July 15, 2026 • 28 mins
The John Kobylt Show Hour 2 (07/15) - John talks to Megan Barth about the LAX People Mover blowing a billion dollars over budget. The DMV is making people retake their driving tests. More on corruption at LAX. John talks about students using AI to cheat on college exams.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Can't I Am six forty you're listening to the John
Cobelt podcast on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Can't fie Am.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
Six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app. We're on
from three to six every day, the John Cobelt Show,
and after six o'clock is the podcast John Cobelt Show
on demand, same as radio show. You listen to what
you missed and you can watch us live on YouTube. Subscribe,
become a member YouTube dot com. Slash at John Cobelt
(00:29):
Show and we got the video up and running right
this minute, so you can watch and you can join
the chat along the side. And the people mover is
what they call it. It's also called Skylink at LAX.
And this is something that most major airports have. I
(00:50):
think every major airport or medium sized airport I've been
to has one of these. And it's simple. It's a train,
a tram. It's two and a quarter miles and whenever
it's ready to go, it's going to connect the La
Metro Transit Center, which is where some of the trains
(01:14):
will come to, and then take you to the terminals
all of them.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
They'll have.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
They're going to have a new rental car center. They're
also going to you're going to be able to go
to parking garages. You're going to be able to go
to a center where they have the taxis and the
ubers and the lifts and the buses right, and it's
all going to be interconnected again decades late from other
major airports, and it's still not ready. It's a billion
(01:46):
dollars over budget. It's costing almost three and a half
billion dollars for two and a quarter miles. It's an
elevated train. If you haven't been to the airport, it's
just it's an elevated tram. And now the contractor building
the system is suing the city. It's suing Los Angeles
(02:06):
World Airports.
Speaker 3 (02:08):
Now. I don't know how.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
Everything could be so screwed up, and they got a
lot of complaints. And to sort this out, we're going
to talk with Megan Barth, who did a story in
California Globe dot Com another California rail disaster is the headline.
Over a billion dollars per mile and the contractor is
suing the city. Megan, how are you?
Speaker 2 (02:29):
I'm doing great, John, how are you?
Speaker 3 (02:31):
What has gone wrong with this?
Speaker 2 (02:34):
Oh? That's always a million dollar question, isn't it, Especially
when it comes to rail in LA or pretty much
anything that's not functioning in LA. You have to ask
yourself why. And you know, this whole Skylink disaster, we
might never see it in our lifetimes. I don't have
much hope. But nonetheless, what happened was is that the contractor,
(02:57):
through this public and private partnership which started in twenty nineteen,
the total projected cost including twenty five years of maintenance,
was one point nine billion dollars.
Speaker 3 (03:12):
Including twenty five years of maintenance.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
Correct. Yeah, now it's ballooned, not even just to include maintenance.
This is just to get one train running. And they're
really not trains. They're like trolleys. They're like elevated trolleys.
Have you been to, like you said, any airport, you know,
a tram system.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
Now it's ballooned to nearly three and a half billion
dollars of cost, and the contractor is basically saying that
this partnership with the LA City government, including the LADWP,
the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, who's not
being sued as they are wrapped up under the city umbrella.
But there are acts and omissions by the government that
(03:58):
is specifically forcing the developer into potential insolvency. The LAWA,
which is Los Angeles World Authority, has caused numerous project
delays that is costing the developer one hundred and fifteen
(04:19):
million dollars that he's going to have to pay come October.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
Of this year because what are they doing that's costing
the contractor one hundred and fifteen million extra because usually
if you're making change orders, the agency making the change
orders has to pay.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
So what the contractor contends in the complaint is that
LAWA concealed errors of the Los Angeles Department of Water
and Power, and one of those was an electrical outage,
a long term electrical outage, which then they blamed the
(05:00):
contractor for. But after investigations by the contractor, I Guess
and others, they found that led LADWP basically was responsible
for the power outage. Also, the LADWP had misdesigned power
feeder cables and failed to do a coordination study, which
(05:25):
then also delayed the project. So, as you know, perhaps
if you've ever been in construction or familiar with remodeling
a house, any delay costs money. And so all of
these concealments withheld from the contractor, which then they shifted
the blame onto the contractor has cost the contractor money
because time is money. He also says that the project
(05:49):
delay the developer could so okay, So it's as if LAWA,
the Los Angeles Willatory acted appid it was required under
the contract and did not manufacture delay to the project.
The developer could complete construction by the deadline of October eighth,
(06:11):
But because they were not acting in good faith or
fair dealing in accordance to the terms of the contract,
the intentional misconduct by the city LAWA made this lawsuit necessary.
The contractor claims the city altered drawing, stonewalled resolutions, refused payments,
(06:34):
and timeline extensions, and the list goes on and on,
and the contractor warns of potential catastrophic quants consequences.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
Catastrophic consequences like the skylink collapsing, malfunctioning.
Speaker 3 (06:51):
I mean, would some structural issues or no, he says.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
It would include the contract termination, so there would not
be any I guess completed a track or tram under
his watch and massive lender repayment. So that's the one
hundred and fifteen million dollars that the contractor had to
lend in order to keep the project going.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
And for borrow rather far right, So this would delay
the opening of this skylink for how long?
Speaker 3 (07:27):
Indefinitely?
Speaker 2 (07:28):
That I don't that, I don't believe was mentioned. I
simply just read the contract and some of the run.
I don't know that it was mentioned that it would
delay it for how long. I mean, it's already been delayed.
This was supposed to take off years ago.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
Yeah, I've seen it a couple of times. I've seen
a test. I'll see one of the trams slowly rolling
down the rail. I haven't seen that in a while.
But earlier this year there was a day or two.
I was there and I saw it, so I thought
they were getting close.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
Yeah, this was well, it was supposed to be completed
by the World Cup. That is the whole design.
Speaker 3 (08:01):
I think they have two days, right.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
Yeah, good luck with us. But you know this, this
harkens back to the high speed rail, right. I mean,
it's just amazing the amount of money.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
I mean, is everybody in LA government just stupid? Or
is this part of the massive corruption? I mean, how
do you make that many errors? And it seems like
if what the contractor is saying, is true, a lot
of bad faith intentionally covering things up.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
Correct, You can't, you can't. You can't form a partnership
if your partner is acting in bad faith withholding things
from you, altering documents, not signing documents. That's certainly not
a business deal I would ever get in. And this
contract contractor is obviously regretting this decisions, as he filed
(08:55):
a lawsuit last week. But you know, government moves, whatever moves,
Government taxes it. Government doesn't move what the speedle do
all day exactly. It's just redundancy on top of incompetency.
You have this redundant incompetency.
Speaker 3 (09:15):
Megan barth thank you for coming on.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (09:18):
We will talk more about this.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
California Globe dot com another California rail disaster.
Speaker 4 (09:24):
You're listening to John Cobelt on demand from kf I
am six forty.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
I was just I was just looking up we had
Making Barth on from California Globe because there's another rail disaster.
And I don't mean a crash, I mean the way
high speed rail doesn't exist. We've we've had this this
rail system two and a quarter miles and like she said,
it's not even really a train, it's a it's a tram,
(09:55):
and it's to connect the terminals with parking garage and
metro trains and you know, a parking area for the
taxis and ubers and lifts all that, right, everything would
be connected, just like every other airport in the country
with any decent size, And we never had it. And
(10:16):
this is being built for years. It's way behind schedule,
it's way over budget. I couldn't believe what she said.
It was supposed to be a little less than two
billion dollars to build, and that included twenty five years
of maintenance, and now just building it is almost three
and a half billion, and it's still not done. And
(10:38):
now the reasons Megan was on was the contractor says,
I'm gonna be going out of business because the LA
World Airport Authority. Yeah, Los Angeles World Airports, they've either
(10:58):
they've made so many mistakes, made so many changes, covered
up so much nonsense that the contractor, it's called Links,
this might be going out of business. So they've sued
and a judge is going to hear the case later
this year. It's the Skylink Automated people mover why is
(11:19):
everything a disaster? So well, I was talking generically about
these agencies like the Los Angeles World Airports, right, who
is in charge of that? Well, it's some guy named
John Ackerman. He's the CEO. Why isn't he being grilled?
Isn't this something that you know? How you in Washington,
d C. It's like everybody who serves in an administration,
(11:43):
no matter whose administration, ends up getting grilled before Senate
and House committees about one thing or another. Why isn't
this guy getting grilled? Shouldn't the city council be saying,
what the what the f? John Ackerman, he's the CEO,
needs a shave. I'm looking at his publicity photo. I
(12:05):
don't like those guys. I don't like those guys with
their you know, three day cool stubble, open neck shirt.
Speaker 3 (12:13):
Don't like that look.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
Uh So, he used to have a u an executive
position with the Dallas Fort Worth Airport and I'm trying
to read his resume here. It just looks like a
lot of technological gobbledygook. But I don't understand why. I
don't understand why they can't get this train open, Tram.
(12:39):
It's not that complicated and it's a it's it's supposed
to only take ten minutes to go from beginning to end,
and there's supposed to be one showing up for you
every two minutes, just like every other airport. And I've
seen it tested a couple of times. But I guess
it's not finished. And why do they do business this way?
(13:00):
I'm not saying specifically Ackerman, but he's the CEO, right,
But I don't know what's going on, what kind of
a place is he running? Who's working under him? In fact,
I'm let me see who else is here. Jacob Adams,
Deputy executive director, Diego Alvarez, deputy executive director of Capitol Planning.
Speaker 3 (13:22):
It sounds like he'd be involved.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
Huh.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
Marla Believin's chief airport administrative officer, So why can't these
people get it done? Michael Christensen, chief airport development Officer.
I guess these are the stooges at the meetings. Why
why aren't they being hounded by the media saying what
are you doing? Why is it a billion and a
half over budget? Why is the contractor saying they're gonna
(13:47):
be going insolvent?
Speaker 3 (13:48):
Why?
Speaker 4 (13:48):
Why?
Speaker 2 (13:49):
Why?
Speaker 1 (13:49):
Why nobody asks making barth is covering this from Sacramento
all by yourself. I look at all these heads, they're
completely anonymous. I'm sure they've bounced around. Most of the
guys need to shave. I'm sure they bounced around from
one airport job to the other, and then they land
(14:11):
in LA and everybody gets stupid.
Speaker 3 (14:14):
I don't know. All right, we've got a lot more
coming up.
Speaker 4 (14:23):
You're listening to John Cobel's on demand from KFI AM
six forty.
Speaker 3 (14:31):
KFI ain't six forty.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
We're stimulating talk radio live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
I don't know how many other slogans we have. You
watch this on YouTube live right now.
Speaker 3 (14:42):
I do know that.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
And we'll be on till six and the podcast they're
released after six o'clock. We just went through some of
the colossal stupidity of the people running the Los Angeles
World Airport system at LAX because the people mover.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
It.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
See, the whole thing is stalled out. Its supposed to
be open for the World Cup, and now the contractor
is suing, claiming they're headed for insolvency because of the
idiocy of the executives at the LA World Airport. Here
is more government worker idiocy.
Speaker 3 (15:20):
Again, I.
Speaker 1 (15:23):
Guess the bottom ten percent end up working in government,
whether it's clerical or executive physicians, it's the bottom ten percent,
and you end up with, I guess, a critical mass
of bottom ten percenters and eventually the whole system collapses. Now,
the DMV has been a cesspool of the worst government
(15:44):
workers for a long time. It's always been a joke.
Here's the latest atrocity. According to the La Times, the
DMV has sent letters to eleven thousand drivers who had
passed the written test saying that, well, you didn't pass
the written test and you have to retake, claiming abnormalities
(16:05):
were detected in their results.
Speaker 3 (16:06):
Now, what would that possibly be? Abnormalities? I when you
go take the test, aren't you How do they do it?
Speaker 5 (16:15):
I haven't done it in I don't even know how
many years.
Speaker 3 (16:21):
Because is it electronic? Are you on a screen or
is you filling?
Speaker 1 (16:25):
Uh?
Speaker 3 (16:26):
I don't know. I'm I'm I have no idea.
Speaker 6 (16:28):
I got my driver's license last week. So it's a
it's a test. You go in, it's a screen, maybe
thirty forty questions.
Speaker 3 (16:37):
But is it like you have to fill in uh?
A circle? You got to fill in a circle.
Speaker 6 (16:41):
Yeah, you click on it or so, how could they
be your regularities for that?
Speaker 1 (16:47):
It's so at people who eleven thousand people are upset
uh and they don't know why.
Speaker 3 (16:54):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (16:56):
DMV spokesperson says these irregularities are test taker related. There's
I'm saying the test takers cheated, and I don't know
how you can cheat. They said, it's not a technical issue,
it's not an artificial intelligence malfunction. Well, they had no
real intelligence there. They did routine internal monitoring. Some of
(17:18):
the individuals may have tried to circumvent the testing process
using various cheating methods.
Speaker 3 (17:24):
Well, I mean, how do you cheat?
Speaker 6 (17:26):
I don't know, Clay, you know, well, I did fail
it the first time I took it. The first time
it said you did not pass. I go, okay, can
I take it again? They go, yeah, I took it again.
But it tells you every time you get a question
wrong with the right answer is.
Speaker 3 (17:44):
So, and then you can correct the answer.
Speaker 6 (17:46):
By the time I took the second test, I knew
all the answers.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
Juwan Kim said she was shocked she got a DMV
letter almost a year after she had passed the exam.
She's a Korean IgG immigrant. Her second language is English,
and she said she studied and then she went to
take the Fullerton DMV test after getting the letter, and
somebody stood over her the entire time, constantly looking and watching,
(18:15):
and she failed, and they canceled her license on the spot.
And they never told her why the original test was invalidated.
That's the thing. They canceled these these licenses, said you know,
these tests are invalidated, but never explained why. David spect
(18:35):
retook his test he got the DMV letter. He thinks
it was flagged because he completed it quickly, and he
completed the second test quickly.
Speaker 3 (18:48):
I guess they're not used to people.
Speaker 5 (18:51):
It has to be a cheating thing, and people are
using AI. I'm assuming how answer the questions.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
I don't know.
Speaker 5 (18:57):
If you have your phone, no one's if no one
is standing over you, you can you can ask your phone.
Speaker 1 (19:04):
So why don't they have somebody like we had in school,
just somebody looking around to make sure nobody's got a
phone or an iPad.
Speaker 5 (19:11):
So maybe those people aren't coming to work.
Speaker 3 (19:13):
They don't have enough people.
Speaker 1 (19:14):
Oh yeah, that's right. Maybe they're trying to monitor tests
by working from home.
Speaker 5 (19:19):
Yes, remotely.
Speaker 1 (19:20):
Yes, they're in their underwear and fluffy SIPs slippers at
the kitchen table. Spec says, at the end of the day,
they just punish people or either fast text takers or
know the material. Well, isn't that bizarre If you actually
studied and you're good at memorizing the answers, which is
the whole point, right, The only way to pass a
(19:44):
test is to study and memorize the answers. Well, then
you do it. But if you're you're too good at it,
then they say, well you cheated.
Speaker 3 (19:50):
Well not.
Speaker 1 (19:52):
Only the government can come up with this, because the
government's built with stupid people, and a smart person entering
a stupid person's world.
Speaker 3 (19:59):
Good block.
Speaker 5 (20:04):
Unless people really did geat.
Speaker 1 (20:06):
Yeah, I just unless. Unless maybe I'm being stupid. Maybe
I'm being a dunce. I I mean, I know I
have a few friends and their professors or assistants at colleges,
and they know the kids have their their an iPad
(20:30):
or they have a phone tucked away in their book,
And I always say, well, then then don't well, then
monitor it and take the phone away. Why is that
so hard? I feel like we've been fighting this fight
for fifteen years. So don't allow phones, don't allow iPads.
There was a whole story the other day how a professor.
(20:50):
I don't know if I just did this story on
the air. I was telling it to somebody. Maybe sometimes
I can't remember what's real and what's on the show.
But like ninety six percent of the kids either passed
or the average score was ninety six because they'd all
used DAYI. They went home and used day I, and so, well,
don't use it, don't let him take the test at home.
Speaker 3 (21:11):
All that.
Speaker 1 (21:12):
Now we're gonna do something drastic. We're gonna hold the
test in the classroom.
Speaker 3 (21:18):
WHOA, what do you know? I gotta find that story.
Yeah you didn't.
Speaker 1 (21:23):
No, I didn't do it on the air. I saved it,
and I never got around to it. I probably threw
it out. I'll find it. If I can find it,
I'll do it next. Because that was eye opening, because
this was like a high end school and the professors
were stumped as to what to do here.
Speaker 3 (21:36):
It's like, just do it. How are you stumped? I
don't know.
Speaker 1 (21:41):
I don't know any of this. I don't think college
professors are as bright as they used to be either.
I don't know where the smart people went. You well,
you know what, they all went to tech, Like every
smart person in America, every young smart guy went into
tech and and and they're not distributed through the rest
of the industries anymore.
Speaker 4 (22:00):
You're listening to John Cobels on demand from KFI AM
six forty.
Speaker 1 (22:06):
Can't find AM six forty more stimulating talk radio. Moistline
is Friday, eight seven seven Moist eighty six, eight seven
seven Moist eighty six. Coming up after five o'clock, we
are going to talk to Anne Marie Schubert, the new
president and CEO of the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation, former
(22:28):
District attorney for the Sacramento County, and what she's trying
to do filing a lawsuit to block new parole regulations.
You know, in most states, when murderers are sentenced to
(22:49):
life in prison, life without parole, they serve life without parole.
But in California, as you know, they can retire as
a prisoner and get out relatively early. So Anne Marie
Schubert wants to end this garbage. We'll talk to her
about it. Coming up.
Speaker 3 (23:09):
All right, I found the story. It's it's what I said.
Speaker 1 (23:13):
This is Brown University an economics professor named Robert Serrano.
This is in a magazine called Inside Higher Education. So
Professor Serrano has this class called Welfare Economics and Social
Choice Theory, which by itself sounds like, no, it.
Speaker 3 (23:32):
Wouldn't be a.
Speaker 5 (23:35):
I wouldn't take that class.
Speaker 1 (23:36):
Yeah, you're not going to get a useful job with this. Well,
he advertised, I guess he wanted to goose up the
enrollment that you're gonna get take home exams, okay, and
ended up with triple the normal enrollment.
Speaker 3 (23:52):
Triple. Of course, he's easy A. It's an easy A.
Speaker 1 (23:56):
And everybody said, oh, then I'll take the home the
exam home and run it through AI exactly, and that's
what they did. The average grade on the midterm exam
was a ninety six.
Speaker 3 (24:07):
Ninety six should have been a hundred. Well there's always
one dope who can't.
Speaker 5 (24:11):
Doesn't want figure out chat.
Speaker 3 (24:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (24:14):
Yeah, So he was alarmed by the consistent all the
grades were so hiss brown, Professor Roberto Serrano, I don't know,
maybe a di guy. Serrano challenged the class to prove
him wrong by taking an in class final. The class
(24:37):
responded with silence, and then eighteen students dropped the class
nine students. Nine more students stayed but didn't take the
final exam. So among the students that took the exam,
three of them got a zero. The average score was
(24:59):
forty eight. That used to be the average final exam
score was never below sixty five.
Speaker 3 (25:07):
And then he would grade everybody on a curve.
Speaker 1 (25:12):
Very few students scored the way they did on the
mid term, so he voided out the mid term and
said the final exam would be worth eighty percent.
Speaker 3 (25:25):
Of the grade. That's not fair.
Speaker 5 (25:27):
That's bait and switch because he said one thing, and
that's why people enrolled.
Speaker 1 (25:32):
Yeah, and he was too stupid to realize what would happen. Also,
any student that scored forty or higher pasted forty. What
did forty become the passing grade? I remember being sixty
or seventy when I was in school.
Speaker 3 (25:49):
I feel jipped.
Speaker 1 (25:50):
Yeah, that was the old century, back in the you know,
the nineteen hundreds.
Speaker 3 (25:53):
Where they had stand days. The olden days, you had
to get a sixty year of seventy.
Speaker 1 (25:58):
Now it's a forty, and nineteen students failed anyway, they
couldn't even get the forty.
Speaker 3 (26:11):
And you know, virtually everybody's using AI. There's just that half.
I mean, of course you have to know that.
Speaker 5 (26:21):
Yeah, I would, I got to take home test, I
do all my homework. I'd use jat GPT.
Speaker 1 (26:27):
So I know three people who work at universities and
they teach classes, and they've all told me the exactly
the exact same story separately, that everything's AI. Everybody is
in effect cheating. And my response is like, so, why
doesn't the university ban this practice? Just make them sit
(26:49):
in the room with pen and paper and they have
to write their essay by hand, or they have to
do the multiple choice by hand, or whatever the test
is about. This is so complicated. Clearly everybody's gonna cheat.
Almost everybody's gonna cheat.
Speaker 5 (27:06):
Everybody because if you don't, you're it's an unfair advantage
to everybody else.
Speaker 1 (27:11):
Right if you're if you're competing with everyone who's cheating,
and you end up with a ninety five and they
have one hundred, they're gonna grate on a.
Speaker 3 (27:18):
Curve and you're gonna be You're gonna be the failure.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
Yep, Brown University IVY League probably eight thousand a year.
All Right, we come back, we're gonna talk about Well,
we're gonna talk to Anne Marie Schubert, president of the
Criminal Justice Legal Foundation. Enough with the murderers sentenced to life,
being retired and let out early. Debora Mark Live, KFI
(27:41):
twenty four hour Newsroom. You've been listening to The John
Cobelt Show podcast. You can always hear the show live
on KFI AM six forty from three to six pm
every Monday through Friday, and of course anytime on demand
on the iHeartRadio app KFI Am six More stimulating talk
Can't I Am six forty you're listening to the John
Cobelt podcast on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Can't fie Am.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
Six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app. We're on
from three to six every day, the John Cobelt Show,
and after six o'clock is the podcast John Cobelt Show
on demand, same as radio show. You listen to what
you missed and you can watch us live on YouTube. Subscribe,
become a member YouTube dot com. Slash at John Cobelt
(00:29):
Show and we got the video up and running right
this minute, so you can watch and you can join
the chat along the side. And the people mover is
what they call it. It's also called Skylink at LAX.
And this is something that most major airports have. I
(00:50):
think every major airport or medium sized airport I've been
to has one of these. And it's simple. It's a train,
a tram. It's two and a quarter miles and whenever
it's ready to go, it's going to connect the La
Metro Transit Center, which is where some of the trains
(01:14):
will come to, and then take you to the terminals
all of them.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
They'll have.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
They're going to have a new rental car center. They're
also going to you're going to be able to go
to parking garages. You're going to be able to go
to a center where they have the taxis and the
ubers and the lifts and the buses right, and it's
all going to be interconnected again decades late from other
major airports, and it's still not ready. It's a billion
(01:46):
dollars over budget. It's costing almost three and a half
billion dollars for two and a quarter miles. It's an
elevated train. If you haven't been to the airport, it's
just it's an elevated tram. And now the contractor building
the system is suing the city. It's suing Los Angeles
(02:06):
World Airports.
Speaker 3 (02:08):
Now. I don't know how.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
Everything could be so screwed up, and they got a
lot of complaints. And to sort this out, we're going
to talk with Megan Barth, who did a story in
California Globe dot Com another California rail disaster is the headline.
Over a billion dollars per mile and the contractor is
suing the city. Megan, how are you?
Speaker 2 (02:29):
I'm doing great, John, how are you?
Speaker 3 (02:31):
What has gone wrong with this?
Speaker 2 (02:34):
Oh? That's always a million dollar question, isn't it, Especially
when it comes to rail in LA or pretty much
anything that's not functioning in LA. You have to ask
yourself why. And you know, this whole Skylink disaster, we
might never see it in our lifetimes. I don't have
much hope. But nonetheless, what happened was is that the contractor,
(02:57):
through this public and private partnership which started in twenty nineteen,
the total projected cost including twenty five years of maintenance,
was one point nine billion dollars.
Speaker 3 (03:12):
Including twenty five years of maintenance.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
Correct. Yeah, now it's ballooned, not even just to include maintenance.
This is just to get one train running. And they're
really not trains. They're like trolleys. They're like elevated trolleys.
Have you been to, like you said, any airport, you know,
a tram system.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
Now it's ballooned to nearly three and a half billion
dollars of cost, and the contractor is basically saying that
this partnership with the LA City government, including the LADWP,
the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, who's not
being sued as they are wrapped up under the city umbrella.
But there are acts and omissions by the government that
(03:58):
is specifically forcing the developer into potential insolvency. The LAWA,
which is Los Angeles World Authority, has caused numerous project
delays that is costing the developer one hundred and fifteen
(04:19):
million dollars that he's going to have to pay come October.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
Of this year because what are they doing that's costing
the contractor one hundred and fifteen million extra because usually
if you're making change orders, the agency making the change
orders has to pay.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
So what the contractor contends in the complaint is that
LAWA concealed errors of the Los Angeles Department of Water
and Power, and one of those was an electrical outage,
a long term electrical outage, which then they blamed the
(05:00):
contractor for. But after investigations by the contractor, I Guess
and others, they found that led LADWP basically was responsible
for the power outage. Also, the LADWP had misdesigned power
feeder cables and failed to do a coordination study, which
(05:25):
then also delayed the project. So, as you know, perhaps
if you've ever been in construction or familiar with remodeling
a house, any delay costs money. And so all of
these concealments withheld from the contractor, which then they shifted
the blame onto the contractor has cost the contractor money
because time is money. He also says that the project
(05:49):
delay the developer could so okay, So it's as if LAWA,
the Los Angeles Willatory acted appid it was required under
the contract and did not manufacture delay to the project.
The developer could complete construction by the deadline of October eighth,
(06:11):
But because they were not acting in good faith or
fair dealing in accordance to the terms of the contract,
the intentional misconduct by the city LAWA made this lawsuit necessary.
The contractor claims the city altered drawing, stonewalled resolutions, refused payments,
(06:34):
and timeline extensions, and the list goes on and on,
and the contractor warns of potential catastrophic quants consequences.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
Catastrophic consequences like the skylink collapsing, malfunctioning.
Speaker 3 (06:51):
I mean, would some structural issues or no, he says.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
It would include the contract termination, so there would not
be any I guess completed a track or tram under
his watch and massive lender repayment. So that's the one
hundred and fifteen million dollars that the contractor had to
lend in order to keep the project going.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
And for borrow rather far right, So this would delay
the opening of this skylink for how long?
Speaker 3 (07:27):
Indefinitely?
Speaker 2 (07:28):
That I don't that, I don't believe was mentioned. I
simply just read the contract and some of the run.
I don't know that it was mentioned that it would
delay it for how long. I mean, it's already been delayed.
This was supposed to take off years ago.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
Yeah, I've seen it a couple of times. I've seen
a test. I'll see one of the trams slowly rolling
down the rail. I haven't seen that in a while.
But earlier this year there was a day or two.
I was there and I saw it, so I thought
they were getting close.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
Yeah, this was well, it was supposed to be completed
by the World Cup. That is the whole design.
Speaker 3 (08:01):
I think they have two days, right.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
Yeah, good luck with us. But you know this, this
harkens back to the high speed rail, right. I mean,
it's just amazing the amount of money.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
I mean, is everybody in LA government just stupid? Or
is this part of the massive corruption? I mean, how
do you make that many errors? And it seems like
if what the contractor is saying, is true, a lot
of bad faith intentionally covering things up.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
Correct, You can't, you can't. You can't form a partnership
if your partner is acting in bad faith withholding things
from you, altering documents, not signing documents. That's certainly not
a business deal I would ever get in. And this
contract contractor is obviously regretting this decisions, as he filed
(08:55):
a lawsuit last week. But you know, government moves, whatever moves,
Government taxes it. Government doesn't move what the speedle do
all day exactly. It's just redundancy on top of incompetency.
You have this redundant incompetency.
Speaker 3 (09:15):
Megan barth thank you for coming on.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (09:18):
We will talk more about this.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
California Globe dot com another California rail disaster.
Speaker 4 (09:24):
You're listening to John Cobelt on demand from kf I
am six forty.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
I was just I was just looking up we had
Making Barth on from California Globe because there's another rail disaster.
And I don't mean a crash, I mean the way
high speed rail doesn't exist. We've we've had this this
rail system two and a quarter miles and like she said,
it's not even really a train, it's a it's a tram,
(09:55):
and it's to connect the terminals with parking garage and
metro trains and you know, a parking area for the
taxis and ubers and lifts all that, right, everything would
be connected, just like every other airport in the country
with any decent size, And we never had it. And
(10:16):
this is being built for years. It's way behind schedule,
it's way over budget. I couldn't believe what she said.
It was supposed to be a little less than two
billion dollars to build, and that included twenty five years
of maintenance, and now just building it is almost three
and a half billion, and it's still not done. And
(10:38):
now the reasons Megan was on was the contractor says,
I'm gonna be going out of business because the LA
World Airport Authority. Yeah, Los Angeles World Airports, they've either
(10:58):
they've made so many mistakes, made so many changes, covered
up so much nonsense that the contractor, it's called Links,
this might be going out of business. So they've sued
and a judge is going to hear the case later
this year. It's the Skylink Automated people mover why is
(11:19):
everything a disaster? So well, I was talking generically about
these agencies like the Los Angeles World Airports, right, who
is in charge of that? Well, it's some guy named
John Ackerman. He's the CEO. Why isn't he being grilled?
Isn't this something that you know? How you in Washington,
d C. It's like everybody who serves in an administration,
(11:43):
no matter whose administration, ends up getting grilled before Senate
and House committees about one thing or another. Why isn't
this guy getting grilled? Shouldn't the city council be saying,
what the what the f? John Ackerman, he's the CEO,
needs a shave. I'm looking at his publicity photo. I
(12:05):
don't like those guys. I don't like those guys with
their you know, three day cool stubble, open neck shirt.
Speaker 3 (12:13):
Don't like that look.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
Uh So, he used to have a u an executive
position with the Dallas Fort Worth Airport and I'm trying
to read his resume here. It just looks like a
lot of technological gobbledygook. But I don't understand why. I
don't understand why they can't get this train open, Tram.
(12:39):
It's not that complicated and it's a it's it's supposed
to only take ten minutes to go from beginning to end,
and there's supposed to be one showing up for you
every two minutes, just like every other airport. And I've
seen it tested a couple of times. But I guess
it's not finished. And why do they do business this way?
(13:00):
I'm not saying specifically Ackerman, but he's the CEO, right,
But I don't know what's going on, what kind of
a place is he running? Who's working under him? In fact,
I'm let me see who else is here. Jacob Adams,
Deputy executive director, Diego Alvarez, deputy executive director of Capitol Planning.
Speaker 3 (13:22):
It sounds like he'd be involved.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
Huh.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
Marla Believin's chief airport administrative officer, So why can't these
people get it done? Michael Christensen, chief airport development Officer.
I guess these are the stooges at the meetings. Why
why aren't they being hounded by the media saying what
are you doing? Why is it a billion and a
half over budget? Why is the contractor saying they're gonna
(13:47):
be going insolvent?
Speaker 3 (13:48):
Why?
Speaker 4 (13:48):
Why?
Speaker 2 (13:49):
Why?
Speaker 1 (13:49):
Why nobody asks making barth is covering this from Sacramento
all by yourself. I look at all these heads, they're
completely anonymous. I'm sure they've bounced around. Most of the
guys need to shave. I'm sure they bounced around from
one airport job to the other, and then they land
(14:11):
in LA and everybody gets stupid.
Speaker 3 (14:14):
I don't know. All right, we've got a lot more
coming up.
Speaker 4 (14:23):
You're listening to John Cobel's on demand from KFI AM
six forty.
Speaker 3 (14:31):
KFI ain't six forty.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
We're stimulating talk radio live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
I don't know how many other slogans we have. You
watch this on YouTube live right now.
Speaker 3 (14:42):
I do know that.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
And we'll be on till six and the podcast they're
released after six o'clock. We just went through some of
the colossal stupidity of the people running the Los Angeles
World Airport system at LAX because the people mover.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
It.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
See, the whole thing is stalled out. Its supposed to
be open for the World Cup, and now the contractor
is suing, claiming they're headed for insolvency because of the
idiocy of the executives at the LA World Airport. Here
is more government worker idiocy.
Speaker 3 (15:20):
Again, I.
Speaker 1 (15:23):
Guess the bottom ten percent end up working in government,
whether it's clerical or executive physicians, it's the bottom ten percent,
and you end up with, I guess, a critical mass
of bottom ten percenters and eventually the whole system collapses. Now,
the DMV has been a cesspool of the worst government
(15:44):
workers for a long time. It's always been a joke.
Here's the latest atrocity. According to the La Times, the
DMV has sent letters to eleven thousand drivers who had
passed the written test saying that, well, you didn't pass
the written test and you have to retake, claiming abnormalities
(16:05):
were detected in their results.
Speaker 3 (16:06):
Now, what would that possibly be? Abnormalities? I when you
go take the test, aren't you How do they do it?
Speaker 5 (16:15):
I haven't done it in I don't even know how
many years.
Speaker 3 (16:21):
Because is it electronic? Are you on a screen or
is you filling?
Speaker 1 (16:25):
Uh?
Speaker 3 (16:26):
I don't know. I'm I'm I have no idea.
Speaker 6 (16:28):
I got my driver's license last week. So it's a
it's a test. You go in, it's a screen, maybe
thirty forty questions.
Speaker 3 (16:37):
But is it like you have to fill in uh?
A circle? You got to fill in a circle.
Speaker 6 (16:41):
Yeah, you click on it or so, how could they
be your regularities for that?
Speaker 1 (16:47):
It's so at people who eleven thousand people are upset
uh and they don't know why.
Speaker 3 (16:54):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (16:56):
DMV spokesperson says these irregularities are test taker related. There's
I'm saying the test takers cheated, and I don't know
how you can cheat. They said, it's not a technical issue,
it's not an artificial intelligence malfunction. Well, they had no
real intelligence there. They did routine internal monitoring. Some of
(17:18):
the individuals may have tried to circumvent the testing process
using various cheating methods.
Speaker 3 (17:24):
Well, I mean, how do you cheat?
Speaker 6 (17:26):
I don't know, Clay, you know, well, I did fail
it the first time I took it. The first time
it said you did not pass. I go, okay, can
I take it again? They go, yeah, I took it again.
But it tells you every time you get a question
wrong with the right answer is.
Speaker 3 (17:44):
So, and then you can correct the answer.
Speaker 6 (17:46):
By the time I took the second test, I knew
all the answers.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
Juwan Kim said she was shocked she got a DMV
letter almost a year after she had passed the exam.
She's a Korean IgG immigrant. Her second language is English,
and she said she studied and then she went to
take the Fullerton DMV test after getting the letter, and
somebody stood over her the entire time, constantly looking and watching,
(18:15):
and she failed, and they canceled her license on the spot.
And they never told her why the original test was invalidated.
That's the thing. They canceled these these licenses, said you know,
these tests are invalidated, but never explained why. David spect
(18:35):
retook his test he got the DMV letter. He thinks
it was flagged because he completed it quickly, and he
completed the second test quickly.
Speaker 3 (18:48):
I guess they're not used to people.
Speaker 5 (18:51):
It has to be a cheating thing, and people are
using AI. I'm assuming how answer the questions.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
I don't know.
Speaker 5 (18:57):
If you have your phone, no one's if no one
is standing over you, you can you can ask your phone.
Speaker 1 (19:04):
So why don't they have somebody like we had in school,
just somebody looking around to make sure nobody's got a
phone or an iPad.
Speaker 5 (19:11):
So maybe those people aren't coming to work.
Speaker 3 (19:13):
They don't have enough people.
Speaker 1 (19:14):
Oh yeah, that's right. Maybe they're trying to monitor tests
by working from home.
Speaker 5 (19:19):
Yes, remotely.
Speaker 1 (19:20):
Yes, they're in their underwear and fluffy SIPs slippers at
the kitchen table. Spec says, at the end of the day,
they just punish people or either fast text takers or
know the material. Well, isn't that bizarre If you actually
studied and you're good at memorizing the answers, which is
the whole point, right, The only way to pass a
(19:44):
test is to study and memorize the answers. Well, then
you do it. But if you're you're too good at it,
then they say, well you cheated.
Speaker 3 (19:50):
Well not.
Speaker 1 (19:52):
Only the government can come up with this, because the
government's built with stupid people, and a smart person entering
a stupid person's world.
Speaker 3 (19:59):
Good block.
Speaker 5 (20:04):
Unless people really did geat.
Speaker 1 (20:06):
Yeah, I just unless. Unless maybe I'm being stupid. Maybe
I'm being a dunce. I I mean, I know I
have a few friends and their professors or assistants at colleges,
and they know the kids have their their an iPad
(20:30):
or they have a phone tucked away in their book,
And I always say, well, then then don't well, then
monitor it and take the phone away. Why is that
so hard? I feel like we've been fighting this fight
for fifteen years. So don't allow phones, don't allow iPads.
There was a whole story the other day how a professor.
(20:50):
I don't know if I just did this story on
the air. I was telling it to somebody. Maybe sometimes
I can't remember what's real and what's on the show.
But like ninety six percent of the kids either passed
or the average score was ninety six because they'd all
used DAYI. They went home and used day I, and so, well,
don't use it, don't let him take the test at home.
Speaker 3 (21:11):
All that.
Speaker 1 (21:12):
Now we're gonna do something drastic. We're gonna hold the
test in the classroom.
Speaker 3 (21:18):
WHOA, what do you know? I gotta find that story.
Yeah you didn't.
Speaker 1 (21:23):
No, I didn't do it on the air. I saved it,
and I never got around to it. I probably threw
it out. I'll find it. If I can find it,
I'll do it next. Because that was eye opening, because
this was like a high end school and the professors
were stumped as to what to do here.
Speaker 3 (21:36):
It's like, just do it. How are you stumped? I
don't know.
Speaker 1 (21:41):
I don't know any of this. I don't think college
professors are as bright as they used to be either.
I don't know where the smart people went. You well,
you know what, they all went to tech, Like every
smart person in America, every young smart guy went into
tech and and and they're not distributed through the rest
of the industries anymore.
Speaker 4 (22:00):
You're listening to John Cobels on demand from KFI AM
six forty.
Speaker 1 (22:06):
Can't find AM six forty more stimulating talk radio. Moistline
is Friday, eight seven seven Moist eighty six, eight seven
seven Moist eighty six. Coming up after five o'clock, we
are going to talk to Anne Marie Schubert, the new
president and CEO of the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation, former
(22:28):
District attorney for the Sacramento County, and what she's trying
to do filing a lawsuit to block new parole regulations.
You know, in most states, when murderers are sentenced to
(22:49):
life in prison, life without parole, they serve life without parole.
But in California, as you know, they can retire as
a prisoner and get out relatively early. So Anne Marie
Schubert wants to end this garbage. We'll talk to her
about it. Coming up.
Speaker 3 (23:09):
All right, I found the story. It's it's what I said.
Speaker 1 (23:13):
This is Brown University an economics professor named Robert Serrano.
This is in a magazine called Inside Higher Education. So
Professor Serrano has this class called Welfare Economics and Social
Choice Theory, which by itself sounds like, no, it.
Speaker 3 (23:32):
Wouldn't be a.
Speaker 5 (23:35):
I wouldn't take that class.
Speaker 1 (23:36):
Yeah, you're not going to get a useful job with this. Well,
he advertised, I guess he wanted to goose up the
enrollment that you're gonna get take home exams, okay, and
ended up with triple the normal enrollment.
Speaker 3 (23:52):
Triple. Of course, he's easy A. It's an easy A.
Speaker 1 (23:56):
And everybody said, oh, then I'll take the home the
exam home and run it through AI exactly, and that's
what they did. The average grade on the midterm exam
was a ninety six.
Speaker 3 (24:07):
Ninety six should have been a hundred. Well there's always
one dope who can't.
Speaker 5 (24:11):
Doesn't want figure out chat.
Speaker 3 (24:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (24:14):
Yeah, So he was alarmed by the consistent all the
grades were so hiss brown, Professor Roberto Serrano, I don't know,
maybe a di guy. Serrano challenged the class to prove
him wrong by taking an in class final. The class
(24:37):
responded with silence, and then eighteen students dropped the class
nine students. Nine more students stayed but didn't take the
final exam. So among the students that took the exam,
three of them got a zero. The average score was
(24:59):
forty eight. That used to be the average final exam
score was never below sixty five.
Speaker 3 (25:07):
And then he would grade everybody on a curve.
Speaker 1 (25:12):
Very few students scored the way they did on the
mid term, so he voided out the mid term and
said the final exam would be worth eighty percent.
Speaker 3 (25:25):
Of the grade. That's not fair.
Speaker 5 (25:27):
That's bait and switch because he said one thing, and
that's why people enrolled.
Speaker 1 (25:32):
Yeah, and he was too stupid to realize what would happen. Also,
any student that scored forty or higher pasted forty. What
did forty become the passing grade? I remember being sixty
or seventy when I was in school.
Speaker 3 (25:49):
I feel jipped.
Speaker 1 (25:50):
Yeah, that was the old century, back in the you know,
the nineteen hundreds.
Speaker 3 (25:53):
Where they had stand days. The olden days, you had
to get a sixty year of seventy.
Speaker 1 (25:58):
Now it's a forty, and nineteen students failed anyway, they
couldn't even get the forty.
Speaker 3 (26:11):
And you know, virtually everybody's using AI. There's just that half.
I mean, of course you have to know that.
Speaker 5 (26:21):
Yeah, I would, I got to take home test, I
do all my homework. I'd use jat GPT.
Speaker 1 (26:27):
So I know three people who work at universities and
they teach classes, and they've all told me the exactly
the exact same story separately, that everything's AI. Everybody is
in effect cheating. And my response is like, so, why
doesn't the university ban this practice? Just make them sit
(26:49):
in the room with pen and paper and they have
to write their essay by hand, or they have to
do the multiple choice by hand, or whatever the test
is about. This is so complicated. Clearly everybody's gonna cheat.
Almost everybody's gonna cheat.
Speaker 5 (27:06):
Everybody because if you don't, you're it's an unfair advantage
to everybody else.
Speaker 1 (27:11):
Right if you're if you're competing with everyone who's cheating,
and you end up with a ninety five and they
have one hundred, they're gonna grate on a.
Speaker 3 (27:18):
Curve and you're gonna be You're gonna be the failure.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
Yep, Brown University IVY League probably eight thousand a year.
All Right, we come back, we're gonna talk about Well,
we're gonna talk to Anne Marie Schubert, president of the
Criminal Justice Legal Foundation. Enough with the murderers sentenced to life,
being retired and let out early. Debora Mark Live, KFI
(27:41):
twenty four hour Newsroom. You've been listening to The John
Cobelt Show podcast. You can always hear the show live
on KFI AM six forty from three to six pm
every Monday through Friday, and of course anytime on demand
on the iHeartRadio app KFI Am six More stimulating talk
The John Kobylt Show News
Host
John Kobylt
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Betrayal Weekly
Betrayal Weekly is back for a new season. Every Thursday, Betrayal Weekly shares first-hand accounts of broken trust, shocking deceptions, and the trail of destruction they leave behind. Hosted by Andrea Gunning, this weekly ongoing series digs into real-life stories of betrayal and the aftermath. From stories of double lives to dark discoveries, these are cautionary tales and accounts of resilience against all odds. From the producers of the critically acclaimed Betrayal series, Betrayal Weekly drops new episodes every Thursday. If you would like to share your story, you can reach out to the Betrayal Team by emailing them at betrayalpod@gmail.com and follow us on Instagram at @betrayalpod and @glasspodcasts. Please join our Substack for additional exclusive content, curated book recommendations, and community discussions. Sign up FREE by clicking this link Beyond Betrayal Substack. Join our community dedicated to truth, resilience, and healing. Your voice matters! Be a part of our Betrayal journey on Substack.