Speaker 1: You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2: Kf I Am six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 2: Tiffany Hobbs here with you until seven o'clock. And if
Speaker 2: you missed any of my conversation with doctor Frederick Nisstrom,
Speaker 2: who's the professor at Linkoping University and senior physician and
Speaker 2: internal medicine in Sweden, nonetheless, you can listen back on
Speaker 2: the iHeartRadio app. Just go to KFI and search for
Speaker 2: featured segments. It was a wonderful conversation and it will
Speaker 2: give you license. It will give you permission to enjoy
Speaker 2: your life. And that extra glass of wine I can
Speaker 2: hear mine from my refrigerator as I speak. All right,
Speaker 2: let's get into our Deeper Dives segment.
Speaker 3: Deeper Dives, Deeper Dives, Deeper Dives.
Speaker 2: We're gonna figure out a song or some sort of sounder, right,
Speaker 2: Kaylee k I kind of like when.
Speaker 4: You do that Deepeper Dives Deeper Dives.
Speaker 2: I'm going like hard rock with it. I would you
Speaker 2: bash your head a little bit there? Well, let's talk
Speaker 2: about something that's making a lot of people scratch their heads.
Speaker 4: It has to do with education.
Speaker 2: Education is at the forefront of a lot of conversations.
Speaker 2: With the recent complete obliteration of the Department of Education
Speaker 2: by this current administration, a lot of people are left
Speaker 2: asking what now. And if you have school aged children
Speaker 2: K through twelve, and even those of you who are
Speaker 2: continuing your education after that, then you might be wondering
Speaker 2: what's next for you. For the children who are in school,
Speaker 2: there are quite a few options. There's your regular public
Speaker 2: school your public district LAUSD is the second largest school
Speaker 2: district in the country behind New York Public Schools. That's
Speaker 2: what we have. Whatever you have your public schools, that's
Speaker 2: your option. Addition to public schools, you have private schools
Speaker 2: if you can afford them.
Speaker 4: You have parochial schools.
Speaker 2: Those will be your Catholic schools or your special Christian
Speaker 2: schools or Jewish Days schools.
Speaker 4: And then you have home study.
Speaker 2: A lot of individuals have taken to home study as
Speaker 2: a viable option, especially during the COVID pandemic when schools
Speaker 2: were shut down. A lot of students just haven't returned
Speaker 2: to conventional schooling.
Speaker 4: They're at home. And furthermore, you have the.
Speaker 2: Charter school system, and when people hear charter they wonder,
Speaker 2: many wonder what exactly is that? Is it private? Is
Speaker 2: it public? Is it a mixture of the two? What
Speaker 2: the heck is a charter school? And that is what
Speaker 2: our deeper dive segment will be about today. What a
Speaker 2: charter school is? Is it a viable option? Is it
Speaker 2: better than your public school system? And charter schools be
Speaker 2: affected by the cuts to the Department of Education, Let
Speaker 2: me get into it. The US Department of Education also
Speaker 2: operates dozens of discretionary grant programs, and with the cut
Speaker 2: of the DOE, a lot of those grant programs have
Speaker 2: since also been reallocated or discontinued completely. The Trump administration
Speaker 2: just issued a demand to California public schools just last
Speaker 2: week to do away with their DEI programs or they
Speaker 2: would lose their Title one funding.
Speaker 4: That's the newest news.
Speaker 2: Coming out of the Trump administration as it pertains to education.
Speaker 2: This insistence that California schools do away with anything that
Speaker 2: happens to be DEI or else or else you lose
Speaker 2: your money, and that money again comes under some thing
Speaker 2: called Title IE. A loss of funding means that grants
Speaker 2: would be given to states. This is a little confusing
Speaker 2: follow me the grants, the money would be given directly
Speaker 2: to states rather than to local education agencies such as
Speaker 2: school districts and charter schools as it is now, so
Speaker 2: states would be in charge of how they allocate the funding.
Speaker 2: That is complicated, especially given how disenfranchised some of our
Speaker 2: states are. California is doing really well, Mississippi not so much.
Speaker 2: And when it comes to these out the reallocation of funding,
Speaker 2: having money go directly to states other than school districts
Speaker 2: and charter schools as it is now, the accountability for
Speaker 2: making sure that money is being spent in ways to
Speaker 2: help all students, especially those who are disenfranchised and income
Speaker 2: it is not necessarily dispersed evenly or at all. The
Speaker 2: Department of Education being cut also affects the expansion of
Speaker 2: something called school choice, which funds the growth and creation
Speaker 2: of magnet schools and charter schools, which is what we're
Speaker 2: talking about.
Speaker 4: You might remember school choice.
Speaker 2: In President Trump's first term, he appointed Betsy de vas
Speaker 2: to Secretary of the US Department of Education. The choice
Speaker 2: in that appointment signaled the president's then intention to put
Speaker 2: the expansion of taxpayer funded charter schools and vouchers for
Speaker 2: private and religious schools at the center of his national
Speaker 2: agenda on education. At the time, there were lots of
Speaker 2: critics for this move. They called it a move to
Speaker 2: undermine public education. They said, why would you put money
Speaker 2: in these alternative forms of education and not in the
Speaker 2: public schools. It also brought the complicated nature of charter
Speaker 2: schools onto the national stage.
Speaker 4: That was in twenty twenty.
Speaker 2: Fast forward to twenty twenty five, seventy plus days into
Speaker 2: President Trump's second term, the Department of Education is again
Speaker 2: undergoing massive changes, a full on obliteration to be honest
Speaker 2: at this point, and President Trump's once beloved charter school
Speaker 2: model under Betsy Devas's helm is at risk of being
Speaker 2: removed completely from places like California. Why funding cuts The
Speaker 2: money is not there for these charter schools. In addition
Speaker 2: to the money not necessarily being as accessible as it
Speaker 2: once was, there are larger issues looming within charter school systems,
Speaker 2: and I'll tell you about what those are shortly. But
Speaker 2: the question is how does that change? How does this
Speaker 2: change in the Department of Education affect those of us
Speaker 2: in California and specifically in Southern California with school aged children,
Speaker 2: where there seem to be as many charter schools on
Speaker 2: every corner as there are Starbucks. We'll look at the
Speaker 2: history of charter schools, and we'll also find out whether
Speaker 2: or not charter schools are in fact a better option
Speaker 2: than public schools, and look into some of the things
Speaker 2: some of the news coming out of the charter school
Speaker 2: system in recent months and as recently as last month,
Speaker 2: when it pertains to whether or not you should choose
Speaker 2: a charter school, if they are even still in existence
Speaker 2: by this time, say next year. We'll do all of that,
Speaker 2: and we'll continue with our history lesson, our deeper dive
Speaker 2: on charter schools. When we come back, It's Saturdays with Tiffany.
Speaker 2: I'm Tiffany Hobbs here with you until seven.
Speaker 1: You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2: Okay if I AM six forty live everywhere on the
Speaker 2: iHeartRadio app. Tifany Hobbs here with you, and we are
Speaker 2: getting your talkbacks. Thank you for them. You can continue
Speaker 2: to send them. Hit that talk back button in the
Speaker 2: middle of the iHeart app. It's right there down there's
Speaker 2: like a little microphone.
Speaker 4: Push it.
Speaker 2: You have about fifteen seconds to voice, however you feel
Speaker 2: about anything you've heard, or if you just want to
Speaker 2: say hi. I would love to say hi to you back.
Speaker 2: Thank you for listening. Whether you like it or you don't,
Speaker 2: you're still listening, and I appreciate that we were just talking.
Speaker 2: We've been talking about the charter school system. Lots of
Speaker 2: people have misconceptions, have questions, confusion about the difference between
Speaker 2: the charters school and the public school or the private school.
Speaker 2: And charters have been in the news a lot more
Speaker 2: in recent years because of the changes to the Department
Speaker 2: of Education, first in twenty twenty with the appointment of
Speaker 2: Betsy d Vas as Secretary of Education. She loved charter schools.
Speaker 2: She was a huge proponent of school.
Speaker 4: Choice and charter schools.
Speaker 2: To now in twenty twenty five with the Department of
Speaker 2: Education being all but completely obliterated and now charter schools
Speaker 2: potentially being on the chopping block when it comes to funding.
Speaker 2: So we're getting ready to jump into some history. Let
Speaker 2: me tell you how charter schools have affected and been
Speaker 2: impacted in Los Angeles specifically. Well, there's La Unified again,
Speaker 2: the biggest district in all of California, the second largest
Speaker 2: district in the nation, and LA was one of the
Speaker 2: first in the country to allow charter schools, converting its
Speaker 2: first school to charter status in the city of Westchester
Speaker 2: over thirty years ago. According to California Charter Schools Association,
Speaker 2: California's charter schools are and here you are. Here's the difference.
Speaker 2: They are tuition free, public and open to all students.
Speaker 2: California charter public schools have rigorous curriculum programs and unique
Speaker 2: educational approaches in exchange for operational freedom and flexibility. Charter
Speaker 2: schools are subject to higher levels of accountability than traditional
Speaker 2: public schools, and charter schools offer high quality education options
Speaker 2: to communities. That is from the California Charter Schools Association. Now,
Speaker 2: charter schools had a period of rapid growth in the
Speaker 2: city of Los Angeles in southern California, and it peaked
Speaker 2: during the pandemic people were looking for other options. There
Speaker 2: are still quite a number of charter schools in Los
Speaker 2: Angeles hundreds. In fact, they now account for about twenty
Speaker 2: percent of the district's overall enrollment, serving more than one
Speaker 2: hundred and fifty thousand students and K through T twelve schools.
Speaker 4: There are two or K through twelve grade. There are two.
Speaker 2: Hundred and seventy five charter schools in Los Angeles. Enrollment
Speaker 2: peaked in twenty twenty one when they had again a
Speaker 2: response to what was going on with the pandemic and
Speaker 2: LAUSD was really trying to keep up. However, as recent
Speaker 2: news has indicated as you might be experiencing, enrollment in
Speaker 2: LAUSD has dropped dramatically, especially given the pandemic period. Many
Speaker 2: of those schools have not recovered when it comes to attendance.
Speaker 2: Many students decided to seek other forms and other environments
Speaker 2: for education. LAUSD once had an enthusiasm for charters, but
Speaker 2: that's ebbed and flowed in recent years. There's been a
Speaker 2: shrinking pool of students and charters and the district schools
Speaker 2: have been pit against each other. Both charters and district
Speaker 2: schools are funded on a per pupil basis that means
Speaker 2: one student equals a certain amount of money. The argument
Speaker 2: is that charters siphon resources and students from the larger district.
Speaker 2: So if students are leaving LAUSD and going into a
Speaker 2: charter district, LAUSD cannot count those pupils as income, so
Speaker 2: to speak, Charters can if the student does infect transfer
Speaker 2: there the board. The school board in September issued a
Speaker 2: new resolution for LAUSD Superintendent Carvallo to create a policy
Speaker 2: banning charter schools from something called co locations. What that
Speaker 2: is is there might be four schools on one campus.
Speaker 2: You have your public school, and then you have a
Speaker 2: charter school that's in elementary, a charter school that's maybe
Speaker 2: a middle school, and a charter school that might even
Speaker 2: be a high school, all co located on one public
Speaker 2: school campus. Well, the district decided they didn't want that anymore,
Speaker 2: so they issued that resolution to Superintendent Carvallo to ban
Speaker 2: co locations at hundreds of these school buildings. That disrupted
Speaker 2: a lot of enrollment and later this year, in fact,
Speaker 2: Los Angeles is bringing its charter renewal process back online
Speaker 2: after a three year suspension. So in the years since
Speaker 2: the pandemic, charters have struggled greatly. They've struggled at the
Speaker 2: board level, they've struggled at the attendance level, and they've
Speaker 2: struggled at the retention level. Board President Jackie Goldberg has
Speaker 2: said that the point about.
Speaker 4: Charter schools is that as soon as you make.
Speaker 2: It a competition between the district and charter schools all
Speaker 2: has been lost. The point should be to improve the
Speaker 2: public schools, not to replace the public schools. Fewer kids
Speaker 2: are signing up. Applications for opening new charter schools in
Speaker 2: the city of Los Angeles, which once arrived annually by
Speaker 2: the dozen to LA Unified, have also completely dried up.
Speaker 2: That's according to the California Charter Schools Association. So charters
Speaker 2: may be fading out, no new ones and less renewals
Speaker 2: are occurring. And whether you love or hate them, they
Speaker 2: were an alternative to the very obvious and sad failure
Speaker 2: at many levels that is the Los Angeles Unified School District.
Speaker 2: If you have kids in southern California, if you have
Speaker 2: kids in the greater Los Angeles area, I don't know
Speaker 2: what to tell you. I don't know what a better
Speaker 2: option is. And that to me is the one of
Speaker 2: the biggest issues that isn't discussed enough about. The basis
Speaker 2: about the core of Los Angeles as the city is
Speaker 2: what to do with our school aged children, how to
Speaker 2: improve schools truly, not just say that you're throwing money
Speaker 2: at these perceived or actual problems, but really get in there,
Speaker 2: getting in there and issuing these modifications to improve the
Speaker 2: education system in southern California. If our public schools, if
Speaker 2: our charter schools are not improved, you might in fact
Speaker 2: have something like this. Kanye West, you've heard of him,
Speaker 2: while he started a school back in twenty twenty one
Speaker 2: as well. It was called the Donda Academy. It was
Speaker 2: a private Christian school, unaccredited K through twelve, and it
Speaker 2: closed within two years due to gross mismanagement and honestly
Speaker 2: being run by Kanye West. So if we don't figure
Speaker 2: out how to best serve the needs of our school children,
Speaker 2: you might have these pop up schools.
Speaker 4: You'll have these schools.
Speaker 2: That are still facing and dealing with lots of degradation
Speaker 2: and the core of our city, our children, our education,
Speaker 2: and how those two converge will continue to fall by
Speaker 2: the wayside and place California amongst the lowest of achievers
Speaker 2: in the on the basis of education.
Speaker 4: That's been our deeper dive. Thanks for hanging out.
Speaker 2: We're gonna talk to Amy King on the other side
Speaker 2: of the break and we're gonna get into this wiggle
Speaker 2: waggle walk. What it is the Pasadena Humane Society and
Speaker 2: why you should get out there with your pups or
Speaker 2: even just yourself and support this wonderful, wonderful fundraiser.
Speaker 4: Right on the other side of the break.
Speaker 2: KFI AM six forty Live everywhere on the iHeartRadio apps.
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: with Tiffany here until seven, and then Michael Monks will
Speaker 2: come aboard and share with us the findings that will
Speaker 2: comprise his wonderful show, So stay tuned for that next
Speaker 2: I'm so delighted, so thrilled to talk to this young lady.
Speaker 2: I've been wanting to speak to her for quite a while,
Speaker 2: and I'm glad that our paths are finally crossing. And
Speaker 2: what better cause than to talk about Pasadena Humane Society
Speaker 2: and tomorrow's Wiggle Waggle Walk.
Speaker 5: Welcome Amy King, Well, Tiffany, we could talk more often
Speaker 5: if you call me every once in a while.
Speaker 2: I think I might have to do that, my dear.
Speaker 2: I'm so happy you could give us some of your time.
Speaker 2: I'm sure you're preparing for your big day tomorrow, are
Speaker 2: you excited?
Speaker 1: Absolutely?
Speaker 5: We are so excited because I mean Honestly, it's a
Speaker 5: day that you get to go out and walk around
Speaker 5: the Rose Bowl. It's going to be a beautiful day,
Speaker 5: but we're raising money for a cause that's near and
Speaker 5: dear to my heart. I got my cat, Alexander the
Speaker 5: Great from Pasadena Humane and we've had a great relationship
Speaker 5: with them for so long and know what they're doing
Speaker 5: and how important their work is because they're you know,
Speaker 5: they're rescuing animals, taking care of them, giving them homes
Speaker 5: until they're ready to go to their forever home. And
Speaker 5: then this year, because of the Eaten fires, it's been
Speaker 5: you know, they've really stepped up to help the community.
Speaker 5: They rescued more than twelve hundred animals in the days
Speaker 5: after the fires. Yes, they were out in the neighborhoods
Speaker 5: looking for and finding animals who were still there. I
Speaker 5: mean they were finding animals up to a week later
Speaker 5: or even past that, and then bringing them back to
Speaker 5: Pasadena Humane and nursing them back to help because some
Speaker 5: of them, you know, they were burned and how their
Speaker 5: little paws burned, and their faces and their whiskers and
Speaker 5: their ears. And they have an ICU at Pasadena Humane
Speaker 5: and they've treated them and nurse them back to help
Speaker 5: so they can be reunited with their families.
Speaker 4: And it's angelic.
Speaker 5: It is you know, they did it. They get a
Speaker 5: special place in heaven for all the great work that
Speaker 5: they're doing. And all of that, of course costs money,
Speaker 5: and they stay open from donations from people like you,
Speaker 5: and that's the reason we do Wiggle Waggle Walk and
Speaker 5: so we're thrilled to be part of that, and so
Speaker 5: we would love for you to come out and join us.
Speaker 5: There's still times to join our team. We have the
Speaker 5: wake up Call Wigglers, if you'd like to join our team.
Speaker 5: We're fifty plus strong and I'm thrilled that that many
Speaker 5: people are coming out. And of course I know right
Speaker 5: and you know if you can't come out, that's okay too.
Speaker 5: We would love to have you donate and it's super
Speaker 5: easy to do. We know that I've mentioned this a
Speaker 5: couple of times. We know that there's a lot of
Speaker 5: people asking for your donations right now and your money
Speaker 5: might be stretched a little thin, but so anything you
Speaker 5: can do, we would appreciate it. It's kfiam six forty dot
Speaker 5: com slash Wiggle that's where you can go to donate,
Speaker 5: and that's where you can go to join the team,
Speaker 5: whether you have a dog or not.
Speaker 4: Of course we'd love to see you and your pops.
Speaker 5: But if you don't have a dog, come on out
Speaker 5: walk with us anyway, because there's gonna be a ton
Speaker 5: of dogs out there. And along with the walk, we've
Speaker 5: got vendors and dog demonstrations and there's the costume contest,
Speaker 5: which amazing how many people dress up their dogs and
Speaker 5: it's adorable.
Speaker 4: So are you taking your cat out there?
Speaker 1: No?
Speaker 5: I think he would be completely traumatized, and I think
Speaker 5: that would not be good. So he's staying at home.
Speaker 5: But we're trying to work on a one of the
Speaker 5: adoptable dogs. I might get to walk tomorrow morning, so
Speaker 5: if yeah. So last year, in fact, Tiffany, we I
Speaker 5: got to walk this beautiful brown Doberman pincher.
Speaker 4: Oh my good, and she was she was just a joy.
Speaker 5: And I was talking to somebody along the way and
Speaker 5: that dog ended up going home with somebody that day.
Speaker 2: You know, that's always the hope that you know. Of course,
Speaker 2: the money is so integral, it's so important, but for
Speaker 2: an organization or an organization like Passing the Humane to
Speaker 2: actually bring out the adoptable dogs and allow people to interact,
Speaker 2: to see how they socialize, and to take a dog
Speaker 2: home that day or the next day or whatnot.
Speaker 4: It's just that's what that's what we need.
Speaker 2: We need these shelters to be relieved of the crush
Speaker 2: of so many homeless animals.
Speaker 4: And this is great work.
Speaker 5: Yes, they do great work, and like I said, they
Speaker 5: couldn't do it without the generous support of people in
Speaker 5: the community. And that's why we're asking for your help.
Speaker 5: So the event tomorrow starts at eight o'clock. The walk
Speaker 5: and run is at nine. You can do a five
Speaker 5: k or you can do a one mile walk and
Speaker 5: it's at Brookside Park and it's right there at the
Speaker 5: Rose Bowl. And the weather's going to be absolutely perfect tomorrow.
Speaker 5: It's going to be like seventy five eighty degrees, so
Speaker 5: it'll be nice and cool in the morning when we walk.
Speaker 5: And we would love to have you come and join us.
Speaker 2: And for signing up, Amy, what does that require?
Speaker 5: Your name? So easy?
Speaker 4: Very easy, pretty much.
Speaker 5: It's very easy again. If you just go to kfi
Speaker 5: am sick forty dot com slash wiggle, it'll take you
Speaker 5: right to the Wiggle wiggle page.
Speaker 4: You've said it so much.
Speaker 5: At this point, right, I know, I've said it so much,
Speaker 5: and I figure one of these times I'll get it right.
Speaker 5: And then of course the team that we have is
Speaker 5: the wake up called Wigglers, and we would love to
Speaker 5: have you join that too.
Speaker 4: It's super easy to do. It's like click, click, click.
Speaker 5: Enter your name and or your phone number and you're
Speaker 5: off and you get a T shirt. And then we've
Speaker 5: got the KFI booths out there, and we've got swag
Speaker 5: bags for the first three hundred to come by. And
Speaker 5: oh and we're also doing a raffle at the KFI
Speaker 5: booth for Doctor Marty Pets. They've got gift baskets. They've
Speaker 5: generously donated a bunch of gift baskets, so we're doing
Speaker 5: raffles for those. So again, it's going to be a
Speaker 5: fun day. You don't have to get up at break
Speaker 5: it dawn because the event doesn't start till eight o'clock.
Speaker 5: And again the walk is at nine, and then you're
Speaker 5: out of there by like eleven.
Speaker 4: Easy.
Speaker 2: You got your dog walk out the way for the morning,
Speaker 2: you know you can go home. Your dog will be
Speaker 2: just completely pooped out in many different ways and you
Speaker 2: can just go home and relax for a good cost.
Speaker 5: Exactly exactly, we would love to have you join us. So, Tiffany,
Speaker 5: thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to
Speaker 5: come talk. We're doing kind of our our last push
Speaker 5: yes to hit our goals, so.
Speaker 4: You know, thank you.
Speaker 2: And I want to tell you Amy quickly that you
Speaker 2: really have done a spectacular job in inheriting this event
Speaker 2: and the publicity for the station and just your your
Speaker 2: how you are involved in the Wiggle Waggle Walk from
Speaker 2: Jennifer Jones who did such a wonderful job as well
Speaker 2: for years. It's it's been great to hear you. It's
Speaker 2: awesome that you are involved. And I can see and
Speaker 2: i've I've watched you for years just how much of
Speaker 2: an animal lover you are. So you're a great spokesperson
Speaker 2: for this event. Congratulations in advance, it's going to be great.
Speaker 5: Well, thank you so much, Tiffany, and again, thank you
Speaker 5: for letting me come on. And if you, like I said,
Speaker 5: if you can donate, we would appreciate anything. Five bucks,
Speaker 5: fifty bucks, five hundred bucks, it doesn't matter. Everything goes
Speaker 5: to healthy animals and that's what we're working on.
Speaker 2: Got it and you can donate at KFI AM six
Speaker 2: forty dot com, backslash wiggle. Thank you, Amy King, and
Speaker 2: have fun tomorrow.
Speaker 5: Thank you so much, Tiffany.
Speaker 4: Alrighty, take care.
Speaker 2: KFI AM six forty Live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 4: Tiffany Hobbs here with you.
Speaker 1: Until seven you're listening to KFI AM six forty on
Speaker 1: demand KFI.
Speaker 2: AM six forty Live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app. Tiffany
Speaker 2: Hobbs here with you for one final segment. We just
Speaker 2: spoke to Amy King of the Wiggle Waggle Walkers. Wiggle Walkers,
Speaker 2: Waggle Walkers. There we go and they will be tomorrow
Speaker 2: at Brookside Park at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena for
Speaker 2: the Pasadena Humane Society's annual Wiggle Waggle walk You can
Speaker 2: go to KFI AM six forty dot com backslash wiggle
Speaker 2: to donate anything helps. Pasadena Humane has been in the
Speaker 2: news a lot since early January and the fires. They
Speaker 2: were amongst the first on the ground out there doing
Speaker 2: fire recovery of pets, trying to help reunite families, and
Speaker 2: they have continued their work ever since with housing these
Speaker 2: unhoused animals, these displaced animals and also rehoming them. And
Speaker 2: this is an addition to the daily work that they do.
Speaker 2: They really took on all of this extra responsibility, have
Speaker 2: done it with grace and compassion, and they deserve every
Speaker 2: good thing that comes their way. Led in part by
Speaker 2: Amy King and the wake up Call Wigglers join them
Speaker 2: tomorrow at the Wiggle wagglewalk starts at eight am, goes
Speaker 2: into about eleven Sign up again kfiam six forty dot com,
Speaker 2: backslash wiggle anything helps, or get your dogs out there,
Speaker 2: get a little early morning walk in. There's another popular
Speaker 2: La restaurant that's closing down. Which one is it?
Speaker 4: Now?
Speaker 3: Ra?
Speaker 4: Will you ready? Here we go?
Speaker 6: One of that ways most beloved Greek restaurants is closing
Speaker 6: its doors after serving the community for decades. Papa Cristo's
Speaker 6: is head at the corner of Pico and Normandy for
Speaker 6: seventy seven years, offering authentic Greek dishes and a market.
Speaker 6: The family run business we'll shut its doors next month.
Speaker 6: Owner Chris Chris is thanking as customers and staff, saying
Speaker 6: they are closing this chapter with hearts full of gratitude.
Speaker 6: But is this really the end of the business, Chris teases,
Speaker 6: saying that they are good at saying goodbye for now.
Speaker 4: Goodbye for now.
Speaker 2: Such is the case for so many beloved institutions, first
Speaker 2: and most recently, not first, but most recently the pantry
Speaker 2: in downtown LA after something like I don't know what
Speaker 2: was it, sixty to fifty years and now this started
Speaker 2: in nineteen forty eight. I pass Papa Cristo's three four
Speaker 2: times a week in my commute. I see the beautiful
Speaker 2: mural on side of the of the business, on that
Speaker 2: big wall along Normandy. I've never actually stopped in Papa Cristo's.
Speaker 2: I've wanted to, and I thought I had more time.
Speaker 2: I'm bummed that it may be going by the wayside.
Speaker 2: Have you ever visited Michael Monks.
Speaker 3: I'm afraid that I haven't. And this is what happens.
Speaker 3: You know, you'll wait too long and suddenly it's gone.
Speaker 4: It's gone.
Speaker 2: This is yet another one, and people say that this
Speaker 2: is an institution. People come far and wide from all
Speaker 2: over to visit Papa Crystals. They say the food there
Speaker 2: is authentically Greek, that you can't get better food outside
Speaker 2: of Greece than with Papa.
Speaker 4: Crysto's seventy seven years. That's a good len n seven
Speaker 4: seventy seven years. It's a good long run.
Speaker 3: Congratulations to them.
Speaker 4: Sad to see it go.
Speaker 3: Hopefully it is just goodbye for now. We saw that
Speaker 3: restaurant in on sunset that said they were closing a
Speaker 3: couple of weeks ago, and then people rallied and it's
Speaker 3: stayed open.
Speaker 4: That's the one.
Speaker 3: Yes, So you know, there's always a little bit of
Speaker 3: hope maybe, but it's tough out there.
Speaker 4: It's tough out there.
Speaker 2: And Michael Monks, you bring a lot of hope and
Speaker 2: a lot of honesty to your program.
Speaker 4: What are you talking about tonight.
Speaker 3: Well, let's hope that the homeless situation is going to
Speaker 3: get better, because there's been more news this week on
Speaker 3: homelessness in LA and La County than I have ever seen,
Speaker 3: between the new tax going into a fact, the La
Speaker 3: County deciding to start its own department, crippling LASA, lasa's
Speaker 3: CEO resigning yesterday, city council members putting the kai bosh
Speaker 3: on millions of dollars for Mayor Bass's Inside Save Fund.
Speaker 3: We're going to talk a little bit about that. I've
Speaker 3: got a marine biologist coming on to talk about the
Speaker 3: sick sea lions and dolphins out on the beaches. Really, yeah,
Speaker 3: they're doing a lot of work. They're doing their best,
Speaker 3: but it's hard work. And then, of course in the
Speaker 3: eight o'clock hour, we'll turn back towards politics.
Speaker 4: Senator Adam Schiff is going to join us.
Speaker 3: He's going to talk about the impact of tariffs on
Speaker 3: California as he sees it, and then we'll have Republican
Speaker 3: state Senator Tony Strickland to give us his assessment of
Speaker 3: California's financial state. He doesn't think it's good spoil alert
Speaker 3: as they begin their new budget.
Speaker 2: Sounds like a very informative, honest, and maybe even hopeful show,
Speaker 2: at least hopeful for the information that will be shared
Speaker 2: so people won't be in the dark.
Speaker 4: It smells like barbecue in here.
Speaker 3: I need that out because I'm gonna be hungry the
Speaker 3: whole show and unfocused, and I worked hard on the show.
Speaker 4: I'll leave you a rib. I think I have enough.
Speaker 2: I piled the plate very very high for leftovers. You know,
Speaker 2: tariffs wanted to make sure I had enough food to
Speaker 2: last for a while. Michael Monks, it sounds like you're
Speaker 2: gonna have a great show. I wish you great air.
Speaker 2: Thank you, you're most welcome. Oh really quick, did you
Speaker 2: get an update about that whale trapped in the harbor?
Speaker 4: Do you know anything about that?
Speaker 1: Oh?
Speaker 2: No, there's there's a whale trapped in the I think
Speaker 2: it's the Long Beach Harbor or it's I believe so,
Speaker 2: and it's it's been there and they're trying to get
Speaker 2: it out. So I was trying to see if there's
Speaker 2: any updates on that. Haven't heard anything. It's just kind
Speaker 2: of in the shallow water. It got over there somehow,
Speaker 2: and all the marine biologists you can ask your marine
Speaker 2: biologist's friend about what they've been looking into how to
Speaker 2: get the animals safely back to the open ocean.
Speaker 4: So I hope they do free willly. If it's not
Speaker 4: the eagles, it's the whales.
Speaker 3: Always something with the wildlife race, something with these I'm
Speaker 3: waiting to see one of these crazy sea lions poke
Speaker 3: their head up above that nest. Yeah, and then let's
Speaker 3: have like a what do they call that? When you
Speaker 3: have two different worlds collide and creative culture, it's a crossover?
Speaker 4: Is it a crossover? Cohabitation?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 4: The crossover of the century.
Speaker 2: It would or I see an ego, go down and
Speaker 2: try and swoop up a whale.
Speaker 4: Let's do it. That might not work as well, Hollywood.
Speaker 4: We can do anything.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 2: Anything can happen here on KFI when Michael Monks is
Speaker 2: in the studio.
Speaker 4: I'll talk to you soon. You got it. It's been
Speaker 4: a blast.
Speaker 2: If you missed any part of tonight's show, please go
Speaker 2: to the iHeartRadio app, go online to KFI AM six
Speaker 2: forty dot com, look for the featured Segments tab along
Speaker 2: the left side of your screen and you'll be able
Speaker 2: to find my show. There both both parts of the
Speaker 2: show that's divided into two for two hours, and you'll
Speaker 2: be able to hear the wonderful interview we had with
Speaker 2: doctor Newstrom, Nice Strom out of sweet and he joined
Speaker 2: us at the three am his time to tell us
Speaker 2: it's okay to drink wine and that we're not really
Speaker 2: as fat as we think we are, and that if
Speaker 2: you're the fatter you are, the healthier you are. He
Speaker 2: just really came with dispelling lots of myths, and we
Speaker 2: gave him a standing ovation for making us feel better
Speaker 2: about ourselves. We talked to Amy King about the Wiggle
Speaker 2: Waggle Walk. That's tomorrow and we've had a wonderful show
Speaker 2: as well. Deeper dives. We looked at charter school so
Speaker 2: if you have any questions about charter schools, the six
Speaker 2: o'clock hour will hopefully clear that up. I will be
Speaker 2: with you next week next Saturday from five to seven
Speaker 2: as always, Four Saturdays with Tiffany and four KFI AM
Speaker 2: six forty have a wonderful, wonderful evening
Speaker 1: KFI AM six forty on demand