You're listening to KFI Am six forty on demand.
Happy to be here on this beautiful, spectacular sunny day.
You just heard the news.
Temperatures in the high seventies, eighty degrees, blue skies looking out the studios here in Burbank, summer in winter here in Southern California.
This is why we live here.
But it's difficult to enjoy when we realize that so many of us in Southern California and the Palisades and Alta Dina, whether you're a homeowner or a renter, a business owner, are still suffering and struggling in the aftermath of the January seventh wildfires. It's something that's part of our consciousness every day here in Southern California. We can't escape it. It's in the news. It's a reality. We've
talked about this here on KFI. We're going to remember this as before January seventh and Southern California and afterwards. And my question, as a longtime news reporter observer of the political scene, the law enforcement scene, is how are
our leaders doing in getting us through this. We're gonna spend some time talking about that, telling you what you need to know of course, you know the headline from Friday, La Mayor Bass removes Los Angeles City Fire Department Chief Kristin Crowley from her job, although due to the provisions of the civil service, coach actually gets to stay with the fire department at a lower rank, which is a little bit confusing to some people. And then we're going
to talk about that, is she being the scapegoat? We asked Mayor Karen Bass that directly, at least some of the reporters who covered an event with her yesterday, and she of course said no, which I find a little bit hard to believe. And then why is nobody calling for La County's fire chief to be dismissed? Why is it the LA City fire chief? I mean, they were both equally out there on the fire lines. We're gonna get into that. We're gonna talk politics beyond Southern California,
believe it or not. Next year do we not only have a mayoral race, but we have a gubernatorial race. If you happen to see in the New York Times this morning, big article on how Kamala Harris has sort of upended the race without even officially entering it. Yet we're going to talk with one of my favorite political consultants, Matt Klink, about that and so much more.
Can you can call an armed guard with your on an app?
Now?
I mean, this is the world we're living in.
We're going to talk about the Pope Francis in critical condition. We're going to speak with Southern California Father Tom Gibbons to give us some insight into that and what that means for the future of Catholics, not just here in Southern California, but around the world.
They number in the billions.
Governor Newsom, you remember him, He's asking Congress from a nearly forty billion dollars for La file wildfire relief. Where's that going? And if you work for the federal government, have you done your email? Per Elon and the DOGE requirement you have to send it an email? Have you heard this if you work for the federal government with five bullet points of what you accomplished this week and if you don't do it, consider that a resignation.
Wow.
And then also this week one of the huge stories which got one day of.
Coverage but not much else.
If you're talking about DOGE and government efficiency, the California bullet train, you know you've heard the nickname, the derisive nickname, the train to nowhere. That's something I covered quite a bit at Fox eleven. The Secretary of Transportation was in the Southern California announcing an audit of the train. I mean, if Trump is going to cut programs, seems like cutting
federal funding to that one would be a no brainer. So, as you can imagine, as is the case pretty much every day here in Southern California, there are so many things to talk about.
We get issues with airliners on American Airlines.
Flight was diverted to roam over a possible security issue at landed successfully. A Delta flight made in emergency landing at lax due to smoke on board.
A little bit nervous times in this guys these days.
So let me just start up before we get into all this, with a little bit of a story again. It's it's Phil Schumann coming with you, coming to you live from two to four here as always on the iHeartRadio app. If there's something you'd like to contribute, you can click on the little microphone icon and record a comment. Yes you can, and we'd love that and if they're good, we'll play them back and maybe even if they're not so good, just to get a sense of who's out
there and what you're thinking. We may even open up the phone lines a little bit later on and get your thoughts. One eight hundred and five to a one KFI. That's one eight hundred five to a one five three four. I give you, encourage you to call in a little bit later on when we start getting into some some topics. Hey, the Dodgers are looking good, the Lakers are playing great, the hockey teams, the soccer teams, it's a great time
to be a sports fan in Southern California. Again, I just keep keep keep coming back to the fact that you know, we can't really relax and enjoy ourselves with this huge nightmare of rehabilitation and rebuilding and financial challenges facing thousands of us here in southern California. So as a young reporter in Wichita Falls, Texas, that was my first job in the news business in nineteen seventy nine.
Can you believe it, yees? I started when I was twelve.
I covered a story and this is always stuck with me and I've always remembered this and it's relevant today. It was a routine fire story, the kind of thing you do, like a twenty seconds segment with some video on the news about a I think it was a furniture store, furniture warehouse, furniture storage building which had caught on fire, and I was out covering it. And it was a pretty good fire. It was an you know, it was overnight. It wasn't that there weren't people in
the store, just merchandise. And I remember these firefighters who went in to put it out and they're coming out, you know, coughing smoke inhalation. There was some injuries, minor injuries, and I remember thinking at the time, Wow, these guys. Their job is to go in there and put out a fire in somebody's mattress storage and they're risking their lives to do that, and that's part of their job. And what kind of person does that? That is impressive.
And the reason I say that is because it's very difficult to criticize the fire response on January seventh, but at the same time not be critical of the firefighters themselves.
You understand what I'm saying.
And this is a delicate issue for me and for so many because we love the firefighters, We love our first responders.
You've heard about that skate event.
You remember fire skate event today at Crypto the fire aid all of the fundraisers and all of the tributes to the firefighters and other first responders, and absolutely, one thousand percent we need to do that. But then how do we criticize the fire response without criticizing the firefighters themselves.
It's a little bit of a delicate issue.
If you have any thoughts on that, you know, I'd love to hear them.
Mayor Bass.
Mayor Karen Bass of Los Angeles certainly decided on Friday how she was going to deal with that by, as I mentioned, removing the fire chief Kristin Crowley, saying that, as you know, the mayor said, a thousand firefighters weren't held over from their shift and we're sent home now. She said, as you know, we know that because of the excellent work of the LA Times and their reporters who have been investigating the response to these fires and.
Doing a phenomenal job as they always do. We're going to talk with one of them later on this afternoon.
So scapegoat, not a scapegoat if those thousand firefighters had been held over the head of the Firefighters Union. If you follow the news, you heard him on Friday saying that, well, there weren't enough. There wasn't enough firefighting apparatus, the trucks, the engines because of maintenance issues, they weren't ready to roll. So even if the firefighters had been available, they wouldn't have been equipment to outfit them with.
That's open to debate as well.
So it brings us back to the earlier point that I was making, is how well our leaders rising to the challenge. These are unprecedented times in southern California, and we need an unprecedented response. They need to step up their game, and so far, I think a lot of what we're seeing is finger pointing a little bit of confusion, even though they talk about all working together.
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
I'm Phil Schuman from eleven News, sitting in with you till four o'clock. Lots to discuss. Hopefully you'll learn some things. If you'd like to contribute, to click on that microphone icon on the iHeartRadio app and record a comment, or if you feel really strongly about something you love, the chat on the phone one eight hundred five to oh one KFI. That's one eight hundred five two oh one five three four. Did Kristin Krabley deserve to be fired
as La City Fire chief? What about La County's fire department? Why are they sort of escaping the criticism that La City Fire seems to have come under. Thanks to the La Times for exposing a lot of what we've learned about the response to the fires and for telling us the stories incredible, the powerful stories of loss and survival.
James Rainey, veteran reporter from the Times who lost his family's home in Malibu and wrote an incredibly compelling article about that in the early aftermath of the fire, is going to be joining us uh later on this afternoon as well. And we were talking a lot about Mayor. I mean, I know all of us. You know, the voices of KFI here extend throughout southern California, far beyond
the city of Los Angeles. But of course, because it's such a big city and it dominates the coverage here in southern California, much of what happens in Los Angeles dominates the news, the airwaves, talk radio, whether it's the city of Los Angeles, the County of Los Angeles, the fire department, the police department, the sheriff's department, because so many people follow their examples, and Mayor Bass definitely under the spotlight, and a very harsh spotlight, since we learned
that she was out of town that Ghana trip when the fires broke out, rushed back, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, and questions whether she is a viable candidate for twenty twenty six Rick Caruso, who hasn't made up his mind, who lost by ten percentage points a couple of years ago, I would likely be a formidable opponent. But that's not the only election we have coming up, believe it or not, next year.
I mean it goes by so fast.
June of twenty twenty sixth, the primary that will also begin the process of electing the next California governor. And really interesting article if you happen to check out the New York Times this morning on Kamala Harris.
You remember her.
She's upset upended the balance of the California gubernatorial race without even announcing that she's a candidate. So when I have questions about the political landscape, one of the people I love to talk to is Matt Clink. Matt Clink with Clinkcampaigns dot com political consultant, a familiar voice and face to many of us here in southern California.
Matt, thanks for coming on with us.
Oh hey, sil Happy Sunday to you.
So.
I don't know if you happen to see that article in The Times this morning, one of many that's been written. What are your thoughts, first of all, in the big picture on the California's governor race.
Gubernatorial race, right, I guess I did read the article. It was an interesting one, and the Times, I think captured it pretty correctly. You know, it's hard to believe that we're already thinking about another statewide election. It's like November just happened. But I mean, look, I think that the you know, Kamala Harris is the is the proverbial
two thousand pound gorilla. She has overwhelming support and a very crowded democratic field, so much support and in fact, I'm looking at an Emerson poll right now that came out of the field in mid February, and she's at fifty seven percent. That would put her, you know, four or five times ahead of the next closest person would which would be Katie Porter. So for the Democrats, they're really just kind of biding their time, waiting until she decides what she wants to do. She being Kamala Harris.
Well, is there any doubt in your mind that she would run? I mean, what else is she going to do the private sector? Become a law professor? I mean, what is there any doubt in your mind that she would run for governor?
Well, a couple of things that she could do. And if she could, she could get a sweet book deal and write a book and go and you know, establish her profile nationally. If she desires to run again for presidents, she could follow the Richard Nixon model and that you know, as you may recall Nixon Nixon lost in nineteen sixty ran for governor and lost to Edmund G. Pat Brown and then and then ultimately transitioned back to presidency in nineteen sixty eight. But you know, I don't know. I mean,
tabo Harris. She's won every statewide races she's ever vibed for in California. She would be a strong candid. Yeah, I mean support him on women, blacks and Hispanic voters, which really make up the overrolling majority of the electorate. And I think that what's more notable here is is what we're not talking about is the absence of a credible Republican candidate in the race. You know, Rick Caruso, he could east just as easily decide to run for governor as he could decide to run for mayor.
He could again, But what do you make of Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco. I mean, he announced his plans to run the governor as a as a at least in southern California, high profile Republican.
Is he a legitimate candidate?
No, He's got virtually no name id statewide. You know, if I've read that he is that he was a former member of the Proud Boys, which is not going to go over particularly well. And in California, I think that the crime message is important. But I just don't know if I don't know if caeliprinir voters are going to elect a Riverside County sheriff for the top executive office in the state.
Yeah, he might carry. He might carry Riverside County. Uh, but that's about it. But he is he is? I mean, I've spent a bit of time with him in person covering in for Fox eleven. I mean, yes, he has very little name recognition at this point outside of southern California, even outside.
Of Riverside County.
But he's a very charismatic speaker, strong speaker, powerful presence, So I mean it's not out of the question that he'll he'll gain some some support. I mean some of the other candidates, uh, former Mayor La Mayor of course, Antonio Vita Ragosa, Lieutenant Governor Elaney Cunelacus, who I think
has absolutely no shot whatsoever. Former Senate President pro tem Tony Atkins, former State Controller Betty Yee, Superintendent Public Instruction, Tony Thurmon, and then you mentioned Katie Porter, former congresswoman. It seems like it's it's Harris. It would be wide open for her to jump in, it would.
I think that if she comes into the race, it sucks a lot of the oxygen now the room, at least initially about to challenge for Kamala Harris is that as soon as she gets into a lengthy conversation with anybody, she faces some serious pitfall. She's not distinguished herself in terms of her ability to communicate, and I think that we're look that California.
Is, which is like mind boggling to me at this point in her career that we're still talking about. But well, I mean, what about all you what about all your consultants with your media training and your advice and your strategy, and I mean, who is helping her?
Well, I have said that, you know, she didn't seem to have these problems when she was the attorney general in the state as a United States senator, I think that somebody got in her head and and and messed her up because they just she's just tied in knots. Right.
Well, that term word salad, right, that is just the worst thing you could possibly say about anybody.
You know, it seems to fit her. I hate to say.
It, No, you're you're right. Mean, Look, I think that if she can write the ship in terms of her ability to communicate, California is going to go Democrat. It's a question of whether they go progressive Democrat or moderate Democrat. And you know, if she does, I mean, look, she
becomes the instant front runner. And that's exporting in California, primarily for one reason, because she doesn't have to spend money getting people to know who she is, and in the nation state of California, it's like running for, you know, a leader of another country in Europe or in other parts of the world. It's very, very expensive. So she vaults to the top simply because she doesn't have to
do that. And that's why the other names that you that you mentioned, they're all well known to people in politics, but most California voters are like, wait, who is the former controller Betty ye Oh, yeah, she's from San Francisco, or yeah, Antonio was mayor in twenty thirteen, twelve years ago. So they're gonna have to spend tens of millions of dollars building that name identification before they can even start
to tell voters what they believe in. If voters don't even know who you are, they really don't have time to care for what your policy positions are.
You're right, last turnout last gubatatorial election, I believe the turnout was right around fifty so like half of all registered voters in California even bothered to cast a vote.
So your point is well taken.
No, exactly, And you know, Katie Porter has some advantages. She's run statewide before, so it is Antonio. I mean, I guess so does Elini Koulanakis and Tony Thurman. But again, no one knows who the lieutenant governor is in the state of California, and she does. By the way, she has the ability to self fund her campaign. She has enormous amounts of wealth.
And again I think I'll get elected governor before her.
You think, yeah, maybe, and maybe you well, I'm not going to run, But you know, I look at the Meg Whitman factor or other. We've had other billionaire candidates decide to run before and they've imploded in the state.
So I think it's whomever the candidate for the Democrats who they select, it's going to be the one that organized labor can get behind that has a really good feel for what's going on with the California electric because it's a really diverse state and San Francisco has really no bearing on what Los Angeles does, and San Diego is different as well, So someone's going to have to be able to appeal to all of those all of those interest groups.
Matt Clink Clincampaigns dot com. I appreciate your insight. I mean this, I'm fascinated by this. I know you are. This is what you live and breathe, and you know it's going to be honest before we know it. And I look forward to talking to you about not just this race, but the mayor's race in south the cal which is going to be upended because of the crisis response to the fire.
So, Matt, thanks so much for your time.
Oh my pleasure. I'd love to talk about the mayor's racist You all right.
We'll get back to you on that one.
You're listening to KFI Am six forty on demand.
I'm Phil Schuman from Fox eleven News. There are no Phil Schuman shirts. I can guarantee you that. Do you listen to podcasts? You can listen to all the podcasts of the KFI radio hosts, and of course on iHeartRadio. I listened to a lot of podcasts at night. Bill O'Reilly, Bill Oreilly dot Com has a pretty good one. Keith Olberman Olberman do you remember him? Has a good one. Mark Maron, the Comedian, is a really good one. Mark Levin, the conservative talk radio host. I know my wife just
can't believe I'd listened to that one. I'd like to listen to a wide variety of sources of information read a wide variety of sources of information, right, so you understand different perspectives, different angles, different sources. That's the challenge is that so many of us are locked into MSNBC, or we're locked into CNN, or we're locked into Fox News, which has a constant I'm looking at Fox News in the studio right now, replaying Sean Hannity's interview with the
President Trump and co president Elon Musk. So you got to investigate a wide variety of sources of information, and you have to spend a little bit of money. I mean the La Times in southern California. I keep talking about it. I finished, it's nineteen eighty three. It's my driveway or now my computer every morning since then. I was looking at it today. Promotional rate, I think is
four dollars for the first month. Can you spend four dollars to be educated about what's happening in southern California? I mean, then you want to add in the OC Register and maybe the Ventura County papers. You know, again, we live in such a huge, diverse community. You need more than one source of information. There's kind of I guess you'd call it I've talked about this before here. I don't know if you agree with me or not, but sort of three general categories of people when it
comes to the news. I mean, I'm a news junkie. That would be the first one. You're aware of the news, you're following the news, you're listening to the radio, you're reading the newspapers, website, you're watching the news on TV. Then there's the complete opposite of that, another end of the spectrum, which is people who just have tuned out. It's too depressing, it's too upsetting, it's too overwhelming. I don't want to know, I don't need to know. It
stresses me out. And then in between that, as somebody might be special interests. I'm following politics, I'm following sports, I'm following culture, whatever your special interest might be.
And that's that's.
Fine too, agree, disagree. Am I missing something? Is there a fourth category? I don't know? One eight hundred five to oh one KFI or record a comment on the iHeartRadio app. Story that's getting a lot of interesting headlines is this new uber feature. Have you heard about this? The headline it's a little bit misleading because it really has to do with overseas, but I'm actually going on a European trip later on this year, so this is
relevant heads up Uber riders. Unless you disable it, a new setting in the app may cost you the next time you hail a ride again overseas.
Again, it's called preferred currency pricing.
It allows you to pay in your home currency and it makes it easier to let riders know how much you're paying when you're out of the country. But the issue is that there's a one point five percent conversion fee which is applied automatically unless you turn off the currency conversion. So if you're going overseas and you plan on using Uber, you might want to check that out. The other even more bizarre or important or unusual or newsworthy story that had to do with ride hailing and apps.
Have you seen the headline for this one?
They're calling it Uber with Guns app, available in Los Angeles, provides armed security with the click of a button. Yes, when you go onto the app, you not only can hail a ride, but you can hire an armed bodyguard.
Let's listen.
Newiest app providing armed security at your fingertips. Users get to choose the type of bodyguard they want, how they should dress, and what type of black car you'll need for the occasion. The Elite Service provides private security from active or veteran law enforcement and members of the military.
We're trained in TACTICOK combat, casualty care, risk assessment, risk mitigation.
And side assessment.
All of that sounds great, but law enforcement expert Bruce Thomas says consumers should also verify what.
Is their background.
Are they just law enforcement, are they just military? Have they gone to a bodyguard school? Have they gone to a protection school like I put myself through in the late nineties. So these are things that I, as a consumer would want to make sure that they have.
The companies said all protectors are vetted, but they are not cheap. The standard rate is one thousand dollars an hour with a five hour minimum, which Thomas says is a standard time frame.
Anytime you have a service like this, like anything, they have to be fully licensed. In the state of Californa Investigative Services has to license you. You have to have what's called the guard cards you do this type of business. Then you also have what's called the firearms permit, which allows you to carry a weapon.
The company claims it's professionals are licensed to carry under the law Enforcement Officers Safety all qualified experts see. It's also a good idea to verify the company is ensured for liabilities. Right now, the service is only available here in LA and New York.
That was our friends at KABC seven catch the end of that report. This is one of my many, many, many, many many pet peeves with the reporting. I know, Eileen's probably smiling at me, looking at me in the newsroom on the monitor. It's like, it's a cliche, and almost so many news reports experts say like, what do you mean?
Experts say, like, what experts are you referring to? You're like experts in what experts in hiring law enforcement personnel as bodyguards through an app, experts and security experts and gunfire experts in society, experts in crime.
It's I mean, it's it's not wrong. It's kind of a cliche.
It's kind of a crutch that so many reporters use, and it's so unnecessary. Writing for news, whether it's radio, whether it's television, newspapers, is an overlooked skill. You think of its broadcast, You just think about what people are saying, right, But you have to write those words before you say them, unless you're ad libbing like I'm doing right now. So experts say that using the cliche experts say is overused. All right, that's my one pet peeve ol list for today.
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
As I mentioned at the top of the hour, so tough to relax and enjoy with so much heartache happening in our communities because of the aftermath of the January wildfires and the political upheaval. We're going to get into that over the next hour or so. We're going to be visited with We're going to be visiting with James Rainey, veteran LA Times reporter who lost his childhood home to
the Malibu fire, wrote about it. I'm going to talk about the LA Times role in keeping us informed here in southern California about what really happened with the response to the wildfires, and much of what they've been revealing is not good, which is not to denigrate by any stretch of the imagination the efforts of the first responders in the firefight and community, but more about the pre deployment strategies, the resources available, and why is the LA
City Fire department taking so much heat, and nobody is raising questions similar questions or fewer questions about the leadership of the county and the La County Fire Department when it comes to the Altadena response. We have heard a lot about the failure of the emergency warning systems and how that may have cost lives in the western part
of the city. But ELA's County Fire Chief, Anthony Moroni, still has his job, and so do the officials from La County Department of Emergency Services, so on and so forth.
I'm not saying that we need to be pointing the finger.
What I'm saying is that we need to figure out what happened, make sure we do better the next time, and then make sure that our political leaders are inspiring the recovery effort. I mean, if you look at Los Angeles City mayor Bath since she's got back, has been everywhere, has been omnipresent. But how tone deaf was that handling of Steve sober Off, the longtime developer and civic leader to be the recoveries are and wouldn't answer questions about
how he was being paid. Then it comes out that he's going to be paid five hundred thousand dollars from charitable foundations from ninety days work. And then when the La Times broke that story, it's like, oh, well, you know what we asked Steve, and he's going to do it for nothing. I mean, that is not an example of inspired leadership. We need heroes right now to step up, whether it's from the private sector or from our elected officials.
There are a lot of hard working, well intentioned people who are on the job, and there are multiple organizations that have sprung up. Rick Caruso has one, the Dodgers organization has one. Of course, the city, the county, the state, and the federal government.
They're all working.
But if I'm like a displaced home owner who lost everything in Alta Dina or the Palisades, am I like feeling really good about the future, I'd have to say the answers no, a great disagree. On the iHeartRadio app, you can record a comment if you really inspired, pick up the phone one eight hundred and five to one five three four and we'll have a conversation. You know, in the news today a couple of airline issues. Do
you feel safe as a flyer? I mean, I'm not a nervous fly I have friends who are nervous flyers who have to sort of self medicate to get through a flight, especially if it's a longer one. We had that terrible collision between the helicopter and the passenger plane in Washington, d C. Sixty seven lives lost, but overall I did some Internet research on this.
You've heard this before.
The odds of dying in an aircraft passenger as an aircraft passenger too small to calculate.
The International Association for.
Transportation, The International Transport Association says that this is a statistic.
Which is mind boggling.
If you wanted to calculate the odds of you dying as a passenger in a commercial flight, you would have to fly a flight every day for one hundred and three thousand years to experience.
A fatal crash.
I don't know how they calculated that, but the point is that flying is the safest mode of transportation. If you make it through the traffic to the airport, you're already way ahead of the game. So earlier today, big news in that adulta flight made an emergency landing at lax after smoke was detected on board, took off nine pm last night returned to Lax only about thirty minutes later. According to data from that flight Aware app, it was an Airbus A three fifty nine hundred. It was en
route to Sydney, Australia. One hundred and sixty two passengers are on board. Again, smoke was detected, not any details about the source of the smoke.
It was not in the cockpit.
There were some passengers who needed medical attention, but the plane landed successfully and the plane the plane. The passengers were rerouted on different aircraft and then a more frightened Even another frightening situation was an American Airlines flight out of New York was diverted to Rome today. It was heading from JFK to New Delhi in Deira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi when it was diverted to Rome over a possible security issue.
We have more on that.
Finding moments for passengers on a Delta flight headed to Sydney, Australia. The flight had to return to Lax last night for an emergency landing. That's because there were reports of smoke in the galley of an Airbus A three fifty. Now this is video of the plane landing safely. From our Lax camera, there were one hundred and sixty two people on board and were rebooked on another flight.
Okay, my apologies, I had those two stories mixed up. That was referring to the emergency landing at Lax due to the smoke in the cockpit. The other story was the American Airlines flight out of New York was diverted to Rome, which landed successfully with fighter jet escorts, which is a little bit scary to see that on the internet. Apparently a bomb threat was received by email, but it was deemed you be unfounded. Do you have any trips coming up? Don't be nervous if you're flying all right.
We're going to check in with Eileen Gonzalez, perhaps a couple of minutes early, and when we come back the next hour, we're going to talk about Pope Francis in critical condition. A local priest is going to join us, talk about what that means to the hundreds of millions of Catholics and others here in the United States that are following this one Governor Newsom asking for asking Congress for nearly four hundred billion for La wildfire relief.
Where does that stand?
We're going to visit with veteran La Times reporter James Rainey, who lost his childhood home in the Malibu fires and part of the team that's continuing to call for accountability among our officials in the response to the wildfires. And then coming up at four o'clock. Of course, regular host here in KFI is Chris Merrill. He's always fun to talk to. We're going to check in with him also in the next hour.
KFI Am sixty on demand