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March 20, 2025 25 mins
(March 20, 2025)
Amy King joins Mo Kelly, who is filling in for Bill while he is on vacation, for Handel on the News. Fed holds interest rates steady. Trump to sign order aimed at closing Education Department. Greenpeace ordered to pay more than $660MIL for defaming oil firm in protests. 911 outage impacts all Los Angeles County Sheriff’s stations. Trump freezes $175MIL to Penn over transgender athletes.
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Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
You're listening to Bill Handle on demand from KF. I
am six forty and now Handle on the news. Ladies
and gentlemen, here's not Bill Handle.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
If I am six forty, it's the Bill Handle Show.
I'm o Kelly in for Bill. And who in the
hell did I piss off to get this job? What happened?
What did I do? What did I do wrong? I
must have like dated somebody's ex girlfriend or something. I
must have done something wrong, because anyone who knows me
and Amy King, it's a pleasure to be working with

(00:40):
the Queen of news, Amy King once again.

Speaker 3 (00:42):
Good morning Amy.

Speaker 4 (00:43):
I've missed you.

Speaker 3 (00:44):
I missed you as well, and you know as well
as anyone.

Speaker 2 (00:47):
I'm not a morning person in the least. And the
funny thing about this producer and knows this because we
had a conversation about this and she was listening to
my show we host later with Mo Kelly here on
KFI from seven to ten pm. I had just been
commenting about how I was not a morning person and

(01:08):
how literally I said, you couldn't pay me to do
morning show. My news anchor Mark Ronald was saying, like, hey,
have you ever filled in for Bill Handle?

Speaker 3 (01:15):
Oh yeah. I filled in for him a number of times, and.

Speaker 2 (01:18):
It's always hell because it means that I have to
get up at around four in the morning, which I
did today, and I'm always physically ill when I do
got up at four. This is after doing my show
last night from seven to ten. I got about three
hours sleep, and I did pretty well because I'm a
person who's going to go to sleep around midnight or later,

(01:39):
and last night was no exception. For as far as
I'm concerned, it's the same day, it's still yesterday's it's
late Wednesday night as far as I'm concerned. Come on,
but it's nice to be reunited with you, Amy King.
And let me say good morning to Will Cole Schreiver
and also Kno, we usually do this thing called Earlier

(01:59):
with Moe when Bill is in on Thursday. So we're
just going to do a three hour version of Earlier
with Moe. Love that Bill Handle edition. And I'm not exaggerating.
Mornings are difficult for me, even though I've done them
over my professional career. Going back to college, I even
scheduled my classes around the idea that I'm not a

(02:24):
morning person. I don't even drink coffee, and I had
a brief conversation with Jason or news director. I don't
drink coffee except for days like these because I just
do you have some?

Speaker 3 (02:35):
This morning, I had me.

Speaker 2 (02:36):
A cold triple shot brew of something something something from
the kitchen, okay, and that'll get me through. But I
don't do caffeine generally. I don't do coffee. I don't
do any type of tea. And it's something that uh,
you know, I just haven't ever developed a taste for.

Speaker 3 (02:55):
And the birds chirping this morning, odd sensation? What is
that noise? It's like, wait, what's going on here? What
is that sound?

Speaker 5 (03:05):
Well, I'm excited to have you here, and I'm excited
to be here, honestly. And you know, I listened to
your show at night and because i'll text you when
you're talking about certain things, and I did hear you
talking about not enjoying getting up early.

Speaker 3 (03:17):
So it's kind of funny. Actually, it's almost serendipitous. I
think that's the word for it. I was thinking, like,
never would I be in this chair again?

Speaker 2 (03:25):
Literally, and here I am, like four days later in
this share it was almost two days. I have had
this long conversation on my show later with Mo Kelly
that Oscar Oscar Ramira is our operations manager and assistant
program director, reached out to me and said, hey, Mo,
I got this idea. I was wondering would you be
available to fill in? It sounded like it was William
Shatner is doing Captain Kurtzy. Oh Mo, how about this?

(03:48):
Do you have any time maybe that you could sit
in for Bill Handel? And I was thinking, uh, no, Oscar,
I thought that you knew that I was not a
morning person. And yeah, when they ask you, when station
management asked you to do something, it's not a request,
it's basically saying we need you to do this. We're

(04:11):
being polite and if you don't do it, you're probably
gonna be fired. So I said, Okay, I'll get up
at four in the morning. But but there are some
great things to this, like I've never had the opportunity
to work with an I've never been able to work
with Cono specifically. I don't know what that hat is
he's wearing. I don't know what that hat, What does
that hat? What does that say?

Speaker 3 (04:30):
The infamous World Series Champions hughs Nastros No no no, no, no, no, no,
let's get something straight right now.

Speaker 2 (04:35):
This is a Dodger town, and this is a Dodger station,
and I'm a Dodger fan, and we don't like the
Houston Astros because you're a bunch of cheaters. That was Peter,
that was many moons ago.

Speaker 3 (04:44):
No no, no, no, no, no cheaters, Dan cheaters all.

Speaker 2 (04:46):
Wait, and we won without the trash cans a couple
of years later. So what does that have to do
with the year that you did cheat and the year
that you supposedly beat my beloved Los Angeles Dodgers.

Speaker 3 (04:57):
Well, you guys just had to cheat better. Oh you do. Hey,
King is at your fans.

Speaker 2 (05:03):
We can turn this so off right now, and you
don't have misunderstanding in the hallway.

Speaker 3 (05:08):
Amy can get him.

Speaker 4 (05:09):
Uh well, I get to work with him every day,
so you've got a little luck. There are paybacks.

Speaker 3 (05:16):
Oh one thing, mouth mm hmm.

Speaker 5 (05:18):
I know you hate your commute. So the one redeeming
thing about this time?

Speaker 3 (05:24):
Right old fast? Did you get here?

Speaker 4 (05:26):
Oh?

Speaker 3 (05:27):
Put it this way.

Speaker 2 (05:27):
I got up at four o'clock. I lived twenty two
miles away. I was here by four to forty five.
After taking a shower, brushing my teeth feeding the dogs,
shout out to Benson and Riley, and I.

Speaker 3 (05:41):
Did it all and got here at four forty two.

Speaker 4 (05:44):
And during a regular day, how long does it normally
take you to get here?

Speaker 3 (05:48):
Hour and a half? They know, two hours if it's
non daylight saving time.

Speaker 4 (05:54):
So you get coffee, you get a short commute, and
you get to hang out with us. Quit complaining.

Speaker 3 (05:58):
Oh no.

Speaker 2 (05:59):
The part is when I get home, I will take
a nap, and people say, well, you shouldn't take a nap.

Speaker 3 (06:03):
That ruins the rest of your day. I don't care.

Speaker 2 (06:06):
There's a nap with my name on it at nine thirty,
right around the second segment of Gary and Shetner.

Speaker 4 (06:13):
Except it's gonna take an hour and a half to
get home. So that's true.

Speaker 2 (06:17):
Yeah, that's why I have the triple shop so I
can stay awake during my commute home.

Speaker 3 (06:22):
But it's okay, it's okay.

Speaker 2 (06:23):
I have the best job in the world, no bones
about it, best job in the world.

Speaker 3 (06:29):
And with that, let's get to it. Handle on the
news lead story.

Speaker 2 (06:35):
I don't have any money.

Speaker 3 (06:38):
I can't buy at the Federal Reserve.

Speaker 2 (06:41):
In a closely watched decision yesterday, held the line and
held interest rates. But we don't know what's going to
happen in the future. And here's the basic rule. If
the Fed would have lowered interest rates, it would have
sent a signal to the markets that the economy was
slowing down. So it's good news news if you're an investor.
Good news interest rates are holding depending on how you

(07:05):
look at it. But in the future, it's looked at
that there will be some interest rate decreases by the
Federal Reserve. Now what's holding up this what I'll say
some of the decision points. It has to do with
President Trump's teriffs. We don't know how the market's going
to respond, we don't know how other countries are genuinely
going to respond. We don't know how long President Trump

(07:28):
may keep these tariffs in place. And until we start
seeing some of the results and some of the effects,
then we don't know what direction our economy is going
to be. Let's say in three months or six months,
and then maybe in the next quarter, the Federal Reserve
will look at this and then come to some other
decision about where the economy is. But but you could

(07:51):
also say, Okay, maybe our economy is not as bad
off as some have said the reason being because interest
rates have not come down. It's kind of an inverse
psychology where you bring down the interest rates if the
economy is slowing down, and if it's doing well, then
interest rates will usually go up to kind of keep

(08:14):
the economy under control. But you know, for everyone I
would say, oh, who's that?

Speaker 3 (08:20):
Who's that?

Speaker 4 (08:22):
That would have been will.

Speaker 3 (08:22):
Oh oh oh will do you do you disagree? There?

Speaker 4 (08:26):
No, he is just clearing his I thought.

Speaker 2 (08:28):
He was trying to send me a message like, no,
my economy, MO is not exactly all that good right now.
So let me just quietly and you know, unmistakably disagree
with you.

Speaker 3 (08:43):
How about that?

Speaker 4 (08:43):
Okay, all right, shut her down. President Trump is set
to sign an executive order that seeks to eliminate the
US Department of Education. Remember when he appointed his education secretary,
said my ultimate goal is to have you be out
of a job. Because he want to get rid of
the department. He's expected to sign it today at a

(09:04):
White House ceremony with several Republican governors and state education
commissioners on hand. He says he's going to direct Linda
McMahon to take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure
of the Department of Education and return education authority to
the States caveat. He can't do it without Congress.

Speaker 2 (09:23):
This is a hard pill for me to swallow. It's
only because I'm a child of two educators. Both my
parents were elementary, middle and high school teachers. I'm always
going to be on the side of more education, not
less than When you talk about the Department of Education,
you're talking about pelgrams, you're talking about federal student aid

(09:45):
and also special education among other things. But that's part
of the reason why it's hard for me to accept
that we would shudder the Department of Education. Now we
can make the argument that maybe we should better spend
the money used by the Department of Education, and that's
where I would prefer a forensic audit as opposed to
just closing the agency all together.

Speaker 3 (10:08):
But President Trump is President Trump.

Speaker 2 (10:11):
He said that this was something that he was going
to do, and if you're a supporter of President Trump,
it was a promise made and it's a promise kept
by him. That's why you don't lose elections. Then you
don't have to worry about these things. Green Peace, well,
they may be in the red going forward. You may
remember that we had the North Dakota Access pipeline protests

(10:34):
back in twenty sixteen to twenty seventeen thereabouts. Well in
North Dakota, jeury has found Greenpeace liable for deformation, ordering
it to pay more than six hundred and sixty million
dollars in damages to an oil company for the environmental
group's role in one of the largest anti fossil fuel
protests in US history. And if you look at this

(10:58):
against the backdrop of the larger conversation about what constitutes
a legal or an illegal protest, it's getting a bit
murky right now as far as how you can protest,
whether you are assuming any type of liability for protesting.
And the lawsuit, which was filed in state court, had

(11:20):
argued that green Peace was behind quote an unlawful and
violent scheme to cause financial harm to energy transfer close
quote green Peace. Obviously they're going to appeal, but it
also said that it could be forced into bankruptcy because
of the case. And we know about green Peace, they've
engaged in more than fifty years of activism, but that

(11:42):
could all change if this judgment stands. And I remember,
I know you remember Emmy King reporting on the protests
and how it seems like yesterday, but it really isn't.
This is like nine years ago at this point, and
I wonder what protests are going to look like. And
I'm not going to confuse that's what's going on with

(12:03):
the tesla. That's vandalism, that's violence. That's something completely different.
That's not protests. That's the strung hitting.

Speaker 4 (12:12):
The streets, hitting going out to a location, protestings thing,
we want this, we want this. Yeah, I don't get
where they get at six hundred and sixty million dollars.

Speaker 2 (12:19):
Well, you know, I don't know either, but clearly, clearly
the Energy Transfer was able to demonstrate that they had
been harmed and could quantify that amount of damage. It
doesn't mean it's going to hold up under appeal, but
at least in the meantime, Green Peace is going to
have to wonder about its future.

Speaker 4 (12:42):
What if you called nine one one and no one answered.
That happened yesterday. The nine one one system in La
County went down only for about twenty minutes, but it
did impact all twenty three stations. Isn't that like your
biggest fears that you called for help and there's no
one there.

Speaker 2 (12:55):
Oh, Amy King, let me tell you about living in
the hood. I'm here to tell you does that happen?
Does it happen? The question is when does it not happen?
And I've lived in mostly suburban communities, but I know
the times that I've had to call nine one one.
It was hit and miss as to whether anyone would
show up. There was a song by Public Enemy called

(13:19):
nine one one is a joke, and it talks about
the absence of law enforcement and emergency services when it
comes to certain communities. Get up, get get get down.
Nine to one one is a joke in your town,
that's one of the lyrics. So the idea of first
responders not responding to certain communities, that's not new. What

(13:39):
is new is the reason behind it. And when you
think about LA Sheriff's Department, well, I think twenty three
different stations, and to think that nothing would be available
to anyone for an extended period of time, that would
scare me. But the idea of calling nine one and
no one responding, I can't speak for anyone else. I'm
here to tell you that is not unusual. Okay, yeah,

(14:04):
true story. I believe you Elon Musk has been using
immigration and claims a voter fraud as a way to
sell his Social Security administration cuts. And if you didn't know,
Musk has this idea that immigration or illegal immigration has
a direct connection to Social Security. He's claimed that undocumented

(14:25):
immigrants are fraudulently accessing hundreds of billions of dollars worth
of entitlements, including Social Security, Medicaid, and disability programs.

Speaker 3 (14:34):
Quote this is what Elon Musk had to say. Quote.

Speaker 2 (14:36):
By using entitlements fraud, the Democrats have been able to
attract and retain vast numbers of illegal immigrants and by
voters basically bring in ten twenty million people who are
beholden to the Democrats for government handouts and will vote
overwhelmingly Democrat, as has been demonstrated in California clothes.

Speaker 1 (14:54):
Quote.

Speaker 2 (14:55):
Here is my issue, in a general sense, with what
Elon Musk is do. Where all of us, and I
think all of us would agree that waste, fraud and
abuse has to stop, has to be eliminated, all that
has to go. I think we could agree on that.
We may not agree on the processes involved. This is
not a forensic audit. This is Elon must saying I

(15:18):
see this and it's because of that. Well, show us
the data, show us the proof, be specific, show us
the line items. Give us more examples than anecdotal thoughts
about this incident or that incident. We know that he
has had some issues interpreting social security data, and I

(15:38):
think all of us are familiar with forensic audits. They
don't happen in a day. They happen over a period
of time. And as long as he wants us to
just take his word for it, then he'll always receive resistance.
Remember show and tell, well, it requires both. Don't just
tell us, show us.

Speaker 4 (15:57):
Penn's losing millions for a swimmer. The Trump administration is
frozen one hundred and seventy five million dollars in federal
funding to the University of Pennsylvania, citing policies allowing transgender
athletes to compete in women's sports. And this all really
centers around Leah Thomas, who is the transgender swimmer who

(16:22):
has done really well in the women's competition, and it's
spurred some lawsuits and that kind of stuff. Earlier this month,
the federal government also suspended four hundred million dollars in
funding to Columbia University following months of campus protests and
accusations by Jewish students of anti Semitism.

Speaker 2 (16:40):
I always say, get the easy ones right. I have
these sayings axioms if you will get the easy ones
right when it comes to transgender athletes. For me, get
the easy ones right. Sports at its best is about
making sure you have an even playing field as far
as competition. There's a difference between sex and gender. I

(17:03):
think people conflate them wrongly. Sex is how you're born,
the chromosomal aspect x X and x y. Gender is
how we present ourselves or how we choose to live
in the world. It's relatively easy for me, and I
don't think it's controversial to say, hey, there are biological

(17:25):
men who would then have a physical competitive advantage. When
you're talking about sports it, I would say it defeats
the purpose of Title nine when you have biologically male
athletes competing against biologically female athletes, which is different from
how someone wants to present themselves and live in a

(17:48):
gender capacity.

Speaker 3 (17:49):
Am I wrong, Amy King? I mean, am I thought?
I think so?

Speaker 4 (17:52):
I think you know I've thought about this a lot
because it's been you know, such a point of contention,
and it's fine. However you choose to live your life,
that's fine. But like you said, level playing field. So
if you put somebody, I mean, it's like putting a
man and a woman in a pool together, and you
put Michael Phelps in a pool with I can't remember Lindsey,

(18:13):
some fabulous female swimmer. He's gonna blow her out of
the water literally every time.

Speaker 1 (18:19):
Hm.

Speaker 4 (18:19):
So have a category maybe, and have a transgender category.

Speaker 3 (18:24):
I think that's the easiest answer. I think that.

Speaker 4 (18:26):
Would be fair for everyone. Then you're competing against people.
It's a level playing field. Without you're not discriminating against anybody.

Speaker 3 (18:35):
You're not discriminating, and you're not demeaning.

Speaker 4 (18:38):
Exactly because yeah, I mean again, if you want to
be gender, if that's what you feel, that's okay with me.

Speaker 3 (18:46):
I don't care.

Speaker 2 (18:47):
There's a way that we can have these conversations and
be respectful at acknowledge some unassailable truths without dehumanizing. Yes, yes,
And I always say watch your prepositions. Don't just talk
about a group of people. Talk with them, don't talk
at them, talk together. If we can do better with

(19:10):
the debate and dialogue, we can navigate this saying nothing
of what's going to happen as far as federal funding
and the different universities.

Speaker 3 (19:17):
I think that's a different discussion.

Speaker 2 (19:19):
But there's a way that we can maneuver this, navigate
this and get the easy ones right. And by the way,
Social Security Administration is going to now require in person
identity checks beginning March thirty first, the end of this month,
people will no longer be able to verify their identity
to the Social Security Administration over the phone, and those

(19:40):
who cannot properly verify their identity over the agencies quote
unquote my Social Security online service, they'll be required to
visit an agency field office in person to complete the
verification process. And this change will apply to the new
Social Security applicants and existing recipients who want to change
direct deposit information.

Speaker 3 (20:02):
To me, that's that's a no brainer. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (20:06):
If you can say, well, it's inconvenient or I don't understand,
it's just a verification identity for benefits.

Speaker 3 (20:13):
I don't have a problem with that.

Speaker 2 (20:16):
I would liking it to let's say, getting an updated passport.
That there's some things you just need to do in person.
Some things, yes, you can do online and it shouldn't
be all that sophisticated. But this is one thing. This
is not something that I think we need to really
fight over.

Speaker 3 (20:33):
It's just me. You know what do I say, get
the easy ones right?

Speaker 4 (20:37):
Boots are back, and so are the attacks on and
off the battlefield. So, as you've probably heard us talking about,
Israel has started airstrikes against the Gods Strip again. They
say that they renewed their attacks because Hamas is just
refusing to budge when it comes to releasing any more hostages.

(20:58):
That breaks the two months cease fire. And now Israel
has sent soldiers back into the Gaza Strip, and that's
got a lot of people really upset. Protesters are turning
out and protesting outside Israel's parliament. They say he is
Netanyahu is prioritizing his political survival over the security of

(21:21):
his country, the lives of Israeli hostages and of Palestinians
in Gaza.

Speaker 2 (21:26):
You know, in this thing we call talk radio, we're
always supposed to have these well formed or even not
even well formed opinions about everything. And this is one
of those times where I'm going to readily admit I
have no idea what the answer is. I don't know
what the solution is. There is the problem what's going

(21:46):
on in Gaza right now. And whereas I'm sympathetic to
those who are supporting Palestine and the two state solution
and how I don't want innocent Palestinians killed as collateral
damage in this war, I also understand that hey, we're
here because of Hamas and what happened on October seventh,
and there's no clean way to get through this. I

(22:08):
don't know how the world is going to be able
to maneuver this Middle East conflict, and we don't know
whether it's going to further conflagrate is that the right.

Speaker 3 (22:19):
Word, or expand in the region.

Speaker 2 (22:22):
You know, we have the bombings recently by President Trump
with the Hutis and how that may expand the conflict
in the region.

Speaker 4 (22:32):
And last night there were projectiles headed to Israel.

Speaker 3 (22:36):
Yeah, Yemen.

Speaker 4 (22:37):
Yes, this morning they were coming in from Gaza, but
last night from Yemen.

Speaker 2 (22:42):
So Amy, I think you make the great points that
all this is connected on some level. It's not just Gaza.
It's not just Gaza and Yemen. It's not just Gaza,
Yemen and Iran. It's not just Gaza Yemen Iran and Israel.
They're all connect on some levels, So we can't look

(23:02):
at this in a discrete as an ete separate issue
one and the same, And I don't know how when
I say we, it's obviously going to be in the
United States included, because what Israel does is usually done
in consultation with the United States, and there is Unfortunately,

(23:23):
as I say on other issues, it's going to get
worse before it gets better. And also as we move
on to the next story, there are some implications as
far as what may happen in the Ukraine and Russia conflict.
Ukraine and Russia have agreed in principle to a limited
ceasefire after President Trump spoke with the country's leaders in

(23:43):
different conversations this week, and for me, I think everything
is going to hinge on whether Russian President Putin is
willing to at least have some sort of good faith
approach to the ceasefire. It's one thing to agree in
pres but if you're still bombing infrastructure, then you're not

(24:04):
exactly showing yourself as someone who's in good faith is
trying to move toward a ceasefire. I need to see
if I'm in that negotiation. I need to see Russia
make some sort of concession. Where you have Ukraine who
was invaded, you have to have Russia who is not
trying to see the territory that it has taken in

(24:26):
this invasion. I would need to see something from Russia,
some sort of good faith gesture for me to believe
that the ceasefire or the limited ceasefire of thirty days,
is actually going to happen. I am more pessimistic than
optimistic that this cease fire is going to hold, and
we'll just have, as President Trump will say, we'll see

(24:47):
what happens. It's the Bill Handle Show. I'm Okelly and
for Bill caf I am six forty. We are live
everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.

Speaker 3 (24:57):
You've been listening to The Bill Handle Show.

Speaker 2 (24:59):
Catch my show Monday through Friday, six am to nine am,
and anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app

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