You're listening to KFI AM six forty wake Up Call with me Amy King on demand on the iHeartRadio app.
KFI and KOST HD two Los Angeles, Orange County, and it's time for your morning wake up call.
Good morning, good morning, good morning. It is indeed time for your wake up call. It is five o'clock on the dot. I am Michael Monk sitting in for Amy King on this Monday, February twenty fourth, twenty twenty five, the very last week this February. I hope you've made the most of it. Here's what's a head on wake up call. It's the third anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine and this costly war that has followed. Now you've got a new president in the White House, So what
is America's relationship to that conflict. It appears to be shifting, to say the least. We'll have a live update on where the war stands, and we're the American govern stands as well. We've also got leaders of two of America's top allies coming to the White House this week. As our relationship with Ukraine evolves, so too does our relationship with Europe. Our White House correspondent is with us to explain and let me ask you this. Can you name
five things you accomplished at work last week? If you work for the federal government, you better be able to Special Government employee Elon Musk has sent an email to all federal workers, but not everyone is going to respond to it despite its threatening nature. We'll have a live update on that story coming up this hour. Then, of course, at the top of the hour, we've got Bill Handle and Handle on the news. Bill Handle will be here, Neil Sevagri will be here and I'll be there too.
Hope you'll join us for that. We'll start with some of the stories coming out of the KFI twenty four hour newsroom. It was just a dreadful weekend for pedestrians across Los Angeles, a deadly weekend. Indeed, an innocent bystander has died and another person has lost their legs after a crash in Commerce that followed a police chase. The California Highway Patrol says it tried to pull over a car headed in the wrong direction near Eastern and Florence
Avenues on Saturday night. A person sitting on a bench was killed in the crash. And a pedestrian was hit in a crosswalk and had both legs severed. A woman crossing the street in South la has died after being hit by a Dodge Charger that was racing another car. The charger and a Chevy Tahoe both sped away from the scene and police are still looking for both of those cars. And a boy riding his bike in South LA has died near San Pedro in ninety ninth Streets
after being hit by Toyota Corolla. The driver of that car also ran away from the scene, leaving his car behind and escaping on foot. And then a pedestrian was killed by a Union Pacific train in Boyle Heights. Happened yesterday afternoon and forced all trained traffic to stop nearby. Meanwhile, a man has been scheduled to plead guilty today to a series of armed robberies of seven eleven stores over
two months. The Angelo Spencer was charged with three others in those robberies from the winter of twenty twenty three, mostly in South la but they also hit a CVS store in Hollywood. Today marks the third anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the war that followed. The conflict is the subject of debate at the United Nations. The US has presented one resolution to recognize the anniversary, while
Ukraine and other European nations have another. President Trump has also called for an end to the conflict and has recently been at odds with Ukrainian President Zelensky. Our roy O'Neil joins US Live Now to talk about it. Good Monday morning to you, Rory.
Hey there, Happy Monday, Michael.
Monday to you. I mean, this is a pretty significant international conflict. It's had the attention of the world for three years now, but it seems like American policy towards it has shifted dramatically in recent weeks, even with some very public spats between our president and the Ukrainian president. So what can you tell us about where the US stands in relation to this thing.
Well, you know, it's interesting because yes, the policy has shifted, but we're not exactly sure where too. You know, a lot of the European leaders and the Prime Minister of Canada travel to Ukraine today to show their support three years after the Russian invasion, but there's also trying to line up and show that they're unified because they're not
sure what the next play will be by the US. Yes, we had Secretary of Saint Marco Rubio and his counterpart from Russia meeting in Saudi Arabia, maybe trying to get to some sort of a peace deal. Maybe there's a mineral rights deal in the works as well. But right now an awful lot of gray a.
Well, what's going on with the conflict itself? What is the situation on the ground between Ukraine and Russia as we understand it.
Yeah, still incredibly violent. In fact, last night Russia launched its biggest single drone attack of the year, launching two hundred sixty seven drones towards Ukraine. You know, Russia has made significant progress in capturing territory on the eastern side of Ukraine. And now the question is, if there is some sort of a peace deal, will Russia be forced to retreat, will Ukraine be forced to give up some
of that land? And then, as I mentioned, the European leaders are meeting concern that maybe perhaps European troops will have some sort of a peace keeping role if there is some sort of a deal broker in the weeks ahead.
Take us to the United Nations, because I'm not sure I fully understand what's going on. I know that there are symbolic resolutions taking at the UN all the time. Sometimes they get a little contentious depending on which countries favor a certain but that appears to be what's going down. I guess this week at the UN, the United States has a resolution about recognizing this war, but other people have a different perspective. What can you tell us right?
One of the issues is just how much Russia needs to be or should be blamed for this conflict. The US has sort of signaled that it doesn't want to put the blame solely on Russia for launching this invasion, and that's not sitting well with a lot of European leaders, and it's certainly not Ukrainians who say, look, we are
the victims here. Russia launched this unprovoked invasion, they say, three years ago today, and it's cost both sides hundreds of thousands of lives, billions in treasure, and it doesn't seem like there's an end in sight anytime soon.
So what does this type of conflict that the UN do for the United States and its relationship with other countries who seem to be staying the course on their position on Ukraine.
Well, and you mentioned it that they go around, they pass a lot of resolutions and demand things and pound the table a lot, but typically not much comes from most of these UN actions, and that may be what we see here. But the US is pressuring Ukraine to withdraw this resolution that demands an immediate withdrawal of Russian forces from their country, and this is what the UN will be debating this week.
Is there a US foreign policy goal that has been stated publicly to have a better relationship with Vladimir Putin and Russia?
Clearly no.
But I think by the actions of President Trump, you know, he had that ninety minute phone call with Putin more than a week ago. That is the first communication that the US has had with the Russian leader since the invasion. Again, the President setting up the meeting with Secretary Rubio and the Russian counterpart in Saudi Arabia. Again, meeting faced face, talk about face to face moting of meeting of Putin
and Trump. All that's in the cards as well. So clearly things are very different, or they're setting a table to have a very different relationship than what we had during the Biden administration.
After the invasion. Roy O'Neil, thank you so much for taking some time out of your Monday morning to updates on this. We'll continue to follow your reports on it, Thanks Michael. So there you go, Russia's invasion of Ukraine three years ago and a long, bloody and costly war that has followed, and now we see some shifting US
policy towards this conflict. We'll keep an eye on what happens at the UN and also what is happening on the ground between Russia and Ukraine, and we'll provide you updates throughout the day right here on KFI AM six forty. Let's get back to some of the stories coming out of the KFI twenty four hour newsroom. The Conservative Christian
Democratic Union has won the national election in Germany. Political correspondent Thomas Spero says CDU leader Friedrich Murz now has to form a coalition government.
The big question now is what coalition will be formed, because in Germany, and like in other countries, the party that finishes first does not necessarily end up governing. The party needs to then find partners to govern with.
A coalition is necessary because provisional results show the CDU alliance did not win an outright majority, getting about twenty eight and a half percent of the vote. The far right Alternative for Germany came in second with almost twenty one percent of the vote, but it's unlikely to become part of that coalition government because other parties refuse to work with it. The Vatican says Pope Francis is awake
and in good spirits. He's been in the hospital for ten days for a lung infection that has provoked the early stages of kidney failure. Doctors have said Francis's kidney condition is under control, though the Pope remains in critical condition. He is continuing to feed himself and is not receiving artificial or liquid nutrition. Howard Universe has created a new program to study racism. The historically black Institution in Washington, d C. Has announced the appointment of Ebram X. Kendy
as the director of its Institute for Advanced Study. Kendy drew national attention during the racial justice movement of twenty twenty with his book on How to Be an Anti Racist. Howard says the program would address perceived inequities in technology, the environment, healthcare, education, and the criminal justice system. The Screen Actors Guild Awards have been handed out.
The movie Conclave and TV series Showgun taking the top prizes. Conclave, the film about the election of a new Pope, took home Best Motion Picture Award. Timothy Schallamey and Demi Moore captured the Leading Actor and Actress trophies. Showgun led television shows with four wins, including Best Lead Actor and Actress in a Drama Series, as well as Outstanding Performance by
an Ensemble and a Drama Series. Only Murders in the Building received the award for Outstay Performance but Ensemble in a Comedy Series, while Martin Short one for Outstanding Mail Actor in a Comedy for the hit Hulu series I'm Jacqueline Carl.
I haven't seen anything. Will have you seen anything that has you know been honored this award season And I feel so out of the loop because I have not seen anything. I just saw Wild Robot. The Wild Robot.
Oh my gosh, good, gosh, so good. Uh take a cleanex you might need it. Did you cry or did you sneeze? I'm not saying all right.
Governor Gavin Newsom has asked Congress to approve nearly forty billion dollars in aid to help LA recover from January's wildfires. Newsom sent a letter on Friday asking for support from federal lawmakers, vowing that the funding would be used to rebuild homes, infrastructure, business schools, churches, and health care facilities. The governor has said the fires could become the costliest
natural disaster in US history. Estimates of the total loss have been estimated to top two hundred and fifty billion dollars. The Department of Government Efficiency has targeted the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for layoffs. The agency says it's cut a modest amount of positions. DOGE is headed by Elon Musk, who also happens to head Tesla, a company that has
been under investigation by the NHTSA for deadly crashes. Musk has accused the NHTSA of holding back progress on self driving technology with its investigations and recalls, and the University of Arizona has apologized to Brigham Young University for a chant at the team's basketball game on Saturday night. Online videos shows fans yelling a profane phrase directed at Mormons as the teams were leaving the court. BYU the flagship School of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day
Saints won that game. Coming up at six oh five, We've got Bill Handel and Handle on the news. Bill, Neil, Sevijah and I will be there and we hope that you will join. As dues. We discuss all the big headlines from the day, including these. The leaders of two of America's closest allies will be paying separate visits to the White House this week, starting today, when French President
Manuel Macron sits down with President Trump. UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is also making his way across the ocean for an oval office trip. Our John Decker is live with us now to talk about it. Good Monday morning to you, John.
Hey, Michael, thanks for having me on today. That's right. Within the past twenty minutes, French President Emmanuel Macron arrived at the White House. A full day at the White House today for the French President. There'll be a joint press conference early this afternoon two o'clock Eastern time hour for us. That's eleven o'clock for you. And I think that the top item on the agenda for both French President Macron today as well as British Prime Minister Keir
Starmer on Thursday, the issues of security and trade. On the security front, certainly talking about Ukraine, what the security of Ukraine looks like when and if this war ends, the war exactly three years old today. And then of course the issue of trade, with the President threatening to impose trade tariffs on everyone of America's trading partners.
So that seems to complicate in otherwise long and positive relationship between the nation of France and US. I'm wondering, based on your own observations, do you notice that foreign leaders like Immanuel Macron have any type of different posture at podiums when they're standing next to President Trump as opposed to any other president.
Well, every leader is different that has come to Washington, that has come to the White House to meet with President Trump. I think that, for instance, President Macron is going to be different in terms of his body language and how he deals with the President versus the British Prime Minister, in the sense that he has a relationship with President Trump. Going back to President Trump's first term
in the White House. In fact, you may recall Michael, just a few months ago, President Trump actually paid a visit to Paris for the reopening of the Notre Dame Cathedral. So because of that, I think that they have a
good relationship. They understand each other, they respect each other, and that that will be evident when you see the French President and President Trump in the Oval office for the photo spray, the photo op as well as during the joint press conference that will happen early this afternoon.
We do see US policy towards Ukraine shifting a little bit, certainly in terms of the public remarks made by the President versus what President Biden would say about that situation. Where does France stand on the issue?
Well, France, as you may recall, last Monday, the French President brought together other European leaders to discuss the issue of Ukraine, and France is one of those few countries along with the UK, that says when and if there's a piece that has reached, a piece deal that's reached, France and the UK both say they would be committed to providing boots on the ground to maintaining the peace in Ukraine. They are one of the few European countries that have.
Said that publicly.
So the President will certainly discuss that with French President Macron today. And you know, as it relates to France and the UK, they've both contributed tens of billions of dollars to helping out Ukraine since the war began exactly three years ago. Today.
Now we know that the President is a fan of tariffs. He's even threatened them to our closest allies and neighbors in Canada and Mexico. What are the possible trade differences that could emerge between the United States and France and that you expect these two to discuss today.
Well, you know, look, I think that we saw the President impose tariffs on the European Union in his first term. The EU responded with retaliatory tariffs. So if the President imposes tariffs, it won't be on any individual European country, it will be on the European Union as a whole. And when the EU responded with retaliatory tariffs, it certainly impacted certain US companies, including I always think about how it really impacted Harley Davidson, which manufactures its motorcycles primarily
in Wisconsin. While they slapped huge tariffs on those Harley Davidson motorcycles, which really impacted the bottom line of Harley Davidson in President Trump's first term in office, and I think that that memory is the reason why the EU and the US are treading, you know, very lightly in terms of whether or not to impose tariffs on each other's goods over the course of the next few months.
You mentioned that, and Trump has a relationship from his first term with President macrona France. But here Starmer is a new prime minister in the UK. What should we look forward to this week when Prime Minister Starmer arrives.
Yeah, the President Trump has met with quite a few British Prime ministers over the years, because they have, over the course of the past eight years, gone through many different prime ministers, Cure Starmer being the latest one. So it'll be a certainly a getting to know you process.
When Cure Starmer visits the White House on Thursday, they too will have a joint press conference, so we'll get an opportunity to ask each of these leaders about the discussions that they had on these issues of security and also trade and any other issues that come up. You know that I think are important to both countries as it relates to the bilateral relationship between the US and the UK.
John Decker, we appreciate you every time you come on and we'll look forward to your reports from these meetings.
Thanks a lot, Michael, have a great day. Bye bye, bye bye.
So some lucky thieves used a stolen card to buy a lottery ticket in France and listen to this the ticket hit. The lottery ticket won half a million euros or around five hundred and twenty three thousand US dollars. The man whose card was stolen says he wants to split the cash with the thieves, but those thieves have vanished, and the bad news is prosecutors could try to seize the winnings by considering them illegally obtained games. The thieves face the risk of arrest, of course, if they turn
in the ticket. The victim's lawyer has asked the thieves to come forward so they can share the money. Francis State lottery operator said no one had submitted the ticket to cash out as of Saturday. So is that good luck? Is that bad luck? Not sure? It's crazy luck. I imagine eighteen riding a mini bike has been killed in a hit and run crash in South La. This witness tells KTLA what she saw I didn't see all signs of breathing. I didn't touch him or anything. I just
looked and it was just really hard to see. I started crying.
If I'm being honest.
The crash happened early yesterday morning. The victim has been identified as a sixteen year old boy. The driver got out of his car and ran from the scene on foot. More than a dozen six sea lions have been spotted off the coast of Malibu in less than a week. The California Wildlife Center says it has responded to fourteen calls about ailing sea lions since early last week. Experts believe the animals may be suffering from exposure to demoic acid. The acid is a tux and commonly found in algae.
It can build up in shellfish, sardines and anchovies, which, when eaten by sea lions, can affect their brains and hearts. I'm Daniel Martindale. More firings in the US government last week included the dismissal of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the top admiral of the US Navy. It marked the first time two members of the Joint chiefs of Staff have been removed from their senior military roles, So what is the motivation behind these firings. ABC News
White House correspondent Karen Travers joins US Now Live. Good Monday morning to you.
Karen, Happy Monday to you too. Hope you had a nice weekend.
Saying to you, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is supposed to be non political and a political post. So is this about politics?
You know?
And I think that's a really important thing for people to realize that the chair of the Joint chiefs of Staff is appointed to a four year term and it not it doesn't coincide with presidential elections.
So c Q.
Brown was appointed to this role back in twenty twenty three by President Biden. But you know, in theory he would have served it out over the next administration, and that's really done by design so that they don't come in with a new president. You could, in theory serve presidents of different parties.
And t Q.
Brown was also nominated and put in the position of Chief of Staff of the Air Force by President Trump back in twenty twenty. He had very positive things to say about him back then, so it's not like he's somebody that was completely forced upon the Trump administration by Joe Biden that said a president has authority to remove
military officers and put in people that he wants. But still, I think, as you mentioned at the top there, it really is unprecedented to remove two members of the Joint chiefs of Staff like this at the same time when he took out Q. Brown as well as the Admiral of the Navy, Lisa frank Hetty also as fired on Friday night.
What have we heard from the Secretary of Defense on this issue?
You know, he, nos surprise, has supported the president on this and says that the president is allowed to make decisions on this. He's also pushed back on some of the criticism from Democrats who say that this could have a chilling effect on the Pentagon and the workforce there and across the military. Haig Seth has said that is ridiculous, essentially, but you know, notable when you look at the reasons
for CQ Brown's firing. Haig Seth, before he had come into this role of Defense Secretary, had once called him a higher and that's kind of the root of all of this. The Trump administration has been pushing people out who have made that a priority. They had eliminated programs and offices across the federal government focused on diversity, equity, and inclusion, and Brown and others who were part of firings recently have talked about the importance of diversity as
a military and other places in the government. And Brown has talked about how he himself experienced racism, so you know, there's certainly a factor here in all of this. Also, last week, we had reported that Brown and Admiral Franketti were on a list that had been sent around to Congressional Republicans of potential people senior in the military that
the Defense Secretary was looking to fire. So, you know, surprising, unprecedented, but at the same time not unexpected because there had been rumblings of this last week.
We know that some Democrats on Capitol Hill have criticized this decision to dismiss these two folks. What about military leadership, either current or retired. Have we heard any remarks from folks like.
That retired have spoken out because they're retired, So it's a little bit easier to hear from some people who are not in the military anymore, not in the chain of command. General George Casey, for one, who has been a top military commander you know, said he was concerned by this move. But you know the people who are currently in the military, they're serving Donald Trump as commander in chief, and the military doesn't speak out like that.
Even if you disagree with the move like this, I know you've.
Got a run. But what can you tell us about the man named Raisin King.
So he is a retired Air Force pilot, an F sixteen pilot, and the President has nominated him to now be the chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He will have to come back into active duty into service because again he's retired. He will also have to be confirmed by the Senate. President had very good things to say about him and the work he did on the
fight against ISIS during the president's first term. And we'll see how quickly now the Senate moves forward with the confirmation of withn in General Pain.
ABC News White House correspondent Karen Travers, thanks so much for your report this morning.
Thank you.
Now let's get an update on money and finances. Were joined live by Courtney Dona Hugh of Bloomberg. Good Monday morning to you, Courtney.
Good morning, we're back in our desk today.
Oh good to hear. Yeah for sure. Now listen, what's a good way to talk to kids about money before they become adults.
Yeah, Well, Americans who grew up chatting with their parents about money and investing, they're more likely to apply healthy financial habits as adults.
So this is interesting, is the.
Way that your raise plays a very big role in shaping your relationship with money later in life. So, according to a survey that Bankray just did, adults were exposed to financial education in their youth are one and a half times more likely to succesfully negotiate raises during their careers. They're also more likely to pay their bills on time and save money for the future.
So how do you start with your kids.
You have to look for those teachable moments in everyday life, Like at the grocery store. I try to do that with my kids, give them a little bit of cash and say don't spend it on candy.
Sometimes that doesn't work. Yeah, it's hard for me. Sometimes at the checkout I'll walk out without candy.
Barley.
All right, Well, let's let's talk a little bit about Apple, as in the computer company says it's adding some jobs.
Yeah, twenty thousand new jobs in the US. They also plan to spend five hundred billion dollars domestically over the next four years. This comes days after President Trump and Apple CEO Tim Cook met in the Oval Office. Now, last week, President Trump implied that Apple is investing locally because it doesn't want to pay tariffs. And by the way, I want to point out that this would have been Steve Jobs' seventieth birthday today, the Apple co founder died in twenty eleven.
Oh. Well, the markets have been a little rocky. They closed the week a little bit rough, but it looks like are we bouncing back.
Well this morning we are seeing a rebound out. Futures are up two hundred and sixty five points. The key of end of the week is in Vidia's earnings report, which will be released on Wednesday. Now, on Friday, we had weaker than expected economic data that sent the S and P five hundred to its biggest loss of the new year on Friday, with the Dow tumbling seven hundred
and forty nine points. But we do have breaking news just crossing that I know a lot of people are going to be watching today job cuts are on the way at Starbucks. The coffee chain is eliminating eleven hundred corporate jobs, not in the cafes. You have to point out the corporate jobs. They have a new CEO who came from Chipotle. He started in September and he's moved pretty quick to try to put in some changes to help the cafes run more smoothly. They brought back the
conniment bars. They're limiting stores stores to paying customers only. So there's been a lot of things on the way for Starbucks, a lot of changes and a lot of restructuring.
Something to watched today along with the markets, all the updates throughout and Courtney Dona Hue from Bloomberg, thank you so much for that update. We appreciate it. Thank you.
I'll talk to you later.
You got it. Let's get back to some of the stories coming out of the KFI twenty four hour newsroom. MSNBC has canceled Joy Reid's evening new show The Readout. New network president Rebecca Cutler says she plans to replace the show, which has aired in that time slot at seven o'clock on weekdays since twenty twenty, with co host
from the weekend. That show, which has aired on Saturday and Sunday mornings, has seen its viewership increase in that time slot by about forty percent, and today is National Tortilla Chip Day and Walter Trilla chips have long been considered a Mexican food. They were actually first mass produced in a little city called Los Angeles in the late
nineteen forties. The credit for that goes to a woman named Rebecca Carranza, who ran a tortilla factory came up with the idea one day to start cutting her leftover tortillas into triangles and frying them. Recap of that deadly weekend for pedestrians across La including the death of an innocent bystander who died when another person also lost their legs in the same crash, and commerce that followed a
police chase. The California Highway Patrol says it tried to pull over a car that was headed in the wrong direction near Eastern and Florence Avenues on Saturday night. A person sitting on a bench was killed in the crash, and a pedestrian was hit in the crosswalk and had both legs severed, and a woman crossing the street in South LA has died after being hit by a Dodge Charger that was racing another car. That charger and a Chevy Tahoe both sped away from the scene. Police are
still looking for them. And then a boy, a sixteen year old boy riding his bike in South LA has died near San Pedro in ninety ninth Streets after being hit by a Toyota Corolla. The driver of that car got out and ran from the scene on foot. And then a pedestrian was killed by a Union Pacific train in Boyle Heights. That happened yesterday afternoon, forcing all train traffic stop in that area. A man has been scheduled to plead guilty today to a series of armed robberies
of seven Eleven stores over two months. DiAngelo Spencer was charged with three others in those robberies from the winter of twenty twenty three, mostly seven eleven stores in South LA as well as a CVS store in Hollywood. And we are just minutes away at the top of the hour handle on the news bill handle, Nil Savidra and I will be there. We hope that you will join us too. If you work for the federal government. There
may have been a curious item in your inbox. Even if you don't work for the federal government, you've probably seen the note on social media by now Elon Musk, who, in addition to being the richest person in the world, the owner of Tesla and ax et cetera, is also a special government employee under President Trump. He wants to know what workers got done last week, and he wants to know now, or at least by the end of
the night. ABC News National correspondent Stephen Portnoy is with US Now to explain Good Money Day Morning, Steve, and I hope you know what you got done last week.
I was on vacation for much of less reall that's not quick, which I was gonna say, might put other people who were similarly on vacation over the President's Day week in a bit of a pickle. Look, the bottom line is that nothing is simple when it comes to
the operations of the federal government. That's why you're seeing this contradictory, confusing situation where a number of agency heads are saying to their own people, do not comply with this directive from the Office of Personnel Management, that email that says, what did you do last week that the agency will figure out how it's going to respond to all this.
But for the moment, there's a lack of coordination. There is mass confusion, and.
Elon Musk is doubling down, saying on his ex platform that those who don't take this email seriously will quote soon be furthering their career elsewhere. You know, there are tens of thousands of people undoubtedly across the Southland who are listening to this or certainly within the range of the signal of this radio station, who were for the federal government in.
A wide array of roles.
They might work for Fish and Wildlife, they might work for the National Park Service, they might work for the TSA, or the FAA, or the FBI or the Veterans Affairs Department, and they may be wondering what they're supposed to do and how they can necessarily distill all the things they did last week into five bullet points. You know, not every federal worker is a bureaucrat who sits behind a desk and makes decisions as to how federal money should be spent.
But this has been one of the complaints that Elon Musk has had. He seems to be of the mind that there are a lot of people who work for the federal government who won don't go to the office at all. And two, if they work, they're not checking their email all. To say that they're just simply not productive, isn't that the message we're getting from him? Well, certainly that's his view.
I mean, that's why he stood on the stage with a chainsaw last week, to try to say that he's going to be the man who cuts through all the stuff and eliminates the waste, the fraud as they see it, and the abuse. Look undoubtedly in any government endeavor, and that's certainly true at Los Angeles City Hall, as it is true in the county, as it is true in the state, as it is.
True in the federal government.
You have a lot of people who just have jobs, just to have jobs, and just sit there and do not much and take home an ice salary. And it's always a good thing for stewards of the taxpayer to go in and examine all that. That's really what Congress is supposed to do. That's their oversight responsibility. What Musk is talking about is sort of this wholesale chainsaw approach that he can do as he has done in the
entities that he's bought and owns and holy controls. Well, in the federal system, it doesn't exactly work that way. And I made a list of some of the agencies that have widely different areas of responsibility and types of jobs. I mean, if you're a law enforcement officer, you might not have made an.
Arrest last week.
Well, what are you supposed to put down on your five bullet points? Well, maybe you just manned the watch, you worked your duty station, whatever it is you did. If you work for the Customs and Border Protection Agency and you stamped passports all day, what else did you do?
Well?
What else am I supposed to do?
You know?
So these are questions that again, federal workers are asking, and not everybody it necessarily just takes home a fat paycheck and sits on their computer all day. A lot of federal workers actually do go into the office or go into the workplace on the work site, and they're lumped in with everybody else that Elon Musk is is portraying as a sort of a paragon of waste, fraud and abuse.
Well, what authority does Elon Musk have to issue this directive? And I mean because it seems to me like it's not it's not the same authority that the Pope might have over Catholics, because we are seeing mixed responses from various government departments.
Well, they answer to your questions, yes, zero authority. And I know that because I've seen it in court papers filed by the Justice Department defending some of this administration's actions. They say that Elon Musk serves as an advisor to the president, akin to Anita Dunn in the Lats of Administration. She was a senior aide to Joe Biden, but she
didn't really have any directed authority over anybody. And Elon Musk serves as what's called a special government employee, which means he has a binature, a temporary role, and because he owns private enterprises, he's going to go.
Back to that.
It's understood, and you know there may be some conflicts. We've talked about that in the last couple of weeks. He insists there he would never ever make a decision that could potentially run a foul conflict of interest and potentially implicate his own financial situation. Never mind his interest in shutting down the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which potentially may regulate the payment system that they're working on at
X to kind of sort of compete with Venmo. Set all that aside, and the fact that he operates Twitter, I'm sorry, not just X, but also SpaceX and Tesla, which are certainly regulated companies. Set all that aside, and you have the fact that Elon Musk is making these directives on his X platform, which most Americans are not on, which adatedly most federal workers are not on, and a many federal work workers don't take their email home with them. They may not even have remote access to their email.
Think about it again, those TSA workers, you think they have a TSA email address, every one of them? Not necessarily, and so you have to wonder how this is all going to play out.
We do, indeed, and thankfully you are watching it for us and won't be able to check in with you again very soon, I hope. ABC News National correspondent Steven Portnoy always a pleasure to talk to you. Thanks for taking the time you bet and two Riverside police officers face misdemeanor vandalism charges for damage to a resident skateboard.
Police Chief Larry Gonzalez says it happened last month and a video posted a YouTube shows six Riverside officers around a patio area outside of home when no one at the home answered the officers. For whatever reason, those officers were there. One of them started playing with the skateboard and tried to do a trick for the amusement of the other officers. So while this was going on, for officers left, two others stayed behind playing with the board
and it ultimately broke. So now they're charged with misdemeanor vandalism. An American Airlines flight that took off from New York had to be diverted to Rome on Sunday after reports of a possible bomb on board. The flight was on its way to New Delhi when it requested a version. That request was granted and Italian fighter jets escorted the plane to Leonardo da Vinci Airport, where it landed safely
and was met by law enforcement. Former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswami is expected to announce his candidacy for governor of Ohio today. The current governor, Republican Mike DeWine, is term limited. Ramaswami would join a GOP primary that also features State Attorney General Dave Yost. The Vatican has offered another update on Pope Francis.
The Vatican says Pope Francis slept well on his tenth night in a hospital in Rome, but he remains in critical condition. The eighty eight year old is being treated for double pneumonia, but has not experienced any respiratory crisis since his condition was downgraded Saturday. Tests show early signs of kidney failure. The Pope's prognosis remains guarded. I'm rory O'Neil.
And keeping with the theme of the Vatican Conclave, was a big winner at the SAG Awards last night, winning the honor for Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture That is a movie about selecting a new Pope, and Showgun, the FX television series set in seventeenth century Japan, won four awards, including Best Ensemble Cast in a Motion Picture Excuse Me, Best Ensemble Cast in a Television Series, and the movie musical. Wicked had the most nominations. They
had five nominations, but they left empty handed. No SAG Awards for Wicked. Next week is the Oscars. We already know we've got some street closures around that part of Hollywood where those awards are going to be handed out next Sunday. And I know everyone in town is a buzz about that. And this is KFON and KOSTHD two Los Angeles, Orange County, Southland Weather from KFI. We've got fog and clouds this morning, but they're going to clear
out soon to make way for another sunny day. Highs in the low seventies across Metro La and the valley's hotter in the ie where we'll see the eighties. He's near seventy at the beaches and around seventy five to eighty in the Inland OC. Right now, it is forty nine in Santa Clarita, fifty one in Tustin. We lead local live from the KFI twenty four hour newsroom for producer and Ingold and technical producer Steven Cono and traffic
specialist Will Coleschreiber. I'm Michael Monks, sitting in for Amy King, who will be back tomorrow. Don't worry. This has been your wake up call. If you missed any of 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 iHeart Radio app