Get Your Taxes Filed Early!

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.

It's time for your morning wake up call. Here's Amy King.

Well, good morning. It's five o'clock, straight up. This is your wake up call for Friday, February twenty first, I'm Amy King. We're live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app. Ready to get your day started. It was gorgeous driving in. You know, we've had sort of the low clouds and all of that for the last few days. It was nice and clear this morning. The moon is shining bright. It's gonna be a beautiful weekend. Feeling very spring light, even though it's just February. Dare I say people might

I think there were chanting build the rail. It's been seventeen years and sixteen billion dollars and.

No rail has been built.

So if you want to go protest somewhere, if you want to shout at someone, go to the governor's mansion.

Duffy says the high speed route planned for LA to San Francisco is billions of dollars over budget, years behind schedule. The rail authority says it's been audited before, and it welcomes the new federal review. A local congresswoman has pushed back on the Trump administration's review of the rail project.

Representative Laura Friedman toward the expansion of the Metro d line with other local officials and says federal investment is necessary for mass public transit projects. She says the new federal review of the high speed rail project between LA and San Francisco could have far reaching consequences.

Is just part of that same defunding mantra without thinking about whether you can just make a project or a program work better.

The Democrat from Burbank says the Trump administration should work with local officials to find ways to lower costs.

Michael Monks KFI News.

Three people, including a married couple, have been charged in connection with a more than two week robbery spree that targeted a dozen businesses around southern California.

Federal authorities say NoHo residents Antonio Bland and Abigail Lucky, along with Long Beach residents Ronnie Tucker, have been indicted in connection with twelve robberies across LA and OC. Prosecutors say the robberies were typically executed late at night, with Bland and Tucker entering each business, while Lucky reportedly acted as the getaway driver. The businesses included nine seven eleven stores,

Eric Menendez has opened up about his past, saying he was a spoiled brat before he killed his parents in nineteen eighty nine. He tells TMZ he thought back then that he could mask his insecurities with expensive clothes and fancy cars, but now has turned his life around. Eric and his brother Lyle are serving life sentences for their parents' murders. Both claim they were bullied in prison. The brothers are due back in court in mid March as they push to be re sentenced. Let's say good morning

Well, yes, especially this year because not only are the hiring freezes that have been in place for several years still in ef fact, but you also got the acts being swung at the Internal Revenue Service, now thousands of

Although you're right, the electronic fire filing my return last year got processed quick. I mean, I had my refund, which was the first time in like ten years that I got a refund. But I got my refund within a couple of weeks. It wasn't a very long.

Wait.

Sure, that's the quickest way to do it. And by doing it now, you're going to avoid what is likely to be a bottleneck in just a month or so, and certainly a bottle length that comes on April fifteenth or whenever. The deadline in California is looking at the statistics that come from the IRS at this point in this filing season. Last year, fifteen point three returns had been filed. This year, only thirteen point one return thirteen point one million returns have been filed. That's a fourteen

Yeah, I know, and I don't know if you're like me that you think I'm going to get everything done right when I have my W two's, which would be by January thirty. First you should have all that information. Well, now it's almost the end of February. I haven't even started. I thought you said you already filed no no from last year. Last year I got a refund.

Yeah, well I cranked mine out a week ago or so and got that thing submitted.

Nice, good for you. Okay, So I want to go back to the IRS thing a little bit. So they're saying that like six thousand people are going to be laid off, and they're saying that most of them are probationary, which are people who've been working there for a year or less. Right, Okay, So were those people the ones that were hired by the Biden administration efforts to add thousands of IRS agents?

Well, yeah, although again they're not involved directly in processing. They may be auditors, they could be phone answers, which also, you know, makes it more urgent that you file early or if you have to have contact with the IRS. Some of the phone lines answer or they begin at seven o'clock in the morning, and if there's short staff,

Are there really that kind of wait times?

Yeah?

There are.

I've never called the IRS. I figure the less I talk to them, the better.

I just gave up, you know. Last two years ago, I think I had to call for some reason and call the service center, and I finally just gave up. I had to go do things and it was hours hours in Yeah.

Okay, so yeah, So in La County, because of the wildfires, the tax deadline has been pushed back from April fifteenth six months, so I think it's October fifteenth. But that's only for La County. I mean we've also got you know, Orange County and the IE and everybody listening on the iHeartRadio app. So the majority of us time to get going. Kids.

So October fifteenth, you file your return for twenty twenty four? Do you file any Can you file an extension from that that would take you clear into next year?

I guess? But why would you?

I don't know.

Maybe if you're affected by the wildfires, like if you lost your house, you might because I'm sure that finances are you know, up in the air a bit.

But yeah, it's not a good situation.

But in last year we had an extension too. I can't remember why we had an extension last year.

So holiday in Washington, d c oh was that it?

Well I got mine done early anyway, I didn't have to, but I was like, get it done, get it off the table, get it off of your brain, because then you're not worried about it too.

The average refund about this year is nineteen hundred dollars.

That'd be nice.

That's thirty eight percent higher than last year. That's a trip to Vegas. Yeah, it is all right.

ABC's Jim Ryan, thank you so much. Seem all right, have a good weekend. Let's get back to some of the stories coming out of the KFI twenty four hour newsroom. Israel has accused Hamas of handing over the body of an unidentified gosen woman instead of a hostage. ABC's Lama Hassan says four bodies were returned yesterday, including those of two young brothers, but not their mother.

Israel's Prime Minister this morning is promising revenge after officials in Israel say one of the four bodies handed over by Hamas was not that of shri BBAs. Israel officials say they don't know whose remains they are. In his statement, Prime minist of Benjamin Nettigna, who says the cruelty of Hamas knows no bounds.

The Israeli military says bibots, nine months and four year old boys were brutally murdered by terrorists in captivity in November of twenty twenty three, Israeli police have reported a series of explosions in what they're calling a terrorist attack. ABC's Martha Radit says three out of five bombs exploded on parked buses yesterday.

US intelligence sources say the size and number of devices indicates this was well resourced, saying they are military grade, sizable explosives.

No one was hurt. Officials say they believe the bombs were meant to explode during the Friday morning rush hour. A note was recovered indicating the attackers were seeking revenge for Israel's ongoing operations in the West Bank. The man who admitted to shooting a black teenager on his front porch in Missouri has died while awaiting his sentencing. Remember this case. Eighty six year old Andrew Lester pleaded guilty last week, even though he had maintained that he was

Look, there's no appetite for that.

What do you think.

I know, Yeah, we got our answer there.

We have to bring it to and in and I can tell you that our European allies understand the necessity this as well. It's drug on too long.

The UN resolution backs Ukraine's territorial sovereignty and demands Russia with Drawid's troops. The Trump administration is ending an extension of the temporary protected status of Haitian immigrants. Former President Biden announced in June that Haitians would get temporary protections into twenty twenty six because of violence in their home country. Homeland Security Secretary christinoam announced yesterday that it will end

They're concerned about how those cuts will impact programs like student financial aid and Social Security payments. In a new Writer's Ipses poll, fifty eight percent of Americans say they're worried about delays to those payments.

Kfi's Tammy Truhiosa. As President Trump named Elon Musk to lead DOGE, but the White House said this week that he is technically not part of the group. A court filing shows Musk is considered an employee of the White House Office. Crenshaw High School had to be locked down following a stabbing across the street from campus lapds's. A couple of kids came on to campus yesterday morning and got into a fight with a student. The student's father

Amie. Thanks for having me on.

So so happy to have you here because you guys are doing some great work. Before we dive into the event that's happening this weekend called Together We Rebuild, can you tell people a little bit about what Sola Foundation is and does.

Sola Foundation is the affiliated nonprofit of Sola Impact, which is an affordable housing developer throughout LA and essentially we work towards providing access to education, to opportunity to jobs to really just elevate and assist with overall wellbeing of the communities, the most vulnerable communities rather in La.

Okay, So you're already doing great work and have been doing it for several years, and then the wildfires, and so while you continue to do all of that great work, you're also shifting focus to help the people who've been affected by the wildfires. So tell us about what you've been doing, and then what you're doing this weekend.

To help out well through the campaign. Together we rebuild. We feel that we need to be committed to working to help rebuild LA. We started unanticipated with a phone call from a Altadena school called Rosebud Academy that was desperate to find a home temporarily after the devastation of losing their school. They called us and said, hey, we hear that you have a tech center at the Behad campus.

Is there any way that you could house us for a while. And we took in one.

Hundred and fifty kids transform the space and overweeken and from pre k all the way through eighth grade, and we had the kids in the space for a little just about two weeks, and fortunately they were able to find a more.

Permanent home, closer home.

But that really ignited the idea that we should be and could be doing a lot more. We are still standing and so we decided that this weekend we would put out an SOS. So tomorrow we're bringing together over sixty partners who including the Red Cross, BMO core Master.

I love that, So not only are you having a productive day, but also maybe a break because again we've said several times that it feels like a lot of us are moving on who weren't directly affected by the fires, but for you know, ten twelve, thirteen thousand homes, their lives are not back to normal and won't be for a very long time. And I'm imagining that it's incredibly stressful trying to navigate where you go and what you do even though we're a month and a half out. It's a long road.

It's a long road and years right for that matter.

But if we can provide this day. One of the things that we've heard from multiple people, it's been a while since I've smiled.

We want to bring smiles to their faces, to the kids' faces, And this is the first mini we plant.

We've got.

It's a good problem to have, but we've had so many partners who want to come out and help throughout La and so we know that we have to continue this because there's a lot of opportunity and.

A lot of work to be done.

Quite frankly, Okay. So it's a day of recovery and resilience. Together we rebuild and it's tomorrow starting at ten am from ten to four at the Beehive, which is at one thousand East sixtieth Street in La. So, if you know anybody affected or if you are directly affected by the fires, what a great place to go and spend your Saturday. And then I also wanted to ask you real quick, Sherry, what do you guys still need and how can we help?

We would love more volunteers. We've got a lot of great folks who are signed up on our website Thesolo Foundation dot org. Anyone who's interested in volunteering or supporting. It's all there, but we really want to make sure we get the word out and get to them that have been most affected. And we also are providing free transportation from the Altadina and Pasadena areas, So all of that information lives right now on that website, the Solo Foundation dot work.

Doing great work. Sola Foundation founder Sherry Francis, thank you so much for coming on and tell your friends because it's a day of recovery and resilience and a whole lot of fun too. Tomorrow ten to four. Thank you, Amy, Thanks Sherry. The IRS has started to lay off more than six thousand new and newly promoted employees across the country. That's about six or seven percent of the agency's one hundred thousand person workforce. The cuts are part of President

I think that getting help via an individual or through a correspondence is going to be very difficult Over the course of twenty twenty.

Five, Thers increased its staff under the Biden administration in an effort to increase audits of corporations and the Wealthy News brought to you by Premier West Credit Union. The California Department of Justice has decided not to press charges against officers involved in the fatal shooting of a bystander in Norwalk. Pedro Lopez, known as Pee Wee, was shot in the head in twenty twenty two as deputies were pursuing a man wanted for a carjacking and assault three

Dean, Good morning Amy.

So this week on Home on KFI, we're going to be sharing concrete facts.

Oh yeah, nice one.

Thank you.

So, yeah, you're talking about concrete.

Sunday, we're talking all about concrete. I'm going to have a special in studio Guest, one of the finest concrete contractors in southern California, and we're just going to be talking all things concrete. It's something that affects everybody. Homeowners have all sorts of questions about their concrete in all

Well, and you know, I had a really good friend, in fact, we called him Concrete Dave when I lived up in Oregon, and he obviously did concrete work. And it's really an art, like you can be good at concrete or you can be bad. So hopefully you're going to be giving tips on how to do it good.

Oh yeah, for sure. It absolutely is an art. It's one of those things where you know, I've understood the steps and the science of it and the processes and the prep work, but I never. I have never in my career gotten involved in the actual finishing and forming of concrete because it's truly a craft and it takes that. It takes that ten thousand hours of just you know, hand dexterity and in order to get it right, and it makes all the difference in the world.

And because if you don't do it right, what are some of the bad things that are going to happen?

Well, the thing about concrete is that it's kind of like baking in a strange web. Concrete is a recipe. It's a mixture of four things, essentially of basically cement Portland cement aggregates two kinds of aggregates rocks like gravel and sand, and then water, and the ratio of those ingredients put together. As soon as you mix them together, there's this thermogenic process in which it heats up and

Yeah. And the other thing that's cool about concrete is I think more and more people are using but it's not only a utilitarian thing like for driveways but in house foundations. But now they're using it to make your house and to use it. I've seen some beautiful like concrete countertops and that kind of stuff too.

Oh. Absolutely, there's an entire world of esthetic concrete. Concrete countertops. For a while, you know, a few years back, we're just kind of a novelty. Now they are just simply one of the options that any homeowner could embrace as far as you know, redoing a kitchen or a bathroom or anything like that. But they still are largely sort of in the dark as to mystery of how you get that thing finished just the right way.

Okay, the world of concrete is the focus of Home on KFI this Sunday, and on Saturday you're going to be talking about this is something that's affecting thousands right now, and that's builders being allowed to permit their own projects so you can listen to Dean Sharp this weekend six to eight on set Saturday, nine to noon on Sunday right here on kf I always great information. Thanks so much, Dean.

Thanks Amy.

All right, time to get in your business with Bloomberg's Dan Schwartzman. Dan, Good morning, Good morning, Amy.

How are you.

I'm great. Some people didn't have a great day because of the stock market yesterday dove like four hundred and fifty points, and it was because of Walmart.

Yeah, kind of a strange story, because Walmart had you know, they made a bowload of money. Their year over year sales were up significantly. They made a ton of profits, so you thought, okay, they hit their quarterly estimates for the fourth quarter, so why would the market drop. It's because of what they forecast for this year. Now, Walmart's shares overalling, you have risen about seventy two in twenty twenty four.

They even hit a record high last week.

But what's happened is with high interest rates out there, and of course inflation still out there, and there's the uncertainty of tariffs and the geopolitical situation, what they did was they they're forecast for sales and profit for this year was actually less than what Wall Street estimates were, and that's why people, I think freaked out a little bit.

Investors freaked out, and that's why they had that drop.

Okay, so are we expecting another drop today or thanks for right now?

It's mixed.

The Dow is up then, ASDAK and the S and P are kind of down right now, so probably going to be a mixed end to the week on Wall Street.

Kind of a strange situation.

The texcodocs are down right now, but again the textocks are up, but the Dow overall is down right now in the future, so you know, these days, it's so strange.

Amy, your guest is good as mine right now.

Okay, well, we'll just have to watch it. Tell us now. Major League Baseball and ESPN been together for a long time, but apparently they're about to get divorced.

Thirty five year marriage between Major League Baseball and ESPN ESPN and they're going to be ending their broadcast relationship. At the end of this season. ESPN had scaled down its baseball coverage in the last contract and they were just you know, broadcasting thirty games a year. The wild Card round of the playoffs, the All Star home under be in ten spring training games. Baseball is also unhappy with ESPN's recent demands to reduce what they paid to

Now.

It could be a negotiating ploy who knows, or it could be again a divorce after thirty five years.

We're going to see.

Either way, it's probably gonna be harder now for me to watch baseball.

But oh well, I'm sure you sit down every night to watch your Dodgers and Angels, right.

Gotta love my Dodgers. That is Bloomberg's Dan Schwartzman, right, there, been filling in for Courtney Donajo all week. Thanks so much, Dan, appreciate it.

Thanks Amy.

All right, we'll get in your business on Monday, same time, same place, don't miss it. Let's get back to some of the stories coming out of the KFI twenty four hour newsroom. A plane carrying one hundred nineteen illegal immigrants has left Marine Corps air Station Mirramar in San Diego County. Kfi's breed to Tennis says adults and kids were on the flight yesterday, with most from Asia, Africa and the Middle East.

To Deportees were then moved to a hotel in Panama and are now awaiting the next step. Lasma to other deportation flights from Mehramar headed to Colombia but were denied landing.

She says each military plane used for deportations costs taxpayers about twenty eight thousand dollars a flight. The man accused of killing United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson on a sidewalk in New York is doing court. Luigi Mangioni is pleaded not guilty in the shooting in December. He released a statement last week expressing gratitude for all of the support he's received. Supporters have donated hundreds of thousands of dollars

The country is or different from an individual and that of an individual overspends.

An individual can go backrupt and so kind of country.

Musk Cold Fox told Fox News is Sean Hannity, inflation will not be cut until they first tackled tackle wasteful spending. President Trump blamed the Biden administration for the federal deficit. The first modern day school shooter in the US is up for parole. In nineteen seventy nine, Brenda Spencer shot and killed two adults and injured eight students at Cleveland Elementary School in San Diego. Spencer, who was sixteen at the time, says she did it because she didn't like Mondays.

I hope that mine is not. My Alexa has been behaving lately, but this new series, this new series on Netflix has me a little bit worried that she might go haywire soon.

Okay, so what is it? What is it?

It's called Cassandra, and it is about a family that moves into a vintage smart house. So all the tech in the house looks like it's from the eighties almost, and it's it's kind of cool. It's like a it's a fun concept to give that sort of eighties horror

Okay. So it's creepy, but not in a horror creepy really like a court sort of a camp be fun creepy.

Yes, that's that's how I would classify it.

Yeah, okay, can't be fun creepy. And it's called Cassandra, yes, okay. So here's something else and it's just it's a movie on Peacock and it's our old friend Bridget Jones.

Yeah, so we're on the street.

Is you have seen this as well? Right?

I haven't? It was okay, okay, it was on my list and I didn't get to.

Okay, well I'm here to tell you that it's You should watch it.

Really, okay, yes, I mean it is.

It's so fun to see Renees Elweger back as Bridget Jones and this is a Bridget Jones mad about the boy. So she is a widow now and of course her friends, who are just like an incredible cast of characters, are you know, encouraging her to Oh I signed you up for Tinder? Oh I think you should.

You know, you know these types of things.

But it's also touching because you know it deals with family and with loss, and it's just if you are craving an escape from the troubles of the world. It's so fun to see Renees Elweger gets stuck climbing a tree and have to be rescued by the hot guy from White Lotus season two. You know, it's just like it's it's silly and it's sweet and she's just so good in this role.

I love that. And so because a lot of times I think when they bring characters back, like for a third and four of the iteration, sometimes that the actors there, it's like they're over acting, like they've they've settled into the character so much that it's it becomes like a caricature of the character. Does that make sense?

Yes, I mean I will say, like there are moments in this movie where you're like, what kind of real person would actually you know, be this flustered or whatever. But that's sort of what Bridget Jones. Bridget Jones is so if you like the character, and you know, Hugh Grant is in it and he's just like smug and the worst person ever, but it works because he's just brilliant that way. So you know, it's yeah, it's it's great. I had a lovely time watching it.

Nice. And is Colin Firth in it? Is he the guy?

Who?

Is he your husband who dies?

He is her husband who dies? And I will say he has a presence in the film for sure.

Oh I love it. Okay, Yeah, that's and Bridget Jones and that's mad about the Boy on Peacock. All right, well, Ganz, thank you so much. I've got stuff to put on my list. I'm gonna watch it this week.

Great.

Great, we'll have to circle back next week.

Okay, great, have a great weekend. Thanks will you too.

Take care Bye.

Let's get back to some of the stories coming out of the KFI twenty four hour newsroom. The Trump administration has announced a review of the California High Speed Rail Authority and it's La to San Francisco project.

Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy came to LA and spoke at Union Station to announce the follow through on President Trump's call for an investigation.

This is going to help determine whether billions of dollars in tax payer money should remain committed to California's high speed rail, and we're going to look at whether California High Speed Rail has actually complied with the agreements that they've signed with the federal government.

Duffy says the project is billions over budget and likely decades behind schedule. Michael Monks KFI News.

Democratic Congresswoman Laura Friedman says she disagrees with President Trump's plan to investigate the rail project. She says too much work has already been put into it for it possibly not to proceed.

I would love to be able to write this. I don't think that it's money wasted if we have a project at the end of the day that delivers on the promise of having better rail connectivity between our cities.

Friedman says she'd like to see the Trump administration work with local officials to find efficiencies and cost savings in building out the route between LA and San Francisco. Investigators in San Diego County are trying to find the wife of a CalFire captain murdered in her home. CAAFI's Daniel Martindale says the woman they're looking for is Yolanda Morodi.

Authorities believe the suspect, also known as Yolanda Olanichek, may have fled to Mexico. Olani Check was sentenced to eleven years in prison in two thousand and four after pleading guilty to stabbing her then husband to death.

Rebecca Morodi was found stabbed to death Monday at the couple's home in Ramona. Officials say the two had been married for a little over two years. Accord in Argentina has dropped criminal negligence charges against a friend and two hotel employees indicted in connection with the death of singer Liam Payne. The former member of One Direction, fell from a third floor hotel balcony in Buenos Aires last October. The court ruled there was nothing the three could have