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KFI AM six forty bill Handle.
Here is a Friday morning, January seventeenth, and as this show is continuing on, some massive news is coming down the pike as we speak. First of all, it looks like a deal has been cut in the Middle East between Hamas and Israel, and first stage should start on Sunday with a release of hostages and Israel pulling back back away from the Philadelphia Quarridor, which is the area on the other side of Egypt, which is basically a buffer zone between Israel and Hamas.
Also, some hostages going to be returned.
I think about thirty six Palestinians are going to be exchanged Palestinian prisoners. And to give you an idea of a typical exchange policy and what happens during prisoner exchange, thirty six hostages are to be released, fifteen hundred Palestinian.
Prisoners are coming back, isn't that special?
Matter of fact, the case of Galite Shalid Khalid I get the name always confused, which is he was just a regular soldier, just a nothing soldier, well not a nothing soldier, but he was like you, a corporal, sort of the most minor level. He was captured by Hamas and it was six years of negotiation and the exchange rate was eleven hundred Palestinian prisoners to one Israeli.
So that was and was a big deal.
Is a big deal, but it looks like good news across the board. We'll see what happens. We'll see how this holds. And the other bit of news is the TikTok ruling or lack of ruling. Supreme Court has ruled that it is not going to get away or get in the way of the ban on TikTok, which is
supposed to start on Sunday. And now that the law, there's gonna be a big issue about whether or not, well Biden's going to do nothing because two days later, of course he's out of the presidency, but whether or not Trump is going to enforce the ban or not move forward in dealing with the band, because he, that is, Donald Trump went from being.
Totally in favor of the band hated TikTok.
Because TikTok, owned by a Chinese company, Byte Dance, has access to anybody who uses TikTok, all of the information can come in and everything, we know everything, we own, all of our private information if we're on TikTok is available that happens across the board. Well, this is a Chinese government that is connected to TikTok. So for national security reasons, there was a big, big to do about banning TikTok. Virtually everybody in Congress and the Senate, the presidency,
certainly Trump turned around the other way. Now even the Democrats and the Republicans in the Senate and the House have turned around. Now everybody loves TikTok, and the President says, I have a warm one place in my heart for TikTok.
And why is that?
Because he rightly credits TikTok with being a big part of his win and that he was able to garner many many young people, young men who otherwise probably would not have voted, and that's what he got.
Oh man, you know, do we.
Take the entire segment on this, I think we did well. I wanted to talk about what the news was, and it is. It's a lot going on. We're gonna hear come Monday a lot more because we'll see what happens with TikTok on Sunday, we'll see what happens with a cease fire. And none of them have ever really held not much and probably would do a little bit more explaining about how this is in three phase Phase one, Phase two and three haven't really been negotiated yet, sort of up in the air.
So and there's a bunch of different views in Israel.
The families of the hostages, of course saying we'll do anything to bring our family home. And then you have the ulternationalists even within the government, says we can never cut a deal with Hamas ever. Ever, we do not want them to even exist. All right, A story about the fire, the fires, and this is a story that has not been covered, but I want to connect to things that here in southern California particularly are inextricably connected.
One fires, those are going to go on forever. I mean, we're just at the start because we know climate change is doing what it's doing. And the other thing is homelessness. We know that's a huge problem La County. Seventy thousand or seventy five thousand homeless people in La County. I mean, the numbers astronomical. So what does the fire have to do with homeless people, well, a whole lot. We go back to twenty seventeen, the Tubs fire went through Santa Rosa, Okay,
and it affected homeless ridiculously. And one homeless person or an expert who's CEO of Catholic Charities of Santa Rosa, the diocese who works with the homeless, said, every one of these crises is one just one step away from entering big time homelessness.
And that was happening.
And experts are worrying that what the fires are doing, they will have a dire homelessness crisis. And that's true because if you look at parts of California that had been burned by past wildfires, communities are still dealing with it. And I'm talking about homelessness years later. How does this all connect? Well, how about this? People who either too little or no insurance on their homes or who rented sometimes end up on the streets.
How does a.
Homeowner end up on the streets? Well, the house burns down. How long do you think it takes to rebuild a house. What if there's no insurance, that's done. But if there's not enough insurance, that's done. And what happens over that year? Were now when you have eight thousand homes and it may take years because there just aren't enough contractors. There isn't enough labor, there isn't enough building supplies, aren't nearly enough supplies.
What do you do?
Well, a lot of people fall right into homelessness. That's the problem. Renters and undamaged buildings. Number One, they get evicted, hopefully not because laws are into place. We'll see about the enforcement issue. They get evicted. Why because the landlord is able to raise rents to the point where a render it can't even begin to afford it. Mean, if you had a rental anywhere near the Palaceades right now, what do you think you could get for that? I mean the bidding war that goes on.
Now.
You're not allowed to raise the rents on someone, but what if someone offers you twice as much? Are you allowed to take it? Also, how many people who lived in the Palacetades own property, They own rental property, and they've got no place to go. Now in city of Los Angeles, you can't throw someone out just to throw someone out.
You can't evict people because we have rent control laws.
But you know, one of the reasons, one of the ways you can evict people if you're moving into the place. If you are moving into the place and someone is on a month to month rental, you can say sixty days, chow baby, And where do people go? Because there are no places to rent and there's desperation out there. And when a community loses thousands of home at once, like the Palisades, where there already is a huge housing shortage, prices go up across the board, displacing even more people.
Each fire threatens to make it already sky high home insurance rates even more expensive to the point you can't afford it. Here's a little inside baseball. One of the big reasons I sold the Persian Palace is that my fire rates, my home insurance rates doubled, went up one hundred percent, and I said that's enough where I live the home, So I downsized dramatically. I just didn't want to pay those ridiculous amounts that they wanted, and by the way, I would two and a half weeks. I've
told you that story that I was there. I had no insurance for two and a half weeks. Let me tell you two and a half weeks when I woke up and knew that if the house burned down, I was done. So climate change, we're gonna have hotter and drier seasons except when it rains. We're gonna have more rains, and these wildfires become more unpredictable, extreme and that sets back the fight against homelessness. The fires in La County, these fires burned more than forty thousand acres, twenty five
people killed, twelve thousand homes in structures. Basically, it's eight thousand and nine thousand homes. It's going to be a tough one. In twenty eighteen, remember the campfire up in the town of Paradise which wiped out the town of Paradise, Well, the people who were still alive, because it killed eighty Some of my people went into Chico, about fifteen miles away.
That was six years ago.
The Sacramento, this Sacramento Valley city of Chico is still feeling the effects of homelessness in a fire that happened fifteen miles away and was six years ago. By the way, in terms of the number of losses, you think of the town of Paradise having lost what a few hundred homes, fifteen thousand homes were lost in that fire and let me give you another stat You have fifteen thousand homes gone. Twenty nine hundred single family homes have been rebuilt out
of fifteen thousand. How about multifamily units which now the state is pushing, pushing, pushing five hundred and fifty of those out of fifteen thousand of them. So before the fire, Paradise had a few homeless shelters, none now they don't exist. Twenty twenty CZU Lightning complex made up of a bunch of multiple fires. Those are lightning strikes. Those destroyed seven hundred homes of Santa Cruz County. Four years later, about a third of those homes have been built. So we
are looking at people who otherwise had great homes. They had expensive homes. Palisades is not a cheap place to live. But you had people that have homes that were paid off twenty years ago, who lost insurance, couldn't afford insurance. And by the way, so now they have insurance to the California Fairplan. I talked about that yesterday. Insurance as a last resort, which is a State of California plan.
It doesn't have enough money.
There's no way the state is going to have to come in and bail them out, or the California Fair Plan doesn't exist as an insurance company anymore. Now, one quick sideboard saw bar point I want to make before we take a break, and I go into ask handle Anything is private insurance companies, and I thought they were
all going to go broke. The state farms, the farmers, the mercuries, they all have enough money to pay off the claims because there's something called reinsurance where the insurance companies buy insurance from reinsurance companies to cover their losses above a certain point. So we're just starting starting to deal with all the aspects of these fires. Okay, we're going to go into what we normally do on a Friday at this time, and that's the segment that I
call Ask Candle Anything. And this was created a few months ago, actually a few weeks ago, where people ask all kinds of questions now personal questions, etc. And sometimes well I was answering all of them for a period of time, and man was I embarrassed. So here's the way it works is during the course of the show, anybody can call in. You go to the iHeart app and there's a go to KFI and there is a
microphone at the upright hand corner. You press on the microphone and you record a question up to fifteen seconds, because I don't want to hear anything longer than that, and certainly I don't care about your opinion about anything.
It's just a question.
And what happens is and Neil go through these questions. They're recorded and then they're played. Now I'm hearing them for the first time, just like you are. So I have no idea what the questions are, and we just go for it. And and told me I have to repeat the question. Yes, okay, I repeat the question is asked, I repeat the question. For example, as you said, at beauty pageants, they do that where the beauty contestants go up there and repeat the questions. But the answer is
always the same. World peace. I believe in world peace. Okay, let's do it. Someone want to play a question, Cono.
Hey Bill. Two questions One when did you get into radio? And why? I guess that's the two questions. And another question have you always been annoying and arrogant and just obnoxious today?
Yeah? No, good questions. I'll answer the second question first. Yes.
As a matter of I was talking to my daughter last night, and when people get her name, occasionally people who know me Barbie hand, Oh you're Bill Handle's daughter, and she says yeah. And the question always is is your dad any different on radio? And she goes, absolutely not. He just uses language in person that he can't on the radio. Question Number one, how long have I been in radio? Forty years this year? Forty forty years?
Man?
That is so crazy. Kono. When I started, you weren't even.
You were thirteen years from actually being born. No, I was four years. Okay, I don't care. I can't do the math. But that's a long time.
Forty years. I'm old. I'm falling apart. You are old. I know, No, I know, no, I know, I know. Okay. So those were that question and there you Bill Cliff in Las Vegas, love the show. Listen man, Happy New Year. Throwing you a softball question.
What is your favorite type of bagel and how do you like it prepared?
Take care buddy, Well that is okay.
My favorite type of bagel is actually an onion bagel, And how do I like it prepared?
Toasted with a cream, cheese and sometimes.
Locks on it, and locks of course smokes salmon and the way it really should be done. First of all, you need a real jew bagel, which is a plain bagel, or an onion bagel or an egg bagel. All the rest of it is just crapple. You know, blueberry bagels, What the hell is that about? Strawberry bagels? What are you doing? And then supermarket bagel that's bread in the shape of a bagel.
So cream, cheese, shmear locks, smoked.
Salmon, slice, cucumber, tomato, red onion, and then I eat about four packs of zelmons because yeah, yeah, that's just great. Smelled like an off on a tune a boat. Okay, how are we doing for time?
Next question, Bill, can you tell me where's Steve Gregory?
We haven't heard from him for a long time.
Yes see, Okay, Steve is no longer with the station. Steve does extraordinary things, including he consults to police and fire stations and agencies all over the country, teaching them how to deal with the press. He does his podcast and frankly.
He does better there than he ever did here. So that's where Steve Gregory is.
And you can google him, you can look him up, and I'll give you an idea. But that's where Steve and I talked to him all the time. I called him yesterday he was supposed to have lunch with him. Oh, watching the two of us seat, watching Neil and Steve Gregory and me eat man.
That is a joy to see.
I mean, we are talking about people come and stand around and watch. You ever seen groups of people around a breakdancer. Everybody sits there and watches. That's what happens when we eat. Okay, let's do one.
More, hey handle, What career path would you have taken if you didn't get into radio, knowing you're a lousy lawyer, what would you have done other than that?
Male prostitution? No, I wouldn't have done well doing that either, you know, I don't know. Probably sales of some kind.
You know, at one point I wanted to be an actor, but I'm terrible at it. That actually is a pretty good question. I will tell you that I fell into every career that I've had. I was in business, and I would have been in business. I've been a business
person since I've been forever. And my mother the only reason I went to law school is because I have Jewish parents, and I decided it is and of course, every kid, you know, you need something to fall back on, you need a career, you need an education, all right. So it was a business decision three years of law school versus forty years of therapy as to what I did.
And I went to law school and had no intention of practicing law at all.
And I fell into my career at surrogacy, and then I fell into my career as radio. So I actually didn't go out for a career, just one of those people. And a lot of people do that, you know, their first job and that's what they end up doing. Certainly in the legal field, lawyers their first internship, they end up at whatever, whatever job, whatever firm, and that's what they practiced. So now doctors, I think, want to be doctors. That's not something you fall into. And so certainly other fields.
But no way, let me ask Amy this question real quick before we take a break.
What does you want to do, Amy h other than be a man? Be a man? Yeah? I know, yeah, I know, the surgery is very expensive.
Well, you know what, I kind of fell into it. I went to college thinking I want to do broadcasting, public relations or marketing, and then I too sort of fell into it. I was like, I want to do this, and and so I I went in and I trained with somebody who used to be the voice of orson on Mork and Mindy, and I want, I want to do this, but I didn't want to be a DJ, and I didn't want to be okay, like I didn't
want to make commercials. So I walked in and I said, I want to work in radio, but I don't know what I want to do.
Yes, people, it's amazing how manyeople fall into their careers, and that's exactly what happened. And I have been blessed because I love. I loved every minute that I was practicing law and every minute that I've been on radio.
I mean that's that to me.
Is every minute now of course not okay, I hate it here half the time? Okay, Kno, you have another couple of questions that I have been recorded that I am going to answer.
Hey, Bill, I started listening back in the day of Gallagher and Maratta and the Hawaiian guy whose name escapes me right now? Was that your original team or did you have a team before that? And if so, who were they?
You know what?
Frankly, I'm so old that I don't remember who the real original team was. We did have Ken Gallagher was our news guy. Rich Murrada, yes, he started immediately. Rich Mrada was sport he had done sports on the Morning Crew before me I came on, and that was nineteen ninety three when this show started. Rich Murato was there, so yeah, yeah, that was the original crew. And then it was Paul T. Wall who was also part of the original team. I think anyway, and thank you very
much for asking. I've been listening to forever. I'm going to give you just a quick one. When people used to say I've been listening to you for fifteen years, I've been listening to you, listening to you for twenty years.
I listened. You know, I took it.
I don't thank you very much, and you know, put my finger to my cheek.
Aw shucks.
Now when someone starts with I've been listening to you.
For shut up, just shut up. I don't want to hear it.
Or I get people in their twenties thirties that come up to me and go, you know, my parents love you.
My parents do love you.
See there you go, and I go, well, how about your grandparents?
They love you even more? Also, my grandma loves you. There you go. Thank you.
And by the way, that's not validation, just to validate me. That's the truth.
All right. Do we have one more Okay, let's do one more bill.
What do we have to do to make Southern California a better place to live?
Thank you?
Well let's start with you moving out with those stupid questions.
Okay, I think that's a good start. You know what you got me.
I don't see Southern California being a better place. I have been here since I've been five years old, and it was there was a time when there was virtually no traffic. My parents bought a house for nineteen five hundred dollars in the San Frano Valley and sold it six years later for twenty two thousand dollars. Housing actually used to be affordable. Now there's some downside. Smog was so god awful you couldn't breathe during the summer. That was horrific. But the bottom line is, you know, I
don't know if you can make it better. But I don't know if you can make anything better anymore, because well, first of all, I'm a cynic. There's nothing good about anything, so I always look at the wrong side of life. All right, guys, we're done.
That's it.
Tomorrow morning it's Handle on the Law eight to eleven o'clock Dean Sharp from six to eight Monday morning, we all come back. We're gonna certainly talk about the inauguration. It starts with Amy wake up call and hopefully Neil comes back. So coming up, it's Mark Thompson and Marla Tayas who are filling in for Gary and Shannon, and so I'll catch you in the morning. This is KFI AM six forty live right here on KFI AM six forty.
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.