Michael Monks delves into Governor Gavin Newsom's candid discussion with Ezra Klein on California's high-speed rail challenges and housing crisis. Los Angeles District Attorney Nathan Hochman joins to explain his decision to reinstate the death penalty in select cases. Michael also examines LA City Council's expanded protections for undocumented immigrants, featuring insights from Councilman Hugo Soto-Martinez. The hour wraps up with a heartwarming story of a couple celebrating their honeymoon at the Dodgers' home opener, sharing theirs and his hopes for the team's season.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
KFI AM six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
This is Michael Monks Reports on Michael Monks from KFI News.
We get another hour together on a beautiful Saturday night
in southern California. Good evening to you. The Dodgers are
up five to two in the top of the seventh
over the Detroit Tigers, and the Angels got their first
(00:26):
win of the season today one nothing over the White
Sox in Chicago. I start this hour with a sports
report because I've asked you, our audience, a sports question
and you have some answers. My question was I noticed,
as a transplant here two years now that on Opening
Day we threw a lot of love at the Dodgers,
(00:47):
and we just didn't have a lot about the Angels.
And my understanding is that both of their jerseys, both
of their organizations are called Los Angeles, and so are
we missing something here. I know that our company, we
have a relationship with the Dodgers, is part of our
sports station, but also at the top of every hour
here on KFI, you hear us identify yourselves as as
(01:08):
mandated by federal law. We are KFI AM six forty,
Los Angeles, Orange County. You know, we treat those two
locations equally in our opening words, but do we treat
the teams equally? We being all of the media, and
I've asked you to help me understand how this goes
because I'm looking to get behind a team. I grip
(01:29):
a Reds fan in northern Kentucky, so I've got a
lot of experience having my heart broken or just being
straight up disappointed. So I'm leading Angels, and I also
live in downtown LA and you know, frankly Dodgers fans
kind of trashed it after the World Series last year
and it was a little irritating. So I've asked for
you to join our conversation on the iHeartRadio app. Click
(01:51):
on that talkback button and we will play some of
your messages, not just about that, but also about whether
we're ready for the Olympics. Not to see the Olympics,
but is the infrastructure, is the local government preparing us correctly?
Is LA going to be able to pull this off?
And whatever else is on your mind, you can join
us here tonight. Raul Let's hear from Jacob this is
(02:12):
Jacob from Huntington Beach. Just want to throw you a
little joke. What's the difference between an Angel's dog and
a Dodger's dog? You can get a Dodger's dog in October?
All right, all right? As a new Angels fan, I'm
a little offended by that, right, I guess that's a reference,
of course to the World Series taking place in October,
and the Angels would have been finished by then, but
(02:33):
not the Dodgers. And we also got a message without
a name on it. Let's hear that.
Speaker 3 (02:39):
I've been to city council meetings and my jaw dropped.
I could not believe what I was hearing. Can you
imagine some kids coming into that city council meeting to
learn how government works and listening to some of the
craziness that goes on that I just couldn't believe it.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
It's pretty shocking. It's pretty shocking at every single meeting.
That is not a rarity. If you missed anything that
we played about the council slurs and the move to
ban them, you can hear our podcast version of this
program on the iHeartRadio app later on tonight. After the
show concludes, you'll want to go back and hear it.
Your jaw is going to drop. Let's talk about Governor
(03:23):
Gavin Newsom. He's also got a new podcast, it's called
This Is Gavin Newsom, and he had on a guy
named Ezra Cline that you probably heard me talk about
just a couple of weeks ago. As Recline and a
fellow journalist at Derek Thompson from the Atlantic and as
Reclined being from the New York Times. They have co
written a book called Abundan. It's getting a lot of
attention in political circles because it is critical of liberal
(03:44):
governments and their commitment to processes rather than results. In
other words, why does it take so long to get
a permit? Why does it take so long to build things?
For example, the high speed rail project. A lot of
California governance issues are highlighted in this book, and it's
a book written by at least one of them is
pretty easily identifiable as a liberal, So it's a little
(04:08):
bit of liberal introspection.
Speaker 4 (04:10):
Well.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
Governor Knewsome had as Recline on his podcast, Let's Her
Little Taste.
Speaker 5 (04:16):
The stimulus bill under Obama that had three big headline
projects for reinvestment is as reclined. It had high speed rail,
it had smart grid, and it had a nationwide system
of interoperable health records.
Speaker 6 (04:29):
I remember those days.
Speaker 5 (04:31):
Yeah, oh for three, yeah, oh for three. At some
point we got to be upset about this.
Speaker 3 (04:36):
You know.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
And that's sort of the point of the book is like, okay,
like the stuff that we dream about is big and bold,
and it could be great coming from a liberal perspective
like Ezra Cline has, but it doesn't get delivered at
least not timely or under budget and that sort of thing.
And you hear giggles from the governor there. Well, the
podcast continues, but.
Speaker 7 (04:57):
Let's talk about what's important.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
This is actually and that's okay. Well, listen to this.
This is Governor Newsom. Was also on Bill Maher last night,
and we can play this. That's okay because Bill Maher
kind of gave it to the governor as well.
Speaker 7 (05:09):
But let's talk about what's important.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
My roof, your roof, My is this the solar?
Speaker 8 (05:16):
Is this not about to the solar?
Speaker 9 (05:18):
After the fire?
Speaker 6 (05:19):
It's always about the solar after.
Speaker 7 (05:21):
Yeah, after the fire, new roof. They suggested, you know,
get the stuff that's done Okay, two inspections I needed
to have.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
Why it's my roof if it.
Speaker 7 (05:33):
Falls on my head, that's my problem.
Speaker 4 (05:37):
That's it.
Speaker 10 (05:38):
That's it, that's the statement.
Speaker 11 (05:40):
That's my question.
Speaker 7 (05:41):
Why do I need two inspections which I have to
pay for? Yeah, you were here last time we talked
about regulations. You said, oh, it's a completely new day.
Speaker 6 (05:50):
Well no, wait, wait wait, that's a cool from you.
Completely new day.
Speaker 10 (05:54):
What you said you were working on, by the way,
and last week you had Ezra Client on which was important.
What a book called Abundance, which really lays out a
very condemning picture of liberal governance in this country and
the fact that we are process.
Speaker 6 (06:08):
Focused and not outcome focused. And your demonstrable example of
that is related to what you've tried to do with
your damn moof for the last fifteen years. And so
it's our job to eliminate as many of those thickets.
How is that going?
Speaker 1 (06:21):
As possible?
Speaker 2 (06:23):
To hear that, it's like, how's that? But both of
those clips that we played for you end with basically
a liberal person in the media saying, well, why aren't
you doing it? You know what the problems are? Why
aren't you able to deliver and the governor really struggled there.
I think we might have time for one of the
clips if we got it. Let's hear one of the
(06:44):
clips from the podcast that Gavin Newsom host and he
had ezraclined on.
Speaker 5 (06:48):
High speed rail is undermined the public's faith and what
can get done. It undermines the next high speed rail right,
And the thing that I want to see happen is
a kind of reckoning inside the governing I would call
it a culture. It's not just laws. We do government
different in this country than they do in Europe. Is
a qualitative difference between it, which is they run government
(07:11):
through bureaucracies and we restrain government through courts.
Speaker 6 (07:13):
And I would say that's the central theory of least
the argument that I would make against the high speed rail.
And you're right, there was a lot of promotion to
promise thirty three point six billion dollars, two hours and
twenty minutes downtown twenty by twenty twenty and the whole thing.
And then reality, Now I get here decade later, decade
(07:33):
plus later, and reconcile the fact that we have to
dig our way out of this. There's a new reality.
There's a scarcity of resources, there's an abundance of delay,
there's an abundance of cost overruns, and we have to
level set that we need to build something or we're
left with literally nothing. We're left with pieces that go nowhere.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
So that's his answer to the criticism, the concerns about
these big promises keeping people in California voted to fund
this high speed rail project with the promise that it
would go from Los Angeles to San Francisco, it would
be very fast, and it would be available to you,
and maybe eventually it would also connect San Diego and Sacramento.
(08:14):
And right now the price tag is more than tripled,
and there's no high speed rail taking place, and it
looks like the first component of it will be built,
if at all, between Bakersfield and Mercette, And it just
doesn't sound like there's a lot of introspection there. The
Gavin Newsom podcast has obviously been talked about on our program.
(08:35):
I think John Cobelt's a big fan of it, and
it's also drawn a lot of attention nationally. He's trying
to engage with conservatives, But this was a different conversation.
This conversation was good. If you want to familiarize yourself
with this abundance idea. I'm kind of fascinated by what
Ezra Cline and Derek Thompson wrote. I highly recommend it
and you can tune in to This is Gavin Newsom
(08:57):
on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcast.
This episode is well worth a listen up. Next, we've
got La County District Attorney Nathan Hawkman why he has
brought the death penalty back to Los Angeles County.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
Live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app. This is Michael Monks Reports.
I'm Michael Monks from KFI News. We're with you till
nine o'clock tonight. Dodgers Baseball is back opening day this week.
Something else is back in LA County the death penalty.
District Attorney Nathan Hawkman made that announcement this week, saying
he'll seek it in extreme and rare circumstances. So what
(09:38):
does that mean? Let's ask him. District Attorney Nathan Hawkman,
thanks so much for spending some time with us.
Speaker 4 (09:43):
Yeah, my pleisure.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
What motivated you to put out this statement about the
death penalty and how you would be willing to seek
it in exceedingly rare cases.
Speaker 4 (09:52):
I'd said during the campaign that we were going to
revise my predecessors policy to never seek the death penalty
no matter what the facts or the law were involved
in a particular case. And that was the last number
of bonds. I've consulted with the folks that have the
most experience in the disc attorney's office, who have dealt
(10:13):
with the death penalty cases and life without the possibility
of parole cases, and we had gone through the prior
policy and policies at prior district attorneys and arrived at
the current policy, which we think strikes the balance between
situations which we have deemed to be exceedingly rare, where
the death penalty applies, and those other situations where life
(10:37):
without the possibility of parole apply.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
What can you tell us about what those considerations might
look like?
Speaker 4 (10:44):
So I'll give you two examples of what we would
think would be situations where that meet the exceedingly rare threshold,
but the deafinitely would be on the table for consideration
if we, ever, god forbid, had a Sandy Hook situation
here in Los Angeles County or over twenty school churge
were to be gotten down by a murderer, or we
(11:06):
had a Las Vegas situation where over fifty people were
to be gunned down by a different vicious murderer. Those
are these situations where the death penalty would be on
the table for consideration. He would then go through the
extensive and thorough review that we outlined in the policy,
and we would look forward to not only hearing from
(11:28):
victims and making sure their voices are heard, but defense
counsel and defendants to again make sure that all the
aggravating and mitigating considerations are on the table when you
make a final decision.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
I imagine that even when a crime is heinous, that
there must be some part of your humanity that has
to deal with the decision like this. I know it's
easy for any of us on the sidelines to say
that was a terrible crime, let's kill that guy. But
when it's your decision to pursue that, can you share
with us what that feeling might be like for you.
Speaker 4 (12:04):
Well, this is why you have a policy that goes
through in a rigorous fashion all the different considerations that
you are going to take on your advisement in making
that final call, and that's why we identify upfront it
will be an exceedingly rare situation that justifies the death
penalty rather than just life without the possibility of parole.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
We're talking with La County District Attorney Nathan Hawkman. Obviously
there's a lot of concern in Juniper Hill's Goodness knows,
we've heard it here at KFI, We've heard it from
County Supervisor Catherine Barger, and also from your office as
it relates to a guy that's been known as the
Pillowcase rapist, horrifying title. His real name is Christopher Hubbard,
(12:46):
and he has been placed in that community. You opposed this,
It did seem like it was out of everybody's hands
because this was a decision from outside of the area.
But tell us your feelings on this placement.
Speaker 4 (12:58):
Sure, I mean, Christopher hub was one of the first
people that was committed under California sexually Violent Predator law
that was enacted back in nineteen ninety six. Back in
twenty thirteen, the first series of hearings were held on
whether or not he would get a conditional release coming
out of the state hospitals that he had been put in.
(13:23):
We opposed it back in twenty thirteen up in Santa
Clara where they were determining whether or not they were
releasing back in the Los Angeles County. We opposed it.
Then we opposed it for the next ten years, all
the way through twenty twenty three. Notwithstanding the fact that
we opposed it, ultimately the course decided that he would
be released in Los Angeles County. Then we thought the
(13:46):
most strenuous conditions under which he would be released a
twenty four to seven guard, access to GPS, access to
surveillance cameras that could monitor him, search and seizure by
law enforcement, but were only successful with the request for
twenty four to seven surveillance and security. So again he's
been He has been released in the North County. We
(14:10):
are going to, along with law enforcement, monitor him as
closely as we absolutely can to make sure that he
does not, in any way, shape or form, go back
to the criminal activity that landed him in the system
to begin with. It's a situation that's enormously frustrating. You know,
we do not want the court system to view the
(14:30):
North County as somehow a dumping area for sexually violent predators.
And we're going to keep fighting in court as often
as we can in this situation, and if he trips
up like he has done before, we'll go back into
court immediately to get him recommitted.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
I'm not going to ask you about them and Indes brothers
in a little bit of time that I was able
to get with you today, but if I can, I
wanted to ask about the way that you present at
the news conferences announcing your decisions around them and in
desk case, because I have to admit I feel like
I'm now just a few credit shy of a law degree.
I mean, the way that you put it all out
and you're explaining everything. Can you just share with those
(15:08):
before you run what that strategy is on how you're
really going into some deep detail about how your office
is handling that case.
Speaker 6 (15:15):
Well.
Speaker 4 (15:16):
I think the facts and the law are incredibly important,
and we viewed the Menendez case as an interesting portal
where some people have gotten interested in this case who
have never been involved or interested in criminal justice issues before.
And so we issued actually a video that we put
on our website DA dot La County dot gov that
(15:36):
is an explanatory video from the actual murder back in
August of nineteen eighty nine, all the way to the
three decisions and three tracks that the Menendezes are now on,
a habeas track where they're actually requesting a new trial,
the clemency track where they're asking the governor for their
immediate release, and the resentencing track where they're asking for
(15:57):
a new sentence. And we thought it was very important
to lay out the entire factual picture at LISA, a
whole lot of that factual picture, along with how the
Menendez has got to this point in time, in order
for people who are interested in this process to really
be informed and make informed decisions. You know, we did
not fear the facts. We don't fear the law. We
(16:19):
think that this type of transparency would actually be very
useful for the system and for the entire public.
Speaker 2 (16:24):
Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hoffman, I do appreciate
the time you were able to give us a day.
I hope we can talk again soon.
Speaker 4 (16:32):
I look forward to that. Thank you.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
Up next, the LA City Council has adopted more protections
for illegal immigrants. We'll talk with the councilman who pushed
them through about why he thinks it's necessary.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (16:46):
KFI AM six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
This is Michael Monks Reports on Michael Monks from KFI
News with you un til nine o'clock tonight. Late last year,
the La City Council voted to become a sanctuary city,
barring city state from cooperating with federal immigration enforcement efforts.
In most cases, council members have expressed concern about President
(17:07):
Trump's immigration policies, and now that we've seen some of
those policies in action, there's been more work at city
Hall to prop up protections for people in the country illegally.
City Councilman Hugo Soto Martinez pushed through the latest protections
and he joins us now, counselman, thanks so much for
joining us, so we'll get right to it. I mean,
you expressed a sense of urgency in the city adopting
(17:29):
these measures. This is beyond just being a sanctuary city.
Why do you think it's necessary?
Speaker 9 (17:34):
Well, I think right now, given all the fear that
is being felt in the community and everything that's coming
from Washington, I think it's important that we just think
bigger and think about what we can do as a city.
You know, the intention here is to keep families together,
value the folks you know that make our economy run
and take care of our children, cook our food, and
so we just needed to send a very quick message
(17:56):
that la is for everyone and we'll do anything in
our power to protect for families.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
Those who oppose the presence of illegal immigrants in the community.
What do you think, from your perspective, is missing in
that conversation. Is there a way to win folks over
to maybe have what you might see as a better
understanding of the situation of illegal immigrants in LA.
Speaker 4 (18:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 9 (18:18):
I think when people know someone who is undocumented in
this country, I think they have a very different perspective.
You know, folks that you know hire nannies, They're viewed
as extensions of their family. People that work in those businesses,
many that are run by immigrant labor, view them as
a valuable asset of supporting their business. And I can
(18:40):
go on and on and on and on, but I
think the most important thing is that we have to
humanize the issue. Donald Trump would like us to believe
that everybody that we're going after, it's criminals, and that
could not be farther from the truth. We're hearing reports
of people being sent to countries in Central America. They're
just completely innocent. He's locking up people in Guantanamo Bay
(19:02):
with nine to eleven terrorists and just recently suspended legal
representation for children. This has nothing to do with criminals.
This is just about his you know, his agenda that
he's trying to push on everybody.
Speaker 2 (19:14):
I know, at a recent city council meeting, we saw
council Member Hernandez become quite emotional talking about the possibility
that ice activities were taking place in the city at
that moment. What are we seeing in Los Angeles? Have
you been able to confirm any immigration enforcement activities?
Speaker 9 (19:31):
You know, there's there's been so much fear in the
community that you know, they are reporting any sort of
inkling of ice. Sometimes it's just been them driving around,
and oftentimes it has been, you know, them going to
pick somebody up. But there's certainly so much fear that
people are afraid to go to work, they're afraid to
send their children to school. You know, immigration neighborhoods that
(19:54):
had vibrant economic activity feel like ghost towns, and so
trying to do is bring a little bit of light
to the situation and give people a little bit of
comfort that the city of Los Angeles, at least we
can do our part to make sure that they're protected.
But there's certainly a lot of confusion and a lot
of you know, lack of their There's just a lot
(20:16):
of confusion, and I think that's what they're depending on.
They want to have our communities confused and full of fear.
Speaker 2 (20:20):
Right now, the federal government has stated that they're basically
targeting immigrants with some sort of criminal history. If that
pursuit becomes broader, what type of impact could we see
in Los Angeles if they are truly going after everyone
who is here without the proper documentation.
Speaker 9 (20:39):
Well, I think they're already going after the broader community,
you know, which is something I've been saying since the beginning.
It's not about you know, the you know, the one criminal,
like he's using that as a pretext to go after
entire communities. I mean, there's been so many articles of
people who have been here and lived their lives seeking asylum,
(21:01):
great members of the community, small business owners being detained
at you know, what they thought was just a regular
check in as they go through the asylum process. As
I mentioned, people being sent out of country without any
due process, just completely ignoring the corps. This is not
about criminals. This is about his radical agenda and trying
to use criminals as a pretext to do something much
(21:23):
more broader.
Speaker 2 (21:24):
And you have obviously expressed some concerns about what else
may come. There's another piece of city legislation related to
lax Airport that's still making its way through City Hall.
What is that supposed to do?
Speaker 9 (21:37):
You know, that piece of legislation is sort of in
preparation for what we saw during the first administration, which
was the Muslim band. During that time, we saw people
in the middle of their flight not being able to
gain entry, people who had every legal right to do so,
lawyers scrambling. It was complete chaos, and so preemptively we're
(22:00):
looking at, you know, what can the City of Los Angeles,
through the airport, which we own, could we give some
sort of stability if that were to happen, And so
we're looking through what resources we can use so that
when if this happens again, we're not scrambling and trying
to do, you know, everything we did the first time.
Speaker 2 (22:19):
Encounselman, I know you've got to run, but I think
if I heard you correctly at City Hall today, you
mentioned that you might need to strengthen the sanctuary city
status of Los Angeles or something along those lines. What
did you mean by that?
Speaker 9 (22:33):
Well, you know, I was very happy that you know,
we've put into law the sanctuary policies, you know, with
many of our colleagues. But to me, I view the
sanctuary city policy EY as a minimum. There is way
more than we can do. And that's what the four
pieces of the legislation were today is how can we
do any your rights campaign, How can we work with
businesses so that they notify us when they are interacting
(22:55):
with ICE, looking for funding for duportation defense, and also
supporting any state legislation. Sanctuary is a minimum, but there
is so much more that we can do.
Speaker 2 (23:04):
Counselman, Hugo Soto Martinez, thanks so much for chatting with us.
Speaker 9 (23:08):
Yeah, thank you so much, Michael.
Speaker 2 (23:09):
Up next, we'll talk with a young couple who got
married on Wednesday, and where did they want to spend
their honeymoon? Dodgers Stadium on opening day. They'll tell us why.
Speaker 1 (23:17):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (23:21):
KFI AM six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
This is Michael Monks's Reports on Michael Monks with un
till nine o'clock tonight. A few more minutes, Dodgers fans
showed up. They showed out for Opening Day, but one
local couple had two things to celebrate the return of
Dodgers baseball and their nuptials. Hannah hann ramsays Martinez Montez
(23:42):
said their vows on Wednesday and decided their honeymoon, at
least the first part of it would be spent at
the Dodgers Tigers game on Thursday. I spoke with them
this week. What my understanding is, you got some money
for your wedding and you're spending it to go to
the Dodgers game.
Speaker 11 (23:58):
Why, yeah, very big Dodger fans. Our actual anniversary when we,
you know, we started dating, was March twenty sixth of
twenty twenty. We had a wedding yesterday, obviously five years
after that date, and I knew that it was going
to be closer to baseball season, so I was like,
we should just like mini moon, you know.
Speaker 4 (24:19):
At Dodger Stadium.
Speaker 11 (24:20):
That should be the thing we do right after the
wedding is go to Dodger Stadium and then Opening days
the next day.
Speaker 8 (24:26):
So we're like, oh my god, that's that's lightning.
Speaker 11 (24:28):
That's pretty well.
Speaker 8 (24:28):
We're down, We're right down the street.
Speaker 9 (24:31):
We can just go.
Speaker 8 (24:31):
And you know, we've been Dodgers fans all of our lives,
Like her grandfather, like when he was buried, like he
had like a Dodger blue casket, Like.
Speaker 9 (24:39):
It was crazy.
Speaker 8 (24:40):
It's been in our blood, like forever you are.
Speaker 2 (24:43):
Honeymooning at Dodger Stadium, that's that seems to be a
little different than just going to opening day. What does
it mean to honeymoon at Dodger Stadium.
Speaker 8 (24:51):
Yes, well, when a place is sacred, it just stays sacred.
So like we have had so many beautiful memories there,
just in every single seaton you could possibly think of,
and it just it feels a little bit more close
to home just to be at some places so important
for us.
Speaker 11 (25:07):
Yeah, Daughter Stadium fills like home.
Speaker 9 (25:12):
And that's it.
Speaker 11 (25:13):
It's like you get you get the best feeling. It's
a it's a place of comfort. It's not as stressful
as going to Disneyland. You know, or something, planning a
whole vacation, and like we said, you know, we're here
in downtown LA. That's where we got married, here in
the arts district, and so we're in our hotel and
we're going to check out, and then we're just gonna
eat some food get.
Speaker 8 (25:33):
Ready to go to the game. A Dodger dog and
a Michela sounds so much better than like so good
out that's some random city.
Speaker 12 (25:41):
Yeah, that is my.
Speaker 2 (25:42):
Dinner when you go to a game like this to
celebrate your mini moon. I heard you say. Does that
suggest that maybe down the road you guys are planning
on maybe a more traditional post wedding celebration.
Speaker 4 (25:53):
Absolutely.
Speaker 8 (25:54):
Yeah, we want to travel as much as possible, especially
with this last year of planning.
Speaker 3 (25:59):
Like now that we see that we.
Speaker 8 (26:01):
Put together our budget for all this stuff and we
can accomplish this, Like the whole world is always at
this point, so like Japan is on the board. We
would love to see that New York anywhere around the world.
So yeah, we're definitely pushing for that, but maybe we'll
just see how how long it takes.
Speaker 11 (26:19):
Phase. But we knew that if there's anything we were
going to do just like when you win the Super
Bowl you go to Disneyland, you know, and we were
just like, we're going to dot your team. That's that
we're going to go.
Speaker 2 (26:28):
So what kind of season do you expect from the
Dodgers this year?
Speaker 8 (26:32):
Oh my god, it's going to be fantastic. Even last year,
I had this like in clean up, something big is
going to happen with so many stars coming in, and
now I am so excited to see what will happen.
I don't see anything like if there if there's not
going to be a World Series, there's gonna be fantastic games.
So we want to go to as many as possible.
(26:54):
So that's definitely in our plans. But we're so excited.
Speaker 11 (26:57):
We've got to killer team and Dodger fans are unlike
any other fans, and.
Speaker 8 (27:02):
So yeah, and seeing like so many people just coming
from around the world just to be here for these games.
Just we're walking through Grand Central Market because we also
took our engagement pictures in there, and they we see
everybody from like all walks of live in Dodger gear
taking pictures in front of a show. Hey, honey, mural.
It's awesome. So I feel like the energy in the
stadium is going to be so so elevated, and we're
(27:27):
just excited.
Speaker 3 (27:27):
To be there.
Speaker 2 (27:28):
And you met in twenty twenty. You said, yes, well
I'm if I'm doing the clock right, March twenty six,
twenty twenty, seems like a weird time to meet somebody.
Speaker 4 (27:36):
Oh.
Speaker 11 (27:36):
Absolutely. We have a twenty story where we we went
on a tender day back in twenty sixteen, sorry, twenty fifteen,
and that we were both eighteen years old and we
just it didn't work out. Then four years later we
rematched on tinder, and then it worked out then. And
then the world collapsed and you know, you couldn't really
(27:59):
be in You had to pick your bubbles at that time.
Who were you going to be around? And he, you know, she.
Speaker 8 (28:07):
Felt so safe. We were so certain about this. Everything
lined up. Even our parents earned the same photo from
nineteen eighty the hat like the whole trim path up
here in like the valley. My dad is in that
photo and her.
Speaker 11 (28:22):
Dad is in that photo, and they'd have no idea.
They're just like a few feet apart from each other,
back turned away from the camera. We found that out
on our third date. So they were all these little
things lining up that were just so magical, and we
were like, you know what, that's it. We don't want
anybody else. And then and then immediately because of COVID times,
we just we spent so much time together because it
was weird to see anyone else, you know, we might
(28:44):
as well see the person you want to be with.
And then we moved out and that's been it.
Speaker 2 (28:47):
That's really fantastic. I'm grateful that you took some time
out on this very special day for you all to
talk to us and congratulations, wishing you many years of happiness.
Speaker 11 (28:58):
Thank you, thank you very much.
Speaker 2 (29:00):
So there you go. Big congratulations, felasidades to our friends
Signor and Signora Martinez Montez, many many best wishes for
the years to come. And you know, they got married
on a Wednesday in downtown LA so that they could
celebrate their honeymoon on a Thursday at Dodgers Stadium for
(29:20):
Opening Day. And that's what you got to love about
Dodgers fans. I mean, they really are committed. Opening Day
really look like fun. I was here at the station,
of course doing the news, but we were covering it
and all of our friends at the TV stations were
showing a lot of live pictures from what was going on,
and it's just really something else. And I've enjoyed our
conversation throughout the two hours of doubt the Dodgers and
whether we don't give enough love to our other Major
(29:42):
League Baseball team here in southern California, at least in
Metro LA anyway, and that would be the Angels Dodgers
one today, seven to three. The Angels also put up
a dub one nothing against the Chicago White Sox on
the road, So thank you for helping me understand the
despair that you might see. Of course, you can hear
(30:02):
all the Dodgers games right here on our AM five
seventy year home throughout the season for Dodger Baseball and
LA Sports appreciate you listening to that game. They're producing
that just ten feet from where I'm sitting right now,
and that game just wrapped up a little while ago.
Another sporting event that we've been talking about throughout the
night are the Olympics coming in twenty twenty eight. My
(30:23):
question to you all was are we ready and not
just as spectators, you know, are you ready to see
some Olympic basketball and gymnastas. Of course we're ready to
see it. Some Olympics are a very special occasion. But
is La ready? Are we going to be clean enough?
Are we going to have the infrastructure? Is the traffic
going to be managed? And some of you had some
(30:43):
opinions about that as well. Let's hear from David Hi.
Speaker 12 (30:46):
This is David Boy. I certainly hope they get this
city cleaned up by the Olympics. I drove over five
thousand uber rides and a lot of families because I
had a van. And let me tell you, it was
so humilily embarrassing to a person, any of the tourists
that came into town. It was jaw dropping how they
(31:08):
were so stunned, how horrible everything was, and how the
homeless situation, the trash and the dirty nine.
Speaker 2 (31:15):
I get it. I get that. Exactly five thousand uber rides,
that's a lot. And yes, it's people from out of
town that are often turning that type of transportation and
you have to drive them through this. You may have
even heard me on occasion on KFI on some of
the other programs talking about La Metro and I'm a
user of La Metro and I've often used it to
come here to Burbank to our studios. I can take
the B Line train from Downtown LA to Studio City
(31:39):
and then hop on a Burbank bus to get over here.
And what I've noticed about the Red Line as it
used to be known the Bee Line now is a
lot of folks seem to come from Europe. And I'm
basing that on the languages that I'm hearing them speak.
And they probably think, well, we'll stay in downtown Los Angeles,
because I mean, downtown's are always great, right, and I
(32:00):
live there. I love Downtown LA. But man, it is
dirty and it can be a little scary, and it
seems like the wild West. So you already have that
disappointment that downtown Los Angeles looks a little creepy, and
then you get on the train and you might see
somebody having a psychotic episode. You're on your way to Universal, right,
(32:21):
You're coming as one of the stops when you come
to Greater LA. You want to hit up Universal or
one of our other amusement parks, Disney, that sort of thing.
But if you're going to Universal and you stay downtown,
you're taking the Bee Line to Studio City and walking
across and taking the bus up to that theme park,
and when you go home to Europe and people there
in your home country ask you, hey, what'd you think?
(32:44):
How is Los Angeles? What do you think they're saying?
I mean, this is an event that is going to
attract people from all over the world. We're going to
need people to come here and say it was amazing
and go back to their home countries and say, you
have to get to Los Angeles. And I just don't
feel like the LA that we would present today would
(33:07):
offer that. And so that's that's my big concern. I mean,
we're talking about a car free Olympics, right, we want
to have people taking public transportation. Well, we have one
Lass bus because when we won the World Series last year,
we burned one of them. And we saw that horrifying
(33:29):
high speed chase by the police on Friday yesterday. I
know LA loves a great police pursuit, but this one
was brutal. A lot of crashes involved injuries ended in
Long Beach. I mean, is that what we're showing everyone?
And listen to this one. A fight followed by a
shooting prompted the California Highway Patrol to shut down all
(33:50):
northbound lanes on the one oh one Freeway in downtown
this afternoon. A fight was reported to ChB just after
one thirty this after on the northbound side of the
freeway at Mission Road. The CHP got a call about
a physical fight between two occupants of a white Honda
SUV in the northbound lanes at Vigness Street. A second
(34:12):
caller reported gunshots at the same location, so the police
show up. They figured an unrelated person from a separate
vehicle had exited a vehicle and fired gunshots near the
suv fight. No one was wounded. One of the suv
combatants was taken to a hospital by ambulance for treatment
of minor injuries. They did get that freeway reopened by
(34:35):
about four o'clock. But that's just every day craziness living
in Los Angeles, and we have the world coming to
town in just a few years. But hey, at least
the Dodgers are winning, right, we got that going for is?
I love that victory parade, you know, anything that gives
la something to be excited and happy about, I'm for that.
And don't forget the Angels. One today two, you've been
(34:58):
listening to Michael Monks reports Michael Monks from KFI News.
I'll be with you as always every day next week,
giving you the news from La City Hall, LA County
Board of Supervisors, and beyond. Tune in for that. My
big thanks to our producer Matthew Toffler, our technical director
Raoul Cordes, and our news anchor Brigeta Dagastino. You'll catch
(35:18):
us again next Saturday night. Thanks for joining us tonight
on KFI AM six
Speaker 1 (35:23):
Forty, KFI AM six forty on demand
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
KFI AM six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
This is Michael Monks Reports on Michael Monks from KFI News.
We get another hour together on a beautiful Saturday night
in southern California. Good evening to you. The Dodgers are
up five to two in the top of the seventh
over the Detroit Tigers, and the Angels got their first
(00:26):
win of the season today one nothing over the White
Sox in Chicago. I start this hour with a sports
report because I've asked you, our audience, a sports question
and you have some answers. My question was I noticed,
as a transplant here two years now that on Opening
Day we threw a lot of love at the Dodgers,
(00:47):
and we just didn't have a lot about the Angels.
And my understanding is that both of their jerseys, both
of their organizations are called Los Angeles, and so are
we missing something here. I know that our company, we
have a relationship with the Dodgers, is part of our
sports station, but also at the top of every hour
here on KFI, you hear us identify yourselves as as
(01:08):
mandated by federal law. We are KFI AM six forty,
Los Angeles, Orange County. You know, we treat those two
locations equally in our opening words, but do we treat
the teams equally? We being all of the media, and
I've asked you to help me understand how this goes
because I'm looking to get behind a team. I grip
(01:29):
a Reds fan in northern Kentucky, so I've got a
lot of experience having my heart broken or just being
straight up disappointed. So I'm leading Angels, and I also
live in downtown LA and you know, frankly Dodgers fans
kind of trashed it after the World Series last year
and it was a little irritating. So I've asked for
you to join our conversation on the iHeartRadio app. Click
(01:51):
on that talkback button and we will play some of
your messages, not just about that, but also about whether
we're ready for the Olympics. Not to see the Olympics,
but is the infrastructure, is the local government preparing us correctly?
Is LA going to be able to pull this off?
And whatever else is on your mind, you can join
us here tonight. Raul Let's hear from Jacob this is
(02:12):
Jacob from Huntington Beach. Just want to throw you a
little joke. What's the difference between an Angel's dog and
a Dodger's dog? You can get a Dodger's dog in October?
All right, all right? As a new Angels fan, I'm
a little offended by that, right, I guess that's a reference,
of course to the World Series taking place in October,
and the Angels would have been finished by then, but
(02:33):
not the Dodgers. And we also got a message without
a name on it. Let's hear that.
Speaker 3 (02:39):
I've been to city council meetings and my jaw dropped.
I could not believe what I was hearing. Can you
imagine some kids coming into that city council meeting to
learn how government works and listening to some of the
craziness that goes on that I just couldn't believe it.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
It's pretty shocking. It's pretty shocking at every single meeting.
That is not a rarity. If you missed anything that
we played about the council slurs and the move to
ban them, you can hear our podcast version of this
program on the iHeartRadio app later on tonight. After the
show concludes, you'll want to go back and hear it.
Your jaw is going to drop. Let's talk about Governor
(03:23):
Gavin Newsom. He's also got a new podcast, it's called
This Is Gavin Newsom, and he had on a guy
named Ezra Cline that you probably heard me talk about
just a couple of weeks ago. As Recline and a
fellow journalist at Derek Thompson from the Atlantic and as
Reclined being from the New York Times. They have co
written a book called Abundan. It's getting a lot of
attention in political circles because it is critical of liberal
(03:44):
governments and their commitment to processes rather than results. In
other words, why does it take so long to get
a permit? Why does it take so long to build things?
For example, the high speed rail project. A lot of
California governance issues are highlighted in this book, and it's
a book written by at least one of them is
pretty easily identifiable as a liberal, So it's a little
(04:08):
bit of liberal introspection.
Speaker 4 (04:10):
Well.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
Governor Knewsome had as Recline on his podcast, Let's Her
Little Taste.
Speaker 5 (04:16):
The stimulus bill under Obama that had three big headline
projects for reinvestment is as reclined. It had high speed rail,
it had smart grid, and it had a nationwide system
of interoperable health records.
Speaker 6 (04:29):
I remember those days.
Speaker 5 (04:31):
Yeah, oh for three, yeah, oh for three. At some
point we got to be upset about this.
Speaker 3 (04:36):
You know.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
And that's sort of the point of the book is like, okay,
like the stuff that we dream about is big and bold,
and it could be great coming from a liberal perspective
like Ezra Cline has, but it doesn't get delivered at
least not timely or under budget and that sort of thing.
And you hear giggles from the governor there. Well, the
podcast continues, but.
Speaker 7 (04:57):
Let's talk about what's important.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
This is actually and that's okay. Well, listen to this.
This is Governor Newsom. Was also on Bill Maher last night,
and we can play this. That's okay because Bill Maher
kind of gave it to the governor as well.
Speaker 7 (05:09):
But let's talk about what's important.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
My roof, your roof, My is this the solar?
Speaker 8 (05:16):
Is this not about to the solar?
Speaker 9 (05:18):
After the fire?
Speaker 6 (05:19):
It's always about the solar after.
Speaker 7 (05:21):
Yeah, after the fire, new roof. They suggested, you know,
get the stuff that's done Okay, two inspections I needed
to have.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
Why it's my roof if it.
Speaker 7 (05:33):
Falls on my head, that's my problem.
Speaker 4 (05:37):
That's it.
Speaker 10 (05:38):
That's it, that's the statement.
Speaker 11 (05:40):
That's my question.
Speaker 7 (05:41):
Why do I need two inspections which I have to
pay for? Yeah, you were here last time we talked
about regulations. You said, oh, it's a completely new day.
Speaker 6 (05:50):
Well no, wait, wait wait, that's a cool from you.
Completely new day.
Speaker 10 (05:54):
What you said you were working on, by the way,
and last week you had Ezra Client on which was important.
What a book called Abundance, which really lays out a
very condemning picture of liberal governance in this country and
the fact that we are process.
Speaker 6 (06:08):
Focused and not outcome focused. And your demonstrable example of
that is related to what you've tried to do with
your damn moof for the last fifteen years. And so
it's our job to eliminate as many of those thickets.
How is that going?
Speaker 1 (06:21):
As possible?
Speaker 2 (06:23):
To hear that, it's like, how's that? But both of
those clips that we played for you end with basically
a liberal person in the media saying, well, why aren't
you doing it? You know what the problems are? Why
aren't you able to deliver and the governor really struggled there.
I think we might have time for one of the
clips if we got it. Let's hear one of the
(06:44):
clips from the podcast that Gavin Newsom host and he
had ezraclined on.
Speaker 5 (06:48):
High speed rail is undermined the public's faith and what
can get done. It undermines the next high speed rail right,
And the thing that I want to see happen is
a kind of reckoning inside the governing I would call
it a culture. It's not just laws. We do government
different in this country than they do in Europe. Is
a qualitative difference between it, which is they run government
(07:11):
through bureaucracies and we restrain government through courts.
Speaker 6 (07:13):
And I would say that's the central theory of least
the argument that I would make against the high speed rail.
And you're right, there was a lot of promotion to
promise thirty three point six billion dollars, two hours and
twenty minutes downtown twenty by twenty twenty and the whole thing.
And then reality, Now I get here decade later, decade
(07:33):
plus later, and reconcile the fact that we have to
dig our way out of this. There's a new reality.
There's a scarcity of resources, there's an abundance of delay,
there's an abundance of cost overruns, and we have to
level set that we need to build something or we're
left with literally nothing. We're left with pieces that go nowhere.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
So that's his answer to the criticism, the concerns about
these big promises keeping people in California voted to fund
this high speed rail project with the promise that it
would go from Los Angeles to San Francisco, it would
be very fast, and it would be available to you,
and maybe eventually it would also connect San Diego and Sacramento.
(08:14):
And right now the price tag is more than tripled,
and there's no high speed rail taking place, and it
looks like the first component of it will be built,
if at all, between Bakersfield and Mercette, And it just
doesn't sound like there's a lot of introspection there. The
Gavin Newsom podcast has obviously been talked about on our program.
(08:35):
I think John Cobelt's a big fan of it, and
it's also drawn a lot of attention nationally. He's trying
to engage with conservatives, But this was a different conversation.
This conversation was good. If you want to familiarize yourself
with this abundance idea. I'm kind of fascinated by what
Ezra Cline and Derek Thompson wrote. I highly recommend it
and you can tune in to This is Gavin Newsom
(08:57):
on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcast.
This episode is well worth a listen up. Next, we've
got La County District Attorney Nathan Hawkman why he has
brought the death penalty back to Los Angeles County.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
Live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app. This is Michael Monks Reports.
I'm Michael Monks from KFI News. We're with you till
nine o'clock tonight. Dodgers Baseball is back opening day this week.
Something else is back in LA County the death penalty.
District Attorney Nathan Hawkman made that announcement this week, saying
he'll seek it in extreme and rare circumstances. So what
(09:38):
does that mean? Let's ask him. District Attorney Nathan Hawkman,
thanks so much for spending some time with us.
Speaker 4 (09:43):
Yeah, my pleisure.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
What motivated you to put out this statement about the
death penalty and how you would be willing to seek
it in exceedingly rare cases.
Speaker 4 (09:52):
I'd said during the campaign that we were going to
revise my predecessors policy to never seek the death penalty
no matter what the facts or the law were involved
in a particular case. And that was the last number
of bonds. I've consulted with the folks that have the
most experience in the disc attorney's office, who have dealt
(10:13):
with the death penalty cases and life without the possibility
of parole cases, and we had gone through the prior
policy and policies at prior district attorneys and arrived at
the current policy, which we think strikes the balance between
situations which we have deemed to be exceedingly rare, where
the death penalty applies, and those other situations where life
(10:37):
without the possibility of parole apply.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
What can you tell us about what those considerations might
look like?
Speaker 4 (10:44):
So I'll give you two examples of what we would
think would be situations where that meet the exceedingly rare threshold,
but the deafinitely would be on the table for consideration
if we, ever, god forbid, had a Sandy Hook situation
here in Los Angeles County or over twenty school churge
were to be gotten down by a murderer, or we
(11:06):
had a Las Vegas situation where over fifty people were
to be gunned down by a different vicious murderer. Those
are these situations where the death penalty would be on
the table for consideration. He would then go through the
extensive and thorough review that we outlined in the policy,
and we would look forward to not only hearing from
(11:28):
victims and making sure their voices are heard, but defense
counsel and defendants to again make sure that all the
aggravating and mitigating considerations are on the table when you
make a final decision.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
I imagine that even when a crime is heinous, that
there must be some part of your humanity that has
to deal with the decision like this. I know it's
easy for any of us on the sidelines to say
that was a terrible crime, let's kill that guy. But
when it's your decision to pursue that, can you share
with us what that feeling might be like for you.
Speaker 4 (12:04):
Well, this is why you have a policy that goes
through in a rigorous fashion all the different considerations that
you are going to take on your advisement in making
that final call, and that's why we identify upfront it
will be an exceedingly rare situation that justifies the death
penalty rather than just life without the possibility of parole.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
We're talking with La County District Attorney Nathan Hawkman. Obviously
there's a lot of concern in Juniper Hill's Goodness knows,
we've heard it here at KFI, We've heard it from
County Supervisor Catherine Barger, and also from your office as
it relates to a guy that's been known as the
Pillowcase rapist, horrifying title. His real name is Christopher Hubbard,
(12:46):
and he has been placed in that community. You opposed this,
It did seem like it was out of everybody's hands
because this was a decision from outside of the area.
But tell us your feelings on this placement.
Speaker 4 (12:58):
Sure, I mean, Christopher hub was one of the first
people that was committed under California sexually Violent Predator law
that was enacted back in nineteen ninety six. Back in
twenty thirteen, the first series of hearings were held on
whether or not he would get a conditional release coming
out of the state hospitals that he had been put in.
(13:23):
We opposed it back in twenty thirteen up in Santa
Clara where they were determining whether or not they were
releasing back in the Los Angeles County. We opposed it.
Then we opposed it for the next ten years, all
the way through twenty twenty three. Notwithstanding the fact that
we opposed it, ultimately the course decided that he would
be released in Los Angeles County. Then we thought the
(13:46):
most strenuous conditions under which he would be released a
twenty four to seven guard, access to GPS, access to
surveillance cameras that could monitor him, search and seizure by
law enforcement, but were only successful with the request for
twenty four to seven surveillance and security. So again he's
been He has been released in the North County. We
(14:10):
are going to, along with law enforcement, monitor him as
closely as we absolutely can to make sure that he
does not, in any way, shape or form, go back
to the criminal activity that landed him in the system
to begin with. It's a situation that's enormously frustrating. You know,
we do not want the court system to view the
(14:30):
North County as somehow a dumping area for sexually violent predators.
And we're going to keep fighting in court as often
as we can in this situation, and if he trips
up like he has done before, we'll go back into
court immediately to get him recommitted.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
I'm not going to ask you about them and Indes brothers
in a little bit of time that I was able
to get with you today, but if I can, I
wanted to ask about the way that you present at
the news conferences announcing your decisions around them and in
desk case, because I have to admit I feel like
I'm now just a few credit shy of a law degree.
I mean, the way that you put it all out
and you're explaining everything. Can you just share with those
(15:08):
before you run what that strategy is on how you're
really going into some deep detail about how your office
is handling that case.
Speaker 6 (15:15):
Well.
Speaker 4 (15:16):
I think the facts and the law are incredibly important,
and we viewed the Menendez case as an interesting portal
where some people have gotten interested in this case who
have never been involved or interested in criminal justice issues before.
And so we issued actually a video that we put
on our website DA dot La County dot gov that
(15:36):
is an explanatory video from the actual murder back in
August of nineteen eighty nine, all the way to the
three decisions and three tracks that the Menendezes are now on,
a habeas track where they're actually requesting a new trial,
the clemency track where they're asking the governor for their
immediate release, and the resentencing track where they're asking for
(15:57):
a new sentence. And we thought it was very important
to lay out the entire factual picture at LISA, a
whole lot of that factual picture, along with how the
Menendez has got to this point in time, in order
for people who are interested in this process to really
be informed and make informed decisions. You know, we did
not fear the facts. We don't fear the law. We
(16:19):
think that this type of transparency would actually be very
useful for the system and for the entire public.
Speaker 2 (16:24):
Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hoffman, I do appreciate
the time you were able to give us a day.
I hope we can talk again soon.
Speaker 4 (16:32):
I look forward to that. Thank you.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
Up next, the LA City Council has adopted more protections
for illegal immigrants. We'll talk with the councilman who pushed
them through about why he thinks it's necessary.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (16:46):
KFI AM six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
This is Michael Monks Reports on Michael Monks from KFI
News with you un til nine o'clock tonight. Late last year,
the La City Council voted to become a sanctuary city,
barring city state from cooperating with federal immigration enforcement efforts.
In most cases, council members have expressed concern about President
(17:07):
Trump's immigration policies, and now that we've seen some of
those policies in action, there's been more work at city
Hall to prop up protections for people in the country illegally.
City Councilman Hugo Soto Martinez pushed through the latest protections
and he joins us now, counselman, thanks so much for
joining us, so we'll get right to it. I mean,
you expressed a sense of urgency in the city adopting
(17:29):
these measures. This is beyond just being a sanctuary city.
Why do you think it's necessary?
Speaker 9 (17:34):
Well, I think right now, given all the fear that
is being felt in the community and everything that's coming
from Washington, I think it's important that we just think
bigger and think about what we can do as a city.
You know, the intention here is to keep families together,
value the folks you know that make our economy run
and take care of our children, cook our food, and
so we just needed to send a very quick message
(17:56):
that la is for everyone and we'll do anything in
our power to protect for families.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
Those who oppose the presence of illegal immigrants in the community.
What do you think, from your perspective, is missing in
that conversation. Is there a way to win folks over
to maybe have what you might see as a better
understanding of the situation of illegal immigrants in LA.
Speaker 4 (18:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 9 (18:18):
I think when people know someone who is undocumented in
this country, I think they have a very different perspective.
You know, folks that you know hire nannies, They're viewed
as extensions of their family. People that work in those businesses,
many that are run by immigrant labor, view them as
a valuable asset of supporting their business. And I can
(18:40):
go on and on and on and on, but I
think the most important thing is that we have to
humanize the issue. Donald Trump would like us to believe
that everybody that we're going after, it's criminals, and that
could not be farther from the truth. We're hearing reports
of people being sent to countries in Central America. They're
just completely innocent. He's locking up people in Guantanamo Bay
(19:02):
with nine to eleven terrorists and just recently suspended legal
representation for children. This has nothing to do with criminals.
This is just about his you know, his agenda that
he's trying to push on everybody.
Speaker 2 (19:14):
I know, at a recent city council meeting, we saw
council Member Hernandez become quite emotional talking about the possibility
that ice activities were taking place in the city at
that moment. What are we seeing in Los Angeles? Have
you been able to confirm any immigration enforcement activities?
Speaker 9 (19:31):
You know, there's there's been so much fear in the
community that you know, they are reporting any sort of
inkling of ice. Sometimes it's just been them driving around,
and oftentimes it has been, you know, them going to
pick somebody up. But there's certainly so much fear that
people are afraid to go to work, they're afraid to
send their children to school. You know, immigration neighborhoods that
(19:54):
had vibrant economic activity feel like ghost towns, and so
trying to do is bring a little bit of light
to the situation and give people a little bit of
comfort that the city of Los Angeles, at least we
can do our part to make sure that they're protected.
But there's certainly a lot of confusion and a lot
of you know, lack of their There's just a lot
(20:16):
of confusion, and I think that's what they're depending on.
They want to have our communities confused and full of fear.
Speaker 2 (20:20):
Right now, the federal government has stated that they're basically
targeting immigrants with some sort of criminal history. If that
pursuit becomes broader, what type of impact could we see
in Los Angeles if they are truly going after everyone
who is here without the proper documentation.
Speaker 9 (20:39):
Well, I think they're already going after the broader community,
you know, which is something I've been saying since the beginning.
It's not about you know, the you know, the one criminal,
like he's using that as a pretext to go after
entire communities. I mean, there's been so many articles of
people who have been here and lived their lives seeking asylum,
(21:01):
great members of the community, small business owners being detained
at you know, what they thought was just a regular
check in as they go through the asylum process. As
I mentioned, people being sent out of country without any
due process, just completely ignoring the corps. This is not
about criminals. This is about his radical agenda and trying
to use criminals as a pretext to do something much
(21:23):
more broader.
Speaker 2 (21:24):
And you have obviously expressed some concerns about what else
may come. There's another piece of city legislation related to
lax Airport that's still making its way through City Hall.
What is that supposed to do?
Speaker 9 (21:37):
You know, that piece of legislation is sort of in
preparation for what we saw during the first administration, which
was the Muslim band. During that time, we saw people
in the middle of their flight not being able to
gain entry, people who had every legal right to do so,
lawyers scrambling. It was complete chaos, and so preemptively we're
(22:00):
looking at, you know, what can the City of Los Angeles,
through the airport, which we own, could we give some
sort of stability if that were to happen, And so
we're looking through what resources we can use so that
when if this happens again, we're not scrambling and trying
to do, you know, everything we did the first time.
Speaker 2 (22:19):
Encounselman, I know you've got to run, but I think
if I heard you correctly at City Hall today, you
mentioned that you might need to strengthen the sanctuary city
status of Los Angeles or something along those lines. What
did you mean by that?
Speaker 9 (22:33):
Well, you know, I was very happy that you know,
we've put into law the sanctuary policies, you know, with
many of our colleagues. But to me, I view the
sanctuary city policy EY as a minimum. There is way
more than we can do. And that's what the four
pieces of the legislation were today is how can we
do any your rights campaign, How can we work with
businesses so that they notify us when they are interacting
(22:55):
with ICE, looking for funding for duportation defense, and also
supporting any state legislation. Sanctuary is a minimum, but there
is so much more that we can do.
Speaker 2 (23:04):
Counselman, Hugo Soto Martinez, thanks so much for chatting with us.
Speaker 9 (23:08):
Yeah, thank you so much, Michael.
Speaker 2 (23:09):
Up next, we'll talk with a young couple who got
married on Wednesday, and where did they want to spend
their honeymoon? Dodgers Stadium on opening day. They'll tell us why.
Speaker 1 (23:17):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (23:21):
KFI AM six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
This is Michael Monks's Reports on Michael Monks with un
till nine o'clock tonight. A few more minutes, Dodgers fans
showed up. They showed out for Opening Day, but one
local couple had two things to celebrate the return of
Dodgers baseball and their nuptials. Hannah hann ramsays Martinez Montez
(23:42):
said their vows on Wednesday and decided their honeymoon, at
least the first part of it would be spent at
the Dodgers Tigers game on Thursday. I spoke with them
this week. What my understanding is, you got some money
for your wedding and you're spending it to go to
the Dodgers game.
Speaker 11 (23:58):
Why, yeah, very big Dodger fans. Our actual anniversary when we,
you know, we started dating, was March twenty sixth of
twenty twenty. We had a wedding yesterday, obviously five years
after that date, and I knew that it was going
to be closer to baseball season, so I was like,
we should just like mini moon, you know.
Speaker 4 (24:19):
At Dodger Stadium.
Speaker 11 (24:20):
That should be the thing we do right after the
wedding is go to Dodger Stadium and then Opening days
the next day.
Speaker 8 (24:26):
So we're like, oh my god, that's that's lightning.
Speaker 11 (24:28):
That's pretty well.
Speaker 8 (24:28):
We're down, We're right down the street.
Speaker 9 (24:31):
We can just go.
Speaker 8 (24:31):
And you know, we've been Dodgers fans all of our lives,
Like her grandfather, like when he was buried, like he
had like a Dodger blue casket, Like.
Speaker 9 (24:39):
It was crazy.
Speaker 8 (24:40):
It's been in our blood, like forever you are.
Speaker 2 (24:43):
Honeymooning at Dodger Stadium, that's that seems to be a
little different than just going to opening day. What does
it mean to honeymoon at Dodger Stadium.
Speaker 8 (24:51):
Yes, well, when a place is sacred, it just stays sacred.
So like we have had so many beautiful memories there,
just in every single seaton you could possibly think of,
and it just it feels a little bit more close
to home just to be at some places so important
for us.
Speaker 11 (25:07):
Yeah, Daughter Stadium fills like home.
Speaker 9 (25:12):
And that's it.
Speaker 11 (25:13):
It's like you get you get the best feeling. It's
a it's a place of comfort. It's not as stressful
as going to Disneyland. You know, or something, planning a
whole vacation, and like we said, you know, we're here
in downtown LA. That's where we got married, here in
the arts district, and so we're in our hotel and
we're going to check out, and then we're just gonna
eat some food get.
Speaker 8 (25:33):
Ready to go to the game. A Dodger dog and
a Michela sounds so much better than like so good
out that's some random city.
Speaker 12 (25:41):
Yeah, that is my.
Speaker 2 (25:42):
Dinner when you go to a game like this to
celebrate your mini moon. I heard you say. Does that
suggest that maybe down the road you guys are planning
on maybe a more traditional post wedding celebration.
Speaker 4 (25:53):
Absolutely.
Speaker 8 (25:54):
Yeah, we want to travel as much as possible, especially
with this last year of planning.
Speaker 3 (25:59):
Like now that we see that we.
Speaker 8 (26:01):
Put together our budget for all this stuff and we
can accomplish this, Like the whole world is always at
this point, so like Japan is on the board. We
would love to see that New York anywhere around the world.
So yeah, we're definitely pushing for that, but maybe we'll
just see how how long it takes.
Speaker 11 (26:19):
Phase. But we knew that if there's anything we were
going to do just like when you win the Super
Bowl you go to Disneyland, you know, and we were
just like, we're going to dot your team. That's that
we're going to go.
Speaker 2 (26:28):
So what kind of season do you expect from the
Dodgers this year?
Speaker 8 (26:32):
Oh my god, it's going to be fantastic. Even last year,
I had this like in clean up, something big is
going to happen with so many stars coming in, and
now I am so excited to see what will happen.
I don't see anything like if there if there's not
going to be a World Series, there's gonna be fantastic games.
So we want to go to as many as possible.
(26:54):
So that's definitely in our plans. But we're so excited.
Speaker 11 (26:57):
We've got to killer team and Dodger fans are unlike
any other fans, and.
Speaker 8 (27:02):
So yeah, and seeing like so many people just coming
from around the world just to be here for these games.
Just we're walking through Grand Central Market because we also
took our engagement pictures in there, and they we see
everybody from like all walks of live in Dodger gear
taking pictures in front of a show. Hey, honey, mural.
It's awesome. So I feel like the energy in the
stadium is going to be so so elevated, and we're
(27:27):
just excited.
Speaker 3 (27:27):
To be there.
Speaker 2 (27:28):
And you met in twenty twenty. You said, yes, well
I'm if I'm doing the clock right, March twenty six,
twenty twenty, seems like a weird time to meet somebody.
Speaker 4 (27:36):
Oh.
Speaker 11 (27:36):
Absolutely. We have a twenty story where we we went
on a tender day back in twenty sixteen, sorry, twenty fifteen,
and that we were both eighteen years old and we
just it didn't work out. Then four years later we
rematched on tinder, and then it worked out then. And
then the world collapsed and you know, you couldn't really
(27:59):
be in You had to pick your bubbles at that time.
Who were you going to be around? And he, you know, she.
Speaker 8 (28:07):
Felt so safe. We were so certain about this. Everything
lined up. Even our parents earned the same photo from
nineteen eighty the hat like the whole trim path up
here in like the valley. My dad is in that
photo and her.
Speaker 11 (28:22):
Dad is in that photo, and they'd have no idea.
They're just like a few feet apart from each other,
back turned away from the camera. We found that out
on our third date. So they were all these little
things lining up that were just so magical, and we
were like, you know what, that's it. We don't want
anybody else. And then and then immediately because of COVID times,
we just we spent so much time together because it
was weird to see anyone else, you know, we might
(28:44):
as well see the person you want to be with.
And then we moved out and that's been it.
Speaker 2 (28:47):
That's really fantastic. I'm grateful that you took some time
out on this very special day for you all to
talk to us and congratulations, wishing you many years of happiness.
Speaker 11 (28:58):
Thank you, thank you very much.
Speaker 2 (29:00):
So there you go. Big congratulations, felasidades to our friends
Signor and Signora Martinez Montez, many many best wishes for
the years to come. And you know, they got married
on a Wednesday in downtown LA so that they could
celebrate their honeymoon on a Thursday at Dodgers Stadium for
(29:20):
Opening Day. And that's what you got to love about
Dodgers fans. I mean, they really are committed. Opening Day
really look like fun. I was here at the station,
of course doing the news, but we were covering it
and all of our friends at the TV stations were
showing a lot of live pictures from what was going on,
and it's just really something else. And I've enjoyed our
conversation throughout the two hours of doubt the Dodgers and
whether we don't give enough love to our other Major
(29:42):
League Baseball team here in southern California, at least in
Metro LA anyway, and that would be the Angels Dodgers
one today, seven to three. The Angels also put up
a dub one nothing against the Chicago White Sox on
the road, So thank you for helping me understand the
despair that you might see. Of course, you can hear
(30:02):
all the Dodgers games right here on our AM five
seventy year home throughout the season for Dodger Baseball and
LA Sports appreciate you listening to that game. They're producing
that just ten feet from where I'm sitting right now,
and that game just wrapped up a little while ago.
Another sporting event that we've been talking about throughout the
night are the Olympics coming in twenty twenty eight. My
(30:23):
question to you all was are we ready and not
just as spectators, you know, are you ready to see
some Olympic basketball and gymnastas. Of course we're ready to
see it. Some Olympics are a very special occasion. But
is La ready? Are we going to be clean enough?
Are we going to have the infrastructure? Is the traffic
going to be managed? And some of you had some
(30:43):
opinions about that as well. Let's hear from David Hi.
Speaker 12 (30:46):
This is David Boy. I certainly hope they get this
city cleaned up by the Olympics. I drove over five
thousand uber rides and a lot of families because I
had a van. And let me tell you, it was
so humilily embarrassing to a person, any of the tourists
that came into town. It was jaw dropping how they
(31:08):
were so stunned, how horrible everything was, and how the
homeless situation, the trash and the dirty nine.
Speaker 2 (31:15):
I get it. I get that. Exactly five thousand uber rides,
that's a lot. And yes, it's people from out of
town that are often turning that type of transportation and
you have to drive them through this. You may have
even heard me on occasion on KFI on some of
the other programs talking about La Metro and I'm a
user of La Metro and I've often used it to
come here to Burbank to our studios. I can take
the B Line train from Downtown LA to Studio City
(31:39):
and then hop on a Burbank bus to get over here.
And what I've noticed about the Red Line as it
used to be known the Bee Line now is a
lot of folks seem to come from Europe. And I'm
basing that on the languages that I'm hearing them speak.
And they probably think, well, we'll stay in downtown Los Angeles,
because I mean, downtown's are always great, right, and I
(32:00):
live there. I love Downtown LA. But man, it is
dirty and it can be a little scary, and it
seems like the wild West. So you already have that
disappointment that downtown Los Angeles looks a little creepy, and
then you get on the train and you might see
somebody having a psychotic episode. You're on your way to Universal, right,
(32:21):
You're coming as one of the stops when you come
to Greater LA. You want to hit up Universal or
one of our other amusement parks, Disney, that sort of thing.
But if you're going to Universal and you stay downtown,
you're taking the Bee Line to Studio City and walking
across and taking the bus up to that theme park,
and when you go home to Europe and people there
in your home country ask you, hey, what'd you think?
(32:44):
How is Los Angeles? What do you think they're saying?
I mean, this is an event that is going to
attract people from all over the world. We're going to
need people to come here and say it was amazing
and go back to their home countries and say, you
have to get to Los Angeles. And I just don't
feel like the LA that we would present today would
(33:07):
offer that. And so that's that's my big concern. I mean,
we're talking about a car free Olympics, right, we want
to have people taking public transportation. Well, we have one
Lass bus because when we won the World Series last year,
we burned one of them. And we saw that horrifying
(33:29):
high speed chase by the police on Friday yesterday. I
know LA loves a great police pursuit, but this one
was brutal. A lot of crashes involved injuries ended in
Long Beach. I mean, is that what we're showing everyone?
And listen to this one. A fight followed by a
shooting prompted the California Highway Patrol to shut down all
(33:50):
northbound lanes on the one oh one Freeway in downtown
this afternoon. A fight was reported to ChB just after
one thirty this after on the northbound side of the
freeway at Mission Road. The CHP got a call about
a physical fight between two occupants of a white Honda
SUV in the northbound lanes at Vigness Street. A second
(34:12):
caller reported gunshots at the same location, so the police
show up. They figured an unrelated person from a separate
vehicle had exited a vehicle and fired gunshots near the
suv fight. No one was wounded. One of the suv
combatants was taken to a hospital by ambulance for treatment
of minor injuries. They did get that freeway reopened by
(34:35):
about four o'clock. But that's just every day craziness living
in Los Angeles, and we have the world coming to
town in just a few years. But hey, at least
the Dodgers are winning, right, we got that going for is?
I love that victory parade, you know, anything that gives
la something to be excited and happy about, I'm for that.
And don't forget the Angels. One today two, you've been
(34:58):
listening to Michael Monks reports Michael Monks from KFI News.
I'll be with you as always every day next week,
giving you the news from La City Hall, LA County
Board of Supervisors, and beyond. Tune in for that. My
big thanks to our producer Matthew Toffler, our technical director
Raoul Cordes, and our news anchor Brigeta Dagastino. You'll catch
(35:18):
us again next Saturday night. Thanks for joining us tonight
on KFI AM six
Speaker 1 (35:23):
Forty, KFI AM six forty on demand
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