You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
I'm Phil Schumann with you for another hour.
I'm going to start things off with a subject that has long been fascinating to me.
Outrageous. Call it what you will.
We live in a country where free speech is protected. In seventeen ninety one, the First Amendment was adopted. Is part of the Bill of Rights, protecting freedom of speech as well as religion, the press, thank you very much, Assembly, and the right to petition the government. So if you go to LA City Hall, and by the way, if you've never been to LA's City Hall in downtown Los Angeles, I really would encourage you to go and just take
a tour of the building. It's spectacular, built in nineteen twenty seven, been restored.
It's really a beautiful building.
And three days a week the city council meets Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. And you may not think about this, but the meetings are open to the public. You go to this beautifully ornate on Ferraro City Council Chamber and if there's an issue on the agenda that you'd like to speak about, you.
Can essentially open mics.
And what's happened is that there's these gadflies, a handful of them that are abusing the process. They use the most foul, shocking, offensive language. I mean it's I'm no prude, believe me. I've been known to use, like, you know, a bad word here or there, but I mean, even this to me makes me cringe. Michael Monks is a CAFI reporter who's covered plenty of these meetings at City Hall and I'm sure shares my outrage at this.
Michael, I'm not exaggerating this, am.
I You nailed it, especially when you said gadflies, because these are folks who are at every single meeting, and not just the main meetings you mentioned on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays. They go to the committee meetings. That's usually just for nerds like me who go to the committee meetings, and these guys specifically go to those meetings to speak and they offer zero substance instead, it's just the litany of epithets.
So it's like the N word, the C word, I mean, anti Semitic, anti racist comments, I mean, the most vile language in public.
So let's say Michael Monks is winning.
An award for a Reporter of the Year and you're so proud of it, and your mother and father are coming and your family members, and they're all happy to be there, and they're in the city Council chambers and the city and then they're listening to some of these comments in these public public sessions and.
They're like, oh my god, how is this allowed.
So the reason we're talking about this is that finally, finally, the La City Council President, Marquise Harris Dawson, has proposed a rule that essentially says he's limited it to two words which we certainly can't repeat here, and it is a way to prevent people from using those words, and they get a warning and then if they do it a second time, then they're essentially ejected from the meeting and maybe barred from future meeting.
Everybody seems to think is a.
Great idea, but it may not hold up because of the first Amendment.
Is that a summary, and that's a.
Pretty excellent summary. When Marquis Heristos and the councilman, was voted in as president of the City Council, I asked him last to fall, what are you gonna do about this? I mean, do you have any plan to address the chaos that emerges during the public comments session section of these meetings, and he did say at that time that he intended to address this some way, he couldn't offer any specifics. What they have dealt with are the courts who say, as vile as these comments are, they are
protected free speech. The city has paid out before a six figure sum when they were sued over this exact type of thing. This is the only municipal building where I see this type of behavior routinely, though. That's what's so strange about it. It's almost like a microcosm of la at large. You know that there is chaos, there's there's.
Beauty all around.
You describe the building, well, it's a gorgeous building, and then inside it his chaos, just like the city all over.
I have seen it at the Police Commission hearings, which are also ultimately like on Tuesday mornings.
And it's a lot of the same, false same, and some of them even slither over to the Board of Supervisors meetings on Tuesday mornings. It's not as tolerable there. They tend to shut that stuff down, but there are occasions where you're very uncomfortable and as you noted, somebody getting award for something. I mean, this is still the
city government. There are some basic, raw, raw things that happen even in a big city, like la high school basketball team being honored, a civic activist being honored, and they and their supporters and friends and family are there and they have to witness these racially charged words, these sexist remarks, these fat shaming remarks. It takes a lot to get people to feel sympathy for elected leaders in these country these days.
But they can't help it. It's X rated, it's vulgar, it serves no purpose. These aren't legitimate people. They're commenting on an issue. They're just they're not I mean, that's I think would be a non clinical term.
I mean, we're all for the First Amendment.
Hey, we work in the news business, that's right, right, Yeah, nothing is more sacred than the First Amendment. But this, this is an abuse of the process, and it's a problem.
The abuse of the process is exactly what I have personally felt weirdest about. Disregard the offensive nature of it all, but there are other folks who go to the city with legitimate concerns or suggestions, and what happens is because there is a parade of ridiculousness that takes place. The council members tend to disengage right out here. They're not listening, some leave, and so they don't even hear you when you get up to say, hey there's overgrown trees, or hey this road is messed.
Up where they are broken.
And so as a result, there the people that have a legitimate to comment, to make up a legitimate issue never really get heard because as you said, the council people aren't really paying attention because the majority of it is dominated by these these the vulgarity, That's exactly. And
it's like personal too. I mean in this in the police commission hearings, the podium is like ten feet away from the police chief and he has to sit there whoever it may be, and be subjected to like vile, racist, homophobic attacks and like the worst language you could ever imagine, and you're just supposed to sit there because we have the First Amendment and take it. This has to change, and I know Dawson has proposed this, and I'm sure the City Council will pass it.
It'll be challenging court. It's going to be an ongoing issue.
Well, the city has grown a custom, especially this fiscal year, to writing checks when they lose a court case, and so if they are still in that habit when this thing is legally challenged, then I'm sure they'll just get the check book out and we'll go back to the side show that city Council meetings have become.
Are you with me? Though?
People should visit City Hall. It's really, Oh my god, if I say it all the time, it's just gorgeous. I live downtown and you know, it just sticks out above. It's like our original skyscraper here. It's just a stunningly gorgeous mix of like Art Deco and other period architectural styles from the nineteen thirties. It's a stunning building. The council chamber is beautiful, The press room is very old school and it makes you feel like you're in a
mid century office. It's great all around. There's just a lot of unpleasantness that takes out.
People don't realize that it's open.
The meetings are open to the public and you can come in and you know, there's a great little restaurant slash stack snack.
Bar up on dinner and a show.
Yeah, up on top the Hall of Mayor's I think it's called there's an amazing you can go from the top floor and city and the Hall of Administration is not bad either. The building isn't as gorgeous from an architectural point of view, but it's a very cool building also, and there's a cafeteria open to the public I think
on the twelfth floor. The amazing views of downtown Los Angeles. Yeah, so that's an old school office, a lot, a lot to offer, you know, if you can deal with the homeless issue, which.
Is that's what I mean.
That was my comparison earlier, is that these meetings are a microcosm of greater Los Angeles. Is that there is so much beauty surrounding you, and then you're also surrounded by chaos at the same time, and we're just trying to get by, just trying to live day to day.
Man, all right, man, enjoy the rest of your Sunday. Michael monschrom KFI, thanks for coming on with us.
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
President Trump's concern about the US declining birth rate and how we want more babies. Perhaps that's why he's so close with Elon, who has fourteen children, some of which even like him. Maybe the majority apparently don't now don't see him as the father of the year at any rate. George Foreman had twelve kids, And there was a great post on social media, if you're so inclined to go look for it of a great family shot with I think I'm assuming it was all of his kids all
around him. But what's fascinating, and if you've been following the story then you probably already know this, is that he had five sons.
Did you know this?
And he had and every one of them was named George, which always I always find obviously unusual, and I'm using and he said he just wanted to all know that they're all in this together. They each had obviously different nicknames. So before the break, we were talking about recalls. A product recall. You hear about them from time to time. It's pretty basic. It's a request from a manufacturer to basically return a product because there's some type of defect
that's been discovered. But it's not just any old defect. It's something that might endanger a customer, or of course, as equally motivating, it's something that might put the make or the seller of the product at risk of legal action. So recalls. There's basically a corrective action. Why am I saying basically so much, Eileen. It's a corrective action, that is for products that are potentially unsafe. And you don't
really think of cheesecake as something would be recalled. But we're going to go through a list of some of them. Just something interesting. This is a popular bakery item sold at Target, and it's been recalled for mislabeled packaging its Favorite Day Gourmet New York Style Cheesecake, because the product contains pecans or is it pecans yet the packaging does
not disclose this is a potential allergen. People have analogy or sensitivity to nuts, specifically pecans can run the risk of series of life threatening allergic reactions if they consume these products.
Now, when I go to Target.
I'm not sure that cheesecake is on my shopping list. I mean, unless for some reason you've tried it before and you're you like that particular brand. It's it's Target's Favorite Day Gourmet New York Style cheesecake. Hey, when I'm thinking I'm buying cheesecake, I'm gonna either buy it from a bakery or a supermarket.
It's actually good. It's actually good. That's Richie is saying it. I'm sure it's good. I mean, if you ever had bad cheese cake, it's like ice cream. You have had bad ice cream. I don't think so.
But hey, all right, so if you have Target New York style cheesecake, be careful if you're allergic to nuts, because it has pecans and it's not in the label.
All right.
And this is another one that I know is hitting home for some folks here at KFI. Chomps beef snacks were recalled after pieces of metal were found in the product.
This was earlier this week.
The USDA's Food and Safety Inspection Service announced that Idaho Smokehouse Partners recalled about twenty nine thousand pounds of eye Chomps ready to eat beef sticks. They were because of a possible contamination with metal. Two consumers reported that pieces of metal were found in the product. Not quite sure what the source of the metal was. Looking further into the story, it doesn't really say. But chomps, is that a pop? The brand Chomps another good item? Where do
you get those anywhere? Gas stations.
Target.
All these sounds like you're spending a lot of time at targelves. I do not anymore the target.
All right, So if you have chomps, grass fed and unfinished beef, as we like to say, all stick without the ick segwe, I don't think Segways are we're being made anymore.
It's the Segue nine bought Mac six thirty.
GPH and the Mac six thirty LP kickscooters, and this could be a problem. The handlebars or the stem of the scooter can pretty much just fold up on its own, uh during use. Apparently there's about two hundred and twenty thousand of these across the United States, and that's resulting user injuries ranging from bruises to broken bones. The Segway. We see the Bird scooter everywhere, but I don't see
the Segway scooters around as much anymore. But apparently they're sold at best Buy, Costco, Walmart, Sam's Club, of course, Target, online at Segway dot com and Amazon Amazon dot com, and they've been sold as recently as February twenty twenty five. So if you have a Segway scooter, you definitely want to be careful and when I was young, a youngster, I had a mini bike. You remember mini bikes, It's like a mini motorcycle. And the one I had was
special because it had no brakes. I'm sure my parents were really thrilled about that at the time, if they even knew. And it went fast, had no breaks, so you just let up off the throttle and you kind of use your sneakers to slow down. And I remember riding at full speed, wide open one time at the at Memorial School, the elementary school near my house, and the handlebar broke off with the throttle on it. That resulted in a major crash, which I'm still recovering from today.
All right, and then what else has been?
Oh, Tesla, I mean, it seems like you just can't get away from elon right, and this would be a problem.
This was on Thursday. It's still happening.
All cyber trucks, all cyber trucks, which is only about forty six thousand, fifty thousand, which is still a significant number, have been recalled because an exterrior panel that runs along the left and right side of the windshields can detach while driving standless steel trip called a can't rail assembly.
It's between the windshield and the roof on both sides.
Apparently it's glued onto the body with what they cleverly term a structural adhesive. So you imagine driving your Tesla truck, your cyber truck, and all of a sudden, pieces of metal from the windshields start flying off. Apparently videos on social media are showing people actually ripping off the panels of the cyber trucks with their own hands. I've seen so many of these cyber trucks, and now I would
not buy a cyber truck. Aside from the elon musk, the you're supporting musk when you buy a Tesla or not. That's sort of a separate discussion, which is an interesting, interesting discussion, which we're not getting into right now. I personally wouldn't want a Tesla cyber truck, but I think they're cool looking in sort of a manly way, and we see them. So probably forty six thousand in the United States, probably half of those are in southern California, I mean only in.
La or Beverly Hill.
Say, well, you see, like you know, two cyber trucks parked at the curb, side by side. One's purple, and I saw one the other day that had this really detailed, like sort.
Of wolf paint scheme on it.
Anyway, if you've got a cyber truck, turn it back into Tesla. They'll fix it and send it back to you. They're saying that. You know, it's obviously a serious concern. I mean, you don't want pieces of middle flying up. All right, So do you have anything else you'd like to add to the recall list? Anybody while we're While we're talking recalls now, a little bit of public service.
Today, all right?
When we come back West Hollywood residents say they're suffering from the neighbor from Hell for months. And what's more is that, Hey, if you call the authorities, what do they tell you, Oh, sorry, we can't really do anything. He's just an annoying neighbor. But it's not really a crime. Is that good enough? And what are they doing about it? This West Hollywood apartment building. It's something in all the local TV stations and I think radio stations have covered as well.
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
A great story that demonstrates the frustration of renters of homeowners with I guess the lack of response from those who you look to for help is from West Hollywood got a lot of attention this week after the newspapers the TV stations did at the residence of an apartment complex. They're felt they had no choice but to turn to the news media. They say they've been living in fear of their violent neighbor at an apartment complex a North
Fairfax abage you for months. So if you saw this on the news, the TV news, he's caught on a security camera footage like violently banging on doors. He's throwing trash cans around, he's breaking windows, and the residents say they've called the Sheriff's department like twenty five times, but they say that he's not necessarily breaking any laws, so they can't do anything.
Let's listen to a report from Fox eleven.
He violently bangs on doors, verbally attacks neighbors, smashes windows, and screams at all hours of the day and night.
It has been violent beyond anything you imagine.
I am talking two am, four am, six am.
Neighbors say they've been dealing with months of chaos and fear for their own safety. They asked us not to show their faces.
If you can imagine a sledgehammer being dashed against the door, the walls for hours a day some time, it just sounded.
Like he was semanishing furniture in there, and then all of a sudden, like the banging turned into like the building shaking.
The apartment is located on the twelve hundred block of North Fairfax Avenue in West Hollywood. Residents say law enforcement has been called to the location at least twenty five times.
And the same answer is this, we can't do anything. I'm so sorry.
Since the man hasn't physically harmed anyone and most of the destructionists confined to his own apartment, Residents say deputies have told them there's nothing they can do. Their hands are tied.
We have to wait for it.
To get too bad for them to actually do anything, which is why they make dateline.
You know what I mean.
Like, it's just it's wild.
Frustrated and desperate for change, These residents are speaking out, hoping to push for wronger laws that better protect them.
We have to live in hell while this person is free to do anything.
The landlord has informed the residents that the violent tenant will be forcibly evicted on.
On Fox eleven is Gina Silva.
Gina Silva and I go way back to our days working together at Extra. Remember the show Extra, which is on Fox eleven now with Billy Bush, began its life as a news and entertainment program we're talking in the late nineties, and Gene and I both worked there covering news stories around the country. Got some great stories about those days, which we'll share with you another time. But Gena is one of the great members of the Fox eleven News team, a veteran reporter who breaks a lot
of stories. She did a similar story I think last fall with a neighbor from Hell. It's one of those sort of cliche news terms that was down in Santa Ana that was eventually taken into custody. And what's frustrating here is is that and again we did not hear directly from the Sheriff's department in this one. But what's clearly frustrating is that if this guy wants to make noise in his own apartment and damage things and break things,
he can do that. But it sounds like he threatened violence against other members other residents in the apartment complex. And if that's the case. Then it seems like clearly that he could have been subject to arrest by the sheriff's apartment. So a lot we don't know about that one. We're just sort of hearing from the residents. But that the visuals on that were unbelievable. If you saw this guy, you know, banging on things, you could hear it in
the background there. So it sounds like what's happened is that the landlords have gone through the legal process of eviction. You know, I'm a big I'm a big handle, I'm a law fan. On Saturday mornings, what is that from eight to eleven now where Bill Handle gives out more our general legal advice. So one of the favorite subjects that often comes up there and he seems to know a little bit about this is eviction. It's a process. You know, it takes a while. You guys, listen to handle on the law.
I love. I always tell people handle on the lot. This is my story about handling the law.
Bill Uh, I lent my roommate twenty five thousand dollars and he told me he'd pay me back, but now he won't. Can I call the police? And then Bill's response, you're an idiot and goes down over there. It's like the classic Handle.
I like him. Yeah, you're an idiot.
Yeah, I mean Bill is Bill Handle one of a kind of what We're lucky to have him. I mean when I was telling you earlier, I'm listening to Amy King from five to six, and then when Handle starts saying at six o'clock with some just outrageous topic that is very narrowly skirting the bounds of what's appropriate and what is and it just you just you just shake your head.
We love Bill Handling.
All right, I'm Phil Schuman with you for another twenty minutes or so. God, it goes by so fast. I wish we were gonna be with you later. Chris Merrill, who has his own interesting take on things, is going to be coming up at four o'clock.
We have more to discuss though about.
One of the things that's fascinating to me is the trend towards using drugs to lose weight, because you know Americans, you know, we want everything fast, two weeks, want every two weeks. I took a yoga class once from a Korean instructor who's talked about how impatient Americans are. We're doing one particular yoga pose, and he says this position took him eight years to master. But here we want everything done fast, and that's why ozmpic is popular. So
there's a new trend involving a zembic. And then TikTok is actually doing something worthwhile for once, we'll explain what that is.
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
I leave at four o'clock.
The The Dodgers host the Detroit Tigers opening Day at a home opener of the twenty twenty five season, although opening Day was technically in Tokyo. Remember that about ten days ago, the Dodgers won two straight games from the Chicago Cubs playing in Tokyo in games that actually count in the standing. So they're two to no heading into the home opener on Thursday. Hopefully I will be there covering it for Fox eleven. It's always so much fun.
I can't imagine anybody that's listening to KFI that has not yet been to a Dodgers game at Dodger Stadium. But if you're for some reason you have not, please make that a priority. All right, Dodgers Opening Day Thursday tonight. One of the other fun things to do in southern California. Although it's pricey, there's no doubt about it is going to a Clippers game. I mean, we know what the Lakers games are like at Crypto formerly, God, my mine's
complete blank. But the new Clippers into it Dome in Englewood is.
So much fun.
Steve Boma really built like an amazing facility there, and tonight they're playing the Oklahoma City Thunder, which I believe is the number one team in the West. Eileen, what was Crypto called before it was Crypto? I'm like totally blanking on that. How is that even possible? I've only been there, like Staple Staple Center, Thank you, thank you very much?
All right, the wrong button?
All right, it's sorry, right, I mean you're putting under too much pressure there. So, like many of us at us who have achieved a certain age, the weight, the pounds slowly start to creep up, right, no matter how hard we try. So obviously you're familiar with ozempic and other injectable weight loss drugs, so I would not I don't not use ozempic. I mean, if I weighed for hundred pounds, maybe I think about it because that would
be a fairly drastic situation. But now there's a trend of microdosing o zepic, So apparently they become desirable among those who don't need the full dose of the medication, but you want to reap some of the benefits. So health quote influencers and there's that term that we love. Influencers have started sharing their micro micro dosing regimens on social media. There was a big New York Times report about this, saying that you can actually lose a few pounds.
But then the benefit of microdosing, and you know this is their accounts, is that it avoids the more undesirable side effects of regular treatment, which is the always lovable nausea, vomiting, stomach pain, and constipation, among others. So if you ask people who are severely overweight if you would put up with those unpleasant side effects in order to have dramatic
weight loss, obviously they're saying yes. But now this microdo dosing movement has apparently become a trend, and it's not just because it's avoids the side effects, it's also saves money because if you aren't following this, you know these drugs are typically not covered by insurance. A zimbig gov Manjaro is another one, and they're like one thousand dollars
a month or so. So if you microdose, you can stretch that out over a period of time and you know, save money while you lose Weight's the that's the slogan for microdosing, right, save a dollar, lose a pound? All right, microdosing? I don't know, but again it's a trend. Speaking of trends, TikTok now, I am not on TikTok? Are you ladies on TikTok? Richie on TikTok?
Sure?
I mean I just feel like, what what is what is the value of TikTok? I mean that we don't already have in other social media apps.
You know. It's just a quick little app that helps you learn a lot of things of life, like whether it's new stuff, trends, hairstyles, everything you think of.
It's their trends. It's all about the trends. Yep.
So I mean is it much better different slash than Instagram or x?
Instagram is more for photos, I would say, or like selling a product I feel like, or you know, trying to flex something I feel like with TikTok, at least from what I get, it's it's just like more of a platform for people to storytell within a few seconds two minutes, and you know, they do dances, they do breakdowns of history.
It's literally like a Google video time.
I mean, I don't want to sound like, you know, the old guy not using TikTok, but I mean, obviously I'm in the minority because I think I just want a quick update. Four point five billion people around the world use it. It's become hugely popular. It debuted I guess about ten years ago. So basically, you create and you share like short videos shot on your phone, quirky things, music.
You know, it's controversial as its own bite China, but at any rate, one positive thing we can say about it is that they're partnering with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children to bring real time AMBER alerts directly to users' feeds. I guess it's a feature called the four U feed in the United States. Now, it has to be activated if an AMBER alert is activated activated by law enforcement and you're in that designated geographical area.
Apparently the alert appears in your for you feed and TikTok identifies where the user is within a specific location, of course, through their tracking, and so that's that's great. They they did a pilot program in Texas where Amber alerts on TikTok reviewed over twenty million times. This was back in August through December of last year, and it led to two point five million visits to the National
Center from Missing and Exploited Children's website. So, you know, anything that can be done to help find missing children through the Amber alerts obviously would be a good thing. And so when we say social media is largely a waste of time, well, here's something good that it can be done for. I mean, I say it's a waste of time, and I'm as guilty as the next person because it's not the first thing I do when I wake up, Thank God.
Usually that's like getting some coffee.
But I'm as guilty as the next person of doom scrolling.
I don't love that term, but it's very descriptive.
Spend way too much time, by my own admission, look at at X, look at at Instagram, occasionally Facebook, and you know X for those of us in the news business has become like a very important platform for disseminating news releases, for breaking news, for sharing news updates. So in that regard it's very important and very legitimate, but again, a lot of it is nasty comments about somebody else or takes people's takes, and then everybody weighing in and
criticizing them, whether it's sports or politics. So you know, my theory, which if you've listened to me before here on KFI or I've talked with you, is that when the history of our time is written, that it's the Internet and by extension, social media may turn out to be a net negative because there's for every good thing that you can do, like let me google how many people are in the world, what's the population of the United States, what's the percentage of police salaries that account
for the thirteen billion dollar budget in the city of Los Angels who won the nineteen eighty four World Series? Who was the thirteenth President of the United States. For all of the great things that the internet allows, the downside is also huge. And the dark web we've heard about that, I mean the facilitation of crime and you know X rated things that happen online. I'm not trying to preach, I'm just saying that, in my humble opinion, when they write the history of our time, that the
Internet may turn out to be a net negative. Hopefully I'm wrong about that. I mean, are you guys with me on this? You shake in your head? Am I crazy? I don't know? You know AI. We hear all the you know, the downsides and the abuse potential abuse of AI. So it's an interesting topic for discussion. I mean, could
you imagine living without the Internet. I read a great novel recently called The President Is Missing by one of my favorite authors, James Patterson, who wrote it with former President Clinton of all people, and the plot revolves around this terrorist group that takes down the United States Internet and with it all of the infrastructure that's supported by the Internet.
And can you imagine what that would happen?
I mean, I know in my own house, if the Internet ever goes out, this is like Defcon three emergency situation, especially if you have to be doing any work from home. It's not just for fun that you know, I'm ordering you know, socks on Amazon, but most people do something do work from home or do email from home. You know, almost all of us do that if we have a job, not necessarily working from home, but you know checking in with work and so the internet obviously is crucial for that.
But do you know how to reactivate the internet? Do you know what the difference between your router and your motim is? Do you know where it comes into the house? You know what to do if it goes out other than calling someone and saying, hell, my internet is out. So I know just enough about to get myself in trouble. But it's like when you call the eight hundred number, have you tried unplugging it and plugging it back in? It's like, yes, I've tried that, Thank you very much.
I appreciate that insight. So here's a tip for all of you. If you're not quite sure how the internet actually works in your house, maybe you should spend a minute and try to figure it out so the next time it goes down you can be the hero like I am with my wife. Whenever the internet goes out and I can fix it, I'm so proud. All right, that is going to pretty much do it for me. I'm Phil Schumann. You can catch me here occasionally. I think I'll be here next week at this time from
two to four. Also from time to time on Fox eleven News and my in Fox eleven Plus at eight and nine PM. So, I guess what you would call at the luxury of being like semi retired, so I don't really have like a full time job, which is an interesting new reality for me. All right, thanks very much for the opportunity to sit in KFI AM six forty on demand