Speaker 1: This is Gary and Shannon and you're listening to KFI
Speaker 1: AM six forty, the Gary and Shannon Show on demand
Speaker 1: on the iHeartRadio app. We have buffed out all sorts
Speaker 1: of things here at KFI to keep you informed on
Speaker 1: changing events, obviously this afternoon, this evening particular concern. As
Speaker 1: wins pick up. In a second, I'll get to Michael Monks.
Speaker 1: I just wanted to mention to you that, yeah, that
Speaker 1: Mayor bass is exactly is gonna get your Mayor bass
Speaker 1: is approaching the mics and she's having a press conference
Speaker 1: listening lit.
Speaker 2: Before I introduce our speakers, I do want to thank
Speaker 2: UCLA and Chancellor Frank for opening up this facility to us.
Speaker 2: Please raise your hand and so we can acknowledge you.
Speaker 2: Thank you very much. This was very kind of UCLA
Speaker 2: to do this. I think this is a wonderful facility
Speaker 2: where people could come. There's adequate parking, and this facility
Speaker 2: is obviously.
Speaker 3: For the people from everywhere, but.
Speaker 2: Especially the Palisades and her Spire. So our first speaker
Speaker 2: Bob Fenson, who is the FEMA administrator, and we are
Speaker 2: just so happy about his leadership. He has been through
Speaker 2: this for many, many years and has an incredible reputation
Speaker 2: and legacy.
Speaker 3: Wow, thank you so well. Thank you glad to be
Speaker 3: here with the mayor.
Speaker 4: And when we talk about recovery, it's really about a
Speaker 4: whole community effort. And what you're seeing behind us is
Speaker 4: that community coming together. It's all levels of government, it's nonprofits,
Speaker 4: it's private sector, all coming together to help individuals impacted
Speaker 4: from these disasters. FEMA offers a wide array of assistants
Speaker 4: and brings together the federal community to support state and
Speaker 4: local governments and disasters. For those that want to apply,
Speaker 4: go to Disaster Assistants dot gov. He's a winning one
Speaker 4: hundred sixty two to one three three sixty two number.
Speaker 4: You should apply before coming in here. Once you come
Speaker 4: in here, there's a number of different programs at state
Speaker 4: and local level, including federal level, that can help you
Speaker 4: with your assistance, whether it's answering questions or looking for
Speaker 4: gaps and assistance. One of the things that we've already
Speaker 4: done is had over forty thousand applications.
Speaker 3: We provide over eight million dollars.
Speaker 4: But there's a lot of work yet to do and
Speaker 4: there's a lot of questions out there. So if you
Speaker 4: have questions, please come in here and do that. It's
Speaker 4: helpful if you register and apply first. FEMA has a
Speaker 4: two critical grant grants that will help individuals. The first
Speaker 4: is called Other Needs Assistants and the Other Needs Assistance
Speaker 4: provides for.
Speaker 3: Provides individuals with.
Speaker 4: Personal property losses, medical and dental transportation, funeral costs, and
Speaker 4: other miscellaneous costs. That grant has a cap of forty
Speaker 4: three six hundred.
Speaker 3: The other one is.
Speaker 4: Called Housing Assistants and it helps the individuals with prepare
Speaker 4: placement and lodging expenses and also has a cap a
Speaker 4: forty three thousand and six hentred and indition to those grants,
Speaker 4: we provide rental assistance and temporary housing assistance that doesn't
Speaker 4: cost kind against those grant caps. If you're insured, please
Speaker 4: go to your insurance company first so we can't duplicate
Speaker 4: other funny sources. So please go to your insurance company first.
Speaker 4: If you have done that, bring that in here and
Speaker 4: we could go ahead and help you with any unmet.
Speaker 3: Needs or any under insurance you may have. Through that.
Speaker 4: Again, there's many other different federal, state, and local agencies
Speaker 4: here that can help you in your road to recovery,
Speaker 4: and our teams collectively stand by to help you down
Speaker 4: that path. Appreciate the Mayor bringing us all together today
Speaker 4: to start the road to recovery here at this disaster
Speaker 4: recovery center.
Speaker 3: Thank you.
Speaker 2: Starting the road to recovery. Anita Steinson Stinson, who is
Speaker 2: the SBA Disaster Recovery Administrator, thank.
Speaker 5: You, Thank you so much, Madam Mayor, and I appreciate
Speaker 5: the introduction. I am a mere public affairs specialist. Thank
Speaker 5: you for the promotion. Ladies and gentlemen. As mister Fenton
Speaker 5: just said, I'm one of the federal resource partners, and
Speaker 5: most people are not aware because of our name, the
Speaker 5: Small Business Administration, that during disasters we give resources to
Speaker 5: homeowners and renters as well as small businesses and nonprofits.
Speaker 5: So we so appreciate the media being present and sharing
Speaker 5: that message wide and far and frequently. Please and what
Speaker 5: am I meaning by resources? The Small Business Administration has
Speaker 5: low interest loans for homeowners, renters, small businesses, and nonprofits,
Speaker 5: and we are resource partners with FEMA, and we urge
Speaker 5: you to apply with FEMA first, really simultaneously with FEMA
Speaker 5: and SBA Disaster and the way people can do that
Speaker 5: is go to SBA dot gov forward slash disaster, and
Speaker 5: as mister Fenton stated, it's best to do that before
Speaker 5: you come here. And if you look to my right,
Speaker 5: you will see literally a sea of blue of our
Speaker 5: customer service representatives that are here to assist survivors with
Speaker 5: their applications. They can do it here, but if they
Speaker 5: apply online first, they will see maybe what assistance they
Speaker 5: need in person. So what we offer is homeowners can
Speaker 5: receive up to five hundred thousand dollars plus an additional
Speaker 5: one hundred thousand dollars for personal property, and renters have
Speaker 5: access to that personal property. I mean that can be
Speaker 5: a car, I mean that can be anything that is needed.
Speaker 5: Businesses and nonprofits can access up to two million dollars.
Speaker 5: And the most important thing for people to know is
Speaker 5: that there's no cost to apply, there's no obligation to
Speaker 5: take the loan, and there are no payments and no
Speaker 5: interest accruise for the first year. These are very trauma
Speaker 5: informed and designed loans. So what that means is even
Speaker 5: if you know, similar to FEMA, we cannot duplicate benefits,
Speaker 5: so you can figure out what you are eligible for
Speaker 5: in terms of grants, you can sort out your insurance.
Speaker 5: You don't have to for your insurance, which I mean,
Speaker 5: let's face it, in a disaster like this, it can
Speaker 5: take a long time when your insurance is sorted out
Speaker 5: that recovery gets applied to your loan. Further SBA will
Speaker 5: allow you to apply for twenty percent additional of the
Speaker 5: amount of your physical damages to mitigate future losses, which
Speaker 5: is very, very important, especially in a disaster like this
Speaker 5: where it's probably going to require fire, retard and rebuilding
Speaker 5: things of that nature. So again, for businesses it's a
Speaker 5: four percent interest rate as low as four percent, and
Speaker 5: for nonprofits it's three point six two five. So I
Speaker 5: urge everybody to visit our table or go online.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much, Thank you, appreciate you both for
Speaker 2: being here. Let me acknowledge Jim Featherstone, who is the
Speaker 2: director of the Emergency Operations Center, and he'll be here
Speaker 2: to answer any questions. Let me start off by saying,
Speaker 2: for those of you, we had a press conference at
Speaker 2: eight this morning and we talked about the fact that
Speaker 2: we're still not out of this emergency. We know in
Speaker 2: the next twenty four forty eight hours it is possible
Speaker 2: that there are fires that expand that we have additional
Speaker 2: problems within the city, and Jim can go into that
Speaker 2: in a little further detail in a minute. And so
Speaker 2: my message to Angelino's is that everybody needs to stay safe.
Speaker 2: Please please please listen to instructions. If you are told
Speaker 2: that you are in a warning zone, it would be
Speaker 2: advised that you actually take that opportunity to lead, get packed,
Speaker 2: get everything ready. If you wait until evacuation, then you
Speaker 2: might caught up in traffic, or you might have some
Speaker 2: other issues. And you know that a number of people
Speaker 2: who stayed behind for one reason or another have been
Speaker 2: severely burned. Some of them didn't survive. I believe that
Speaker 2: our Sheriff Luna gave some very graphic examples of people
Speaker 2: who didn't evacuate in time. Everybody wants to help the
Speaker 2: first responders. Everybody talks about the first responder. If you
Speaker 2: want to help the first responders, then please follow directions.
Speaker 2: But while we're going through what I hope is the
Speaker 2: final hours of this emergency, it's also time to begin
Speaker 2: to talk about our recovery. And so the first step
Speaker 2: of our recovery is opening this disaster Assistance center for
Speaker 2: people to begin coming in now. As a matter of fact,
Speaker 2: this center will open up shortly. You know that everything
Speaker 2: is just being set up now, but we want people
Speaker 2: to come here. This is a one stop shop. There
Speaker 2: are multiple local, state, county, and federal agencies. They're here
Speaker 2: and hopefully people will be able to get the services
Speaker 2: that they need. The other thing is is that there
Speaker 2: is the disaster recovery, but then there's also the rebuilding.
Speaker 2: And so yesterday I issued an updated emergency declaration and
Speaker 2: I also issued an executive directive that will help facilitate
Speaker 2: and fast track the building. I was here in ninety two,
Speaker 2: I was here in ninety four, and I know one
Speaker 2: of the ways that we were able to get out
Speaker 2: of that crisis was to do everything we could to
Speaker 2: help people who had experience damage or had their businesses
Speaker 2: or homes destroyed, get up and together and back on
Speaker 2: their feet by beginning the rebuilding process. I appreciated you,
Speaker 2: mister Fenton, when you talk today this morning about how
Speaker 2: there's all sorts of misinformation in terms of what FEMA
Speaker 2: has to offer, what SBA has to offer, and that
Speaker 2: is the point of this center is to be able
Speaker 2: to clarify some of that to make it easier for
Speaker 2: people to recover.
Speaker 1: So if that.
Speaker 2: Why don't I take some questions to that point.
Speaker 3: About this information. What exactly are people entitled to from
Speaker 3: FEMA and what are they not entitled?
Speaker 4: Yeah, so the application process starts with individuals able to
Speaker 4: evacuated our homes were damage be able to get Serious
Speaker 4: Needs Assistance, which is a one time grant of up
Speaker 4: to seven hundred and seventy dollars that covers basic needs
Speaker 4: while you're evacuating, things like gas, water, food, maybe if
Speaker 4: you're a family, consumables those kind of things.
Speaker 3: As you go through the application process.
Speaker 4: Then if you're insured, you should go to your insurance company,
Speaker 4: which could help you with most insurance policies will not
Speaker 4: help you with home but alternate live and expense. If
Speaker 4: you're uninsured, you should come to keep on going into FEMA.
Speaker 4: FAMA could give you the two grants that I talked about.
Speaker 4: One is called Other Needs Assistance, which is a grand
Speaker 4: up to forty three thousand, six hundred dollars. It helps
Speaker 4: with personal property costs, medical and dental transportation, funeral costs,
Speaker 4: and miscellaneous costs.
Speaker 3: The second grant is called.
Speaker 4: Housing Assistance, and for the homeowners it would help with repair, replacement,
Speaker 4: and logic expensive reimbursement up to forty three thy six
Speaker 4: hundred in addition to those two grants, if you continue
Speaker 4: to be displaced longer and your house is destroyed, or
Speaker 4: whether it's a homeowner or a renter, you can get
Speaker 4: rental insurance rental assistance from US where we will provide
Speaker 4: rental assistance for you based on the family composition insiures
Speaker 4: of your house for up to eighteen months. And if
Speaker 4: we get to a situation where rentals are not available,
Speaker 4: we all also have other forms and other program and
Speaker 4: for we either bring in housing, are we leased with
Speaker 4: apartments and create housing.
Speaker 1: That way, you're hearing the voice of a federal official
Speaker 1: from FEMA who is speaking about some of the benefits
Speaker 1: that are there and will be provided to those who've
Speaker 1: lost homes or even temporary residences might be required in
Speaker 1: some instances, and so all of this will be discussed
Speaker 1: I think through the hours and through the days that
Speaker 1: follow and so FEMA assistance. The mayor's assistant, she was
Speaker 1: talking about the fact that they'll fast track the rebuild
Speaker 1: in Los Angeles, and that's something that's being spoken of
Speaker 1: in LA and surrounding regions, meaning that most it would
Speaker 1: seem most areas dramatically affected with the devastation of these
Speaker 1: fires will see a waving of a lot of the
Speaker 1: normal building restrictions that would allow for permitting and for
Speaker 1: fast tracking a rebuild. Now a host of other issues
Speaker 1: related to that that I'd love the table. We'll talk
Speaker 1: about them tomorrow, and we'll talk about them in the
Speaker 1: days to come. You know what kind of fire resistant
Speaker 1: materials might be included in a rebuild or might be required.
Speaker 1: But again, it looks as though the general disposition of
Speaker 1: government is, Hey, don't worry about that stuff. We want
Speaker 1: to get things back on track. And that was a
Speaker 1: little of what you were hearing from the mayor and
Speaker 1: from the FEMA official in Washington. There is a major
Speaker 1: confirmation hearing going on and ABC News investigative reporter Olivia
Speaker 1: Rubin is joining us now and we want to get
Speaker 1: a bit of an update on what is a controversial
Speaker 1: nomination in Pete Hegseth and where that stands through a
Speaker 1: morning of hearings. And Hi there, Olivia, Hi.
Speaker 6: Thanks for having me. Yeah, I think Pete Hegseth is
Speaker 6: definitely up there as one of the most controversial nominees,
Speaker 6: potentially facing one of the biggest uphill battles. He had
Speaker 6: a bit of a grilling this morning from Democrat from
Speaker 6: the Senate Armed Service Committee for his nomination. A pretty
Speaker 6: warm welcome from Republicans on the committee, of course, but
Speaker 6: he sat for about four hours with opening statements, questioning
Speaker 6: from every member on that panel. Really a marathon hearing.
Speaker 6: It's done now, and you see, we're seeing some Republicans
Speaker 6: who are quite happy with the way that it went.
Speaker 6: One of the top senators, one of the top Republican senators,
Speaker 6: John Sun, saying he did a great job according to
Speaker 6: reports that he's seeing, but really tough questions for headset
Speaker 6: from senators about his comments on women in the military. Remember,
Speaker 6: he suggested that women shouldn't serve in combat roles, though
Speaker 6: he now says that they should and it was just
Speaker 6: a matter of standards. Questions about sexual assault allegations, which
Speaker 6: he denies. He said it was a consensual situation and
Speaker 6: that he was not charged. Questions about drinking alcohol abuse
Speaker 6: while on the job, again something he denies. He calls
Speaker 6: that onymous smears. So he has committed to senators that
Speaker 6: he would not drink is taking a job. So again,
Speaker 6: this is one of the nominees that has had, you know,
Speaker 6: some of the biggest issues allegations about him, all of
Speaker 6: which he has denied.
Speaker 1: Coming to head with that today, well, it's interesting because
Speaker 1: none of what you just said addresses one of the
Speaker 1: most in none of what you just said they said
Speaker 1: address is one of the most controversial aspects of Hexith,
Speaker 1: which is he's going to be running the Department of Defense.
Speaker 1: It's close to three million people who will be under
Speaker 1: his employee if you want to think of it, or
Speaker 1: certainly his control worldwide. And this guy Hexith is Look,
Speaker 1: he's this gorgeous guy who does the weekend I guess
Speaker 1: hosting on Fox News Channel. He's well spoken, he's clearly
Speaker 1: a Trump loyalist, and he appears to you know, he's
Speaker 1: kind of the poster boy I suppose for some kind
Speaker 1: of military service if you're only looking at the poster.
Speaker 1: But his actual experience running anything is pretty thin. As
Speaker 1: anyone addressed his sort of qualifications in that area.
Speaker 6: Absolutely. That was again a major theme of the hearing today,
Speaker 6: Senator Timmy Duckworth, again a Democrat, flatly telling them that
Speaker 6: he is not qualified. It was also Richard Blumenthal who
Speaker 6: brought up the financial reports of the two small veterans
Speaker 6: organizations that he ran some of those years. According to
Speaker 6: the finances, Hexath ended up spending more than he raised,
Speaker 6: so again putting the organization into a deficit. And again,
Speaker 6: those are organizations that are significantly, significantly, significantly smaller than
Speaker 6: what I said has ever been excusing them. In the
Speaker 6: Department of Defense, if you, of course, mentioned has an
Speaker 6: over eight hundred billion dollar budget, three members and the
Speaker 6: three million members in the military. I think what's also
Speaker 6: notable is that in Hexas's opening statement, he addressed this
Speaker 6: fact himself, the fact that he lacks that sort of
Speaker 6: experience that one might expect, but he framed it as
Speaker 6: a He said that it was quote time for a
Speaker 6: change agent. That's how he's framing it, and that is
Speaker 6: a positive thing. He said, it's time for someone with
Speaker 6: no vested interest in certain companies or specific programs or
Speaker 6: approved narrative, that he's someone who's going to shake it up.
Speaker 1: It's time for someone who has never scrubbed down before
Speaker 1: to do this heart transplant. I am I'm really questioning
Speaker 1: this particular picke. It's just such an interesting one and
Speaker 1: I'm sorry if I express a little bit of a
Speaker 1: huge question mark I see over him. But really that's
Speaker 1: where it is. I understand that a lot's being made
Speaker 1: of the drinking and sexual dalliances, et cetera. But wow,
Speaker 1: you know, this is a really complicated time in America,
Speaker 1: and I'm sure that this has been visited as well.
Speaker 1: You need sort of a real sensitive hand when it
Speaker 1: comes to being the boss of the Defense Department.
Speaker 6: And you know, again going back to Senator Tammy Duckworth,
Speaker 6: because she really was quite fiery, she said, very plainly,
Speaker 6: you are not qualified, mister haig Seth, you are not qualified.
Speaker 6: And you know, again it was something that wrung repeatedly
Speaker 6: during that hearing, and she ultimately said to him that
Speaker 6: the men and women who wear the uniform cannot be
Speaker 6: led by someone who is not competent.
Speaker 7: To do the job.
Speaker 6: So really, I see your point in some of the
Speaker 6: senators clearly saw it as well bringing that up.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you know, what happens happens. But it really
Speaker 1: comes down to vote. So Olivia, let me just ask you,
Speaker 1: Olivia Ribbon from ABC, where does that stand? I mean,
Speaker 1: there are the Republican votes to get him passed, to
Speaker 1: get him, meaning to pass the confirmation hearings and confirmed
Speaker 1: or what is your sense of things.
Speaker 6: Well, it's a good question, and I don't, you know,
Speaker 6: pretend to be able to predict predict the future, but
Speaker 6: I think it's going to be a real question after
Speaker 6: this hearing to see where some of the more moderate
Speaker 6: Republican votes fall. I think, you know, it seems pretty
Speaker 6: likely that he's not going to get any Democrats, so
Speaker 6: then you have to then go to the Republican side,
Speaker 6: and he really only has a few votes to lose.
Speaker 6: Someone that a lot of people are watching is, of course,
Speaker 6: Senator Joni Arns. She was one of the senators who
Speaker 6: questioned him today during that hearing. Of course, she is
Speaker 6: a veteran herself. She's the survivor of sexual assaults. Those
Speaker 6: are two things that are important to remember. She seemed,
Speaker 6: you know, to be more supportive of him than she
Speaker 6: had in the past. You know, she didn't declare her
Speaker 6: support or anything, but he had agreed to a couple
Speaker 6: of her conditions, including appointing someone in the department to
Speaker 6: investigate and oversee sexual assault allegations. So that seems to
Speaker 6: be significant. And you know, so far since the hearing,
Speaker 6: Republicans do seem please take Senator John Soon, He's a
Speaker 6: top Republican. He said that. You know, all the reports
Speaker 6: he heard was that he was doing great. But again
Speaker 6: it goes back to some of the more middle Republicans.
Speaker 6: Like I said, Joni ERNs, think about Senator Susan Collins.
Speaker 6: What is she going to say for this hearing? Was
Speaker 6: there anything that came out that concerned her? So it's
Speaker 6: going to be something to watch in the next few days.
Speaker 6: Again with that margin just so so slim.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Olivia Rubin from ABC, thank you so much. Nice
Speaker 1: window on what happened today with the Hegsith confirmation hearing.
Speaker 1: You know, we'll speak again. Look, this is a to
Speaker 1: be continued. And you know, Thune is obviously someone who's
Speaker 1: carried the water for Hexith already, so the fact that
Speaker 1: he comes down to it, I thought it went great.
Speaker 1: He's always going to say that. But it would be
Speaker 1: an extraordinary thing if somebody with no real organizational experience
Speaker 1: aside from the veteran's charity that he essentially bankrupted. They
Speaker 1: got rid of him from the charity and from his
Speaker 1: position of director based on how poorly he ran it.
Speaker 1: It would be extraordinary if he were to lead the
Speaker 1: men and women of the military worldwide and the Pentagon
Speaker 1: and be in control of the biggest budget in Washington. Extraordinary,
Speaker 1: but it might happen. Royle Oaks joins US and Royal. Wow,
Speaker 1: there's a lot going on. I want to start with
Speaker 1: Southern California, if you would please, because I saw that
Speaker 1: there are already four lawsuits that have emerged out of
Speaker 1: the Eton fire. That's the one that involves Southern California.
Speaker 7: D Yeah, exactly right, Mark a bunch of lawsuits, several,
Speaker 7: as you say, filed in connection with the Eaton fire.
Speaker 7: So basically those suits say that Southern California Edison had
Speaker 7: a duty to maintain its equipment and not cause of fire.
Speaker 7: They say that faulty equipment is owned by the utility
Speaker 7: sparked the Eaton fire. And it's interesting because the law
Speaker 7: is really against the utilities. The law says, believe it
Speaker 7: or not, if the utility gets sued, even if they
Speaker 7: can demonstrate, first of all, they were not negligent. They
Speaker 7: did everything right in terms of maintaining good equipment. And
Speaker 7: number two, that they followed regulations, whatever the government told
Speaker 7: them to do, they did. Even if those two things
Speaker 7: are true, you still can recover a million against the utility.
Speaker 7: The idea is they set a semi public and you know,
Speaker 7: they can always get the money back by hiking the
Speaker 7: rates for all rate payers later on to kind of
Speaker 7: spread the pain around. So, yeah, those are on the
Speaker 7: books as well as policeds as well.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we've seen evidence of doing of them doing just
Speaker 1: that throughout California North you know, PG and E spread
Speaker 1: it around. I mean, you know, the rate hikes are legend,
Speaker 1: but it's interesting to me what you're pointing out is
Speaker 1: an extraordinary thing. So you go to court, you prove
Speaker 1: that you're not negligent as a utility, that everything was
Speaker 1: at code, which is established by government code and standard,
Speaker 1: and you're saying at the end of all of that,
Speaker 1: there can still be a judgment against you.
Speaker 7: Absolutely. It's kind of like this doctrine of ultra hazardous activities.
Speaker 7: If you're maintaining something that's you know, what they call
Speaker 7: an attractive nuisance where kids would be attracted to come
Speaker 7: in and endanger themselves, or if it's just a giant
Speaker 7: machine that's super dangerous even if you did everything right.
Speaker 7: The law says, we really care about paying people who
Speaker 7: need help, who have accidents who suffered personal injuries. Now
Speaker 7: they do have some answers. The utilities sometimes say in court,
Speaker 7: he hate your honner. Nice theory. Guess what we can
Speaker 7: prove that whenever we go back to the Public Utilities
Speaker 7: Commission and ask for rate hikes because of Paradise fire
Speaker 7: or whatever, they say no, or they give us inadequate
Speaker 7: rate hikes. And they also say it's just unfair. For example,
Speaker 7: I mean, PG and E filed for bankruptcy after wildfire liabilities.
Speaker 7: But you know that's just kind of moaning and growing
Speaker 7: by the big rich utilities. The bottom line is that
Speaker 7: the law favors getting money to people, even if the
Speaker 7: people can't specifically prove that the utility was negligent or
Speaker 7: didn't follow regulation.
Speaker 1: That is truly extraordinary. And I didn't know that Royal Oaks,
Speaker 1: And you know when you say that, it seems to
Speaker 1: me that this will hatch. I don't know how many lawsuits,
Speaker 1: I mean even class action.
Speaker 7: Oh, absolutely, you can count on that. Now. You mentioned
Speaker 7: eaton also powers, so there's a lawsuit. But here it's
Speaker 7: a little different. And I know you've reported on this.
Speaker 7: There's this reservoir. The founding has a reservoir one hundred
Speaker 7: and seventeen million gallons of water. It was empty. It's
Speaker 7: been empty for a year because the utility Department of
Speaker 7: Water Power, they've been trying to fix there was some
Speaker 7: problems with the facility and they took the cover off.
Speaker 7: They wanted to fix the cover, and so their explanation is,
Speaker 7: you know, we were just doing routine maintenance. The answer
Speaker 7: the answer to that is yeah, you know, we've got
Speaker 7: a hugely dangerous fire season, between climate change and the
Speaker 7: winds and all the other fires that have been traumatizing people.
Speaker 7: You should have known that. You shouldn't be running around
Speaker 7: with a freaking empty reservoir, which resulted, you know, you
Speaker 7: go to the fire hydrant and there's nothing there. So
Speaker 7: that lawsuit is different, but it's sort of after the fact.
Speaker 7: It isn't you know, you caused it. You should have
Speaker 7: been able to solve the problem and put the fire out,
Speaker 7: and the water wasn't there because of you.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's really that's fascinating. So I only have another minute,
Speaker 1: which is why I've got to move on. But I
Speaker 1: find this truly intriguing. We'll talk about it again. Give
Speaker 1: us a second on Jacksmith's final report, the analysis that
Speaker 1: you can provide on that.
Speaker 7: Yeah, well you've heard of speaking from the grave. Well,
Speaker 7: he resigned last year. He's not exactly dead, but he's
Speaker 7: speaking from the grave. Because this report says, Okay, we
Speaker 7: had to drop the Washington DC January sixth deal about
Speaker 7: Trump knowingly advancing false claims of election fraud and pressuring
Speaker 7: the government officials and acting unlawfully and disenfranchising quoters. We
Speaker 7: had to because the Department of Justice thinks you just
Speaker 7: can't go after a sitting president. He's soon going to
Speaker 7: be a sitting president. But I still want to tell
Speaker 7: you why we would have won if we'd had a
Speaker 7: little more time to go to trial. So that's essentially
Speaker 7: what Smith's report says, gives all the reasons why he
Speaker 7: thinks he would havenvinced a jury to find Donald Trump
Speaker 7: guilty of about bunch.
Speaker 1: Were those reasons convincing to you, Royal?
Speaker 7: Well, you know, it depends on how you look at it.
Speaker 7: For example, when he's said, you know, go fight, fight, fight,
Speaker 7: and then in the next breath he says, you know,
Speaker 7: march peaceably. You know, did he really inside a riot?
Speaker 3: Now?
Speaker 7: Did he absolutely know for sure there was no legal
Speaker 7: basis for pushing his theories. And therefore when he said
Speaker 7: to Mike Pants, you know, be a patriot, not something else.
Speaker 7: I want you to send the count back to the States.
Speaker 7: Was he just lying or did he actually have a
Speaker 7: sincere belief that he had been cheated. It's hard to
Speaker 7: climb into the guy's head. But the fact is, you know,
Speaker 7: he lost sixty straight lawsuits, so it's difficult to defend
Speaker 7: his position. Did he had a legal bob he had?
Speaker 1: Wasn't there the fake elector thing? Was that part of
Speaker 1: it as well, wasn't it?
Speaker 7: Yeah? Exactly, he had people signed saying I swear at
Speaker 7: the penalty brigery, I am the legitimate elector from X
Speaker 7: state because I believe Donald Trump's arguments, and in fact
Speaker 7: they weren't the electors and he had lost in court.
Speaker 7: So those folks are suffering criminal liability in states all
Speaker 7: over the country. Donald Trump hasn't been dragged into any
Speaker 7: of those suits. Basically, it's just the Washington d c.
Speaker 7: Lawsuit that now you know, he's is in the Gonzo
Speaker 7: because Jack Smith is retired, but he's playing. I could
Speaker 7: have won if we've gone in front of a journey.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Royal Oaks from ABC I always love talking to you.
Speaker 1: Thank you, my friend. Yeah, good steps, mar Yeah, Royal
Speaker 1: Oaks from ABC News. That's a bit of the legal
Speaker 1: side on the fires and what's going on in Washington
Speaker 1: with the Jack Smith's report. One of the things that
Speaker 1: is talked about through the many days we had that
Speaker 1: massive event, I mean virtually unprecedented event.
Speaker 3: To produce the fires.
Speaker 1: With the wind velocities of eighty to one hundred miles
Speaker 1: an hour, you just drive these flames. It didn't matter
Speaker 1: how much water you had. I heard Handle talking about
Speaker 1: it this morning. I mean, there's a lot being made
Speaker 1: of sort of empty reservoir, the hydrants, et cetera. Look really,
Speaker 1: maybe difference around the edges. I don't know, but it
Speaker 1: would appear that based on every credible source I've read
Speaker 1: and people I've spoken to with decades in this world,
Speaker 1: that it wouldn't have mattered at the time of wins
Speaker 1: with those velocity. Now we're dealing with a different event today,
Speaker 1: which is a picking up of these winds in the
Speaker 1: afternoon and evening hours. Red flag. A lot of the
Speaker 1: same conditions right persist, that is to say, tender, dry
Speaker 1: conditions and a different area that looks to be the
Speaker 1: center of attention. And in that space is Michael Monks today.
Speaker 1: Where are you, Michael hie.
Speaker 8: Hey Mark?
Speaker 3: Right now?
Speaker 8: I'm in Porter Ranch. I'm at the Porter Ranch Town Center.
Speaker 8: And I got to say, it looks like business as
Speaker 8: usual for a lot of folks in this area. There
Speaker 8: are a lot of shops here, Walmart, Ralphs of Burlington,
Speaker 8: types of big box stores you see all over the area,
Speaker 8: and people are cautiously moving about doing what they would do.
Speaker 8: I was earlier walking around and visiting and talking to
Speaker 8: folks in Thousand Oaks, and it was pretty much the
Speaker 8: same situation. I visited a few grocery stores and they
Speaker 8: were all very busy. Ralph's there, whole foods of Vonds,
Speaker 8: and it didn't look like panic buying, so to speak.
Speaker 8: It could just look like a Tuesday afternoon and folks
Speaker 8: going about their business. And I think it's because what
Speaker 8: I've gathered from folks is they've been through these situations,
Speaker 8: maybe not necessarily a wind event back to back like
Speaker 8: we're experiencing now, but they certainly know the dangers of wildfires,
Speaker 8: and they certainly know how to prepare for them. So
Speaker 8: it's one eye on the forecast and one eye on
Speaker 8: their regular Tuesday.
Speaker 1: That's interesting. So people aren't in the least bit poised
Speaker 1: to evacuate or necessarily nervous or anxious in any way
Speaker 1: that you can pick up on anyway.
Speaker 8: I think that people are ready, or at least ready
Speaker 8: to be ready if they need to be. I talked
Speaker 8: to the spokeswoman over at the City one thousand Oaks
Speaker 8: a little while ago, and she mentioned anxiety. That people
Speaker 8: certainly develop a sense of anxiety based on their own
Speaker 8: experience as recently as twenty eighteen and the Woolsey Fire
Speaker 8: when a lot of them had to evacuate from Thousand
Speaker 8: Oaks in the surrounding area because of that devastating fire.
Speaker 8: Folks here know what it means to get a warning.
Speaker 8: It's in their blood now. But today it's again. They're
Speaker 8: watching the situation, monitoring the situation, are hopefully prepared to
Speaker 8: go should that call arise. We hope it doesn't, but
Speaker 8: if it does, they should be ready. I will contrast
Speaker 8: this with my visit to Brentwood just yesterday, and Brentwood
Speaker 8: there was very clear anxiety. You could feel the anxiety
Speaker 8: in the air, and that is probably due to the
Speaker 8: proximity to the recent damage that took place, the carnage
Speaker 8: that took place all across the Palisades, and because Brentwood
Speaker 8: is right next to that evacuation warning zone line and
Speaker 8: the shops there were relatively empty, very few people walking around,
Speaker 8: so there was a lot of concern.
Speaker 3: But here the.
Speaker 8: Fire is a little farther away, it's not far from
Speaker 8: their thoughts. Everybody in the region feels what has happened
Speaker 8: in the Palisades and an Altadena in Pasadena, but because
Speaker 8: the flames weren't necessarily knocking at the door here, it's
Speaker 8: a different sense. I mean, there's a big line here
Speaker 8: at the in and out burger. Folks are having a
Speaker 8: nice it's a beautiful day.
Speaker 3: That's the other thing.
Speaker 8: And I talked about this with the spokeswoman from the
Speaker 8: city one thousand Oaks. Does this beautiful day give any
Speaker 8: false possible that that has happened, but we're hopeful that
Speaker 8: it doesn't. The wind has picked up. I can't deny
Speaker 8: that fact. I've been driving around since about seven thirty
Speaker 8: this morning. It was calm this morning, wasn't seeing a
Speaker 8: whole lot of wind at all. But now the Palm
Speaker 8: trees are certainly bowing their heads. I'm sure you can
Speaker 8: hear the wind in the background here. It's picked up considerably.
Speaker 8: And so now we're into that zone where we wait
Speaker 8: to see what happens over the next twenty four or
Speaker 8: thirty hours or so.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's interesting because this is, at least from a
Speaker 1: timing standpoint, right on time. That is to say, wind
Speaker 1: velocities are supposed to pick up this afternoon and even
Speaker 1: more intense later tonight. So from that standpoint, everything seems
Speaker 1: right on track. We have seen some revised forecasts and
Speaker 1: spoke to him meteorologist from the National Weather Service, who
Speaker 1: was saying that they are revising their forecast down a bit,
Speaker 1: so while they are expecting a wind event, they are
Speaker 1: expecting it to be slightly better than it was to
Speaker 1: have been. Have you heard same.
Speaker 8: Yeah, that's comforting news to know, because I mean, we
Speaker 8: got the forecast last week. It was right on target
Speaker 8: and unfortunately delivered the absolute worst outcome that any of
Speaker 8: us could have imagined, erasing parts of Los Angeles completely.
Speaker 8: And for you know, just yesterday in your seat, filling
Speaker 8: in for Gary and Shannon, we had Nil Savidra and
Speaker 8: Marlteaz and they talked to a meteorologist who said that
Speaker 8: if he were to compare the devastation possible from the
Speaker 8: forecast the week before to the forecast this week, on
Speaker 8: a scale of one to ten, he rated it as
Speaker 8: a nine, which was rather chilling to think that we
Speaker 8: were going to be in the same ballpark. So to
Speaker 8: hear that it has been possibly pulled back a little
Speaker 8: bit is great news. Is now the worst thing that
Speaker 8: could happen is an exacerbation of the existing fires or
Speaker 8: even worse, new devastating fires.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, indeed, Michael Monks, thanks great to talk to
Speaker 1: you and at least a sort of a firsthand view
Speaker 1: as to what's happening now in an area that we're
Speaker 1: watching for this wind event. Appreciate your You've got a
Speaker 1: marketing keeping on, you know, just in terms of, you know,
Speaker 1: comparing these things. We'd thought that today, meaning this afternoon
Speaker 1: and tonight would be roughly this is based on wind
Speaker 1: velocity forecast, and I was looking at all the wind
Speaker 1: profiles about twenty five percent, i'd say, less than the
Speaker 1: event last week. And then we spoke to the National
Speaker 1: Weather Service mediorologists today and he was saying and I'd
Speaker 1: revise it down, he said, even another twenty percent. So
Speaker 1: I mean again, these are rough percentages, and I think
Speaker 1: we have to really be in a state of preparedness.
Speaker 1: We've seen what happens, and it can happen in an instant,
Speaker 1: but certainly the news at this hour anyway, and these
Speaker 1: forecasts do change hour to hour. Variables can all of
Speaker 1: a sudden emerge that hadn't been in the forecast before.
Speaker 1: But at this hour it looks as though we may
Speaker 1: catch a little bit of a break and this may
Speaker 1: not be quite as bad as was anticipated. Co Belt
Speaker 1: is next, the great John Coleblt. I love just passing
Speaker 1: him in the hallway, just getting a whiff of that
Speaker 1: John Coleblt, just a whiff of that success, a whiff
Speaker 1: of that kind of that rage that boils inside him.
Speaker 1: He just can't wait to unleash it.
Speaker 7: I love it.
Speaker 1: You can't wait to start screaming about some politician. He's
Speaker 1: going to pursue the righteous right. As we continue here
Speaker 1: on KFI tomorrow, Marla does join me. It should be fun.
Speaker 8: You've been listening to the Gary and Shannon Show, you
Speaker 8: can always hear us live on KFI AM six forty
Speaker 8: nine am to one pm every Monday through Friday, and
Speaker 8: anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app.