You're listening to wake Up Call on demand from KFI AM six forty.
And then I traveled to the seven levels of the candy Cane Forest, past the sea of Swirly twirly gum drops, and then I walked through the Lincoln.
Tunnel KFI and KOST HD two Los Angeles, Orange County, Okay.
People book Sata's coming in, say, oh my god, Santa's here.
I know him, I know him, Sasina And it's time for your morning wake up call. And good morning. It is Christmas Eve. This is your wake up call for Wednesday morning, December twenty four, twenty twenty four. I am Michael Monks from KFI News, filling in for our good friend Amy King, who was somewhere sleeping dreams of sugar plums dancing in her head, awaiting Santa's visit to her home tomorrow. It's five o'clock in the morning here in
southern California, but it is a great, big world. There are twenty four different time zones, and that can only mean one thing. It's Christmas somewhere. In fact, it's Christmas in a lot of places, and that means Santa Claus like me, like some of you is already at work on this holiday, so we're in good company today if you are on your way to work as if it's just another Tuesday. I think I might have said Wednesday a moment ago. It's only Tuesday. I'm getting ahead of myself.
It's Tuesday, December twenty fourth. Don't get too excited. You're in good company. We're working this week, so is Santa, and it is Christmas in the far reaches of the globe. I've been watching the nor AD Santa tracker all morning long as we prepare for today's morning newscast, and right now, according to nor Ad, the big Man himself is already well in flight. He's had a morning and he is approaching in the next thirty seconds a place called comsul
Mulsk on a more Russia. For you to say, indeed, it is not so easy. I suppose that's our good friend will Cole Schreiber, who's also a well behaved elf, waiting for his gifts. And he'll keep an eye on the traffic in the skies and on the ground for us today. I'll let you know if Santa's got in any traffic headaches up there. So far, according to Norrad Santa has already delivered more than seven hundred and eighteen million presents to good boys and girls all around the world.
And if you check out the Norrad Santa tracker at Nord Santa that's n R A D Santa all one word dot org. They've got a really nice interactive globe and you can see an image of Santa over Russia right now, and you can scroll around and get an estimated time on when Santa might be visiting your home
in La Orange County, Riverside County, San Bernardino County. I'm trying to think back to Christmas Eves of your as a child, how exciting a day like this would be, How difficult it would be to go to sleep, The magic of waking up in the morning and seeing all those toys that Santa brought me. There's nothing like that feeling. The thought now of a stranger coming in your home while you're sleeping and doing anything is not as exciting as it used to be. But back then, man, that
was great. And I'm not a parent myself, but those of you who are parents, especially if this is the first time you're doing it big, how exciting that must be to set that up in collaboration with Santa, of course, for the child to come downstairs and see that display. You really never have magic like that in your life. Again, it's so special, it's so innocent. Will, How is it looking up there for Santa right now? Is it pretty clear in the clouds? Oh, there's some clouds, but you
know Santa has Rudolf. He didn't care about clouds, you know, he just clows on through. Well, it's a little foggy in southern California today, so hopefully Reindeer's nose is on fog status so that it's not shining too brightly and hurting the oncoming traffic. We'll keep checking in with Will throughout the morning, and we'll check in with Santa still in Russia as of this moment. Now he's moved on
to Nevelsk on Sokkolin Island. We're learning a lot about the world today, and he'll be headed towards San Vicente, Saipan and the Northern Mariana Islands in the next seven minutes. So if you're listening over there, get ready. He's on his way. Last chance to make a wish more than seven hundred and thirty eight million gifts delivered by Santa as of five six am Pacific time. So we are monitoring some news for you as always this morning, and I can tell you there are some people who are
not in the air and apparently it's America Airlines. American Airlines has called for a ground stuf for all flights because of what they're calling a technical issue. Flights nationwide have been disrupted by this thing. I've just checked in with one of our editors, Carla Marquez, to see if this has been stopped yet, and the latest we have from the AP is that the FAA has halted all American Airlines flights in the US after the airline reported
technical issues system wide. So you can imagine folks at the airport planning to hop on an American Airlines flight and then head out to see loved ones, people they care about or to head away on a Christmas holiday have just had some plans dashed for now. We're going to monitor that all morning long. If you have a flight this morning on American, If you know someone who has a flight on American, best to check in with them and make sure that they've seen this alert elsewhere
around the regions. Starbucks strikes have continued right here into Christmas Eve. They're expected to expand today locally, with another store impacted, this time in Cypri Park. Apparently, workers say they want better wages, they want improved collective bargaining, they want resolutions to legal disputes. The company, Starbucks says the strike has been no big deal, business as usual at
most locations in this busy holiday rush. The Southern California burn band that was supposed to expire at around midnight hasn't. It's been extended again because of a forecast of high air pollutions, So no Christmas Eves stocking stuffing above the lit fireplace, do not burn wood inside or outside. The South Coast Air Quality Management District says the ban will expire tonight at eleven fifty nine, but we'll see about that.
And a grass fire currently burning now near the Escondido Canyon Road off ramp of the northbound excuse me, the northbound Antelope Valley fourteen Freeway and Agua Dulce. That's according to the California Highway patrol I did just get another alert about American our friends at KTLA or saying flights are zo. We're checking in on that this might have just been a very short hiccup in an otherwise busy
holiday travel season. Coming up at the top of the hour, six oh five, We've got Handle on the news without Bill Handle. Wayne Resnick is in for Bill today. I'll be here to keep him company, and of course you can keep us company. We'd love your company on this Christmas Eve. If you're at work, or if you're sitting at home enjoying a little time away, good for you. Spend some time with us this morning before it gets so crazy over the next several hours the next thirty
six forty eight hours. Coming up today on the show, a former congressman who was nominated by President elect Trump to be the Attorney General has apparently spent several years paying for sex, including with a minor, using drugs, and more. A House Ethics Committee report has blasted Matt Gates. ABC News National correspondent Steven Portnoy will be with us to talk about that. The accused killer of the United Healthcare
CEO has presented the beginning of a defense. His attorney has said the police and the Mayor of New York are using Luigi Manjoni as political fodder. Man Joni appeared in state court yesterday. Peter harr Lambus's ABC News investigative reporter. He was in the courtroom. He'll be here to talk about how crazy all that was, including the number of fans fans of Luigi Manjoni who showed up to support him, even though his family apparently did not. And we've heard
a lot about drones lately. What are those mystery sightings around the country, But maybe those aren't the ones we should be worried about. You ever seen a professional drone show? They're pretty cool. But a boy in Florida was at one and he ended up in the hospital. And he's not the only one to have been injured at at a drone show. ABC News correspondent Jim Ryan will join us for that. It is Christmas Eve here in southern Calia, five ten in the am. And if you're not finished
shopping for Christmas, boy, are you in trouble. You've only got a few hours left. Some stores, of course, will be closing early. I live in downtown LA in the fashion district, and it was hopping all day yesterday, well into the evening. When the stores down there start to close, a mad scramble for last minute gifts. But if you are somebody who is not quite finished and you're not really sure, like you don't have a plan on what you're gonna do. People seem to really like gift cards.
That's just a little pro tip. Let them decide what they want. The thought that counts right, and the little bit of thought you can put into buying a gift card will go a long way for folks. We are looking at some of the popular gift cards online. According to a report in USA Today, the ten most popular gift cards, number ten Google Play, number nine is eBay. I don't think I would have guessed that number eight is just a basic American Express gift card. Number seven
is Disney, number six Starbucks. If you buy that one today, make sure you keep an eye on which stores are open. And then number five Walmart. You can always find something at Walmart. Four Sophora, of course, three is Target, two is Amazon, and number one is Visa. So that's an opportunity to basically give cash on a card. I think I'm getting another update on the American Airlines, saying okay, just in from our partners at twenty four to seven News.
A groundstop of American Airlines flights has been lifted. The airline had grounded all flights in the US this morning due to an unspecified technical issue. The ground stop lasted for about an hour. It came as travelers started to make their way to their holiday destinations this Christmas Eve. So right now, that was a short lived story. Hopeful
it does not impact people's travel too much. There might be a bit of a ripple effect on some of the scheduled flights, but right now American Airlines back to planning to join Santa Claus himself in the sky. One thing you're probably gonna want to keep in mind if you're going out and shopping for any last minute gifts, pay for them, don't steal them. I don't know if you saw this social media video that was going wild all day yesterday, still making the rounds a day out
of Seal Beach. They've got a campaign called don't steal in Seal. They say it's a third crime. And we saw video from earlier this month where three women were taken into custody after going from store to store to store and just tossing stuff in bags and then finding out that what they had committed was a felony, and they were a bit surprise that because of the changes in the laws related to Prop. Thirty six. So we'll
talk a bit about that coming up as well. The first human case of H five bird flu has been detected in La County. It's an adult who was exposed to livestock at work. That livestock turned out to have been infected. The patient has been treated with anti virals
and is recovering at home. The special prosecutor in the case against Alec Baldwin has withdrawn the appeal of the dismissal of the involuntary manslaughter case against the actors stemming from the twenty twenty one fatal shooting of cinematographer Helena Hutchins on the set of the film Rust. A judge in New Mexico had dismissed that case in July, saying prosecutors had failed to turn over evidence to defense attorneys.
It's Christmas Eve, and of course there will be celebrations here in La La Archbishop Jose Gomez will celebrate an English language Christmas Eve Mass at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels tonight at ten o'clock. It will feature Christmas care barrels with the Cathedral's choir at nine point thirty. An English language family Mass with the Cathedral's children's choir will be celebrated this afternoon at four o'clock.
A Spanish language mass at seven o'clock Tonight. Organizers are billing Los Angeles' first and largest free multicultural holiday celebration, we be held from three to six today at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. It will feature twenty eight music, dance and vocal ensembles that are set to perform at the Los Angeles County Holiday Celebration. Coming up at the top of the hour, six oh five. We've got Handle on
the news without Bill Handle. He is on his holiday break as well, but our friend Wayne Resnick is sitting in for Bill today. I'll be happily joining him and hope you will join us as well. We've got more news now for you. The House Ethics Committee has released its report on former Florida Congressman Matt Gates over dozens of pages and citing accompanying documents such as text messages,
financial statements, and canceled checks. The report blasts the former Republican congressman, saying there's substantial evidence that he paid women for sex and violated Florida's statutory rape law by having sex with the seventeen year old. The report also accuses Gates of violating house rules, granting special favors to associates, and using illegal drugs. Gates has denied all these allegations.
ABC News National correspondent Steven Portnoy joins us Now, Good morning, Stephen, and Merry Christmas Eve.
Merry Christmas Eve.
To you, this seems like a lot of evidence of wrongdoing. Is any of it criminal? Well, it depends.
I mean it could be. That's certainly what they say
in the report that Matt Gates. This is the allegation that he violated Florida's law against statutory rape by having sex with this then seventeen year old who testified and explained that she had just finished her junior year of high school when she was at a party with Matt Gates where illegal drugs are being used and there was a sexual encounter between the girl and Matt Gates, and he then paid her four hundred dollars, which she said she understood to be payment for sex.
Now, but the former congressman says, look, I had some wild days. Sure, I drank a little too much. I smoked a little too much. I womanize, I think is a word that he used. But what is he saying about the specifics of these allegations. Oh, it's a flat denial.
He says that he never had relations with someone who was that young, and so look, it's essentially he said, she said. But the committee says that there's substantial evidence that what she said is true, and not just she, but her but others. Look, there are canceled checks and electronic transactions and bank statements that would back up the argument that Matt Gates gave various women up to one hundred thousand dollars and that it was part of a
pattern that he had of paying these women for sex. Now, again, Gates denies it, says that these are just examples of his generosity towards ex girlfriends. But the members of the House Ethics Committee simply didn't buy it, and they said that it essentially brought his favor upon the House. Remember, these are all actions that Matt Gates allegedly undertook while he was a sitting member of Congress. The illegal drug use was a particular problem for his former colleagues.
Now you note, former colleagues, Matt Gates has resigned from Congress, originally because he was nominated by President elect Trump to serve as Attorney General. He had already won re election to serve another term in the Congress that starts in January. Doesn't look like he has any plans to take that seat, instead possibly moving into our line of work in the media. I'm wondering, though, Stephen, is the attention being drawn to
Matt Gates's allegations of wrongdoing. Is that creating any more perceived need of more vetting for the cabinet picks presented President elect Trump.
Well, that's one way to look at it. I mean, the idea here is that there's a reason why the House Ethics Committee voted a few weeks ago not to release this report and then changed its mind. Why would they do that after Matt Gates not only no longer serves in the body.
At least that's the thinking.
And you raise the prospect of him coming to take the oath next week.
We don't know whether he will. He suggested he might. We'll see.
But the point is, you know, this argument of it, whether it moots the investigation because he's resigned. It seems as though a couple of Republicans changed their minds about it because they spend all this time digging into it. They say, Matt Gates is going to stand firm in his denial. Let the public see the work product here.
And that was ultimately the decision that majority, the majority of the Ethics Panel made, despite the misgivings of the chairman, Michael Guest, who issued a statement yesterday to say that this could pose catastrophic consequences that was his word, in the future by setting not a new president because it's not that, but simply violing what he sees.
As a norm.
It's the first time since two thousand and six, which I believe it was the Matt sorry, the Mark Foley matter there that involved allegations, that's right, you remember, and so that was the last time that a former member of Congress was the subject of a House Ethics Committee report. This is now the most recent example.
Stephen Portnoy of ABC News, we appreciate the time you gave us this morning. Merry Christmas to you, Andy, You thank you. And it is five twenty six in the am here in La right now, Santa Claus flying towards Cooktown, Australia, and according to Norad Santa Tracker, he has just arrived eight hundred and fifty five million plus gifts delivered already. A few women in Seal Beach were given the arres
the gift of arrests earlier this month. The Seal Beach Police Department today touted the success of its social media campaign attempting to produce retail theft in the city. The campaign follows the release of a video of two of the three women arrested on suspicion of stealing approximately one thousand, six hundred and thirty five dollars worth of merchandise at Alta Beauty back on December fourth, and there was a
video released. They're in the backseat of a police cruiser and the two women are talking to each other about the fact that they're going to be facing a felony now because of the change is brought in by Proposition thirty six, which was overwhelmingly approved by voters here in California back in November. You hear one of the women say it's a felony and the other one says b word new laws. Stealing is a felony and then she goes on to say, and this is Orange County b word.
They don't play Seal Beach. Police said messages in the video are They added messages to the video saying Prop thirty six is in full effect. Don't Steal in Seal. These three women were also linked to an earlier theft at a nearby Cole's store. They were seen on surveillance footage.
All three suspects booked into Orange County Jail on suspicion of grand theft, conspiracy to commit a crime, and resisting arrest, and according to a statement from the police, they say the video part of the departments Don't Steal in Seal social media campaign has garnered significant public attention and serves as an educational tool on the updated theft related laws in California. I can tell you I saw this video
on X last night. Seal Beach was trending on X because it was getting so much attention all over the country. People in California, who have been frustrated by a seemingly lax approach to thievery seem to be celebrating the changes, and that celebration expanded across the country. California Highway Patrol officers are headed out for their annual Christmas Time Maximum
Enforcement period. It starts at six o'clock tonight. Officers will be looking to catch people speeding, driving under the influence, or violating other laws. The maximum enforcement period will run through Wednesday night. Be safe out there. La Metro is offering free rides on all of its buses and trains for Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve. The free rides for Christmas Eve start this morning. They run through three
o'clock tomorrow morning. There will also be extended service on all rail lines, which will operate until two o'clock in the morning tomorrow. A similar schedule will be in place on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day. Some rail lines will also operate for twenty four hours on both days. Former President Clinton is in the hospital in Washington, d C. He was admitted yesterday because of a fever. He's said
to be under observation. A spokesperson says the former president was in good spirits and grateful for the care he's receiving. The seventy eight year old has been promoting his new book, Citizen, which was released last month. Coming up at six oh five, We've got handle on the news. Wayne Resnick is in for Bill Handel. Wayne and I will be together for that, and we hope that you will join us for well for that as well. Coming up a little later in
this hour. Drone shows they're fun, right, but one recently sent a child to the hospital a drone show. So what's going on with drones in this country. We're seeing some mystery ones and now we're being attacked. We'll get an update on what happened in Florida and what's being said about drone shows in general and potential safety risk for just attending them. Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus, has welcomed Christmas without its usual festive lights at Major Square.
The area outside the Nativity Church has been quiet. That church was built on the site where Jesus is believed to have been born, but the war and violence between Israel and Hamas has cast a somber shadow on the holiday, then relies heavily on Christmas tourism. The economy in the West Bank was already reeling because of restrictions placed on
laborers preventing them from entering Israel during the war. I wonder if you look at reviews when you're shopping for products, maybe when you were doing some Christmas shopping this month online, while researchers and watchdog groups see the emergence of generative artificial intelligence tools that allow people to efficiently produce detailed and novel online reviews has put merchants, service providers, and
consumers in what they see as uncharted territory. Phony reviews of long play a lot of consumer websites like Amazon and Yelp, but AI infuse text generation tools enable fraudsters to produce reviews faster and in greater volume. The deceptive practice is illegal in the US and becomes a bigger problem for consumers during the holiday shopping season. They say, when many people rely on these reviews to buy gifts,
nothing is sacred. Meanwhile, Luigi Mangoni has pleaded not guilty to state murder and terror charges in the fatal shooting of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson. His attorney has protested his treatment, saying in court that her client is being used as quote political fodder by police and the Mayor of New York and while Mangoni appeared to not have family in the courtroom, he certainly had a lot of fans inside and out. We're joined now by Peter Harralambus
from ABC News. He's an investigative reporter. He was in the courtroom in New York. Peter, thanks for taking some time with us.
Again, absolutely my pleasure. Thanks for having me.
What was it like in the courtroom outside of observing that Luigi Mangoni is and his attorney apparently coordinated outfits.
Yeah, Beyond the coordinated outfits, it was remarkable to see Mangoni himself brought into court. He was shackled at the wrists, at the waist, at the angled despite wearing this you civilian clothing, he was certainly under heavy guard. He was walked in and out a phalanx of police officers who kind of hovered over him the entire time, and he only said two words, not guilty when asked how he was going to plead. What was also interesting was to
see the amount of public support. There were about thirty members of the public, many of whom were there in support of Mantioti. Interestingly enough, the majority of whom were young women. Outside of court, there were protesters chanting and holding signs saying free Luigi and things like eat the rich. So all of these things really showing that groundswallowing of public support.
Well, we know there are a lot of people from the public who are mounting a defense of Luigi Manjoni, but what is this actual defense. What are we hearing about his treatment?
That's a great question, And I don't think we have a clear entery from Luigi's attorneys, because we've heard from the federal from his federal hearing last week that one of their defenses that having two separate cases is unconstitutional. Yesterday, Manfioni's attorney really focused on how the case is being politicized.
But none of this really speaks to the other question, the bigger question, arguably of how do you go against all of this evidence that prosecutors say they have, forensic evidence like shell casings and fingerprints tied back to mangioni writings that authorities have described as a concession in which he allegedly lays out the crime, and of course all of this being caught on video. Some of this is
basically a silver bullet of evidence. And we still haven't seen a clear move of how they're going to work against all of this evidence.
Peter, I know you've got to run. What should we expect next? In this case, tons and.
Tons of evidence about two terroribytes of evidence are going to be handed over to Mangoni's defense attorney over the next month. I assume at that point we might get a better sense of what this defense is going to be. His next time in court will be in Federal Court in mid January.
Peter Harralambo's is ABC News investigative reporter. He was in the courtroom in New York where Luigi Mangoni appeared yesterday. Peter, Happy holidays to you, Thanks for the time, Thanks so much.
I'm Marchers and.
It is now five forty one here in Los Angeles. You're listening to Wake Up Call on AM six forty KFI and live everywhere on the iHeart radio app. We are tracking Santa. He has made his way to Tasmania, so he's circling the Australian continent right now. He is expected to land in Adelaide, Australia in the next minute, after last being seen in Hobart. We are now at nine hundred and forty one million plus gifts delivered by
the Big Man himself. I want to give you a brief history on the Panama Canal, and here's why President elect Donald Trump has decried rising shipping fees that the Nation of Panama has imposed to use the Panama Canal. Trump has threatened this week to have the US take back control of the waterway linking in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans once he becomes president next month, and if things don't change, that's what he says, the US might find some way to reclaim that canal. The US helped
engineer Panama's independence from Colombia to build that canal. It opened back in nineteen fourteen, but then the US seated control to Panama back in nineteen ninety nine. The treaties that cemented the handover, they don't have any language about the US having a pathway to taking it back, but Trump has said the US can do so if it's not treated fairly. Panama says it will always own the canal. So in the past few weeks, we've gotten a pretty
good look at President elect Trump's Christmas wish list. It looks like the Panama Canal has landed on there and Greenland. He's back on Greenland. He tweeted out yesterday that he is interested in exploring US ownership of that territory that is not ours, But we'll see how that works out. California Central Coast being hammered by flooding in high surf. A man died after he was trapped beneath the brie on a beach ear collapsed and Santa Cruz sending three
people into the ocean. They were recovered. Some cities have ordered beachfront homes and hotels to evacuate, so when you hear orders about the water, it's best to heed them. Just play on the side of caution because the videos are pretty startling. It's very curious to see, but it's much more comfortable and much safer to just watch these things when they're happening on video rather than seeing them
up close in person. Maybe you can talk to one of those high rise people down there and they can let you go up to their balcony and check that out. Santa Claus has made it to Adelaide, breaking news. Adelaide Australia has now finished. He's on his way to Alice Springs and now over nine hundred and fifty four million presents delivered, according to the nor ADS Santa Tracker. The owner of In and Out has criticized the City of Oakland nearly a year after closing a restaurant in the city.
It was the first time in seventy five years the chain permanently closed a location. Owner Lindsay Snyder said during an interview with the video network Prager You that despite the location being profitable, the decision to close was made because there were constant car burglaries, fights, and theft at the location. Snyder says the area was extremely dangerous and
it was alarming how slow police were to respond. Meanwhile, lawmakers in Oakland are set to discuss possible ways to honor late Baseball Hall of Famer Ricky Henderson, a longtime member of the Oakland A's, died last week at the age of sixty five. Oakland City council Member Rebecca Kaplan is set on social media that she'd like to see the city name a street after Henderson. A Union Pacific freight train has derailed in Carson. It happened south of
Delamo Boulevard yesterday afternoon. A rail infrastructure was damaged, cutting off access to the ports of La and Long Beach along the Alameda Corridor. Officials say there were no injuries and no hazardous materials spilled. We're just inn as away from Handle on the news this morning. It's coming up at the top of the hour. Bill Handle is on his holiday break, but Wayne Resnick is here to fill in for Bill. I'll be there alongside them. Hope you
will join us as well. The ill fated drone show that sent a seven year old to a hospital in Orlando wasn't the first time that technical difficulties were experienced at one of these shows. Similar mishaps small drones dropping from the sky in mass have happened in the past two years in China, Australia, and in Las Vegas and
many communities. Drones have replaced fireworks as the favored aerial celebration because they're quieter and they don't dump clouds of sulfur smelling smoke into the sky, but there is apparently still a risk. We've got ABC News correspondent Jim Ryan with us again this morning, two days in a row. Jim, thanks so much for being with us.
Hey, Michael, Yeah, I don't know how you can get around that risk. Really. If you want to attend drone shows and they are cool, I've seen a few of them anyway, and not a lot, but they are extremely interesting there. They're cool to watch. But yeah, as we've seen in cases, and it is rare that something like this goes wrong that the people are hurt. Sometimes the
drones may malfunction, but they're designed. They're supposed to be designed Michael, that if they lose GPS tracking or something goes crazy, they're supposed to fly back to the point from which they took off, the staging area that the drone company has set up. But in the case of the Orlando show on the twenty first, they started crashing into each other and then falling out of the sky. And that's when we had this little boy who got hurt.
Xander Lumps and seven years old. There's recovering after open heart surgery. His mother said that the drone hit him with such force in the chest that he faced serious injury and had to have surgery because of that. The family now was raised like eighteen thousand dollars with the GoFundMe account to support the paying for the surgery.
So this wasn't just a bump on the head situation. This is quite serious.
It was and there have been some serious injuries in the past. A woman who was hit at that Fourth of July show in Las Vegas in twenty eighteen suffered eye injuries. A child in Great Britain lost an eye because of a drone that may not have been a drone show, but just someone using a drone. So there are some potential little dangers said, you know, both to drone shows and to just personal use of drones.
I know that drones have been on our minds lately because of the mysterious sightings in the sky and the lack of appropriate answers from local, federal, state leaders about what they are. This is not necessarily related to that unless we delve into conspiracy theory territory, I mean, but people are focused on drones right now. Has this type of injury and the sightings of them off the coast, has that impacted the conversations we have in general about these things?
Well, I think so, and I think people generally keep them separated though the mishaps of drone shows. But then these mysterious sightings of drones over the northeast, the New Jersey, New York, over to Ohio even so, yeah, but but yeah, there are plenty of conspiracy theories about this, and I think there's still mystery that surrounds these things, you know, because they fly around controlled by some unknown person or
unknown entity. We don't understand exactly what makes them more and coordinate with each other if you're not in the business. But also there is this there's a company in Israel that produces what's called the drome, the drone dome, which is protection on radio protection around each drone, because that's to combat what other people have that that is a drone scramblers. It looks like a rifle almost, but it
doesn't file a fire button a bullet. Rather, it fires a pulse that that shuts down the GPS system within each drone and therefore it gets lost or falls and crashes. So yeah, there are conspiracy theories about this too, Michael.
So you mentioned a little bit about why some communities and organizations are turning to drones over fireworks, and there are a lot of reasons to support that. I mean, we hear every fourth of July. It scares animals, it triggers veterans and older adults. And then even if you're just a healthy person that wants to see the fireworks, sometimes the smoke just gets in the way and you can't see some of them. So these these are nice alternatives.
Are we having conversations in communities now about is this a danger?
Well, it's as dangerous I suppose as fireworks. You remember that incident that happened I think it was in California earlier this year at a stadium where fireworks display went off and something happened and a child was hit by a fireworks you a little rocket, So I mean there are dangerous associated with that too. Our drone shows cheaper than fireworks displays. No, they're a little bit more. You know, they cost cost one hundred thousand dollars for a typical
drone show. In North America, the average cost of a drone show is about fifty thousand dollars. The average cost of the drones that are used about two hundred and eighteen dollars per drone. So now we're talking about a pretty high expense. But there are benefits too, no smoke, loud explosions, they're over and they're over. It's not as though you have a danger in handling fireworks afterwards. So yeah, there. I think some cities and towns are going in that direction.
I've seen one in Cincinnati, a drones show that was just awe inspiring, breathtaking. It was really very beautiful. Jim Ryan from ABC News, thanks again for joining us this morning, and happy holidays.
To you and yours same to you, Michael.
And that was Jim Ryan from ABC News. We are tracking Santa Claus on the Norrad Santa dot org website and he just finished up Australia. He was last seen in Sarrong, West Popla and now is heading for Forgive me for this, but it looks like the bell Daub Babel, daub Palau. This might be twelve cities in a row that I've just been unable to pronounce. But it is Christmas and some exotic places in this world, and it's
almost Christmas here as well. As we approach five point fifty seven here in the Southland, we talked a bit about the surf and some of the dangerous water conditions hammering the California coast. We've got some additional problems here in southern California and the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health has put out a warning about nine area beaches that have high bacteria levels. So another reason to
kind of avoid the water this holiday season. Some of these affected beaches include the Malibu Lagoon at Surf Rider Beach, the Pico Kenter, storm drain at Santa Monica Beach, Torrance Beach, at Malaga Cove, Walnut Creek, Paradise Cove, Marie Canyons, storm drain at Puerco Beach, Castle Rock, storm drain at Tobanga County Beach, Inner Cabrio Beach in San Pedro, Mother's Beach, and Marina del Rey, and the Santa Monica Pier one hundred yards up and down the coast from that pier.
According to the County Health Department, those beaches had bacterial levels exceeding health standards when last tested. Meanwhile, an earlier warning had been lifted for Tbanga Canyon Beach and Malibu or recent samples produced to water quality levels within the state standard. So always check the website now this time of year when those bacteria levels can get high and
folks can discourage you from going down there. But again, if you are curious about any of that high surf or any of the dangerous waves, don't be too curious. We saw what happened in Santa Cruz. We saw the peer collapse with a few people on it. We've seen someone buried in debris there and died, so heed the warnings appropriately and take the caution. The nessa sary caution whenever you think about going down there. It is a pretty nice day though, and you will be tempted to
go check some stuff out. Though we do have some rain Southland weather from KFI and other round of fog with low clouds. We can expect some rain in the afternoon and the evening. Things will clear up apparently for Christmas morning. We're happy about that highs in the low sixties in Metro La. We've got highs around sixty in the Valley's fifties in the Antelope Valley mid to upper sixties,
and the Inland Empire. Current temperature is fifty one in San Clemente, forty nine in Malibu, fifty one in Lake Forest, and fifty in Palmdale. As always, we lead local and live from the KFI twenty four hour newsroom for producer Michelle Cube today filling in for Ann our technical producer
Stephen Kno and traffic specialist Will Coleschreiber. I'm Michael Monks, and this has been your wake up Call, and if you missed any of the wake Up Call and it was a fun show today, you can listen at any time on the iHeartRadio app.
Way 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 kf I Am six forty and anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app.