Gettin' Bizzy With It It - podcast episode cover

Gettin' Bizzy With It It

Jul 03, 202342 min
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Episode description

Jason Middleton hosts your Monday morning Wake Up Call. Senior Real Estate Analyst at BusinessInsider.com James Rodriguez joins the show to talk about real estate fees as the cost of buying a home continues to stretch out of reach in California. Then, KFI's Kris Adler shares a story coming out of Long Beach where residents are concerned for the safety of birds and nesting season with the annual firework shows. AKi Ito, also from BusinessInsider.com comes on to talk with Jason about the workplace, both at the office and at home. And Trae Bodge, National Retail Analyst, shares some information about Amazon Prime Day coming up in just a couple of weeks!

Transcript

Camp. I am six forty. You're listening to wake Up Call on demand on the iHeart radio app. It's time for your morning wake up call. Here's Jason Middleton. You'd morning everyone. Monday morning, July third. I hope you have a great weekend, a little warm, played so many golfa. I hope you guys got out. Maybe I don't know, so it sounds like some experiences we're had. That's cool. Long holiday weekend. I'm working. A lot of us here are working well. I couldn't get in.

That was fun. My ID card didn't work. And the first thing I thought it was like, what was it? It was five after three. I'm trying to get in, can't get in. Security guards nodded at his desk right now he's doing rounds probably, And the first thing I thought was, Wow, this doesn't work. Can I go home? I mean, in the past, when I was a manager type and I've had to let people go and whatnot. First thing he did was got rid of their card. Privocal this stuff. I guess it was just muscle memory. Surely

they would have let me know over the weekend. It's got a couple of headlines and then I'm going to run down the rest of the Today's show for you. We have more than you would think on the day before a holiday. Let's start with those headlines. Thousands of hotel workers have gone on strike in southern California to demand better pay and other benefits. Members of Unite Here Local eleven began striking yesterday at more than a dozen hotels through LA and Santa

Monica. They represent more than thirty thousand workers. Police in two states are investigating weekend mass shootings. In Maryland, two people were killed and twenty eight others wounded when multiple suspected gunmen opened fire at a block party south Baltimore. Meanwhile, a shooting at a Witch Tall, Kansas nightclub left several people injured early yesterday, and parts of the US are at risk for more severe weather

ahead of tomorrow's July fourth. The National Weather Surface issued hazardous weather alerts for more than one hundred million Americans during the extended holiday weekend. More on that board south in California soon. Let's start with some of the other stories coming out of the KFI twenty four hour news room. More than two hundred and thirty pounds of illegal fireworks have been seized in Long Beach. The bust Friday night was the second of the week in the city. All fireworks are illegal

in Long Beach. Anyone cited or rested four fireworks violations could face jail time and a one thousand dollars fine. The grandmother of a teenager fatally shot by police in Paris, leading to days of violent protests across France, is pleading for an end to the rioting. She spoke to French media on Sundays. She is actually calling for calm and peace. She's asking these riders to stop wrecking buses and schools. She says she can't bear it anymore. ABC's in

as Delicatea says. A private funeral was held over the weekend for the seventeen year old killed by police. Israel launched air strikes on a refugee camp in Janine. That's a city in the West Bank, killing at least six people and injuring twenty seven others, according to Palestinian officials. Israel's army said it was targeting terrorist infrastructure belonging to Janine Battalion That's a militia. Violence has flared in the region in the past months. For sure, last month's six Palestinians

were killed during Israeli raid on the same camp. Hong Kong police have offered bounties of one million dollars Hong Kong, that's one hundred and twenty eight k here in California each for information leading to the return of eight pro democracy activists who fled to Western countries. The eight are accused of various offenses under the Territory Swinging National Security Law. They include Nathan Law who moved to Britain, Dennis Quack, who is in America. It is the first time Hong Kong

has offered such a reward. Okay, first topic for today on wake Up Call, It's going to be real estate, as in homes and home sales now not usual. The Walkee numbers that I nerd out on is not going to be that. This angle is realtors and realtor fees. You think about like I said, online home sales disrupting the real estate market about twenty years ago. Two recent class action lawsuits are going to really rattle real estate and

realtors. That's because realtor fees are on the line. We have an interview that has to do with two class action lawsuits about the National Association of Realtors and their practices of fees. Now we are up against the clock, so I'm gonna get right into it with James Rodriguez from Business Insider. James, thank you so much for your time, and thank you for writing this story. I have been wanting to know more about the realtor fees and where it

all goes and the internesting dealings of residential real estates. So again, just first of all, thank you for the story, and thanks for joining us. Thank you for having me. All Right, I'll tell you what. I'll let you give me the lead of the story, and let's talk about

the class action suits. So my story is really about these two multi billion dollars class action lawsuits that have been simmering for a few years now, Sixer versus the National Association of Realtors at All and Merle versus the National Association of Realtors at All. And they basically accused the NAR and some of the country's

largest brokerages think Keller Williams Remax of conspiring to charge exorbitant agent commissions. And now the Plantists, who represent a large group of home sellers, they say that it's grossly unfair for the home seller to pay the commissions of both the buyer's agent and a listing agent, which has has been a common practice for decades. And the defendants, led by the NAR say that that's actually the most efficient way and it's will complicated. So I'm happy to kind of explain

more from there. But that's basically the gist of it. And if the plaintiffs went out here, I mean, they're asking for tens of billions of dollars damages, but it could lead to an entire reshuffling of the real estate

industry as we know it now. I have a pretty smart audience, luckily, so we can dig into it. Let's go into how this could change things, because SOOP right now is not very satisfying to customers and those selling and buying home and it seems like this might be peeling the cover off of it and giving us some more transparency. If that happens, how does the

real estate market change. Home sellers have paid both agent commissions, usually totally between five percent and six percent of the sale price here in the United States for decades now, and this practice is a result of NAAR rules that say, if you list your house on the Multiple Listing Service MLS, you need to promise to pay the buyer's agent something. Now, the NR doesn't say how much you need to offer the buyer's agents. It could actually be as

little as one dollar. But the planists argue that sellers who are the plants in these lawsuits, class action sellers, you know, they have little choice but to promise the customary two and a half to three percent if they want their home to get traffic from from broker versus. The theory is, you know, if you're if you're not offering a competitive percentage to the buyer agent, they're just going to show their clients other homes where they can get a

satisfactory play. It's pay to play. It just seems like pay to play. I'm sorry, I get this. It's righteous indignation. I think when it comes to this again, we're back to the top. Why I thank you for this is the National Association of Realtors who are being sued in class action suits. I need to be clear, nothing's been proven just yet in the court of law, but they are. They are being sued, and their existing operating practices have already been disrupted once and that was the wave say

Redfin and Zillo. Is this them just trying to hold on to some of their literal like an figurative real estate. Despite kind of the advent of the of you know, internet home shopping and all of these technological advances that we've experienced over the past couple of decades, you know, the commissions for agents have been markably steady. You know, it is dropped a little bit, you know, but still kind of between five percent and six percentage is customary.

And what the planeffs are seeking here is to click day couple buyer and seller agent commissions. So have the buyer just pay their agent directly. And the theory is if each party, if each party just pays for their own agent directly, there will be more transparency and commissions, more incentives for clients to negotiate with their brokers. You know, up until just a few years ago, actually a buyer agent was allowed to tell their clients that their services

were free. You know. Of course that's not really true because the buyer at the end of the day is the one who's fronting all the money via their mortgage, and then they pay the seller who then cut the check to

their listing agent, who then splits that with the buyer's agent. Typically, you know, the National Association of Realtors says that the coupling commissions would actually be a disaster from low income and first time buyers specifically, since it would force them to come up with additional money for an agent on their own instead of effectively having that commission bundled into their mortgage. So then it kind of gets down to a question of, you know, how how much do you

need an agent? Could you maybe pay an agent by the hour? Could you know if a buyer sees that number in print, would they be more incentivized to negotiate that down There could be a need for far fewer buyer aids if the plane off student went out here. Let me reintroduce you real quick. I ask you a couple of follow ups. For four, I have to let you go. We're speaking with James Rodriguez. He's senior real estate

reporter at Business Insider dot com. You mentioned there in that last answer that the NAAR says any kind of change right here is going to be bad for lower income buyers, And I think it's a be careful what you wish for a situation, because if I hear that, and I have any interest in the lower end at real estate market for residences, I'm saying more policy needs to come in, More regulation needs to come in, because if that's the

case, if the market can't protect those buyers, then that's what policy and regulation is for. So not only are these class action suits against NAAR,

doesn't seem like they have a hell of an argument going on. Well, you know, it's interesting because talk to Stephen Brobeck, who's a senior fellow at the Consumer Federation of America, and he basically argued, if you know, low income and first time buyers can't come up with the money for an agent, but they still are in need of that professional guidance along the way, that the industry would be very incentivized to come up with ways to get

around that, to to finance help them, you know, find financing or continue a practice of having you know, in some cases maybe the seller just chooses to pay the buyer's agent anyway, but you don't have kind of this promise at the outset, and there can be kind of more negotiating along the way, and they ask the consumers. Brobeck estimates that consumers could save between

twenty billion and thirty billion a year. If commissions drop in line with some other countries where many people don't use a buyer agent, or if they do, they typically negotiate lower commissions. You know, for agents, it could be kind of a total upheaval of the current system and many could leave the

business altogether, or you have to deal with the lower commissions. Yeah, I'm sorry, but that I'm not exactly going to cry or river given those arguments, and I realize I might be soap boxing a little bit, and

that's not your job. That's my job because it's my show. But buying and selling a home, especially first homes, is absolutely foundational to building wealth in the United States, and having more barriers up against this and less transparency and more fees around it makes zero sense if you want to have a class of middle income earners who can actually have a quality of life and contribute back

to their local economies. Okay, end of soapbox. All right, all right, mister Rodriguez, tell us which one of these cases is coming to court first, and what we can maybe expect or at least give us a little bit of a drive by, sure so Sitzer, which was the case that was filed in Missouri. It's the smaller of the two cases. Only I'm saying only here, but four billion dollars in potential damages that's going to

come to trial or schedule to come trial in October. The bigger case, Merle is locally to come up for trial in the first half of twenty twenty four. That case potential damages could reach more than forty billion. That's James rod Regrez from Business Insider. I guess you fell off there. Thousands of hotel workers in La and Orange Counties are on strike. Members of Unite Here Local eleven officially walked off the job and onto the picket lines yesterday, one

day after their contract expired. The heat is sticking around in southern California, and excessive heat warning in place for the Santa Clarita and Antelope Valleys and parts of San Louis Obispo County have been extended through three sorry eight o'clock tonight. Four members of the LAPD bomb Squad have been disciplined for their role in a botched fireworks explosion a little more than two years ago. The type of discipline

not yet clear. A crew was trying to detonate illegal fireworks that had been seized from a home in South La inside a blast containment vehicle, but they overpacked it with too many fireworks and the truck was destroyed. Seventeen residents and first responders were injured, and twenty two homes, thirteen businesses, and thirty

seven vehicles were damaged. Like I said, we're going to get business e and there's plenty of business talk we can get into a little bit later, but right now, let's start with the news feature from KFI as Chris Adler, Long Beach is going to continue with its Big Bang on the Bay firework

show despite pollution and other concerns. It's thirty minutes of cracking and popping against the night sky just above Alamitos Bay, and to some it's a celebration of freedom, but to wetlands protectors it's a hazard to the environment and a threat to birds in the area. And we go out every thirty July since this event has been happening. We hold blankets under the trees to make sure that the parents in the Egrett stove fall because it's a nesting season and their sledgelings

in there. They can't fly it and they'll st down on the edge of the branches and you can see the terror in their eyes when the fireworks go off. Advocates spoke at the La Harbor Commissions meeting last week, pleading with board members not to sponsor the event. Board President Sharon Weissman was the only commissioner who voted against the sponsorship, saying laser light show alternatives are safer for people and pet Disneyland is already looking at all the Disney properties at last,

excuse me, drone light shows instead of fireworks. The Dodgers have cut back on their fireworks for this year and are going to drone light shows. As I think some of us know. Rodondo Beach just canceled their fireworks show because of this very issue having to do with pollution. Some Long Beach residents say they support the show because proceeds will go to several charities, including the Autism Partnership Foundation and the Ronald McDonald House, but advocates say it's not worth the

risk to animals or local waters. We don't want these fireworks. The community doesn't want them. You go right ahead and enjoy your meal. Ken Of, you get to eat. Thank kenn Of, you get deep for free. That night. A judge dismissed a lawsuit against the show's organizers in April, alleging the event had been illegally polluting Alamitos Bay and they are polluters. That is why they are required to get a pollution permit. That's what the

federal permit is. The board passed the motion four to one to approve the sponsorship and the show is still on for tonight at nine pm at the Boathouse on the Bay. Restaurant President Weissman says future shows will be up for discussion in Long Beach. Chris Adler KFI News Dodgers are scaling that back Okay Drone show though tomorrow night at Dodgers Stadium after the game. It's more news from the KFY twenty four hour news room. The governor of Texas has bust more

migrants to La. A bus carrying forty one people arrived Saturday at Union Station. Officials stated migrants are from Mexico, Cuba, Venezuela and other countries and included eleven children. La City Councilman Kevin da Leon says he's asked the US and state attorneys general to stop Texas from moving migrants around the country. This is trafficking individuals against the will from one state to another state. This is

kidnapping as far as I'm concerned. Another bus carrying migrants from Texas arrived in La on June fourteenth. Texas Governor Greg Abbott said he's sent the bus because California has declared itself a sanctuary city for immigrants. An ABC poll shows the country is almost evenly split on the Supreme Court's decision to strike down affirmative action in college admissions. An increasing number of Americans view the Supreme Court as political.

A majority fifty three percent now say they believe the Justice his rule mainly on the basis of politics, not the law. ABC's Alex Preche says Republicans have been celebrating the Court's decision on affirmative action and the ruling against President Biden's student loan debt forgiveness plan. Now as a way to tease into the getting business segment at the bottom of the hour, I thought we'd talk a little bit about remote work as well, because after the pandemic, the work from

home situation is still in flux. Some like it, some hate it, Some companies are okay with it, Some are very much not business insiders dot com at eto covers. I'll tell you what, Rather than me take it away, why don't you go ahead and give us the lead of your story. I'll give the headline first. In the war over remote work, companies are turning full time jobs into low paying gigs. What was your takeaway?

Sure? So you know in this shift to remote and hybrid jobs, m something really interesting has been quietly happening in corporate America where companies are kind of moving away from the full time traditional employment model and they're opting to hire more independent contractors, more part time employees, more temps, trying to outsource a lot of positions to domestic or overseas firms. And it's kind of like, you know, in a romantic relationship. So I feel like a weird analogy,

but I'm into it now. Spill the tea, Spill the tea. You might think of companies kind of going from like, you know, a committed marriage, a committed relationship, to kind of like casually dating around. I guess there's been a lot during this pandemic of employees distancing themselves from their employers, but in some ways employers are doing the same thing they're distancing themselves from their employees. Interesting and now you always have really great sourcing. And

Nicholas Bloom is somebody that I've spoken with in the past as well. He's a Stanford University professor. He calls it the uberization of the workforce. What do you think he meant by that? And what did you extrapolate? Sure, so, you know a traditional employer employee relationship that's based on full time employment. You know, you have somebody come into your office every day, you get to know them. The cliche is that they become a little bit

part of your family. You're really both sides are kind of invested in making that match work. But you know, once they're contractors, once they're attempts um, you know, that relationship really becomes a lot more casual. It kind of starts to fray um and it's like uber. You know, you're you're just kind of there for the hour, for the minute. M. You're paid for just what you do, uh and nothing else, and you don't get kind of the traditional benefits and the perks that come with full time

employment. Of those perks in yeah, so, I mean a really important one is health insurance, right more than half of the Americans get their health insurance from their employer. Um, you don't get that if you're an independent contractor. Often you don't get that even if you're a part time employee. M So that's a really important thing. Um, you know obviously, something like you know, for when K matching, disability, unemployment insurance. Those

are all protections that only come to full time employees. And then there's some you know, kind of intangible less financial perks too, like you know, your employer investing in your growth. If you're a full time employee, your boss, you know, is definitely invested in your growth as an employee.

They might spend a little bit more time on your learning and development, you don't, you know, Boston definitely don't do that for contractors, for TEBs, so you kind of lose out on some of that on the job training and mentoring as well. Yeah, FaceTime really does matter, right, I mean, I mean, your your story mentions it specifically, so I won't I won't dwell on it. Don't forget though. We will have a link

in the show notes for this week as well. One are the data points you pulled out a category that includes gig contract freelance and temporary workers thirty six percent of the workforce as of this year. That's up from twenty seven percent just seven years ago. And I remember I was up in the Bay Area when Uber launched and gig workers. This was all the buzz like, Oh, everybody's going to be gigified and nobody's ever going to have healthcare and everything.

It took a while, but we're getting closer and closer to that point, it seems. Yeah. So I think this kind of gigification of the economy definitely came first for you know what we would normally consider blue collar workers, people who have less education, who are paid lower wages. But I think the shift of remote work means that the gigification is coming for white collar jobs as well. I think, you know, this was starting to happen

before the pandemic, but the pandemic is really what accelerated it. Because companies always wanted, you know, to hire more contractors, to hire more attempts, to hire people more on a part time via basis because that's cheaper. You know, they don't have to pay for all the benefits, they don't have to go through the hassles of these you know, full time employees who have all these kinds of employment protections, but they felt like they couldn't because

you know, they didn't trust people. They've never meant to get their work out of sight. The pandemic change that because remote work showed them that people are actually capable of getting their work from done from home. And you know, bosses are looking at this and saying, well, like, if they're going to have our employees work remotely anyway, we might as well not pay them, you know, we might as well not cover their benefits. We might as well, you know, hire somebody who we can just keep on

contrast and sever the contract tomorrow with no consequently. It's Akieto from business insider dot com. She covers workforce issues, workplace issues, and other labor issues, labor market overall too. Actually, you can find her business insider dot com. Her stories are always very well sourced and have lots of great data that we won't dig into here, but there should be notes floating around. You can always check a if I am six forty dot com for those as

well, or on the iHeartRadio app anywhere and anytime you like. A new poll shows a slight majority of Americans agree with the Supreme Court's decision to remove race as a factor in college admissions now. The new ABC if SO poll found fifty two percent in favor of the decision, while thirty two percent disapproved of the Court's rulings. Airports being hit with more travel issues. Record number

of Americans are traveling during this extended fourth of July weekend. Flight Aware reports more than six hundred flights within, into, or out of the US were canceled yesterday. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is planning to visit China this week. The Treasury Department made the announcement yesterday, saying Yellen is expected to discuss a number of financial issues with senior Chinese officials. And this comes right as well.

I'll tell you what. Let's hang on to that. There's something coming out of China over the weekend when it comes to foreign policy and if you're doing business, there's a new law. We're going to dig into that in just a second. A reminder that retail expert Trade Bodge will get us prepped and ready for prime Day for Amazon Prime Day coming up soon. Also back to school, there's some July fourth sales floating around, probably a lot more

Right now on wake up call, we're going to get business. And now the markets got pushed higher last week jo one Wall Street's major just closed out a strong first half of the year, and it went up on Friday, powered by tech stocks mostly. Apple achieved a historic three trillion dollar market capitalization

by more than a little. They've done it once before, but that was intrud Day didn't close out at three trillion dollar market cap to By the way, math on the radio market cap is when you take all the shares that

are available and multiply them by the price of one share. So all the shares out floating around for Apple times one ninety plus is what it finished at on Friday, gives it three trillion dollars Moreover, the Federal reserves favorite inflation gauge, and we all have one, the Core Personal Consumption Expenditures Index, moderated in May. That's on a month to month and a year to year basis, showing that the sticky inflation, the core inflation, is coming down.

Core inflation. When you see that in the story or hear that in a story, core inflation basically means all the volatile stuff and the usual stuff, not just manufacturing orders and chipping goods around. But it's also like what happens at the grocery store and what happens at the gas pump. That's core inflation. So when that starts to moderate a bit, that's a good sign. All eleven SNP sectors ended in positive territory on Friday as well, Tech

again up two percent. Notably, however, the SMP five hundred, the Dala Jones, and the NASDAC all notched gains for the week, for the month, for the quarter, and for the first half of the year. So the headwinds from inflation are not necessarily flowing around Wall Street. Not after

the AI boom and bump that is happening. Still, investors are still figuring out where AI is going to land and who's going to most benefits, so they're kind of covering bets anything that might be influenced or impacted by AI or automation of an AI sort. Well, they're all doing that too. And last week, don't forget it was Russian roulette last week, because we had that would be mutiny slash flex from a mercenary army that was diverted away from

the Kremlin and toward Belarus. That really didn't rattle markets very much at all, which tells you something about out the supply chain having adjusted to the war in Ukraine and the oil flow that comes out of it. Now we can't get the world Most of the world is not getting oil from Russia, so Russia is selling it to other places where you can get oil from. So

there are workarounds when it comes to those kind of things. Let's go to Apple real quick again, because Apple is it costs the three trillion dollar companies, the first one to do it. It did it once in twenty eighteen, and then it did it again in one trillion dollar company in twenty eighteen, and then in twenty twenty for a second it was three trillion, and now it's legit three trillion. It's also slashing production targets for that new product.

It dropped the Vision Pro. Manufacturers are struggling with the novels gadgets and it's complex design. This is according to Financial Times, saying that the design is hard to onboard. Apple is preparing to make fewer than four hundred thousand of those units. They are retail priced at thirty five hundred bucks a pop, and they're going to start flowing early next year. There's a Chinese firm that's initially assembling this device as well, so there's a little bit of a

headwind in there. We'll see if anything happens over the weekend. With this coming week with Jenny Ellen in China to China base suppliers of components that Apple was asking for parts for one hundred and thirty two one hundred and fifty thousand units at first. This is one of those tip of the spear things. I remember the iPhone was pretty popular as far as a marketing device for a while, but it didn't really get fully functional until about iPhone five, and

that's when it became the biggest seller in the world. Also, we have a few other stories that I have to go around Elon Musk on this one. So in this week in Elon Musk, we'll start with Tesla handily beating estimates. Tesla is powering higher before the bell this morning, shares of Tesla up about six and a half percent. The automaker has registered record electric vehicle deliveries in the second quarter. It's already the biggest in the space. In

fact, the stock is more than double the value year to date. And that's splitting analyst on what's going to come next. So that's good news on the Tesla front. As far as Musk's other interests go. Of course, Twitter landed a new CEO, poached an advertising executive from NBC Universal, which was a good sign because Elon had not really proven that he understood that Twitter was an advertising platform. That said, he has temporarily set a daily view

limit for Twitter users. So this has got corporate accounts really not feeling great about Twitter, and it's another headache for the new CEO, Linda Yacarino to deal with because he wants to push back against AI large language models being able to scrape all the content that is produced by Twitter users and Twitter handles every day. Now, how much of that has already done by AI is not known, and how much of that is going to be generated coming up is

not known. And don't forget that Elon did sign the letters saying hey, we need to slow down everything when it comes to artificial intelligence. Not a great look for him. So that's this week in Elon Musk, and hopefully we don't have to do another one this week. We'll see what he generates next. And I can't even touch that cage match thing. It's just so silly. Let's get some more news coming out of the kf I twenty four hour news room before we go to break. Experts say climate change keeps making

wildfires and smoke worse, and scientists are calling it the new abnormal. As smoky as the summer's been so far, as scientists say, it'll likely be worse in future years because of climate change. They say as the world warms and weather gets more extreme, America will see nastier bouts of drought that lead to wildfires and then cause billowing and deadly smoke. The amount of land burned in the United States and Canada has more than tripled since the nineteen eighties.

One study estimates that globally, more than six hundred thousand people per year die from wildlife smoke. Mark Roner KFI News. Striking hotel workers are back on the picket lines in La. Members of Unite Here Local eleven started protesting yesterday at several high end hotels. They an immediate five dollars an hour raise, another three dollars an hour in subsequent years, and improvements in healthcare and retirement

benefits. This worker tells NBC four they deserve it, especially since the pandemic and our occupancies increase, but our staffing has stayed the same, and we are tired of being tired, and it is time for us to voice our opinions and to speak up and go ahead and do what we need to to get these wage increases and better at health insurance. Hotel reps say they've offered raises of two fifty an hour in the first twelve months and more than six

dollars an hour over four years. The hotel's accused the union of being inflexible in its demands. Police in Baltimore say they believe at least four guns were used in a weekend shooting that killed two people and injured dozens more at a holiday block party. People where we were running out of breath, crying because they witnesses. A lot of people were shot. More than a dozen of those shot late Saturday night our teenagers. Baltimore Police Commissioner Richard Whirley says there

was no permit for the party. This was a huge crime. Sing we're talking about multiple blocks. The Mayor of Baltimore called the shooting a cowardly violent act. Thousands of hotel workers have gone on strike in southern California to demand better pay and other benefits. The National Weather Service is issued hazardous weather alerts for more than one hundred million Americans. Sidebar and excessive heat warning is in place for Santa Clarita and the Antelope Valleys today as parts of San Luis.

San Louis Obispo County has been extended through eight o'clock tonight. Now let's bring on national retail analysts and expert Trey Boj. We have a full plate of retail questions for you, Trey, so thank you for coming on. Thanks so much for having me. Why don't we start with Amazon Prime Day. I was opening up my app last night and it just tells me, right there, it's a splash screen Amazon Prime Day. What should we be looking for and are there competitors we should be looking at? Oh my gosh,

so much so. Amazon Prime Day this year will be July eleventh and twelve, and like we've seen in previous years, we've seen a lot of competition happening. So Target, Walmart, Cole's, Overstock, Spy and more will be launching competitive deals in some cases on those same days and in some cases even longer. So shoppers have a lot to think about next week. Okay, yeah, a lot to think about it. Did you preload your cart and then maybe say for later, or how do you prep for Amazon Prime

Day? Because you don't know what's going to drop for sure? Right, that's true, and there will be millions of deals, and so what I like to do is, like you said, preload my cart and then on Amazon Prime Day and can go to my cart and I'll be immediately be able to see what's for sale. I've also heard that with the Amazon app that you can load items into your wish list and you'll be notified when those items

go on sale. But I can't say with authority as that actually will work, but I'm going to try it. Yeah, I think I think it's a good way to I mean, what's the harm, right it's on your wish lists? That way, at least you have a pin in it for later if you don't get a sale. Okay, absolutely, I would say, though, because there are so many competitive deals, to not sink all your attention into Amazon Prime because we'll see sales from so many other retailers.

And so another thing that you can do is use a tool like say Google Shopping, enter the name of the item you're looking for, and you'll see where it's available and for how much. And then something else that I like is a website called slick Deals has a feature called deal Alert. You can enter the name of the items that you want there and you'll be alerted where

those items are on sale and for how much. Very cool. All right, let's change gears just a little bit and talk about back to school essentials. I was out with some family yesterday that still goes to school, and they can't believe it's already July fourth, and that means that I have to get ready for back to school essentials. What are we looking at? Yeah, I mean, to me, it's a little bit too early to be talking about back to school, although I'm seeing it everywhere. I mean,

my daughter just finished school about a week and a half ago. I know in different areas of the country they end early, they start early. So I don't think it's necessarily important to get a rush on right now because the better deals are going to be later in the summer. I start looking for back to school deals closer to the end of July to mid honest, even that's where you're going to find the better prices. Okay, So if it's not, look, why don't we get more contemporary then and July fourth sales?

Anything that we can watch for when it comes to July fourth sales. I did notice a lot of my feeds over the weekend. We're getting populated. Yes, so we're seeing a lot of July fourth sales as well. So the main categories that I would focus on for July fourth because obviously we have so many sales coming up next week as well, So I would focus on things like large appliances, mattresses, furniture, some home goods. That's where I'm seeing the best activity. Also in the outdoor category, if you

happen to camp or hike, you should see some good deals there. And then I am seeing some activity in the beauty space as well, so look for deals. Maybe if there's a product that you've wanted but it's a little pricey, look for a deal there, or stock up on your favorites herey thanks a lot for joining us so early this morning. Where can people find you for more pro retailing tips online? Sure? So you can find me on Instagram at true tray. And I also publish a bi monthly newsletter at

truetray dot com that you can sign up for. And I promise that I will not stand you. That's fair. I appreciate that problemise too. Thanks Trey, talk to you again soon. Thanks Jason. If you're looking to search for her online, it's a t r ae is how you spell her first name. Let's get back to some of the stories coming out of the KFI twenty four hour news room. July fourth is filled with American food and flags freedom, but unfortunately, fireworks can sometimes fudge up the fun three two

one. Every year, the OC Fire Authority blows up a mannequin, watermelon, even a chicken one with a firecracker. Flacks. It wasn't a live chicken, it was from the store. O Fire Authority Chief Brian Fantasy says. Still, firecrackers started three times more house fires in the state last year, plus Nationally, eleven people were killed and more than ten thousand hospital and fireworks instance, with forty seven of those hospitalizations occurring right here in Orange County.

All types of fireworks caused these injuries. From the illegal mortar style firework that hospitalized a fourteen year old garden Grove boy last year to the safe and sane sparklers that burn at twelve hundred degrees and some kids to the hospital every year. How did it come to this Fourth of July fireworks date back to a letter John Adams wrote to his wife asserting that our nation would forever celebrate

its independence with quote bonfires and illuminations, a seemingly harmless prediction. But here we are, some two hundred and fifty years later, and many of those bonfires have grown dangerous, and some of the illuminations have even grown deadly. O Orthopedic Institute hand Sergeant Nicholas Rose as all fireworks carry the risk of injury. Some of these injuries are like war injuries that we see and some veterans

severe burns, high energy blast injuries, and even appy. He says one case, for example, a blast injury in which a teenage boy lost three fingers. We had to do several reconstructions, and we're talking really ten to fifteen surgeries down the line to really make that hand functional. Certainly that gentleman

will never have a normal hand. Rose says a professional show would be safer, but for those who get burned, wrap the injury in a slightly damp clean cloth and keep it moist and don't apply ice to it, especially to a burn. Have a bucket of water or a garden hose nearby where put out any remnants of that firework. Never point or throw fireworks at another person. Never try to relight or pick up fireworks. There are many who don't

like fireworks at all. Pasadena Humane spokeswoman Jamie Holman says that especially goes for pets, fireworks are very loud, and those loud booms and bursts of fireworks they can frighten our pets and may cause them to run away, So it's really important that we take steps to be prepared and minimize our pet stress to keep them safe. She says. People can keep pets inside and make sure

they have current ID tags in case they get out. Fortunately, she says if pets du get out, twenty shelters in LA are partnering with pet Co Love Loss. A pets owner can upload their photo into the pet Cove Lost database and they use image recognition technology to match that pet's photo with animals that are in their database. OCI Fire Authority chief Fantasy says, ironically, there is one more group who is not feeling fireworks, particularly for the military veterans

who fought to defend the very freedoms we are celebrating. It is well documented that loud explosions can trigger post traumatic stress disorder for veterans, giving all of us yet another reason not to light illegal fireworks in our neighborhoods Now, everyone I spoke with says people can still celebrate Independence Day, but hopefully this year this joke will not be funny. What do a humane society, fire authority,

and hand surgeon all have in common? Every July fourth, business is booming in Orange Corbin Carson k FI News A wildfire that's burned at least four acres in the Angels National Forest above Arcadia is fifty percent contained. The fire started in steep and rocky terrain yesterday near Santa Anita Canyon. Water dropping helicopters and more crews are on the ground and helping. A bunch of new state

laws went into effect over the weekend. Enjoy Bacon Well. Prop twelve mandates fresh port sold in California has to come from pigs farmed in at least twenty four square feet of space. Similar rules will also apply to vital calves and egg laying hens. AB twenty forty three. He says bounty hunters, known legally as bail fugitive recovery agents, will now have to have a license and

liability insurance to track down bail jumpers. AB twenty nine sixty now allows people to file and access restraining orders electronically where domestic or gun violence plays a role, and speaking of guns. AB fifteen ninety four prohibits gun manufacturers, distributors, and sellers from false or misleading advertising and mandates close scrutiny to those who

buy the weapons. AB twenty two eighty allows the take Controller to wave interest on unclaimed property as long as the rightful owner can explain why they didn't claim it sooner. AB sixteen fifty five officially makes Juneteenth a state holiday. It's already a federal holiday. SB seven thirty one requires criminal records be sealed four years after an offender completes their sentence, as long as they don't reoffend in that four year period. The new law does not apply to violent felonies or

registered sex offenders. AB sixteen sixty seven makes it so teachers who are overpaid in retirement benefits because of a miscalculation exempt from paying back that money. SB three oh one requires online marketplaces like eBay and Amazon to keep track of high

volume third party sellers, including contact and banking information. AB twenty eleven allows for the construction of multifamily housing units on lands already zoned for commercial use, and a new law permanently protects the Joshua tree by designating it an endangered species. Finally, s B two allows California to put a cap on gasoline profit margins and also requires the oil industry to give advanced notice a planned maintenance.

Steve Gregory camf I News Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is traveling to China. Yellen will become the latest Biden cabinet member to visit Beijing on July sixth, for what a statement said will be meetings with senior officials in the People's Republic of China. The statement says Yellen's trip follows President Biden's directive to deepen communication with

China on a range of issues, including the global economy. ABC's Mark Remillard says Secretary of State Anthony Blinkoln met with Chinese President she last month to try to improve relations with China. That trip was followed by China registering a formal protest over President Biden referring to the president of China as a dictator. Mexico has criticized a new immigration law in Florida backed by Governor Ron de Santis.

The law that took effects Saturday, requires companies with twenty five or more employees to use e verify, makes it a crime to take illegal immigrants into Florida, and requires hospitals that receive Medicaid funds to check immigration status for data gathering purpose, says. Mexico's Foreign Ministry says criminalization is not the way to resolve the phenomenon of undocumented migration. The ministry says the law is driven by white

nationalism and that Mexico will help illegal immigrants in Florida. We lead local live from the KFI twenty four hour newsroom. This has been your wake up call. You've been listening to wake up call. You know you can always listen live on kf I Am six forty weekdays from five to six am, and anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app.

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