You're listening to KFI AM six forty wake Up Call with Me Amy King on demand on the iHeartRadio app.
KFI hand KOST HD two, Los Angeles, Orange County.
It's time for your morning wake up call. Here's Amy Kick.
It's five o'clock, straight up.
This is your wake up call for Thursday. Not even September anymore, It's October, October third.
I'm Amy King.
We're live everywhere on the iHeartRadio.
App almost to the weekend.
Okay, as we start wake up call, I just want to say to you, calm down, You're gonna be okay. You don't need to hold toilet paper. I talked to my friend Teresa yesterday and she was making a Costco run and she goes, I can't believe it. Like people have their carts full of toilet paper, and several retailers around the US are saying that people are panic buying and stocking up on toilet paper sanitation products, kind of like we did during the pandemic because of the dock workers strike.
Just know.
That most toilet paper is produced in the US, so it doesn't have to go through the ports.
So I think we're good.
Thursday is Boo Preview Day. We've got one for you today. I'm going to give you a little hint. If you were listening to Rich DeMuro on wake Up Call yesterday, you may know where we're going. Boo Preview is coming up at the bottom of the hour. Here's what's ahead on wake up Call. The extreme heat in southern California is expected to last until next week. The San Fernando and Santa Clarita Valleys are going to remain under an excessive heat warning through eight tonight.
Isa to one oh five are expected.
Then an excessive heat watch takes effect for those same areas Saturday.
Morning and that lasts through Monday night.
A city council committee has approved a list of recommendations to try to keep bus drivers safer. It's aimed at enhancing protections for transit operators. The council Transportation Committee approved a report that includes fixing emergency buttons, adding roadway supervisors, and incorporating live stream video.
Surveillance on some city buses.
The Padres beat the Braves score last night five to four. That let's San Diego advance to the National League Division Series against the Dodgers. The best of five series gets underway Saturday night at Dodger Stadium. We're going to be talking with ABC's crime and Terror analyst Brad Garrett in about fifteen minutes about the dark side of the rich and famous, and there's so much bad news. We've got
a super heartwarming story to wrap up. Wake Up Called this morning, and it's going to leave your tail wagon for sure. Let's get started with some of the stories coming out of the KFI twenty four hour newsroom. A firefighter hurt in a crash in Orange County has been transferred to a hospital in Colorado that specializes in spinal injuries. Friends, family, medical staff, and other firefighters. We're at the airport yesterday
to see Andrew Brown off. Brown is one of eight Orange County Fire Authority firefighters who were hurting that crash last month on the two forty one toll Road in Irvine. The crew members were on their way back from a twelve hour shift fighting the wildfire that started in Tribuco Canyon. A homeless man in la has been sentenced to life in prison for the murder of a UCLA grad student.
Sean Smith.
Had tried to claim insanity led to his stabbing Brianna Coopford to death inside a furniture store in Hancock Park where she worked more than two and a half years ago, and La Superior Court judge ruled yesterday Smith was in fact seene at the time, and sentenced him to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Smith was found guilty last month of the murder, which she recorded, leaving behind audio evidence at the scene, including Coopfer's final moments alive.
Prosecutors argued Smith deliberately sought out and stalked a woman just to kill her. In downtown La Michael Monks KFI News.
And Israeli airstrike on an apartment building in Central Bay Route has killed seven people. The building is not far from the UN headquarters the Prime Minister's office in Parliament. The strike yesterday followed the deaths of eight Israeli soldiers killed in clashes with Hesbola fighters in southern Lebanon. Israel announced this week it was starting what it said were
limited ground operations. The Jewish Federation of Los Angeles has unveiled an art installation that pays tribute to the more than a thousand people who were killed in the October seventh attack by Hamas ahead of the one year anniversary of the massacre. The artwork covers the entire side of the organization's Wilshire Boulevard headquarters and is part of a larger remembrance effort planned for Sunday and Monday. Let's say
good morning now to ABC's Jim Ryan. So, Jim, it's been almost a week and there are still potentially hundreds missing. The power is still out for more than a million. What is being done in response to Hurricane Helene.
Well, yes, the federal response has been pretty robust. You've had something like six thousand National Guard troops deployed to the southeastern United States. Saving Yesterday, after touring the area, President Biden ordered another one thousand active duty military personnel to help out. The worst of the damage is in
western North Carolina. Believe it or not. The South Carolina has more power outages right now, but North Carolina, the community of Asheville over in Buscoin County has just devastated. And so yeah, getting resources out there has been almost impossible because the roads are washed away. Water still has not receded. The power is out and the water system essentially has been destroyed.
That's just I've seen some of the pictures of that of Asheville. It's amazing because I think we were talking about it. It's like four hundred miles inland.
It is from the Atlantic coast. So people saw the map and they said, oh, there's a there's a hurricane down in the Gulf of Mexico.
Big deal.
It's not in the Atlantic, so we don't have to worry about it. You know, North Carolina's an Atlantic state, and so, you know, I think maybe the psychology was nothing bad can happen to North Carolina from a storm that comes in from the Gulf. Well we've seen that that's not the case.
In one area that I saw, I mean, it looked like a nuclear bomb had gone off. I mean, like the whole it was just a huge debris field. It used to be houses. I mean like not even chimneys still standing or anything. It's just this debris field.
Yeah. It shows the power of the water as it was rushing down out of the mountains. You know, it already had been raining in that part of the state for some time, and so the rain that came in with Helene as a tropical storm was easily enough to push rivers out of their banks to create new waterways where there had been done before, and that's what's left this this whole community devastated.
So for the.
People in Asheville, is insurance going to be able to help them or did they even have flood insurance?
It's hard to say, and I'm sure that some of them did, knowing that they live in a mountainous area, and you know, flooding isn't just a product of living on the shoreline. It happens in hilly areas up in mountains as well. And so let's hope that some of them did have insurance. FEMA is there trying to help out,
trying to backstop any insurance that might not be there. Unfortunately, you know, FEMA it has enough money to meet the needs right now, but the Homeland Security Secretary says it's getting pretty tight around there.
Yeah, And in some areas, you know, when we have these natural disasters, you see that some people just kind of throw up their hands and don't They just are just stymied with what you even think about doing. And in other areas, people just get to work and start cleaning up and rebuilding. Are we seeing what direction we're going with this one?
Probably some of both is there as well, but you know, and some of the aircraft, the helicopters that were ferrying in water and food are leaving then with people who.
Said, that's it.
I'm going to take my dog and we're going to get out of here, take us over to Charlotte or something, and it's going to be very difficult. We saw this similar situation. Comparisons are being made to Hurricane Katrina in two thousand and five. Helene now is the deadliest mainland hurricane to strike since then. And what happened in New Orleans after Katrina, something like a quarter of its entire population just didn't come back, and New Orleans is still
trying to recover from that. So it may be a similar situation there after Helene.
Yeah, okay, so in the midst of the devastation, there has to be something good.
Can you got anything?
Boy?
You know, you do see that kind of cooperation coming. It's an all hands effort, and not just in Buscom County, not just in North Carolina, but the whole country is pulling together, I think to help those people there. The volunteer pilots who are coming out with their own aircraft to bring supplies in the the you know, this Cajun Navy is there in the water, and the millions and millions of dollars in donations flowing in, so you know,
I think it does the show. With all the stuff going on in the world, Gaza, the Middle East, exploding oil price, there are people in this country do still look at their neighbors, even if they're across the nation, and say, you know, we got to do something to help.
Just like mister Rogers said, look for the helpers. Yeah, all right, and hopers.
If people want to make donations, I'm guessing Red Cross is the place to go.
That's the best way to do it. Yeah, yeah, Carolina. Of course they're they're bringing in cases and cases of water and that's being shuttled over there. But the farther you away from this devastation, the better money is as that resource.
Yeah, if you can help the Red Cross, I bet you just go to their website and I bet you there's a big old banner on there, So be careful.
Make sure you're looking at the Red Cross dot org and not some scam website that's trying to ap you off.
That's always a good a good recommendation. Thank you so much, Jim Ryan, appreciate all the information. As always, we'll talk to you soon.
Good care.
Let's get back to some of the stories coming out of the KFI twenty four hour newsroom. The dock workers strike along the Eastern Seaboard and Gulf Coast is into its third day. Transportation Secretary Pete budhaj Edge says workers need a contract that is more fair than the last one which expired this week.
The last contract that these workers were working with really did not deliver much for them. Economic times were tougher than there were some years where I believe there is no wage increase at all. So the workers feel that they're also kind of playing catch up.
Striking dock workers are demanding a new contract with a seventy seven percent pay hike over six years. They also want guarantees that their jobs will not be eliminated by automation. Two guys from La are allegedly behind dozens of burglaries across southern California.
Investigators initially linked the guys to burglaries around Samonnardito County while looking into burglaries and Bloomington, and then.
It kind of exploded and we found out that there is also some instance in the LA area and also on Riverside County.
Samonderdino County Sheriff spokeswoman Mhara Rodriguez says the guys stole atm machines, cash registers and more. The guys were arrested during searches in La Earlier this week, investigators recovered burglary tools and guns, including a stolen rifle in Samaderdino Blake, Tarlei kf I News.
A report from the ATF on the cause of the deadly wildfire on Maui has finally been released.
Investigators say downed power lines owned by Hawaiian Electric ignited dry grass at a nearby school on August eighth of last year. The fire tour through the historic town of Leahina, almost destroying everything in its path. The report says, despite early accounts, there was only one fire, not two, and had sparked after hot dry winds reignited smoldering brush. The fire killed one hundred and two people and caused more
than two billion in damages. The report was given to Maui County officials three months ago, but it's not clear why they waited until yesterday to release it. Steve Gregory ka if I.
News special counsel Jack Smith has filed new evidence in election interference case against former President Trump. ABC's Per Thomas says Smith claims Trump the candidate, not Trump the president, resorted to crimes to disrupt the election process.
Smith, writing that Trump is directly responsible for the tinderbox that he purposely ignited on January sixth. Smith goes on to say the defendant also knew that he had only one last hope to prevent Biden's certification as president.
Thomas says that last hope was the crowd standing in front of Trump on January sixth.
Have you guys played pickleball?
I personally have not picked up a pickleball racket, but I know that it's it's a craze and.
It's surprising who's playing it.
Was watching Jimmy Kimmel this week, and apparently Dodgers star Mookie Betts is obsessed with it.
He loves pickleball.
I've heard that.
I know you're a great bowler we talked about last time you're here. I've heard you're playing pickleball. Now, yeah, that's Are you allowed to play pickleball? You don't know it's so new they didn't have a chance.
To write in the content track.
A lot of people got to keep hearing. Like they say, all doctors say ninety five percent of the people come in it's because of pickleball injuries. Have you heard that?
I mean, no offense, but like they're all like sixty.
Yeah, careful movie.
Yeah, I'm like, I'm a professional athlete in the prime of my life.
If God forbid, if God forbid you get hurt playing pickleball, will you lie about it?
Absolutely? Yeah, I think you would not really want There's no way you would know about that. You play with your teammates. Who do you play with?
None of my teammates really play, to be honest, I just play with random people, Like I'll play with anybody here, like.
At the park. Yeah, it's a you know, it's I'm a very solid show up at the park.
Yeah.
Really Yeah, you got your own.
Pickleball, and I got it.
I mean not like my own, not my own customer, but I got one.
I go and it's sometimes it's rough because people want to take pictures and stuff, which I understand, but yeah, you know, I'm just there.
I'm there to play to play.
Pickleball.
Here to play pickleball, Mookie bet. So if you're out playing pick a ball, you never know who might show up at the court. You might see MOOKI. A third person is pleaded guilty in the death of actor Matthew Perry. Doctor Mark Chavez pleaded guilty to conspiring to distribute ketamine as part of a plea agreement. He's accused of illegally obtaining ketamine that was sold to Perry. Chavez faces up to ten years in prison. He'll be sentenced in April
of next year. Another run on toilet paper the East Coast and Golf Coast doc work workers strike, maybe prompting panic buying as ship's idle offshore. Some retailers say customers are stocking up on paper products and disinfect in spray's, kind of like they did during the pandemic.
Something to know.
Ninety nine percent of tissue products in the US are made in America. Riverside has opened its first cooling center that's open to both people and pets. It'll be open for the rest of the week during the heat wave. The pet friendly cooling center is at Salvador J. Laura, Casablanca. Library spaces are designated for people with pets and include water bowls and feb trays. Love that at six o five's handle on the news. Israel continues to pound Lebanon and has told a lot of people in Lebanon to
clear out. Let's say good morning to ABC's crime and Terror analyst Brad Garrett. So, Brad, there are very rich people who use their money for good, and then there is the dark side of the rich and powerful. So we wanted to talk to you about why some do good and others do very bad.
And it's a great question, Amy, And it's sort of complicated as to why people choose the direction they go. Is it how they were raised of, you know what, before they became rich and famous? What was their level of empathy? Was there any humbleness in their personality? All of those things sort of play into which you may
end up being once you're rich and famous. But clearly, I mean, based on the government's indictment of Sean Didi comes, I mean they're letting all sorts of bizarre illegal behavior and sometimes supposedly even involving juveniles, and that he ran a criminal enterprise much like but not exactly the same as R. Kelly that's already serving thirty years for similar behavior.
So I guess you know, the question is you build this in power an empire, and then you basically, through coercion and threats of losing your job, force people to facilitate your whether it's sexual desires or whatever it might be. And I think it becomes an obsession, and then it becomes that nobody can do anything about it because you're all powerful. And then I think people sort of believe they're just above the law and they can just do
whatever they want. And you know, based on the number of years that this alleged behavior has been going on with comes I mean, think about Jeffrey Epstein and his behavior went on for a long time before it became public, and so you know, there are other cases out there that are probably similar to these, but boy, trying to get ahead of them or trying to figure out in early stages that this is going on sometimes can be difficult.
Well, and you mentioned Epstein, but then there's also Harvey Weinstein that went on for decades before anybody said anything. And now that it's sort of like the first person speaks and the dominoes start falling, kind of the same with Bill Dosby.
Well right, and in coercion and I sort of I suppose the worship factor of some famous people keep people on line. I mean, you know, people are attracted of those jobs. I'm convinced to be around people like Combes and others because they're in the spotlight. They never would have been in that kind of spotlight probably in their everyday life. And they like that and they like the attention.
And then when he starts basically ordering you to do things that you may not want to do, you're fearful you're going to lose your job, or if you've done things for him that were illegal, that he would use that against you. I mean, coersion is a big play, according to the government's indictment in Comb's case.
So, Brad, do you think, like like you were saying, it has to do with like people's upbringings and that kind of thing. So it and of course this is all alleged against Combe, But if you went down the path that he did all of this, I mean it's like, so he's been a bad guy his whole life and now we're just finding out about it. Like, well, or does the power and the money turn you into a bad guy.
Well, I think the money and power and fame turn you into whatever fantasies you have, whatever desires you have, and that's what catches a lot of these people. I mean, this type of behavior is, in my view, an obsession, and you add the drugs to it, and it just becomes a sort of a lifestyle to live this way. And it's kind of like once you start living it and you like it, and you've got the money and the power to keep it going, then you keep it going.
And you know, you mentioned you know a number of people, you know, Weinstein, Epstein both went on for decades actually before something came to light. So it's people are not going to change unless the system basically shuts them down.
Well, and it doesn't.
It's not only in the entertainment world too, Like sure along political lines, look at that the former senator Menendez Melendez, Yeah, you know, I mean he's had gold bars and hundreds of thousands of dollars like just stashed in his house. I'm like, how do you get that? And then and then sits there and goes, oh, no, I didn't do anything.
Wrong, because that's all about you know, I'm above all that. I can pull this stuff off. And there's another word here that's key, and it's called entitlement. They feel entitled to do what they're doing because of who they are. It's sort of a fascinating study and behavior, but it's also disturbing that you can take people off course so easily when you have certain circumstances like money, power and fame.
I think that's where we leave it. Thank you so much, Brad Garrett. Appreciate the information, and as.
All wastes, you welcome. Take care, Amy, talk to you soon.
The man from Norco accused of starting the nearly forty four thousand acre wildfire in the San Bernardino Mountains may have left DNA behind. Fire investigators and a DNA expert. We're part of a hearing that wrapped up yesterday, a spokesperson for the DA's offices. Incendiary devices used to start the fire were described as paper wrapped around coins, and that Justin Halstenberg's DNA was on the coins. The devices were found in Highland whe The fire started on September fifth.
Alstenberg has pleaded not guilty, of course. That's the fire that has been flaring up and caused evacuations. A month after the fire started. The Newport Mesa School District has agreed to pay thirty one million dollars to a high school football player who hit his head during practice.
All also claimed fifteen year old Corona del Mar student Many Garcia came down on this head during a non contact play. Lawyer Jesse Creeds as Garcia suffered severe cognitive defects in twenty twenty one, all because of a rock hard field.
Coaches of pretty much every field sport at the school had complained for nearly a decade that the surface there was too hard and the district was exposing kids to the risk of a head injury.
Newport Mason School District says it has four years and will continue to maintain and upgrade its youth sports fields in Newport Beach.
Corbin Carson KFI.
News Tens of millions of dollars dedicated to housing the homeless in LA have been left unspent.
Out of the two hundred million dollars dedicated to the time limited subsidies program, more than seventy million dollars remains on the table. LA City Councilman Nitthia Rahmin says that means temporarily subsidized market rate homes aren't going to homeless people who.
Need more than just the first month of rent as assistants, but they don't need an intervention as intensive as PSH Permanent Sport of Housing.
The city Council voted to have the Homeless Services Agency explain strategies to address staffing and unit availability struggles and to report to city Hall every two weeks. In Downtown La Michael Monks KFI News.
More than forty three million million people watched the vice presidential debate between Senator jd Vance and Governor Tim Walls. The forty three million is the combined audience across the fifteen networks that aired the CBS debate. It's expected to be the one and only vice presidential debate. The last presidential debate between former President Trump and Vice President Harris drew about sixty seven million viewers. It's time for Dodger
playoff baseball at Dodger Stadium. The Dodgers are going to take on the San Diego Padres this Saturday. It's Game one of the National League Division Series. The first pitch goes out at five thirty. Game two on Sunday starts at five. You can listen to every playoff game on AM five to seventy LA Sports and NHD on the iHeartRadio app keyword AM five to seventy LA Sports powered
by Zenshi Sushi, Fast Fresh and Easy Go. Dodgers attorneys for twenty two cities are appealing La County's zero bail policy. The attorneys have filed a petition for the state Supreme Court, claiming the safety of a quarter of the state's population is at stake. They argue zero bail violates the law and does not meet constitutional standards to protect victims the California earthquake authorities' hiking rates. The rates are expected to go up almost seven percent starting next year. The increase
is because of rising construction costs. Apparently, homeowners can chop around and adjust deductibles to try to manage costs. Discounts are also available for homeowners who retro fit older homes. Santa Monica says it's close to a deal to host the twenty twenty eighth Summer Olympics beach volleyball events on the sand next to the city's iconic pier. If an agreement is reached, the temporary twelve thousand seat stadium would be built. It would cost twelve million dollars to build it.
Beach volleyball originated in Santa Monica and Hawaii in the early nineteen hundreds. Who knew at six oh five, it's handle on the news. It's been a week since Hurricane Helen hit and the roads are still blocked, the power is still out, and hundreds are still missing. Coming up at five point fifty. A very heartwarming story. Sure to leave your tail wagging. You're going to love this one. This week, we went out and amount for our Boom preview tonight of the Jacks at the King Gillette Ranch
in Calabasas. We caught up with event producer Tyler Mittendorf.
Hello, this is really cool.
So i'n't been out here before, and I'm sure a lot of our wake up call people, there's some who have some who haven't, and we want to hear all about this because this is different than some of the other places we're going during the Halloween season. Some of the places are super, super scary.
This isn't that. This is just really really neat.
This is the definition of good family fun for everybody.
So we're out here at the King Gillette ranch.
It's our seventh year, okay doing this event, and it has everything from treats, delights, a few surprises as you make your way on the trail, but it definitely has something for everybody of any size or any shape.
That's great. So tell us about the trail. What are we going to see? How long is it? What kinds of things are we going to see when we go and wander around?
Yeah, so the trail is one mile long, okay, And there are thirty plus immersive scenes in there, everything from putting you under the water, putting you in space, maybe some alien surprises, all with pumpkins, all with pumpkins, all with pumpkins, and some new Chinese lantern art around there. So it's got something for everybody. It's bright, it's festive, it's really.
Exciting, okay. And that's about a mile long.
Yep. It's a mile long trail, all.
Right, And that's just part of the experience out for Nights of the Jack because we've.
Been walking around, and tell us about some of the other things that we're going to see while we're here.
Yeah, So once you come in, we've partnered with a lot of really amazing companies. We've partnered with Kids Jewelry Heist, who has a really immersive kids jewelry making experience.
Oh cool.
We have rain calabasses out here providing some awesome jewelry. And then we also have different LA's top food trucks.
Okay, I saw a lot of food trucks.
Yes, we have a large array of food trucks rotating every event night, so there's something different for everybody. And then, of course, for some adult fun, we do have our spook Easy.
Is that the cutest of spook Easy?
Yes, as has a lot of awesome beverages for everybody, okay, and lots of photo ops yes, tons and tons of photo ops ones that we're standing in now I know this is. And then there's some surprises along the way. Maybe you find yourself next to a shark made of pumpkins and you need to get away, and a few other surprises that I don't want to spoil.
Okay, yeah, don't do that.
Don't do that.
So when can people come out? Two nights as the Jack?
So nights The Jack opens on nine twenty seven, so that is today, and then we run all the way through November two for a thirty two night.
Run okay, so it's daily. It's not just weekends.
It is weekends as well as during the week.
Okay. And where can they get more information about it if.
You'd like more information, Go to Knights Atthjack dot com. You can find tickets and more information of what we have here to offer.
Okay. And then the one thing I said, do you have staggered intertimes?
We do?
So we do, which is great, so it doesn't get so crowded.
Yes, we manage the crowds perfectly here, so you get that really immersive experience where you're not overwhelmed by people and you can really enjoy the sights and sounds of the event.
Okay, perfect, Thank you so much, Tyler, Knights of the Jack.
That's where we're out and about for our boo prieve you this week.
It was a really cool evening, I gotta tell you. And yeah, the carving and the pumpkins is very cool. There are some fun I'll call you. I'll say they're seasonal surprises and just leave it at that. But great way to spend the evening with the family. And like you said, lots of food. There was like ten or twelve food trucks and as you mentioned they rotate around. Tyler did recommend that you get your tickets ahead of time.
You can get them there, but it's better to get them ahead of time because then you can schedule your entry time and all of that at Nightsofthejack dot com. And I'm also going to post on my Instagram at Amy K King and also at KFI AM six forty so you can get a little sneak peek at some of the offerings that they have out at Nights of the Jack. Let's get back to some of the stories coming out of the KFI twenty four hour newsroom. The city of sam Bernardino can start cleaning homeless camps now
that it has struck a deal with the ACLU. The deal ends an injunction filed by the ACLU, which had temporarily put camp cleanups on hold. In the lawsuit, theo at ACLU claimed the city was throwing out homeless people's personal property. Sam Bernardino has agreed not to dispose of personal property without getting the okay first from the person and then also under the agreement, homeless people will be
offered interim housing before camps are cleared. The State Parole Board has rescinded parole for an ex LAPD detective convicted of murder.
The board heard from witnesses, lawyers, and family for about ninety minutes, then after a fifteen minute private discussion, the board voted to rescind parole for Stephanie Lazarus. Lazarus was found guilty in twenty twelve for the shooting death of sharing ras Muse in nineteen eighty six. Rasmussen was the wife of Lazarus's ex boyfriend. Lazarus was able to stay under the radar for twenty three years as a respected detective before being arrested by her colleagues in the LAPD.
Lazarus was eligible for parole last November, and the board met in mad to decide if she would be given parole. That decision was delayed until yesterday. Steve Gregory kaya Fine News A.
Group of suspected white supremacist gang members operating in the San Fernando A Valley have been brought up on federal charges. US Attorney Martine Stratus is the Peckerwoods engaged in drug trafficking, fraud, racketeering, and more.
These leaders would collect large amounts of dangerous drugs, including fetanol, including methamphetamine, including heroin, and they would sell those drugs throughout the streets of southern California and elsewhere.
Astratus is the gang espoused racist and anti Semitic beliefs and collected Neo Nazi and Confederate paraphernalia. Sixty eight people have been charged, forty two of them have been arrested. California Attorney General Rob Bontas as the state's making progress in its fight against the proliferation of ghost guns. The Department of Justice has released a report on how dangerous the ghost gun industry is and how much harm it's
done in California. The report says law enforcement is tackling the ghost gun crisis and federal regulators are taking ghost gun companies to court. Bonta says ghostguns are made by unlicensed companies and there are no serial numbers on the guns, which makes them hard to trace. The historic work to remove four dams from the Klamath River is done and the water is flowing freely again. Crews finished ahead of
schedule in Sisku County, up near the Oregon border. Governor Newsom called it a monumental achievement and said this gives salmon and other species a chance to thrive once again, while also restoring an essential lifeline for tribal communities. It'll still take several years to restore the twenty two hundred acres of land that has been submerged for the last sixty five to one hundred years. California's economy is going to see slower growth, according to the latest analysis of
California and US economies by the UCLA Anderson Forecast. This slower growth is causing a higher unemployment rate in the state, which hit five point three percent for August. The dock workers strike on the East and Gulf Coasts could have an effect on retailer's manufacturers and other sectors that rely heavily on shipping. Goldman Sachs says if the port strike lasts more than two weeks, US manufacturers could be forced to scale down production. Governor Newsom has signed a law
to Protect your brain Power. The law adds neural data to the list of sensitive personal information. The law stops EEG data used on smartphones, Facebook's risk sensor and sleep tracking headbands from being exploited for harm. We're just minutes away from a handle on the news this morning, striking Boeing workers just lost their health insurance. Let's say good morning now to Jack. Joe Keenan Jack, want to say good morning to you. Thanks for starting your day with
us on wake up call. And you know, with all the just nasty news, we love that we get to share a good story.
So thank you so much for having me So, Jack, we're.
Three months away from Christmas, but just always a great time to talk about Christmas miracles and kindness and come out and compassion and boy, do you have a story and you wrote a book about it, So tell us about the surprise you got.
One night.
Yeah, in December of twenty nineteen, my wife and I had a one month old We lived in Philadelphia and we had one dog, George. I took him out for a walk and it was raining, starting to snow, kind of wintry mix.
As they call it here in the Northeast.
And came in wet dog, umbrella, all that stuff, and my door, it turns out, didn't close all the way. It didn't latch, It had just wedged itself shut. But I heard the electric handle. I thought nothing of it because I thought the door was locked. Four I am was standing over me and said, the baby's okay, but there's a dog in our house. I said, yeah, George, he's right here. I said, no, there was another dog
in our house. And I went downstairs to find what I thought was a puppy because I hadn't wiped the sleep out of my eyes. But it turned out to be a senior dog who was underweight and into some bad shape medically.
How did he get Did he get in your house?
So it turned out so after we found Susie is.
Who the dog ended up being, and put her in a crate that we had for crate training. I was able to pull up security footage and see that the storm blew the door open in the middle of the night, and then at three fifteen in the morning, Susie came hobbling around the corner down the block from us, and went up the steps and in the house and out of the house, and in the house and out of
the house and in the house. And then a guy coming home from working a late shift at a bar saw our door open and went up and knocked and yelled and pulled the door shut, not even knowing that Susie was in there. So when I found her, I unfortunately, have a little bit of an addiction to Twitter, and so the first thing I did was tweet I found this dog in my.
House before I checked anything else.
Yeah, out And I was fortunate that it got picked up by some of the right people and ended up going viral.
Wow. Well, because so you have video of Susie wandering back and forth. I watched the video of her walking back and forth in front of your house and then she like looking up like, oh, that could be a dry, safe place for me.
Yeah.
And you know, it all just kind of worked out because when you think about it, in a major city, if your door's wide open in the middle of the night, things can go really bad, really fast.
Yeah, you got good neighbors.
Yeah, And so since we had great neighbors, since we were very fortunate that nothing bad happened in that moment. We first, you know, called animal control first thing in the morning. There's not much on the internet when you Google found a dog in my house.
What do I do?
Yeah?
And you know their response was you can drop it off at eleven and we'll take care of it. And I did not like the way that sounded. We were fortunate. We called an emergency vet and were able to get her in. She had fleas ticks, infections and all four pause it was about half the weight she should be. Also had heart murmur and had some really bad teeth, so she gets the regular echo cardiograms and had to
have nineteen teeth and roots removed. But with that we made some global news and we're very fortunate to get you know, people like yourself who covered our story, and we received a large number of donations for her medical bills, way more than we needed. And so after Susie happened, which is just kind of how I described it, she happened, we got I got a message the next day from someone with a picture of a dog and said, this
is Tito. I saw your story on the news, and I went and adopted Tito today if I post this. And then the next day I got car and the day after that was Freckles, then it was Cassie, then it was Harley Quinn, and it kept going. About six months in we knew Susie was going to be okay.
We also were about ninety five adoptions, so I said, at one hundred adoptions, have a big announcement, And at one hundred adoptions, I announced that I would give away at least ten thousand dollars to save one hundred animals. We just kept that going and we ended up saving a life of Day for a year for twenty twenty. And that was our main focus was just get this dog healthy, help other dogs. Use the platform that we were fortunate to have to try to just show you know, there's.
Good in the world, there's good stories.
And then after a year, connected with some of the right people and got the opportunity to get a literary agent and then wrote a manuscript and was fortunate enough that we have A Stray Dog for Christmas that came out a month ago today. It's a great Christmas gift for any child in your life or even adult if you just want to art warming story.
And it tells the story of that night. But it also has real life pictures.
Uh.
There's a QR code to get to Susie's social media so you can see this real life dog and the process you have your own social media.
Yeah, yes, I love it.
I love that, Okay, And it is it's a it's just an adorable book. So if you have kids, grandkids and Christmas is coming up. Uh, it's called a stray dog for Christmas, and Jack, I'm just so impressed that your one kind act snowballed.
You know, two little girls now I've just turned three two days ago, and a four year old that is about to turn five. And my main motivation was to just show them that you can make a large impact from your small corner of the world as long as you work hard and you have good intentions.
Yeah, and how Susie doing.
Susie's doing great.
I mean we've been on kind of a mini book tour in Philadelphia and New York, so she's gotten to meet so many people. Everyone comes out with their dog to meet Susie. So she's just and lots of pets, lots of sniffs and really just living like a princess life right now.
Yeah, and how's George handling that? Because George is your other dog.
Yes, so George he gets some rest because his sister's out of the house sometimes.
But George has been amazing. You know.
The first day when we came back from the vet, she needed to flee in tick bath and then to dry out a little bit, and he was laying on the dog bet he had on the first floor of our house and she came out of our finished basement where we had the bathroom that we cleaned her in, and he was laying on his bed and he just saw her and just got up and laid down on the floor next to the bed, as if he knew she needed it. So they've just created this great bond.
You know, it's weird he's a dog, but I'm incredibly proud of.
The way he handled this whole situation.
Oh my god, you just make me cry at five point fifty in the morning. And how old is Susie now?
They estimate she's about fourteen years old, so she is a senior pup. We make sure she gets all the best men medical care gets. She has her next echo cardiogram coming up on the twenty second, and then she goes in and sees the vet sometimes twice a year, just to make sure she's doing all right.
And it sounds like, you know, she had a rough go of it. So that she gets to live out her golden years loved and with company and in her forever home. That's just lovely. And I love this story. I love this book and so appreciate what you did for Susie.
And are you.
Still raising money to help people adopt shelter dogs or is that kind of gone on and you're just now encouraging people that has.
Kind of moved on.
What we do is as we're doing signings, we try to incorporate rescues and get some dogs out. We were just in New York over the weekend and we partnered with Animal Lighthouse Rescue, who flies dogs in from Puerto Rico who need homes. And we've got a couple in the Philly area tomorrow. If anyone happens to be in the phillire listening, we'll be at the Pause Philadelphia Much Shrut tomorrow with phil Adoptibles helping raised funds to help the various rescues throughout the Philadelphia area.
Okay, And where can we get your book?
Jack? Anywhere?
Books are sold Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Walmart, Target is all online. It's in stores and Barnes and Nobles and Walmart's, but it may not be.
On shelves yet because the Halloween books.
So but your your best bet is probably to go on Amazon and get it primed to you in two days.
Okay.
And it's called a Stray Dog for Christmas, Jack, Joe Keenan. Thank you so much for your time and for not only saving Susie but also sharing the story of Susie.
That's great.
Thank you, thank you so much for having me.
And you know, if any big you know this is La, if any big Hollywood producers are listening, that's a great animated film.
Absolutely nice.
I love the plug and we have this contact information right all right, Thanks.
So much, Jack, Thank you.
He's of a stray dog for Christmas. A wonderful gift for your kids or grandkids this Christmas. Also, we have a post about Susie in the book that's up on my web page at KFIM six forty dot com slash wake up call so you can see Susie. And again we'll take caller number ten one eight hundred five to zero one KFI and caller number eleven at the eight hundred five to two zero one five.
Three four love that.
This is KFI and KOs T HD two Los Angeles, Orange County. We lead local live from the KFI twenty four hour newsroom. I'm Amy King. This has been your wake up call and if you missed any wake up call, you can listen anytime on the iHeartRadio app. You've been listening to Wake Up Call with me Amy King. You can always hear Wake Up Call five to six am Monday through Friday on KFI AM six forty, and anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app