Speaker 1: You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand KFI
Speaker 1: AM six forty. We're live everywhere in the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1: I'm Michael Monks from KFI News. We're with you until
Speaker 1: eight thirty tonight instead of nine o'clock. We've got a
Speaker 1: special on the LA wildfires airing tonight at eight thirty.
Speaker 1: It takes a special look at all of the people
Speaker 1: who have been helping out, all the organizations who have
Speaker 1: been helping out during the fires. And now that we
Speaker 1: find ourselves in the aftermath of this thing.
Speaker 2: And we are officially there in the aftermath of this thing,
Speaker 2: my goodness, what a stretch of weeks. It has been
Speaker 2: across Los Angeles County. I mean, a disaster like we've
Speaker 2: never seen before in two separate sections, in addition to
Speaker 2: other fires that have burned and damaged a lot of land.
Speaker 2: But my goodness, the loss of homes, the loss of lives,
Speaker 2: and now really the hard part begins, and it's barely beginning. Now.
Speaker 2: This is the hard part. It was the devastating part
Speaker 2: that we've now made it through. But the two wildfires
Speaker 2: that ravaged the Palisades and the Altadena and Pasadena areas
Speaker 2: they are now fully contained. All these weeks later, keep
Speaker 2: in mind it was the end of the first week
Speaker 2: beginning of the second week of January. We've just finished
Speaker 2: that month. All these weeks we've been dealing with this,
Speaker 2: twenty nine people dead, more than sixteen thousand buildings, thirty
Speaker 2: seven thousand acres destroyed. But now all of the evacuation
Speaker 2: orders have been lifted as of this moment. The rule
Speaker 2: is that only residents and approved contractors are being permitted
Speaker 2: back into those former evacuation zones. But it looks like
Speaker 2: some of this stuff is going to start changing and
Speaker 2: it's not sitting well with folks. So it seems like
Speaker 2: a lot of mixed messages out there, not just from
Speaker 2: public officials, not just from civic leaders, but also from residents.
Speaker 3: Also.
Speaker 2: We saw the lines of Palisades residents trying to get
Speaker 2: back to their homes, some of them for the first
Speaker 2: time since this thing happened to them. They haven't seen
Speaker 2: the ashes of what was once their lives. Lines and
Speaker 2: lines hours long as they tried to make it through checkpoints.
Speaker 2: Well now tomorrow morning, Sunday morning, eight o'clock, the checkpoints
Speaker 2: as we know them are going away on Pacific Coast Highway.
Speaker 2: It's reopening one lane in each direction as of eight
Speaker 2: o'clock tomorrow morning, with very reduced speed limits down to
Speaker 2: twenty five miles per hour. So it's still going to
Speaker 2: be a slow slog. But the question is what does
Speaker 2: that mean for the Palisades. Obviously, people who lost their
Speaker 2: homes want to get back there. They want to get
Speaker 2: started on what is now the hard part of this.
Speaker 2: But what about the rest of us that want to
Speaker 2: check it out? Is that gonna happen? Are the lukie
Speaker 2: loose now going to be sliding into the Palisades getting
Speaker 2: in the way of these grieving families trying to rebuild
Speaker 2: those lives. The LAPD says they're gonna have extra patrols
Speaker 2: there more than usual to make sure that no funny
Speaker 2: business is going on. But it was just a few
Speaker 2: months ago that the LAPED was having a hard time
Speaker 2: keeping burglars out of houses in Encino, and that place
Speaker 2: wasn't even on fire. So how confident can you feel
Speaker 2: right now if you're returning to the Palisades that you
Speaker 2: can do so with an appropriate amount of space, not
Speaker 2: just to bring in the architect not just to bring
Speaker 2: in contractors to talk about what is possible on the sites.
Speaker 2: Not just to retrieve whatever memento from your former life
Speaker 2: that you can from the smoldering ashes of your dreams,
Speaker 2: but can you have the space to grieve. Keep in mind,
Speaker 2: so many of these people are going to look at
Speaker 2: this for the first time, and then that fills me
Speaker 2: with conflict because I'm a journalist. I've represented KFI out
Speaker 2: in the field during these fires, and I've gotten to
Speaker 2: go past those checkpoints so that I can report from them.
Speaker 3: And I have seen up.
Speaker 2: Close the damage in Altadena and the damage in the Palisades,
Speaker 2: and it is another thing entirely to be so close
Speaker 2: to it. I've said it before, I think a couple
Speaker 2: weeks ago I talked about it that I feel like
Speaker 2: everybody who is with an earshot of this broadcast should
Speaker 2: go check it out. But also you shouldn't right now,
Speaker 2: you know, I mean, right now, it's just not a
Speaker 2: good time. But I feel like we need to see
Speaker 2: it to fully understand the depth of it. We've all
Speaker 2: seen images, videos, you've heard our reports here on the radio,
Speaker 2: and the shocking aerial footage that really puts it into perspective.
Speaker 2: But to stand next to those ashes is something else,
Speaker 2: and it makes you appreciate the need for wildfire prevention,
Speaker 2: and it also helps you appreciate just how dangerous they
Speaker 2: can be. You know, it's a fact of our lives
Speaker 2: here in La County. We have fire season. When I
Speaker 2: got hired as a reporter here, you know, they give
Speaker 2: you notebooks, they give you recorders, and they give you
Speaker 2: fire clothes. I didn't have that back in Kentucky. So
Speaker 2: I know it's a part of life here. But when
Speaker 2: it happens at this scale like this, where so many
Speaker 2: people live, it's just something that needs to be experienced.
Speaker 3: So I hope, I hope.
Speaker 2: There's an opportunity for folks who have nothing to do
Speaker 2: with the Palisades to get a chance to experience, if
Speaker 2: you have nothing to do with Altadena, to get a
Speaker 2: chance to experience that devastation with honor and with respect.
Speaker 2: Now doesn't seem like the right time, but it also
Speaker 2: seems like the invitation is there. PCH is opening tomorrow morning.
Speaker 2: Palisades residents aren't all that excited about it. They're telling
Speaker 2: media outlets like oh Is that it seems like an
Speaker 2: invitation for people that you know are up to no
Speaker 2: good to come in or people who might just be
Speaker 2: getting in the way. So I say this is the
Speaker 2: time that the hard part begins. We've been through the devastation,
Speaker 2: and it's not just the hard part of keeping people
Speaker 2: out of neighborhood who shouldn't be there. It's not just
Speaker 2: the hard part of folks measuring their lots and figuring
Speaker 2: out what their new home might look like there, or
Speaker 2: even before that happens, for EPA folks or private contractors
Speaker 2: to come in and clean it up.
Speaker 3: We've got the politics to deal with.
Speaker 2: So Mayor Bass seems confident that now is the time
Speaker 2: to let everybody back into the palisades to see what's
Speaker 2: left of it. We know President Trump has had feelings
Speaker 2: about the fires, what led up to them, what should
Speaker 2: be done. Now he's talking a lot about water and
Speaker 2: his role and water now flowing to southern California, a
Speaker 2: position that's being disputed by others that says his decisions
Speaker 2: have had nothing to do with getting water to southern California.
Speaker 3: I mean, this is what we're going to be dealing with.
Speaker 2: Also, on top of all of the reality, we have
Speaker 2: to deal with the show, the political theater. We're going
Speaker 2: to do our best to sift through all of that
Speaker 2: as it transfer here at KFI, certainly in the news,
Speaker 2: and also on Saturday nights, as long as I get
Speaker 2: to sit with you guys every couple of hours on
Speaker 2: four a couple of hours every Saturday night, I'll tell
Speaker 2: you this. We saw the politics of it start to
Speaker 2: play out in a rare, tense city council meeting at
Speaker 2: LA City Hall. I watch almost every La City Council meeting,
Speaker 2: either there at the building or from here at the
Speaker 2: studio in Burbank to report on it for you all.
Speaker 2: And this was a unique meeting. This was one that
Speaker 2: I had not seen before. These folks got angry at
Speaker 2: each other, and they got angry at each other about
Speaker 2: rent and evictions and the role that the wildfires in
Speaker 2: the Palisades may play in such things elsewhere in the city,
Speaker 2: rent increases and possible evictions. Some folks wanted an eviction moratorium,
Speaker 2: a freeze on rent increases. Others said that that was
Speaker 2: just not appropriate. We're gonna be talking about that up
Speaker 2: next and then later this hour. There is an unlikely
Speaker 2: neighborhood in Los Angeles that's saying eight Palisades people while
Speaker 2: you're waiting to rebuild your life in the Palisades, maybe
Speaker 2: we're the home for you.
Speaker 3: We'll talk about that too.
Speaker 1: You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2: KFI AM six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 2: I'm Michael Monks from KFI News. We're with you tonight
Speaker 2: till eight thirty, and that's when we'll flip over to
Speaker 2: a special from iHeart on the La wildfires. The folks,
Speaker 2: the organizations who have been working to support people during
Speaker 2: the fires, and now that we have reached the aftermath
Speaker 2: that starts at eight thirty tonight. There was a big
Speaker 2: fight at La City Hall that was inspired by the wildfires.
Speaker 2: Shortly after the fires destroyed the Palisades, which is in
Speaker 2: La City proper, a series of packaging flew through city Hall,
Speaker 2: no vetting, a committee, nothing, They were just eager to help.
Speaker 2: Everybody agreed that it was an emergency situation and there's
Speaker 2: a whole lot of stuff. We're gonna make it easier
Speaker 2: for people rebuild all that sort of thing. We're going
Speaker 2: to make sure that there are reports from LADWP about
Speaker 2: the water situation. The Fire Department is going to be
Speaker 2: telling us what they need from us to be better.
Speaker 2: But that changed quickly. And I've covered La City government
Speaker 2: now for about a year, and usually the color comes
Speaker 2: from the gallery folks that show up pretty regularly. A
Speaker 2: lot of gag flies there at La City Hall, like
Speaker 2: the pop off at the people who've been elected to office,
Speaker 2: and that's where the fireworks are. It's kind of annoying. Actually,
Speaker 2: they don't really have anything interesting to say. They're just antagonistic.
Speaker 2: But this this was interesting because this was council member
Speaker 2: versus council member versus council member versus council member, and
Speaker 2: you rarely see that. And the fight was over some
Speaker 2: protections for renters across La So instead of approving this
Speaker 2: proposal that came from council members unsses Hernandez and Hugo
Speaker 2: Soto Martinez, two of the most progressive politicians maybe in
Speaker 2: La County but certainly on the La City Council, they
Speaker 2: didn't approve it. They decided to send this one back
Speaker 2: to committee. And what that means is that the Housing
Speaker 2: Committee and its members will take a look at the
Speaker 2: proposals and maybe make some changes. And if they decigned
Speaker 2: to send it out of committee with a recommendation then
Speaker 2: will come back to the full council for consideration. But
Speaker 2: this thing caused some fireworks there on Spring Street downtown
Speaker 2: earlier this week. The plan was one that included a
Speaker 2: one year freeze on rent increases, and some members of
Speaker 2: council just didn't think that that was appropriate. Right now, Raoul,
Speaker 2: let's hear from Councilman John Lee.
Speaker 4: It's disappointing and concerning to see the eviction moratorium being
Speaker 4: pushed forward today at a time with so much uncertainty.
Speaker 4: This body is choosing to take advantage of an event
Speaker 4: that demands compassion and thoughtful response. Instead of offering real,
Speaker 4: targeted support, we're pursuing a blanket policy that is only
Speaker 4: going to make a complicated housing crisis even worse. Let's
Speaker 4: be clear, nobody today is denying that the folks who
Speaker 4: are impacted by the fires need help. We are all
Speaker 4: in agreement on that. But to approve a blanket policy
Speaker 4: that ties the hands of housing providers and once again
Speaker 4: forces control of their properties out of their hands would
Speaker 4: be a misstep by this body. When we tell, when
Speaker 4: we as a city tell developers and property owners that
Speaker 4: at any moment, the Los Angeles city council can comeandeer
Speaker 4: your investment. Who is going to want to build in
Speaker 4: this city? Who is going to want to do business here?
Speaker 4: If we truly want to help those directly impacted by
Speaker 4: the fires and have been displaced, then let's focus on
Speaker 4: doing that in a way that doesn't harm housing providers
Speaker 4: and discourage investment in the very housing our city desperately needs.
Speaker 2: So that was Counselman John Lee. He represents parts of
Speaker 2: the northern San Fernando Valley. Kelcelman Hugosoda Martinez, who sponsored
Speaker 2: this piece of legislation that was proposing a sweeping rent
Speaker 2: freeze and an eviction moratorium, says this was not as
Speaker 2: broad as it had been characterized by opponents like Councilman Lee.
Speaker 2: Let's hear from a counselman, Soda Martinez.
Speaker 5: I just want to clarify a few things for the
Speaker 5: public and for my colleagues, because I think a lot
Speaker 5: of things were said that are just simply not true. Well,
Speaker 5: one thing that was true is the comments that people
Speaker 5: don't know what they're voting on, and that's reflective on
Speaker 5: the comments that they made. There's clearly not understanding what's
Speaker 5: in front of us.
Speaker 3: Ooh spicy.
Speaker 5: First of all, this is not a blanket policy. Anybody
Speaker 5: of the things is blanket policy is clearly not reading
Speaker 5: the language right or reading the amendments that were introduced.
Speaker 5: This is a very narrowly tailored policy that is seeking
Speaker 5: to help the people who have had economic hardship or
Speaker 5: have lost their jobs due to the fires. That's it.
Speaker 5: It's not about anybody else. I hope folks, everyone in
Speaker 5: this room can agree that those folks need our support
Speaker 5: right now in the city of Los Angeles. Now I
Speaker 5: have it, so that image is clear. That is who
Speaker 5: we're trying to address right here. And I have a
Speaker 5: constituent in my district that I spoke to yesterday that
Speaker 5: lost her job. She lost her job the day after
Speaker 5: the fire because a place where she worked burned down,
Speaker 5: and the only thing she has no paycheck. The only
Speaker 5: thing she has is unemployment, and that's not going to
Speaker 5: be enough to pay the rent. It's going to take
Speaker 5: her a little bit to get on her feet, which
Speaker 5: I think a year of this policy is more than adequate.
Speaker 2: So that's the argument from supporters is like, look, yeah,
Speaker 2: these folks didn't lose a house in the Palisades, but
Speaker 2: they may have worked there, they may have been gardeners,
Speaker 2: they may have worked inside the homes also in Altadena.
Speaker 2: So let's make sure that we're putting protections in place.
Speaker 2: But the critics we were like, no, this isn't the time,
Speaker 2: are saying this seems to be an opportunity to push
Speaker 2: a political agenda that is unrelated to this disaster, including
Speaker 2: Councilwoman Tracy Park, who represents the Palisade.
Speaker 3: She was not happy with this proposal either. Let's hear
Speaker 3: her first clip.
Speaker 6: Colleagues, we all know that the Palisades fire destroyed more
Speaker 6: than homes, countless businesses and workers. Grocery stores, nail salons, classrooms, churches, libraries,
Speaker 6: the YMCA, all of it saw destruction and immediate disruption overnight.
Speaker 6: My number one priority for these last twenty two days
Speaker 6: has been to advocate and fight for the entire Palisades community.
Speaker 6: Immediately after the fires, my team worked with UFCW to
Speaker 6: confirm what assistance, if any, they're workers at Ralph's and
Speaker 6: Gelson's and Vond's needed. Thankfully, those workers had already been
Speaker 6: placed at other stores and have not experienced job loss.
Speaker 6: But we didn't stop there. We learned about other economically
Speaker 6: displaced and vulnerable workers like housekeepers and gardeners, and my
Speaker 6: team and I have been working with the entire City
Speaker 6: eleven community to place those individuals in new job opportunities.
Speaker 6: And council Member Sodo Martinez, I know that you have
Speaker 6: shared heartbreaking stories of constituents who have lost their jobs.
Speaker 6: If you have individuals, please refer them to us, because
Speaker 6: my entire district will bend over backwards to help get
Speaker 6: people reemployed.
Speaker 3: Okay, how's that for a snapback? Like?
Speaker 2: Look, if you're not able to help the people in
Speaker 2: your district impacted by these fires, send them my way,
Speaker 2: because we have been getting results. That's basically what the
Speaker 2: council woman who represents the district that just burned to
Speaker 2: the ground had to say about it. But she wasn't finished.
Speaker 2: First she pulls some people, some city staff from the
Speaker 2: Housing department to answer some questions, and then she finishes
Speaker 2: with this role final.
Speaker 6: Note that the only communications we've received about this motion
Speaker 6: are from workers in my district to have lost their jobs,
Speaker 6: but individuals who just want to see their four percent
Speaker 6: RSO increase frozen. Starting February first, that's stable, the city
Speaker 6: considers a new RSO formula, an entirely separate policy issue
Speaker 6: that has been pending in committee for nearly three months.
Speaker 6: The RSO formula and what it should be and whether
Speaker 6: it should change is an important policy conversation, and that's
Speaker 6: why it needs to be fully vetted and discussing committee
Speaker 6: before coming to floor, this floor which I look forward to.
Speaker 6: So if this motion is really about freezing the next
Speaker 6: RSO rent increase rather than protecting a small universe of workers,
Speaker 6: that I can't support the policy or derivative uses. That
Speaker 6: is using a disaster in my district as a pretext
Speaker 6: for some other political agenda.
Speaker 3: That's not and next and I won't play the clip role.
Speaker 2: Councilman Unisses Hernandez said that that was offensive and that
Speaker 2: the city Council should be able to do both provide
Speaker 2: for people in the palisades and protect the people who
Speaker 2: worked there. This isn't the last we've seen in this legislation.
Speaker 2: It's going to committee. But these fires have done more
Speaker 2: than change and disrupt and unfortunately even end some lives here.
Speaker 2: It is going to reshape the politics and the government.
Speaker 2: It already has. We saw it this week. When we
Speaker 2: come back, there is a neighborhood in Los Angeles that
Speaker 2: is inviting people from the Palisades to consider moving there,
Speaker 2: and it's not a neighborhood you would expect for these
Speaker 2: folks to go to.
Speaker 3: We'll talk about that coming up.
Speaker 1: You're listening to KFI Am six forty on demand, A.
Speaker 2: Six Live Everywhere on the iHeartRadio app. I'm Michael Monks
Speaker 2: from KFI News. We're with you till eight thirty tonight
Speaker 2: instead of nine o'clock. We've got a special coming on
Speaker 2: at eight thirty about the LA wildfires. It takes looks
Speaker 2: at the individuals and the organizations who have been stepping
Speaker 2: up and helping out during the fires, and we'll continue
Speaker 2: doing so now that we have finally reached the aftermath
Speaker 2: with folks being allowed to go check out their properties
Speaker 2: and start the long process of rebuilding their homes and
Speaker 2: their lives. So that comes on at eight thirty. Also,
Speaker 2: at the top of the hour at eight o'clock, I've
Speaker 2: got a great interview with a researcher from UC Irvine.
Speaker 2: We'll talk about the study he just did that explains
Speaker 2: how a certain type of music might help ease your
Speaker 2: physical pain. It's a real study. He's a real academic
Speaker 2: it's in a real medical journal. You'll want to stick
Speaker 2: around to hear that. But first, obviously, with the devastation
Speaker 2: in the palace A and an Alta Dina, people are
Speaker 2: going to be looking for another place to live. I
Speaker 2: think if I lost my home in a situation like this,
Speaker 2: where you may have the opportunity to rebuild, that's where
Speaker 2: your initial thoughts are. But that's going to be a
Speaker 2: long time, and you got to put down some roots,
Speaker 2: and you might have to do that somewhere else. What
Speaker 2: about downtown Los Angeles? Can you imagine going from walking
Speaker 2: on the sandy beaches of the Pacific Ocean with those
Speaker 2: delicious grains of sand beneath your feet too, well, you
Speaker 2: want to know what's beneath my feet on the streets
Speaker 2: of downtown Los Angeles where I do live currently. I
Speaker 2: don't think I'm allowed to say on radio. All I'll
Speaker 2: say is it is a bit of a different world.
Speaker 2: It's nice and it's sometimes not so nice. But there
Speaker 2: is a social media campaign that has been created by
Speaker 2: the Historic Core Business Improvement District. These are those organizations
Speaker 2: that are based in small parts of Los Angeles. There
Speaker 2: are a lot of them, across LA including multiple ones
Speaker 2: in different downtown neighborhoods, and this one is trying to
Speaker 2: get people to consider moving to downtown Los Angeles. I
Speaker 2: want to give a shout out to journalist Roger Vincent
Speaker 2: at the LA Times, who highlighted this in an article
Speaker 2: and it explains that while downtown may be familiar to
Speaker 2: a lot of people, it's not this familiar. You know,
Speaker 2: a lot of people do live downtown. I'm not alone
Speaker 2: down there. It's great. Just this morning, I got up
Speaker 2: my spouse and I'm like, are you hungry?
Speaker 3: What do you want?
Speaker 2: You can get up and you can just walk to stuff,
Speaker 2: And there's a lot of stuff. In spite of all
Speaker 2: the challenges down there, a lot of stuff, And our
Speaker 2: loft is nice, and the environment is often great. Too
Speaker 2: often it's not. So I'm curious what kind of case
Speaker 2: these folks can make to folks who are used to
Speaker 2: living in a coastal community, an upscale, wealthy coastal community.
Speaker 2: To be clear, there's, of course a lot of poverty
Speaker 2: in downtown Los Angeles. It's where skid Row is, But
Speaker 2: there is a lot of wealth in downtown Los Angeles
Speaker 2: as well.
Speaker 3: There are a lot of.
Speaker 2: Beautiful condos in beautiful old and new buildings, so you
Speaker 2: can live a life of luxury. Downtown. It's just a
Speaker 2: little different because at some point you do have to
Speaker 2: leave your home. And in the Palisades, it's still nice
Speaker 2: to leave your home and walk on those sidewalks and
Speaker 2: get down to the beach and that sort of thing.
Speaker 2: And I'm sure when it's rebuilt it will retain those qualities. Downtown.
Speaker 2: I love it, Oh, I love it. I love it,
Speaker 2: And I have to remind myself of that a lot.
Speaker 2: You know, what are the good things? Why do I
Speaker 2: like living here? It's walkable. I can hop on a
Speaker 2: train really quick. I'm in the middle of everything. Wherever
Speaker 2: I need to go, I'm already in the center and
Speaker 2: I just head out in the other direction.
Speaker 3: It's fine. But man, it's not so good.
Speaker 2: Sometimes it's just not I mean, I stepped over human
Speaker 2: vcs today. I'll just tell you today I was going
Speaker 2: to get a sandwich. So Executive director Blair Bestin of
Speaker 2: the Historic Core Business Improvement District told The La Times
Speaker 2: the West Side and the Pasadena area might be saturated
Speaker 2: with people wanting to move in proximity to where they
Speaker 2: lived before but it might not be possible. So that's
Speaker 2: why this organization is trying to capitalize on an opportunity
Speaker 2: to bring these residents down town. Co Star, which is
Speaker 2: a real estate data provider and also an immediate life
Speaker 2: that does a great job covering real estate issues. They
Speaker 2: say that there were a lot of people who were
Speaker 2: displaced by these fires who were renters. They reported about
Speaker 2: four hundred and eighty multi family buildings with nine five
Speaker 2: hundred rental units were potentially damaged or destroyed within these
Speaker 2: fire zones. That's a lot of people who are not
Speaker 2: rebuilding a house because it wasn't their house. It was
Speaker 2: their home, but it was not their house. And a
Speaker 2: lot of those buildings that were damaged or destroyed or older,
Speaker 2: smaller apartment buildings owned by mom and pop landlords, so
Speaker 2: they don't have a lot of the desirable amenities that
Speaker 2: you can actually find in the apartment buildings downtown air conditioning,
Speaker 2: fitness centers. I've got a pool on my roof, you know,
Speaker 2: after I step over the human feces, as unpleasant as
Speaker 2: that is, I take the elevator to the roof. There's
Speaker 2: a basketball court, there's a swimming pool, there is a
Speaker 2: hot tub. There's a lovely fitness center, a convenience store,
Speaker 2: three restaurants, all in the courtyard area.
Speaker 3: I will step over some human feces for that. I
Speaker 3: don't know.
Speaker 2: I feel like I'm sending mixed signals to the folks
Speaker 2: who are considering moving downtown. It has its advantages, it
Speaker 2: has its disadvantages. I suppose that's true of a lot
Speaker 2: of places.
Speaker 3: But nowhere is it.
Speaker 2: Truer in Los Angeles than the original Downtown Los Angeles,
Speaker 2: our first neighborhood. So much great food, so much great architecture,
Speaker 2: beautiful homes to live in.
Speaker 3: But it needs attention.
Speaker 2: And you know what, I want to scream at the
Speaker 2: top of my lungs, not at the expense of the
Speaker 2: people who really need our attention right now in the
Speaker 2: Palisades in Altadena, it feels like LA suffered a disaster
Speaker 2: years ago. Downtown LA suffered a disaster years ago, and
Speaker 2: the response has been so limp. You know, I mean,
Speaker 2: this is this is the heart of the Los Angeles economy,
Speaker 2: whether you want to acknowledge that or not. It's where
Speaker 2: it's the economic engine of the region, Downtown Los Angeles.
Speaker 2: And yet when you come down to it, you look
Speaker 2: around and you think, oh wow, that's really cool, and
Speaker 2: oh my god, that is awful. That is terrifying. What
Speaker 2: am I standing in? So I don't want to scare
Speaker 2: you away. Come join us downtown. We need some good
Speaker 2: people down there. There are a lot of good people,
Speaker 2: of course, but can always use more, and we certainly
Speaker 2: have the room while you figure out what's next for
Speaker 2: your life after these devastating fires. I talked earlier about
Speaker 2: how these things are being politicized. I want to be clear,
Speaker 2: just in case you don't know or need a reminder.
Speaker 2: Government and politics are not the same. They are very
Speaker 2: obviously intertwined. They are related closely, but they are not
Speaker 2: the same. So the government response to this disaster is
Speaker 2: not necessarily the same or maybe shouldn't be the same
Speaker 2: as the politics of it. The politics are kind of
Speaker 2: getting in the way and affecting the way people feel
Speaker 2: about what comes next, what should come next. And a
Speaker 2: national political figure is coming here next week and we'll
Speaker 2: talk about that coming up.
Speaker 1: You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2: KFI AM six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 2: I'm Michael Monks from KFI News We're with you till
Speaker 2: eight thirty tonight. That's when we'll start a special on
Speaker 2: the LA wildfires with a focus on the organizations and
Speaker 2: individuals who have been helping during the wildfires and now
Speaker 2: that we've reached the aftermath, will continue to help. So
Speaker 2: stay tuned for that. At eight thirty. It's cutting our
Speaker 2: show tonight a little bit. That's all right, you'll want
Speaker 2: to stay tuned for it. And at the top of
Speaker 2: the hour, I'll be talking to a researcher from UC
Speaker 2: Irvine who has just released a study that says, if
Speaker 2: you listen to this certain specific type of music in
Speaker 2: a certain type of way, it may ease some of
Speaker 2: your chronic pain. It was a pretty interesting study, and
Speaker 2: I hope you'll stick around to hear about that. There
Speaker 2: was a police shooting in Newport Beach today and I
Speaker 2: saw some video on social media. Perhaps you've seen it
Speaker 2: as well in the media, and it was a wild scene.
Speaker 2: According to reports, this was a guy who was suspected
Speaker 2: of killing a woman that he knew over in Minifee
Speaker 2: and then he ended up being shot to death by
Speaker 2: police on the Newport Beach Pier. He drove his car
Speaker 2: onto the pier while people were there. It's a beautiful
Speaker 2: day and a police shooting erupted. The Minife Police Department
Speaker 2: says officers were called to a report of gunshots on
Speaker 2: Mesa Edge core To about two forty three this morning.
Speaker 2: They found a dead woman inside. She was later identified
Speaker 2: as Storm Wolf of Temecula and they already believe that
Speaker 2: this is a murder. And then this forty five year
Speaker 2: old guy, Jose Velasquez, was quickly identified as a primary
Speaker 2: suspect in this woman's death, and they figured that he
Speaker 2: may have traveled to Santa Anna, so the Santa Anna
Speaker 2: Police was contacted for assistance in finding him. They found
Speaker 2: him in his car on North Freeman Street in Santa Anna.
Speaker 2: They tried to stop him, but a pursuit, so they
Speaker 2: pursued him. It ended up in Newport Beach where an
Speaker 2: officer involved shooting, as they call it took place. No
Speaker 2: police officers were hurt, but this guy died at the scene.
Speaker 2: He was the lone guy in his car. Nobody else
Speaker 2: was with him. What a scene hanging out on the
Speaker 2: Newport pier and then some suspected murderer is shot death
Speaker 2: in your midst That is pure Southern California.
Speaker 3: Something else.
Speaker 2: It's been happening a lot lately that I've noticed. It's
Speaker 2: almost daily when I come in and check the files
Speaker 2: and see what's going on in the news, And we
Speaker 2: don't always report on these, but they are important. A
Speaker 2: pedestrian was killed by a car on the freeway, the
Speaker 2: one ten freeway in downtown LA, and I'm finding that
Speaker 2: this is happening so frequently. Obviously, it is tragic when
Speaker 2: a pedestrian, someone walking on the street is hit by
Speaker 2: a car and killed, and that happens way too much
Speaker 2: across Los Angeles. But what are these pedestrians doing on
Speaker 2: the freeways. It is nearly constant, and typically we find
Speaker 2: out later that these are homeless folks who are living
Speaker 2: nearby the freeways, or they are drug addicts experienced.
Speaker 3: In some kind of episode.
Speaker 2: But that is so dangerous on the freeway. It is
Speaker 2: happening almost constantly. I feel like every Saturday night when
Speaker 2: I come in to check to see what news is
Speaker 2: out there, it's always a pedestrian fatality, but there were
Speaker 2: multiple other ones this week. Don't walk on the freeway, y'all,
Speaker 2: just stay off of that. It's not necessary, all right,
Speaker 2: Next week, We're gonna have a visitor in La County.
Speaker 2: His name is Reverend Al Sharpton. He is coming to
Speaker 2: rally and support of folks impacted by the fire in Alta, Dina,
Speaker 2: he said in a news release. The wildfires scourging Los
Speaker 2: Angeles these last few weeks have been a devastating humanitarian
Speaker 2: and natural disaster. People have lost their homes, their memories,
Speaker 2: and ultimately their lives to this devastation. While some have
Speaker 2: sought to use this horrific event to score political points.
Speaker 2: This Thursday, I will join with Attorney Ben Crump to
Speaker 2: bring the community together to mourn those we lost and
Speaker 2: galvanize them to recover and rebuild. His organization has cited
Speaker 2: a recent UCLA study that said black residents in Altadena
Speaker 2: were disproportionately affected by home losses in the Eaten fire.
Speaker 2: So be on the lookout for Reverend Al Sharpton next Thursday.
Speaker 2: That's not all that's coming in next week. We've got
Speaker 2: a storm system moving into southern California expected to bring
Speaker 2: widespread rain, gusty winds, and maybe even some heavy downpours
Speaker 2: and some areas. National Weather Service says there was still
Speaker 2: variability about the strength of the expected storms. We don't
Speaker 2: know exactly how strong this thing will be, but we
Speaker 2: will keep an eye out for it, and we'll be
Speaker 2: updating you every day here at KFI News.
Speaker 3: I'm Michael Monks.
Speaker 2: Follow me online if you like that sort of thing
Speaker 2: at Mike Monks La m I C M O Nksla
Speaker 2: on Twitter, Instagram, TikTok if you're into that. Love talking
Speaker 2: to you on Saturday nights and of course Monday through Friday,
Speaker 2: doing the news here for you on KFI.
Speaker 3: Stay tuned to us.
Speaker 2: Coming up on our next hour, that interview with the
Speaker 2: researcher from UC Irvine about the connection between easing your
Speaker 2: pain by listening to a very specific type of music.
Speaker 3: We'll have that for you coming
Speaker 1: Up KFI AM six forty on demand