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Here's Amy King.
It is five o'clock, straight up. This is your wake up call for Wednesday, January twenty ninth. Good morning, I'm Amy King. We're live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app. I want to say thanks to Michael Monks, who filled in for me for the last couple of days so I could go and celebrate Amuary and do what Andrew quine so pictures. There was a little of that. We went up and we did a girls' weekend extravaganza. Watch out fossil robles and pots of robels and or roblists. There's
an ongoing fight on how you pronounce it. But what a fun weekend. So Amuary continues. I got two more days. I thought it was Willowary. Well you can have Willowery too. I have Amuary. I celebrate my birthday the whole month and other good news. Today Jackie laid another egg one of the Big Bear Eagles three email are yep, Oh my god, they got busy this season. WHOA, they've got
three again, So I'm very excited about that. Here's what's ahead on wake up Call, Governor Newsom says the state and FEMA have sent a letter to the EPA calling for the hazardous materials removal work to be completed in the fire zones within thirty days, not the original sixty days that was estimated. Newsom added the Phase two debris removal will not have to wait until the EPA's work
is completely done. The LA Department of Water and Power has plans to hire an independent engineer to determine whether the empty Santa Inez Reservoir led to the failure of its water system during the deadly Palisades Fire. The one hundred and seventeen million gallon reservoir has been empty four about a year. The White House has held its first
press briefing of the new Trump administration. Press Secretary Caroline Levitt read out a list of some of the illegal immigrants who've been detained in raids, said the mysterious drones where FAA approved, and said a temporary freeze on federal aid is being done because it's the responsibility of the administration to be stewards of Americans tax dollars. Kfi's White House correspondent John Decker was in the room and it was packed. We're going to talk to him in about
three minutes. Ktlized tech guy Rich DeMuro, what the heck is Deep Seek and do we want it? That's coming up at five point twenty. Also, Tax season is here with it. ABC's Jim Ryan says he's got another warning for us because people are trying to scam us. That's at five point fifty. Oh, and Amy's on it with Awards season here. I'll be checking out a really dark torch show that just might ruffle your feathers. Let's get started with some of the stories coming out of the
KFI twenty four hour newsroom. The LA Department of Water and Power investigating whether an empty reservoir led to the failure of its water system during the fire and Pacific Palisades.
That reservoir was trained by the department about a year ago.
That man lost his home in the fire. He addressed the Board of Water and Power commissioners yesterday, what.
Is the explanation for this?
There's been no explanation offered to the people of Palisades, whose house is burned out.
The one hundred and seventeen million gallon reservoir near the Palisades Highlands neighborhood was drained after a tear was found in its protective cover. The DWP says it's planning to hire an independent engineer to look at how much the reservoir being empty contributed to the loss of water pressure and water in hydrants. The City of La is offering online workshops to help fire survivors access job opportunity, unemployment benefits, and healthcare. La Mayor Bath says the workshops are going
to happen Monday through Saturday. You can sign up for them on the La city website. Governor Newsom is working with Magic Johnson to help people rebuild from the fires in La County. The Lakers, Legend and the Dodgers are behind an effort called La Rises to raise money for wild fire recovery.
Mark Waters, the lead owner of the Dodgers, as well as the La Dodger Foundation, has now put up and donated up to one hundred million dollars.
LA twenty eight Olympics chairperson Casey Wasserman is also pledging to help. Johnson says he's involved because he doesn't want the city of Altadena to be forgotten, and neither do we. Let's say good morning now to kfi's White House correspondent John Decker. John, we've been waiting to see what's going to happen when the Trump administration press briefings continued, and they didn't disappoint.
Huh Yeah, forty seven minute long briefing conducted yesterday by Caroline Levitt. That's the new White House Press secretary, just twenty seven years old, the youngest press secretary in American history, and she has served before in the first Trump administration in a junior level capacity in the Press Office, but yesterday was her first White House press briefing, packed house,
standing room only, no surprise. I've seen that before with new administrations, but I think that's going to continue for the foreseeable future. And where you where you have these packed rooms. I was one of the journalists that she called upon yesterday during the White House Press briefing. But a number of journalists representing some well known news organizations
did not get called upon. The Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post didn't get called upon, PBS didn't get called upon, the USA Today, the La Times did not get called upon. Time Magazine did not get called upon. So a different era with Caroline Levitt in charge of the White House press briefings.
Okay, yeah, you mentioned some of the traditional outlets didn't get called on. But she made an announcement saying we're going to open the press room back up to others. What was the message.
There, Well, the message is that the Trump administration believes that you know, this legacy media has really dominated questions in the White House press briefing over the course of the past four years during the Biden administration, and what the Trump administration would like to do and what they're going to do is to open things up and we'll
see how that goes. And you know what I always say is the rules are dictated by the president the people that won the White House, and Donald Trump won the White House, and if that's what they want to do, that is their right. They've won the White House, they've won the keys to the White House, and they can establish the rules going forward for the White House Press briefing room, can they.
I know that Caroline mentioned that they were going to look at reinstating like four hundred press criefs credentials is it pretty normal for people to get basically not to not get the president the credentials or get them denied after they already have them.
You know, it's interesting. You know, people are obviously not aware of all the rules that take place. But literally, if you work for your high school newspaper, you could get a daily press pass to into the White House. That is the case for the Biden administration. It will be the case for the Trump administration. Now getting a hard pass is completely different. But if you wanted to, you know, attend a press briefing, literally and you work for your high school newspaper, go ahead and apply and
you can attend a White House press briefing. So it's not the exclusive club that certain people make it out to be.
And lots of pressure on Caroline Levett, as you mentioned, very the youngest press secretary, Like around the room, what was the how did she do?
I thought she did a commendable job. You know, she is the seventeenth White House press secretary that I will work with amy and I thought she did a great job right out of the box and not a surprise. She did a good job. As it relates to being the campaign spokesman, during the campaign, and she's had some experience in politics, served in the first Trump White House, a former congressional candidate back in twenty twenty two. I
think she's very poised in handling the questions. And you may have noticed amy she doesn't rely on a briefing book, unlike Karine Jean Pierre, unlike Jen Saki, unlike Kaylee mckinenni the final press secretary for Donald Trump in his first administration.
I did notice that I was like she was addressing the reporters and not looking down. There was a couple of times where she looked down, but otherwise she she had it all up in her inner nouggin.
Yeah, aside from the opening statement that she wished to deliver, which you can underst and opening statement relying on your notes or relying on the text the questions themselves, she did not rely on any notes in terms of providing
answers to those questions. I asked two questions yesterday at the White House Press briefing, went on domestic policy, one on foreign policy, including a question on birthright citizenship and what the administration's point of view is on that, given that many legal scholars believe that right is enshrined in the fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution. And I also asked about Donald Trump's view of the NATO Defense Alliance if it's the same view in terms of its importance that
the prior administration had. So hopefully, you know, I get called upon continuously by Caroline Leavitt as the briefings happen. They may not happen every day, she indicated, but they will happen, certainly, you know, on a fairly regular basis.
I was wondering which questions you got to ask because I was watching it, and she mentioned the drones. That was kind of out of the blueset. Oh, by the way, we checked on the drones. Here's what happened.
Yeah, well, you know what, interestingly enough, it's pretty she said it in her own way, but interestingly enough, it's essentially the same message that was delivered by the Biden administration in terms of those drones that have popped up in many parts of New Jersey in particular over the last few months.
Okay, well, we'll look forward to more press briefings, and we love that you're in the room there, and we'll be looking for your insights as we move through this presidency. Thank you so much. Kfi's White House correspondent John Dekker appreciate it. Let's get back to some of the stories
coming out of the KFI twenty four hour newsroom. A medical lab owner in La County has been sentenced to nine years for her role in a three hundred and sixty nine million dollar fraud scheme that exploited the COVID nineteen pandemic and resulted in false billings and theft from federal programs. Lord Is Navarro from Glendale plead guilty two years ago to conspiracy to commit health care fraud and wire fraud for doing tests in nursing homes, elder facilities,
and schools that weren't needed. California Attorney General Rob Bontas as he agrees with a federal judge who has temporarily blocked President Trump's executive order to pause federal funding for review. The judge blocked the order just minutes before was due to take effect yesterday afternoon. Bontas's California could have lost billions in federal aid. If the order had been left in place.
We would have stood lose one hundred and thirty billion plus dollars over the course of this year alone. If the funding that the order contemplated was actually halted.
He says, healthcare for the poor, subsidized housing assistants, and food assistants were all on the chopping block. The administration said the order was temporary to ensure spending complies with Trump's executive orders. The White Houses offered buyouts with about eight months salary to federal employees who choose to leave their jobs by February sixth. It's part of an administration
effort to reduce the cost of the federal workforce. ABC's Andrew Dimbert says those interested just have to reply with resign.
Elon Musk, who leads the Department of Government Efficiency, reposting a report saying they expect five to ten percent of the federal workforce to take the buyout offer, saving about one hundred billion dollars.
A memo tells employees that if they resign under the program, they will retain all pay and benefits and will be exempted from all in person work requirements until September thirtieth. Former New Jersey Democratic Senator Bob Menendez is set to be sentenced for accepting cash and gold bars and acting as a foreign agent for Egypt. Prosecutors have recommended a fifteen year sentence when Menendez goes before a judge today. Two businessmen were also convicted in the case, and Menendez's
wife is awaiting trial. Her bribery trial has been postponed because she's being treated for breast cancer. That trial is scheduled to begin in New York in March. Nearly twenty thousand cases of Horizon Organic milk or being recod called because of spoilage concerns. The impacted milk was distributed in California, Arizona, and Nevada. The milk apparently is spoiling early because of
heat damage during the milk's processing. A plane has caught fire on the tarmac at an airport in South Korea ABCZ and panels as The airbus was operated by low cost South Korean air carrier air Boosam.
Security footage showing smoke rising. Fire crewis desperately trying to douse the flames. One hundred and sixty nine passengers and seven crew evacuated just as smoke starts to fill the cabin.
Yeah, that's scary. Officials say they believe the fire began in the tail section of the plane. Three people have minor injuries. A prototype passenger jet has broken the sound barrier during a test flight from the Mojave Air and Spaceport in California. Kfi's Tammy Truehillo says the XB one jet hit speeds above Makwe yesterday.
It was the first civilian aircraft to reach speeds of over eight hundred and fifty miles per hour since the Concord Airliner did it over twenty years years ago.
The CEO of Boom's Supersonic praised his team for the accomplishment and said he hopes to bring supersonic flights to everyone. Rent prices have spiked during the wildfires. A study from a tenant advocacy group says there are more than thirteen hundred cases of price gouging. The study found new listings in West Hollywood, Hollywood, Venice, and Malibu, where among the worst areas affected. Tenant advocates are calling on law enforcement
agencies to take immediate action and hold violators accountable. Public health officials are warning residents to stay out of the water from Malibu to Santa Monica because of potentially toxic storm runoff. And debris from the Palisades fire. Signs are being posted on affected beaches. The waters will be closed to swimmers and surfers indefinitely. The California State Senate has approved millions in funding to trump proof the state against
President Trump's policies. The proposals include twenty five million dollars for the California DOJ lawsuits and another twenty five million for nonprofits assisting illegal immigrants. Govin or Newsom could sign the bills this week if the Assembly proves them approves them. Right now, let's say good morning to the host of Rich on Tech right here on KFI KTLA's tech guy, Rich DeMuro. Good morning, Rich, Hey, good morning. Okay, there's a lot of buzz about Deep Seek, a new AI.
What is it and do we want it?
Well, this is a new AI out of China and it kind of surprised a lot of people overnight because they're doing what CHATYBT and Google and Meta are doing at a fraction of the price, or so they say, And so this has kind of upended everything we know about AI, like how much it costs to produce these models, how much it costs to run them, The chips that
we need for these things. And of course it sent Silicon Valley into a tizzy because it seems like everything we knew over the past year or two has been thrown up and everything is up for grabs again.
But it sounds like they kept this secret because I had not even heard that name until all of a sudden it was there, and stocks for Nvidi and other ani's were tanking.
Yeah, and now you can't hear enough about it. So again, this is a website just like chat GPT, and also an app. The app has sprung to the top of the App Store also on Google Play, so people are trying this. They're very curious about it. If you look at this deep cki, you know, you can ask it questions, you can have a brainstorm. I told it my favorite movies yesterday and asked for some similar recommendations. So it's
everything that you need in this AI. But again, it's just being done at a fraction of the price, and so of course it's putting a lot of pressure on American companies to say, hold on, do we need to rethink how we're doing this now. Time will tell just how good this AI is over time. If this is just a blip on the radar, or if we have seen a sizeable shift in the entire industry.
Okay, and then you mentioned that it's out of China, and there's already concerns over TikTok having our information and possibly using it for nefarious purposes. I would imagine that there would be even more concern over an AI out of China.
Yeah, I'd be curious. I would think the exact same thing, especially because people are going to start dumping very sensitive information into this chat window, right if they want to have their medical records analyzed, or their personal information or whatever. People use AI in really personal ways. So the fact that this is out of China obviously does have some of the same implications as TikTok, if not more, because
people are using it for very personal information. So far we don't know is not owned by the government, but you know, things are a little bit different over there in China. So that is the concern, and I guess we'll hear more about that in the future.
Okay, So for now, I mean, do you think it's worth a download or worth a It's I guess it's just on a website. It's not an app.
It is a is the top Yeah, it's a top app right now on the iPhone and Android. Do I think you should switch to it? No, I think that unless you are an AI researcher or someone who's really interested in this stuff for building an app, I would stick to what we have here. But if you're curious, you know, there's no harm in checking out. You do have to sign in with your with your Google account, just FYI.
Okay, And then we have some iPhone and some Android news. You've got the Samsung S twenty five Ultra. Tell us about that one.
Yeah, I've been been playing with this. They had the event last week up in San Jose. I don't think we got to talk because of that, but it was. It's a great phone so far. I'm very impressed. It's all about AI. Of course, the camera's slight upgrade, so the cameras are really good. I will just say I'll cut to the chase here on this phone. If you're thinking of upgrading your Samsung or your Android, or even switching to Android, this is the year to do it,
because Samsung finally came out with the phone. That is, there's no flaw on this that I can discern, so it's really really nice. And it also, by the way, they got the size of it perfect, so it fits in your hand really nicely. Even though they made the screen bigger, somehow they made it fit in your hand better than last year, which is pretty amazing.
Okay, And what kind of cost are we looking at?
Well, you're looking at about thirteen hundred dollars for the top of the line, eight hundred dollars for the standard. But nobody pays the full Samsung prices. There is always a discount. They've got discount for military teachers, students. If you're employed by a company, you know, you can get up to thirty percent off plus trade in. Someone emailed me after they heard me talk about it my radio, so they paid three hundred and ninety nine dollars to the top of the line device after trade in.
Okay, so big thumbs up from Rich for that one. And there's an awesome new feature in the latest iOS update. What is it?
Oh my gosh, this is so handy. So iOS eighteen point three if you haven't downloaded it a bunch of you know, a little polish for the the latest operating system. But the coolest feature if you have one of these newer iPhones, with the camera control button, you can aim your phone at a poster or anything, or a flyer, whatever you have that has like a calendar event on it, Press and hold the button and it will recognize that
calendar event and add it to your calendar. So for me, my kid came home yesterday with an event at school they have to go to, and it was a printed flyer that would take me a while to type it into my phone. I literally just scanned it with this new feature, and in seconds it added all the information to my calendar. That to me is worth the upgrade.
It's almost like the job search websites that you go to where it like auto fills your resume. Sounds like the same kind of thing where it's reading your stuff and then inputting it.
Yeah, like that that was my dream forever. It's like, here's my resume, you tell me which jobs i'd be good for, right, Like, don't why do I have to search? So I think we're seeing more of that.
Okay, So that's cool. You just point your camera at it and automatically does it.
Yeah. I've been using it like all afternoon. I showed my wife. She's like, okay, that's amazing.
Okay, I'm gonna have to try that one. And that's on the new or the updated iOS, So if you haven't updated, maybe now's the time to do that.
Yes, I was eighteen point three. Yeah, remember that's on the iPhone sixteen. I'm not sure if that's available on the older models because they don't have that camera control button. You know, Apple's trying to give you an excuse to upgrade by adding all these new features exclusive for the new phone.
They're sneaky that way.
Yes, all right.
That's KFI is Tech reporter Rich DeMuro. You can get all kinds of great tech tips from Rich when you listen to him Saturdays from eleven am to two pm right here on KFI it's Rich on Tech. You can also follow Rich on Instagram at rich on tech is website, richon tech dot tv. Thank you, Rich DeMuro, Thank you Amy.
Have a great Wednesday.
Right, we'll talk to you soon. The LACD councils considering a package of tenant protections meant to help people displaced or impacted by the recent wildfires. The package prohibits evictions for non payment of rent, certain no fault evictions, evictions for having additional tenants and pets, and evictions based on failure to have renters insurance. It also includes a possible
one year freeze on rent increases. A woman accused of killing her two year old son at their home in East Vale in Riverside County is pleaded not guilty to first degree murder. She's alleged to have killed the boy in October of twenty twenty two. After her initial court appearance, she was given psychiatric evaluations through twenty twenty three before judge determined that she was mentally competent. Another hearing has
been scheduled for late February. The Pentagon has pulled retired General Mark Milly's security clearance.
Milly served as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in both the Trump and Biden administrations. On Tuesday, new Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in formally that he was revoking his security clearance and his security detail.
Kfi's Mark Mayfield says Pete Hegseth also direct to the Defense Department's Office of Inspector General to open an inquiry into the facts and circumstances surrounding General Milly's conduct. Or allegedly undermining the chain of command during President Trump's first term. The new Orleans Police chief has reassured residents and visitors the city and the police department are making sure this year's Super Bowl and Mardi Gras events will be safe.
Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick say's lessons have been learned from the January first Bourbon Street terrorist attack. We're going to have an incredible Super Bowl. We're going to have a great and fun time.
And then followed by Marty Grass.
She says they're going to maintain their traditional parade routes. People whose homes were damaged or destroyed in the wildfires can have the US Army Corps of Engineers clear debris from their properties for free. Owners just need to request the help with debre removal by filling out a form that's available at Recovery dot LA County dot gov. Homeowners can also hire their own contractors if they'd rather get the debris cleared that way. LA Fire employees have founded
the lawsuit against the city. They say the department is significantly understaffed. Members of the firefighters union and their attorneys say the problem has been happening for years. They say employees are often asked to stay extra hours and in some cases are not paid for overtime. Jackie has laid another egg. The bald eagle perched in the nest high above Big Bear Lake, laid her third egg this season
last night. The first egg arrived a week ago. Today, you can watch Jackie and Shadow in the eggs on the Friends of Big Bear Valley YouTube channel. It's on as Will Coleschreiber just found out twenty four hours a day. They've got night vision, no privacy, no privacy, That's okay. They're so gorgeous, so excited. At f I point fifty, tax season is here, and with it, there are scammers. ABC's Jim Ryan has more warnings for us. You won't want to miss that again. That's in about thirteen minutes.
Amy on it, Aami's on, Jami's on it, Gami's on it. What am I on? I'm on the stream movies documentaries series, you name it, I'm on it, and hopefully I'll help you get on the good ones and maybe pass on the bad ones. But it is awards season, so for the next month or so, I'm going to be reviewing award nominated ones. This one is nominated for SAG Awards. I think those are February twenty third, a couple weeks before the Academy Awards. But again, this is a TV series,
not a movie. But it's The Penguin on Max. The full season is out eight episodes, so you can watch it in installments or you can binge it as I wont to do. Colin Ferrell plays the Penguin. And you may have heard about this. You don't know it's Colin Ferrell. It's almost distracting. It's so not Colin fair garl. I mean, he they absolutely transform him and it doesn't look like makeup. It looks like a whole different person. And he plays Oswald Cobb and does it brilliantly. And based on the
name the Penguin, you think Batman. Well, it's set in Gotham. He's basically a mob boss fighting the familiar foes, the Falcone family, the Maroney family. It sounds like Chicago mob families, right, Okay, lots of villains in the show, from the Penguin to his mom, to the Falcones to kind of everyone in Penguin's life. There's lots of villains in this show. Oh and by the way, there's no Batman. There's no reference to Batman. There's nothing about Batman through the whole eight episodes.
And then I mentioned the Falcone family. So the daughter is Sophia Falcone, brilliantly played by Kristin Miliatti. She's also I believe she's nominated for a sag Award for Best Actress. She is a tortured soul. She's been convicted of being someone called the Hangman. So again, the references are very batman esque where they are, you know, super villains and that kind of stuff. But again, Batman isn't part of this. She's cold, she's calculated, she's wonderfully crazy in this role,
and I see why she's nominated. Really fun to watch. The show is super dark. The characters are more real people, not caricatures like the Batman movies. So unlike like Danny DeVito when he played the Penguin and kind of waddled and had the weird nose and that kind of stuff. I mean, don't get me wrong, Oswald Cobb is a funky looking guy, but he's not a caricature of a person,
if that makes sense. The Penguin is dark. He's disturbed, he's conflicted, he has serious mommy issues, serious mommy issues that play out throughout the show. And I think, you know, it's a trend in Hollywood, show all the darkness, see if there's any light in there, and this show you see the darkness, and every once in a while you just get a glimmer you go, is there some good in this guy? Or is he completely evil? And I
want to let you judge for yourself. But they do a really good job of like going, oh, maybe, and then now and then maybe, and then you'll have to wait and see on that. Just when you think there might be something good, he does something else, so you go, nah, no, not good at all. But it's so interesting and you know you're kind of you're rooting for this really really bad guy. He is a mess, and the show is great. Like I said, it is very dark. I'm on Penguin.
I think you should be too full season out on Max just eight episodes, and they do. They kind of tee it up for a second season, so we'll see. Let's get back to some of the stories coming out of the KFI twenty four hour newsroom. The cooler weather has helped firefighters working on the three large fires in La County. All three in Pacific Palisades, Eating Canon and Castake are almost completely surrounded now. Evacuation orders and warnings
all lifted, except for some in the Palisades area. The National Weather Services there are no signs of any immediate return of Santa Ana winds or rain that could cause debris flows, but it is cold. The cooler temperatures will remain over the next several days, with daytime temperatures remaining a low normal for this time of year, but we should warm up by the weekend. A rare strain of bird flu has been detected at a duck farm in California.
The World Organization for Animal Health report of the outbreak at the farm in Merced County on Monday, noting that the more common H five and one strain was also present at the farm. More than one hundred thousand birds were cold to prevent the virus from spreading. The City of San Francisco is reassuring immigrants it will not help federal agents target them at home, work, or school. Assessor Recorder for the City and County of San Francisco, Joaquin Torres,
says they will not back down. Sanctuary today, Sanctuary forever.
We do not ask for this fight, but we.
Are here for it.
City leaders have confirmed San Francisco's status as a sanctuary city. Caroline Kennedy has written a letter to senators about Robert F. Kennedy Junior ahead of his confirmation hearings for Health and Human Services Secretary. In it, she says her cousin is unqualified, calls him a predator, and asks senators to reject the nomination. We are a close family.
None of that is easy to say. It also wasn't easy to remain silent last year when Bobby expropriated my father's image and distorted President Kennedy's legacy to advance his own failed presidential campaign, and then grovel to Donald Trump for a job.
Caroline Kennedy read her letter on camera, and her son shared the six minute video on x. President Trump has signed an executive order targeting transition related medical care for minors. The goal of the order is to restrict access to puberty blockers, hormone therapy, and surgery for anyone under nineteen. The White House is confirmed what the Biden administration said in December about drones spotted on the East Coast. Officials say the drones over New Jersey, which were Senior President
Trump's Bedminster golf resort, were not a threat. Press Secretary Caroline Levitt says they were not nefarious.
The drones that were flying over New Jersey and large numbers were authorized to be flown by the FAA for research and various other reasons.
It's unclear when the FAA learned they were research drones. La Clippers owner Steve Balmer says he will match all contributions made to the Fire Aid concert during the live broadcasts. That's tomorrow night. Fire Aid is being held at the Intuit Dome and Kia Forum. It'll air on iHeartMedia radio stations and be broadcast on more than twenty TV stations and streaming services. Billie Eilish, Katie Perry, Jelly Rolls, Sting, Lady Gaga, Alanis Morrisset, Dave Matthews, John Mayer, and Moore
will be performing. And that's tomorrow night. The LEDWP plans to hire an independent engineer to determine whether the empty Santa Inez reservoir led to the failure of its water system during the deadly Palisades Fire. Several fire hydrants ran dry during the peak of the firefight. January seventh and eighth, California Attorney General Robed Bont's filed charges against a real estate agent for allegedly attempting to price gouge a family that was forced out of their home during the Eton fire.
Bont's offices, the agent offered of the family a rental that exceeded the listing price by fifty percent. State law prohibits markups of more than ten percent during disasters and states of emergency. A judge, as I mentioned, is granted a stay on President Trump's executive order to temporarily freeze federal aid. It was supposed to start yesterday and would pause federal and domestic aid, but would not touch Social Security or Medicare. Right now, let's say good morning to
ABC's Jim Ryan, Jim Guye Tax time. Did you get your W two?
It did?
I came in the mail yesterday? I think did it come in the mail?
I don't know.
I did I get it. It's a pay per copy, you know that. Yeah, it came in the mail, so I didn't have to go online to the portal and print it out and do all that. But yeah, the W two, once you have it in hand or all the W two's, you're ten ninety nine the other forms you need to file your return, then you can sit down and start doing it or hand over all that stuff to your tax prepare. That's where the big warning is coming from this year from the Better Business Bureau. Ghost tax preparers.
People tax prepares, ran.
Folks who ghost you after they file your return or extensibly file your return. You go to somebody tax prepare. Maybe that person is certified, maybe not. Then they're offering a nice, big fat return if you file with them. So there's the big tip off. Amy. If you go to a tax preparer, then that person sits down, works up the return, sends it up, but first comes to you and says, oh wait, you need to sign right here, Amy King, right here in this line right here. Then
you sign it and you sent it off. Now, if there's a problem with that return, math problem, you know, signs of fraud something, it's going to come back on to you because you signed it. If you have a preparer to it, the preparer is supposed to sign it and send it off that way, And that's why you're paying that person to take responsibility. If there's a problem, you know, you're honest. You're being honest with them. They're
supposed to be honest with the irs. But if there's an issue, the problem comes back on to them.
Gotcha. Okay, So how can you tell because you're talking about going and sitting down with somebody and meeting with them, not just an online tax filer, right.
Well, you know there could be online an online presence for these folks as well. But if it's somebody you've never heard of, or just because they're offering a cheap price to work up your return or promising big, huge refunds, they can't promise that. You know that that should be your other big tip off. So ghost tax preparers are a major major issue. So how will people reach out to you? How does the IRS reach out to us? Well,
buy paper mail. That's why I got my return or my W two in the mail that came from my boss. But you know the paper mail is So if you don't check your mail often, if you rely on email so much that you don't even go out to the mailbox, that's a problem. You need to go out and check that thing. First of all, because people could be stealing your mail, but second because you could be missing an important document, right, and we have.
To have W two's and ten ninety nine's by the end of this month, right, I.
Think, yeah, the deadline is here, or maybe it's tomorrow that the IRS has told your boss you must have your W two.
In hand, Okay, and I know that like for our company, a lot of them they don't. They don't send them in the mail anymore like ours. You download from the portal. So those are options and it's not an issue for you in Dallas, Texas, but it's an issue.
For us speak income texts.
Well, they've they've pushed back oh stuff in La County because of the wildfires.
Oh.
They initially had said it's just for the people who are in the actual wildfires, but I think it's probably hard to like determine who's who, and so they pushed it back to October fifteenth.
For the whole state.
Nope, for La County. Oh, okay, La County, not the whole state. But so you get a little breathing room. But I'm I'm still going to try to do my taxes on time this.
Year by April fifteenth, Yes.
Because you know what, then you don't have to stress about it for the next six months. Otherwise you got to sit there and go ooh, that's looming for six months.
I've in forty years of going out and doing a Q and A with people about tax time. The people who file early and meet the deadline even before the deadline, they're the ones who are getting a refund. The ones who don't who or file an extension, they're the ones who owe the iris money.
Right, Yeah, that's probably that. That sounds about right, So it's true. How do we make sure, Like you said, you might go to a tax preparer, you don't know their name, that kind of stuff. How do you know if they're legit?
Off?
I mean, aside from if you go and sit down and spend time with them and give them all your stuff and they go, hey, I'm going to get you back fifty thousand dollars and you go ooh, that sounds a little off. But I mean, before you go through that whole process, how can you tell somebody's legit.
Well, you know, there are big name preparers out there, the H and R blocks of the world and the others that you've heard of. Going on someone else's referral will be a good way to ensure that you're not dealing with a fly by night operation. If it's somebody you've never heard of, or if it's if they seem a little sketchy or it doesn't seem they've been a business loan, that could be a problem, that could be
a real problem. Maybe not. They might be totally certified, and they should not fight you if you say, hey, can I see some documentation that you're actually a certified tax preparer? That'd be great. Please. If they hesitate or they don't want to do that, then maybe go on to the next one.
Yeah. And the other bad thing is if you get a ghost tax preparer, then they have your social Security number and all of that stuff.
And your address and your data birth and potentially all sorts of information that they can then use to open up a credit card or something.
Just another thing we need to be careful of and watch out for.
Jim right in twenty three, the irsays taxpayer's lost five and a half billion dollars to tax scams.
Oh my gosh.
Yeah.
Well, and then I heard a story too about somebody where they said, here's my tax return and they said, oh no, we've already processed your text return.
Yeah, that's the other big when somebody got a hold of your your social Security number and other information filed on your behalf and got a refund and then you file yours. The irsays, hey, dummy, we already have your know. They just there are a million of ways to get ripped off.
Okay, so let the buyer beware, be careful. That's all we have to say. ABC's Jim Ryan, thank you so much. As always, we appreciate the information.
See you all right, talk.
To you soon. Let's get back to some of the stories coming out of the KFI twenty four hour newsroom. Federal agents have made multiple arrests in New York City. The main focus of yesterday's raid was on drug dealers. DEA Special Agent in charge of the New York Division, Frank Tarantino, says, well, they're not just focusing on drug dealers in the country illegally, that's where the job took them.
This is exactly what we are designed to do, and that is to target the most significant drug traffickers and drug droving organizations who are causing the most harm, and some of those happen to be criminal legal aliens.
Tarantino says, they're still going after domestic violators and more multi agency raids are likely. More than sixty percent of Americans say they support President Trump's efforts to downsize the federal government and also support a hiring freeze on government agencies, but the Reuter's IPSOS poll shows just one in three support an end to birthright citizenship and pardoning of January sixth protesters, seventy percent say they're against renaming the Gulf
of Mexico to the Gulf of America. Google says is going to rename the golf when it updates its maps. US consumer confidence has dropped to a four month low. Nonprofit research organization The Conference Board says it's because of pessimism about jobs and wages. It says the number of people who think there are a lot of jobs to pick from is down, while more people feel jobs are
harder to get now. An economist with the Board says it shows fewer people think employment prospects are good and a new study shows the world's oceans are warming four times faster than they did in the nineteen eighties and less at City. Research say sea temperatures hit record highs between twenty three, twenty twenty three and twenty twenty four
and that helped create massive hurricanes. They say while El Nino caused some of the high temperatures, forty four percent of the warmths was from ocean's absorbing heat at a faster rate. This is KFI and KOST HD two Los Angeles, Orange County Southland weather from KFI. Clouds this morning becoming sunny with highs in the low sixties at the beaches, Metro La and Inland O c low sixties for the valleys and Inland Empire, fifties for the Antelope Valley. Becoming
cloudy tonight with low's mainly in the forties. Partly to mostly cloudy, with highs in the fifties to about sixty Tomorrow, Partly cloudy Friday, with highs in the low to mid sixties, then partly cloudy with highs in the sixties to mid seventies for the weekend. It's forty seven in Diamond Bar, forty nine in Newport Beach, thirty two in Palmdale, and four eight in Inglewood. We lead local live from the KFI twenty four hour newsroom for producer and technical producer
Kono and also traffic specialist will I'm Amy King. This has been your wake up call, and if you missed in 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