You're listening to KFI AM six forty wake Up Call with me Amy King on demand on the iHeartRadio.
App KFI and KOST HD two Los Angeles, Orange County.
OH JFI Radio. This is Mission Control Houston. Please call station for our voice check.
Station.
This is Amy King with kfi's wake up call. How do you hear me?
I can hear you loud and clear.
It's time for your morning wake up.
Call God and his name is Amy King.
Here's Amy King.
This is well, Hello there. This is your wake up call for Wednesday, April sixteenth. I'm Amy King. We're live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app. All right, got my coffee, got my oatmeal? Ready to go energized? I hope you are too. And it is the sixteenth. I hope everybody got their taxes done and it can now breathe a sigh of relief. I was amazed when we were talking to Jim Ryan yesterday. I was talking about how many millions of people put off doing their taxes until the
last second. Of course, we have that six month extension in La County. But as I mentioned, I at least got mine done. I don't know how the damage is, but I at least got them done so that it's off my plate and I don't have to worry about it for the next six months. Got a lot happening on wake up call today, so let's get right to it. Here's what's ahead. LA twenty eight has confirmed more sites for the twenty twenty eight Summer Games. Dodger Stadium is
going to host baseball events. I mean, come on, where else which you host those? Boxing is going to be at the Peacock Theater. Incrypto dot Com Arena. Long Beach will host eleven events, including beach volleyball, water polo, and coastal rowing. Squash makes its Olympic debut. It'll be held at the Universal Studios Lot. The LA Board of Supervisors. The County Board of Supervisors has given initial approval to a nearly forty eight billion dollar budget proposal for the
twenty five twenty six fiscal year. The recommended spending plan includes three percent cuts to some departments and the elimination of more than three hundred vacant positions, but no layoffs. A federal judge says she will order sworn testimony by Trump administration officials to determine if the administration complied with her orders to facilitate the return of Ki Abrego Garcia, he was mistakenly caught up in an ice sweep and deported to El Salvador. We'll get the latest on this
one with ABC Stephen Portnoy. That's coming up at the bottom of the hour at five point fifty. As properties are cleared and people in Altadena get down to the business of rebuilding their homes and their lives, the Dodgers Foundation has quietly pitched in to help bring Little League back to the city. We're gonna be talking to somebody about that at again at five point fifty. Amy's on it, and this week I'm on a movie that was a hit at the box office, but when compared to the original,
this one was really a miss for me. That's coming up at five twenty. Let's get started with some of the stories coming out of the KFI twenty four hour newsroom. La County's budget challenges may be affecting some government programs.
The proposed budget for the new fiscal year is one point three billion dollars less than the current one. In County CEO Fecia Davenport tells the Board of Supervisors that's just the beginning of the problems we are facing.
Mounting budgetary pressures that, taken together, have the potential to seriously destabilize the county's budget.
She says two billion dollars in wildfire recovery cost and a four bill billion dollar sex abuse settlement will hurt for years to come. No layoffs are planned, but Davenport says some programs could have fewer resources. Michael Monks KFI News.
New is brought to you by American Vision Windows. Speaking of sex abuse and assault. Former Dodgers pitcher Trevor Bauers asking for more than three hundred thousand dollars in a default judgment against a woman who accused him of sexual assault. He says she breached the terms of an agreement they reached in twenty twenty three to settle their lawsuits. Bowers complaint contends Lindsey Hill falsely stated twenty two times, mostly on social media, that she got money from him as
part of the deal. Nearly a third of all fires in LA in the past six years have involved homeless people.
That is, according to a new memo from interim Los Angeles Fire Department chief Ronnie Viennaweva The LAFD Commission was supposed to discuss the memo on Tuesday, but it is now delaying the discussion to next month. The memo also says that in the past decade, trash fires were rubbish have increased by four hundred and seventy five percent. LIFD data shows close to half of all trash fires also involve homeless people. I'm Daniel Martindale.
Shocking. I think we already all knew this interesting that officials are finally acknowledging it.
Yeah.
TV memorabilia lovers are in for a treat next month.
You can bid on things from some of TV's most iconic moments, including the body suit worn by Linda Carter as Wonder Woman, the original barstools and bar front door from Cheers, and the living room sofas from Roseanne and Fraser Julian's auctions as. The event, dubbed Channel Surfing, will take place live and online May seventh and eighth. It'll feature more than six hundred props, costumes, set pieces, production materials and more.
Deborah mark kff I News. Right now, let's say good morning too. ABC's Jim Ryan. So, Jim, I remember the first time that I really heard about autism. It was super rare, like I'd never even heard of it. And there was a sho I oh about a child who had this disease and a mother who worked with him every single day and was somehow able to break through to him. It was a docudrama. And I mean, this is when when I was a young child, and it's
called Sunrise, a miracle of love. Story had a happy ending, right sure, But that was when it was super rare. But now almost everybody I know knows somebody or has a kid who has.
It right right, or has I have a close close relatives a relative who has autism and was diagnosed in the nineteen sixties, back when practically nobody knew about it, And back then the thinking was that about one in ten thousand kids had autism. They had the know any social behavior or the closed off personality, no eye contact, you know, these sorts of things that we associate now with autism. One in ten thousand. But the thinking now is that the number is probably closer to one in
thirty one, one thousand, but thirty one. The centered sort of disease Control and Prevention released those statistics yesterday, just five years ago. In twenty twenty, the number was one in thirty six. Now it we're one thirty one. Now, certainly does that mean that there there's this much greater prevalence of autism or is it better diagnosis, recognition of the illness and of the of the of this disorder. Probably a little bit of.
Each, Okay, but we still don't The thing about this one is we still don't know what causes it.
Yeah, yeah, it's a mystery. There is thinking that there may be an environmental component, but certainly that there's a genetic component and so yeah, and the thing is, you can't do a blood test for it. You can't do it DNA testing something like that to determine whether your child has autism or it's just not like that. It's a matter of observation. And physicians, as good as they are at their jobs, still there there's objectivity there that they put into it. They put their own frame over
this diagnosis that they're making. So you know, it's it's really a tough and mysterious kind of thing for science to figure out.
Interesting if you said that it's up to the doctors to really watch it and diagnose it, because there's no medical markers or something which could lead to misdiagnosis too. I mean, maybe your kid just is kind of scatter brained or you know, doesn't like people.
Right, right, And so there may be and so people who are on that spectrum or on that range of disorders may be diagnosed with something else, or some people with something else might be diagnosed as being on the autism spectrum, and that too has complicated this entire process. Robert F. Kennedy, Junior, the Health and Human Services Secretary, has said that he wants to get to the bottom of it by September.
That's kind of that's a very ambitious goal since people have been working on it and watching it for years and years and watching it get worse and worse, and we still, like you just said, we don't know what's causing it or don't have even markers, you know, medical conditions for it.
So he's looking May June, July August said five months. You know, they've been working on trying to figure this out for the last five decades. So we'll see if a RFKN company can come up with something.
Yeah, all right, rather ambitious goal. And before we go, just the one I mentioned, Sunrise is the one that really brought my mind to awareness of this. But I think the one that really kind of hit the mainstream, or made it hit mainstream was rain Man.
Sure, yes, and the relative I have his behavior is very much like that. But he's almost seventy years old, now, married, happy, employed and doing great. So this is not a sentence of a life of gloom. People with this disorder, depending upon the severity, can be quite happy.
All right. ABC's Jim Ryan, thanks so much for the information. We'll talk again in September and see if RFK actually finds what is causing it.
Fingers crossed. Everybody wants to know.
I know, right, all right, Thanks Jim. Let's get back to some of the stories coming out of the KFI twenty four hour newsroom. A person has been taken into custody in connection with a shooting at a high school in Dallas. ABC's Mariah via Reale says four students were heard.
Terrified students running out of this Texas high school after multiple shots fired. First responders swarming the scene at Wilmer Hutchins High School in Dallas around lunchtime.
She says one student was shot in the leg, three others were injured in the chaos. A report says one of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's top advisors has been escorted out of the Pentagon after an investigation into leaks.
Reuters says senior advisor Dan Caldwell was placed on administrative leave Tuesday for an unauthorized disclosure.
Kfi's Brian Schuck says Caldwell's a Marine V veteran who served in the Iraq War. Three people have been arrested at a town hall that Georgia Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Green was holding in Atlanta. Green was backing President Trump and his administration's actions so far into his second term.
Now this is a.
Faceful town hall, Ladies and gentlemen.
This should not have to happen. One person was tased by police. Most of the crowd supported Green. Longtime game show host Wink Martindale has died. The host of Tic Tac Dough high Rollers, Gambit and others died at his home in Rancho Mirage yesterday. Wink Martindale was ninety one. Airlines in China have been told by the country's government not to take any more jets from Boeing ABC's Rheanon Alley says it's an escalation of the trade war with the US.
Boberg says Chinese airlines were ordered not to take any further Boeing deliveries and to stop buying airline parts from US companies.
She says President Trump appears to have confirmed it in a post, writing, China just backed out of a big Boeing deal. A United Airlines flight from Denver to Edmonton had to turn around quickly. ABC's Gio Banant Benitaz says a rabbit YEP rabbit got inside an engine during takeoff on Sunday, large flames shooting from the engine.
The pilots at one point thinking the fire compromised the landing gear.
Ah.
The FAA says there have been more than twenty thousand wildlife strikes in the US. Four of those were rabbit strikes. How did that happen? A rabbit in the engine? Everybody's okay. The Dodgers beat the Rockies last night sixty two at Dodgers Stadium. Go Blue, same two teams, go at it tonight. First pitch goes out at seven o'clock. You can listen to every play off, every game on AM five seventy LA Sports live from the Galpin Motors Broadcast booth, and you can stream all the games in HD on the
iHeartRadio app Keyword AM five seventy LA Sports. Two marines from Camp Pendleton have been killed in a rollover crash near the US Mexico border. A third marine is in critical condition following the accident yesterday morning. They are among more than ten thousand active duty troops deployed to the border as part of President Trump's Border protection mission. Family members of Eric and Lyle Menendez filed court paper's claiming the La County DA's office needlessly showed a bloody crime
scene photo without any advance notice. During a court hearing last week. The attorney, who's representing twenty family members says the entire DA's office owes the family in apology. Thirteen percent more people viewed the season two premiere of The Last of Us. I'm one of Them, then watched the show's first episode. The new season dropped on Sunday. Five point three million people have watched it. The show's already been renewed for a third season. New episodes are available on Sunday nights.
Aamie's on It Damie's on it, Aami's on it, Damie's on it.
What am I on? Well, I'm on the stream. I'm on movies, TV shows, documentaries, you name it. Part of the reason is because there's so much content out there, it's hard to make a decision on what you're going to invest your time in. So I take recommendations from people and then I give it recommendations to you and either get you hooked up with a really great show or maybe save you a couple of hours if it's
not a great show. Okay, So what I'm on this week is Disney's Moufasa hit at the box office huge, so and I didn't go see it. I waited until it came out on the stream. That's the beauty. If you don't want to sit in a movie theater, it's eventually going to come out. So now it's on Disney Plus. It's the story of how Mufasa from The Lion King becomes king and how Scar, his brother, comes to be and also becomes an outcast. Okay, so this is again
a live action movie. Both are CG. But I'm going to tell you that the CG animation in The Lion King, which was the quote live action of the Lion King animated movie that came out a couple of years ago is better for some reason, I don't know. I don't know what they're doing differently. But in The Lion King, the original live action movie, which of course is cg, it was more realistic, like I believed it more. I don't know why. I mean, it's still amazing, but it's
less believable. And then the music from The Lion King, like you've got Circle of Life. It's going in the background right now. The music in The Lion King is amazing. The songs are powerful, they're memorable. The animated Lion King is one of my favorite Disney movies of all time. It was just spectacular. The music for the original animated movie was composed by Elton John with Tim Rice. The score was composed by Hans zimmer And in collaboration with
the South African composer Libo m So. In Mufasa, Lynn Manuel Miranda did several of the songs and he's awesome, right, But the songs in Mufassa are just nothing, nothing compared to The Lion King. In my humble opinion, the story is good, it's clever, it's more charming, you know, in the original. The music, as I mentioned, is far superior in The Lion King as opposed to Mufasa. I get that there would be a desire to capitalize on the success of The Lion King, but if you're going to
do it, do it better. Mufasa doesn't have any memorable songs. Of course, the Lion King songs are fun, catchy, memorable. We heard Houkuna Matata that Cono played as we were getting into this segment. The animation is amazing, but again, it's not as good or believable as in The Lion King. So whether you watch it or don't, watch it as a standalone, it's an interesting movie. It's an interesting story, and I always love stories that tell backstories to figure
out why people are the way they are. But when you compare the songs, the animation, the story to the actual Lion King, it just falls short. I love Disney. I'm a huge Disney fan, as you know, but I think they could have done better. And that's what I have to say about Mufasa. I'm on it, I was on it. It's up to you. Really, I don't have a strong recommendation on this I was disappointed. All right, Let's get back to some of the stories coming out
of the KFI twenty four hour newsroom. The LA County Board of Supervisors has approved emotion to restore funding for Transitional Age, Youth and Key homelessness prevention programs. That's a mouthful, allowing weeks of back and forth. Supervisors are looking into other ways to keep those programs running. In a report presented earlier this month, the CEO suggested cuts to some programs in the twenty twenty five twenty six Homeless Initiative
funding recommendations, which generated some backlash. The motion reinstates five point six million dollars in funding to program for people between the ages of sixteen and twenty five who are at a higher risk of becoming homeless. A city in northern California will soon have a safe sleeping site San Jose mayor Matt Mayon says homeless people will be able to stay in tents, have access to bathrooms, get three meals a day, and receive city services.
Say here will be short.
Our goal is to stabilize folks, assess their needs, connect them to case management, and help them move on to a longer term setting.
Within thirty days.
Mayor Man says the site will be fenced and have around the clock security. It cost a million dollars to build, it's going to cost two million dollars a year to operate. Critics are questioning its effectiveness in helping those trying to actually get off the street. An investigation report shows Gene Hackman's wife had searched the Internet for flu like symptoms and breathing techniques in the days before she died. She died of hantavirus at the couple's home in New Mexico.
The rodent born disease can have flu like and respiratory distress symptoms. Gene Hackman died about a week after his wife of heart disease and complications from Alzheimer's. Gas is getting cheaper at the pump ABC's alex Stones as the price of regular unletted has dropped by almost eight cents a gallon across the US in the last week.
Over the past couple of weeks, oil prices have come down sharply over global worries about US tariffs and OPAQ ramping up production, so was inevitable the gas prices would come down with lower oil prices.
He says it's now forty six cents less than a year ago. At this time, the average price in California is for eighty seven, and I zoom in on La County for eighty six. On average in La County, you can look to the ladies for signs of recession.
Trends on social media could be a sign that an economic downturn is coming or even.
Already here for the US.
Recession blonde has been seen on TikTok and other places recently, where you let your natural, darker roots grow out on your hair to save money on touchups. A recession hair trend was also seen after the financial crisis in two thousand and eight, as women saved money and hair salons suffered from cancelations. Googles has search US for press on
nails are up ten percent since February. Women shoppers made up sixty percent of general stuff like clothes and home decor for the last twelve months ending in February, but it's gone down overall one percent since then as well. Michael Krozier kf I News don't I.
Didn't remember recession hair, but you remember COVID hair. Oh yeah, because you couldn't go to the nobody could go to the hairstylist, so you couldn't get your touchups done and all that. Okay, I have final thoughts on Girls In because it's still driving me crazy. I know, I know, I know, I know. So Gail King and who else went up? Lauren Sanchez Lauren Sanchez Bezos's fiance, and Katy Perry went up a couple of days ago, and like I said, amazing that they got to go. How lucky
are they? That's wonderful. But my final thoughts are that they keep insisting that this is this was an historic thing that happened, is just still ticking me off.
Uh.
There was a lot of justifying being done. I was watching TV shows yesterday, lots of justifying. Oh for those who say that this wasn't an important mission, they just don't know. That means they're getting a massive back that they are even addressing. It means that people are freaking out. So it's not just me stuff in arms. People are talking about it. Yeah, So here's what I wish. I wish they would just say, you know what, you guys, this was an amazing opportunity. It was a great ride.
Wish everybody could do it can't because it costs, you know, millions of dollars dollars and just stop talking about the historical significance. They were like, oh, what we did is going to advance the space program. Well, here's what it was. It was a publicity stunt. Katy Perry announced her song list for her new tour on it, and good on her, because think about next time you go to a Katy Perry show. I love Katy Perry. When you go to her next show, she's going to have herself on the
JumboTron floating around in space. Sure, and the crowd's going to go wild amazing, but let's let's be real. It is what it is. And Aisha Bow says, you don't see borders from space. They're reflecting on how amazing it was, and she said, it's impossible to go through this and not come back changed. Well, I was changed the first time I went on Guardians of the Galaxy too. I was scared to death. But you know, how do you
really feel? This is the last time I'm going to talk about it, because it still it gets me mad every time I talk about it again. I love that they went good on them. It was great it was amazing. It was fun to watch, but it wasn't an historic advancement for women in space. Nearly a third of all fires in LA in the past six years have involved
homeless people. A new memo from interim LA Fire Chief Ronnie Vanueva says close to half of all trash fires involve homeless people, and in the past decade, trash fires have increased four hundred and seventy five percent. A surge in cargo volume in March has led to the Port of Long Beach's best first quarter on record. The port saw a twenty five percent jump in units moved over the same month last year, and it had its busiest first half of any fiscal year on record. Officials say
fears of tariffs are behind the recent surge. NASA needs your help. It wants a mascot to represent its Artemis two mission to the Moon planned for next year. The uncrewed Artemis one mission in twenty twenty two had a plush snoopy on board to tract zero gravity on the spaceship. NASA says he wants to do something similar for next year's crude mission and wants the public to design the mascot.
At six oh five, it's handle on the news. Former President Biden says President Trump has taken a hatchet to social security. Let's say good morning now to ABC's Stephen portnoy So Stephen. The Supreme Court said the Trump administration should facilitate the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was swept up in that ice rate in Maryland and sent to a prison in El Salvador. But he's still sitting in that prison.
He is and he hasn't spoken to his wife or child since he was sent by this country to his home country, which he had been protected from being sent to by an immigration judge in twenty nineteen. So for the last six years he's been checking in with ICE. As recently as this January, thought he was okay, and now oh, he and his family are, in the words
of his wife, living a nightmare. And his wife said on the American born wife said on the steps of the Court Plaza yesterday that she won't give up the fight until she sees her husband and her.
Children's father returned.
The judge has ordered senior officials at ICE, DHS and the State Department to submit to depositions where they're gonna have to give sworn testimony. This is the judge's effort to try to enforce her own order, which directs the Trump administration to facilitate this man's release. And she says she seemed nothing to indicate that they have done that, and so now she's going to require them to submit to sworn depositions. And it'll be interesting to see if
the administration tries to push back against that. But as she reminded the government lawyer, yesterday, the Supreme Court heard the argument and the administration lost. No matter what you hear from Stephen Miller on television or anybody else saying that was a nine to no victory for the administration, it wasn't. The got government is directed by the court to provide information and to facilitate this man's release from custody in El Salvador, where the US government sent him
and is paying for him to be held. But the way the administration looks at it, they see another line in the opinion that says that the courts have to give due deference to the administration in its conduct of foreign affairs. The administration also says this man is MS thirteen because right there in twenty nineteen, an immigration judge found that it was credible the evidence that was presented by law enforcement, and on appeal Abrego Garcia lost. He
denied it at the time. He's denied it ever since. We learned at this time yesterday morning, Amy I mentioned the allegation of MS thirteen involvement. It was made by Prince George's County, Maryland Police. We learned at this time yesterday morning that the police officer who put forward that form, who alleged that Kilmar Abrego Garcia was an MS thirteen weeks after that forum was submitted, that police officer was suspended.
He was indicted. He pleaded guilty. The allegation was that he provided information to a sex worker whom he was paying, and he pleaded guilty. I don't know that that entered into Kilmar Abrego Garcia's immigration case. I doubt his attorneys ever knew about it. In fact, I know his attorneys didn't know about it because it was all reported yesterday. So you know, when you hear administration officials so ardently say things, you really have to wonder what more they
may have that they haven't shared with the public. Because the judge says that the record she's seen is vague and uncorroborated. She says she's seen little to no evidence of this MS thirteen involvement, as the administration calls him a terrorist. Just yesterday in the White House briefing room, the Press Secretary said that he was involved in human trafficking. We heard from a DHS spokesperson who said there's intelligence that he was involved in some called labor trafficking, which
I'd never heard of. Apparently it means forcing people to work against their will. Well, where's the evidence of all this. No one's seen it in court.
And we'll see if they do and if the administration complies. An interesting thing to watch, yeah, I mean, I'm always interested after talking to you about this case and the status of the guy, and then watching the administration saying what they're saying, and they're just the two aren't driving, So it would be nice, as you said, to see some evidence.
Well, look, I mean, I can't believe I have to say this, but as a reminder to everyone in America, you're presumed innocent until you're proven guilty. Guilt has to be based on evidence presented in court, which the defendant
has the opportunity to challenge. The defendant has the right to face his accusers who can't be unnamed, but have to step forward by name and give sworn testimony, and ultimately a jury has to weigh the evidence and decide who's telling the truth in this case, because we're talking about someone who was in this country, came to this country legally as a sixteen year old, and largely has led, as far as we know, a law abiding life for the last fourteen years in the state of Maryland. There's
this accusation he was involved in MS thirteen. But I just mentioned that that seems to be well in some way suspect because of the man who's made that allegation, that was a police officer who pleaded guilty to essentially being a crooked cop.
All right, fascinating as always, ABC, Stephen Portnoy, thanks so much for the info. You bet all right, we'll talk again soon. Time to get in your business now with Bloomberg's Scott Carr, who's in for Courtney Donaho this week. Scott, more of us have been scouring Chinese e commerce apps for stuff that they can for now get very cheap.
What's going on with that that's right. Good morning, Amy. Bloomberg report today pointing to more of us scouring these Chinese e commerce apps like Talmao and Sheen and d Hgate for cheap stuff. Censor Tower data orders for everything from handbags the yoga pants are piling up on those Chinese platforms, TikTok users being inundated with videos from Chinese influencers. They say to stop getting ripped off and buy direct from the world factory, and they mean China. This report,
by the way, sponsored by Fidelity Wealth Management. Also Amy, we just got some new numbers on retail sales for March, and this is a big indicator for those of us in the economic world. Data suggesting a lot of us did rush out to buy new autos last month, trying to get ahead of higher prices that could be coming in the face of new tariffs. So we got the solid reading what was expected. The retail sales data from March. The sales rose ups substantially on a jump in car purchases.
Commerce data. Commerce Department data showing the value of retail purchases not adjusted for inflation, went up by one point four percent, that is the most in over two years. But if you take out auto sales, the sales climb by half a percentage point.
Okay, up a little bit. If you take out the cars and then Scott, we're probably expected to see a pretty large drop in car sales in the next month.
Well, that's yet to be seen. You could speculate that. Yeah, I suppose we'll see what happens. Of course, the tariff the tariffs haven't really kicked in yet. When they really do kick in, that's when you think you'll see decline in the sales. Also, a lot of IRS workers, we should mention headed for the exits now the tax filing
season is over. A source is telling Bloomberg about twenty thousand IRS workers have accepted the Trump administration's offer for a buyout if they'll resign, as about one fifth of the IRS workforce. And amy we should mention. Tech stocks are poised to take ahead. The NASDAK features down three hundred and ten points right now. This is after the AI chip making giant Nvidia said that because of new Trump administration tariff policies, they won't be able to sell
their H twenty chip to China. It's an important part and Vidia's business. They said they'll have to write off some five and a half billion dollars in losses now just for the first quarter. So features are down down, features down one hundred and three points and AMSMP features are down by fifty two points.
All right, Bloomberg, Scott car thanks so much for getting in your business with us today. Let's do it again tomorrow, shall we?
All righty, have ay good day?
All right you too. LA twenty eight has confirmed more sites for the twenty twenty eight Summer Games. The triathlon is going to be held in Venice Beach that will also be the starting point for the marathon and some
cycling events. Dodgers Stadium will host baseball events. Following weeks of back and forth, the LA County Board of Supervisors has given their okay to restore five point six million dollars in funding for kids between the ages of sixteen and twenty five who are at high risk of becoming homeless. The county CEO had suggested cuts to that program. The Trump administration says it's suing Maine because the state's still
allowing transgender athletes to participate in girl sports. President Trump signed an executive order banning that where minutes away from Handle on the news this morning. The future of air travel may not include tickets. You may only need your face that's going to tell you about that. Right now, let's say good morning to the president of Central Altadena Little League and a former Little League player himself, Philip Polorana.
Good morning, Philip, Good morning Amy.
How are you.
I'm great, so thanks so much for getting up early to talk to us this morning. We know that in Alta Dina, nine thousand homes, businesses, and other buildings were destroyed by the wildfire. And along with homes and buildings, parks were damaged to including the Loma Alta Park in Alta Dina. Yes, so as people are working to clear their properties and get their permits to rebuild. Some work to rebuild the community is underway. So please tell us what's going on at Loma Alta Park.
I'm super excited about it. The La Dodger Foundation is donating to Dodger Dreamfields, and it's you know, it's something that we've always had in our mind, like, hey, you know, wonder if the Dodgers would ever come up here since we are La County Parks and you know, unfortunately, with the situation that took place was it was able to happen.
So Loma Alta is planning to open May seventeenth. They're providing a lot of things for the youth, a lot of things for seniors in the area that have been displaced to try and provide some normalcy, and they're also building these fields to get Central Altadeena Little League a place to play for the next coming years as we rebuild Altadena.
Okay, and for the Central Altadena Little League. About how many kids are involved in that organization.
We have over two hundred and twenty children. We're a small league in Altadena, but we're resilient, so it's about two hundred and twenty kids. Luckily, West Pasadena Little League has been able to team up with us to give us a place to play until we get our park back and hopefully we can continue to play there after May seventeen.
Perfect, Okay, So the teams themselves are staying intact. They're just playing at somebody else's fields because of the damage to the fields at.
Lom Alta exactly District seventeen has come together all the parks that offered us as soon as this happened, they were willing to take on our teams. They didn't know if we had the capacity to even run a league after such a tragedy. And our board was, like I said, very resilient, Dina strong, and we were saying, hey, no, there's no way that we're going to give up on these children. And the parents were saying that this was their way of trying to keep some type of normalcy
in their lives. So, you know, not to hide it from the children, but at least give them an outlet while they're trying to figure things out. And Little League Baseball that's been able to provide that.
Yeah, and this is just another thing we've talked before on wake up call about how far reaching the fires have been and how they affect absolutely every part of your life. And I didn't even think about Little League Baseball, but again, that's a very important thing for a lot of the young kids coming up. So lovely that you're
getting your fields rebuilt. Did you say that, Philip, that you think they'll be able to play in the fields in May after they open or are they gonna have to wait for a little while until things around the field's become more stabilized.
Well, as of right now, we're looking at lead issues. So those are the only things that we're concerned about right now as far as in field soil testing. Those are the things that my membership, the parents have brought up some concern when we did mention that the field
would be available for us to play. Our season comes to an end in May, at least our regular season, then we go into tournament play with little leagues, so we're trying to make that our closing day ceremony and then go into summer and possibly having some fall ball played there, but we will be definitely playing their next
spring if everything goes according to plan. While people are still rebuilding around because this is going to be a process of at least two to three years, we're trying to, you know, at least see if some of the parents can bring their children back to the burn site. That has been a big issue because some kids have not
been back to the burn site. So we're trying to be respectful of that and making sure that we are providing you know, the sources for them, whether it's counseling, whether it's going to you know, any of the after school programs, or slowly initiating some type of return before they just get thrust it in and say hey, you know, because they're going to think, oh, everything is better, right because the park is going to be you know, brand
new and things like that. So we don't want to deceive them, you know, making them think that everything is back to normal when it's not.
Just one one piece of normalcy. And Philip, this affects you so personally, I know, because you lost your home in the fire.
Yes, yes, I lost my home. My cousin lost his home, friends that I've known for over forty years, parents lost their home. People that have moved back. The majority of our league lost their homes. Even the ones that are still standing are damage to a point where they are displaced because of all the smoke damage and insurance companies are trying to pull a fast one on that. But for the most part, we have been receiving a lot of help. But it's just going to be a slow process.
So people are still struggling to process it, and you know, all we can do is continue to fight, stay strong. Those that are selling, we understand, you know, we're one of our mottos is out that DNA is not for sale. But we understand that there was so many elderly people
that they just can't. They can't stay around. You know, it's not worth it for them to try and rebuild, and we understand that, but we want to try and make sure that those people are at least giving some of the local folks an opportunity to make a bid on those homes instead of selling to big corporations that might come in and try and monopolize in the area. But other than that, you know, we're we're optimistic. We see the silver lining, Dina Strong. We're going to be
bigger and better. But right now we still need assistance for those that are out there. They can, you know, go check out our gofund needs or just try and provide any service that they can find locally to help the people that are on the ground that are still.
With meat and the need remains great. Philip Polerana, thank you so much, and we appreciate what you're doing because again you're you've had your complete life up ended and that you're still devoting time and effort to the kids and making sure that they have a little bit of normousy coming their ways. That's amazing and thanks to the Dodgers Foundation too. The president of Central Altadena Little League, Philip Plorana. Thanks so much, Good luck to you. Thanks
all right, take care here, all right? Isn't it amazing? Like I said, we just there's so much stuff that we don't even realize how far reaching these fires are. And I love to see the communities coming together and saying we're getting through this. It's big time amazing. This is KFI and kosd HD two Los Angeles, Orange County, Southland. Weather from KFI. Low clouds, fog and drizzle this morning, then partly cloudy this afternoon. Should look pretty much like yesterday,
maybe a little bit cooler though. Highs in the low sixties at the beaches, mid sixties for Metro La and Inlando c Mid sixties in the valleys in i E. Fifties and sixties in the Annalov Valley. Mostly claudy, with a twenty percent chance of showers Tomorrow. Fifty six now in Anaheim, fifty six in Redondo Beach, fifty in Woodland Hills, and fifty one in Rancho Cucamonga. Live from the KFI twenty four hour Newsroom. I'm Amy King. This has been
your wake up call. If you missed any of wake up call, you can listen anytime any day on the iHeartRadio app. You've been listening to Wake Up Call with me Amy King. You can always hear Wake Up Call five to six am Monday through Friday on KFI AM six forty, and anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app