February 11, 2025 • 33 mins
The John Kobylt Show Hour 1 (02/11) - Joel Pollak comes on the show to talk about how the former leaders of the consulting firm that Mayor Bass hired for the fire recovery efforts had actually stolen relief funds from Hurricane Sandy. More on Hagerty Consulting. Don Mihalek comes on the show to talk about Pres. Trump revoking security clearances for his antagonists. A woman sold her lot in Pacific Palisades for $1 million dollars.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Can't. I am six forty. You're listening to the John
Cobel podcast on the iHeartRadio app on every day as
always from one until four o'clock, and then after four
o'clock you missed stuff, go to John Cobelt's show on demand.
It's the podcast same as the radio show posted after
four on the iHeart app. We open with the latest
chapter in this bewildering government response to the fire of
(00:24):
the Palisades. Karen Bass just just astounds me every day
with bad decisions and just strange situations. And the latest
is is the company that she hired, Haggardy Consulting out
of Illinois, to take over the recovery, has a lot
(00:44):
of questionable characters have worked for it in recent years.
And this is what everybody worries about, is that with
all the federal money coming in, you know, billions and
billions of dollars, it's in real danger of getting siphoned off.
I mean, just look at the history in California. It
turns out two guys named Walter Melnik and Mark O'Mara
(01:06):
they were accused of basically stealing money from New York
City's relief funds for Hurricane Sandy. Superstorm Sandy, if you
remember some years ago, and Joel Pollock with Breitbart dot
Com had the story and we're going to talk to
him now. Joe, how are you. I'm great.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
How are you?
Speaker 1 (01:29):
I'm doing all right? How are you doing? Because you
mentioned last time you lost your house, and well, you
didn't lose your house, did you. You just got badly damaged.
Speaker 3 (01:38):
Well, we don't know the extent of the damage. I mean,
if you look at it from the outside, it looks
pretty good. But the fence burned down and the back
wall is charred. There may be some structural damage due
to the fence burning down, and there's definitely smoke damage.
But the roof did okay, and we feel lucky we
(01:59):
have our still standing. It's one of the only ones
in Marquez Knowles which almost entirely burned down.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
Yeah, yeah, just it's on my mind. I was just
talking to a close friend last night for about a
half an hour, and he and his family lost everything,
I mean, in every single bit that they owned. Haggarty Consulting.
What what is this and who are these guys and
what did they plead to.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
Well, it's a very interesting question. So the city announced
a few weeks ago, or rather, the La Times reported
that the city was going to hire a consultant to
handle rebuilding. It wasn't clear what they would be doing.
I talked to Chief Recovery Officer Steve Soberoff, and he
told me they were going to be like an owner's
ref on a construction site, basically representing the public, and
(02:47):
that it would be a competitive bidding process. Then the
La Times reported that Haggarty had been chosen in a
pind closed or session where they were presenting their pitch
along with two other companies that were not chosen, and
they were going to do whatever it is they were
going to do, and the amount of the contract was
(03:09):
not disclosed, but that was the decision. So started looking
into Haggarty Consulting And first of all, they were founded
by a guy named Steve Haggerty who used to be
the mayor of Evanston, Illinois. That's near where I grew up.
I grew up in Scokey. Evanston is not a very
well run city. In fact, Evanston went for several years
without a city manager, and that occurred partly during Steve
(03:33):
Haggerty's tenure. It turned out Steve Haggerty was the only
one term mayor in Evanston, Illinois since the Second World War.
He founded this consulting firm that does disaster recovery management.
And I started looking up information about the company and
it turned out that to senior recovery consultants who worked
(03:56):
with Haggerty on the Hurricane Sandy disaster were involved in
plea agreements where they pleaded guilty to defrauding New York
City of relief funds that they claimed in reimbursement for
travel and lodging.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
And we're talking to when they weren't allowed to do
so six figures. One of them three hundred and eighty
thousand dollars, the other two hundred and fifty thousand.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (04:25):
Now neither of them got jail time, although one of
them was sentenced to home confinement for a year in
addition to probation for two years. But when you add
it all up, the behind closed doors meeting to pick
a contractor, and this rather dubious recent history, it's not
ancient history. The plea deals came down in twenty twenty
two and twenty twenty three. Plus the left wing politics
(04:49):
of this particular mayor who founded the company. You have
to ask what exactly is going on here? Why can't
they do this in public? Why can't they estimate the
cost of what whatever it is they want these consulting
firms to do. So I think there are some more
questions here.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
And to mention you mentioned left wing politics. Haggarty, the
former mayor of Evanston, was the first city in the
US to offer reparations for slavery. Yeah, so that's the
political climate that he comes from.
Speaker 3 (05:22):
Yeah, that happened after him. But he also apparently signed
a declaration apologizing for the fact that Evanston is built
on Native American land and all of that. Evanston actually
had a really interesting history. The Republican Party got its
start in Evanston, was a big Republican bastion in the
nineteenth century, very anti slavery, and it was also the
(05:45):
home of the Temperance movement that pushed for the eighteenth Amendment,
which as we know, didn't go so well. But Evanston
was actually an epicenter of abolitionism. It had nothing to
do with.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
Slavery, quite the opposite, had a lot to do with.
Speaker 3 (06:00):
Getting rid of slavery. And nevertheless, the woke city leaders
decided that we had to apologize for slavery or Evanston
at least had to apologize. And even if Illinois wasn't
a slave state, just like California is.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
Not a slave state.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
Well, there was discrimination in housing, racial discrimination, so they
were going to apologize.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
Why would why would Karen Dass pick Haggardy Consulting?
Speaker 2 (06:24):
What?
Speaker 1 (06:25):
Why do you think the story is here? Because are they?
Are they a major player when it comes to disaster recovery.
I mean, this is the worst thing any American city
has seen in terms of an urban fire.
Speaker 3 (06:37):
So well they would probably say, we did New York
City after Hurricane Sandy, and that's the biggest city in America,
except that when they did New York City, some of
their leading consultants got themselves in trouble for embezzling or
defrauding the city of these reimbursement funds. So why would
(06:58):
you pick a company that got it's helping into trouble
or did they not do due diligence on this company?
Speaker 2 (07:04):
Do they not know?
Speaker 3 (07:05):
I mean, that's the problem with doing things behind closed doors,
is that the public doesn't know. I'm not saying that
you have to have a six month public comment process
on whatever it is you need done. I don't think
anybody here wants anything delayed that needs to be done
right away. But we don't even know what this company's
supposed to do. Why are they being brought in? You
(07:25):
have several local agencies, you've got the state government, several
different federal agencies working on it. Do you need someone
to coordinate it? Because there's also Rick Reynell who's working
coordinating from the White House level here to try to
make sure everyone's working together.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
So what do you need?
Speaker 3 (07:43):
I mean, what are they supposed to do?
Speaker 1 (07:45):
Yeah, that's why I'm wondering. I'm for all this stuff.
I'm wondering what are their relationships, what are the payoffs?
Who's going to be profiting from this particular hiring. Are
there other people at Haggerty who knew about these two
guys stealing money and condoned it look the other way,
grabbed their own share of the proceeds. This is what
(08:08):
I'm this is. This is a bad sign to have
two guys accused and pleaded guilty to stealing in total
over six hundred and fifty thousand dollars. And that's the
last thing we need in La here.
Speaker 2 (08:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (08:24):
Yeah, And look, I think that my impression thus far.
And I write about national politics, I do write about California.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
I write about local politics.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
But this is kind of a first for me to
be this close in on a big local story. And
I'm just surprised by how unaccustomed local officials in LA
seemed to be to operating in public. They seem to
think that they can do things in this closed doors
kind of way.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
Nobody covers them.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
Yeah, nobody covers them.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
Nobody covers them, including the La Times, most glaringly the
La Times.
Speaker 3 (09:02):
This stuff is well, You've got to say one thing.
There are some people doing good coverage. We're doing the
best we can at Breitbart. West Side Current is doing
some great work there. They've got a young journalist, Jamie Page,
is doing a good job. LA Times did come out
with some really good coverage of this disaster since the fire.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
They have, but grievious to the fire, little to no
coverage of anything that went on in city government.
Speaker 3 (09:28):
Well maybe Patrick soon Shiong is changing that, honestly, because
he took over just before this fire happened. But look,
I think that what stands out to me is just
the preference for doing things behind closed doors, and I
think the public needs to know what this contract is
and what we're going to be built for it, and
also how this fits into the broader financial scheme where
(09:52):
they've got money to spend on consultants, but residents of
the Palisades and Altadina probably don't have places to stay,
don't know where they're going to get their next rent
check from, or they can't get into an airbnb or whatever.
I mean, why are they doling out millions?
Speaker 2 (10:06):
Again?
Speaker 3 (10:07):
If it's for something important, I think people would get it.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
But what is it?
Speaker 3 (10:10):
Yeah, and there are people with urgent needs that don't
have anything right now, So what's going on here?
Speaker 1 (10:16):
Joel Pollack, Breitbart dot Com, Thank you for coming on.
Speaker 3 (10:20):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
All right, we'll continue delving into this latest mystery from
Karen Bass. This is just almost every day, something almost
every day, and it's never a positive sign.
Speaker 4 (10:33):
You're listening to John Cobelt on demand from KFI Am
six forty.
Speaker 1 (10:40):
We just talk to Joel Pollack from Breitbart dot com
because they had today's Today's chap during Karen Bass's never
ending story of floundering around ever since she decided to
go to Africa instead of staying here to coordinate a
response or a preventative or some preventative measures. When the
(11:04):
fire warnings went into effect and she's never gonna catch up,
she hired Haggarty Consulting. That's what we talked with Joel about.
It's it's a company out of Evanston, Illinois, and it's
it's supposed to oversee, you know, recovery efforts. I'll explain
(11:27):
to you. I hesitated and tried to describe them, and
I'll explain why in just a moment, because it's really uh.
The La Times took a shot at trying to explain
exactly who's in charge and who's doing what, and they
can't tell either. So Haggardy Consulting gets hired. The uh,
the guy who started Haggardy Consulting used to be the
(11:50):
mayor of Evanston, Illinois, as you heard Joel explain, and
two of their two of their consultants ripped off the
City of New York for about, let's see here to
be exact, six hundred and thirty thousand dollars. The two
consultants were Walter Melnick and Mark o'meerra. And you know
(12:13):
it's the old scam. You've probably seen people at your
company do this stuff. They claimed money for reimbursements to
which he was not entitled, you know, things like hotel rooms.
So Melnick was accused of stealing three hundred and eighty
thousand dollars in fake reimbursement claims. O'Mara two hundred and
(12:35):
fifty thousand dollars. They had to pay back the money
that they received. Meldick got a year of home confinement
and two years of probation. Omara was sentenced just a probation.
Now this story comes out just a few days after
Bass picks them, and as Joel said, is like, are
they doing any background checks on these guys? Are they
doing a Google search to make sure? I mean two consultants?
(13:00):
How many other people at this company knew what was
going on? Because you tend to take advantage of a
situation like that when you think everybody's doing it or
nobody cares. Everybody's looking the other way. Right, you go
to a company, what would make you want to steal
three hundred and eighty thousand dollars in fake reimbursements? You
(13:21):
got to get the feeling you're going to get away
with it that there isn't a whole lot of oversight,
or you get the feeling maybe everybody's on the take,
so this is just what you do, which leads to
this headline in the La Times this week, Who's in
charge of Palisades fire recovery? The answer is complicated. Well,
let me tell you up front, you can't have that.
(13:42):
And you know, I'm really sensitive to this because I
didn't live, I don't live far from what happened in
the Palisades. And I was talking to a really close
friend last night and just listening to, you know, how
his family's home was completely destroyed and everybody, everybody in
the Palisades is very angry and very frustrated. And it
(14:02):
occurred to me, I have not seen Karen Bass. I've
seen Karen Bass and pair of press conferences and answer
some questions, or she hides behind Steve sober Off, or
she hides behind you know, six or seven other people
who speak ahead of her. But there has not been
like a real detailed explanation. I don't know how she thinks,
(14:22):
or if she thinks, because she doesn't sit down and
give long form, coherent answers. It's a lot of slogans,
you know her, I mean, she does smoke slogans like well,
we're gonna all lock arms together, We're gonna make la stronger.
All this is just you know, nonsense stuff, but trying
to get details exactly who's in charge. And I'm not
(14:43):
into this. I'm not into this everything being done in
closed door meetings, especially a company which has a recent
history of its employees running off with government money. They
ran off with money that was meant to help citizen
in New York City deal with Superstorm Sandy. That you know,
(15:05):
they they went in there to oversee the rebuild or
the recovery, whatever you want to call it in New
York And now they're here. Uh now, I know these
two guys don't work for him anymore, But again, what's
the culture of the place? Now? You know, the thing
was sober off. We went through that yesterday, he's hired.
(15:26):
Nobody says out loud that he was getting five hundred
thousand dollars and that he had a number two guy
getting two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Then when that
leaked out, everybody went everybody at Palisades went nuts. Got
seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars for three months work.
So Bass had to do a ONET eighty and take
(15:48):
the money back. And I don't think sober Off wanted
to give up the money. Now she's also talking about
bringing on a company called acm ae con a Com.
It's a worldwide engineering company to tackle the paperwork that
(16:09):
has to be assembled to get reimbursement from FEMA. She's
also brought in a guy named Jim Featherstone to be
the number two at the Emergency Management Department. That was
the department that sent out all those botched warnings. I
don't know what happened. I don't know who's running this
agency because I think she's been sidelined. Forgot her name,
(16:33):
but she was in charge of the women was in
charge of the agency while it was setting out all
the ridiculous warnings to neighborhoods who didn't need warnings. Now
we're Caruso just got an email from his foundation, Steadfast LA.
He's got a group of business leaders together to focus
on the recovery, and there are other groups as well.
(16:55):
Patrick Soon Sheiong, the head of the La Times, is
going to have his own counsel. Miguel Santana formed a
rebuilding initiative. He's a longtime bureaucrat. Tracy Park has a
city council committee five members and when Bass was asked
about the complicated mix of consultants, politicians appointees, she said,
(17:16):
let me just explain. The person that's in charge is
here me. That's the person in charge. That doesn't make
anybody feel good. Was she in charge before the fire?
Did she hold meetings on how the fire department ought
to be prepositioned in the hills in high by the
way and talk to my friend yesterday. He held out
(17:38):
to about five point thirty in the afternoon the day
of the fire and finally had to run and then
less than an hour later flames destroyed his house. He
spent the whole day trying to protect the house with
water and foam, but he said there was nobody. There
was no no fire trucks, no firefighters on his block
whole day. Nothing that you know has been explained. It
(18:00):
is now, what's take February the tenth eleventh. February eleventh
fire happened January seventh, So we're talking now about it's Tuesday,
thirty five days, five full weeks. Nobody's explained why the
fire department didn't show up to many of the neighborhoods.
I have read, I have heard firsthand. They weren't there
all day. Why is this in addition to not being
(18:22):
there before the fire started? Zevierraslavsky says, Bass has to
bring all the leaders together in a unified command. He
used to be a county supervisor. He says, from the outside,
it looks somewhat chaotic, because it is somewhat chaotic. That's
exactly what it is.
Speaker 4 (18:42):
You're listening to John Kobels on demand from KFI Am
six forty.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
We're on every day from one until four o'clock. Then
after four o'clock John Codbelt Show on demand. You demand it,
go to the iHeart app and it's the same as
the radio show. It's the podcast version, so you could
catch up on what you missed. One of the amusing
there's a lot of amusing things coming out of the
Trump administration. One of them is he keeps revoking security
(19:09):
clearances for many people who worked under Joe Biden and
others in law enforcement or in the justice system. I
should say, among the people he pulled the security clearance
for included Biden's Secretary of State Anthony Blincoln. Jake Sullivan
is the former National security advisor, Biden's Deputy Attorney General,
(19:32):
Lisa Monaco, and also the Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg, who
brought that Storry Daniel's case against him, and the Attorney
General for New York, Letitia James, who brought that financial case.
Remember he was fined four hundred and seventy billion dollars
or something like that. That's still tied up on appeal.
(19:54):
We're going to talk with Don mahallak on from ABC News.
Don is seen your secret service agent, and he's going
to talk about these security clearances. Don, how are you good?
Speaker 2 (20:07):
John? How are you guys doing better after the fires?
Speaker 1 (20:11):
Well? Yeah, I mean the immediate crisis and shock is
over and now it's that, you know, a recovery. It's
going to take many years to rebuild out here. The
security clearances. I always been kind of fascinated by that.
When you get a security clearance and you've got a
government level position in Trump's cabinet or adjacent to it,
(20:35):
what is it that you get to see?
Speaker 2 (20:38):
So we've got to back up a little bit because
there's actually two sets of rules for security clearances. There's
security clearance for anybody working for the government, which is
defined in the Code of Federal Regulations that outlines how
you get a security clearance to process, who's entitled to it,
who's not. And then there are people who have access
(20:59):
to the sensitive information by virtue of the office they hold.
The President being the top security clearance person, the president
is the ultimate authority with granting and taking away security
clearance by virtue of being the chief executive. Having said
that he actually doesn't have a security clearance, he has
access to the sensitive information by virtue of his election
(21:21):
by the American people, as do congressman, senators and other
people that were elected to office. Now, once you are
hired by the federal government, then you go through a
full background check of full screening through your agency to
be able to be entitled to a security clearance, and
then the agency actually grants you the security clearance secret
(21:43):
top secret. Then there's compartmentalizations, sci compartmentalizations and whatnot that
you can be added on to top secret security clearance.
DD calls them something else, So that way you can
have access to human intelligence, satellite intelligence, signal intelligence, and
a wide variety of other sensitive programs that the government may.
Speaker 1 (22:04):
Have, and you could I mean you have once you
get access, I mean, you can spend all day just
for fun looking in at all the secrets the United
States government has.
Speaker 2 (22:16):
Unfortunately Hollywood hasn't done US any favors in that regard.
But no, generally speaking, you have access information on an
as needed basis. So if you're if you're in the
Department of Defense and you need access to war plans
because you're looking at a specific region of the world,
you'll you'll get access to those war plans for that
(22:36):
period of time while you're doing that project. It's not
even with the security cleanance, it's not unfettered, and all
sensitive information is controlled is controlling mechanisms in place, signing
and signing out processes and whatnot. If you're to access
those information.
Speaker 1 (22:53):
You know, Biden and Trump both walked home with the
tons of classified documents. Yeah, so I wondered.
Speaker 2 (23:02):
Well, yeah, that gets into that. The presidents of the
ultimate classifiers and d classifiers, by virtue of their position,
they can classify and declassify documents by who they are.
In addition to that, presidents when they leave office they're
covered by a law called the Presidential Records Act, and
they can actually take and I've seen it in two administrations.
(23:23):
Now they can take all the records that they need
or that are part of their history or legacy with
them when they leave the office. And you know, one
of the nuances in the government and with the presidents,
any piece of paper president touched is technically archivable by
the National Archives.
Speaker 1 (23:40):
Is that right? All right? So the people that were
in Biden's administration to have their security clearances revoked, does
that really affect their lives because they're out of government
where they would they still get briefings every day and
now they can't, and why would they need those briefings.
Speaker 2 (23:58):
So if you leave the government and you take a
job with let's say a government contract that it has
that has a contract with the government that requires a
security clearance, Thank North for grumming. You know the SpaceX
maybe companies like that that are working on sensitive projects
or the federal government that maybe those civilian employees need
to have a security clearance have access to that project.
(24:19):
If those people were aligned or working for any of
those companies, it could impact their after government livelihood because
now if they don't have a security clearance, they technively
couldn't work on that project. As far as former presidents go,
by tradition, former presidents have always been afforded the opportunity
to continue having an intelligence briefing daily when they leave office.
(24:42):
The majority of them wave off on it because when
they leave office, they want to be a civilian. They
don't want to be the president.
Speaker 1 (24:47):
Are right? What are you going to do with that information?
That's what I'm wonder is that if you know former presidents,
did they get up in the morning and this is
what they do? They look at the intelligence briefing even
though they had zero power in the world.
Speaker 2 (25:01):
Yeah. I think for most of them, when they leave office,
it's time to leave office and they're looking forward to
being a private citizen, engaging in things maybe they haven't
been able to engage to when they're in the White
House and becoming, you know, part having some of their
freedoms back, so to speak.
Speaker 1 (25:17):
So what Trump is doing is just publicly embarrassing these
people more than anything else. It doesn't really change that life.
Speaker 2 (25:24):
I think what President Trump is doing is I think
he's doing it more just to send a message more
than anything else. I don't know how much it impacts
what they're doing on a day to day basis.
Speaker 1 (25:34):
All right, John, thank you for coming on.
Speaker 2 (25:37):
Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (25:37):
Johns Don Mahllick is the ABC News our law enforcement
contributor and a retired Secret Service agent. In case you
see these headlines, now you know what the practical impact
of it is. After two o'clock, we're also going to
talk with the tenant General Richard Newton over this idea
(25:58):
that Trump can take Gaza. You may have heard about this.
He says, the us I had to take Gaza and
they had to kick all the Palestinians out because it's
it's nothing but rubble, and he looks at as a
real estate development opportunity, and he wants Egypt and Jordan
to take in the Palestinians. They said no. We'll talk
(26:20):
with Lieutenant General Richard Newton about that. Coming up after
two o'clock.
Speaker 4 (26:25):
You're listening to John Cobelt on demand from KFI six.
Speaker 1 (26:31):
We're on from one until four o'clock and then after
four John Cobelt Show on demand on the iHeart app.
We have a lot that's been sold in the Palisades.
Did you see this?
Speaker 5 (26:42):
I did? Was that you did you buy that app.
Speaker 1 (26:46):
No, but somebody's gonna have a really good deal. Here.
A woman who bought the house in five for a
million and a half decided to take the loss, and
I guess she's probably going to get some insurance coverage. Yeah,
she sold a lot for a million dollars. It was
(27:08):
on the market for well just a short time. It's
less than a month after the fires. Officially it was
nine hundred and ninety nine thousand dollars. She put it
on the market January sixteenth. And she's not rebuilding, she's
staying nearby, and she just wanted out. And the real
estate agent said he got seventy to eighty inquiries. Wow,
(27:32):
mostly from out of area investors. Yeah, any rich person
out there who's got access to a few hundred thousand dollars,
because you know, five ten years, Ballisades will be back
to normal again and you can make a killing about
a ten thousand square foot property that includes the land
(27:55):
on Avenita Dela Herrodora. And that's the first first one
I've seen.
Speaker 5 (28:01):
I wonder how.
Speaker 6 (28:02):
Many people are going to decide not to rebuild. I mean,
because the rebuilding process takes so long.
Speaker 1 (28:09):
I know, and you have to. I was talking to
my friend and he says, you know, I'm going to
on the phone constantly fighting with insurance people. You want
to build, You've got to get architects, you got to
get the builder, you got the city inspectors. You've got
to deal with the water and the power. And it's
just you ever built a house.
Speaker 5 (28:29):
No, I have never built a house.
Speaker 1 (28:31):
We built a couple. Oh I didn't.
Speaker 5 (28:34):
You were hammering and no.
Speaker 1 (28:36):
My wife, My wife oversaw two construction projects. She got
our house built in thirteen months. Oh wow. In fact,
I told her, I go, you ought to be in
charge of the recovery project. Pallis Age would be back
in order by twenty twenty six. No, she's really tough
and sometimes brutal to watch. I remember she went after
(28:57):
one guy, one of the contractors, and we were in
we were in a second floor room and they hadn't
put in the windows yet, right, And this guy was
one of these You did run into a lot of chauvinists, Yes, don't.
Speaker 5 (29:10):
Oh yeah, they don't want to deal with the women.
Speaker 1 (29:11):
They do not want to deal with. And this guy
was one of those didn't want to deal with a
woman and was getting my wife a hard time. And
she started walking towards him with a look on her face,
and he started backing up, and I thought he was
gonna he was going to back right out the window,
just or maybe voluntarily jump out the windows.
Speaker 6 (29:31):
You know, I hate those guys that don't want to
deal with women, because many times we're the ones that
are deciding what we want. A lot of times, you guys, right,
you know this.
Speaker 5 (29:41):
Whatever you want.
Speaker 6 (29:42):
Whatever guy guys don't there, right, So let's get rid
of those chauvinistic contractors.
Speaker 5 (29:49):
Those guys. Well, I've dealt with those guys.
Speaker 1 (29:52):
You talked about the window. That's what she was going
to do. She's and he's going to go down two floors.
Speaker 5 (29:58):
In prison, and then your house would never have been rebuilt.
Speaker 1 (30:01):
There is a downside for that. It's funny. I didn't
try to stop her. I just thought, well, let's see
if she actually does it. But well, I can't do
any of that. Like she can design things, and she's
I mean, she's not an architect, but she had a
vision in her head and she used to say, well,
why don't you like weigh in on this? Well, what
(30:22):
do you want? I said, if I had as much
interest in this as you. We would just be fighting
all the time, right, because I would have different ideas,
and it's like, you know, and and one of the
contractors said, it's like he seen divorces happened ye from
from husbands and wives fighting each other over the vision,
and it's like, you know what, you have one hundred
(30:42):
percent control.
Speaker 5 (30:43):
Of this, which is very nice, and I'm.
Speaker 1 (30:45):
Just going to go to work.
Speaker 5 (30:48):
I'll you deal with all that. But that's what I mean.
Speaker 6 (30:50):
That happens a lot, and these contractors should not not
be pissing off the women because no, I'll say goodbye
to you and we'll get somebody else.
Speaker 1 (30:58):
No, I mean I was used occasionally as a front man,
like if you That's what's funny is these guys are well,
I'm are stupid, right, and so because I'm a guy,
they'll respond to me, not knowing I was put up
to this. I have no idea what I'm talking about.
I have no idea what I want script. I am
(31:19):
reading talking points from my wife, but she knows he
is going to follow what I say, whereas if she
says the same thing, the guy is resistant to it.
Speaker 6 (31:28):
Oh yeah, no, I I I'll tell you, I have
not built a house, but I've remodeled a lot of stuff,
and I have dealt with guys like that.
Speaker 5 (31:36):
Really pisses me off.
Speaker 1 (31:38):
Even think it's good business, because if you if you
treat the women well, they're the ones who are going
to give like seventeen recommendations to.
Speaker 5 (31:47):
All their girlfriends.
Speaker 1 (31:48):
That's right, where you do something good for me, I'm
not going to tell anyone I'm going to lose interest
five minutes after get off game exactly. I don't remember
the names of anybody who built the homes, but my
wife she really liked one set of builders we had,
and and she just told everybody in sight.
Speaker 6 (32:05):
Yes, so the same thing with painters and granted people
and whatever.
Speaker 1 (32:10):
Yeah, no, that's all right. We come back. We are
going to talk with Lieutenant General Richard Newton and he uh,
he's on news Nation and you keep hearing is that
Trump wants to take over Gaza, and he's he's insisting
(32:32):
that the US has the authority to take Gaza, and
he's insisting that Egypt and Jordan and I don't know
who else should absorb the Palestinians while they redeveloped the
Gaza site. He thinks it's a big real estate opportunity
and nobody wants Nobody wants the Palestinians. Every time other
countries have taken Palestinians in, there have been attempted coups
(32:56):
for the local government, so that there's a there's a
reason that that they got trapped in Gaza while Israel
was bombing away. If you remember, Egypt shut the borders right,
and Jordan doesn't want them in because there's there are
too many, you know, the guys, more than half them
are aligned with AMAS. So you let these refugees in,
and refugees sound like, oh, they're refugees, they're they're hungry,
(33:19):
and it's like no, no, no, no, you've got terrorists here
to a large extent. We'll talk with the Lieutenant General
Richard Newton next. Deborah Marcuslide in the CAFI twenty four
hour Newsroom. Hey, you've been listening to the John Cobalt
Show podcast. You can always hear the show live on
KFI Am six forty from one to four pm every
Monday through Friday, and of course anytime on demand on
(33:39):
the iHeartRadio app.
Can't. I am six forty. You're listening to the John
Cobel podcast on the iHeartRadio app on every day as
always from one until four o'clock, and then after four
o'clock you missed stuff, go to John Cobelt's show on demand.
It's the podcast same as the radio show posted after
four on the iHeart app. We open with the latest
chapter in this bewildering government response to the fire of
(00:24):
the Palisades. Karen Bass just just astounds me every day
with bad decisions and just strange situations. And the latest
is is the company that she hired, Haggardy Consulting out
of Illinois, to take over the recovery, has a lot
(00:44):
of questionable characters have worked for it in recent years.
And this is what everybody worries about, is that with
all the federal money coming in, you know, billions and
billions of dollars, it's in real danger of getting siphoned off.
I mean, just look at the history in California. It
turns out two guys named Walter Melnik and Mark O'Mara
(01:06):
they were accused of basically stealing money from New York
City's relief funds for Hurricane Sandy. Superstorm Sandy, if you
remember some years ago, and Joel Pollock with Breitbart dot
Com had the story and we're going to talk to
him now. Joe, how are you. I'm great.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
How are you?
Speaker 1 (01:29):
I'm doing all right? How are you doing? Because you
mentioned last time you lost your house, and well, you
didn't lose your house, did you. You just got badly damaged.
Speaker 3 (01:38):
Well, we don't know the extent of the damage. I mean,
if you look at it from the outside, it looks
pretty good. But the fence burned down and the back
wall is charred. There may be some structural damage due
to the fence burning down, and there's definitely smoke damage.
But the roof did okay, and we feel lucky we
(01:59):
have our still standing. It's one of the only ones
in Marquez Knowles which almost entirely burned down.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
Yeah, yeah, just it's on my mind. I was just
talking to a close friend last night for about a
half an hour, and he and his family lost everything,
I mean, in every single bit that they owned. Haggarty Consulting.
What what is this and who are these guys and
what did they plead to.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
Well, it's a very interesting question. So the city announced
a few weeks ago, or rather, the La Times reported
that the city was going to hire a consultant to
handle rebuilding. It wasn't clear what they would be doing.
I talked to Chief Recovery Officer Steve Soberoff, and he
told me they were going to be like an owner's
ref on a construction site, basically representing the public, and
(02:47):
that it would be a competitive bidding process. Then the
La Times reported that Haggarty had been chosen in a
pind closed or session where they were presenting their pitch
along with two other companies that were not chosen, and
they were going to do whatever it is they were
going to do, and the amount of the contract was
(03:09):
not disclosed, but that was the decision. So started looking
into Haggarty Consulting And first of all, they were founded
by a guy named Steve Haggerty who used to be
the mayor of Evanston, Illinois. That's near where I grew up.
I grew up in Scokey. Evanston is not a very
well run city. In fact, Evanston went for several years
without a city manager, and that occurred partly during Steve
(03:33):
Haggerty's tenure. It turned out Steve Haggerty was the only
one term mayor in Evanston, Illinois since the Second World War.
He founded this consulting firm that does disaster recovery management.
And I started looking up information about the company and
it turned out that to senior recovery consultants who worked
(03:56):
with Haggerty on the Hurricane Sandy disaster were involved in
plea agreements where they pleaded guilty to defrauding New York
City of relief funds that they claimed in reimbursement for
travel and lodging.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
And we're talking to when they weren't allowed to do
so six figures. One of them three hundred and eighty
thousand dollars, the other two hundred and fifty thousand.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (04:25):
Now neither of them got jail time, although one of
them was sentenced to home confinement for a year in
addition to probation for two years. But when you add
it all up, the behind closed doors meeting to pick
a contractor, and this rather dubious recent history, it's not
ancient history. The plea deals came down in twenty twenty
two and twenty twenty three. Plus the left wing politics
(04:49):
of this particular mayor who founded the company. You have
to ask what exactly is going on here? Why can't
they do this in public? Why can't they estimate the
cost of what whatever it is they want these consulting
firms to do. So I think there are some more
questions here.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
And to mention you mentioned left wing politics. Haggarty, the
former mayor of Evanston, was the first city in the
US to offer reparations for slavery. Yeah, so that's the
political climate that he comes from.
Speaker 3 (05:22):
Yeah, that happened after him. But he also apparently signed
a declaration apologizing for the fact that Evanston is built
on Native American land and all of that. Evanston actually
had a really interesting history. The Republican Party got its
start in Evanston, was a big Republican bastion in the
nineteenth century, very anti slavery, and it was also the
(05:45):
home of the Temperance movement that pushed for the eighteenth Amendment,
which as we know, didn't go so well. But Evanston
was actually an epicenter of abolitionism. It had nothing to
do with.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
Slavery, quite the opposite, had a lot to do with.
Speaker 3 (06:00):
Getting rid of slavery. And nevertheless, the woke city leaders
decided that we had to apologize for slavery or Evanston
at least had to apologize. And even if Illinois wasn't
a slave state, just like California is.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
Not a slave state.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
Well, there was discrimination in housing, racial discrimination, so they
were going to apologize.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
Why would why would Karen Dass pick Haggardy Consulting?
Speaker 2 (06:24):
What?
Speaker 1 (06:25):
Why do you think the story is here? Because are they?
Are they a major player when it comes to disaster recovery.
I mean, this is the worst thing any American city
has seen in terms of an urban fire.
Speaker 3 (06:37):
So well they would probably say, we did New York
City after Hurricane Sandy, and that's the biggest city in America,
except that when they did New York City, some of
their leading consultants got themselves in trouble for embezzling or
defrauding the city of these reimbursement funds. So why would
(06:58):
you pick a company that got it's helping into trouble
or did they not do due diligence on this company?
Speaker 2 (07:04):
Do they not know?
Speaker 3 (07:05):
I mean, that's the problem with doing things behind closed doors,
is that the public doesn't know. I'm not saying that
you have to have a six month public comment process
on whatever it is you need done. I don't think
anybody here wants anything delayed that needs to be done
right away. But we don't even know what this company's
supposed to do. Why are they being brought in? You
(07:25):
have several local agencies, you've got the state government, several
different federal agencies working on it. Do you need someone
to coordinate it? Because there's also Rick Reynell who's working
coordinating from the White House level here to try to
make sure everyone's working together.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
So what do you need?
Speaker 3 (07:43):
I mean, what are they supposed to do?
Speaker 1 (07:45):
Yeah, that's why I'm wondering. I'm for all this stuff.
I'm wondering what are their relationships, what are the payoffs?
Who's going to be profiting from this particular hiring. Are
there other people at Haggerty who knew about these two
guys stealing money and condoned it look the other way,
grabbed their own share of the proceeds. This is what
(08:08):
I'm this is. This is a bad sign to have
two guys accused and pleaded guilty to stealing in total
over six hundred and fifty thousand dollars. And that's the
last thing we need in La here.
Speaker 2 (08:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (08:24):
Yeah, And look, I think that my impression thus far.
And I write about national politics, I do write about California.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
I write about local politics.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
But this is kind of a first for me to
be this close in on a big local story. And
I'm just surprised by how unaccustomed local officials in LA
seemed to be to operating in public. They seem to
think that they can do things in this closed doors
kind of way.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
Nobody covers them.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
Yeah, nobody covers them.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
Nobody covers them, including the La Times, most glaringly the
La Times.
Speaker 3 (09:02):
This stuff is well, You've got to say one thing.
There are some people doing good coverage. We're doing the
best we can at Breitbart. West Side Current is doing
some great work there. They've got a young journalist, Jamie Page,
is doing a good job. LA Times did come out
with some really good coverage of this disaster since the fire.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
They have, but grievious to the fire, little to no
coverage of anything that went on in city government.
Speaker 3 (09:28):
Well maybe Patrick soon Shiong is changing that, honestly, because
he took over just before this fire happened. But look,
I think that what stands out to me is just
the preference for doing things behind closed doors, and I
think the public needs to know what this contract is
and what we're going to be built for it, and
also how this fits into the broader financial scheme where
(09:52):
they've got money to spend on consultants, but residents of
the Palisades and Altadina probably don't have places to stay,
don't know where they're going to get their next rent
check from, or they can't get into an airbnb or whatever.
I mean, why are they doling out millions?
Speaker 2 (10:06):
Again?
Speaker 3 (10:07):
If it's for something important, I think people would get it.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
But what is it?
Speaker 3 (10:10):
Yeah, and there are people with urgent needs that don't
have anything right now, So what's going on here?
Speaker 1 (10:16):
Joel Pollack, Breitbart dot Com, Thank you for coming on.
Speaker 3 (10:20):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
All right, we'll continue delving into this latest mystery from
Karen Bass. This is just almost every day, something almost
every day, and it's never a positive sign.
Speaker 4 (10:33):
You're listening to John Cobelt on demand from KFI Am
six forty.
Speaker 1 (10:40):
We just talk to Joel Pollack from Breitbart dot com
because they had today's Today's chap during Karen Bass's never
ending story of floundering around ever since she decided to
go to Africa instead of staying here to coordinate a
response or a preventative or some preventative measures. When the
(11:04):
fire warnings went into effect and she's never gonna catch up,
she hired Haggarty Consulting. That's what we talked with Joel about.
It's it's a company out of Evanston, Illinois, and it's
it's supposed to oversee, you know, recovery efforts. I'll explain
(11:27):
to you. I hesitated and tried to describe them, and
I'll explain why in just a moment, because it's really uh.
The La Times took a shot at trying to explain
exactly who's in charge and who's doing what, and they
can't tell either. So Haggardy Consulting gets hired. The uh,
the guy who started Haggardy Consulting used to be the
(11:50):
mayor of Evanston, Illinois, as you heard Joel explain, and
two of their two of their consultants ripped off the
City of New York for about, let's see here to
be exact, six hundred and thirty thousand dollars. The two
consultants were Walter Melnick and Mark o'meerra. And you know
(12:13):
it's the old scam. You've probably seen people at your
company do this stuff. They claimed money for reimbursements to
which he was not entitled, you know, things like hotel rooms.
So Melnick was accused of stealing three hundred and eighty
thousand dollars in fake reimbursement claims. O'Mara two hundred and
(12:35):
fifty thousand dollars. They had to pay back the money
that they received. Meldick got a year of home confinement
and two years of probation. Omara was sentenced just a probation.
Now this story comes out just a few days after
Bass picks them, and as Joel said, is like, are
they doing any background checks on these guys? Are they
doing a Google search to make sure? I mean two consultants?
(13:00):
How many other people at this company knew what was
going on? Because you tend to take advantage of a
situation like that when you think everybody's doing it or
nobody cares. Everybody's looking the other way. Right, you go
to a company, what would make you want to steal
three hundred and eighty thousand dollars in fake reimbursements? You
(13:21):
got to get the feeling you're going to get away
with it that there isn't a whole lot of oversight,
or you get the feeling maybe everybody's on the take,
so this is just what you do, which leads to
this headline in the La Times this week, Who's in
charge of Palisades fire recovery? The answer is complicated. Well,
let me tell you up front, you can't have that.
(13:42):
And you know, I'm really sensitive to this because I
didn't live, I don't live far from what happened in
the Palisades. And I was talking to a really close
friend last night and just listening to, you know, how
his family's home was completely destroyed and everybody, everybody in
the Palisades is very angry and very frustrated. And it
(14:02):
occurred to me, I have not seen Karen Bass. I've
seen Karen Bass and pair of press conferences and answer
some questions, or she hides behind Steve sober Off, or
she hides behind you know, six or seven other people
who speak ahead of her. But there has not been
like a real detailed explanation. I don't know how she thinks,
(14:22):
or if she thinks, because she doesn't sit down and
give long form, coherent answers. It's a lot of slogans,
you know her, I mean, she does smoke slogans like well,
we're gonna all lock arms together, We're gonna make la stronger.
All this is just you know, nonsense stuff, but trying
to get details exactly who's in charge. And I'm not
(14:43):
into this. I'm not into this everything being done in
closed door meetings, especially a company which has a recent
history of its employees running off with government money. They
ran off with money that was meant to help citizen
in New York City deal with Superstorm Sandy. That you know,
(15:05):
they they went in there to oversee the rebuild or
the recovery, whatever you want to call it in New
York And now they're here. Uh now, I know these
two guys don't work for him anymore, But again, what's
the culture of the place? Now? You know, the thing
was sober off. We went through that yesterday, he's hired.
(15:26):
Nobody says out loud that he was getting five hundred
thousand dollars and that he had a number two guy
getting two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Then when that
leaked out, everybody went everybody at Palisades went nuts. Got
seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars for three months work.
So Bass had to do a ONET eighty and take
(15:48):
the money back. And I don't think sober Off wanted
to give up the money. Now she's also talking about
bringing on a company called acm ae con a Com.
It's a worldwide engineering company to tackle the paperwork that
(16:09):
has to be assembled to get reimbursement from FEMA. She's
also brought in a guy named Jim Featherstone to be
the number two at the Emergency Management Department. That was
the department that sent out all those botched warnings. I
don't know what happened. I don't know who's running this
agency because I think she's been sidelined. Forgot her name,
(16:33):
but she was in charge of the women was in
charge of the agency while it was setting out all
the ridiculous warnings to neighborhoods who didn't need warnings. Now
we're Caruso just got an email from his foundation, Steadfast LA.
He's got a group of business leaders together to focus
on the recovery, and there are other groups as well.
(16:55):
Patrick Soon Sheiong, the head of the La Times, is
going to have his own counsel. Miguel Santana formed a
rebuilding initiative. He's a longtime bureaucrat. Tracy Park has a
city council committee five members and when Bass was asked
about the complicated mix of consultants, politicians appointees, she said,
(17:16):
let me just explain. The person that's in charge is
here me. That's the person in charge. That doesn't make
anybody feel good. Was she in charge before the fire?
Did she hold meetings on how the fire department ought
to be prepositioned in the hills in high by the
way and talk to my friend yesterday. He held out
(17:38):
to about five point thirty in the afternoon the day
of the fire and finally had to run and then
less than an hour later flames destroyed his house. He
spent the whole day trying to protect the house with
water and foam, but he said there was nobody. There
was no no fire trucks, no firefighters on his block
whole day. Nothing that you know has been explained. It
(18:00):
is now, what's take February the tenth eleventh. February eleventh
fire happened January seventh, So we're talking now about it's Tuesday,
thirty five days, five full weeks. Nobody's explained why the
fire department didn't show up to many of the neighborhoods.
I have read, I have heard firsthand. They weren't there
all day. Why is this in addition to not being
(18:22):
there before the fire started? Zevierraslavsky says, Bass has to
bring all the leaders together in a unified command. He
used to be a county supervisor. He says, from the outside,
it looks somewhat chaotic, because it is somewhat chaotic. That's
exactly what it is.
Speaker 4 (18:42):
You're listening to John Kobels on demand from KFI Am
six forty.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
We're on every day from one until four o'clock. Then
after four o'clock John Codbelt Show on demand. You demand it,
go to the iHeart app and it's the same as
the radio show. It's the podcast version, so you could
catch up on what you missed. One of the amusing
there's a lot of amusing things coming out of the
Trump administration. One of them is he keeps revoking security
(19:09):
clearances for many people who worked under Joe Biden and
others in law enforcement or in the justice system. I
should say, among the people he pulled the security clearance
for included Biden's Secretary of State Anthony Blincoln. Jake Sullivan
is the former National security advisor, Biden's Deputy Attorney General,
(19:32):
Lisa Monaco, and also the Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg, who
brought that Storry Daniel's case against him, and the Attorney
General for New York, Letitia James, who brought that financial case.
Remember he was fined four hundred and seventy billion dollars
or something like that. That's still tied up on appeal.
(19:54):
We're going to talk with Don mahallak on from ABC News.
Don is seen your secret service agent, and he's going
to talk about these security clearances. Don, how are you good?
Speaker 2 (20:07):
John? How are you guys doing better after the fires?
Speaker 1 (20:11):
Well? Yeah, I mean the immediate crisis and shock is
over and now it's that, you know, a recovery. It's
going to take many years to rebuild out here. The
security clearances. I always been kind of fascinated by that.
When you get a security clearance and you've got a
government level position in Trump's cabinet or adjacent to it,
(20:35):
what is it that you get to see?
Speaker 2 (20:38):
So we've got to back up a little bit because
there's actually two sets of rules for security clearances. There's
security clearance for anybody working for the government, which is
defined in the Code of Federal Regulations that outlines how
you get a security clearance to process, who's entitled to it,
who's not. And then there are people who have access
(20:59):
to the sensitive information by virtue of the office they hold.
The President being the top security clearance person, the president
is the ultimate authority with granting and taking away security
clearance by virtue of being the chief executive. Having said
that he actually doesn't have a security clearance, he has
access to the sensitive information by virtue of his election
(21:21):
by the American people, as do congressman, senators and other
people that were elected to office. Now, once you are
hired by the federal government, then you go through a
full background check of full screening through your agency to
be able to be entitled to a security clearance, and
then the agency actually grants you the security clearance secret
(21:43):
top secret. Then there's compartmentalizations, sci compartmentalizations and whatnot that
you can be added on to top secret security clearance.
DD calls them something else, So that way you can
have access to human intelligence, satellite intelligence, signal intelligence, and
a wide variety of other sensitive programs that the government may.
Speaker 1 (22:04):
Have, and you could I mean you have once you
get access, I mean, you can spend all day just
for fun looking in at all the secrets the United
States government has.
Speaker 2 (22:16):
Unfortunately Hollywood hasn't done US any favors in that regard.
But no, generally speaking, you have access information on an
as needed basis. So if you're if you're in the
Department of Defense and you need access to war plans
because you're looking at a specific region of the world,
you'll you'll get access to those war plans for that
(22:36):
period of time while you're doing that project. It's not
even with the security cleanance, it's not unfettered, and all
sensitive information is controlled is controlling mechanisms in place, signing
and signing out processes and whatnot. If you're to access
those information.
Speaker 1 (22:53):
You know, Biden and Trump both walked home with the
tons of classified documents. Yeah, so I wondered.
Speaker 2 (23:02):
Well, yeah, that gets into that. The presidents of the
ultimate classifiers and d classifiers, by virtue of their position,
they can classify and declassify documents by who they are.
In addition to that, presidents when they leave office they're
covered by a law called the Presidential Records Act, and
they can actually take and I've seen it in two administrations.
(23:23):
Now they can take all the records that they need
or that are part of their history or legacy with
them when they leave the office. And you know, one
of the nuances in the government and with the presidents,
any piece of paper president touched is technically archivable by
the National Archives.
Speaker 1 (23:40):
Is that right? All right? So the people that were
in Biden's administration to have their security clearances revoked, does
that really affect their lives because they're out of government
where they would they still get briefings every day and
now they can't, and why would they need those briefings.
Speaker 2 (23:58):
So if you leave the government and you take a
job with let's say a government contract that it has
that has a contract with the government that requires a
security clearance, Thank North for grumming. You know the SpaceX
maybe companies like that that are working on sensitive projects
or the federal government that maybe those civilian employees need
to have a security clearance have access to that project.
(24:19):
If those people were aligned or working for any of
those companies, it could impact their after government livelihood because
now if they don't have a security clearance, they technively
couldn't work on that project. As far as former presidents go,
by tradition, former presidents have always been afforded the opportunity
to continue having an intelligence briefing daily when they leave office.
(24:42):
The majority of them wave off on it because when
they leave office, they want to be a civilian. They
don't want to be the president.
Speaker 1 (24:47):
Are right? What are you going to do with that information?
That's what I'm wonder is that if you know former presidents,
did they get up in the morning and this is
what they do? They look at the intelligence briefing even
though they had zero power in the world.
Speaker 2 (25:01):
Yeah. I think for most of them, when they leave office,
it's time to leave office and they're looking forward to
being a private citizen, engaging in things maybe they haven't
been able to engage to when they're in the White
House and becoming, you know, part having some of their
freedoms back, so to speak.
Speaker 1 (25:17):
So what Trump is doing is just publicly embarrassing these
people more than anything else. It doesn't really change that life.
Speaker 2 (25:24):
I think what President Trump is doing is I think
he's doing it more just to send a message more
than anything else. I don't know how much it impacts
what they're doing on a day to day basis.
Speaker 1 (25:34):
All right, John, thank you for coming on.
Speaker 2 (25:37):
Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (25:37):
Johns Don Mahllick is the ABC News our law enforcement
contributor and a retired Secret Service agent. In case you
see these headlines, now you know what the practical impact
of it is. After two o'clock, we're also going to
talk with the tenant General Richard Newton over this idea
(25:58):
that Trump can take Gaza. You may have heard about this.
He says, the us I had to take Gaza and
they had to kick all the Palestinians out because it's
it's nothing but rubble, and he looks at as a
real estate development opportunity, and he wants Egypt and Jordan
to take in the Palestinians. They said no. We'll talk
(26:20):
with Lieutenant General Richard Newton about that. Coming up after
two o'clock.
Speaker 4 (26:25):
You're listening to John Cobelt on demand from KFI six.
Speaker 1 (26:31):
We're on from one until four o'clock and then after
four John Cobelt Show on demand on the iHeart app.
We have a lot that's been sold in the Palisades.
Did you see this?
Speaker 5 (26:42):
I did? Was that you did you buy that app.
Speaker 1 (26:46):
No, but somebody's gonna have a really good deal. Here.
A woman who bought the house in five for a
million and a half decided to take the loss, and
I guess she's probably going to get some insurance coverage. Yeah,
she sold a lot for a million dollars. It was
(27:08):
on the market for well just a short time. It's
less than a month after the fires. Officially it was
nine hundred and ninety nine thousand dollars. She put it
on the market January sixteenth. And she's not rebuilding, she's
staying nearby, and she just wanted out. And the real
estate agent said he got seventy to eighty inquiries. Wow,
(27:32):
mostly from out of area investors. Yeah, any rich person
out there who's got access to a few hundred thousand dollars,
because you know, five ten years, Ballisades will be back
to normal again and you can make a killing about
a ten thousand square foot property that includes the land
(27:55):
on Avenita Dela Herrodora. And that's the first first one
I've seen.
Speaker 5 (28:01):
I wonder how.
Speaker 6 (28:02):
Many people are going to decide not to rebuild. I mean,
because the rebuilding process takes so long.
Speaker 1 (28:09):
I know, and you have to. I was talking to
my friend and he says, you know, I'm going to
on the phone constantly fighting with insurance people. You want
to build, You've got to get architects, you got to
get the builder, you got the city inspectors. You've got
to deal with the water and the power. And it's
just you ever built a house.
Speaker 5 (28:29):
No, I have never built a house.
Speaker 1 (28:31):
We built a couple. Oh I didn't.
Speaker 5 (28:34):
You were hammering and no.
Speaker 1 (28:36):
My wife, My wife oversaw two construction projects. She got
our house built in thirteen months. Oh wow. In fact,
I told her, I go, you ought to be in
charge of the recovery project. Pallis Age would be back
in order by twenty twenty six. No, she's really tough
and sometimes brutal to watch. I remember she went after
(28:57):
one guy, one of the contractors, and we were in
we were in a second floor room and they hadn't
put in the windows yet, right, And this guy was
one of these You did run into a lot of chauvinists, Yes, don't.
Speaker 5 (29:10):
Oh yeah, they don't want to deal with the women.
Speaker 1 (29:11):
They do not want to deal with. And this guy
was one of those didn't want to deal with a
woman and was getting my wife a hard time. And
she started walking towards him with a look on her face,
and he started backing up, and I thought he was
gonna he was going to back right out the window,
just or maybe voluntarily jump out the windows.
Speaker 6 (29:31):
You know, I hate those guys that don't want to
deal with women, because many times we're the ones that
are deciding what we want. A lot of times, you guys, right,
you know this.
Speaker 5 (29:41):
Whatever you want.
Speaker 6 (29:42):
Whatever guy guys don't there, right, So let's get rid
of those chauvinistic contractors.
Speaker 5 (29:49):
Those guys. Well, I've dealt with those guys.
Speaker 1 (29:52):
You talked about the window. That's what she was going
to do. She's and he's going to go down two floors.
Speaker 5 (29:58):
In prison, and then your house would never have been rebuilt.
Speaker 1 (30:01):
There is a downside for that. It's funny. I didn't
try to stop her. I just thought, well, let's see
if she actually does it. But well, I can't do
any of that. Like she can design things, and she's
I mean, she's not an architect, but she had a
vision in her head and she used to say, well,
why don't you like weigh in on this? Well, what
(30:22):
do you want? I said, if I had as much
interest in this as you. We would just be fighting
all the time, right, because I would have different ideas,
and it's like, you know, and and one of the
contractors said, it's like he seen divorces happened ye from
from husbands and wives fighting each other over the vision,
and it's like, you know what, you have one hundred
(30:42):
percent control.
Speaker 5 (30:43):
Of this, which is very nice, and I'm.
Speaker 1 (30:45):
Just going to go to work.
Speaker 5 (30:48):
I'll you deal with all that. But that's what I mean.
Speaker 6 (30:50):
That happens a lot, and these contractors should not not
be pissing off the women because no, I'll say goodbye
to you and we'll get somebody else.
Speaker 1 (30:58):
No, I mean I was used occasionally as a front man,
like if you That's what's funny is these guys are well,
I'm are stupid, right, and so because I'm a guy,
they'll respond to me, not knowing I was put up
to this. I have no idea what I'm talking about.
I have no idea what I want script. I am
(31:19):
reading talking points from my wife, but she knows he
is going to follow what I say, whereas if she
says the same thing, the guy is resistant to it.
Speaker 6 (31:28):
Oh yeah, no, I I I'll tell you, I have
not built a house, but I've remodeled a lot of stuff,
and I have dealt with guys like that.
Speaker 5 (31:36):
Really pisses me off.
Speaker 1 (31:38):
Even think it's good business, because if you if you
treat the women well, they're the ones who are going
to give like seventeen recommendations to.
Speaker 5 (31:47):
All their girlfriends.
Speaker 1 (31:48):
That's right, where you do something good for me, I'm
not going to tell anyone I'm going to lose interest
five minutes after get off game exactly. I don't remember
the names of anybody who built the homes, but my
wife she really liked one set of builders we had,
and and she just told everybody in sight.
Speaker 6 (32:05):
Yes, so the same thing with painters and granted people
and whatever.
Speaker 1 (32:10):
Yeah, no, that's all right. We come back. We are
going to talk with Lieutenant General Richard Newton and he uh,
he's on news Nation and you keep hearing is that
Trump wants to take over Gaza, and he's he's insisting
(32:32):
that the US has the authority to take Gaza, and
he's insisting that Egypt and Jordan and I don't know
who else should absorb the Palestinians while they redeveloped the
Gaza site. He thinks it's a big real estate opportunity
and nobody wants Nobody wants the Palestinians. Every time other
countries have taken Palestinians in, there have been attempted coups
(32:56):
for the local government, so that there's a there's a
reason that that they got trapped in Gaza while Israel
was bombing away. If you remember, Egypt shut the borders right,
and Jordan doesn't want them in because there's there are
too many, you know, the guys, more than half them
are aligned with AMAS. So you let these refugees in,
and refugees sound like, oh, they're refugees, they're they're hungry,
(33:19):
and it's like no, no, no, no, you've got terrorists here
to a large extent. We'll talk with the Lieutenant General
Richard Newton next. Deborah Marcuslide in the CAFI twenty four
hour Newsroom. Hey, you've been listening to the John Cobalt
Show podcast. You can always hear the show live on
KFI Am six forty from one to four pm every
Monday through Friday, and of course anytime on demand on
(33:39):
the iHeartRadio app.
The John Kobylt Show News
Host
John Kobylt
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