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.
Speaker 2: A couple weeks ago, we told you the story of
Speaker 2: high school juniors who were getting seventy thousand dollars a
Speaker 2: year job offers because, among other things, they didn't want
Speaker 2: to go to college and get a degree in left
Speaker 2: handed medieval puppetry. They wanted to do something where their
Speaker 2: skills would be used immediately, and for many of these
Speaker 2: cases in mechanical ways, working with their hands and getting
Speaker 2: paid right away. And one of the places that allows
Speaker 2: you to do that is the Heavy Metal Summer Experience
Speaker 2: sheet metal piping, electrical plumbing trades at the Heavy Metal
Speaker 2: Summer Experience. Angie Simon is executive director and co founder
Speaker 2: of Heavy Metal Summer Experience, and she joins us now. First, Angie,
Speaker 2: thanks for taking time for us today.
Speaker 3: And Gary, I really appreciate you having me on. Thank
Speaker 3: you very much.
Speaker 2: Hey, I'm the father of a son who did not
Speaker 2: want to go to college. He wanted to work with
Speaker 2: his hands and he's been doing that and I'm I'm
Speaker 2: I love the idea, I love the the creativity, I guess,
Speaker 2: even though that seems like we kind of fell away
Speaker 2: from the old trades when it comes to getting jobs.
Speaker 2: Where where did this come from? Where did heavy metal
Speaker 2: summer experience come from?
Speaker 4: Well, Gary, I was the president and CEO of a
Speaker 4: mechanical contracting firm up here in northern California.
Speaker 3: I'm in the San Francisco Bay area.
Speaker 4: And you know, I think I think I realized we
Speaker 4: were a union contractor.
Speaker 3: We had sheet melon pipe fitters.
Speaker 4: And I realized that so many of the kids in
Speaker 4: the neighborhoods, they all expect to go to college, but
Speaker 4: many of the kids weren't.
Speaker 3: Excited about it. They didn't want to go to college.
Speaker 3: So I decided we were in a we were a
Speaker 3: neighbors with an underserved area, East.
Speaker 4: Palo Alto, and we decided that we would run a
Speaker 4: summer camp in our shop to teach the East Palato
Speaker 4: high schoolers about trades because a.
Speaker 3: Lot of them weren't going to go to college. And
Speaker 3: it was I did that.
Speaker 4: I decided to do this, and my friend up in
Speaker 4: Seattle recurrements and decided to do it with me. So
Speaker 4: the two of us kind of formed what we decided
Speaker 4: to name Heavy Metal Summer Experience, and it was basically
Speaker 4: a summer camp to teach high schoolers about the mechanical, elexical,
Speaker 4: and plumbing trades. And the first summer it was just
Speaker 4: an amazing experience. These kids and their parents were so appreciative.
Speaker 4: Many of these kids didn't even know how to use
Speaker 4: a tape measure, and now all of a sudden, a
Speaker 4: bunch of them have been in our trades.
Speaker 3: This was back in twenty twenty one.
Speaker 2: I have I've railed about this for a long time
Speaker 2: since somebody paid me to sit in front of a microphone.
Speaker 2: And that is that we complain, not we you and
Speaker 2: I don't complain about this. People who are younger than
Speaker 2: I was complaining they don't have the money to buy
Speaker 2: a house, but they're also not doing the math or
Speaker 2: the realization of well, you went to four year college,
Speaker 2: you got a degree in philosophy or whatever you got,
Speaker 2: and you did it all on student loans. You're never
Speaker 2: going to be able to afford a house at that point.
Speaker 2: But if you work in the trades, you work with
Speaker 2: your hands, even while you get your philosophy degree, you're
Speaker 2: going to be paid for actual work.
Speaker 5: Is Do you see that as well? Am I am?
Speaker 5: I crazy?
Speaker 4: No, not at all. You know, I tell the story.
Speaker 4: So I'm retired now, I'm in my sixties. But when
Speaker 4: I started at Western Allied, and I was there thirty
Speaker 4: five years, I had gone to college for five years,
Speaker 4: which is kind of the typical.
Speaker 3: I enjoyed that last year, and I worked.
Speaker 4: For one other company for a year, so I'd been
Speaker 4: out of college, I mean out of high school for
Speaker 4: six years when I started at Western Allied and there
Speaker 4: was a pipefitter that was my age, I think, by
Speaker 4: maybe a year older, and he had just bought his
Speaker 4: first house.
Speaker 3: In the Bay Area and I just barely.
Speaker 4: Got out of college and was paying my parents back.
Speaker 4: I didn't have any student loans because my parents failed
Speaker 4: to help me. But the fact that he was able
Speaker 4: to buy a house in the Bay Area because he
Speaker 4: started at eighteen years old and been working for.
Speaker 3: Six years, and he had part of that time he lived.
Speaker 4: At home with his folks, and he saved enough money
Speaker 4: to buy a house. So absolutely, that's I mean, we
Speaker 4: all get a late start. I mean the average age
Speaker 4: of people going into the apprenticeships right now is twenty
Speaker 4: seven years old, so they're obviously doing other.
Speaker 3: Things for the first ten years before when they get
Speaker 3: out of high school.
Speaker 4: And that's my thought was, let's encourage some of these
Speaker 4: high school kids to join the unions and the trades
Speaker 4: right out of high school, and amazing, by the time
Speaker 4: they're twenty five years old, they're going to be a
Speaker 4: journey person and making six figures.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's I just don't think people understand that the
Speaker 2: amount of money that you can make immediately, whether it's
Speaker 2: a welding like an AA degree in welding from a
Speaker 2: community college somewhere, which here in California is basically free,
Speaker 2: you're going to be able to get out there and
Speaker 2: have a steady job with good benefits. Often is there
Speaker 2: a specific area or a specific trade that you think
Speaker 2: is the most in need of bodies right now?
Speaker 4: Well, I do think the three we focus on that
Speaker 4: we call them the skilled trades of mechanical, electrical, and plumbing.
Speaker 4: I will say that I think going forward all three
Speaker 4: need people desperately, but electrically, I think electricians are going
Speaker 4: to be where the real shortage is because of all
Speaker 4: the electrification as well as the solar and all the
Speaker 4: energy across the nation.
Speaker 3: All ship factory is being built. I really do think
Speaker 3: we're going to be really short of electricians.
Speaker 4: But right now in construction, we are short four hundred
Speaker 4: thousand jobs.
Speaker 3: Now, I mean people.
Speaker 4: We don't have enough people to fill four hundred thousand
Speaker 4: jobs and forty percent of our industries retiring in the
Speaker 4: next five to seven years. So you know, if you're
Speaker 4: interested in getting a good job that pays, well, get
Speaker 4: into the trades, because boy, there is so much opportunity
Speaker 4: in the next ten years.
Speaker 5: What's your favorite trade? What do you like to tinker with?
Speaker 4: Well, I guess I would say that probably I worked
Speaker 4: for a sheet metal and piping contractor, and I guess
Speaker 4: I have a little favorite towards sheet metal, just because
Speaker 4: I think the stainless and the welding and it's kind
Speaker 4: of fun.
Speaker 3: I like seat metal, but that's I think piping is
Speaker 3: good too, but I don't. I'm a little more afraid
Speaker 3: of electrical.
Speaker 2: So yeah, that'll give you a good buzz if if
Speaker 2: you're not careful, it'll let you know when you do
Speaker 2: something wrong.
Speaker 5: All right, can you hang on for well, Angie, can
Speaker 5: you hang on for another segment?
Speaker 2: I want to talk specifically about what goes on during
Speaker 2: the camps, where they are, and how people can sign
Speaker 2: up for those.
Speaker 3: I'd love to all right.
Speaker 2: Angie Simon is executive director and co founder of Heavy
Speaker 2: Metal Summer Experience. If you're interested, if your kids are interested,
Speaker 2: if you want your kid to be interested, you can
Speaker 2: go to HMS dot org heavy Metal Summer Experience HMSE
Speaker 2: dot org. A great location map as on there, including
Speaker 2: a bunch here in the West, the City of Industry
Speaker 2: Commerce down in San Diego, you got Ventura. All of
Speaker 2: these places are going to be having summer camps with
Speaker 2: Heavy Metal Summer Experience. We'll come back with Angie here
Speaker 2: in just a moment.
Speaker 1: You're listening to Gary and Shannon on demand from KFI
Speaker 1: AM six forty.
Speaker 5: We've been talking with Angie Simon.
Speaker 2: She's the executive director and co founder of Heavy Metal
Speaker 2: Summer Experience. To help expose young kids to the trades.
Speaker 2: We need more people in the trades, sheet metal, piping, plumbing, trades.
Speaker 5: You can explore all of them.
Speaker 2: You become part of a team that's going to build
Speaker 2: community in all of this. Each of the camps that
Speaker 2: they run is unique, and there are several of them,
Speaker 2: not just here in California, but throughout the country if
Speaker 2: you're listening in other parts of the world. Angie, the
Speaker 2: heavy Metal Summer Experience, What is it? What does it
Speaker 2: entail for say a sixteen seventeen eighteen year old.
Speaker 4: Kid, Well, Gary, Every camp is free to the kids,
Speaker 4: so they go in and they don't pay anything for
Speaker 4: this camp.
Speaker 3: Typically they're going to be thirty to forty hours of.
Speaker 4: Camp, so they are different schedules depending on the location.
Speaker 4: Some of them will do it in one week, some
Speaker 4: of them will do it in two weeks in the
Speaker 4: afternoons because they're often run in contractors' shops or in
Speaker 4: union training center, so it depends on the shop. For example,
Speaker 4: if it's the contractor's shop, it might have to be
Speaker 4: in the afternoons. So they're going to run it for
Speaker 4: two weeks in the afternoons. But the day one they
Speaker 4: show up, they get a set of red wing boots
Speaker 4: that we have a Metal Summer Experience paid for, and
Speaker 4: they get their own set of work boots because.
Speaker 3: That makes you feel like you're really in working in
Speaker 3: the shop.
Speaker 4: And then throughout that forty hours they're going to be
Speaker 4: doing sheet metal piping, then to be welding, they're going
Speaker 4: to be soldering. They'll be making projects. Make a toolbox
Speaker 4: that they can take home. They make a lamp out
Speaker 4: of piping that they can take home, They learn how
Speaker 4: to wire the lamp, and they just do a whole
Speaker 4: bunch of projects. We talked a lot about safety, We
Speaker 4: talk a lot about well. We also talk a lot
Speaker 4: about technology, because I think people don't realize how much
Speaker 4: technology is using construction nowadays.
Speaker 3: Robotics and AI, all of that's being used in construction,
Speaker 3: so it doesn't mean we're just digging ditches and construction anymore.
Speaker 3: And then when.
Speaker 4: They're done getting toward the end of that, they get
Speaker 4: a graduation metal, the stainless seal metal, and they get
Speaker 4: a bag of handfuls from either Milwaukee.
Speaker 3: Or Duwalt, which are partners of ours for Heavy Metal
Speaker 3: Summer Experience. We have some amazing partners. So it's a
Speaker 3: great week.
Speaker 4: Of them learning a little bit about what it means
Speaker 4: to be in the trades, and you know, they you can.
Speaker 3: Just see how much they really enjoy working with their hands.
Speaker 1: Is this.
Speaker 2: Is this a replacement for the lack of shop classes
Speaker 2: that we've seen in high schools taken away?
Speaker 3: I feel very strongly it is.
Speaker 4: I mean I feel like, I mean, I'm sure my age,
Speaker 4: but there was still shop classes when I was in
Speaker 4: high school. But I feel that if we had more
Speaker 4: of these shop classes and Vogue tech type classes in
Speaker 4: our high.
Speaker 3: Schools, we wouldn't have to do this because they would
Speaker 3: learn about that. So I kind of.
Speaker 4: There's some states that are much better than California in
Speaker 4: regards to that, that have better shops in their high schools.
Speaker 3: But really it's just a way.
Speaker 4: I think we also need to change of perception about
Speaker 4: cut construction. That people we need to understand that's not
Speaker 4: like a secondary backstep job. I mean, this is a
Speaker 4: really great career. You get benefits, you get you know,
Speaker 4: health care and tensions, and I mean, you.
Speaker 3: Can retire at fifty five if you start at eighteen,
Speaker 3: and you're going to have full benefit at that point.
Speaker 4: So I do think that if we could get this
Speaker 4: back into our high schools, then maybe we wouldn't need
Speaker 4: these summer camps anymore. But listen, I started in twenty
Speaker 4: twenty one with two camps and twenty eight kids, and
Speaker 4: this summer we have fifty one camps across the United
Speaker 4: States and Canada, and I have almost nine hundred kids.
Speaker 3: In the camps. Wow, it's just gone crazy.
Speaker 2: And for the kids or for maybe adults that are
Speaker 2: listening that have kids that are in this world and
Speaker 2: you know they're mechanically inclined, or they're not cut out
Speaker 2: for college, or however you want to put it, this
Speaker 2: can easily lead to a job just from the instructors
Speaker 2: that are involved with the camps, right, I mean, they'll
Speaker 2: hire some of these kids right away.
Speaker 4: The instructors or the contractors that are running the camps,
Speaker 4: and they in the camps, they meet the union's folks,
Speaker 4: they meet how they learn how to apply for the apprenticeship, they.
Speaker 3: Learn what it takes.
Speaker 4: And many times the contractors, if they're hosting a camp,
Speaker 4: will hire the graduates on the spot and say, hey,
Speaker 4: come work as a pre apprentice.
Speaker 3: You know, I make sure you can go up on
Speaker 3: time for six months and everything else, and then they
Speaker 3: get them in the apprenticeship.
Speaker 4: So we have in La in the La La area, we.
Speaker 3: Have three camps this summer, and well actually four depending
Speaker 3: on what you call the La area. But we have
Speaker 3: one in Commerce, we have.
Speaker 4: One in the City of Industry, we have one in
Speaker 4: San Diego, and one in Ventura next summer. Those are
Speaker 4: all Most of our camps are pretty well full this summer.
Speaker 3: It's kind of late at this point. But next summer,
Speaker 3: I think we will also add Pomona. We may also
Speaker 3: add Vista and Fresno potentially so in the California area.
Speaker 4: But again, they're all over the United States, and we
Speaker 4: even have some in Canada, and they can check our
Speaker 4: website out if you google Heavy Metal Summer Experience you'll
Speaker 4: find us.
Speaker 2: And you're also looking for hosts as well, not just
Speaker 2: in participants, but you're looking for people and companies that
Speaker 2: will host these camps.
Speaker 4: True, true, And like, for example, I just talked to
Speaker 4: somebody in Vista. They have actually have a high school
Speaker 4: in Vista that does do welding, which I thought was
Speaker 4: very exciting. They'd like to do a summer camp there,
Speaker 4: and Vista is I think, I think it's northeast.
Speaker 3: Of San Diego.
Speaker 4: So we're going to work on trying to see if
Speaker 4: we can make that work for the folks and have
Speaker 4: them be a host next summer. But we are looking
Speaker 4: for host contractors or training centers to help us with that.
Speaker 4: We don't provide actually run the camp. We support them
Speaker 4: with all the resources to run the camp, and we
Speaker 4: kind of handhold them the first summer. And I'll tell
Speaker 4: you the thing is, we get pretty much one hundred
Speaker 4: percent return from the host. So if I had fifty
Speaker 4: one camps this summer, I'll start with fifty one next summer,
Speaker 4: and then I'll probably add another twenty or thirty.
Speaker 3: So we're busy.
Speaker 2: Well, that's great, And listen, this is an exciting thing
Speaker 2: because I'm a huge proponent of this kind of work.
Speaker 2: I'm a huge proponent of this kind of availability of
Speaker 2: this work for kids because we turned away from it
Speaker 2: for so long that we're starting to see the effects
Speaker 2: of that. Where you know, people don't know how to
Speaker 2: if people don't even know how to fix stuff around
Speaker 2: their own house, and you'd be willing to you know,
Speaker 2: you're going to pay several hundred bucks, and if you're
Speaker 2: on the receiving end of that several hundred bucks, good
Speaker 2: for you.
Speaker 5: And this is a good way to do it, Angie go.
Speaker 4: It's not that.
Speaker 3: Hard to change out your garbage disposal. I mean, if
Speaker 3: if you know, if you've learned a little bit of things,
Speaker 3: but instead of having to hire somebody to do it,
Speaker 3: so I do think.
Speaker 4: I do think it's time for us to slowly think
Speaker 4: change a little bit. I'm a mechanical engineer. I went
Speaker 4: to college here in California, but but I still think
Speaker 4: it's so important that so many kids this is what
Speaker 4: you need them to do. And if you know, look
Speaker 4: at our website if you want to help this. We
Speaker 4: also would be happy to accept any.
Speaker 3: Donations anybody give us. So, Garry, thank you for having
Speaker 3: me on. I really appreciate.
Speaker 1: Well.
Speaker 5: One personal question is where'd you go to college?
Speaker 3: Yes, I went to cal Poly and San Luis obispo Oh.
Speaker 2: Yeah, my father graduated from cal Poly. My daughter just
Speaker 2: graduated last summer from from cal polyly.
Speaker 3: So that's my and my son graduated from cal Poly.
Speaker 3: So that's good. We got the connection. So that's and
Speaker 3: there's a.
Speaker 4: There's a college just hands on, hands on that we
Speaker 4: learned by doing, so they really do stressed. I took
Speaker 4: the welding class at cal.
Speaker 5: Polic that's literally their their slogan is learned by doing.
Speaker 3: Yeah it is, and I was terrible at welding. I
Speaker 3: learned that really quick.
Speaker 2: Well, it's an absolute pleasure to meet you, Angie, and
Speaker 2: we wish you the best of luck with Heavy Metal
Speaker 2: Summer Experience again. If you want information about it, go
Speaker 2: to h M s E dot org Heavy Metal Summer
Speaker 2: Experience h M s E dot org with all the
Speaker 2: information about the current camps that are going on this summer,
Speaker 2: about future camps that are there, and encourage your kids
Speaker 2: to get involved.
Speaker 4: Angie, thank you, Jerry, thank you so much for having
Speaker 4: me and I love you helping them and get.
Speaker 3: The word out.
Speaker 5: Absolutely, we'll talk again.
Speaker 2: I promise this is It's too good of a program
Speaker 2: to ignore, all right, Angie, I'm their executive director, co
Speaker 2: founder of Heavy Metal Summer Experience h M s E
Speaker 2: dot org.
Speaker 1: You're listening to Gary and Shannon on demand from KFI
Speaker 1: AM six forty.
Speaker 6: Well.
Speaker 2: As we get closer to Memorial Day, more on our
Speaker 2: news and Bruis tomorrow in Lancaster coming up. But weekend
Speaker 2: travel is expected to break the travel more than forty
Speaker 2: five million people expected to hit the roads between today
Speaker 2: and Monday. Triple A projects forty five point one million
Speaker 2: people traveling at least fifty miles from home during that
Speaker 2: four day period. That would be an increase of one
Speaker 2: point four million from last year. Were still short of
Speaker 2: the record. They said the previous Memorial Day travel record
Speaker 2: was two thousand and five. They said forty four million
Speaker 2: people were on the road. We were just talking with
Speaker 2: Angie Simon, executive director and co founder of that great
Speaker 2: program called Heavy Metal Summer Experience, about getting kids involved
Speaker 2: in the trades.
Speaker 6: Hey, Ared, just to let you know, my daughter is
Speaker 6: part of this program where she's actually graduating this June
Speaker 6: at sixteen, but yet she's a cybersecurity expert and she's
Speaker 6: already got a job that's yeah, paying over three hundred
Speaker 6: thousand dollars a year now she's just sixteen, and they
Speaker 6: will pay for her schooling too if she wants it.
Speaker 5: That's a that's a good start.
Speaker 7: Hey, Gary, this was great. Yeah, my son was one
Speaker 7: of those. He was JC and got a welding certificate,
Speaker 7: certified welding and all. He's working for one company now
Speaker 7: knocking down seventy five bucks an hour. It's really good
Speaker 7: college eight for everybody.
Speaker 2: Yeah, seventy five bucks an hour and then probably more
Speaker 2: for overtime. So that's that's well into the trip six
Speaker 2: figure salary.
Speaker 8: What's up, Gary, flying fish out here at the airport Fish.
Speaker 8: I love that trade segment you just had you. And
Speaker 8: another thing about the trades. If you're a convicted felling
Speaker 8: or whatever, they're leanient to that. Try to have a
Speaker 8: convicted fill and become a police officer or a lawyer
Speaker 8: or whatever.
Speaker 5: And it's probably been done.
Speaker 8: But at the same time, I know because I'm part
Speaker 8: of that, but I'm making excellent money out here at
Speaker 8: the Airport Electrical.
Speaker 5: Love you Baby, talk to you. Thanks Fish.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's one of those one of those paths that
Speaker 2: has not been well worn recently. We need to start
Speaker 2: getting kids down that path. So the Associated Press comes
Speaker 2: out with a story regarding Kamala Harris. Many of her
Speaker 2: supporters and detractors thinks the think that she'd have better
Speaker 2: odds running for governor than rather than running for president
Speaker 2: for what would be a third time, if you can
Speaker 2: believe that, and they discuss why she might want to
Speaker 2: run for governor and why she might not. So I
Speaker 2: have not been keeping up with the Gavin Newsom podcast,
Speaker 2: but apparently he recently had Mark Halprin on there, who
Speaker 2: a longtime NBC reporter who's got his own podcast, which
Speaker 2: is really fantastic, by the way, and he sat down
Speaker 2: with Mark Halprin Gavin Newsom did on the Gavin Newsom
Speaker 2: Podcast and said, in this context about Kamala Harris and
Speaker 2: whether or not she would run, he predicted that she
Speaker 2: would top the field in whatever primary exists before. We
Speaker 2: like a governor if she run, because Newsom says, in
Speaker 2: order to run for governor, you have to have a
Speaker 2: burning why, and if you can't enunciate that why, then
Speaker 2: the answer is no, why the hell would you want
Speaker 2: the job? Whereas Gavin Newsom would say why the hell
Speaker 2: would you want the job? So ap goes through and
Speaker 2: they explain a couple of reasons why she might want
Speaker 2: the job. First of all, you get your name back
Speaker 2: up into the upper echelons of the Democratic Party. Yes,
Speaker 2: she was the vice president, but she has lost a
Speaker 2: lot of that Q score after an absolutely awful presidential
Speaker 2: campaign in twenty twenty.
Speaker 5: I mean awful.
Speaker 2: She didn't even win California in the primaries when she ran. Originally,
Speaker 2: the campaign that was put together after Joe Biden dropped
Speaker 2: out last summer was also very short. It was short
Speaker 2: on money for a time, and it didn't ever gain ground.
Speaker 2: Part of it was because the compressed timeline, but other
Speaker 2: parts of it were She was just not a great candidate,
Speaker 2: And there is a concern that if she jumps into
Speaker 2: the presidential race again, it's going to drop her a
Speaker 2: Q score rating down even more because she's already bowed
Speaker 2: out what my bout out.
Speaker 5: It's not the right word.
Speaker 2: She already came up short, I'll say, in the two
Speaker 2: previous presidential elections. So if she becomes a governor of
Speaker 2: a great state, then maybe she just starts to slowly
Speaker 2: rebuild some of that Q score so that down the
Speaker 2: road she could be up for say a cabinet position
Speaker 2: or whatever she chooses to do, run for a president, etc.
Speaker 2: The other one is this is a safer bet. There's
Speaker 2: no reason to think the moment she decides to get
Speaker 2: into the race or announces that she's going to get
Speaker 2: into the race, she will immediately be at the top
Speaker 2: of the polls.
Speaker 5: Everybody knows that.
Speaker 2: I could ask you to name three other Democrats that
Speaker 2: are running for governor, and very few people could come
Speaker 2: up with more than one name, So she would have
Speaker 2: the name recognition immediately if she decides to get in.
Speaker 2: There are other questions, though, and the AP points these out.
Speaker 2: Would voters welcome her back a longtime consultant for Republicans,
Speaker 2: a guy named Kevin Madden, says she doesn't like her chances. Sorry,
Speaker 2: Kevin doesn't like her chances in either governor's race or
Speaker 2: the presidential race. And it's unusual for somebody to come
Speaker 2: back and be able to win the presidency after two losses.
Speaker 2: You know who else did that? Joe Biden had run
Speaker 2: for president before a couple of times and was the
Speaker 2: rare politician who was able to overcome those two losses.
Speaker 5: The thing that Joe Biden had.
Speaker 2: Going for him was the campaigns were spaced out, he
Speaker 2: didn't do them consecutively, and he had the opportunity to
Speaker 2: sort of let the past cloud everybody's memory. The other
Speaker 2: thing is she's not necessarily going to run up against
Speaker 2: a Republican in November in California. Of course, our open primary,
Speaker 2: we just take the top two candidates, and based on
Speaker 2: what we've seen with that open primary since it's been
Speaker 2: in place the majority of the time, it's two Democrats
Speaker 2: running against each other.
Speaker 5: Can she do that?
Speaker 2: And how does she do Does she position herself to
Speaker 2: the left, does she position herself in the middle, how
Speaker 2: would she possibly do that? And then the final question
Speaker 2: that they ask is would she even want to go
Speaker 2: to Sacramento the job of governor of California right now
Speaker 2: where homelessness and health issues and housing prices and unemployment,
Speaker 2: all of these things, a massive budget deficit.
Speaker 5: Is that what she wants to jump into.
Speaker 2: That's a lot of work, and I'm not sure she
Speaker 2: wants to get into that sort of thing.
Speaker 5: So I do think she is running for governor.
Speaker 2: I do think she'll overcome all of those negatives perhaps
Speaker 2: that were brought up in that article.
Speaker 5: But we shall see.
Speaker 1: You're listening to Gary and Shannon on demand from KFI
Speaker 1: am six forty.
Speaker 2: Morning Shower Evening Shower Science says there's one is better
Speaker 2: than the other, and we'll explain why and which one.
Speaker 2: But if you're a morning shower, evening shower er or
Speaker 2: maybe multiple show er, we did get a talk back
Speaker 2: from somebody who doesn't shower at all, they said, so
Speaker 2: we'll explain more of that. We get into trained Science.
Speaker 2: Swamp Watch comes at the top of the hour. More
Speaker 2: on the President's big beautiful bill that passed the House yesterday,
Speaker 2: and also a decision out of the Supreme Court which
Speaker 2: was a split decision, which means it goes back to,
Speaker 2: in this case, the Oklahoma State Supreme Court's decision about
Speaker 2: religious charter schools.
Speaker 5: So that's coming up.
Speaker 2: Michael Monks has joined us, and he has his fingers
Speaker 2: is freshly showered fingers, freshly showered fingers on the pulse
Speaker 2: of a very dirty lay. We've talked before about this
Speaker 2: potential plan to raise the minimum wage for tourism workers.
Speaker 2: Really the main I guess venue for this would be
Speaker 2: hotels over sixty rooms.
Speaker 5: Is that what it is?
Speaker 2: The bar the hotels with over sixty rooms, that's correct,
Speaker 2: and also the concessionaires at Lax Airport thirty dollars an
Speaker 2: hour minimum wage by twenty twenty eight. It will increase
Speaker 2: starting in July and then we'll go up a couple
Speaker 2: bucks incrementally until it reaches thirty in twenty twenty eight,
Speaker 2: in time for the Olympics. This is an organization, an
Speaker 2: organized group that has said, look, we are going to
Speaker 2: be so important when the Olympics come to town, for
Speaker 2: all of these world travelers, we deserve to make a
Speaker 2: proper wage for it. And the city council seems to agree.
Speaker 2: I mean, they have one more vote to do tomorrow.
Speaker 2: This is an ordinance that requires two votes, but they've
Speaker 2: already voted twelve to three once, So that gives you
Speaker 2: the idea that tomorrow was just a ceremonial rubber stamp. Well,
Speaker 2: at least eight hotels now say, oh, okay, we're not
Speaker 2: going to take part in the Olympic. Is it the
Speaker 2: block room where media organizations and athletes and tourism companies
Speaker 2: they'll rent blocks of rooms or reserve blocks of rooms
Speaker 2: for the Olympics, And now they're saying, these hotels are
Speaker 2: we don't want to have anything to.
Speaker 1: Do with that.
Speaker 9: And these are major, large hotels that had previously made
Speaker 9: agreements with LA twenty eight, the local Olympics organizing committee,
Speaker 9: And what they've said is, look, we made an agreement
Speaker 9: with you with the knowledge we had at the time
Speaker 9: on how our economics worked, and that includes how much
Speaker 9: we're paying our workers. So if by the time twenty
Speaker 9: twenty eight rolls around, these workers are making around eight
Speaker 9: dollars or more an hour more on top of what
Speaker 9: they're being paid today, the rates we agreed to are
Speaker 9: no longer economically feasible. So these are eight hotels that said, look,
Speaker 9: we're out if this thing passes on Friday. Those hotels
Speaker 9: include the Moxie, some ac hotels. There's the Los Angeles
Speaker 9: Airport Marriott, the Airport Renaissance, the Hyatt at the Lax,
Speaker 9: the West Los Angeles West Beverly Hills, the Garland Hotel,
Speaker 9: and that was reported by the LA Daily News earlier.
Speaker 9: The Hotel Association of Los Angeles has put out a
Speaker 9: statement saying, look, hotels are already struggling. Tourism is down
Speaker 9: in Los Angeles right now. We're banking on the Olympics
Speaker 9: offering an attempt to revive this, but you're kind of
Speaker 9: killing this baby in its crib.
Speaker 2: Well and your point of the you know, it goes
Speaker 2: up in July and then incrementally raising it to get
Speaker 2: to thirty bucks an hour by twenty twenty eight. There's
Speaker 2: no guarantee that between now and then we see the
Speaker 2: increase in tourism I that they would like to see.
Speaker 2: Some of these hotels are saying we, in fact, our
Speaker 2: forecast is low because of what you just said.
Speaker 5: The tourism numbers have been down.
Speaker 9: It's not just these big hotels that have come out
Speaker 9: instead of these This is a very organized hotel group.
Speaker 9: These are large hotel properties and connected to large national chains.
Speaker 9: There are smaller hotels and we're talking sixty rooms, and
Speaker 9: there are small owners of one, maybe two hotels who
Speaker 9: have also come to city Hall and said, look, our
Speaker 9: numbers are way down. The airport has also come and said,
Speaker 9: we don't officially take a position on what you're voting on,
Speaker 9: but here's the data, and the data shows the tourism
Speaker 9: in la is not good domestically or internationally right now,
Speaker 9: and so we don't think our businesses could sustain higher
Speaker 9: wages for the workers right now because the revenue is.
Speaker 2: So low cynically, and I actually think this is a
Speaker 2: position held by the unions. If these hotels pull out
Speaker 2: of the block agreements that they've already decided that they
Speaker 2: would be part of, could they then turn around and
Speaker 2: charge more for the rooms during the Olympics.
Speaker 9: It seems that the hotels are suggesting that the original
Speaker 9: agreement was based on a different set of economic circumstances.
Speaker 9: So if this is the new reality, thirty dollars an
Speaker 9: hour minimum for their workers, it could be a new negotiation,
Speaker 9: you know, like we can't charge the rates that we
Speaker 9: said we would when we agreed to this originally.
Speaker 5: By the time twenty twenty eight rolls around.
Speaker 9: We're paying this much to our workforce, We're gonna have
Speaker 9: to charge more to the people who were coming to
Speaker 9: town for these Olympics, and then the union will also
Speaker 9: have to face the possibility of seeing workers lose their jobs.
Speaker 9: I know there's been mixed results on the fast food
Speaker 9: side of this. We had this debate last year when
Speaker 9: the wage went up to twenty dollars minimum for fast food.
Speaker 5: Some fast food workers did lose their jobs.
Speaker 9: Some restaurants did shudder, but the others have eaten the
Speaker 9: cost and just paid their workers. And we'll have to
Speaker 9: see how this plays out in the hotel industry if
Speaker 9: this thing passes tomorrow. I would expect that it will
Speaker 9: pass tomorrow because it was so overwhelmingly approved last week,
Speaker 9: and the second vote is just you know, formality at
Speaker 9: this point. But we might we might hear some of
Speaker 9: these comments from people in the gallery.
Speaker 2: Thank you, Hey, it's my pleasure. Thanks for showering today. Uh,
Speaker 2: you don't know that, I did, I know, Wait what
Speaker 2: I know?
Speaker 5: How do you.
Speaker 2: A note to self thicker curtains?
Speaker 5: Thank you?
Speaker 2: Michael Monks from KFI News Reminder, tomorrow we're going to
Speaker 2: be live at Bravery Brewing in Lancaster for our news
Speaker 2: and brews, and we would love it if you would
Speaker 2: come on out and say hi, because we have some
Speaker 2: stuff that we're given away.
Speaker 5: Bravery has some stuff that they'll be giving away.
Speaker 2: We have the debut of our kfipa on tap and
Speaker 2: in cans for you to buy and take home with
Speaker 2: you and share with friends. Bravery Pizza Kitchen is going
Speaker 2: to be open with their award winning pizza, including one
Speaker 2: specifically modeled after the Gary and Shannon Show pizza. All
Speaker 2: of that is going to be tomorrow. We'll be live
Speaker 2: out there and we would love it if you would
Speaker 2: come on out and say hi. Up next Supreme Court
Speaker 2: vote on charter schools, religious charter schools, the big beautiful
Speaker 2: bill Bill I should say, and a new report coming
Speaker 2: out from the Department of Health and Human Services. So
Speaker 2: all that is just around the corner. Gary and Shannon.
Speaker 2: We'll be back right after this. You've been listening to
Speaker 2: The Gary and Shannon Show, You can always hear us
Speaker 2: live on kfi A six forty nine am to one
Speaker 2: pm every Monday through Friday, and anytime on demand on
Speaker 2: the iHeartRadio app.