August 28, 2024 • 25 mins
Jack Smith isn’t backing down. Special counsel files reworked indictment against Trump. Millions of Californians have medical debt. It wouldn’t hurt your credit under proposed rules. Co-host of ‘This Week in Space’ on the iHeart app Rod Pyle joins the show to talk about SpaceX Polaris delaying their launch of daring excursion and NASA saying astronauts stuck in space will not be returning on the Boeing capsule but will wait for a SpaceX craft. Disney’s new mega-neighborhood is taking shape in the California desert… some locals are dubious.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're Less Saints. KFI AM six forty the Bill Handles
show on demand on the iHeartRadio a F and this
is KFI Bill Handle. Here it is Aday, Wednesday, August
twenty eighth, coming up seven to thirty. Rod Pile is
joining us for some space news. And we've got some
space news. What's going on with SpaceX and some launches,
(00:23):
and what's going on with those two astronauts that will
be staying at the space station for the next I
think what forty two years. They're simply not going to
return anytime soon. Okay, Now, yesterday was big, big news
in the case of the US versus Donald Trump. When
(00:45):
I talk about the US versus Donald Trump, this is
the Special Council Jack Smith going against and he's part
of the Department of Justice, and they had indicted Donald
Trump on various charges in Supreme Court ruled upon the
appeal of Trump's lawyers, who appeal everything. And that is
(01:10):
excuse me, So it's for tatis, you know, just keep
on getting stuck. Where was I? Oh? Yeah, Jack Smith,
President Trump, that the president cannot any president cannot be
prosecuted for any crimes or alleged crimes that he commits
(01:33):
during the course of the presidency and as an official
capacity as president. In other words, there's no such thing
as crime. Almost nothing the president does. Well, Jacksmith says, Okay,
let's take that same indictment superseded, which means you bring
in an additional, additional charge. This happens all the time.
(01:53):
And say, let's differentiate what the president did as president
and can be argued official act and simply what he
did as a private person, for example, as a candidate.
And here is what he said. Well, first of all,
it takes two changes. He takes out all the references
to Trump's attempt to involve the Justice Department in his
(02:16):
subversion of the election, because a lot of it, or
a fair amount of it, was his attempt to shut
down the election through the Department of Justice phone calls,
having his Department of Justice officials make phone calls. For example,
you have Mark Meadows, who was chief of staff, calling
(02:37):
Department of Justice officials. Well, all of that is off
the table. President Trump, former president Trump has complete immunity. However,
how about this, The president and his official act really
has no connection with certifying votes, whether or not the
(03:00):
election was properly handled. There's the president has nothing to
do with it, nothing, calling Mike Pence and telling him
not to certify that's not a presidential act. There's a candidate.
Because if the court rules that it was a presidential act,
then nothing a president can do is open to prosecution.
(03:23):
And that is exactly what former President Trump says. It
does not matter what I do. I am immune. Supreme
Court agreed with him halfway. If there is if you
do it in an official capacity. And by the way,
they didn't define what official capacity is, we have no idea.
(03:43):
Then where's the line draw on? And this is what
Jack Smith to say, will differentiate what can be argued
official capacity and what he did as a private citizen.
You can't do that. There are some limitations. By the way,
Trump is not alone in saying that what he did
has total immunity. Richard Nixon did the same thing, arguing that,
(04:06):
and later on during his interview I think with David Frost,
and he said anything a president can do, he cannot
be prosecuted anything, anything. There is no such thing as
a prosecution against anything a president does. Now, you know,
I have a hard time with that one, I really do.
I'm reading Adam Shift's book and Adam Shiff. Now I
(04:30):
have to give a disclaimer here whenever I quote Adam Shiff,
he hates Donald Trump more than any other human being
on the planet. Probably, I mean, he despises Donald Trump
and thinks he is as corrupt and self aggrandizing as
almost any human being on the planet. He was also
the manager of the first impeachment trial. He was the
(04:52):
prosecutor on behalf of Congress, and he was also the
prosecute you're in the Senate in the trial, which of
course Trump was gonna win, come hill or highwater, Like Bill,
what a waste of time to even try Donald Trump.
What a waste of time to try Bill Clinton. I mean,
you're never going to get it any two thirds of
(05:13):
the vote to convict and then toss him out of
the presidency. So it's a question now of how far
is this case going to go. Well, I have some
guesses if former President Trump is elected, this case disappears instantly. Instantly.
(05:34):
I don't even think that the President Trump, if he's
going to be president, even has to go to court.
He just on his orders drops everything. The Department of
Justice now drops the case, and he will order a
memo that says because there is no evidence and I
am innocent, I guarantee you that's going to happen. The
(05:57):
other thing's going to happen. And this is what really
pisses me off. He has said he is going to
pardon every single one of those January sixth quote patriots.
And you see videos of those patriots attacking police officers,
I mean, using their own shields, breaking into the capital
(06:19):
and former President Trump but will not refer to them
as insurgents, will not refer to them as defendants, will
not refer to them as committing any crime whatsoever. They
are patriots, and it will be his duty to pardon
all of them. Yeah, that's a tough one. That is
a tough one. You know, where do you go with that? Well,
(06:42):
we'll see what happens in this election. Now, if Kamala
Harris wins the election, I guarantee you that, and I
think it's a safe bet and I don't think anybody's
going to be betting against that. There will be no
pardon Trump. Trump's going to get nailed. I'll tell you
that right now. I believe there's enough evidence mar al
(07:03):
Lago making the phone calls. I am convinced that there
will be a conviction of Donald Trump, much like that
there would have been a conviction in the Richard Nixon case,
no question, And it was Gerald Ford that pardoned him.
Ain't going to be Kamala Harris is going to pardon him.
That ain't going to happen. Okay. Now there's a new
(07:24):
bill that's going through the California Assembly and Senate, and
it's real simple. You're not going to have medical debt
reported on your credit scores. Now. The Feds this year
did the same thing the Biden administration announced earlier this
year to stop medical debt from showing up on credit reports.
Now that's under consideration. It takes a long time for
(07:48):
a federal bill to pass. I once asked one of
the state assemblymen, you know why didn't you run for Congress,
And he said, because as a state legislature I king
as legislator, I can get things done very quickly. I
actually have influence in Congress. I'm on of four hundred
(08:08):
and thirty five and nobody cares what I say. For
twenty years. On the state level, things happen very quickly,
and that's exactly what's happening here. So the FEDS are
dealing with this. In the meantime, California lawmakers have just
basically started with this and it could become a law
as soon as January first. And it's real simple. Senate
(08:32):
Bill ten sixty one removes medical debt from credit reports,
prohibits debt collectors from reporting that debt to credit agencies
past the Assembly on Monday, is going to the Senate
for a final vote. And now there are a couple
of little quirks here. The bill would have also included
debt charge to medical credit cards and specialty loans. Taking
(08:55):
a loan out, for example, to pay for medical debt
to pay for a procedure, that's excluded that if you
don't pay that off, that can still be reported on
the credit So I guess the bottom line is you
don't borrow the money, You just go straight to the
hospital or the doctor, and you owe the money straight ahead,
(09:16):
and the fact that you can't pay it cannot be reported.
The bankers and the lenders wanted that one, so everybody
compromised a bit, even though it was a big win
for the bankers and the John ing Jen ing Ingstrom,
(09:36):
who is a state director with the California Interest Research Group,
a co sponsor the bill, said, the federal bill is
just a proposal and it's probably gonna get watered down
and it takes a long time. So rather than leaving
it up to the Feds, we think it's important that
California has a strong role here. And that makes sense
(09:58):
because this is California. Although California is not the first
one in the country to do this, usually California is
at the forefront. Usually it's number one. Colorado. New York
also have a law that says credit report credit agencies
cannot report medical debt. And I get these questions all
the time on handle on the law eight to eleven
(10:20):
o'clock every Saturday morning, and that is I've got this
huge debt collectors that are going after me. What can
I do to get out of it? You can't, but
they're going to ruin my credit they are. The only
thing is that, as of right now, a lot of
creditors sort of don't pay attention to medical debt if
everything is clean. So you're renting an apartment and everything else,
(10:41):
you're up to date, and you owe two hundred and
twelve thousand dollars in medical debt and you're not paying it?
Do they really think you're a flake? Now a lot
of companies and lenders eliminate that one. Now, this is
going to become state law on that. Four and ten
Californians have some type of medical debt. Nationally, the average
(11:05):
medical balance on credit reports is around three dollars. Who
has only thirty one hundred dollars in medical debt? If
you have medical debt, I mean really really? Oh man?
So what the groups like the California Banker Association argue
that quote medical debt, that term is way too broad.
(11:29):
Let's limit it to only debt directly owe to providers
or hospitals, not to organizations that lend you money for
medical procedures. Or you get those credit cards. I didn't
know you could get medical credit cards, and I guess
you can. You apply for them, same offer, no interest
(11:49):
for a year. I mean, I guess you get miles. Yeah,
which are you know? Harder to run a marathon where
your medical debt is, for example, amputating a leg, But
you can get credit cards for this and I have
no idea. Okay, makes a lot of sense. And by
(12:10):
the way, the amount of money that's out there is
just astronomical. That's owed La County. Of course, God bless
La County now wants to in the other places have
done this partnership with a nonprofit undue medical debt. They
actually are buying the debt, and debt is not worth
(12:30):
very much, so you have a collection agencies that buy
it five cents on the dollar, ten cents on the dollar. Well,
the county wants to buy that debt like any collection
agency buys from another collection agency, pay them off and
then forgive the loan and to their credit. The county
(12:51):
and others are saying in this organization that does this
says that we are reducing medical debt. I mean, like crazy,
it's true, because if you don't owe any more money,
you don't have medical debt. And here's just another hit
of taxpayer dollars. And then where do you spend the money.
You know, once again the difference between conservative and liberal
(13:16):
is here. Tax money is going to go to reduce
medical debt, and medical debt is so astronomical these days,
I mean it is completely completely insane. You know, when
I had my surgery and I had my heart surgery,
and I looked at the bills like one hundred and
forty five thousand dollars. I mean, that's insane. Now, I
(13:37):
was with Kaiser, so they you know, they covered it. Now,
I got a valve, granted it was a used valve.
They took it out of a dead person and this
just but it was refurbished, so they you know, scraped
it clean and it was really nice and they put
it in. So there's some downsides. But if I didn't
(13:59):
have coverage, if I didn't have a good insurance plan,
I'd be screwed. All right, it's Rodpile with Space News.
Good morning Rod, Good morning Bill.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
How are you.
Speaker 1 (14:11):
I am pretty good. Actually I'm miserable, but that doesn't matter.
Rod co host of This Week in Space on the
iHeart app and other platforms, and don't forget his website,
pilebooks dot com p y l e books dot com.
All right, we had a couple of things that we
want to cover. Two of them specifically, One is what
(14:33):
SpaceX is doing with his polarist Dawn. And it seems
to me that all of the advances now are in
the hands of SpaceX, way beyond anything NASA is doing.
Am I right on that?
Speaker 2 (14:45):
Yeah, Although an off lot of what they're doing is
funded by NASA, but yeah, this is a privately funded
flight by a younger guy named Jared Isaacman, who's a
bill He made his billions by dropping out of high
school and starting a credit card sets and company, and
he's just this amazing guy who decided early on many
(15:07):
years back, he wanted to start his own little private
air force, which he did, so he's got tons of
jetsity flies and rents out the air Force, and then
he decided up the anti entire spaces take them to space.
So as of Saturday, we hope this will be his
second private flight and.
Speaker 1 (15:22):
What do they get? What is the polarist on mission
going to do specifically?
Speaker 2 (15:27):
So the first one is called Inspiration four and that
was kind of a let's prove we could take private
astronauts up in the SpaceX Crew Dragon and it was
a charity for Saint Jude's Cancer Hospital. And this one
is the first of three Polaris Dawn missions, also charity
flights to send money to Saint Jude's. And the specific
goal of this one is to be the highest that
(15:49):
we've flown since GEMI eleven. So they're going to go
up to about eight hundred and seventy miles altitude, or
about three times the size of space station flies and
to do the first private space walk, which is really wild.
Speaker 1 (16:02):
Now, when you talk about charity events, do people bid
on flying on the spacecraft?
Speaker 2 (16:10):
They did on the first one, and a friend of
mine actually won the raffle for that, and then the
other one's The other seats were given to two people
from Saint Jude's. This one was done slightly differently. They
didn't have a public raffle, but they've got three other
people going up with them, and of course they all
(16:31):
got to train to be private astronauts. The spacecraft is
fairly automatic, so there's very little for them to do,
but somebody's got to be able to fly it back
if they have a problem, and that would be Jared
Isaac Fan himself.
Speaker 1 (16:43):
All right, hung about, by the way, if I wanted
to go up, what am I going to get charged about?
Speaker 2 (16:48):
Fifty five million? Okay?
Speaker 1 (16:50):
Reason about it? No, okay, I don't know if there's
a discount code, discount code at checkout pilebooks dot com.
All right, ye are, and real quickly, we only have
a couple of minutes left. The astronauts that are stuck
in space and it looks like they're going to be
there for several years. What's going on with that, Well.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
It's supposed to be an eight day flight. The test
had problems, primarily valves and they use helium to pressurize
the propellant on the thing to maneuver, and they had
a bunch of leaks there. So this is Boeing Starliner spacecraft.
It's probably would be okay to come back in it,
but NASA's not taking any chances after losing two space
shuttles over the years and so forth. So the astronauts
(17:36):
are going to stay up there for total of eight months.
They're going to wait till February. SpaceX and a very
embarrassing move to Boeing is going to fly up a
couple extra space suits and bring them back.
Speaker 1 (17:46):
That's just great for Boeing. I mean, you figure the
door is going to fly off or whatever, and waiting
until February, I'm assuming that you just can't say, okay,
guys jump up there and rescue them. This is months
months in advance they're planning, and I'm assuming SpaceX. If
you want to book a flight or you want to
book let's say bringing up a satellite your years out,
(18:09):
are you?
Speaker 2 (18:11):
No, They could actually get up there in a couple
of months if they had to, but because there's so
much work to do on the space station, almost half
the time the assnauts have to spend on repair and maintenance.
Because it's twenty five years old at this point, they've
actually made themselves very useful up there, so they just
tried to figure out a way to put it in
the rotation they had as best they could.
Speaker 1 (18:31):
And so repairs they have to, like what kind of repairs.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
After I play solar panel components, batteries, There's constant upkeep
on the life support system. It's just a really very
complicated machine, one hundred and seventy billion dollars Earth machinery
up there, and it's only going to be flying about
another five years, so it's space of a tough environment.
It's way out beyond its warranty period.
Speaker 1 (18:57):
So I mean you can buy it used, I'm assuming.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
Actually there were some discussions about trying to sell pieces
or all of the space station or private industry before
they decided to decommission it in twenty thirty or thereabouts,
but nobody jumped at the at the offer, So as
far as we know, they're going to bring it down.
Speaker 1 (19:16):
All right, Rod, thank you as always this week in Space.
He's a co host co host of the podcast on
the iHeartRadio app and I'm assuming other platforms and the
website is pilebooks dot com, p y l e Books
dot com. Rod, have a good one. Thank you, Bill,
(19:37):
Thank you all right? Coming out Bill, Yes, Bill, this
is a great argument for Mexicans, Mexican astronauts, because we
would have brought our own jumper cables. Well said, thanks, yeah,
and I can't I don't even know how to respond
to that. But to think of a joke and it
didn't work, it would have popped the clutch. Okay, we've
(19:58):
been fine. All right, now, I'll let you do that one. Hey,
I want a story to share with you. What's going
on in Coachella Valley. Disney is building a new neighborhood
taking shape in the desert. It's called Katino. Now, originally
they wanted to call it Mousevich, and someone realized that
(20:19):
could be pretty embarrassing and not appropriate. Okay, so that
name is off the table. So Katino is on the table,
and it's the first Disney's giant and I quote story
living project home buyers. These are communities of home buyers.
(20:40):
There's plenty of Disney flourishes around and Incredibles theme gathering space,
a twenty four acre lagoon, almost two thousand plan homes
six hundred acres, and it's right near Rancho Mirage, okay,
and a Rancho Mirage. Actually it's in that Rancho Mirage
or right next to it Rancho Mirage, olks. And it's
(21:01):
a pretty wealthy area. I might add, there is as
what a shocker Nimby, right or niddy not in nimdy,
not in my No, it doesn't work. But as usual,
let's fight any kind of development. It's that simple. If
(21:23):
you're in an area where there is the development, the
answer is absolutely not. By the way, there's an artificial
oasis Coatino Bay. I mean, this is Disney. It'll feature
beaches and swimming and water sports and a promenade. And
this is just around the water. They hired Crystal Lagoons.
You may not heard of the company. It doesn't really
advertise here on KFI is specialized in creating massive bodies
(21:47):
of water, and the website is saying it's lagoons consume
thirty three times less water than an eighteen whole golf course,
because look at how much water you're gonna lose. Look
at the huge I mean you're talking about it. You know,
hundreds of bakers. This lagoon now less than a eighteen
hole water a golf course. And by the way Disney
(22:09):
points out, let's look at the amount of water we're using.
The lagoon that seems to be one of the big one.
Katla Valley has fifty four thousand swimming pools. How much
water do you think that uses? Okay, and water restrictions
then have eased up because of the recent range. So
what's happening is the NIMBI folks are really concentrating on
(22:32):
the amount of water. They're also saying there isn't enough
low income housing. Well, low income housing. Let me tell
you how much money these houses are going to cost
out in the desert where land is basically free. Starts
at a million plus for these houses and goes up
(22:54):
into the two million dollar range. I mean, that's a
lot of food, Disney, even though Disneyland the food is
very expensive, to two million dollars buys you a lot
of it. Those Mickey Mouse pancakes, which I know Neil
and Amy just love. And as you said, Neil, the
best choros in the world are at Disney, which I
(23:16):
happen to like. The point is is that the Nimbi
folks are coming in, who are neighbors saying this is horrible.
They'll be traffic, it's going to interfere with our communities.
And as always, there'll be tons of additional additional advantages
(23:37):
to the city because Disney's going to be putting in parks, etc.
But that doesn't matter, doesn't matter. We don't want it here.
In twenty twenty two, Rancho Mirage had eight thousand households,
eight thousand homes. This is going to add another two thousand.
It's a big hit. It's a big hit. And they
point to and this is very interesting. What the Nimbi folks,
(24:01):
the folks that do not want this project in Rancho Mirage.
They are even against Stagecoach and the Coachella Festival. They're saying,
look at the traffic, Look what comes in. Look how
it's ruined our area. Brings it one hundred million dollars
to the county's economy, six million dollars or six one
(24:21):
hundred million, six hundred million across the wider valley. Now,
has it been wonderful in many cases? No, because you've
got airbnbs that have sprung up. The traffic is crazy,
but that's what eighty thousand people showing up on one day.
You know, I'm I'm fine with this. At some point,
(24:41):
you've got to let these projects go forward. You can't
say no to every project. And frankly, as much as
I make fun of Disney, I'm guessing they're gonna do
as good or a better job than anybody else. Don't
they have the independence they have in Florida where they
built that town. I know Disney has nothing to do
with it anymore, but it was people love that place.
(25:04):
I would live there, Okay. KFI AM six forty live
everywhere on the iHeartRadio app. You've been listening to the
Bill Handle Show. Catch my show Monday through Friday six
am to nine am, and anytime on demand on the
iHeartRadio app
You're Less Saints. KFI AM six forty the Bill Handles
show on demand on the iHeartRadio a F and this
is KFI Bill Handle. Here it is Aday, Wednesday, August
twenty eighth, coming up seven to thirty. Rod Pile is
joining us for some space news. And we've got some
space news. What's going on with SpaceX and some launches,
(00:23):
and what's going on with those two astronauts that will
be staying at the space station for the next I
think what forty two years. They're simply not going to
return anytime soon. Okay, Now, yesterday was big, big news
in the case of the US versus Donald Trump. When
(00:45):
I talk about the US versus Donald Trump, this is
the Special Council Jack Smith going against and he's part
of the Department of Justice, and they had indicted Donald
Trump on various charges in Supreme Court ruled upon the
appeal of Trump's lawyers, who appeal everything. And that is
(01:10):
excuse me, So it's for tatis, you know, just keep
on getting stuck. Where was I? Oh? Yeah, Jack Smith,
President Trump, that the president cannot any president cannot be
prosecuted for any crimes or alleged crimes that he commits
(01:33):
during the course of the presidency and as an official
capacity as president. In other words, there's no such thing
as crime. Almost nothing the president does. Well, Jacksmith says, Okay,
let's take that same indictment superseded, which means you bring
in an additional, additional charge. This happens all the time.
(01:53):
And say, let's differentiate what the president did as president
and can be argued official act and simply what he
did as a private person, for example, as a candidate.
And here is what he said. Well, first of all,
it takes two changes. He takes out all the references
to Trump's attempt to involve the Justice Department in his
(02:16):
subversion of the election, because a lot of it, or
a fair amount of it, was his attempt to shut
down the election through the Department of Justice phone calls,
having his Department of Justice officials make phone calls. For example,
you have Mark Meadows, who was chief of staff, calling
(02:37):
Department of Justice officials. Well, all of that is off
the table. President Trump, former president Trump has complete immunity. However,
how about this, The president and his official act really
has no connection with certifying votes, whether or not the
(03:00):
election was properly handled. There's the president has nothing to
do with it, nothing, calling Mike Pence and telling him
not to certify that's not a presidential act. There's a candidate.
Because if the court rules that it was a presidential act,
then nothing a president can do is open to prosecution.
(03:23):
And that is exactly what former President Trump says. It
does not matter what I do. I am immune. Supreme
Court agreed with him halfway. If there is if you
do it in an official capacity. And by the way,
they didn't define what official capacity is, we have no idea.
(03:43):
Then where's the line draw on? And this is what
Jack Smith to say, will differentiate what can be argued
official capacity and what he did as a private citizen.
You can't do that. There are some limitations. By the way,
Trump is not alone in saying that what he did
has total immunity. Richard Nixon did the same thing, arguing that,
(04:06):
and later on during his interview I think with David Frost,
and he said anything a president can do, he cannot
be prosecuted anything, anything. There is no such thing as
a prosecution against anything a president does. Now, you know,
I have a hard time with that one, I really do.
I'm reading Adam Shift's book and Adam Shiff. Now I
(04:30):
have to give a disclaimer here whenever I quote Adam Shiff,
he hates Donald Trump more than any other human being
on the planet. Probably, I mean, he despises Donald Trump
and thinks he is as corrupt and self aggrandizing as
almost any human being on the planet. He was also
the manager of the first impeachment trial. He was the
(04:52):
prosecutor on behalf of Congress, and he was also the
prosecute you're in the Senate in the trial, which of
course Trump was gonna win, come hill or highwater, Like Bill,
what a waste of time to even try Donald Trump.
What a waste of time to try Bill Clinton. I mean,
you're never going to get it any two thirds of
(05:13):
the vote to convict and then toss him out of
the presidency. So it's a question now of how far
is this case going to go. Well, I have some
guesses if former President Trump is elected, this case disappears instantly. Instantly.
(05:34):
I don't even think that the President Trump, if he's
going to be president, even has to go to court.
He just on his orders drops everything. The Department of
Justice now drops the case, and he will order a
memo that says because there is no evidence and I
am innocent, I guarantee you that's going to happen. The
(05:57):
other thing's going to happen. And this is what really
pisses me off. He has said he is going to
pardon every single one of those January sixth quote patriots.
And you see videos of those patriots attacking police officers,
I mean, using their own shields, breaking into the capital
(06:19):
and former President Trump but will not refer to them
as insurgents, will not refer to them as defendants, will
not refer to them as committing any crime whatsoever. They
are patriots, and it will be his duty to pardon
all of them. Yeah, that's a tough one. That is
a tough one. You know, where do you go with that? Well,
(06:42):
we'll see what happens in this election. Now, if Kamala
Harris wins the election, I guarantee you that, and I
think it's a safe bet and I don't think anybody's
going to be betting against that. There will be no
pardon Trump. Trump's going to get nailed. I'll tell you
that right now. I believe there's enough evidence mar al
(07:03):
Lago making the phone calls. I am convinced that there
will be a conviction of Donald Trump, much like that
there would have been a conviction in the Richard Nixon case,
no question, And it was Gerald Ford that pardoned him.
Ain't going to be Kamala Harris is going to pardon him.
That ain't going to happen. Okay. Now there's a new
(07:24):
bill that's going through the California Assembly and Senate, and
it's real simple. You're not going to have medical debt
reported on your credit scores. Now. The Feds this year
did the same thing the Biden administration announced earlier this
year to stop medical debt from showing up on credit reports.
Now that's under consideration. It takes a long time for
(07:48):
a federal bill to pass. I once asked one of
the state assemblymen, you know why didn't you run for Congress,
And he said, because as a state legislature I king
as legislator, I can get things done very quickly. I
actually have influence in Congress. I'm on of four hundred
(08:08):
and thirty five and nobody cares what I say. For
twenty years. On the state level, things happen very quickly,
and that's exactly what's happening here. So the FEDS are
dealing with this. In the meantime, California lawmakers have just
basically started with this and it could become a law
as soon as January first. And it's real simple. Senate
(08:32):
Bill ten sixty one removes medical debt from credit reports,
prohibits debt collectors from reporting that debt to credit agencies
past the Assembly on Monday, is going to the Senate
for a final vote. And now there are a couple
of little quirks here. The bill would have also included
debt charge to medical credit cards and specialty loans. Taking
(08:55):
a loan out, for example, to pay for medical debt
to pay for a procedure, that's excluded that if you
don't pay that off, that can still be reported on
the credit So I guess the bottom line is you
don't borrow the money, You just go straight to the
hospital or the doctor, and you owe the money straight ahead,
(09:16):
and the fact that you can't pay it cannot be reported.
The bankers and the lenders wanted that one, so everybody
compromised a bit, even though it was a big win
for the bankers and the John ing Jen ing Ingstrom,
(09:36):
who is a state director with the California Interest Research Group,
a co sponsor the bill, said, the federal bill is
just a proposal and it's probably gonna get watered down
and it takes a long time. So rather than leaving
it up to the Feds, we think it's important that
California has a strong role here. And that makes sense
(09:58):
because this is California. Although California is not the first
one in the country to do this, usually California is
at the forefront. Usually it's number one. Colorado. New York
also have a law that says credit report credit agencies
cannot report medical debt. And I get these questions all
the time on handle on the law eight to eleven
(10:20):
o'clock every Saturday morning, and that is I've got this
huge debt collectors that are going after me. What can
I do to get out of it? You can't, but
they're going to ruin my credit they are. The only
thing is that, as of right now, a lot of
creditors sort of don't pay attention to medical debt if
everything is clean. So you're renting an apartment and everything else,
(10:41):
you're up to date, and you owe two hundred and
twelve thousand dollars in medical debt and you're not paying it?
Do they really think you're a flake? Now a lot
of companies and lenders eliminate that one. Now, this is
going to become state law on that. Four and ten
Californians have some type of medical debt. Nationally, the average
(11:05):
medical balance on credit reports is around three dollars. Who
has only thirty one hundred dollars in medical debt? If
you have medical debt, I mean really really? Oh man?
So what the groups like the California Banker Association argue
that quote medical debt, that term is way too broad.
(11:29):
Let's limit it to only debt directly owe to providers
or hospitals, not to organizations that lend you money for
medical procedures. Or you get those credit cards. I didn't
know you could get medical credit cards, and I guess
you can. You apply for them, same offer, no interest
(11:49):
for a year. I mean, I guess you get miles. Yeah,
which are you know? Harder to run a marathon where
your medical debt is, for example, amputating a leg, But
you can get credit cards for this and I have
no idea. Okay, makes a lot of sense. And by
(12:10):
the way, the amount of money that's out there is
just astronomical. That's owed La County. Of course, God bless
La County now wants to in the other places have
done this partnership with a nonprofit undue medical debt. They
actually are buying the debt, and debt is not worth
(12:30):
very much, so you have a collection agencies that buy
it five cents on the dollar, ten cents on the dollar. Well,
the county wants to buy that debt like any collection
agency buys from another collection agency, pay them off and
then forgive the loan and to their credit. The county
(12:51):
and others are saying in this organization that does this
says that we are reducing medical debt. I mean, like crazy,
it's true, because if you don't owe any more money,
you don't have medical debt. And here's just another hit
of taxpayer dollars. And then where do you spend the money.
You know, once again the difference between conservative and liberal
(13:16):
is here. Tax money is going to go to reduce
medical debt, and medical debt is so astronomical these days,
I mean it is completely completely insane. You know, when
I had my surgery and I had my heart surgery,
and I looked at the bills like one hundred and
forty five thousand dollars. I mean, that's insane. Now, I
(13:37):
was with Kaiser, so they you know, they covered it. Now,
I got a valve, granted it was a used valve.
They took it out of a dead person and this
just but it was refurbished, so they you know, scraped
it clean and it was really nice and they put
it in. So there's some downsides. But if I didn't
(13:59):
have coverage, if I didn't have a good insurance plan,
I'd be screwed. All right, it's Rodpile with Space News.
Good morning Rod, Good morning Bill.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
How are you.
Speaker 1 (14:11):
I am pretty good. Actually I'm miserable, but that doesn't matter.
Rod co host of This Week in Space on the
iHeart app and other platforms, and don't forget his website,
pilebooks dot com p y l e books dot com.
All right, we had a couple of things that we
want to cover. Two of them specifically, One is what
(14:33):
SpaceX is doing with his polarist Dawn. And it seems
to me that all of the advances now are in
the hands of SpaceX, way beyond anything NASA is doing.
Am I right on that?
Speaker 2 (14:45):
Yeah, Although an off lot of what they're doing is
funded by NASA, but yeah, this is a privately funded
flight by a younger guy named Jared Isaacman, who's a
bill He made his billions by dropping out of high
school and starting a credit card sets and company, and
he's just this amazing guy who decided early on many
(15:07):
years back, he wanted to start his own little private
air force, which he did, so he's got tons of
jetsity flies and rents out the air Force, and then
he decided up the anti entire spaces take them to space.
So as of Saturday, we hope this will be his
second private flight and.
Speaker 1 (15:22):
What do they get? What is the polarist on mission
going to do specifically?
Speaker 2 (15:27):
So the first one is called Inspiration four and that
was kind of a let's prove we could take private
astronauts up in the SpaceX Crew Dragon and it was
a charity for Saint Jude's Cancer Hospital. And this one
is the first of three Polaris Dawn missions, also charity
flights to send money to Saint Jude's. And the specific
goal of this one is to be the highest that
(15:49):
we've flown since GEMI eleven. So they're going to go
up to about eight hundred and seventy miles altitude, or
about three times the size of space station flies and
to do the first private space walk, which is really wild.
Speaker 1 (16:02):
Now, when you talk about charity events, do people bid
on flying on the spacecraft?
Speaker 2 (16:10):
They did on the first one, and a friend of
mine actually won the raffle for that, and then the
other one's The other seats were given to two people
from Saint Jude's. This one was done slightly differently. They
didn't have a public raffle, but they've got three other
people going up with them, and of course they all
(16:31):
got to train to be private astronauts. The spacecraft is
fairly automatic, so there's very little for them to do,
but somebody's got to be able to fly it back
if they have a problem, and that would be Jared
Isaac Fan himself.
Speaker 1 (16:43):
All right, hung about, by the way, if I wanted
to go up, what am I going to get charged about?
Speaker 2 (16:48):
Fifty five million? Okay?
Speaker 1 (16:50):
Reason about it? No, okay, I don't know if there's
a discount code, discount code at checkout pilebooks dot com.
All right, ye are, and real quickly, we only have
a couple of minutes left. The astronauts that are stuck
in space and it looks like they're going to be
there for several years. What's going on with that, Well.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
It's supposed to be an eight day flight. The test
had problems, primarily valves and they use helium to pressurize
the propellant on the thing to maneuver, and they had
a bunch of leaks there. So this is Boeing Starliner spacecraft.
It's probably would be okay to come back in it,
but NASA's not taking any chances after losing two space
shuttles over the years and so forth. So the astronauts
(17:36):
are going to stay up there for total of eight months.
They're going to wait till February. SpaceX and a very
embarrassing move to Boeing is going to fly up a
couple extra space suits and bring them back.
Speaker 1 (17:46):
That's just great for Boeing. I mean, you figure the
door is going to fly off or whatever, and waiting
until February, I'm assuming that you just can't say, okay,
guys jump up there and rescue them. This is months
months in advance they're planning, and I'm assuming SpaceX. If
you want to book a flight or you want to
book let's say bringing up a satellite your years out,
(18:09):
are you?
Speaker 2 (18:11):
No, They could actually get up there in a couple
of months if they had to, but because there's so
much work to do on the space station, almost half
the time the assnauts have to spend on repair and maintenance.
Because it's twenty five years old at this point, they've
actually made themselves very useful up there, so they just
tried to figure out a way to put it in
the rotation they had as best they could.
Speaker 1 (18:31):
And so repairs they have to, like what kind of repairs.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
After I play solar panel components, batteries, There's constant upkeep
on the life support system. It's just a really very
complicated machine, one hundred and seventy billion dollars Earth machinery
up there, and it's only going to be flying about
another five years, so it's space of a tough environment.
It's way out beyond its warranty period.
Speaker 1 (18:57):
So I mean you can buy it used, I'm assuming.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
Actually there were some discussions about trying to sell pieces
or all of the space station or private industry before
they decided to decommission it in twenty thirty or thereabouts,
but nobody jumped at the at the offer, So as
far as we know, they're going to bring it down.
Speaker 1 (19:16):
All right, Rod, thank you as always this week in Space.
He's a co host co host of the podcast on
the iHeartRadio app and I'm assuming other platforms and the
website is pilebooks dot com, p y l e Books
dot com. Rod, have a good one. Thank you, Bill,
(19:37):
Thank you all right? Coming out Bill, Yes, Bill, this
is a great argument for Mexicans, Mexican astronauts, because we
would have brought our own jumper cables. Well said, thanks, yeah,
and I can't I don't even know how to respond
to that. But to think of a joke and it
didn't work, it would have popped the clutch. Okay, we've
(19:58):
been fine. All right, now, I'll let you do that one. Hey,
I want a story to share with you. What's going
on in Coachella Valley. Disney is building a new neighborhood
taking shape in the desert. It's called Katino. Now, originally
they wanted to call it Mousevich, and someone realized that
(20:19):
could be pretty embarrassing and not appropriate. Okay, so that
name is off the table. So Katino is on the table,
and it's the first Disney's giant and I quote story
living project home buyers. These are communities of home buyers.
(20:40):
There's plenty of Disney flourishes around and Incredibles theme gathering space,
a twenty four acre lagoon, almost two thousand plan homes
six hundred acres, and it's right near Rancho Mirage, okay,
and a Rancho Mirage. Actually it's in that Rancho Mirage
or right next to it Rancho Mirage, olks. And it's
(21:01):
a pretty wealthy area. I might add, there is as
what a shocker Nimby, right or niddy not in nimdy,
not in my No, it doesn't work. But as usual,
let's fight any kind of development. It's that simple. If
(21:23):
you're in an area where there is the development, the
answer is absolutely not. By the way, there's an artificial
oasis Coatino Bay. I mean, this is Disney. It'll feature
beaches and swimming and water sports and a promenade. And
this is just around the water. They hired Crystal Lagoons.
You may not heard of the company. It doesn't really
advertise here on KFI is specialized in creating massive bodies
(21:47):
of water, and the website is saying it's lagoons consume
thirty three times less water than an eighteen whole golf course,
because look at how much water you're gonna lose. Look
at the huge I mean you're talking about it. You know,
hundreds of bakers. This lagoon now less than a eighteen
hole water a golf course. And by the way Disney
(22:09):
points out, let's look at the amount of water we're using.
The lagoon that seems to be one of the big one.
Katla Valley has fifty four thousand swimming pools. How much
water do you think that uses? Okay, and water restrictions
then have eased up because of the recent range. So
what's happening is the NIMBI folks are really concentrating on
(22:32):
the amount of water. They're also saying there isn't enough
low income housing. Well, low income housing. Let me tell
you how much money these houses are going to cost
out in the desert where land is basically free. Starts
at a million plus for these houses and goes up
(22:54):
into the two million dollar range. I mean, that's a
lot of food, Disney, even though Disneyland the food is
very expensive, to two million dollars buys you a lot
of it. Those Mickey Mouse pancakes, which I know Neil
and Amy just love. And as you said, Neil, the
best choros in the world are at Disney, which I
(23:16):
happen to like. The point is is that the Nimbi
folks are coming in, who are neighbors saying this is horrible.
They'll be traffic, it's going to interfere with our communities.
And as always, there'll be tons of additional additional advantages
(23:37):
to the city because Disney's going to be putting in parks, etc.
But that doesn't matter, doesn't matter. We don't want it here.
In twenty twenty two, Rancho Mirage had eight thousand households,
eight thousand homes. This is going to add another two thousand.
It's a big hit. It's a big hit. And they
point to and this is very interesting. What the Nimbi folks,
(24:01):
the folks that do not want this project in Rancho Mirage.
They are even against Stagecoach and the Coachella Festival. They're saying,
look at the traffic, Look what comes in. Look how
it's ruined our area. Brings it one hundred million dollars
to the county's economy, six million dollars or six one
(24:21):
hundred million, six hundred million across the wider valley. Now,
has it been wonderful in many cases? No, because you've
got airbnbs that have sprung up. The traffic is crazy,
but that's what eighty thousand people showing up on one day.
You know, I'm I'm fine with this. At some point,
(24:41):
you've got to let these projects go forward. You can't
say no to every project. And frankly, as much as
I make fun of Disney, I'm guessing they're gonna do
as good or a better job than anybody else. Don't
they have the independence they have in Florida where they
built that town. I know Disney has nothing to do
with it anymore, but it was people love that place.
(25:04):
I would live there, Okay. KFI AM six forty live
everywhere on the iHeartRadio app. You've been listening to the
Bill Handle Show. Catch my show Monday through Friday six
am to nine am, and anytime on demand on the
iHeartRadio app
The Bill Handel Show News
Popular Podcasts
True Crime Tonight
If you eat, sleep, and breathe true crime, TRUE CRIME TONIGHT is serving up your nightly fix. Five nights a week, KT STUDIOS & iHEART RADIO invite listeners to pull up a seat for an unfiltered look at the biggest cases making headlines, celebrity scandals, and the trials everyone is watching. With a mix of expert analysis, hot takes, and listener call-ins, TRUE CRIME TONIGHT goes beyond the headlines to uncover the twists, turns, and unanswered questions that keep us all obsessed—because, at TRUE CRIME TONIGHT, there’s a seat for everyone. Whether breaking down crime scene forensics, scrutinizing serial killers, or debating the most binge-worthy true crime docs, True Crime Tonight is the fresh, fast-paced, and slightly addictive home for true crime lovers.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.