TikTok Ban Back in the Spotlight

You're listening to KFI AM six forty wake Up Call with me Amy King on demand on the iHeartRadio app.

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It's time for your morning wake up call.

Here's Amy King.

Already really time to get up? Are you kidding me? Yes? It is time. This is your wake up call for Wednesday, March twenty sixth. Good morning, I'm Amy King, very excited one day away from Dodgers Opening Day. I'll be at the game, so I'm extra extra excited. My best friend is taking a train down from Pasa Robles, coming down. She's gonna hang out. It's gonna be a good time. Looking forward to it, and I'm going to be telling

Maybe?

Morning cono, Good morning, here's what's the head on wake up call. The LA City Council's voted to explore whether the city can contract directly with homeless service providers rather than go through the LA Homeless Services Authority. The joint City County agency has been accused of misusing billions of dollars in funding. The Pasadena School District has sued Southern California Edison, asking it to pay for school buildings burned

The city Council's unanimous vote ask city staff to figure out how city Hall can bypass the LA Homeless Services Authority and contract with homeless service providers directly. City Councilwoman Monica Rodriguez says LASA hasn't handled its billions of dollars in funding properly.

And there's a point where we just have to call an end to funding the failure.

Recent audits have blasted LASA over its accounting practices and its contract policies, which often lack detailed expectations and metrics. Michael Monks KFI News.

Orange County Sheriff Don Barnes is told county supervisors that state law is stopping ICE from being told about people being released from prison. Barnes says there were more than seven hundred ICE detainees requests last year, and some of the inmates ended up back on the streets committing crimes because of the law.

The man from Mexico was arrested in the San La campastronic and possession of Meathan fata mean presenting a false idea to police on August twenty seven. He was re arrested again in San Ua Campistroana October twenty eighth for assault with a deadly weapon.

Barnes said during his annual report on immigration enforcement that his department will not impede federal law enforcement officials from carrying out their responsibilities. Immigrant advocates have criticized the OC Sheriff's department for coordinating with ice at a higher rate than other counties. A Republican assemblyman from the Inland Empire says his bill to ban transgender athletes from competing in girls and women's sports is about putting things back to the way they used to be.

Corona assembly Member Bill A. Saley's proposed legislation is due to be heard in the state Assembly on April first. He told kfi's John Cobel. Yes, before the law was changed ten years ago, boys and men did not compete against girls and women.

There's an opportunity to have a real conversation here whether we have a co ed team, or we have a third category, or you know, give them some private facilities that they can use to change out in.

The hearing will mark the first public debate on the issue since Governor Newsom said having trans athletes and girls' sports is unfair.

Deborah Mark Ki five News. Let's say good morning now to ABC's John Cohen. John, the Trump administration has admitted that the editor in chief of the Atlantic was included on a group chat about upcoming attacks on the Hoothy Rebels. They are downplaying it, but you're saying this is this really is a big deal.

Yeah, I mean it's a very big deal, and particularly it's a big deal for the families of the sailors and pilots that were involved in this operation. Look, military operations and intelligence operations are dangerous, and the person who are involved in the conduct of these operations put themselves at risk into in service to this country, and we owe it to the families and spouses to safeguard the

So the question I have for you, John, is about those secured communications. So what other options do they have because we've heard that this signal app is used and was approved to be used, and was used by the previous administration too, to communicate.

That's yeah, I heard that as well, and it's a little bit misleading. The use of commercial applications like Signal are allowed by some agencies under certain situations. Signal is an encrypted application, which is good for you or me, or the members of the public, journalists, private sector companies to use because they don't, unlike the government, maintain a

Okay, and then just another question, So I don't think this isn't the first time this kind of thing has probably happened. Why do they why do they use it if they really shouldn't.

Be Well, that's a really good question. And I think as members of Congress and others are asking questions, that'll be one of the questions they ask. There are several theories that folks have promoted ease of use, distrust of the government bureaucracy, you know, the concerns that their private conversations would be would be listened to by other government personnel and leak to the media, or it provides an opportunity to bypath data retention policies that control how government

And in this case, it's sort of like they leaked at themselves, whether they meant to or not.

But yeah, okay, right, you know, we always talk about we always talk about the concern about, you know, something practice could lead to an unauthorized disclosure. We don't have. This isn't hypothetical.

This happened.

Yeah, they use this commercial channel, they use it in a way that they provided access to a member of the media. The member of the media was able to publish portions of what he saw, so the information was in fact compromised.

Yeah, okay. ABC's John Cohen, thank you so much for your information and insight. We certainly appreciate it.

Good talking to you, all right, take care.

Let's get back to some of the stories coming out of the KFI twenty four hour newsroom. Amtrak is warning customers about a confirmed case of measles on a passenger train from New York City to Washington, d C.

The person with measles was on the Amtrak Northeast Regional train southbound last Wednesday. Amtrak says it is reaching out to all passengers on that impacted train to alert them of their possible exposure.

Yeay if I.

Scott Pringles's doctors are urging people to keep their vaccinations up to date. Boeing is about to change it's plea entered last year ye over problems with its seven thirty seven Max jets, including two deadly crashes. ABC's Alex Stone says Boeing wants to withdraw the guilty plea agreement with the Department of Justice.

The agreement blamed Boeing for misleading the FAA before the crashes killed three hundred and fifty six people, but Boeing is now seeking more lenient treatment from President Trump's administration.

Those two crashes happened in Indonesia in twenty eighteen and Ethiopia in twenty nineteen. Vice President Van says he'll be going with Second Lady Usha Vance when she travels to Greenland on Friday. The Vice President posted a video on x yesterday about his plans.

Speaking for President Trump, we want to reinvigorate the security of the people of Greenland because we think it's important to protecting the security of the entire world.

Is Commons followed President Trump's repeated statements that the US should own and control the semi autonomous Danish territory. Officials in Greenland and Denmark have denounced the visit. An executive order from as and Trump would stop the federal government from using paper checks.

The order, assigned Tuesday would block the Treasury Department from issuing checks for benefits, tax refunds, vendor payments, and intragovernmental payments effective September thirtieth. At that time, the federal government would be required to switch to electronic transfer methods like direct deposit and prepaid card accounts.

Kfi's Tammy Truchio says, according to the order, paper checks impose unnecessary costs, delays, risks of fraud, theft, and inefficiencies. It is time for world champion Dodger Baseball where just one day away from the home opener this season. Tomorrow, the Dodgers take on the Detroit Tigers. Opening Day action is happening at Dodger Stadium. First pitch goes out at

Morning, Rich, Hey, good morning to you.

Amy.

We're not going to dive into what happened with Signal because you're our tech guy, because we heard you talking with it about Chris with Chris Merril yesterday about how we've all added the wrong people onto chats, so it can happen, but it's also a pretty serious thing.

Well yeah, I mean I'm not a government official, so my chat is like, yeah, I'll see you in ten minutes, not hey, we're bombing this place in ten minutes.

But we've all sent that one that like you sent it like would you just leave me alone? I'm like, oh my god, that went to the wrong person.

Oh always, and I get it and look and Signal is a very secure app. I understand a lot of people use it, a lot of executives use it anyone that wants to remain private because it is very much encrypted and it doesn't collect a lot of information. So I understand all that part, but also, yeah, this is a human mistake and there's some things to unpack here as well.

Yeah, interesting as we dive into this, well, I'm going to share something that we just found out from John going with ABC that he was saying, you need to get to secure places, and he goes, there's secure places, like secure facilities all over the country. It's not as it's not as easy to get to as your phone. But I'm like, you knew there were locations all over the place.

Oh, I'm sure there are there's you know, I mean, but look, at the end of the day, again, we're all human and we take you know, these paths of least resistance and we and we're so used to texting and these are all new people and you know, new positions, and I'm not defending them, but it's like, you know, they've got to follow the rules that that are established and if that's not using signal, then they got to figure that out.

Okay, Now, speaking of following rules, the rule for TikTok is you got to sell or you're going to be banned. That was pushed back. But is that back on the table or the deadlines approaching? What's going on with TikTok?

Yeah, I've forgot about this. April fifth is that deadline? It's already here, already. I can't believe it. It's like we've been talking about this for I'm not kidding over four years now, how many years it's been, It's been many years. And so TikTok has faced an uncertain future here in the US. The current thing is that it needs to be sold to a non Chinese owner or risk being banned. Is that happening? Has there been any progress whatsoever?

Not? Really.

We've seen a couple of companies like Oracle have some interest. We've seen a couple of investor groups pop up here and there, but nothing solid. So with that in mind, TikTok has been ramping up a massive ad campaign. I was watching TV the other day and I was like, wait, what is this an ad for TikTok?

What?

And it was so you know, it was so heartfelt and warm and it made me want to scroll all day long until my eyes fall out. But they're saying, look where a kind, gentle social media service, and you should keep us here in the US.

Yeah.

I've seen those ads too, And TikTok is not really interested in selling either, is it.

No.

I mean, the Chinese company that owns it does not want to sell it because A it's a cash cow and B there's a lot of secret sauce in that algorithm and they don't want to give that up.

Yeah. Okay, well we'll be watching and it'll be interesting to see because it was supposed to go into effect earlier and then Trump pushed it back.

Right, And this doesn't seem like it's the most pressing issue in America right now, But hey, what do I know exactly?

Well, you do know that we can get some stuff on sale on Amazon right now?

Well, I didn't actually know this. I didn't even know there was a spring sale until I was doing some research yesterday and I was like, wait, why are these people posting? Why am I getting so many emails about Amazon discounts? And sure enough, this is Amazon Amazon's big Spring sale. It's running through March thirty first, kind of a mini Prime day, so they're not calling this a Prime day. You know you typically they do two of those a year, but I think these sales must do

Oh so some good deals when they do these sales, do I mean do they They don't take usually a ton off, but there are some like I don't know if they're lost leaders, but they usually pick a few.

Well, it's every company. So basically, you know, like the the companies sort of go through and say like hey, you know, like we'll discount this stuff. And so Amazon just says, hey, we're having this big day, and then it's up to the companies to sort of like discount their products because most of the stuffs sold on Amazon now is like third part. But I went through my saved stuff and sure enough, there's a lot of stuff

Yeah. What's interesting to me on this rich is that there aren't like traditional ads saying hey, we're doing a sale. It's all, but you're finding out about it because of social media, like because everybody's talking about it.

Well that's because of affiliate marketing. So basically Amazon's not you know, they're advertising in certain ways, probably online, but you know, the real benefit here is to affiliates who basically share a link to Amazon stuff and they get a little cut.

So that's why you see.

So many of those articles from every publication out there that says ten items I can't live without on Amazon because they are doing affiliate sales and they make a small cut, okay for absolutely brilliant.

Yeah really, no kidding. For more great tech information, you can listen to rich Demiro right here from eleven to two on Saturday on KFI. You can also see him on KTLA, follow him on Instagram, rich on Tech his website rich on Tech dot tv. He posts all the stuff that he talks about there so you can get the latest information there too. Rich Demiro, thanks so much.

Thanks for having me.

Amy, all right, take care. Jury in Riverside Counties recommended the death penalty for a convicted felon who killed his one year old daughter and stabbed his pregnant wife during a child custody exchange. The same jury convicted Adam Slater early this month of first degree murder, attempted murder, assault on a child, and other charges. The crimes happened in twenty twenty, and RV Company's storage lot in the city of Industry has reportedly been overrun by squatters who've taken

It's a very gootic scene. Like I said, all the trailers are like damage, broke in, flipped over. A couple of videos I have where they've missed on fire. So there's been big fires. You know, we have to go look make sure it's not our cars that Arcano fire.

Black Series RV has been using the site to store some RVs and attempts to evict the unsanctioned residents that's a good word for him, have been unsuccessful. Katla says the property managers now received a new eviction order and hopes to clear the lot soon. Veteran entertainment industry lawyer Greg Hessinger has been named the new president of the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. Hill head up the powerful trade group that leads labor negotiations on behalf

DA Nathan Hawkman says he's rescinded a moratorium on seeking the death penalty previously enacted by his predecessor, George Gascon Hakman says it would only be sought in exceedingly rare cases after a thorough review to again.

Make sure that all the aggravating and mitigating considerations are on the table when you make a final decision.

That review would also so include defense attorneys who would have the opportunity to make arguments on behalf of their clients. Hakman says the death penalty would be used in the most egregious of criminal circumstances. Michael Monks KFI News.

You'll soon be screaming inside at Legoland, California. The owner of the theme park says a new indoor roller coaster is being built should be up and running by next year. A matching coaster is being built at Legoland Florida. The total costs for both coasters ninety million dollars, the biggest attraction investment in the park's histories and the first new coaster at Lego Line, California in twenty years. President Trump assigned an executive order requiring people to prove their citizenship

So Wake Up Call.

Got to go out and about this week to the Peterson Automotive Museum in LA. We didn't go to check out cars, though, we went to see pieces of Hollywood history. So there's an auction that starts today. It's got props

You know, right behind me, Hello Superman.

Yeah, that is one of the star lots in the sale. This auction is something that we do twice a year in the US and once over in the UK, and it's really our ten pole project. It's where we put out some of the absolute best material that has surfaced through the year.

Okay, so this costume.

Here, this is a genuine Christopher Reeves Superman outfit that he wore in Superman three, which was the one that

On the back. All of it is labeled.

Maybe the inside there's little fabric identifying tags that are from the costume house that made the outfit in the UK, which is a famous costumer called Burmans and Nathan's that say in a little typescript font Christopher Reeves Superman three.

And is that How do you check for authenticity because I mean, anybody could make a knockoff of this.

Yeah, no, it's a very good question.

It's actually especially pertinent with Superman costumes because fraudulent examples are a real problem with those. You know, it really comes down to our expertise. So we've been doing this a long long time. PROPST was founded in nineteen ninety eight in the UK. We've had the US office here since two thousand and seven. We have encountered a lot of examples of different props and costumes in the past,

Would go out and buy. It's literally something that they made.

You won't see that fabric anywhere else except on a genuine Superman costume. And we've been able to compare, for example, this example to versions that came directly out of the studio archive, the Warner Brothers studio archive, and you know, all the little tells, all the witness marks are exactly consistent between them. So we are one hundred percent confident

Make it right.

Let's go, because there's so much to look at and so much to see. Share with us a few of the other big ticket items that are going to be auctioned off.

Sure, yeah, there's a couple of wonderful Star Wars pieces this auction.

So we could see just in the.

Camber to the Star Wars piece right now, I remember this so well. So this is from the final scene of the original Star Wars A New Hope exactly.

I mean, this piece is just unforgettable.

This is the ceremonial metal that was bestowed upon Mark Hamill by Kerrie Fisher in the final scene of the movie. It's actually the very last thing you see on screen before they fade out and go to George Lucas's director's title card.

And this is one of only two that they had for the film. So there was this one, there was one other.

That Harrison Ford wore, and it has been with the family of a prop man for almost fifty years, someone who worked on the original Star Wars film, and.

It's coming to light for the very first time.

So that's what I was.

This is really special.

Where do you acquire these items?

Coming up? Brandon's going to tell us where they get them, who buys them, where you can see them, where you can watch and participate, and how you could even get one for yourself. Right now, it's time to get in your business with Bloomberg's Courtney Donahogue mourning, Courtney, good morning, we got a deal in discount. Dollar Tree sold its business.

Yes, it is official Dollar Tree checking out a Family Dollar selling the struggling business for about a billion dollars. Now the buyer is a group of private equity firms, but the price tag is steep.

It's a big discount.

Actually to the nearly nine billion dollars that paid for Family Dollar back in twenty fifteen. So look at that eight billion dollars less Dollar Tree.

They bought it for nine and they sold it for one or one.

Oh yeah.

Family Dollar has definitely struggled to grow over the past couple of years. Low income shoppers have been under pressure high inflation and interest rates. Now, when you think of Dollar Tree versus Family Dollar, Dollar Tree is mostly in the suburbs. They cater to middle income households, kids who people who want crafts, party supplies. That's who they're looking toward. Okay, Family Dollar, however, are people who want more essentials they

I have to.

Say a family dollar has.

Been struggling so much.

Okay, are they going to close yes.

A couple of the stores. Well, they're most likely going to be relabeled again. Private Equity didn't say what they're going to do with the business, but Dollar Tree is actually going to be closing some businesses. So they're looking to boost their business. They're going to shut down a bunch of underperforming stores. They're going to expand a lot of the products that they have, and they're going to have more pricey items, things that cost as much as

Okay. Under Armour is scoring big.

Why, Yes, they're stepping up and locking in a deal with the NFL to be the official provider of footwear and gloves. Under Armour had a previous licensing agreement with the NFL that ended in twenty twenty because at the time, they were undergoing a restructuring and a cost cutting push. So the company has rebounded a lot since then. One of the reasons is founder Kevin Plank. He came back as CEO about a year ago to lead this turnaround

Okay, you said footwear, but not shoes like y sock shoes, shoes, shoes. I didn't know under Armour had shoes.

Okay, And they're going to be able with this deal to be able to label the shoes too, so where instead of just being able to wear it and being being allowed on the field, they're going to be allowed to label it.

Okay, and then really quick because we're almost out of time. But I want to talk about the Kroger and Albertson's. The deal is off, but the fight isn't.

Yes, the dispute continues to heat up. A Kroger is fighting back against a lawsuit brought on by Albertson's over their failed merger. Albertson claims that Kroger didn't do enough to win the regulatory approval for the deal. That twenty five billion dollar deal now Kroger is accusing Albertsons of trying to extract billions of dollars with these baseless claims

Okay, that's getting in your business today with Bloomberg's Courtney Donaho. Thanks so much. We'll do it again tomorrow.

Yes see you later.

Ride share drivers will rally in front of La City Hall, also in San Francisco and San Diego. The rallies are happening ahead of a mediation session for settlement discussions over a lawsuit in which drivers claim they've been robbed of tens of billions of dollars in wages. Vice President Vance is going to make the trip to Greenland with his wife and other US officials. Usha Vance was set to headline or head up the delegation, but Vance sent out a video tweet saying he's going to join her. He

Yeah, they come from all over the place, and so in some cases things are coming out of film studios or production companies directly. In other instances, they're coming from people who worked on the movies, which.

Is the situation with this Luke Skywalker Medal.

You know, at this time in the nineteen sixties, seventies and eighties, people weren't necessarily tracking and saving these things in the same way they are today. The golden was to make the movie, not necessarily to save the props. So things like this they did get thrown away. They were given to people, and you know that's why some of these are out there today.

Okay, we've got another cool one for you too. Then we have spanglers. Yes, yes, so fit from the original Ghostbus.

Yeah.

So, I'm a big Ghostbuster fan. I love seeing this costume here. You know, this is a jumpsuit that was worn in the second film. You can see the arm patch here. Ye, it's got the ghost holding up the two fingers. That's the design from the second movie. The belt is his from the first movie, and the boots are also his from the first movie, and they're actually marked inside HR for hald Ramis. I think this is the only belt that I've ever seen in a private collection,

In the film.

Okay, so what's that going to go for?

The estimate on this one, you can see here on the card. Pre sale estimate is one hundred and fifty to three hundred thousand. Well, so we don't know exactly what it's going to sell for. You know, that's going to be determined by the bidders on the day. I can tell you there's been a lot of questions on this one, a lot of inquiries.

We'll we'll see tomorrow.

Okay.

So you've got the big ticket items, you've got some smaller things. So maybe if I don't have an extra hundred thousand dollars or other things, technically I could bid on absolutely.

Yeah.

I mean, we try to have something for everyone.

So there's gonna be items, especially on days two and three, starting as low as maybe three or four hundred dollars. So really the prices run the full spectrum. Day one tends to be more of the higher end, more expensive items like the ghost trap, like the Spangler costume.

But on days two and three you're going to see some great.

Pieces which are also all from the making of people's favorite films and shows, just you know, small or less recognizable pieces that are at much more accessible price.

Who baited on these kinds of things.

Just fans, people that love movies. You know, our clientele comes from all different kinds of backgrounds. And look, we have people that work in the entertainment industry, we have high net worth individuals. We also have just very you know, regular people who love films, who are from all walks of life, from all over the country. You know, international buyers, people buying from Europe, people buying from Asia, people buying from all corners of the globe. And just the common

Okay, So the auction starts today Wednesday, goes through Friday, and if people want to come see it, they'd have to come see it today because it's items will be all display today.

Yes.

Yeah, so day one Wednesday is live with in person bidding, meaning you can show up here at the Petersautomoti Museum and bid in the room. You can also bid online or buy a telephone. Days two and three Thursday Friday, they are online and buy phone only, so there's no in person element to those.

Just at our website propstore dot com.

Okay, so propstore dot com.

That's where you can go and you can register and get all set up and then you can dip in and out when you see different things. And are there lists of the different items here?

Yeah, there's a full online catalog.

It's about thirteen hundred lots in total. You can search it, you can filter it, you can put in your favorite movie title and see what we have from it. You'll have a comprehensive photo gallery of all the different lots. You'll have a written description tells you exactly what the piece is. So there's a lot there. If you're a fan, there's a lot there to digest and dive into.

Okay, being a total fangirl. Before we go, I go to show.

You one more thing, Danny Zuko's jacket from Grease.

Come on, this is a big one. Yeah.

This is maybe the only Grease jacket that has come

So he did have right.

He had a leather version of the t Verge jacket as well, but this non leather version was used specifically for that sequence. He also wore it or possibly won't exactly like it at the film premiere. So the photo down there, that's Travolta and Olivin John at the premiere of the movie and he's wearing this jacket.

There are so many cool things to see and so if you want to see them, need to come down today to.

The Peterson Automotive Museum.

You can also go to propstore dot com you watch the auction, maybe even take home a treasure of your own. CEO, Brandon Allinger, thank you so much for your time today.

Please for coming here.

This is great.

I'm going to put the interview up on Instagram so you can see some of the things you were talking about. I mean, and I really was just geeking out because it was it was just cool. I mean, like these are pieces of you know, your childhood or your early adulthood, and they bring back fun memories like the Ghostbusters stuff

With it empty, we had not only the water and the hydrants, and we had no ability for those helicopters to go draw water either out of Saninez or Chautauqua. You're basically both hands tied behind your back.

Bailey said. The suit also highlights the fact the LEDWP had not de energized the Palisades power grid during the first hours of the wildfire. In January, LA may be asking voters whether more firehouses are needed around the city.

Next year's ballot could include a bond measure or even a sales tax to support the construction of firehouses. Counciloman Tracy Park says there's not been a firehouse added to the Palisades in decades.

Simply put, we need a twenty first century fire department that can tackle twenty first century problems.

The city council voted to have city staff start to evaluate how many firehouses they may need, what the cost might be, and what the best way to pay for it all would be. After that, they'll decide on whether to go to voters for the funding. Michael Monks KFI News.

Debris from a train crash has critically hurt a taco vendor in Oxnard. A big rig was on the tracks last night when the trailer was hit by the train. The woman was hit by debris and suffered head injuries. The big rig driver was and hurt. Two people on the train complained of some pain. Clippers Guard James Harden has been ordered to pay more than a million dollars in a lawsuit over a Beverly Hills mansion. He rented in twenty nineteen. Harden rented the house for a week