@Tawala SoulCal_Saturday Extreme Heat & Filthy Water in SoCal: (07/20/24) Hour 1

Extreme Heat & Filthy Water in SoCal: · Excessive Heat Warnings issued for Southern California · Bacteria levels prompt ocean water warnings at 13 L.A. County beaches · Two LA County beaches among the most polluted in California, report says · Thinking about jumping into a lake or stream in L.A. to beat the heat? Here are the ones to avoid. Covid19 in SoCal: · Rising COVID clashes with carefree California summer as cases jump, precautions fade · COVID cases in Los Angeles County nearly triple over last five weeks · Pasadena Boys and Girls Club Joins Huntington Health in Offering Free Back-to-School COVID-19 Vaccines. Health Programs in SoCal · These L.A. health teams go door to door with a question: What do you need? · UCI launches Orange County’s first school of public health. Taking Care of Those in Need in SoCal: Mayor Karen Bass and non-profits work to keep foster youth off the streets.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Los Angeles, Orange County I Ein the Valley. This is Tawala Sharp
and you're listening to KFI AM sixforty Soul Cal Saturday on demand on the
iHeartRadio app. Life from the KFItwenty four hour Newsroom. I'm Ashley Johnson.
Saturday kf I AM six forty Liveeverywhere on the iHeart Radio app and

(00:20):
Arlington Hearts, Bell Gardner, Tarzanaand Hyland. This is Soul Cal Saturday.
I'm your host, Twala Sharp,and what a wonderful Saturday it is.
Today we have a packed show.We will be joined by martial artists,
actor, writer, choreographer, directorand producer Ron Hall, who will

(00:41):
be joining us to introduce and previewthe twenty seventh annual Superhero Kung Fu Extravaganza
Pandle happening at San Diego Comic comthis coming Thursday, July twenty fifth.
He's gonna join us and tell usall about that. And we have our
small all business Saturday Spotlight. Todaywe will be joined by Aria Elon.

(01:04):
Ariya Elon offers beautiful artwork crafted byher daughter, Grammy Scholarship recipient Eden Edwards
on various merchandise like baby onesies,children and adult tease and more, and
she is going to join us totell us all about that. We are
happy to be back. Last week, yes, we were preempted by quite

(01:25):
possibly the biggest news to take placein the country with the attempted assassination of
presidential candidate Donald J. Trump.Prayerfully all turned out well, if you
saw his speech at the RNC,he's back and he's stronger than ever.
So the country is all right,except for here in southern California, where

(01:51):
it is hotter than six levels ofhell. It truly, truly is,
and it is just going to gethotter. We have an excess of heat
warning that has been issued from Fridayand it will be going all the way
till Wednesday, where we will belikely to see temperatures hitting in the mid
to low one hundreds. And that'ssaying a lot. That's like, oh,

(02:15):
that's not cool at all. No, No, it is absolutely not
cool. Each day will be extremelyuncomfortable and hot. And yeah, we
asked for why because we were complainingabout all the rain, the rain,
the rain, the rain. Whenis the sun coming? Well, damn
it, the sun is here,and it is here with a vengeance.
But you know what, that doesn'tmean. You know what, that's not

(02:38):
a queue to do. That's nota cue for you to run your butt
out and get into the water.Why because yeah, once again I have
a report for you detailing how filthy, how absolutely god awful our waters here
are. Here in southern California,bacteria levels once again are at an all

(03:00):
time high. And it is somethingto do with the heat because all this
bacteria and the water is growing becausethe water is warmer, because it is
hotter. All that, it's cyclical, it is you know, global warming,
all those kinds of things all tiedtogether. But yeah, the bacteria
warnings have been issued for some thirteenLA County beaches. Lost Florist Creek at

(03:25):
Lost Floria State Beach, the entireswim area, the entire swim area,
don't get in Walnut Creek at ParasideCove, don't get in the water because
the entire water area, the entireswim area filled with bacteria. Gross Solstice
Creek at Dan Blocker County Beach onceagain, entire swim area, but over

(03:47):
at the Marie Canyon storm Drain atPuerco Beach one hundred yards up and down
the coast from the public access steps. So basically, stay out of the
water. Street water Canyon, stormat Carbon Canyon Beach, entire Storm area,
Castle, Rock Storm, draina atTopanga County Beach, Ramirez Creek at
Paradise Cove, Inner Cabrillo Beach atSan Pedro, all these entire swim areas.

(04:12):
It goes on and on. EscondidoCreek at Escondido State Beach, Topanga
Canyon Beach at Malibu, Malibu Lagoon, at Surfrider Beach. Stay you're behind
out of the ocean. And it'sinteresting, right because you would think that
it's just the water, but it'sactually not because here in southern California we

(04:39):
have some of the most polluted beachesperiod, just filth all up and down
the beach, the sands, everything. The most polluted beaches are here in
southern California. Twelve beaches in havemade the honor roll as the story reads

(04:59):
of being the most polluted here inSouthern California. Tijuana River Mouth in San
Diego, San Diego, Plia Blancain Baja Mexico. Okay, a little
further out, Santa Monica, Pierre. I wouldn't go down there. Period.
I just avoid the pier because lasttime I was down there, I
was stepping over filth. Okay,there was literal filth on the streets.

(05:23):
Someone had dropped one on the streetswhile I was walking, and I'm like,
that's nasty. And if this ison the curb, I can't imagine
what's in the sand. I refuseSanta Monica Pire. Yeah, filthy Tijuana.
I believe it's pronounced slow or sloughTijuana. Slow, okay. San

(05:43):
Diego County, Linda mar Beach inSan Mateo Lake Shore Park in San Mateo,
in San Mateo, Imperio Beach atSeacoast Drive, San Diego, San
Diego is just filthy. I seeBorderfield State Park, San Diego, Marina
del Ray. Okay, there's beachhere in La County filthy, absolutely filthy.
So it's not just staying out ofthe water. It is also just

(06:08):
avoiding the beach period, Like whygo down there with the kids to see
the trash, to see the homelessness, to possibly be attacked on your way
back to the car. All thesethings are happening on the coast here in
southern California, and you may thinkyou know what'nna, I'm gonna maybe try
out a lake, you know,maybe one of these great you know lake

(06:30):
areas here in southern California. Maybebecause you know, toile is always talking
about how filthy the beaches are.You know, the lakes have got to
be good. I laugh at you, and you're lake going, I truly
do. Okay, Why because thereis an extremely high risk of contracting some

(06:53):
lake related illness according to the CDC. Here in so Cow over at Compton
Creek lower La River Watershed, stayout of it. You will get sick
as a dog if you get inthat water. La River below the Compton
Creek confluence, Bull Creek, TijuanaWash at Hanson Dam, La River at

(07:13):
Willow Street, and La River belowHondo below Rio Hondo Confluence. All of
these water shed all these lakes,all these areas where you may want to
go and dip your feet in thewater, are extremely filthy and full of
whatever is in there. I don'tknow if it's bacteria or if it's just

(07:35):
just natural filth in the water,But stay out of the water. Stay
out of the water. There's gotto be other things you can do to
stay cool, you know, maybewalk around the mall. I mean,
if those still exist. I knowthere's still a few malls here and there.
Walk around the mall, you know, stop by a hot dog going

(07:55):
to stick, get a lemonade.Chill movie theaters always cool. Take your
kids to the library, check outa book and read to them. Read
to them in the library. Thatis something you can do to stay cool.
You know, you don't have togo into the water. And I
know you may be thinking I'm gonnago to like raging waters or one of
those places. I'm gonna tell you. I know someone that went to one

(08:18):
of the water parks, whichever theone is in San Dimas, and him
and his entire family came back sick. Now he didn't say it had anything
to do with going to the waterpark, but I'm like, I don't
know. I mean, you allwent to the water parks and you're all
coming back sick with the and allthat. Look stay out of even that

(08:39):
water. I know public parks swimmingpools are back open, and if you
want to dive into the urine,go ahead, go ahead and get in
there with these kids who have nocontrol of their bladders and just think the
pool is where you go go onswim there if you want to do it,
all right. I'm not trying tochastise you from doing it anything you

(09:00):
want to do. As far asgetting into this water, I just want
you to know what in fact youare getting into and what you can expect
to be happening. All right.You may you may not like it,
but seems COVID seems COVID is backand damn near better than ever or batter

(09:24):
than ever, whatever the case is. We're gonna discuss it. On the
other side. You're listening to soulcol Saturday with Tawala Sharp on demand from
KFI AM six forty KFI AM sixforty Live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app and

(09:50):
cut a Hey, diavon Bar TempleCity and Needles, Needles, California.
This is soul col Saturday. I'myour host twallash Dark and before the break,
I was telling you and no oneseems to be talking about it,
but COVID seems to be back,and I wanted to see. Look there,

(10:16):
I know COVID is back, rightbecause I have been not in contact,
but several people that I know haverecently back to back to back to
back, contract to COVID. Allright, So that's about all I can
say about that. But there area lot of people that I know who

(10:39):
just out of nowhere just start,hey, I'm not feeling too well.
Do you guys have any COVID testsleft? And I'm like, yeah,
sure, here you go. Andit's like, oh, I got it,
I got the VID. And soyou know, I'm looking like what
is going on here? Lo andbehold there is an extremely uh pervasive swell

(11:03):
of COVID cases here in southern California. And what's more interesting than that is
how lacks the daisical or laissez fair. The attitude is towards the rise.
Now admittedly, of the five peoplethat I know that recently tested positive for

(11:28):
COVID, for the most part,all right, you know they're at the
house. You know, one said, you know, I've got a little
fever, you know, a littlebody ache, but I'm all right.
Everyone else was like I just feellike blah, you know, just blah.
But they all have you know,parents and grandparents that they're trying to
make sure don't get it and thisthat and the other, and so they're

(11:48):
like, you know, yeah,we're we're doing we got to do to
just stay protective of everyone else.But interestingly enough, one of the new
rules here as far as the COVIDguidelines is if you test positive, you
don't necessarily have to isolate anymore unlessyou feel sick. Like if you feel

(12:09):
real symptomatic and you feel bad orwhatever, then yeah, go home.
But for the most part, justwear a mask. Wear a mask for
ten days. But you could bewalking around COVID all on your breath and
you know, and you're fine.But still there seems to be a just

(12:31):
a lack of care when it comesto COVID. Like a new Gallup poll
found that Americans are far less worriedabout getting COVID in the United States,
with just twenty percent of all respondedsaying that they were somewhat concerned about Again,
so of one hundred people polled orone hundred percent of people polled,

(12:54):
only twenty percent have said that theyactually care about COVID. And that's quite
possibly due to the fact that becausevaccines rolled out successfully here in California,
and so many people both young andold, went to get the vaccine,

(13:16):
they went and got all the backupvaccines and the super vaccines. It's kind
of gotten people into the mindset thatthey're a little more a little more not
immune, but they have less toworry about, right, even though yeah,
again, in Los Angeles County alone, COVID cases have nearly tripled,

(13:37):
tripled over the last five weeks,all right, And that that's that's just
that's kind of shocking, I guess, to the to the medical community,
because all of a sudden, yougot people coming back into the hospitals like,
you know, not aren't dar aren'tpeople you know, being intimated and
the death rate hasn't risen. Butthe hospitals weren't really ready for it,

(14:01):
you know, according to the reports, are saying all these people coming in
saying that they're feeling you know,COVID like symptoms and getting breathing treatments and
things like that. The hospitals arelike whoa, whoa, whoa, what's
going on? Almost like we,uh, we weren't ready for the influx.
So with COVID on the rise andpeople basically giving zero blanks about it,

(14:26):
if you have not okay, I'mnot telling you too, right,
but if you have not received theCOVID vaccine, maybe it's something to think
about, especially because it's hot again. We know, just diseases, period
and viruses, you know, theybrew in the heat. So you know,
if you are thinking possibly about gettingvaccinated, you know, do so.

(14:50):
Right, We've got the flirt outthere, the flirt variant out there.
It's very very flirty. It's justspreading like wildfire, like nasty little
kisses. But in Pasadena, Okay, Dina Boys and Girls Clubs in Pasadena
are joining the Huntington Health Program offeringfree back to school COVID vaccines. And

(15:13):
this is for it's happening next Tuesdayor this coming Tuesday, July twenty third,
from four to six, and itis going to be at which locations.
The Slavic Clubhouse located at three twothree zero East del Mar in Pasadena.
It is opened up to adults andchildren's age five and up, with

(15:35):
specific requirements for participants. Parents orguardians must be present to provide consent.
For children under seventeen and individuals withof course, COVID nineteen the flu symptoms
are not eligible. All right,But it's out there, you know,
And I just want to point thatout because it's in Pasadena, and I
always like to shout out things thatare happening in Pasadena or the Altadena area.

(15:56):
But you can, seriously, youcan go to any pharmacy and get
a COVID vaccine, you know,if you schedule it. So just wanted
to make sure you knew that COVIDis on the rise. And even if
you're like whatever, twild the manthat's over with, we're past that.

(16:17):
Just no, you may want tobe one of the people that's heading over
to Er to get a breathing treatment, because that's happening too. All right.
It's KFI AM six forty Live Everywhereon the iHeartRadio app. When we
come back, we're gonna talk abouta couple of health programs that are on
the move and sol Calp. You'relistening to soul cal Saturday with Tawla Sharp
on demand from KFI AM six fortyKFI AM six forty Live Everywhere on the

(16:53):
Ihearted Radio app and Enzino Juniper Hills, Venice and Brinn mount A Nice.
I love it, Superlucent Kayla withthe wild Cities you are taking me all
over so called I love it.We have some individuals, some listeners who

(17:15):
have some feedback for our water talk. At the top of the show,
ral If you will. I keeptelling you guys, the problem with the
beaches long in Malibu is because thosehomes in Malibu are all on septic systems.
So if you want the beaches tobe cleaned up with bacteria along Malibu,

(17:37):
they need to fix all those septicsystems so you don't have ross sewage
going into the creeks and heading outto the ocean. And they really need
to make a push to get theborder supervisors to do that. Thanks,
absolutely, absolutely. Look, itis no mystery to the city how the

(18:00):
sewage is leaking into the waterways andthe sources from where it's coming. What
are they gonna do about it.It's like they can't keep giving out warnings
but not fixing the problem. Anduntil you fix that problem, that was
just brilliantly illustrated. We're going tokeep having these bacterial warnings in the water.
And look, I may not likethe water, but you know,

(18:23):
maybe our next talkback, does Ilove the water on the piscing. I'm
not totally craggy out lakes, butI'll swimming. But the ocean is awesome.
And just because you're afraid of thewater and you can't swim, don't
put that fear on everybody. Mysister cleanses her soul when she goes swimming.

(18:51):
I love it. I'm so happyyou love the water. Your sister's
soul has been cleansing in filth.I hope that you're okay with that.
Okay, your sister has a filthhe sold out, So there's that.
But I thank you for reaching outon the talk back app right there in
the was it upper left hand corner? Just going in and hit us up
and leave a talk back if youwill, if you want to chime in

(19:11):
on anything we are saying. Ilove it. Your sister bays in the
water of what was it a wantaka knaka? What did Prince say?
I can't remember? Uh, wedidn't dump this. What are you saying
right now? Oh god? Okay, that's from the Prince movie. Okay,

(19:33):
from before Rain. That's your sister. She's jumping there like apollonia.
Sure, let's go with it.And in LA, if you do get
into some of this filthy, bacterialaden water filled with poopage and you just
happen to get sick, uh,and you catch a call for a hack,
just know that LA is starting adoor to door health team. All

(19:59):
right, So if they come knocking, please don't come out with your guns.
Please don't let the dogs out.Just know that La County has a
new public health door to door teamthat is quite literally trying to meet people
where they are and deal with healthconditions at the root in the community.
This program launches a pilot program wherethey're sending teams door to door in neighborhoods

(20:25):
like Watts, Pacoima, Lincoln Heightsand others just simply to ask residents what
they need. This is a programthat is comprised of community public health teams
run by community organization and health groupsin partnership with the county, and they
are each tasked with knocking on anywherefrom eight thousand to thirteen thousand doors in

(20:45):
designated areas. Community health workers askquestions for household assessments which cover unmet needs
for medical care, assistance for dayto day activities, mental health, housing
instability, neighborhood fiance and other issues, and they try to connect people with
services such as enrolling in medical orfinding a free food bank and so forth

(21:07):
and so on. And this isactually a really really beautiful program. I
mean, it's something where people don'tknow where to go. So sometimes they're
sitting at home and they're suffering insilence. They don't know where to turn
to the go online and you geton the website and it is just impossible
to get an answer sometimes and peoplefeel overwhelmed or sometimes they just may feel

(21:32):
embarrassed because they're just like I don'twant to admit that I'm not able to
take care of myself. And sowhen you have a team like this of
individuals from these communities, from theneighborhoods, going around door to door and
simply saying, Hey, what's goingon in your household? Are there any
unmet health needs? And if thereare, can we talk to you about

(21:53):
some ways that you can possibly findservices or programs to help you. Why
not? Why not? So bravoto the La County Health Department for launching
this pilot program. And I hopethis is a pilot program that spreads across
southern California, trust and believe,from Anaheim to Pacoima to Long Beach to

(22:18):
Van Eyes, there are communities thatcan use a program like this in place.
And in Orange County, UCI haslaunched the first School of Public Health
Yes with the help of a fortytwo point five million gift. You see,
Irvine is launching a new School ofPublic Health that intends to be a

(22:41):
major shape of research and policy inOrange County. This move elevates the status
of the university's pre existing public healthprogram, which experienced momentous growth since the
COVID nineteen pandemic and is currently hometo more than thirteen hundred undergraduates. Currently,
the school has about thirty eight milliondollars in research operating budget for faculty

(23:06):
to focus on environmental justice and sustainabilityand all types of stuff. But this
is an excellent, excellent program thatUCI has launched, and the point of
this, or the purpose of thiswill be to of course further the study

(23:26):
of and provide outreach for just healthprograms in Orange County. I mean,
it's like, you know, Ithink we talk a lot about Los Angeles
County, especially when we talk aboutthe spread of COVID or we talk about
health issues, and Orange County maynot speak out about it a lot,
but there are still a lot ofunmet needs happening in Orange County and a

(23:52):
lot of i'd say just unspoken medicalcrisis that happened in the area that a
program like this is absolutely absolutely goingto help, and the number of students
even that this benefits, the numberof students who get to go through a
program like this and advance into themedical field, this is absolutely beautiful.

(24:18):
So bravo U see I and thisprogram here, so you know help is
on the way, especially because wehave people who refuse to stay their butts
out the water and want to talkabout how beautiful it is. Oh,
no, trust and believe more illnessesare coming all right, coming up.
I definitely want to take some timeout to shout out Mayor Baths and a

(24:41):
program that she is launching to specificallyhelp foster youth stay off of the streets,
because I've talked about it in thepast when talking about the unhoused crisis
in southern California, you see theseyoung people out there with signs, begging
for money or just out in thes streets. Nine times out of ten,

(25:03):
these are children who have aged outof the foster care program in La
County, Orange County, what haveyou, and now they're on the streets
because lots of times they weren't givenany skills and they don't have really the
wherewithal to be able to take careof themselves. And after they run out

(25:23):
of you know, whatever exit moneythey have, where are they going?
Who's looking out for them? Theseare still children for the most part,
and Mary Bass has launched a projectto help combat that. We're going to
talk about that next. So don'tyou go know where, keep it right
here. This is KFI AM sixforty Live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
You're listening to Soul col Saturday withTawaala Sharp on demand from KFI AM six

(25:48):
forty. KFI AM six forty Liveeverywhere on the iHeartRadio app in Lake Balboa,
Lomita, Walnut Park, and evenHelendale. This is Soul Gol Saturday.
I am your host, Twala Sharp, And in my looking at the

(26:14):
homeless crisis here in southern California,I have long singled out or cited young
people on the streets, and theyoung people that you see on the streets
even here in Southern California, butpretty much across the country, nine times
out of ten are young people whohave aged out of the Foster Youth program

(26:42):
or the Foster program period. Andright now here in at least Los Angeles,
County Mayor Baths is looking to provide, provide a platform or create a
platform that's going to keep foster youthyou off of the streets. The Right

(27:03):
Way Foundation and Children's Law Center,funded by the Mayor, funded by the
Mayor's Fund for LA, has expandedfoster youth services to include greater mental health,
workforce training, and financial literacy resourcesalong with six full time staff positions

(27:25):
who will help foster youth find housingand food. All right, So the
Mayor's backing this program and putting fundinginto this program to again establish greater mental
health, workforce training and financial literaryliterary literacy, financial literacy resources along with

(27:48):
six full time positions to hire peopleto help find foster youth housing and food
assistance. Because right now in LA, at least our foster care system,
we have individuals who age out attwenty one, all right, And this
has actually just expanded because a fewyears ago it was eighteen. But now

(28:12):
you know, after several cases orcase studies where they saw what was happening
to children when they age out ateighteen and how quickly they descend, they
raise the age to twenty one.But even still that does not account for
a lack of just talking to thischildren when they're exiting the program, when

(28:34):
they're to find out where their headsare, to find out, you know,
do they have just the wherewithal tobe able to take care of themselves.
And right now we're looking at sometwenty five thousand foster youth in Los
Angeles County alone who will be agingout this year, all right, And

(28:55):
right now about a quarter of thefoster youth that age out, just off
the top find themselves homeless, allright, because there just aren't any programs
that are out there. But thisexpansion right now is going to include young
people aging out of the foster caresystem because, according to Maribaths, young

(29:15):
people, like anyone else who isat risk of falling into homelessness, need
services. So the services here willbe tailored to meet the specific needs of
young people now. In June,the Los Angeles Homeless Service Authority announced an
estimate of about forty five thousand plushomeless people in its count and of those

(29:38):
what forty five thousand, it saysthat two point two percent of them are
made up of people who have agedout of the foster care youth system.
Doesn't seem like a lot but itis. But it actually is. And

(29:59):
I don't know if you ever have, but I've actually talked to, uh,
talked to some individuals, so someyoung people and just say like,
you know, just hey, likewhat what's brought you out here? And
some young people that I've talked to, and this, this is this goes
back to when I myself was livingin my car. Just you know,
sometimes you just talk to people,you talk to people who were out there
with you, and you say like, you know, like you know,

(30:22):
what, what what has you outhere? And you know, when you
hear these young people say I havenowhere to go, you know, it's
it's heartbreaking. It's truly truly heartbreaking. And so you know this, this
is why I applaud the Mayor's programand why this is something that we absolutely
positively need because if we can haltor stop their dissent right at the source,

(30:48):
then then we're winning, right.And the Mayor's Fund for LA is
providing these resources, of course,again to people facing homeless and security,
and it's not limited to foster youth, but for any one facing potential homelessness.
The Mayor's Fund Office an emergency hotlinewhich can be called it two one
three, five eight four one eightheight. So if you know anyone who

(31:11):
is facing homeing housing insecurity, havethem called two one three, five eight
four eighteen oh eight. All right. Coming up at the top of the
hour, we are going to bejoined by martial arts action legend Ron Hall.
Ron Hall has a panel that heis hosting at one of my favorite

(31:37):
destinations ever, San Diego Comic Con, the mecca for nerds. Well,
on Thursday July twenty fifth, RonHall is going to be doing a meet
and greet and panel discussion at thetwenty seventh annual Superhero Kung Fu Extravaganza.
I wish I could go, Icannot, Maybe you can, and if

(31:59):
you do, you gotta be thereThursday July twenty fifth, Room six A.
It is going to be an astounding, amazing martial art just extravaganza,
all right, and Ron Hall willbe joining us at the top of the
hour to discuss that and more so, don't you go nowhere, keeping locked

(32:21):
right here. This is KFI AMsix forty live everywhere on the iHeart radio
app. You've been listening to Soulcal Saturday. You can always hear us
live on KFI AM six forty fivepm to seven pm on Saturday, and
anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app.