In La,
Corbin Carson k if I knew LA has commemorated Denim Day to raise awareness for
sexual violence. Denim Day is the longest running sexual violence prevention and education campaign.
Director of peace over violence and founder of Denim Day, Patty Giggins says,
sexual abuse can happen to anyone, and it can happen to children,
to cappen to boys, it could happen to girls. It we know that
it can happen to trans people. Giggins says Denim Day was founded after Italian
judges overturned to man's rape conviction in the nineties, saying his accusers jeans were
so tight she had to have helped him take them off. Advocates and survivors
gathered yesterday in jeans outside of city Hall. Chris ADLERKFI News and remember the
story of the murder of a fifteen year old boy in Rancho Cucamonga at a
Halloween party last year. Well, a nineteen year old now has been arrested.
Investigators say it guy and a girl started fighting and video shows Robert Pliley
stepping in to stop it, but that's when he was shot. Detectives worked
with the US Marshals and Homeland Security to find the alleged shooter in Mexico Israel.
Diaz was arrested Tuesday, and he tried to cross the border coming back
into the US. Jim Ryan, Good Morning, to you. I've actually
got a couple of stories about the military. This morning, coming up at
five fifty, we're gonna talk with a major about the armies. Be all
you can be bringing that back. But what this whole new strategy is for
bringing that back now. I know that that will probably coincide with the story
that you've got for us right now. But tattoos, facial hair. I
mean, you know, you used to see just these kind of squeaky clean
men and women in the military, and now things are changing and it's not
necessarily just because we're changing with the times. It sounds like it's necessity.
Well, it is because so many people, for example, have tattoos now,
Jen, I mean, if you walk around the mall or whatever,
you're going to find people who have tattoos, yeah, on their arms,
on their hands, on their necks, some of them have them on their
faces. The military is longhead prohibitions against the tattoos that showed beyond the uniform.
If you're wearing your uniform, your army combat uniform for example ECU,
the tattoos you had could not show. Well, they started relaxing those rules
somewhat in the various branches the air Force, for example, now is allowing
neck tattoos. That tattoo can only be one inch by one inch, and
it must be behind the ear. Draw a line straight down from your ear.
It can only be behind that line on your neck. Air Force recruiters,
in fact, are keeping a list of places. If a recruit comes
in and has a neck tattoo that doesn't meet standards, the recruiter will say,
you still want to join up. You know you have this neck tattoo.
It's going to disqualify you. But if you go to this place,
they will remove it for you. Their force won't pay for it, but
at least you'll know where to go. Interestingly, tattoos previously were the third
highest disqualifying factor for Air Force recruits. Yeah so, I mean a bad
bum, leg, bad heart that was number one. You know, a
medical history, well, the felony violations in the past that that was going
to disqualify you, and in third place tattoos. Interesting. I know,
it's it's funny. After I booked you for last night, or after I
booked you last night for this morning, I happen to go run some errands
and I saw it was I was at the gas station and there was a
guy standing there that you know how you'll just chat up the person next to
you at the pump, and so we were talking and he had a tattoo
on the back of his neck and I thought, oh, look at that,
he'd qualify. But then I went in to the convenience store and the
woman at the counter had a giant butterfly like under her chin down her neck.
Yeah, And I thought, oh, right there, she couldn't do
it unless she went and got that removed. But I've I've heard that the
removal is a expensive but also that it hurts, right, and it's only
partially effective to right take away all signs of the tattoo. And you know,
they were going to go back to the recruiter and say, okay,
there's this qualify now that this big blotch on yeah, where it's going to
be just sort of faded, yeah, right right, So yeah, it's
you know, I think that a lot of folks in the in the military,
they're they're recognized that they have to be a little more flexible. The
Marine Corps is even more relaxed than that. You can have tattoo sleeves in
the Marine Corps. Interesting, Yeah, when it comes to recruitment, though,
I feel like that because we know that recruitment is down, they're forced
to change these policies, right, if they want to keep numbers up,
they want to, they have to do that. They have to be a
little more flexible. And what's more, they've kind of changed policy somewhat.
The army is saying, and it's the same as the be all that you
can be. They want people to come in and feel comfortable expressing themselves.
And if that means having a small tattoo on the neck, okay, fine,
or a small tattoo on the back of the hand, that's going to
be okay too. But yet they need to maintain what's called good order,
a military order and discipline. But at the same time, let these folks
express themselves at least in a small way. Well that's and that's what I
think is so interesting is that I think before the whole idea of it was,
hey, we are going to be one unit, We're going to be
all the same. And then now to see it like, okay, you
be you, but you be you and be a part of this unit is
just an interesting change in it just it shows the sign of the times.
Yeah, absolutely more women now in the army they can if they have medium
lenked hair, they don't have to wear it in a bond. Now if
you picture of a military woman in HERR B tous or her a cull walking
in her grocery store with a bun, they can now wear them in a
ponytail, or they can wear their hair as short as a quarter inch.
So yeah, they're they've started modifying some of these regulations, but trying to
maintain that sense of a uniformity and be good order. Right, all right,
thank you so much, Jim, I appreciate it. Wait, have
a question. Do you have any tattoos? No, me, neither,
really, No, you would have had a bunch of them. I don't
want. You know. What's funny is I've had more people say that.
I think because I'm a wild child and so people just assume that I would.
But yeah, I think it's a fear of ammitment. I can't commit
to anything. I'll get an idea and I'll be like, I'm gonna get
a tattoo of you know, you would think dogs or something, right,
that I'd get a paw or something. No, No, I just I
can't imagine it. I changed my hair up all the time. I can't
immagine it would be a commitment thing. And my daughter has somebody, you
know. I talked to my son. I thought he would be more inclined
to get a tattoo. He was. He came to me one time and
he said, you know what he was about eighteen nineteen. You said,
I'm thinking about getting a tattoo. And mine must say, really, I
wish you wouldn't do that. I mean, it's gonna look bad. And
if you were, I said, what what? What would be so important
that you'd want to get a tattooed on your arm? And he says,
I was going to get our family crest. Oh what do you say to
that? Punch exactly like, well, oh man, all right, so
did he No, he did it? Oh okay, hey, I like
it though, Way to go, and you know, high five to your
son. Yeah, all right, thanks Jim ce Later that's ABC's Jim Ryan
Tyler Anny tattoos. Two. What do you have on my right arm?
Like upper arm? I have Fenway Park Oh okay, that's cool. And
then on my back I have a guardenia flower and some Hebrew. What's what's
the significance I get fenway quickly. My grandfather used to give my grandmother guardenia
flowers on their anniversary, and on birthday he proposed to her. He gave
her the usual guardinia in a box, but he put the engagement ring in
the box, and she had gotten so used to taking the flower out of
the box and throwing the box away that she chucked the box away with the
engagement ring in it. But anyway, past that, my mom would always
have guardenia bushes in our gardens somewhere in our home and they would always bloom
when she wishes her parents were around. So like my way of taking that
and carrying it with me. Okay, I like that. That's very cool.
I don't know. I mean I thought about getting So we have a
family, I know, so redneck. We have a family brand. So
I actually have our family's branding irons from when we had cattle, and so
it's a it's called Roland and J. Nate Jones was like the family patriarch
back in the day, the Roland J Ranch, And I thought, oh,
I could get the NJ Ranch on me, and then somebody said I
should do it Yellowstone style, where they brand the guys on the chest.
No, you know what, all ride a bowl all day long? That
sounds fine, but getting branded, No, Nope. Stats showed the snowstorms
of the last few months around so Cal did not break a record, which
I was shocked. State water officials have said this year's snowpack tied with that
in nineteen fifty two, but there's a new analysis by the Bay Area News
Group that shows the largest snowpack actually happened in nineteen eighty three. I don't,
well, great night, I was what eight, so I guess I
wasn't paying attention, but I don't remember that. Research from the last seventy
four years shows that nineteen sixty nine and nineteen fifty two tied for the second
highest snowfall, and this year's snowpack comes in fourth place, which is a
shock to me. The research also shows the way the information is gathered and
analyze has evolved. Now. The big concern is this heat wave that we've
got moving over California. It's expected to bring some of the state's warmest days
so far this year, and concerns about runoff from melting snow. Highs this
week and much of the Central Valley our forecast to hit the nineties and one
hundreds by Saturday, but it is expected to cool down on Sunday. Of
a friend who works for the Bureau of Reclamation up in Redding, and he
was talking about Shasta Dam. I know, they let open one of the
doors for like about a half an hour or so yesterday, which is a
big deal. Not one of the big, big drums, but one of
the smaller doors. And that's huge. That just shows you how much.
And he said he thought that the lake Lake Shasta was five feet from full
and so Tyler, I know you and I were both up there last year
where the trees were sticking out of the water, and I mean you could
see the ring around the basin. Now it's five feet from the top.
Oh, man, I cannot wait for no switchbacks. Yes, it's been
years of switchbacks. Yep, it can't wait. Yes, Oh it's gonna
it's gonna be great. So but then also in Yosemite they've had to evacuate
parts of it because what they're worried about is not just the heat wave.
I didn't even think about this part, but apparently it's going to be windy
this weekend. So you've got then the wind on top of it, which
is just gonna blow that heat right over it and melt it kind of.
You know, I don't know hair dryer style. So that's what we're looking
for this weekend. Let's say good morning now to kfi's business reporter and news
anchor. He's also the host of macro Here on Sundays two to four on
KFI. Hi, Jason Middleton, Oh my goodness, on me. I
always forget to put you up. That's okay, I turn you on.
That's all right, you'll find your stride eventually. I knew. Hey,
I want to start. Can we start with Elizabeth Holmes? Sure, just
because I think this is the weirdest thing. How in the world do you
get an eleven year prison sentence, so you're sentenced, and then you still
get a delay with a last minute appeal, and when your boyfriend gets a
thirteen year sentence and went to jail last week. Yeah, she doesn't have
to go now because the judge is going to review an appeals request from her
lawyers. I think a large part of it has to do with she does
have a relatively young new baby. That's what I was going to ask if
that's playing into this at all, or it has to, right. But
I do think that, yes, there is a conviction on the books.
There's a sentence in the books, and sure she's beene through everything. This
might just be a momentary, momentary lapse before she has to go back and
start start that thing. Because she's very hard to read, you don't get
anything. I've only interviewed her twice. Once was for radio, once was
for television, and she's really hard to read. She seems like she was
kind of a stamped out of I wish I was Steve Jobs kind of thing.
Ah, but she's very it's very veiled. She's she's very good.
I'm sure that's why investors really, you know, trusted her and liked her
and everything, because she seemed very stable and looking forward looking. And it
turns out that she was really really good at fraud. Elizabeth Holmes the one
who ran therapies where they said, you know, just give us one drop
of blood and we can test for eight million things. And the reason this
sentence I think is so high is because she was able to hoodwink Walgreens,
uh testing that remember that. Now it never came to fruition and Uh.
You take a multinational corporation like that on uh and then you defraud them.
I'm sure that that that has a high profile to it, which adds to
the sentencing. All right, let's talk about the good news for Meta.
The stock jumped yesterday after you had the revenue growth. But this is following
news that I've been keeping up on obviously about layoffs in the company. H
you have you know I do that's I do my job a little bit some
research. Yeah. Look, this is a weird time for tech because usually
tech is expected to lean into innovation, right, which means costs you have
to put the billions up in order to innovate, the infrastructure, the talent
you have to hire. But so instead right now, everybody's doing an AI
flex. So Alphabet, Microsoft, and Meta all did earnings this week,
and earnings calls last about an hour, okay, and about ten minutes of
that it's just crap. And then the rest of it is like where where
where actual earning stuff comes out? More than two hundred times? Was AI
used in those three earnings calls this week? No way, so that's counted.
Well, I didn't. I only watched one, but then I looked
at some transcripts of the others. So and then but it shows that like
they're trimming workforce a talent because usually tech companies higher talent that they don't need,
so other their competitors can't have that talent. Yeah, that doesn't seem
to be the case anymore. So the whole industry seems to be maturing in
that way. So when they cut those costs and then they add a little
less spending on AI than everything like, looks good. Look Meta failed,
it's earnings last three times by three quarters. Yea, so this one's very
positive. They're flexing. Zuckerberg says, it's the year of efficiency that seems
to be working for investors. After market after the earnings call, stocks stocks,
share prices for Meta, we're up twenty percent. Now they're up ten
percent. Yeah, still, I mean still good. Still in uphill climb
for Meta. But hey, in the right direction. He's going to focus
a little less on the metaverse and more on AI, and the revenues are
up. Look, his two billion daily active users, three billion monthly active
users. A lot of that, some of that is a little bit of
a spillover from the Twitter dumpster fire. That's happenings where people are going to
face back to Facebook. But it's usually Gen X and older that uses Facebook.
But they also had the discretionary income to buy stuff they see on ads.
Absolutely, okay, can we I want to pull the car over for
half a second year? What the hell is your fascination with Chipotle? Because
it's real food? Oh wow, Chipotle is delicious. It's headquartered in Newport
Beach, and I'm a fan of the locals. I don't care too much
about that, but Chipotle's delicious. Tyler bringing the heat. Okay, So
it has clearly gone past all of the like crazy equal I crap that we
went I didn't mean that, but it worked well. But that we went
through, I mean, it's still in my mind, and yet I do
love Chipotle. Hey, as an investor, you up the prices and you
up your in store sales at the same time. Yeah, that's a win
win. Yeah the business. I hate to use such a jargon as win
win. Right there you go. All right, So their profits were up,
and I guess that the traffic has been growing visitors in the story.
Yep, there there cheese. Yeah, the cheese dip with the chips.
I what if it's real. It's real. Oh my god, it's so
good. Finally, Newport Beach Headquarters. Good for you, Newport Beach.
This is one. Okay, I have to ask you before we start this
one. Um, do you remember going to Wendy's probably in like the eighties,
and they had that bar like the salad bar, but you could get
chili and potatoes and at pudding. Those terrible lights, yeah, I made
everything look kind of blue. Yes. And then also you would sit in
like the sunroom. Every Wendy's had sort of that like sunroom area and you
would sit there and sort of sweat because that was back in the day when
I was up in reading and it was one hundred and fifty degrees outside,
and yet we were like, we're going to the megabar at Wendy's and we're
gonna get some chili on our I mean, it was the stupidest thing.
Looking back, however, Wendy's chili has always been amazing. And in fact,
when we were doing Katerina's Club, the guys at Wendy's down here in
Southern California, which are huge helpers of Katerina's Club, brought Conway. I
swear it was like a It reminded me of like a witch's cauldron full of
chili. Now Wendy's is going to start selling its chili in grow Shree stores.
I think it's a brilliant move. Why not, right, expand that
customer base, maybe get some people back into the you know, sitting under
the pergolas and the hot lights. One hundred and fifty in Redding, And
the first thing you think of is I need some chili and sit in the
sun. Yes, perfect idea. And we would go like once a week.
It was a thing with my family. That's awesome, and look and
it'll it'll work. It will definitely help. But they did. They put
out all of the ingredients except for a few. And I think there's a
secret ingredient that must be in there somewhere. I think I think it's I
think it's turmeric. No, I'm just kidding it. Salt. It's got
to be salt. It's lots of salt, you know what. And I
think, what is it? Wiener Schnitzel sells it's chili. But I think
you have to go to Wiener Schnitzel. I don't think that that's on store
shot When I didn't know. I don't know about that. Yeah, I
know about it only because I put it in everybody's stockings for Christmas, which
was stupid because it weighed down the stocking and then the stockings fell down.
So you used a container though you just didn't put No, I just dumped
the whole I can. Well, that's good because that Christmas as may have
been unpleasant. Well you know, and it smelled really good. I love
you too, all right. Jason Middleton host a Macro two to four on
Sundays here on KFI. He'll be on with Handel at eight o'clock and he
anchors. I don't know what Jason doesn't do. Still figuring that out,
Well, they haven't asked me. If they asked me, so I'll figure
out a way to do it. Can you be an engineer? Can you?
Oh? No? No? Non? Fill in for me? No?
No, no. Tyler has ten screens going at once in there if
you count his phone ten screens. Think you true? All right? Jason
tuc two Sir Santa Monica has approved to pay out to settle more than one
hundred twenty sexual abuse claims against a former youth program volunteer. They say that
the city is now paid about two hundred thirty million to more than two hundred
twenty accusers. This settlement is more than one hundred twenty two million dollars total.
The alleged attacks started in the nineteen eighties and went on into the early
two thousands. The youth volunteer was charged back in twenty eighteen with molesting four
boys. He killed himself that same year, and Vice President Pence is closer
to testifying before a grand jury investigating the efforts to undo the results of the
twenty twenty presidential election. An appeals court yesterday rejected a bid by former President
Trump to Blockpence's testimony. The order from the three judge panel of the US
Circuit Court of Appeals was filed days after a lower court judge directed Pence to
testify over objections from Trump's team. All right, let's say good morning now
to Major General Alex Fink Major, Good morning to you. Should I call
you major? Should I call you general? I honestly, I'm not one
hundred percent sure you can call me Alex my first Alex. Okay, You're
awesome, whatever you like. All Right, Well, I don't know what
part of me wants to call you General Fink, just because I don't think
I've ever spoken with a general before. Oh well, if that makes your
day, then HI have very little going on. General, thank you.
All right, So let's talk about be all you can be. So I
must say, actually I am a soon to be former army wife, but
it was being part of the military community there for all the years that I
was married. I loved it. I was so into it. There was
such a camaraderie about it. There was such a feeling of we're all on
the same team, you know, we're just all spokes in a wheel kind
of thing. It was wonderful and the be all you can be. I
think when I saw that go away, I was like, wait, that
was the thing, that was the thing that got you, you know,
excited about being in the military. Why are you Why did it go away?
First off? And why is it being brought back? Sure? Well,
first of all, I couldn't help but think when I when I when
you had the opening the song from Hall and Oates man Eater of the eighties,
you know, the h and I was I was thinking, how appropriate
for this for this conversation exactly? Um, And so when you think about
the All you Can Be of the eighties and nineties. Uh, and you
know, and that's and you know, we're talking about the time I decided
to join the Army as well. It was a very different time, you
know America and where we were, where youth were, Uh, there was
the shining light you know on the hill. The country was full of optimism,
and Bell you Can Be was really more of a reflection of what people
thought today. It's not like that. In fact, today, youth when
we pull youth, they're the first generation in our history that actually thinks that
they are they are not going to do better than their parents. Uh.
And so this is this is a different The Bell you Can Be of twenty
twenty three is more of more of a way to inspire people to to do
something. You know, what I thought was something different and so okay,
go ahead, Sorry I was I was going to say. I was on
the go Army dot com website and looking at the Bell you Can Be section,
which is sort of the spotlight portion of the website. What's interesting is
the way that things are laid out. You got a section on enlistment bonuses,
education, money and pay, skills and training, healthcare. It is
so transparent. I love that about this. And so what you're seeing is
really how we bring the positioning of bil you can be to life. So
we didn't start off saying, Hey, we're going to bring back bl you
can be. What we started off saying is what is the army uniquely deliver?
That is that it can own. And when we think about great brands
like Disney, it's magic, Volvo, it's safety. The Army can deliver
possibilities. And so the way that we've laid this impossibilities is multidimensional. Possibilities
can be expressed in the types of jobs you can do. It can be
expressed in the types of places you can go travel, It can be expressed
in the types of things that motivates you, whether that's leadership, whether that's
adventure, whether that's UH finding finding out what you want to do. I
mean a lot of you don't exactly know what they want to do, and
so the you know, the Army offers possibilities to help you discover that.
And so the way we try to lay this out is UH is kind of
multidimensional. Uh you you know, and how and how do you think about
what possibilities means to them. We're not necessarily trying to define it. We
just have We've just used this positioning as a way to to show youth,
you know, the multifaceted possibilities that the Army offers across the whole weather dimensions
and the the um I guess the website itself, the go Army dot com
website is so sexy. I mean, it makes you want to be a
part of that team and maybe maybe while you're trying to figure out what you
want to do and that sort of thing, this gives you a chance to
I mean, it makes you feel when you go to the website, there's
a power about it. You know, there's a there's a kind of a
pull I guess that makes you want to be part of this. And then
when you kind of dig start digging deeper into it about one of the things
that was so interesting was this new two year enlistment option, and I thought,
when did that change? I thought it had always been four years right
now, And again, back to possibilities, There are all kinds of different
things, you know, and part of this is about the challenges that we
have with recruiting these days, and it's trying to broaden that you know,
maybe that that twentieth century approach about what things should be and try to make
sure we're seeing a touch with what youth are looking for today. And so
that to your enlistment is an option for certain types, and you know there's
also there's a variety. There's also first duty station of choice, which has
been a very popular option as well among you. But back to the website,
I will make sure I pass on your comments to my website team.
And when you said sex, that may go to his head, so to
make sure I positioned that correctly. Thank you. Curbed that a little bit
for me, all right, thank you. So when you when some of
the bonuses, these enlistment bonuses, holy cow. I know that there's some
that are get up to fifty thousand dollars, get up to forty thousand dollars.
I know that recruitment has been an issue. I was actually talking with
one of my ABC reporters earlier this hour about you know, changes to the
tattoo and facial hair policies, those kinds of things that have changed. And
I know that with these bonuses, you put that kind of money out there,
you're gonna be drawing more people in especially if they're just getting out of
high school, you know, before they go to college, that sort of
thing. Now they've got an option to not only make money, but also
then get their education paid for it. I mean that's a huge win win,
yes, And the bonuses are a tool. There's lots of other thank
you. As I mentioned, you brought up the two year end listen of
bonus, first duty station of choice. Um depends on what types of mos
is that youth are looking for as well, kind of fits into that.
And so it's really about trying to ensure that our recruiters who are out,
you know, out with you know, in in with the public every day,
have a variety of different tools that they can use. Because a bonus
may appeal to one youth that may be something that really is a difference maker,
but for someone else it might be it might not be as big a
deal. But having that opportunity to say the first duty duty stations of choice
or say, you know, I'm not one hundred percent sure I want to
do this for four years, but two years it feels just kind of like
a gap year for me, you know, it's sort of like a gap
year, which is popular amongst youth these days. Um, then that kind
of feels like this and this is kind of like my gap year. So
there's um, you know, the bonuses are good that that appeals to a
certain type of youth and who's willing to do the thing you have to do
to get the bonus. The bonus isn't just a you know, there's certain
moss that applies to and if they're interested in that the bonus, certainly,
I'm sure no one will turn it away. But there's a variety of different
reasons people serve. It's not just because of money. Okay, when it
comes to the recruitment, I noticed that my soon to be x you know,
he was in the military from Georgia, and it seemed like when we
would go back there, you know, whatever the bases were that we would
go to or anything like that, it was it seemed like being in the
military was just kind of what you did. I mean it was his uncle
was Claire Chenult. I mean, it was just like you have that in
your family, that's what you did. And then in California, though I
know that it just seems less prevalent, and do the recruiters have a harder
time in certain areas versus others. So I think, Jennifer, what you've
just done is nailed the challenge that we have, which is can be sort
of encapsulated in sort of the civilian military divide that we have in this country.
And so you know, back in the eighties and nineties, we closed
a bunch of bases, to include some in California for all good, sort
of logical efficient type of reasons, and we consolidated a lot of activities into
sort of these mega bases, and many of those are in the southeast United
States. So and and what that did over a period of years is somewhat
disconnect us from from the American public. And so you know, what you
what you experience, What you just indicated is the challenge that we have.
And so do recruiters have a harder time in California, of course, and
they have a harder time in Chicago, and they have a harder time in
New York City in places where we just don't have the presence. So the
campaign bl you can be is a piece. It's a part. It's a
way that we can help reintroduce America to its army um. But it's it's
not going to solve every challenge, right, we simply cannot replace the presence
of having soldiers walking walk in the streets, you know, in uniforms and
things like that. And so it's going to be this is a multifasceted problem
that we have to that we have to work through in order to do that.
And we really do need our army to come from America, not just
from a particular you know, few states, and so we we we uh,
we want America's army to reflect America and and that diversity across a variety
of different dimensions, to include where where people are coming from. So these
are the challenges that we have to work through, um and um. And
you've you've sort of nailed probably one of the biggest ones. All right,
General, I appreciate your time this morning. And the fact that you just
said I nailed it. It's like, Okay, look at that a general
said, I'm I'm on point on this one. This makes me feel good.
Thank you so much, Alex fair time. All right, see you
later, be all you can be. Go. Army dot com is where
you can see some of the new stuff. It Honestly, this website,
even if you're not thinking about going into the military. The website is amazing.
You can just see all the time and effort that they put into it.
This is KFI and kost HD two Los Angeles. There is talk about
AM radio being removed from new cars and trucks, and some people say you
don't need radio because you can get alerts on your phone. Aliz, a
text alert on your phone is no substitute for what broadcast radio provides in time
of need. There's a one line text alert cannot take the place the voice
on the radio talking to you twenty four seven until the emergency passes. And
that's assuming the cell networks are even up and running, which they often or
not. When emergencies occur, your local broadcast radio station as they're providing wall
to wall coverage, life saving information and a live connection in crisis, and
then radio stays in the aftermath. So you need to make your voice heard.
Don't let them take AM radio out of the cars. Text the letters
AM to five to eight, eight to six, and tell Congress to keep
AM radio in all of our cars and trucks. On Jennifer Jones Lee,
this has been your wake up call. You've been listening to your wakeup call.
With me Jennifer Jones Lee, and you can always hear Wake Up Call
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