August 7, 2026 • 30 mins
Hour 1 - Waymo robotaxis frustrate Los Angeles residents by taking parking spaces and blocking traffic. Guests' Sarah Jepson from SCAF's Chief Planning Office and Patrick Chandler from Metro join the show to discuss Metro offering up to $600 to drive less to expand driving reduction program. KFI's Heather Brooker also joins the show to discuss LAPD crackdown on hate crimes, as well as to talk about the mystery surrounding ex-Marine's possible motives and movements at Trump golf course.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
This is Monks and MARYL hosted by Michael Monks and
Chris Merril. This is Monks and Meryl demand kay.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Merrow damn.
Speaker 3 (00:16):
I.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
This is Monks and Meryl.
Speaker 4 (00:20):
So excited to have you on the radio.
Speaker 5 (00:22):
Hosted by Michael Monks and Chris Merril.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
On k f I Am six.
Speaker 5 (00:29):
It is kf I Am six forty live everywhere on
the iHeartRadio app. You've got Monks and Merrill. No Merril today,
just Monks. So let's have some fun together. You can
join our conversation anytime. Just open up that iHeartRadio app
and click on the talkback button. I will say, Merrill
is out, Jesse is out. So I'm joined today by
(00:51):
Mario on the big board and Richie, our producer.
Speaker 6 (00:53):
There.
Speaker 5 (00:53):
Of course Debra's in the newsroom, but where is Meryl.
All I can say is we know he's a resident
of past And then we get this very scary news
alert today there was a bomb threat at Huntington Hospital
in Pasadena. And this isn't This doesn't seem like one
of those situations where somebody called in something dumb, you know,
just to be annoying. The authorities are calling this an
(01:16):
extremist group known to law enforcement. So somewhere between the
end of yesterday's show and early this morning, just before
six o'clock, I think Chris Merrill was radicalized. And if
you know his whereabouts, please open up the iHeartRadio app
and click on that talkback button and let's bring him
to justice. I tell him the same thing I've told
(01:37):
all of my friends were pals. I love you, but
when the s hits the fan, I will take the
deal and testify against you. And he knows that, and
you can help me snitch on him. So it is
just Michael Monks today, all by myself and looking forward
to spending the next few hours with you. Lots of
stuff to talk about today on this bright, sunny Friday
in Southern California, We're going to talk about something that
(02:00):
I love to talk about, even though I know some
of you don't like that I spend so much time
on it, but I do believe it is the answer
to our traffic crisis in Southern California, and I wish
more of us would be a little more open minded
about maybe hopping on a bus or hopping on one
of the trains. While also conceding that I understand I
understand the trepidation. I understand the outrage about some of
(02:22):
the conditions in which we find ourselves should we take
public transportation around here? But La Metro is offering up
something special, and I'm wondering if you're interested in biting
on it. They're literally going to pay you money to
stop driving in your car and to hop on a
metro bus, a light rail train, a heavy rail subway.
(02:46):
And it's good money for families that are talking up
to two thousand dollars for five weeks, or six hundred
dollars for an individual. We're going to get into that
coming up on the other side of the next break.
There's some other things going on with a transit around here, though,
that I know people have mixed feelings about, and one
of those is those driverless vehicles, the WEAIMO. I've taken them.
(03:08):
They're weird. It is very weird to sit in a
car that has no driver, but you do see the
steering wheel moving when I drive around a WAYMO. They
tend to be mostly fine. They follow traffic rules to
a tee, but sometimes, as we've seen in news coverage,
they go a little haywire. They drive into crime scene investigations,
or they don't recognize that a road might be flooded
(03:30):
out and that causes a problem. They've also been the
target during protests to be set on fire. But when
you sit in a Weimo, if you haven't yet, when
you sit in a Weeimo, there little Jaguar sedans. They're nice.
They look mostly like a car. You get in it
and there's a steering wheel there that is moving with
no one touching it. There's the dashboard and all that stuff.
(03:51):
So there's some comfort in knowing that you're in a car,
even though it's nightmare fuel. I'm sure everyone has had
that dream, that horrible nightmare where maybe some things are
going wrong in your life. You're anxious, you've gone to sleep,
and suddenly you're in a car that's driving fast. You're
in the back, there's nobody driving it. Metaphor for the
conditions of your life, I suppose, But it is a car.
(04:13):
There's another one though, that could be coming to La streets.
It's called Zooks and it comes from Amazon. Weimo is
from Google and now another tech giant maybe throwing another
one of these things on the streets very soon. The
NHTSA has approved Amazon Zookes to start charging for rides
in their custom built cars. Now the emphasis here is
(04:36):
on the custom built, because this is not a Jaguar Sedan.
This is a car that was created specifically to be
a Zuus and it's apparently got no steering wheel at all,
and down the road it's not going to have brake
pedals either, And I'm curious about whether this increases the
level of trepidation people might have in driverless taxis. The
(04:57):
way this will work is you will sit in in
this box that Amazon has developed, and there are basically
two seats on one wall and two seats on the other,
and they're facing each other as if you were on
a bus and you're to drive down the street. No driver,
no steering wheel, no brake. See, at least in the way, MO,
you can comfort yourself if you need to to think,
if things go haywire, I could jump in that driver's
(05:20):
seat and at least steer it into a wall or
something to stop it. I don't know about the Zekes thing,
but it is possible that we'll see these very soon.
Zekes began mapping routes in the La Metro area already.
They were using safety drivers, but they have since transition
to autonomous testing. They will launch passenger service in Vegas
(05:40):
and San Francisco first, and they've got this custom built
Wheelis pod in Vegas and San Francisco before they start
opening commercial rines right here in southern California. Would you
do it? Let us know. Open up that iHeartRadio app,
click on the talkback button. Also want to know if
Metro could pay you to give up your car for
five weeks, get on a train, get on a bus, walk,
(06:03):
They're willing to pay you. We're gonna talk about that
coming up next, we'll be joined live by one of
the people organizing this event and see how it's gonna work.
That's next on Monks and Merril with just Monks Today.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
You're listening to Monks and Meryll on demand from KIM
six forty more stimulating talk.
Speaker 5 (06:23):
As I mentioned, Chris Merrill is out, but it so
happens that he is out after we get this bomb
threat reported in his city of Pasadena. I'm wondering if
Chris Merrill has somehow been radicalized and that's why we
don't see him today.
Speaker 7 (06:37):
I have to agree with you, Michael, because Chris is
from Michigan and Arizona, and being here in Arizona, we're
big on guns, so he just took a bigger leap
and started doing bombs. Yeh oh, well, what can you say?
It'd be kind of cool to hear from the radio
from prison.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
Can you do that remotely?
Speaker 5 (06:57):
I think if anybody could do radio from prison, it
would be the inmate Chris Merrill. Undoubtedly. Undoubtedly. So we're
going to talk a bit about this new initiative at
La Metro. You know, I'm a big fan of public transit,
while also qualifying that by saying, yes, we've got some
issues that we have to resolve with the system in
order to get other folks who have never given it
(07:17):
a try the spirit to jump on board. Well, would
some money help you? There is a new program that
Metro has launched and they are offering in this one
Car Challenge pilot program across LA County up to six
hundred dollars to drive less. And we're joined now by
Sarah Jebson, the Southern California Association of Government's Chief Planning officer,
(07:42):
to discuss this Metro program, as well as Patrick Chandler
from La Metro. Patrick, I will start with you. What
is the goal here? I mean, is this a bribe
to get people to start riding on our public transit system?
Speaker 3 (07:53):
Well, not a bribe, but it's definitely a said to
to get people to change the way that they travel
in LA. We signed this program the twenty twenty three
in Santa Monica with three hundred participates. Now we're expanding
in two thousand. So really it's an incentive for people
if they live near a metrorail or a bus line,
it gives them that a sense of to try a
different way today around.
Speaker 5 (08:12):
Check Patrick, tell is about that pilot program that you
did in Santa Monica back in twenty three. What does
the data show about people who are willing to forego
their car for a while in exchange for some cash.
Speaker 3 (08:24):
Well, the data showed a lot of positive a lot
of positive change. That over sixty percent of the people
who participated them the three hundred that they started to
increase their walking, their buiking in public transmit basically find
an alternative way to get to where they wanted to go.
Speaker 5 (08:38):
Sarah Jepson is the Southern California Association of Government's Chief
Planning Officer and joins US as well Sarah, your organization
is helping with this project through the grant that is
funding it. But what do you see as important about
folks giving this a second look.
Speaker 6 (08:56):
Yeah, we're really excited about this program here at SCAT.
As you probably know, SKAG is the regional planning organization
for Southern California, and we've work to develop a plan
across transportation, housing, an environment to make our quality of
life here better and this project is it's certainly a
great example of one of the programs that we have
(09:17):
in place to improve mobility in a more innovative way,
and really excited about the work that Metro is doing here.
Speaker 5 (09:24):
Who do you think is ideal for this program, Sarah?
Speaker 6 (09:27):
Will you know, we're really trying to encourage people who
have the option obviously of taking a car, to instead
think about taking public transit across our region. And thanks
to Metro, there's been a lot of great investments in
improving the transportation with the public transit system.
Speaker 8 (09:44):
So people who are you really close to our.
Speaker 6 (09:47):
Transit lines have better access to bike lanes, et cetera.
Speaker 8 (09:52):
You know, their prime candidates.
Speaker 6 (09:54):
For this program where they have really easy options to
switch from their trips from a car to a another
mobility option.
Speaker 5 (10:02):
You know, im, I'm a user of the public transit
system provided by La Metro and some of the other
local transit agencies across southern California, and I'm a fan,
But I am a fan who qualifies those remarks by saying,
I see some of the problems that might flat out
scare some people from ever giving it a shot. Patrick,
what do you expect anybody who takes you up on
(10:23):
this offer to experience, especially if they are a first
time rider of the bus more train system.
Speaker 3 (10:30):
Well, well, I think definitely the key thing that what
we've seen is that people have to give themselves a
little extra time that you know, I think a lot
of people know that when they get in their car
and they drive down the street, they're by themselves or
just with their families, and that they're going to get
to their location this certain amount of time. It might
be delayed if there was more and more traffic, congestion,
traffic visions, things like that. But you know, it might
(10:52):
take a little time to learn the system. You know,
the the D line of the curple line s some
might know it, there's the E line, or some might
call it the gold line is the used to So
you got to give yourself some time. So definitely go
to Metro did that is one way to learn the system.
That definitely give yourself more times as people make their change.
But definitely, you know, on our system, we have our
measurroumbassadors out there to help people get the way we
(11:14):
need to go. There. There they're not you know, they're there,
the Nia Cherts and the black Pants. We also have
us the three Officers.
Speaker 6 (11:20):
We also have.
Speaker 3 (11:21):
Eli sheriffs and the LAPD. We have a number of
places that we have you know, security or law enforcement
personnel out there to help people get to where they're
going to go.
Speaker 5 (11:29):
Sarah. The rail system specifically has become i mean pretty robust,
maybe not as much as people would like for a
city the size of Los Angeles. We've got a bit
of a late start on this compared to some of
our peer cities perhaps, but it has grown a lot lately.
Let's say, you know, if somebody left Los Angeles County
thirty years ago and came back and saw how much
(11:50):
rail there is, how would you explain how accessible the
system is now? And I mean how how it's made
the county and parts of the county more accessible to people.
Speaker 8 (12:01):
I mean, I think really if you just you know,
hop on a map and take a look at where
the system has expanded to, you'll see all the key
destinations that it now connects people too. And I think
the experience that we.
Speaker 6 (12:15):
Had with the World Cup and so many people coming
from different places and seeing how many destinations they.
Speaker 8 (12:24):
Were able in communities they were able to access with our.
Speaker 6 (12:26):
System, you know, I think it's just a really great
example of you know, if you come to this place
afresh and you just open your eyes to the transit system,
you'll really see that you can get most places you
need to go without getting into a car.
Speaker 5 (12:41):
All right, well, Sarah, let's explain how this program works.
For folks whose ears have been piqued by this conversation, think, yeah,
I could give up my car for five weeks, especially
if you're going to pay me. How does it work?
Or Patrick?
Speaker 8 (12:50):
Would you thank Patrick?
Speaker 5 (12:51):
Patrick? Would you be better to answer that question? How
the program works?
Speaker 3 (12:54):
Yeah? Exactly.
Speaker 9 (12:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (12:56):
So the key thing is that is, but you know,
basically those who can join, what we really are looking
at residents who are at least twenty one years old,
and so the challenge targets households that are that have
more than one car, and so he wants them to
leave that one car at home. And so uh so
for those five weeks, whether they leave that one car
home by choosing another way to get it to get around,
(13:19):
whether by the transit, blake, share of walking car polling,
any of their alternatives, they can ar. That's about one
hundred and twenty dollars a week, right, and so it's
a five week program, right challenge, So if they complete
but the terms of that by leaving that car home,
they will get it's about six hundred dollars for those
five weeks. And we're also working with the go Comma app,
(13:40):
so people will need if they if they are selected
to the program about to download the go Comma app
and that app will help automatically logs their autometer readings
famlessly and you know, as to keep track that then
we want to see that that change. Oh, there is
some there is some flexibility if you know, obviously if
you park in the streets and get to move your
car gustreet shaping, we have flexibility you know, about a
(14:01):
couple of miles or so, but not not much more
than that and so the key thing is they should
go to to sign up or learn a little bit more,
is to go to the one car dot go Karma
dot com. Just as a few minutes ago our project
team said, we have over thirty eight thirty eight hundred
applications and so obviously we're trying to get the two thousand.
(14:22):
Well of that will pull two thousand households that are
like qualified. And again that's some places where there's where
we have transit a lot of trans options, whether it's
Compton or Englewood or Pasadena or you know, Media and
Pomona obviously sent a monica other parts of LA. But
that's that's how it works. So that's the key thing
is that we should be a little website and sign up.
But we'll hope we're really I think we're We've got
(14:43):
a lot of covers and we got a lot of
people who are very interesting.
Speaker 5 (14:46):
Yeah, two thousand households are going to get this opportunity.
It sounds like it's not just the honor system. Then
there is that app that is involved, so what will
track some of the odominant So there will be some
policing of this. We'll look forward to see how this
goes for folks, and we'll look for to the data
that comes after. Again, you can find more information and
possibly if you want, sign up for this one car
(15:06):
challenge from La Metro at metro dot net slash one car.
Patrick Chandler from Metro and Sarah Jepson from the Southern
California Association of Governments. Thank you both so much for
taking the time to talk about the program. Good luck
with it.
Speaker 8 (15:21):
Thank thank you.
Speaker 5 (15:23):
There have been some hate crimes, of course in Los
Angeles County, and there are new details on what the
status of those is now. The DA, the LAPD, they
came out yesterday and say that the stats are improving,
but how many is too many? One We'll get into
that next as Monks and Merril continues.
Speaker 1 (15:42):
You're listening to Monks and Meryl on demand from KFI.
Speaker 5 (15:48):
Ami Merril is out today, he'll be back on Monday.
We'll get through this together. We were talking about whether
folks would be willing to ride more buses and trains
if Metro were to pay you, which is what the
agency is offering you to do. We got some varied
responses on that.
Speaker 10 (16:06):
So first off, all your weymo things people with a
brain do the same thing. Second, I'm glad that guy
brought up micro metro. That's the only form of transportation
I would ever use. And they also need to get
into more ride share and I'll take one of those
driverless taxis any day.
Speaker 5 (16:21):
There you go. Because we were also talking about the
new Amazon Zeos. It's different than the weymou. It's driverless,
but it's also steering, wheel liss and breakless, very very
strange looking vehicle.
Speaker 4 (16:32):
Ay, monks, No way would I ever I ever take
a train or a bus to work again. I used
to set out a bus stop and when a train
bus was supposed to be there, I would never get
show up, and then I get I'd be late to
the trains and I have to sit at the train
(16:55):
station forever.
Speaker 9 (16:57):
And no way, no way.
Speaker 4 (16:59):
I'm in my car for life.
Speaker 3 (17:00):
I love it. I know.
Speaker 5 (17:02):
Yeah, it's true when you turn to public transit, you
are at the mercy of a different schedule, and sometimes
they don't live up to the schedule. But if you're
in your car, it's a trade off as well in
my view, because a lot of times you're sitting in
terrible traffic and if I can get the same distance
within this similar timeframe, I might choose to take the
train because at least then I could not be screaming
(17:23):
at somebody. Somebody might be screaming at me, throwing poop
at me. But you know, I'm not worried about crashing.
Speaking of crashing, Heather Brooker from KFI News is with
us now. You were at this press conference yesterday. La
County District Attorney Nathan Hockman, LAPD chief Jim McDonald. They
both got together for this press conference at the Hall
of Justice downtown to outline what they were saying are
(17:44):
active prosecutions and expressing that they have zero tolerance for
hate crimes. So what's the status of hate crimes? Are
they saying they're down?
Speaker 9 (17:54):
I think they're saying that they are. Really the main
goal of the press conference was to say that they're
going after them more. He was really passionate about this. Hawkman, Yeah,
I was passionate about this. It was him local religious leaders.
Of course, Jim McDonald was there as well. He's saying
that his office is going to be going after people
who are doing hate crimes or committing hate crimes. And
(18:16):
this is one thing that I want to share with
you guys, of what he had to say.
Speaker 11 (18:19):
A life plus seven years sentence was given out against
mister Pitts to send an unmistakably clear message that if
you want to engage in hate crimes, if you want
to go ahead and attack members of our community based
on their nationality, their race, their ethnicity, if they are disabled,
they for a particular sexual orientation, we are going to
(18:41):
bring those charges against you. We're going to prove them
in a court of law. You will get convicted, you
will then be sentenced, and then you will spend some
serious time behind bars.
Speaker 5 (18:51):
That was Hawkman talking about this guy, Gerald Pitts, right Pits.
And it just so happens that this relates a bit
to our previous conversation.
Speaker 9 (18:57):
Unfortunatelyly so, this was a hate crime that happened in
twenty twenty three on an LA metro bus that resulted
in a life sentence there for Gerald Pitts, who he
was just talking about life plus seven years in state
prison with the possibility of parole. He sort of used
this as a launching off point to talk about all
of these other and he went through a bunch of
other cases that his office is actively pursuing. They range
(19:20):
in everything from religious hate crimes to ethnic and gender
hate crimes, transgender hate crimes, and he was basically coming
out and saying we have no tolerance for this, and
the McDonald stepped up to the mic and sort of
backed him up and said, we're also going to be
going after these types of crimes as well.
Speaker 5 (19:35):
This particular hate crime that ended up with a conviction
happened back in March of twenty twenty three. Someone named
Santos Taos Gonzales got on that Metro boss attempted to
walk past this guy Pitts and take a seat, and
Pitts got up started shouting racial slurs at him, and
Gonzales tried to leave the bus at the next stop
on Western Avenue and Exposition Boulevard to avoid this confrontation.
(19:57):
Pits just stabbed him multiple times in the abdomen, the
armed hand, in the face, and the victim fell out
of the bus. Pitts got down and kicked him repeatedly
in the head while continuing to yell racial slurs. Now,
Gonzalez did suffer life threatening injuries but survived. This is
a life sentence that seems to be enhanced because of
(20:18):
the hate crime component. Is that what Hawkman was saying.
Speaker 9 (20:20):
Yeah, that's absolutely what he's saying. And one other thing
that I thought was interesting about this during this press
conference that he had is he said that religious hate
crimes have gone up by the hundreds of persons here
in La County and that there is no talent tolerance
for any of that as well, he pointed out he
talked about the case that is currently pending against the
(20:43):
laped officer who recorded multiple phone calls and multiple had
multiple recordings with police officers who were in training at
the training facility. He's currently being charged with, you know,
illegal recording of his fellow officers. He talked about how
while he is not agree with what was being said
on these tapes that the officer recorded, they're still like
(21:07):
looking into it and why they were actually just the casetality.
Speaker 5 (21:10):
Merrily and I talked about earlier in the week that
involves a whistleblower, right, a guy who's positioning himself as
a whistleblower. He says, look, you know, I was working
in the training facility with other training officers and I
heard them saying a lot of you know, racial slurs
or anti gay things. And now that guy is actually
facing charges for the illegal recording of those remarks. So
(21:31):
that's what the chief weigh in on.
Speaker 9 (21:32):
Yeah, he did. And while he said, we disagree with
what they were saying on these tapes, the fact that
they were illegally recorded is the issue here. So it's
kind of a you know. He also went on to
say that if you are your First Amendment rights are protected.
You can say in this country whatever you want against
somebody that is protected. But the minute it becomes a
(21:55):
crime or you cross the line into breaking the law,
that's when his office is going to go after you.
He also said really quickly that mental health diversion in
violent hate crime cases will They're not going to tolerate
those anymore because those have been used to avoid traditional
prosecution through diversion. In one case in particular, prosecutors successfully
(22:16):
appealed a judge decision granting mental health diversion to an
attempted murder defendant, and that case is now going to
proceed towards trial, and he says, no longer do they
are they going to look at mental health diversion as
an excuse.
Speaker 5 (22:30):
There's another case out of our county here and it
involved President Trump, a very possibly scary situation. This guy
who was allegedly scoping out the golf course in ranchial Palace,
Veradays where President Trump was to speak, and we are
learning some more about the guy, but maybe not as
much as we would like. You spoke to us first
(22:52):
assistant US Attorney Bill A.
Speaker 10 (22:54):
Sale.
Speaker 5 (22:54):
We'll get into what he had to say about this
case and where this case stands now against this guy
out in ranchal palace Veradae guy from Downey who was
taken in federal custody. Will continue this conversation. Just ahead
on Monks in Maryland.
Speaker 1 (23:06):
You're listening to Monks and Meryl onto the air from
kf I AM six.
Speaker 5 (23:12):
Available anywhere on the IART Radio. Monks and Meryl. I'm
Michael Monks know Chris Merril today. He'll be back with
us on Monday. We do miss the big guy. We
were talking about Metro La Metro offering up families in
La County hundreds of dollars if they're willing to give
up their car for about five weeks and be honest,
and they're reporting through an app that they are riding
(23:34):
buses and trains and walking and not using that car.
Speaker 2 (23:38):
Michael, I gotta love how you guys do a story
about how you should get on the Metro and then
the follow up is a story about somebody getting collaubed
on the Metro. Come on, man, ain't nobody going to
get on the metro? We can't even afford the ammunition
to ride?
Speaker 5 (23:56):
Oh, you know, And this is what I always qualify
minenthusiasm for it. I know that, you know, Merrill refuses
to get on the trains, and I give him a
hard time for that, but he gives me a hard
time for my anabashed cheerleading for it, which neither of
those things is accurate. He just doesn't like it. I
recognize that it's full of problems, and there are times
(24:16):
that it's flat out dangerous. Obviously, it can be literally dangerous,
almost deadly for the person involved in that hate crime.
Other times you just kind of feel uncomfortable on it.
And that's what I always talk to the agency about.
It's like, you've got to give the perception that you're
going to get to your destination safely, and that is
(24:37):
the most important thing. Make me feel safe while I'm
on and I'm joined by kfi's Heather Brooker here, But do.
Speaker 9 (24:43):
You think that that's because we don't tell the stories
of the hundreds, if not thousands of writers every day
that write it just fine and they they're not hurt
or harmed in any way. We only focus on the
bad stuff. That's our job.
Speaker 5 (24:55):
I don't know that that's well maybe now now that
I'm not in the newsroom. I was in there and
every month I followed the board meetings, and as part
of that coverage, you would get the updates on the
numbers and we would report a transit riders they're up
nine percent this month, or Metro says it's a record breaking,
you know, increase year over year. We were covering all
(25:15):
of that, but we shouldn't have to pat them on
the back for doing the bare minimum of what we
funded them to do with significant billions of dollars. You
need to keep us safe while we're on it.
Speaker 9 (25:27):
I feel like I want to hear from people who
regularly ride the Metro safely and have had no issues.
Speaker 5 (25:34):
I don't know that you'll find anybody who has had
no issues depending on how we define issues.
Speaker 9 (25:37):
Well, I mean like, were you stabbed?
Speaker 5 (25:40):
Well, did it smell like P?
Speaker 9 (25:41):
I'm smother me. A lot of places like P in La.
Speaker 5 (25:46):
You weren't a place that doesn't smell like p or
at least the president was, because it's a very nice
part of our area, even though it does have some
infrastructure problems. Rancho Palos Vera days and the Trump National
Golf Club. The President was in town to speak to
Republicans there raise some money. But so is some other
guy apparently, and a few days before the President's arrival.
His name is Janine john Tail. He's thirty eight years old.
(26:08):
He's a marine veteran. He is from Downey. He was
arrested because he had illegal weapons, body armor notebooks containing
what investigators call concerning statements. And you got to talk
to First Assistant US Attorney Bill A. Saley about this guy.
What did you learn?
Speaker 4 (26:24):
Yeah?
Speaker 9 (26:25):
I did, And here's what he had to say. I
want to play a little piece of our conversation about
this guy and why they moved in so quickly even
though nothing actually happened. This is why they said the
hairs were raised up and they were concerned. So this
is what he had to say.
Speaker 3 (26:40):
Well, he was behaving very oddly.
Speaker 12 (26:42):
I mean, he was there at the golf course. He
was conducting what he claims was surveillance on the golf
course and on the agents he identified himself as an
employee of the State Department. He's not an employee of
the State Department. And so just very suspicious behavior. And
again he had a firearm in his possession, So all
that obviously is going to raise red flags with law enforcement,
(27:03):
and they conducted at their own investigation and ultimately he
was found to have unlawful firearms.
Speaker 5 (27:10):
So that's what he was arrested for.
Speaker 12 (27:11):
And I believe he was also wanted for a robbery
out of El Segundo, so he had other issues besides
just this event. But we have charged him federally with
possession of an unregistered short barrel rifle.
Speaker 3 (27:23):
That's what he's currently charged with.
Speaker 5 (27:25):
It's interesting that that's the charge. I mean, that sounds
like a legit charge. But the concern was the fact
that he was engaging in his behavior just before the
President were to show up at this area.
Speaker 9 (27:36):
Yeah, he was being a little squirrely. It sounds like
acting a little suspicious in this area. And so of
course when anytime the president or any a high profile
figure is coming to town or is, especially with President
Trump and all of the history and the things that
have happened with him. They were concerns. They wanted to
ask questions, and they moved in and they found this.
(27:59):
I don't think that they found anything else. They're still
kind of, I think, looking into it. He has not
appeared in court yet. We're keeping an eye on that
for these official charges and formal court appearance.
Speaker 5 (28:09):
But yeah, he was supposed. We thought he was going
to be in court earlier this week. Yeah, we thought
there was going to be a press conference earlier this week,
and we originally said everything was canceled. The court appearance
was canceled, the press conference was canceled. A Saley says,
the court appearance was not canceled.
Speaker 9 (28:23):
It was never scheduled. It was never on the docket
to begin with. I don't know, you know where that
actually started. I think, you know, we have like some
news services that we have here in the newsroom, and
they sent out a report saying he was going to
be in court and then they were like, no, it's canceled,
and so it was like, what is going on? So
I called him and I said what is going on?
And he said he was never on the docket to
begin with. It just hasn't happened yet, but it will okay.
Speaker 5 (28:45):
Heather Brooker is also a news anchor here in kfi's newsroom,
and you've got an anchor shift tomorrow morning. You'll be
on the.
Speaker 9 (28:53):
Air, Yes me with Dean Sharp and Bill Handle on
Saturday Morning's a good time.
Speaker 5 (28:56):
And of course you're the host of KFI Live with
Heather Brooker Sundays at noon. What's the big show this weekend?
Speaker 9 (29:01):
So this week we are going to be talking a
little bit more about what you and I just talked
about here with Bill A. Saley and you know Hawkman's
hate crime stuff. We're going to do a little bit
deeper dive on some of these. But also we're going
to go behind the scenes at the Hollywood Bowl to
an area that has never really been seen before by
the public. And I got to go in. I got
(29:22):
to get video of.
Speaker 5 (29:22):
A special bathroom.
Speaker 9 (29:23):
It is a special bathroom for the stars. Obviously good.
Speaker 5 (29:28):
Well, we'll look forward to that. Heather Brooker, KFI Live
Noon on Sundays. I hope you have a great weekend,
even though you have to work. Thanks Michael, Mom, you
got it. The weather is feeling a little bit better today.
We're not out of the woods.
Speaker 3 (29:39):
Yet.
Speaker 5 (29:40):
In fact, we've talked about El Nino. We're in the
midst of it, no question about it. Do I know
entirely what that means, Absolutely not, But a lot of
very smart people are saying the worst is yet to come.
In fact, as the year drags on, as we finish
up twenty twenty six, we could see some record c
levels across the California coast that could mean flooding. We
(30:04):
could see more rain, and this humidity might be hanging
around a little bit longer than we like. Details on
what this warning about a strong super Elmino means for
southern California that's coming up at the top of the
hour as Monks and Merrill rolls on on this Friday
on KFI AM six forty, live everywhere on the iHeartRadio.
Speaker 1 (30:25):
APPKFI on demand.
Speaker 5 (30:29):
You've been listening to Monks and Merrill here the show
live weekdays from noon to three on KFI AM six
forty and anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app.
This is Monks and MARYL hosted by Michael Monks and
Chris Merril. This is Monks and Meryl demand kay.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Merrow damn.
Speaker 3 (00:16):
I.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
This is Monks and Meryl.
Speaker 4 (00:20):
So excited to have you on the radio.
Speaker 5 (00:22):
Hosted by Michael Monks and Chris Merril.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
On k f I Am six.
Speaker 5 (00:29):
It is kf I Am six forty live everywhere on
the iHeartRadio app. You've got Monks and Merrill. No Merril today,
just Monks. So let's have some fun together. You can
join our conversation anytime. Just open up that iHeartRadio app
and click on the talkback button. I will say, Merrill
is out, Jesse is out. So I'm joined today by
(00:51):
Mario on the big board and Richie, our producer.
Speaker 6 (00:53):
There.
Speaker 5 (00:53):
Of course Debra's in the newsroom, but where is Meryl.
All I can say is we know he's a resident
of past And then we get this very scary news
alert today there was a bomb threat at Huntington Hospital
in Pasadena. And this isn't This doesn't seem like one
of those situations where somebody called in something dumb, you know,
just to be annoying. The authorities are calling this an
(01:16):
extremist group known to law enforcement. So somewhere between the
end of yesterday's show and early this morning, just before
six o'clock, I think Chris Merrill was radicalized. And if
you know his whereabouts, please open up the iHeartRadio app
and click on that talkback button and let's bring him
to justice. I tell him the same thing I've told
(01:37):
all of my friends were pals. I love you, but
when the s hits the fan, I will take the
deal and testify against you. And he knows that, and
you can help me snitch on him. So it is
just Michael Monks today, all by myself and looking forward
to spending the next few hours with you. Lots of
stuff to talk about today on this bright, sunny Friday
in Southern California, We're going to talk about something that
(02:00):
I love to talk about, even though I know some
of you don't like that I spend so much time
on it, but I do believe it is the answer
to our traffic crisis in Southern California, and I wish
more of us would be a little more open minded
about maybe hopping on a bus or hopping on one
of the trains. While also conceding that I understand I
understand the trepidation. I understand the outrage about some of
(02:22):
the conditions in which we find ourselves should we take
public transportation around here? But La Metro is offering up
something special, and I'm wondering if you're interested in biting
on it. They're literally going to pay you money to
stop driving in your car and to hop on a
metro bus, a light rail train, a heavy rail subway.
(02:46):
And it's good money for families that are talking up
to two thousand dollars for five weeks, or six hundred
dollars for an individual. We're going to get into that
coming up on the other side of the next break.
There's some other things going on with a transit around here, though,
that I know people have mixed feelings about, and one
of those is those driverless vehicles, the WEAIMO. I've taken them.
(03:08):
They're weird. It is very weird to sit in a
car that has no driver, but you do see the
steering wheel moving when I drive around a WAYMO. They
tend to be mostly fine. They follow traffic rules to
a tee, but sometimes, as we've seen in news coverage,
they go a little haywire. They drive into crime scene investigations,
or they don't recognize that a road might be flooded
(03:30):
out and that causes a problem. They've also been the
target during protests to be set on fire. But when
you sit in a Weimo, if you haven't yet, when
you sit in a Weeimo, there little Jaguar sedans. They're nice.
They look mostly like a car. You get in it
and there's a steering wheel there that is moving with
no one touching it. There's the dashboard and all that stuff.
(03:51):
So there's some comfort in knowing that you're in a car,
even though it's nightmare fuel. I'm sure everyone has had
that dream, that horrible nightmare where maybe some things are
going wrong in your life. You're anxious, you've gone to sleep,
and suddenly you're in a car that's driving fast. You're
in the back, there's nobody driving it. Metaphor for the
conditions of your life, I suppose, But it is a car.
(04:13):
There's another one though, that could be coming to La streets.
It's called Zooks and it comes from Amazon. Weimo is
from Google and now another tech giant maybe throwing another
one of these things on the streets very soon. The
NHTSA has approved Amazon Zookes to start charging for rides
in their custom built cars. Now the emphasis here is
(04:36):
on the custom built, because this is not a Jaguar Sedan.
This is a car that was created specifically to be
a Zuus and it's apparently got no steering wheel at all,
and down the road it's not going to have brake
pedals either, And I'm curious about whether this increases the
level of trepidation people might have in driverless taxis. The
(04:57):
way this will work is you will sit in in
this box that Amazon has developed, and there are basically
two seats on one wall and two seats on the other,
and they're facing each other as if you were on
a bus and you're to drive down the street. No driver,
no steering wheel, no brake. See, at least in the way, MO,
you can comfort yourself if you need to to think,
if things go haywire, I could jump in that driver's
(05:20):
seat and at least steer it into a wall or
something to stop it. I don't know about the Zekes thing,
but it is possible that we'll see these very soon.
Zekes began mapping routes in the La Metro area already.
They were using safety drivers, but they have since transition
to autonomous testing. They will launch passenger service in Vegas
(05:40):
and San Francisco first, and they've got this custom built
Wheelis pod in Vegas and San Francisco before they start
opening commercial rines right here in southern California. Would you
do it? Let us know. Open up that iHeartRadio app,
click on the talkback button. Also want to know if
Metro could pay you to give up your car for
five weeks, get on a train, get on a bus, walk,
(06:03):
They're willing to pay you. We're gonna talk about that
coming up next, we'll be joined live by one of
the people organizing this event and see how it's gonna work.
That's next on Monks and Merril with just Monks Today.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
You're listening to Monks and Meryll on demand from KIM
six forty more stimulating talk.
Speaker 5 (06:23):
As I mentioned, Chris Merrill is out, but it so
happens that he is out after we get this bomb
threat reported in his city of Pasadena. I'm wondering if
Chris Merrill has somehow been radicalized and that's why we
don't see him today.
Speaker 7 (06:37):
I have to agree with you, Michael, because Chris is
from Michigan and Arizona, and being here in Arizona, we're
big on guns, so he just took a bigger leap
and started doing bombs. Yeh oh, well, what can you say?
It'd be kind of cool to hear from the radio
from prison.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
Can you do that remotely?
Speaker 5 (06:57):
I think if anybody could do radio from prison, it
would be the inmate Chris Merrill. Undoubtedly. Undoubtedly. So we're
going to talk a bit about this new initiative at
La Metro. You know, I'm a big fan of public transit,
while also qualifying that by saying, yes, we've got some
issues that we have to resolve with the system in
order to get other folks who have never given it
(07:17):
a try the spirit to jump on board. Well, would
some money help you? There is a new program that
Metro has launched and they are offering in this one
Car Challenge pilot program across LA County up to six
hundred dollars to drive less. And we're joined now by
Sarah Jebson, the Southern California Association of Government's Chief Planning officer,
(07:42):
to discuss this Metro program, as well as Patrick Chandler
from La Metro. Patrick, I will start with you. What
is the goal here? I mean, is this a bribe
to get people to start riding on our public transit system?
Speaker 3 (07:53):
Well, not a bribe, but it's definitely a said to
to get people to change the way that they travel
in LA. We signed this program the twenty twenty three
in Santa Monica with three hundred participates. Now we're expanding
in two thousand. So really it's an incentive for people
if they live near a metrorail or a bus line,
it gives them that a sense of to try a
different way today around.
Speaker 5 (08:12):
Check Patrick, tell is about that pilot program that you
did in Santa Monica back in twenty three. What does
the data show about people who are willing to forego
their car for a while in exchange for some cash.
Speaker 3 (08:24):
Well, the data showed a lot of positive a lot
of positive change. That over sixty percent of the people
who participated them the three hundred that they started to
increase their walking, their buiking in public transmit basically find
an alternative way to get to where they wanted to go.
Speaker 5 (08:38):
Sarah Jepson is the Southern California Association of Government's Chief
Planning Officer and joins US as well Sarah, your organization
is helping with this project through the grant that is
funding it. But what do you see as important about
folks giving this a second look.
Speaker 6 (08:56):
Yeah, we're really excited about this program here at SCAT.
As you probably know, SKAG is the regional planning organization
for Southern California, and we've work to develop a plan
across transportation, housing, an environment to make our quality of
life here better and this project is it's certainly a
great example of one of the programs that we have
(09:17):
in place to improve mobility in a more innovative way,
and really excited about the work that Metro is doing here.
Speaker 5 (09:24):
Who do you think is ideal for this program, Sarah?
Speaker 6 (09:27):
Will you know, we're really trying to encourage people who
have the option obviously of taking a car, to instead
think about taking public transit across our region. And thanks
to Metro, there's been a lot of great investments in
improving the transportation with the public transit system.
Speaker 8 (09:44):
So people who are you really close to our.
Speaker 6 (09:47):
Transit lines have better access to bike lanes, et cetera.
Speaker 8 (09:52):
You know, their prime candidates.
Speaker 6 (09:54):
For this program where they have really easy options to
switch from their trips from a car to a another
mobility option.
Speaker 5 (10:02):
You know, im, I'm a user of the public transit
system provided by La Metro and some of the other
local transit agencies across southern California, and I'm a fan,
But I am a fan who qualifies those remarks by saying,
I see some of the problems that might flat out
scare some people from ever giving it a shot. Patrick,
what do you expect anybody who takes you up on
(10:23):
this offer to experience, especially if they are a first
time rider of the bus more train system.
Speaker 3 (10:30):
Well, well, I think definitely the key thing that what
we've seen is that people have to give themselves a
little extra time that you know, I think a lot
of people know that when they get in their car
and they drive down the street, they're by themselves or
just with their families, and that they're going to get
to their location this certain amount of time. It might
be delayed if there was more and more traffic, congestion,
traffic visions, things like that. But you know, it might
(10:52):
take a little time to learn the system. You know,
the the D line of the curple line s some
might know it, there's the E line, or some might
call it the gold line is the used to So
you got to give yourself some time. So definitely go
to Metro did that is one way to learn the system.
That definitely give yourself more times as people make their change.
But definitely, you know, on our system, we have our
measurroumbassadors out there to help people get the way we
(11:14):
need to go. There. There they're not you know, they're there,
the Nia Cherts and the black Pants. We also have
us the three Officers.
Speaker 6 (11:20):
We also have.
Speaker 3 (11:21):
Eli sheriffs and the LAPD. We have a number of
places that we have you know, security or law enforcement
personnel out there to help people get to where they're
going to go.
Speaker 5 (11:29):
Sarah. The rail system specifically has become i mean pretty robust,
maybe not as much as people would like for a
city the size of Los Angeles. We've got a bit
of a late start on this compared to some of
our peer cities perhaps, but it has grown a lot lately.
Let's say, you know, if somebody left Los Angeles County
thirty years ago and came back and saw how much
(11:50):
rail there is, how would you explain how accessible the
system is now? And I mean how how it's made
the county and parts of the county more accessible to people.
Speaker 8 (12:01):
I mean, I think really if you just you know,
hop on a map and take a look at where
the system has expanded to, you'll see all the key
destinations that it now connects people too. And I think
the experience that we.
Speaker 6 (12:15):
Had with the World Cup and so many people coming
from different places and seeing how many destinations they.
Speaker 8 (12:24):
Were able in communities they were able to access with our.
Speaker 6 (12:26):
System, you know, I think it's just a really great
example of you know, if you come to this place
afresh and you just open your eyes to the transit system,
you'll really see that you can get most places you
need to go without getting into a car.
Speaker 5 (12:41):
All right, well, Sarah, let's explain how this program works.
For folks whose ears have been piqued by this conversation, think, yeah,
I could give up my car for five weeks, especially
if you're going to pay me. How does it work?
Or Patrick?
Speaker 8 (12:50):
Would you thank Patrick?
Speaker 5 (12:51):
Patrick? Would you be better to answer that question? How
the program works?
Speaker 3 (12:54):
Yeah? Exactly.
Speaker 9 (12:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (12:56):
So the key thing is that is, but you know,
basically those who can join, what we really are looking
at residents who are at least twenty one years old,
and so the challenge targets households that are that have
more than one car, and so he wants them to
leave that one car at home. And so uh so
for those five weeks, whether they leave that one car
home by choosing another way to get it to get around,
(13:19):
whether by the transit, blake, share of walking car polling,
any of their alternatives, they can ar. That's about one
hundred and twenty dollars a week, right, and so it's
a five week program, right challenge, So if they complete
but the terms of that by leaving that car home,
they will get it's about six hundred dollars for those
five weeks. And we're also working with the go Comma app,
(13:40):
so people will need if they if they are selected
to the program about to download the go Comma app
and that app will help automatically logs their autometer readings
famlessly and you know, as to keep track that then
we want to see that that change. Oh, there is
some there is some flexibility if you know, obviously if
you park in the streets and get to move your
car gustreet shaping, we have flexibility you know, about a
(14:01):
couple of miles or so, but not not much more
than that and so the key thing is they should
go to to sign up or learn a little bit more,
is to go to the one car dot go Karma
dot com. Just as a few minutes ago our project
team said, we have over thirty eight thirty eight hundred
applications and so obviously we're trying to get the two thousand.
(14:22):
Well of that will pull two thousand households that are
like qualified. And again that's some places where there's where
we have transit a lot of trans options, whether it's
Compton or Englewood or Pasadena or you know, Media and
Pomona obviously sent a monica other parts of LA. But
that's that's how it works. So that's the key thing
is that we should be a little website and sign up.
But we'll hope we're really I think we're We've got
(14:43):
a lot of covers and we got a lot of
people who are very interesting.
Speaker 5 (14:46):
Yeah, two thousand households are going to get this opportunity.
It sounds like it's not just the honor system. Then
there is that app that is involved, so what will
track some of the odominant So there will be some
policing of this. We'll look forward to see how this
goes for folks, and we'll look for to the data
that comes after. Again, you can find more information and
possibly if you want, sign up for this one car
(15:06):
challenge from La Metro at metro dot net slash one car.
Patrick Chandler from Metro and Sarah Jepson from the Southern
California Association of Governments. Thank you both so much for
taking the time to talk about the program. Good luck
with it.
Speaker 8 (15:21):
Thank thank you.
Speaker 5 (15:23):
There have been some hate crimes, of course in Los
Angeles County, and there are new details on what the
status of those is now. The DA, the LAPD, they
came out yesterday and say that the stats are improving,
but how many is too many? One We'll get into
that next as Monks and Merril continues.
Speaker 1 (15:42):
You're listening to Monks and Meryl on demand from KFI.
Speaker 5 (15:48):
Ami Merril is out today, he'll be back on Monday.
We'll get through this together. We were talking about whether
folks would be willing to ride more buses and trains
if Metro were to pay you, which is what the
agency is offering you to do. We got some varied
responses on that.
Speaker 10 (16:06):
So first off, all your weymo things people with a
brain do the same thing. Second, I'm glad that guy
brought up micro metro. That's the only form of transportation
I would ever use. And they also need to get
into more ride share and I'll take one of those
driverless taxis any day.
Speaker 5 (16:21):
There you go. Because we were also talking about the
new Amazon Zeos. It's different than the weymou. It's driverless,
but it's also steering, wheel liss and breakless, very very
strange looking vehicle.
Speaker 4 (16:32):
Ay, monks, No way would I ever I ever take
a train or a bus to work again. I used
to set out a bus stop and when a train
bus was supposed to be there, I would never get
show up, and then I get I'd be late to
the trains and I have to sit at the train
(16:55):
station forever.
Speaker 9 (16:57):
And no way, no way.
Speaker 4 (16:59):
I'm in my car for life.
Speaker 3 (17:00):
I love it. I know.
Speaker 5 (17:02):
Yeah, it's true when you turn to public transit, you
are at the mercy of a different schedule, and sometimes
they don't live up to the schedule. But if you're
in your car, it's a trade off as well in
my view, because a lot of times you're sitting in
terrible traffic and if I can get the same distance
within this similar timeframe, I might choose to take the
train because at least then I could not be screaming
(17:23):
at somebody. Somebody might be screaming at me, throwing poop
at me. But you know, I'm not worried about crashing.
Speaking of crashing, Heather Brooker from KFI News is with
us now. You were at this press conference yesterday. La
County District Attorney Nathan Hockman, LAPD chief Jim McDonald. They
both got together for this press conference at the Hall
of Justice downtown to outline what they were saying are
(17:44):
active prosecutions and expressing that they have zero tolerance for
hate crimes. So what's the status of hate crimes? Are
they saying they're down?
Speaker 9 (17:54):
I think they're saying that they are. Really the main
goal of the press conference was to say that they're
going after them more. He was really passionate about this. Hawkman, Yeah,
I was passionate about this. It was him local religious leaders.
Of course, Jim McDonald was there as well. He's saying
that his office is going to be going after people
who are doing hate crimes or committing hate crimes. And
(18:16):
this is one thing that I want to share with
you guys, of what he had to say.
Speaker 11 (18:19):
A life plus seven years sentence was given out against
mister Pitts to send an unmistakably clear message that if
you want to engage in hate crimes, if you want
to go ahead and attack members of our community based
on their nationality, their race, their ethnicity, if they are disabled,
they for a particular sexual orientation, we are going to
(18:41):
bring those charges against you. We're going to prove them
in a court of law. You will get convicted, you
will then be sentenced, and then you will spend some
serious time behind bars.
Speaker 5 (18:51):
That was Hawkman talking about this guy, Gerald Pitts, right Pits.
And it just so happens that this relates a bit
to our previous conversation.
Speaker 9 (18:57):
Unfortunatelyly so, this was a hate crime that happened in
twenty twenty three on an LA metro bus that resulted
in a life sentence there for Gerald Pitts, who he
was just talking about life plus seven years in state
prison with the possibility of parole. He sort of used
this as a launching off point to talk about all
of these other and he went through a bunch of
other cases that his office is actively pursuing. They range
(19:20):
in everything from religious hate crimes to ethnic and gender
hate crimes, transgender hate crimes, and he was basically coming
out and saying we have no tolerance for this, and
the McDonald stepped up to the mic and sort of
backed him up and said, we're also going to be
going after these types of crimes as well.
Speaker 5 (19:35):
This particular hate crime that ended up with a conviction
happened back in March of twenty twenty three. Someone named
Santos Taos Gonzales got on that Metro boss attempted to
walk past this guy Pitts and take a seat, and
Pitts got up started shouting racial slurs at him, and
Gonzales tried to leave the bus at the next stop
on Western Avenue and Exposition Boulevard to avoid this confrontation.
(19:57):
Pits just stabbed him multiple times in the abdomen, the
armed hand, in the face, and the victim fell out
of the bus. Pitts got down and kicked him repeatedly
in the head while continuing to yell racial slurs. Now,
Gonzalez did suffer life threatening injuries but survived. This is
a life sentence that seems to be enhanced because of
(20:18):
the hate crime component. Is that what Hawkman was saying.
Speaker 9 (20:20):
Yeah, that's absolutely what he's saying. And one other thing
that I thought was interesting about this during this press
conference that he had is he said that religious hate
crimes have gone up by the hundreds of persons here
in La County and that there is no talent tolerance
for any of that as well, he pointed out he
talked about the case that is currently pending against the
(20:43):
laped officer who recorded multiple phone calls and multiple had
multiple recordings with police officers who were in training at
the training facility. He's currently being charged with, you know,
illegal recording of his fellow officers. He talked about how
while he is not agree with what was being said
on these tapes that the officer recorded, they're still like
(21:07):
looking into it and why they were actually just the casetality.
Speaker 5 (21:10):
Merrily and I talked about earlier in the week that
involves a whistleblower, right, a guy who's positioning himself as
a whistleblower. He says, look, you know, I was working
in the training facility with other training officers and I
heard them saying a lot of you know, racial slurs
or anti gay things. And now that guy is actually
facing charges for the illegal recording of those remarks. So
(21:31):
that's what the chief weigh in on.
Speaker 9 (21:32):
Yeah, he did. And while he said, we disagree with
what they were saying on these tapes, the fact that
they were illegally recorded is the issue here. So it's
kind of a you know. He also went on to
say that if you are your First Amendment rights are protected.
You can say in this country whatever you want against
somebody that is protected. But the minute it becomes a
(21:55):
crime or you cross the line into breaking the law,
that's when his office is going to go after you.
He also said really quickly that mental health diversion in
violent hate crime cases will They're not going to tolerate
those anymore because those have been used to avoid traditional
prosecution through diversion. In one case in particular, prosecutors successfully
(22:16):
appealed a judge decision granting mental health diversion to an
attempted murder defendant, and that case is now going to
proceed towards trial, and he says, no longer do they
are they going to look at mental health diversion as
an excuse.
Speaker 5 (22:30):
There's another case out of our county here and it
involved President Trump, a very possibly scary situation. This guy
who was allegedly scoping out the golf course in ranchial Palace,
Veradays where President Trump was to speak, and we are
learning some more about the guy, but maybe not as
much as we would like. You spoke to us first
(22:52):
assistant US Attorney Bill A.
Speaker 10 (22:54):
Sale.
Speaker 5 (22:54):
We'll get into what he had to say about this
case and where this case stands now against this guy
out in ranchal palace Veradae guy from Downey who was
taken in federal custody. Will continue this conversation. Just ahead
on Monks in Maryland.
Speaker 1 (23:06):
You're listening to Monks and Meryl onto the air from
kf I AM six.
Speaker 5 (23:12):
Available anywhere on the IART Radio. Monks and Meryl. I'm
Michael Monks know Chris Merril today. He'll be back with
us on Monday. We do miss the big guy. We
were talking about Metro La Metro offering up families in
La County hundreds of dollars if they're willing to give
up their car for about five weeks and be honest,
and they're reporting through an app that they are riding
(23:34):
buses and trains and walking and not using that car.
Speaker 2 (23:38):
Michael, I gotta love how you guys do a story
about how you should get on the Metro and then
the follow up is a story about somebody getting collaubed
on the Metro. Come on, man, ain't nobody going to
get on the metro? We can't even afford the ammunition
to ride?
Speaker 5 (23:56):
Oh, you know, And this is what I always qualify
minenthusiasm for it. I know that, you know, Merrill refuses
to get on the trains, and I give him a
hard time for that, but he gives me a hard
time for my anabashed cheerleading for it, which neither of
those things is accurate. He just doesn't like it. I
recognize that it's full of problems, and there are times
(24:16):
that it's flat out dangerous. Obviously, it can be literally dangerous,
almost deadly for the person involved in that hate crime.
Other times you just kind of feel uncomfortable on it.
And that's what I always talk to the agency about.
It's like, you've got to give the perception that you're
going to get to your destination safely, and that is
(24:37):
the most important thing. Make me feel safe while I'm
on and I'm joined by kfi's Heather Brooker here, But do.
Speaker 9 (24:43):
You think that that's because we don't tell the stories
of the hundreds, if not thousands of writers every day
that write it just fine and they they're not hurt
or harmed in any way. We only focus on the
bad stuff. That's our job.
Speaker 5 (24:55):
I don't know that that's well maybe now now that
I'm not in the newsroom. I was in there and
every month I followed the board meetings, and as part
of that coverage, you would get the updates on the
numbers and we would report a transit riders they're up
nine percent this month, or Metro says it's a record breaking,
you know, increase year over year. We were covering all
(25:15):
of that, but we shouldn't have to pat them on
the back for doing the bare minimum of what we
funded them to do with significant billions of dollars. You
need to keep us safe while we're on it.
Speaker 9 (25:27):
I feel like I want to hear from people who
regularly ride the Metro safely and have had no issues.
Speaker 5 (25:34):
I don't know that you'll find anybody who has had
no issues depending on how we define issues.
Speaker 9 (25:37):
Well, I mean like, were you stabbed?
Speaker 5 (25:40):
Well, did it smell like P?
Speaker 9 (25:41):
I'm smother me. A lot of places like P in La.
Speaker 5 (25:46):
You weren't a place that doesn't smell like p or
at least the president was, because it's a very nice
part of our area, even though it does have some
infrastructure problems. Rancho Palos Vera days and the Trump National
Golf Club. The President was in town to speak to
Republicans there raise some money. But so is some other
guy apparently, and a few days before the President's arrival.
His name is Janine john Tail. He's thirty eight years old.
(26:08):
He's a marine veteran. He is from Downey. He was
arrested because he had illegal weapons, body armor notebooks containing
what investigators call concerning statements. And you got to talk
to First Assistant US Attorney Bill A. Saley about this guy.
What did you learn?
Speaker 4 (26:24):
Yeah?
Speaker 9 (26:25):
I did, And here's what he had to say. I
want to play a little piece of our conversation about
this guy and why they moved in so quickly even
though nothing actually happened. This is why they said the
hairs were raised up and they were concerned. So this
is what he had to say.
Speaker 3 (26:40):
Well, he was behaving very oddly.
Speaker 12 (26:42):
I mean, he was there at the golf course. He
was conducting what he claims was surveillance on the golf
course and on the agents he identified himself as an
employee of the State Department. He's not an employee of
the State Department. And so just very suspicious behavior. And
again he had a firearm in his possession, So all
that obviously is going to raise red flags with law enforcement,
(27:03):
and they conducted at their own investigation and ultimately he
was found to have unlawful firearms.
Speaker 5 (27:10):
So that's what he was arrested for.
Speaker 12 (27:11):
And I believe he was also wanted for a robbery
out of El Segundo, so he had other issues besides
just this event. But we have charged him federally with
possession of an unregistered short barrel rifle.
Speaker 3 (27:23):
That's what he's currently charged with.
Speaker 5 (27:25):
It's interesting that that's the charge. I mean, that sounds
like a legit charge. But the concern was the fact
that he was engaging in his behavior just before the
President were to show up at this area.
Speaker 9 (27:36):
Yeah, he was being a little squirrely. It sounds like
acting a little suspicious in this area. And so of
course when anytime the president or any a high profile
figure is coming to town or is, especially with President
Trump and all of the history and the things that
have happened with him. They were concerns. They wanted to
ask questions, and they moved in and they found this.
(27:59):
I don't think that they found anything else. They're still
kind of, I think, looking into it. He has not
appeared in court yet. We're keeping an eye on that
for these official charges and formal court appearance.
Speaker 5 (28:09):
But yeah, he was supposed. We thought he was going
to be in court earlier this week. Yeah, we thought
there was going to be a press conference earlier this week,
and we originally said everything was canceled. The court appearance
was canceled, the press conference was canceled. A Saley says,
the court appearance was not canceled.
Speaker 9 (28:23):
It was never scheduled. It was never on the docket
to begin with. I don't know, you know where that
actually started. I think, you know, we have like some
news services that we have here in the newsroom, and
they sent out a report saying he was going to
be in court and then they were like, no, it's canceled,
and so it was like, what is going on? So
I called him and I said what is going on?
And he said he was never on the docket to
begin with. It just hasn't happened yet, but it will okay.
Speaker 5 (28:45):
Heather Brooker is also a news anchor here in kfi's newsroom,
and you've got an anchor shift tomorrow morning. You'll be
on the.
Speaker 9 (28:53):
Air, Yes me with Dean Sharp and Bill Handle on
Saturday Morning's a good time.
Speaker 5 (28:56):
And of course you're the host of KFI Live with
Heather Brooker Sundays at noon. What's the big show this weekend?
Speaker 9 (29:01):
So this week we are going to be talking a
little bit more about what you and I just talked
about here with Bill A. Saley and you know Hawkman's
hate crime stuff. We're going to do a little bit
deeper dive on some of these. But also we're going
to go behind the scenes at the Hollywood Bowl to
an area that has never really been seen before by
the public. And I got to go in. I got
(29:22):
to get video of.
Speaker 5 (29:22):
A special bathroom.
Speaker 9 (29:23):
It is a special bathroom for the stars. Obviously good.
Speaker 5 (29:28):
Well, we'll look forward to that. Heather Brooker, KFI Live
Noon on Sundays. I hope you have a great weekend,
even though you have to work. Thanks Michael, Mom, you
got it. The weather is feeling a little bit better today.
We're not out of the woods.
Speaker 3 (29:39):
Yet.
Speaker 5 (29:40):
In fact, we've talked about El Nino. We're in the
midst of it, no question about it. Do I know
entirely what that means, Absolutely not, But a lot of
very smart people are saying the worst is yet to come.
In fact, as the year drags on, as we finish
up twenty twenty six, we could see some record c
levels across the California coast that could mean flooding. We
(30:04):
could see more rain, and this humidity might be hanging
around a little bit longer than we like. Details on
what this warning about a strong super Elmino means for
southern California that's coming up at the top of the
hour as Monks and Merrill rolls on on this Friday
on KFI AM six forty, live everywhere on the iHeartRadio.
Speaker 1 (30:25):
APPKFI on demand.
Speaker 5 (30:29):
You've been listening to Monks and Merrill here the show
live weekdays from noon to three on KFI AM six
forty and anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app.
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