You're listening to KFI AM six forty wake Up Call with me Amy King on
demand on the iHeartRadio app. This is your wake up call for Thursday,
February eighth. I'm Amy King, thrilled that you're waking up with us starting
your day. I'm seeing stars today in a good way. It was kind
of fun. It was driving in saw stars in the sky. I haven't
seen those for a while. Tony was nervous that I was going to pass
out. No, it was, but I know it's only been a few
days. But I'm like, oh, yay, stars, and the weather's
going to be better. We do still have some weather warnings in effect,
but I think the worst of this storm is out out of southern California.
That is also who knew that Southern California was a wildlife extravaganza. Okay,
So yesterday I saw my porch possum. I have a possum that runs up
and down next to my house and sometimes he stops on the porch and drives
the cat crazy. So so saw the porch bossum. Then I was driving
to work this morning and saw two coyotes. If they weren't so mean and
nasty, they are kind of cute. And then as I was walking into
the station today, a little rabbit was hopping across the trail. Who needs
a zoo when you have southern California. Here's what's ahead on wake up call.
Section of Moleholland Drive in Studio City has been shut down because of a
mudslide. The hillside collapsed yesterday between Laurel Canyon Boulevard and Coldwater Canyon Drive.
A portion of a vacant home near the top of a hill is dangerously close
to falling off a cliff. Five hundred and twenty mudslides have been reported in
La County since the storm rolled in on Sunday. We're just getting this information
into the KFI newsroom. The five Marines aboard that helicopter that was on its
way from Las Vegas to Miramar near San Diego that went down in the mountains
outside San Diego have been confirmed dead. The military is now confirming that the
Supreme Court's going to hear a case today that will decide if Donald Trump is
ineligible for a second term in office. Justices will hear arguments on the Colorado
Supreme Court's ruling that disqualifies Trump from appearing on the state's ballot ahead of the
twenty twenty four election. At six oh five, it's handle on the news
at US air strike in Iraq has taken out a key player in the Iran
backed Iraqi militia. Let's get started with some of the stories coming out of
the KFI twenty four hour newsroom. A winter storm warning is in effect for
parts of La County and the San Gabriel Mountains. The current storm is expected
to drop moderate to heavy snow on the San Gabriels, Mount Wilson, Mount
Baldy, Right Wood, and Angelus Crest Highway. Between ten and twenty inches
of snow could fall at elevations above seven thousand feet. The Mayor of Long
Beach is telling people to listen to weather warnings. Nineteen people were rescued off
the coast of Long Beach during the storm after their sailboat mast broke off,
sending them toward break water rocks. Mayor Rex Richardson says several weather advisories were
sent out warning people to use caution during the storm. We used all our
channels to advise the public what activities you should and shouldn't do, and that
a storm is coming. We should take it very seriously that amount of rain
coming down at one time. The water moves very fast, Richardson said yesterday.
When people don't listen to safety advisories, they put themselves and first responders
at risk. Chris Adler KFI News officials have found or confirmed that the five
Marines whose helicopter went down in the mountains near San Diego are dead. ABC's
Matt Gutman says the helicopter was found yesterday. There's no indication yet on what
might have caused that helicopter to go down. There's also no indication at this
point that there are any survivors, and again we just got confirmation that there
are no survivors. The helicopter was returning from a training mission in Nevada when
it went down in bad weather. It was reported missing when it didn't show
up at Marine Corps air Station and Miramar. The last known contact with the
helicopter was late Tuesday. The Marine Corps was leading search and rescue efforts.
Israeli airstrikes have reportedly killed more than a dozen people in Gaza, hours after
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected Hamas's ceasefire terms and vowed to expand Israel's offensive.
Egypt has warned that any ground operation in Rafa or mass displacement across the border
with Egypt would undermine its four decade old peace treaty with Israel. Russia's Central
Election Commission says a politician who's been critical of the war with Ukraine cannot run
for president. The commission declared more than nine thousand signatures submitted by the lawmaker's
campaign were invalid, which was enough to disqualify him. Most opposition figures who
might have challenged Russian President Putin have either been imprisoned or exiled, and the
vast majority of independent Russian media outlets have been banned. Kind of scary,
Thank you, Nick. Let's say good morning to ABC's senior national reporter and
Flaherty at the Pentagon, And we just got word in about two minutes ago
that they have the military has confirmed that the crew members on that marine helicopter
that went down in the Cleveland National Forests have died. Yeah, that's right.
So, you know, we were getting word luck yesterday that they had
found that debris field. You know, this crew flying a nighttime mission in
some of the most treacherous weather, really leaving the question there of why they
were allowed to continue with this mission. It was a training mission flying from
Las Vegas to the San Diego area. You know, we had reporters there
overnight. They were trying to hike into the region. They said it was
extremely difficult to get to a lot of mud, very limited visibility. So
of course that's not the outcome that anyone wanted. But you know, it's
not surprising we heard that the debris field was you know, there was not
a lot of hope. Oh, okay, Yeah, and from you know,
just rank and file, what was being put out was just that having
found the crew, which was kind of an odd, I don't know,
an odd way to address it since we knew that the helicopter had gone down,
and like you said, the conditions were so bad, so they don't
think that anyone actually survived the crash and later died because, like you said,
the debris field was pretty extensive. Yeah, So we did get confirmation.
It's the third Marine Aircraft wing that has put out the information. They
said that all five marines have been confirmed deceased, so that has been confirmed
as of They confirmed that twelve minutes ago. Okay, well, not the
outcome we were looking for, but thank you for the update on that.
And then halfway around the world, the US has hit a high profile target
in retality, retaliating for the death of the three US service members in Jordan.
What's the latest on that. Yeah, so, you know, we
saw that attack on the US base. There was a own that was able
to get through kill those three American service members, and the US officials vowing
that they would retaliate at a time and place of their choosing. Now,
we did see bombing strikes last Friday, but US officials left it very open
ended. They said they were not done yet. And then yesterday we got
word of these explosions in a neighborhood in Baghdad. It was later confirmed by
Iraqi officials that Alsadi, who is the leader of Kativ Haspola, that is
the group suspected to be behind the US attack, that he was in a
car with two others traveling when it was struck by a drone and he was
killed. So those groups vowing revenge, they call it a crime. The
Iraqi minister Prime Minister saying he condemns these attacks on his soil. Of course,
some complicated politics there a lot of the Iranian militants that are operating inside
of Iraq. They're doing so with the knowledge of Iraqi officials who are a
US ally, So you know, the US saying we are holding those responsible,
We are not going to let those deaths stand. But now everyone holding
their breast for what the other side does next. Okay, And now that
we've hit a major player, is the US expecting, probably expecting retaliation and
are they taking any extra precautions? You know, that is the big question.
There's been one hundred and sixty eight attacks on US forces in Iraq and
Syria since mid October, and that's these groups say that's in retaliation for US
support in Israel. At US say is it's not going to change its policies
because of Iran backed militants, and they've blamed Iran directly. But yet that
is the concern, is that there will be retaliation for that. The US
saying that their goal here is deterrence, to get these groups to back down.
They're trying to de escalate from the region. Nobody wants a wider war,
that's what they keep telling us. So now we just have to sit
and wait. Yeah, pretty impressive and that they were able to target with
a drone a car in a neighborhood. Yeah, you know that that is
something that the US has had the ability to do. We saw that stretching
back from the Obama administration. You know, I had covered the Iraq war
and then came took a break, and when I came back, I thought,
Wow, everything has shifted to drone warfare. It's just it's amazing.
In the past, you know, ten years, how dramatically the landscape has
changed. And you know, when you look at what the Housies are doing
in the Red Sea, harassing these commercial ships, they're able to essentially block
commercial trade without a navy. They're doing it with very low priced weaponry,
getting these ships to you know, stop operations at times because they're able to
hit some of these targets. So, you know, a very different different
landscape than it was ten years, ten to fifteen years ago. Yeah.
And since the US has retaliated, have the strikes either by the Hootis or
from the Iran backed militias, have they slowed down or are they kind of
the same. Has there been any change? Yeah, that's a good question.
So last Friday, we had a barrage of strikes from the US on
facilities that were being used weapons storage systems, essentially that we're being used to
attack US forces. That's then we have seen these run backed proxies, these
eroun proxies back down and say we're not going We're going to call for a
ceasefire. And the US sort of looked at that and said, well,
okay, but you've had one hundred and sixty five attacks on US forces,
You've killed three service numbers, which changes the calculation. We're not done.
And that's and then we got the word Wednesday about these explosions in Baghdad.
So you know whether or not this will be enough to deter them. Will
everybody step back from the brink? I think that's what the hope is,
but we don't know yet. Okay, and we will be watching ABC's and
Flaherty. Thank you so much for your time and information this morning. Thank
you. All right, let's get back to some of the stories coming out
of the KFI twenty for our newsroom. The LAPD has its first Asian American
chief, Dominic Choi has been chosen as interim chief. He takes over March
first, the day after chief more retired. Ultimately, my goals to set
the stage establish a framework for a smooth transition for the next Chief of Police
of the Los Angeles Police Department. Choi graduated from us scenes been with the
department for twenty eight years. He's served in some capacity in just about every
division in the department. He was promoted to Commander of Operations Central Bureau in
twenty seventeen, and in twenty nineteen became a deputy chief. Current rules preclude
him from getting the permanent chief job. Steve Gregory King of Fine News,
an investigator has testified Rebecca Grossman's speed was the primary cause of a crash that
killed two boys in Westlake Village. The expert says data from Grossman's suv recorded
the gas pedal as being ninety eight percent floored and hit eighty one miles per
hour three seconds before the twenty twenty crash. Math was used to claim the
family would have made it safely across the street had the suv been traveling the
forty five mile per hour speed limit. The defense claims the kids were outside
of the crosswalk because the first debris from Grossman's suv was found fifty feet away,
but hail yesterday described it as basic physics. The debris was connected to
the suv at impact, so both would continue traveling right through the intersection at
Vani's courthouse. Corbin Carson kf I News. A volcano in Iceland is erupting
for a third time. The country's Mediological office says the volcano south of Reykvik
is spewing lava from a miles long fissure. Lava from the last eruption,
about three weeks ago, reached the outskirts of a coastal town, forcing nearly
four thousand residents to evacuate the town. Iceland has over thirty active volcanoes.
A satellite that will study microscopic ocean life and particles in the atmosphere has launched
from Cape Canaveral three two one booster ignition the old Power Indians and lift off
of the Falcon nine and PACE, helping keep pace with our ever changing ocean
atmosphere. Vanessa PACE is on a three year mission to gather data that will
allow scientists to see what they call the invisible universe in the sea and sky.
PACE is an acronym for plankton, aerosol, cloud and ocean ecosystem.
When we come back, more and more self checkouts are popping up, and
more and more people seem to be hating them. I'll tell you about that.
You're listening to Wake Up Call on demand from KFI Am six forty Ready
to get the day started. Looks like it's going to be dry unless you're
headed to the mountains and they're still expecting some snow Here's what we're following in
the KFI twenty four hour newsroom. Again, this information just coming in a
few minutes ago. The military is confirmed five Marines aboard a helicopter that crashed
in San Diego County have been killed. The helicopter was returning from a training
mission in Nevada when it was reported missing Tuesday night. It was supposed to
arrive at Marine Core air Station Mirror mar but didn't make it. The last
known contact with the helicopter was late Tuesday during bad weather. The hell copter
was found yesterday in Pine Valley in the mountains above San Diego. Republican presidential
candidate Nikki Haley has turned her focus to California after a rough showing in Nevada's
Republican primary. Hailey was at a Tavern in Costa Mesa last night, says
she's not given up even though she lost the Nevada primary to the none of
these candidates option on the ballot. Home sales in southern California have plummeted down
forty three percent between twenty twenty one and twenty twenty three. Three hundred eighty
four thousand homes were sold during that time. High prices and high mortgage rates
have led to the slowest two years for home sales on record. At six
ZHO five its handle on the news. A US air strike in Iraq has
taken out a key player in the Iran backed Iraqi militia. Right now,
let's say good morning to ABC's Jim Ryan. Jim, we're seeing more and
more self checkouts stores and as it turns out, people don't like them.
Yeah, Tructor University has taken a look at this. They really kind of
did the first hard look at how customers feel about self checkout amy and discovered
that customers aren't crazy about it. You know, we've kind of gone full
circle. Back in the day you've had to visit a checkout station with a
person standing there and put the stuff on the conveyor belts and that person would
check out, put it in the bag, and you'd be gone on your
way. Of course, then we went to self checkout maybe twenty years ago.
I suppose that's when they started putting these things into stores in a big
way. That Costco and Walmart, Kroger, they're all they've made a big
commitment to self checkout. But the study from Direction University says that customers feel
a sense of loyalty to stores where they have the option to go to a
human being right, that they can walk over next to the self checkout,
go through a checkout with a person standing there, and that they feel taken
care of in that way, sort of pampered. So now some stores are
going the opposite direction, and it's on an experimental basis. All three Walmart
stores in the Albuquerque area are taking out their self checkout altogether, right,
So I mean Walmart, where you have some places with ten or twelve kiosks
there for people to self check out and they kind of monitor it with a
person standing there. They're taking those all together and putting in the old style
checkout stands with human clerks there. So we'll see if this catches on see
if other retailers take this to heart. It's pretty obvious. But why are
they putting them in money money money money, right? Yeah, the reason
they we're doing it in the first pally, Yeah, it is to save
on labor, cause to maybe to give a little more futuristic feel to the
whole experience. Yeah, check out your own stuff with these scanners here.
But at the same time, you've got people and probably everybody is guilty of
this. They go through through the cell checkouts they at home and realize they
have something in their back that they didn't scan, didn't pay for, and
totally accidental. But there are others who do skip scanning on purpose. There
was a Tennessee school board member I had to step down a couple of weeks
ago because she was caught skip scanning to the tune of several hundred dollars over
the course of several months at a Target store in her hometown. So,
yeah, you know, self check checkout is kind of facing a reckoning right
now. Yeah. I was talking on wake up Call I think last week
and telling people that there was a sign posted at a self checkout at Dollar
General that said this is closed because you guys keep stealing and then said something
like sorry to all the honest people or something. And I like the analysis
that people want that loyalty or you know, that they want that human interaction.
And I'm one of them, Like I don't do the self checkout.
I'm like, I want to go and even though I hate it when somebody
is in line in front of me and they have like a ten minute conversation
with with the checkout clerk, Yeah, I still want that interaction, right,
and I think that's what a lot of people are going for. It's
funny you bring was a Dollar General? You said there? Yeah. The
CEO last week he said that he wanted to improve the customer experience In customer
service, he says, quote, the company was starting to rely too much
on self checkout in the stores, so it's likely that they may start replacing
those with human beings. I went through full service checkout last night, just
coincidentally, for the first time in a long time, clearly a high school
kid, and I had a basket full of stuff. He was efficient,
he was friendly enough, but quick, and you know, I was in
and out of there in no time. So there is something he said for
that, the human contact but also the somebody who's there who knows what they're
doing. Yeah. Absolutely, And I think that the other thing that I
find interesting about the self checkouts is that they have like twelve people or they
have twelve checkouts, and like one or two people monitoring them have an issue,
then you have to wait, so then it takes longer. Like I
was at my pavilions the other day and I got some cheese that was supposed
to be on super special and it didn't ring up right, but I was
able to talk to him right there and he fixed it. Yeah, let
me guess, Bree, it was Bree cheese. It was not. It
was sharp cheddar cheese and white extra sharp cheddar cheese. It was on super
sale. Yeah, okay. So I also think that the next step should
be getting rid of the conveyor belts and having the clerks take your stuff out
of your little basket like they used to. I don't think that's going to
happen, okay, I don't think so. Fine conveyable it is. Okay,
if you've got those dividers, you know, you've got that partition that
you can put between yours and the people behind you, Okay, and then
do you do this, Jim, because this is my supermarket etiquette. After
you've unloaded your basket, ye, put the little divider behind your stuff so
the next person can start putting their stuff down. Yes. I hate it
when people don't put the little divider behind their stuff and I have to reach
across them to grab one. I know, I know, excuse me,
excuse me, excuse me. And touching you know, maybe just do you
get skiped out touching stuff in public places like that, like the divider,
like the car at the shopping cart whatever. I'm okay with that, all
right. Are you a German a man than I am? No, not
necessarily. All right. Well, I'm glad to see that they're going to
at least test having more clerks back in the stores. I think that's a
cool thing. Yeah, I'm surprised. I mean, these Walmart's in the
Albuquerque area, they're going to take them out altogether. Walmart's one of the
companies that made a huge commitment to self check out. Okay, see people
connections. It's a good thing. Yeah, thank you, Jim Ryan,
the you the Dollar General not at the self check outline though they've closed them.
All right, take care let's get back to some of the stories coming
out of the KFI twenty four hour newsroom. The La Kenny Sheriff's Department's trying
to find a fifteen month old boy allegedly kidnapped by his mom, who does
not have legal custody. The boy was last seen Tuesday with his legal guardian
in Walnut. Miguel Medina is Hispanic, three feet tall, black hair,
brown eyes. He was last seen wearing a brown jacket, blue jeans,
and black Adida's shoes. His mom, Bridget Benitez, is Hispanic five foot
one. She weighs about one hundred thirty nine pounds, has blonde hair and
brown eyes. She may be driving a twenty twenty one black Toyota Camry with
California plates. Ending In nine six eight, the Supreme Court's expected to hear
arguments in former President Trump's appeal of a Colorado Supreme Court ruling that took him
off the primary ballot. The state court found Trump is not eligible to run
for president because he violated a provision in the fourteenth Amendment, which prevents those
who engaged in insurrection from holding office. We're going to be talking more about
this with ABC's Steven Portnoy coming up in about twenty minutes at five point fifty.
Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson has interviewed Russia's President Putin. Carlson says
the two hour interview is going to be released on his website and ex profile
tonight at six o'clock Eastern. That's three o'clock here. It's the first interview
Putin has given to Western media since the invasion of Ukraine in twenty twenty two.
Carlson had claimed Western journalists I only interviewed Ukraine's president and couldn't be bothered
to speak with Putin. The Kremlin corrected Carlson yesterday, saying it receives several
requests for interviews from Western media. They're just denied because the outlets are not
deemed impartial. YouTube is still the most widely used app online. Pew researches
eighty three percent of adults use the video sharing platform. Pew surveyed more than
five thousand people in the US and found Facebook was the most used social media
app, Instagram, pinterest, TikTok, and LinkedIn follow A third of adults
say they use TikTok, which is up twelve percent from twenty twenty one San
Francisco quarterback brock Perty will be the third youngest quarterback to start a Super Bowl
in NFL history. He just turned twenty four on December twenty seventh. He
was also the two hundred and sixty second and final pick in the twenty twenty
two NFL Draft. They called him mister Irrelevant. He's certainly relevant now He's
the starting quarterback Sunday as the forty nine ers take on Kansas City in the
Big Game. Kickoff is at three point thirty on your radio. Home of
the NFL, AM five seventy LA Sports presented in part by Rotlo Chevrolet.
See what the fun is all about at Rotolo Chevrolet. When we come back,
we're going to take a look back at one of the biggest draws for
Super Bowl, the commercials. You're listening to a wake up call on demand
from KFI AM six forty. Here's what we're following in the KFI twenty four
hour newsroom. Five marines have been confirmed dead following a Super Stallion helicopter crash.
The US Marine Corps confirmed all five were killed when the helicopter went down
in Pine Valley during a training flight from a base in Las Vegas to Marine
Air Station Mirramar near San Diego. Happened on Tuesday. The hell helicopter was
found yesterday. A twenty two year old woman who went hiking on Mount Baldy
alone during the storm is still missing. The last time anyone heard from her
was Sunday afternoon, after she posted videos of her hike on social media.
Volunteers haven't been able to do an extensive search because of the snow, ice,
and other winter weather conditions that are just too dangerous. A statue of
Kobe Bryant will be unveiled this afternoon outside Crypto dot Com arena. The Lakers
picked today because it's two eight twenty four. Kobe wore the numbers eight and
twenty four for the Lakers, and his daughter wore the number two when she
played basketball. Kobe and Gianna, along with seven others, were killed in
a helicopter crashing Calabasas in January of twenty twenty. At six oh five,
it's handle on the news, another first for the LAPD at least for now.
At five point fifty, we're going to be talking with ABC's Stephen Portnoy.
It's in historic day for the Supreme Court and people have been lining up
to get in to see it. So super Bowl just a couple days away,
and every year, of course so much hype. The main attraction the
commercials. Have they been lacking in the last few years? Nick, do
you remember any of the commercials from last year? I don't, Tony,
I don't remember any of the commercials from last year. And I think that's
what I was just trying to like kind of rack my brain on it.
I agree with you if they've been lacking. And I think the other thing
is they come out before Super Bowl a lot of times, you know,
they've got all the yeah, and this year I'm starting to see it.
But I don't watch broadcast TV that much, so I haven't seen that many.
But it's still I'm like, if you really want to do the big
Super Bowl ad and really make it this great, big unveiling, then wait.
But maybe it's because the commercials aren't that great. So the one good
thing that's coming back this year is the Anheuser Busch Clydesdales are going to be
back. They haven't been on Super Bowl for the last few years. And
then also we just found out yesterday that Carl Weathers, who just died last
week, is in a fan duel's commercial. His family is supportive that they
go ahead and run it. So it's going to be there on Super Bowl.
So that'll be kind of interesting and kind of sad too. Right.
Over the years, though, there have been some fantastic and very memorable ads,
and so we wanted to know, like, what are the top ads
of all time? This one didn't make it, but it was kind of
one of my favorites. I got good gage on the Plats defenses, their
defensive line, and there's hello, who what's up? NUMVI? Just watching
the game having a bud? So but you nud watching the game having a
bud? True? Got it? True? Okay, that's enough. Tony
and I were talking about that a couple of days. It was funny though,
and memory was really funny. I do you remember the frogs though for
bud for bud Bud Wise, I remember that out there we go food fies,
bood er bodies, bood dumb and so great. But it stuck with
me all these years and I was even able to emulate them. How many
years later. I know you did a very good job. Okay, so
we have the top we have the top five. Okay, so here's number
five. And it started Betty White, remember the one, Mike, what's
your dealing? Come on, man, you've been riding me all game.
You're playing like Betty White out there. That's how what your girlfriend said,
better go, You're not you when you're hungry snakers satisfied. Yeah, okay,
that was great. That one was fun. Okay, And then I've
had forgotten about this one, but I do remember it and back in the
day when it came out, because all of these commercials are pretty old.
Back in the day when it came out, I remember that friends and I
were all, you know, emulating it a long time for a long time.
And that was the McDonald's showdown commercial between Michael Jordan and Larry Bird.
This is for your Big Mac right, first one that missus watches the Winner,
he lunch, you got it off the glass, thy shore, over
the second rafter, off the floor, off the expressway, over the river,
off the billboard, through the window, off the wall, nothing but
Netta sweet. Yeah. That was a That was a fun one. The
McDonald's Showdown That was in nineteen ninety three. And then who can forget this
is probably one of the most memorable for me, Clara Peller. It certainly
is a big bun. It's a very big, fun, big fluffy bun.
It's a very big, fluffy fun. Where's the beef? Some hamburger
places give you a lot less beef. I'm a lot of bun. Where's
the beef? At Wendy's, we save a hamburger we modestly call a single,
And Wendy's single has more beef than the whopper or a big Mac.
At Wendy's you get more beef and less bun. Hey, where's the big
Why don't they there's anybody? Then you want something better? You're Windy's kind
of people. That was from nineteen eighty four. Wow. Yeah, and
then speak, I have a T shirt from that actual like thing, so
I have to find that but like a T shirt so that it even led
from ads to close at one point. Yeah. And then speaking of nineteen
eighty four, I do remember that this one wasn't ranked number one, but
it was. It was number two, and that was Apple's commercial. Remember
nineteen eighty four, the day seven the first You're only a fund of us
The information for Information Directors On January twenty fourth Apple Computer will introduce Macintosh and
you'll see why nineteen eighty four won't be like nineteen eighty four. Who knew
Apple was going to splash like that? Like that's the first one. I
thought that was cool. So and that ad was a minute long. The
McDonald's showdown ad was a minute and a half and for that timeframe that was
super spendy. Because this year the thirty second ads are going for I think
seven million dollars. Okay, number one out of all time. Any guesses?
Anyone? Anyone? Mm hmm, anyone at home? Okay, here
it is, Yeah, you need any help? Want my coke? No?
Really, you can have it? Good? Okay, do good?
Thanks. I like to say wow, thank you, thanks mean Joe.
That one was from nineteen seventy nine, ranked the best Super Bowl commercial of
all time. I hope they have at least one really good one this year.
I'll be watching will you Yes, you're listening to Wake Up Call on
demand from kf I Am six forty and look back and listen to old Super
Bowl commercial. I'll be watching Sunday rooting for my Niners, and we're actually
doing a smaller get together this year. We've gone to pretty big Super Bowl
parties the last couple of years, and then the person who usually throws them
isn't doing it, and so now we're doing like a small gathering. And
I was like, oh good, because I like to watch the national anthem,
biba, I want to see the game, I want to see the
halftime show usher, and I want to see the commercials. I want to
watch it all. And when the group's too big, I mean, I
don't know if you've had the same experience, but I find that you can't
do it all because you know, people, people got to talk, and
they got us socialized and eaten all that stuff. So I'm looking forward to
a smaller group this year. Here's what we're following in the KFI twenty four
hour newsroom. A tornado may have touched down on the Central Coast swept through
San Luis Obispo County yesterday near Pismo Beach and Grover Beach. Photos on social
media show trees ripped from the ground and flattened, asphalt torn up, and
streets littered with debris. A team from the National Other Service is going to
survey the damage to day to see if it was a twister or just really
strong, straight line wins. The Senate's going to try to get an aid
package for Israel and Ukraine passed today. A foreign aid package failed yesterday.
It included a border security bill. After the vote, Democratic Majority Leader Chuck
Schumer said he would bring up the Israel and Ukraine package again as a separate
bill stripped of border security provisions. Travis Kelce's mother says she thinks she'll be
in the stands this Sunday to watch her son play at Super Bowl fifty eight
in Las Vegas. Dona Kelce has been in a press box several times,
not the press box, but one of the private suites several games this season
with Kelsey's girlfriend, Taylor Swift. But she says this super Bowl is a
bit pricey, so she's not quite sure if she's going to be in a
fancy box. I bet we'll see. We're just minutes away from handle.
On the news this morning, the sphere in Las Vegas has been scaled by
a protester. Pretty amazing footage. Pretty amazing that it guy didn't fall off.
Right now, let's say good morning to ABC's Stephen Portnoy in Washington,
d C. Stephen, people have been lining up early for this one,
as you'd expect. It's historic, so people line up early every time there's
a historic Supreme Court oral argument, and this one certainly is that because the
Supreme Court has never been asked to decide the parameters or the limits of Section
three of the fourteenth Amendment, and the stakes are incredibly high for the country,
for the Court, for the campaign, and we're less than a month
away from the March fifth Super Tuesday primary. Donald Trump's name would be off
the ballot if the Colorado Supreme Court had its way. And the question for
the justices today is whether the Supreme Court of Colorado, when it's four to
three ruling, got it wrong. And the specific questions about whether Trump engage
in insurrection. I don't know that the Court is going to dive into that
so much as they might seek an off ramp. This is a conservative leaning
court with mind toward maintaining its legitimacy in the country, and I think it
would be highly unlikely, as most observers do, that the Justices will say
that the Colorado Supreme Court ruling should stand. The question is what rationale do
the justices seek to identify in the oral argument today and ultimately in the opinion
they'll issue that carves out an ability for the Fourteenth Amendment to stand in the
future and for there to be a decision that takes the court out of the
muck of whether Donald Trump engaged in insurrection. I think that I've heard arguments
on both things, and I think you can certainly make a case on both
things, which makes it so interesting to see what they're going to decide.
And then Stephen, like Vick, you were saying that they might want to
look for an off ramp, or they might not dig into too many details.
They can issue a ruling without saying why, right, well, I
think it's unlikely, given the stakes that they wouldn't issue an opinion that explains
their rationale. Often these cases will come before the Supreme Court, they issue
one sentence orders. This is a case it's been scheduled for oral argument.
Would suggest that they will put out a full, robust opinion that lays out
rationale and offers the opportunity for dissenting justices to also air their views. I
think that you know, the off ramps that are offered by Donald Trump's lawyers
include one the idea that the fourteenth Amendments third section doesn't apply to the presidency
because it's not specifically listed in the offices that are affected by it, the
way that senators and representatives and electors for president and vice president and state office
holders are specifically mentioned. Why isn't the presidency mentioned? And if it's not
mentioned, therefore doesn't apply. That's one argument. That's the lead argument that
Trump's lawyers are actually making. So they basically could decide against it on a
technicality, Yeah, technicality or a loophole, whatever you want to call it.
That's one way another way, and I think the more likely way is
for them to say, look at the last clause of the fourteenth Amendment.
It says that even if a person engaged an insurrection or rebellion, even if
that happened, and even if they were convicted in court, Congress can remove
the disability by a two thirds vote. And if Congress were to do that
in Trump's case, not say they will, but if they did this,
all it's all moot. So who is the justices of the Supreme Court of
Colorado? Who are they or who is any state official to supersede Congress and
make a decision for Congress when Congress has is the ultimate arbiter. I think
that's something that I'll be very interested to hear if the justices pick up on
that. Okay, and what you just said was that that Congress could remove
the disability with a two thirds majority. Basically, Congress could decide whether he
could be on ballots or not. Yeah. All you can do is read
the amendment. I encourage everybody to google it. It's dense and esoteric,
but it says it in plain language. Congress can remove the disability by a
two thirds vote, and it did so in the aftermath of the Civil War
a couple of time times. The other thing is the question about self executing.
I don't want to get too stuck in the weeds here, but the
point is that, in the aftermath of the Civil War, Congress said,
all right, we've passed this amendment. Our intent is to prevent any Confederates
from serving in any office in the government, state or federal. How do
we go about making sure that this is properly enforced. Well, here's what
we'll do. We'll pass a law that says that in every state, a
US attorney can go to a federal judge and get an order from that judge
that determines that a person was a Confederate, they did engage an insurrection or
rebellion, and that disqualifies them and removes them from office. That law was
on the books in the aftermath of the Civil War. It is no longer
on the books. And because there's no law such as that on the books,
the argument is that the Fourteenth Amendment can't be applied by states, and
willy nilly, that there needs to be a framework at the highest level by
Congress setting it up as it did in the aftermath of the Fourteenth Amendment.
In the absence of that framework, you could have a patchwork of decisions across
the country where various officials or judges what have you say, Oh, well,
I think that person engaged in insurrection. I'm just decided, and therefore
that person can't appear on the ballot. That I think is something the Supreme
Court will seek to avoid. So interesting. Thank you for helping us sort
it out. We'll be watching, Stephen. You bet all right. Let's
get back to some of the stories coming out of the KFI twenty four our
newsroom. The military has confirmed five marines aboard a helicopter that crashed near San
Diego did not survive. We did get confirmation. It's the third Marine aircraft
wing that has put out the information. They said that all five Marines have
been confirmed this season. ABC's and Flaherty says there was not a lot of
hope of finding survivors given the debris field. The helicopter was flying in stormy
weather on Tuesday night, returning to air Station Miramar from a training mission in
Nevada. It was reported missing when it didn't arrive at Miramar. The wreckage
was found yesterday. The deaths were confirmed less than an hour ago. US
officials say President Biden is considering executive action to determ illegal immigration at the southern
border. The official say the plans have been under consideration for months. Illegal
border crossings in December hit records at more than ten thousand per day. This
week, Senate Republicans blocked a bill that would have added new border protections and
provided billions in aid to Israel and Ukraine. And engineer has been arrested for
allegedly stealing military technology from a company based in southern California. US Attorney Martinez
Strada says Changwan Gong stole technology that's important for keeping the US safe, military
technology designed to detect nuclear missile launches and ballistic and hypersonic missile launches. Gong
worked for the company he's accused of stealing from for a few months last year.
Investigators say from March to April he transferred thousands of files containing the secret
information. Gong is accused of offering military information to China in the past.
Blake Trolley k if I News, the man behind the two most famous notes
in the world, turns ninety two today. John williams notable themes have made
movies like Jaws and This Film instant classics. The multi award winning composer has
scored music for Jurassic Park, Raiders of the Lost Arc, and holiday classics
like Home Alone. In nineteen seventy seven, Williams worked with George Lucas to
create one of the most recognizable themes in cinema history. Throughout Williams multi decade
career, he's won Oscars for Fiddler on the Roof, Jaws, E Tler's
List, and Star Wars. Happy Birthday, Maestro. Oh, I got
to see him at the Hollywood Bowl. I don't know if he's doing his
show this year, but if you get a chance, go see it.
It is absolutely spectacular and so much fun. Happy birthday, mister Williams.
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.