You're listening to Bill Handle on demand from KFI AM six forty and now Handle on the news.
What geez kono with the attitude, I'll bring your problems to work and KFI AM six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app. Good Morgan Neil Savandra in for Bill Handle this morning. Be here all week. He'll be back on Monday, so stick around right here. He's still on vacation. I was on vacation with he and his lovely new bride and my family. But he's extended. He's got more money than I do. We ran out and had to come home. He just keeps on going. The ever ready
bunny but jewish and bald and rich. But other than that similar, Hey, Amy King, before we get into the morning news, Yes, please tell us about your waggle, your wiggle, your walk, all those things.
Well, we just mentioned it, but I'm gonna just mention it anytime that you give me the opportunity. The Wiggle Wagglewalk is coming up on Sunday, April sixth. We're going to be walking around the Rose Bowl to raise money for Pasadena Humane. And you know that they always do amazing work to take care of animals and treat them,
getting them ready for their forever homes. But they've been particularly stressed this year because of the eating fires and where they've taken in, like they've found fifteen hundred animals, they've treated them for burns. They're still housing some of them because people who lost their homes don't have a place to keep their animals, so they're basically boarding these animals until they can be reunited permanently with their families. So when you walk, you're doing good to help animals,
and that's a big deal. And our goal is to raise ten thousand dollars. We're not there yet. We need your help. We would love there's two ways to do it. You can walk with us, join the wake up call wigglers, or you can make a donation. Or you can do both and it's very easy to do both of them. Go to KFI AM six forty dot com, slash wiggle again. That's this Sunday. It's going to be a beautiful day. Come walk with us, won't you?
Did Bill donate?
He said he was going to hum I don't know. I got to go check your poke at him. And you know what, we've had some amazing donors. We've had some people that I can't say thank you too because they anonymously did it. So I will just say thank you to anyone anonymously. But several other people just have really stepped up and we appreciate it a ton.
That's awesome. That's awesome. I will donate as well.
Oh, good, thank you.
That is a great cause, so good twenty five cents. Yeah, we'll give it to you. I actually donated some little necklace thing the little dog tags.
This year did and I should mention that too.
So there's a couple fun.
There's a whole big area with GOT vendors and demonstrations, and we're gonna have a KFI booth and we have exclusive KFI swag bags for your pups that include the little.
Uh the doggye tag.
Doggie tags made by very own Nils Vedra.
It was good fun. I had fun doing that and I'm happy to do it. All right, let's get into the news, shall we lead story.
Pass packses? You have PAGs my brain.
We don't know what we're doing with your money, but please give us more. Don't be surprised if the next few times you ring something up this week you start seeing a few extra cents wrung up. Starting today, Los Angeles County residents will see a sales tax increase, oh boy, on their purchases due to a voter approved We're stupid measure that supports county run homeless services. So in some areas will jump from nine point five to nine point
seven to five. Alameda County currently has the highest county wide sales tax at ten point two five sh oh.
No, in Palmdale? Is it Palmdale that just went up to eleven and a quarter?
I mean really?
Yeah? And then some other cities, in addition to this county tax also added on. I think Huntington Beach has a new tax. And then this tax that we have, this is a half cent tax, but effectively it's going up by a quarter percent because what we passed in November was to repeal the old tax of a quarter cent and replace it permanently with a half cent tax.
So Measure H is what you're talking about, set to expire in twenty twenty seven.
Yeah, So they repealed that one completely, but then added on a bigger one permanently.
And you know what, we're still in the middle of a scandal. In my view, where we don't even know where the money is going for the homeless that we already have.
The couple billion dollars.
Yeah, yeah, so and we keep giving more money to this and it's not great.
Corey Booker's still talking. He's on the Senate floor. He's a new Jersey senator, and he started talking last night at four o'clock our time, and he has talked through the evening. I saw him this morning. He's still standing. He said, I rise with the intention of disrupting the normal business of the United States Senate for as long as I am physically able. He said, I rise tonight because I believe sincerely that our country is in crisis.
So this isn't a filibuster per se, because there's no law. He's not keeping me from passing the law or nominations or he's just talking.
He's only talking to himself because before he even started, the Senate had wrapped up his business for the day.
So even more impressive than well, maybe he's just crazy. No, Okay, So somebody that just stands up starts talking to himself for you know, through the evening, that's normal. Yeah, he's got.
Something to say. If nobody's listening. I see he has a point to make you bless him for it.
You do this, yeah, because he's angry at Trump.
Yeah, I do it too.
And seventy some odd days into a seventy one days into it where all hell's breaking loose? Is it pretty much anybody's life changed in this past seventy one days? I should know about.
They're laying the groundwork.
Is that right? It's coming, It's coming. Okay, so good on your corey. If someone gives you some water, his voice is going to be trashed. Stocks their worst quarter since twenty twenty two of men tariff uncertainty. Uncertainty makes people nervous. People liked the same, same, same, So the S and P five hundred dropped more than four point five percent for the first quarter of twenty twenty five
Monday's close, obviously, we looked these numbers. Falling tech heavy Nasdaq plummeted ten point four percent, Dow Jones Industrial Average settled at one point three percent lower, and recorded its first back to back monthly loss since October of twenty
twenty three. This all comes because President Donald Trump is set to unveil the new slate of wide ranging tariff so this ongoing trade policy that has everything up in the air, no names of countries that are gonna get tagged specifically, no numbers per se, just a fun name of what is it? It's non Independence Day. We already one of those.
He calls it liberation Day.
Yeah, liberation Day.
Niel Svader, do you think that there's some wheeling and dealing going on at this moment, which is why they haven't announced everything specifically?
Absolutely? Absolutely. The whole point of this, I mean, the whole point of this is that it's being played as a game. We don't like it. I get that, I get that, But I said this yesterday. If you walk in in the middle of surgery, it's ugly, blood everywhere, guts everywhere. And I you know, I'm not a Trump supporter personally, did not vote for the man. However, when somebody's president, you got to kind of let thing, you know,
see where things are gonna go. And the reality is, if he's gonna gut stuff and want to put it back together, we're gonna have to be patient. It's not gonna be pretty. There's a lot there is a lot of roots of stupidity that have been grown through throughout our country and the bureaucracy and the government that need to be hacked away. It isn't going to be pretty no matter who does it, a Republican, a Democrat, It's not going to be pretty if it's done right. So
I'm not thrilled with the way he does things. But I'm not here to say that none of this is going to come out good on the other side, because I don't know yet, and I don't think anybody does. So time will tell. Time will tell.
One moment is not enough. Authorities in Me and mar have held a minute of silence to honor the victims of the earthquake. More than twenty seven hundred people are dead, including fifty kids from one preschool. Oh that breaks my heart. The hardest hit areas are struggling to find food, water, and shelter. The magnitude seven point seven quake hit around
lunchtime locally on Friday. It was the strongest earthquake to hit the Southeast Asian country in more than a century, which means it's knocking over new buildings and ancient pagodas.
Everything just insane. A beautiful part of the world, by the way, A very beautiful part of the world. All right, So today Wisconsin has high stakes Supreme Court race special elections in Florida as well. So this is big doing this selection to fill a Supreme Court seat in Wisconsin. It's showing itself as the country's first major political battle since President Donald Trump returned to the White House. And you know, these are kind of like, I don't know,
tests of some kind. We look at these things to see how people are going to respond to the first seventy some odd days of Trump and the White House. So is the president's popularity in that state that he just narrowly flipped last year? Is this a gauge of some kind of what's going on and the politics and how that's going to play out. And then you've got a pair of special elections for two vacant House seats
in Florida. Maybe not as much attention as the other is getting, but the outcomes today could deliver Republicans some much needed reinforcements are kind of padding I guess, as Speaker of Mike Johnson narrow majority and provide you know, kind of the mood. We're looking at the mood, the vibe of the voters. So we shall see, Oh, it's my turn. Yes, ma'am, there's only two of us.
I know. Okay, wait, I got to get to the rate thing, Okay, Testing one, two, three. Testing Researchers at Caltech have been collecting samples and testing what's in them from dozens of homes around Altadena since the fires broke out, and what they're finding out is not good. The result of fifty two tests has found an alarming rate of
lead concentration on indoor surfaces. More than half had lead levels higher than at least the EPA limit, and Francoisissau, Caltech professor of geochemistry, says for kids, there is no safe level of lead.
Yeah. The interesting thing on this, I got some notice the other day from an attorney of some kind. We're ten miles away, I think miles right, I would say, from the eating fire, and we got something, you know, class action, something saying, hey, even if you weren't affected directly by the fire, you may have particulates and stuff
in your air ducts. And I was like just about to toss it, and I ended up tossing it, but I thought, wow, I never thought about that, because we did have ash all over the place, and now you are concerned about things floating, and there is no good amount of lead as somebody like me who lives in a house that's one hundred and twelve years old or something like one hundred and ten years old. Uh so scary, Oh, Amy, Amy know is this me? It's sorry? Sorry, Amy, I
was talking too much. I didn't want to hear myself anymore.
And and you were piling on.
Yeah. Wow, you have a reputation, Amy, that's the reality.
It kind of is usually, but only because you have a lot on your plate.
Yeah, so I just went there.
Thanks.
It was a wake up Okay. Three federal agencies reviewing nearly nine billion dollars in contracts and grants between the government and Harvard University. So this all has to do with you know, Harvard was pinnacle, right, Harvard is where everyone wants to get into, fantastic school, the American dream, blah blah blah. While now it's being said that Harvard's failure to protect students on campus from anti Semitic discrimination, all while some say promoting device of ideologies has put
the reputation in serious jeopardy. So now the government is including the Department of Education, Health and Human Services the US General Services Administration announced just yesterday they're reviewing this almost nine billion dollars in grants and more than two hundred and fifty five million dollars worth of contracts between them and Harvard. So this could be a big blow to have it all.
Right, Setting the record straight, federal officials say we didn't pick up that University of Minnesota graduate student for protesting. The student was detained by Immigrations and Customs enforcement. They say it was because of a duy. In a statement, the Department of Homeland Security said the individual in question was arrested after a visa revocation by the state Department related to a prior criminal history for dui.
Wow. It's like al Capone get nailed on tax concerns and do what you gotta do. She was got arrested for a dei. Oh, dui d u ei is a different thing. Gotcha, Roger? That all right? The Trump Administration's latest assertion of power over the press corps. The White House intends to take over the seating assignments in the press briefing room. So you have the White House Correspondence Association.
They're an independent group and they assign all the seats right, they manage the relationships between the White House and the Press Corps and all those things. While this could be a tug of war when things go into play, but really doesn't matter where they sit. What really matters is that everybody gets to ask questions and should be treated equally. Right, who cares where they sit?
For those of who can afford it, Space is now within reach. Space has launched a crew dragon spacecraft. It's carrying a cryptocurrency billionaire and three others on a days long trip that's going to orbit the Earth above the North and South Poles. That's never happened before. After it took off from Florida, the Falcon nine rocket flew south, tracing a path no human space flight mission has ever traveled.
The missions called fram two and spearheading it is Malta resident Chun Wang, who made his fortune running bitcoin mining operations, paid SpaceX an undisclosed amount of money, and then he's joined by Norwegian film director Janet Mickelson and Germany based robotics researcher Rabbi Rogue and Australian adventurer Eric Phillips.
Would you go? Would you go? To Space?
Not on like this? They're just in a capsule. Like, although I will tell you after talking to Colonel Haig several times, our Space Force guardian friend, you're just like, Wow, that would be so cool, but that this is just in orbit for three days.
Yeah, but you're in space. You get to see a perspective very few people have.
Oh sounds kind of scary. And who's piloting this sucker?
Well you, I.
Don't think anybody's steering, Okay, would you?
Yeah? I would want to. I don't know that I could physically hant. I don't know what they're looking to put two hundred and fifty pounds of extra bulk. You're laughing a little hard. Cono a lot of extra bulk on that thing, But I don't know. Spokesperson said. The CDC continues to recommend vaccines as the best way to
protect against measles. Who would have thunk, But this is kind of weird because leaders at the Center for Disease Control and Prevention also ordered staff this week not to release their experts assessment that found the risk of catching measles as high in areas near outbreaks where vaccination rates are lagging. So I like, why would you hold that back? They say, hey, well, because everybody knows you all know that, but some say that it's them kind of I don't know,
bowing to the new administration and things like that. It kind of makes it sound like, hey, it's a personal decision. You do what you gotta do. Well, no, it's it is a personal decision, but you're kind of working towards being in a society that is looking for herd immunity. I mean, yeah, it affects others. And you know, hey, was I thrilled about getting my son vaccinated with the COVID vaccine. No, it's a scary decision. No, I did it. Didn't believe bad an eye for myself, but nor did
my wife. But when you think about your child, you're okay, do I know enough about this? Am I? But you know, I'm not going to become a doctor anytime soon, so I'm going to have to trust one every single time I go in for anything. So he kind of just go ahead and do it.
Uh, Okay, Well.
A bad segue into this.
Yeah, here's one about trusting. A nine year old girl in San Diego County has died after going to the dentist. So she had a procedure didn't say specifically what it was, and they put her under anesthesia. So the medical examiner said that the child was moved to the recovery room and then sent home, and the girl remained asleep, and then later her family founder couldn't wake her up, found her unresponsive, and she was pronounced dead at the hospital.
The Watkins the dentistry company or the dentistry office said the child was charged in stable condition and awake with stable vital signs and protective reflexes intact into her mother's care. So the dentist office is saying she was awake. The mother of the medical examiner says, Nope, she wasn't. Wow, that's just so tragic.
And we don't know if there's any outside concerns, medical concerns, or something else that might have played a factor. That's scary as hell as apparently.
Sure, it's going to be investigated thoroughly to see what happened. I can't imagine why they would discharge somebody who wasn't awake, Like, if you've ever had a procedure, oh no, you know, they make you be awake, They make you make sure that you're not throwing up when you stand up that kind of thing. I mean from the surgeries I've had, they they watch it pretty closely before they say okay, you can go home.
Yeah, I've never seen that. And you know, and I've had maxiofacial surgery where it's pretty hardcore you know, mouthwork, and they are very very focused on making sure you are awake. So there, Yeah, something's sketchy going on for sure. The Chinese military said just today it had launched joint exercises involving its army, Navy, Air Force, and Rocket Force. There of course doing this around Taiwan as a stern warning because they don't do any limpristed warnings. Stern warning.
Days after US Defense Chief Pete Haigseth vowed to counter China's aggression when he was having his first visit there to Asia. So meanwhile, you've got officials close to Trump have repeatedly emphasized the need for the US to focus its attention and resources, of course, on countering China's ambitions in the Indo Pacific. So everybody's saber rattling and doing their or sable if they like fox hare sable, right?
Is that what a sable is a little fox?
I think so. Yeah, that's where they get for like sable brushes and sable fors. Do they still make those sable brushes? I think so? Like for painting, Yeah, who knows, we might have.
To google that. I don't think they're making the coats anymore, at least not in the US.
Yeah, because for his murder, Yeah what if it was self defense?
Okay? Ou La la friends needs a new candidate. A French court on Monday is convicted Marie Lapin Wait where's it Yeah, Marine Lapin of embezzlement and barred her from seeking public office for five years. Lapon's lawyer says she's going to appeal the verdict, but she'll be ineligible to run for president, most likely in twenty twenty seven, which she was planning to do. She was also sentenced to four years imprisonment, two to be served under house arrest, to suspended.
Two places I don't want to hear about a fight breakout. One would be like in an operating room, you know, in the operating theater. You don't want that to happen. A pretty close second would be in an air traffic control tower. Yeah right, you don't want any trouble there. So an air traffic controller has been charged with assault and battery in connection with a scuffle in the control
tower at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport last week. Because it doesn't have any problems there already that they got to worry about. So the Metropolitan Washington Airport's authority said its officers responded to an incident on March twenty seventh. Controllers got into a fight at the control tower. According to these reports, one person, Damon Marsalis Gaines, who works in controller operations, it was charged with the salt and battery. He's thirty nine years old.
It's not like they don't they're not under a lot of stress, but going to blows.
Yeah, I just think when it's you know, there's a lot. There's a lot of fear in flying right now, is what I'm saying. Yes, terror in the skies.
Heard daily on Gary and Channon. It's not daily, is it recently? It has been?
Oh I guess yeah, that changes things?
Okay? Can we please leave these people alone. A court on Monday has cleared the way for the release of investigative records from the deaths of Gene Hackman and his wife, Betsy Arakawa as long as depictions of the deceased couple are blocked from view. As you know, they died in their house in New Mexico. Very sad. He was ninety five. She was, I believe in her sixties.
Yeah, she was like sixty three.
You're sixty five. She died first of hantavirus, which is that rodent born disease, and then he died later from heart disease, and also he had Alzheimer's disease. But they lived a very private life. I wish people would just leave them alone. That's just my personal comment.
You know, what would you what could you possibly want to see or learn from the situation that one.
You want to put the partially mummified bodies on the front page of the paper. That's why they want it.
I understand morbid curiosity, I do, but I don't know. The story's sad all the way around. And they're two incredibly talented people in their own right. Yes, And it's like they gave enough to us they don't need to give in their death, all right. Trump signs an executive
order targeting ticket scalping. They signed this executive order yesterday aimed at protecting fans from exploitative ticketing because these are those tickets, like they go for one hundred bucks and then somebody I don't know how they do it, but they have a system to get the best seats immediately, right, and then they sell them for two grand to pop.
Yeah. Let me look at like Taylor Swift tickets for that show. If you wanted seats on the floor, they were like ten thousand dollars.
Yeah, and that's not what they were for. You know, somebody's making money that's not doing anything right.
Because that's not the face value. And that's the whole gist behind this. We've been talking about this a ton, Like you know, like Disneyland, you make a reservation, so when you go to Disneyland, it's you who goes and goes into the park. Yeah, and when you go on a plane you basically the same thing. For concerts, there is not that. So you can't get the tickets from the venue a lot of times if you want the good seats, and you got to go through the resellers and they charge you a ton.
Yeah, they need to do something a little more. I think you just pointed out that there are some air holes, some gaps that can be closed at least with knowing who's purchasing the tickets off the bat. All right, that was the morning news. We will be back with much more as we get into the situation the extended stay the astronauts had. We'll talk about that. I like the fact they keep bristling at the fact that anybody says they were stranded. Bro, that's stranded to me. But we'll
find that out. This is KFI heard everywhere on the iHeartRadio app. You've been listening to the Bill Handle Show. Catch my Show Monday through Friday six am to nine am, and anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app.