Michael shares the latest from the water outage in Porter Ranch/Granada Hills and the fires burning in Ventura/LA counties and Santa Barbara/San Luis Obispo counties; Federal immigration agents have put out an ad mocking LA Mayor Bass - and she's responded, as immigration enforcement returns to the region's Home Depot stores.
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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. I'm Michael Monks from KFI
News with you live for the next couple of hours
on another hot, steamy day here in southern California. I
gotta tell you I found myself just last night in
a place you'd never want to be, and that is
(00:25):
the CBS at seventh in Spring in downtown Los Angeles
on a Friday night. My goodness, every single stereotype you've
got of downtown Los Angeles, every single image that comes
to your mind when I talk on this air about
downtown Los Angeles, it was out in full force last night.
I have a love hate relationship with my neighborhood. Last
(00:48):
night was a lot of hate. It was drug use, crazies,
the longest line at the CBS you could ever imagine,
full of people shouting and not knowing what they were getting.
But the reason I bring this up to start the
show is because it's been hot. After a pretty cool July,
I was very excited about the cool weather, but it's
(01:09):
been hot recently. However, while I was standing in that
horrible line at the CBS at seventh in Spring in
downtown Los Angeles. I saw something that gave me a
little bit of hope for this weather, and that is
Pumpkin spice flavored frosted flakes are on the shelves, and
(01:33):
so are pumpkin pie flavored frosted miniwheats. Now, while I
have no intention of tasting the frosted flakes, I am
curious about the mini wheats. Did not buy them yet,
still a little early even for me. I will taste those.
But I bring it up because the autumn themed products
are hitting the shelves, which means the hot weather will
(01:57):
be behind us soon enough. There is, unfortunately, another place
people probably don't enjoy being right now, even though it's
a lovely place otherwise. Port A Ranch, Granada Hills without
water since Tuesday, we're on day four of this mess.
The LEDWP is trying to fix a mistake with their infrastructure,
(02:19):
this municipal utility. They were doing some work in that
area deep in the ground when they found a broken valve.
Nine thousand plus customers in that area without water. Since
that moment, it has been a lot of conversation in
the days since and a lot of frustration as well.
(02:41):
We've seen reports of people waiting in long lines to
get some water. We know the city has put out
some portable bathrooms, showers, laundry facilities even even to help
folks out. But think about if you're like me and
you live in an apartment, there are occasions where the
property owner will send you note, Hey, we got to
shut off the water for twelve hours. We're doing some work.
(03:03):
It's not fun, it's not pleasant, but you kind of
accept it. It's but it's so inconvenient four days. So
here's the thing. There was a press conference earlier this
afternoon featuring the stars of the city, including La Mayor Bass,
La City Councilman John Lee, who represents that area, and
Genie Quinoniez, the general manager of LADWP. They say they're
(03:26):
making progress. But even though yesterday Friday was supposed to
be the original target where they were gonna get this
thing fixed and all the water flowing again, that obviously
didn't happen. And now it's looking like Monday morning, and
that is still a moving target. Mayor Bass had this
to say to the residents of Porter Ranch and Granada Hills,
(03:50):
But we.
Speaker 3 (03:51):
Are very concerned that if people continue to use the
water that is coming out of their faucets today, it
is going to delay the ability of the DWP to
get the line back and restored and for your use
of water to be back to normal so that you
don't have to boil water, so that you don't have
(04:11):
to conserve if you could conserve as much as possible
over the next forty eight hours, we hope to have
the system back and restored within the next couple of days.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
So they're starting to get some water flow. People who
live in that area may even see some water coming
to their pipes, meaning if they were to flip on
the sink or try to flush the toilet, they might
see what looks to be normal use. But the utility says,
we're not there yet. So if you are a house
that is getting some water activity, please don't turn it
(04:45):
on because you were hurting the effort to restore the
water system wide. In Granada Hills and Porter Ranch, Councilman Lee,
who lives in Porter Ranch and says he's been impacted
by this, reiterated that point.
Speaker 4 (04:58):
You know, I'm asking everyone Porta Rancho, Grand Hills in
the affected areas to please to just don't use water
as much as possible. We have sites where you can
pick up water. I know that this has been a
tough for us, and I know after two days of
not having water, when we see that water sort of
start trickling in to our faucets, that you know, we
(05:19):
think it all all is okay, But in fact.
Speaker 5 (05:22):
We need to build up that pressure.
Speaker 4 (05:24):
We need to build up that tank so we can
make the necessary repairs so that we can get out
of this mess and go.
Speaker 5 (05:30):
Back to normal.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
Getting back to normal is what everybody would like. Janie
Kinonie is the general manager of laed WP. She made
a lot of headlines when she was hired because her
salary is seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars a year,
and then she's faced a lot of scrutiny for the
utilities criticized role in the defense against the Palisades fireback
in January. Now there's this mess as well. Here she
(05:54):
explains just how much water is being lost in a
sh short span of time.
Speaker 6 (06:01):
To help speed up restoration, we ask residents and business
owners to not use staff water, although you might have
water flow and water pressure. Us seeing water lowers the
level in the tank and overall pressure in the system.
The tank has lost an equivalent of one million gallons
during high demand periods. For a perspective, that is the
(06:24):
equivalent of seven hundreds and seventy six thousand toilet flushes
or ten Olympic pools. Your corporation significantly impacts the speed
of repairs and the impacts to the community.
Speaker 5 (06:37):
It's an absolute mess.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
It's a lot of water being lost, and so everybody
out there who's got a little trickle of water going
on right now, don't take advantage of that moment. Unfortunately,
do not flip on the sink, don't try to flush
the toilet, because apparently it is affecting the effort to
bring the water back to everyone. That is the message
today from city and utility officials as of four fifteen,
four thirty when they had that press conference early this afternoon. Now,
(07:01):
think about this kind of weather in that kind of location.
It's fire season, and this water outage has also impacted
the infrastructure that would be turned to by firefighters in
case a house fire happened or a wildfire moved through.
So that is an area of concern right now. But
(07:25):
Maribas did say that the city is prepared for that
as well.
Speaker 3 (07:30):
Now knowing that this is one of the hottest days
of the year, and knowing that we're having a problem
with water pressure and water flow, the Los Angeles Fire
Department is out here.
Speaker 5 (07:42):
In a preventive measure.
Speaker 3 (07:44):
We are fortunate that even though it is hot, the
winds are not strong. There isn't an immediate fire danger here,
but in an abundance of caution, the fire department.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
Is here, so they've brought in extra supply. They've got
a water on standby, ready for any type of fire
that may break out in that area. And I will
tell you our friends at the local TV stations, I
saw two of them, ABCNNBC both had information that a
water main has broken within the past hour in Granada Hills.
So I don't have any further details on that, but
(08:18):
it can't possibly help this situation. Meanwhile, there are fires
burning across California and across the western United States right now.
We've been paying a lot of attention to what's been
called the Canyon Fire at the Ventura, La County line.
We've also got that one hitting Kerrent and San excuse me,
San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara Counties. We're going to
(08:39):
update that situation next to see how much progress has
been made in recent hours in fighting those fires. And
we're also going to have an update on our good
friend Stefan Cabasis, better known as Staffouche or the Fush.
He was our board operator here just a couple of
weeks ago, but you know him every weekday, Monday through
(09:00):
Friday as the technical director for the Tim Conway Junior
Show and later with Mo Kelly. A terrible, horrifying crash
he was in this week. We are lucky to still
have him on this earth with us, but my goodness,
we put out a call for help to you, the
loyal KFI listeners, and you have turned out in droves.
(09:23):
We'll talk about how much money has been raised to
help him and his long road to recovery ahead. That's
all up next on Michael Monks Reports.
Speaker 1 (09:33):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
Oil Boy, you're gonna hear a lot about the foushe
Stefan Cobasis, because he's a beloved member of our team
here at iHeart and KFI AM six forty and just
a terrible accident that he was in. We're gonna share
more on that in just a few moments. This is
Michael Monks Reports. I'm Michael Monks from KFI News. Will
be together till nine o'clock tonight. If you want to
(09:59):
share your th about the water outage that we talked
about in the first segment in a port of Ranch
and Granada Hills, or as we talk about these wildfires
coming up, or if you want to send some love
to Stefan or anything else we talk about, we'd love
to have you join our conversation. All you have to
do is open up the iHeartRadio app, click on that
talkback button, and we will place some of your comments
throughout the rest of the day. California is on fire
(10:22):
as usual, and not in the metaphorical economic sense. It
is literally on fire again and we have plenty of
those happening right here in southern California. Now, we're not
the only Western state that's been hit by the flames.
Speaker 5 (10:39):
Here's ABC's Alex Stone.
Speaker 7 (10:41):
As extreme heat and low humidity bear down on the West,
it's a race against time for firefighters to control flames
before even hotter weather arrives. At the Canyon Fire in
Castaic in northern Los Angeles County. Firefighters battled in tense
flames to save homes. In San Luis Obispo and Santa
Barbara Counties, the massive Gifford Fire has scorched over one
(11:02):
hundred thousand acres of mostly remote land. Over thirty six
hundred personnel are battling the fire. In San Diego, progress
is being made on the road Runner fire containment numbers
are rising, and in Meeker, Colorado, the Elkin Lee Fires
closing in on the town of.
Speaker 5 (11:19):
Just twenty three hundred residents.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
Poor Meeker.
Speaker 6 (11:21):
They're just everybody's freaking out and is very scary for everyone.
Speaker 7 (11:26):
All of Colorado's firefighting aircraft are deployed to the state's
western slope. In Nebraska, severe storms turning deadly. At least
one person was killed by a falling tree. Power knocked
out to tens of thousands, So a.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
Dangerous situation across the West as these wildfires are raging.
The Gifford Fires, it's been called in San Luis Obispo
and Santa Barbara County is now over one hundred and
thirteen thousand acres burned. They've got that at twenty one
percent containment. Good news though on that Canyon fire, and
that good news has been pouring in I guess for
(12:02):
the past twenty four hours or so. It looks like
conditions have been favorable that way. Let's hear more from
ABC's Alex Stone who visited the scene.
Speaker 7 (12:10):
It's about fifty three hundred acres. No homes that we
know of yet, although that could change that burned in
this fires are going around and trying to do assessments
of the area, and all evacuation orders have already been
lifted this afternoon on this wildfire. So this is very different.
But when the flames were raging and moving into the
community here, there's definitely those flashbacks to what went on
(12:32):
in January, and that causes people to get out and
be very concerned about fire. They're actually making quite a
bit of progress today. I was just talking to a
firefighter where he said he believes that containment numbers are
probably going to go way up when we get them
later on tonight. Right now, they're at about twenty eight
percent containment on this fire. Even though is that it's
still extremely hot out It's about one hundred degrees and
(12:53):
that's the problem here and at other wildfires around the West.
They say that this was a success story, that they
were able to protect so many homes in these canyons
and that they did not burn.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
So you heard Alex Stone say that the containment was
twenty eight percent, and then the firefighters expected that containment
number to go up when the numbers came out. Well,
the update is that the Canyon Fire burning in Ventura
and La Counties is now forty seven percent surrounded, So
a lot of progress there on that fire. Some of
(13:25):
the wildfires burning around California, the biggest one, of course,
the Gifford Fire that we mentioned, more than one hundred
and thirteen thousand acres. They've got the Canyon Fire is
now at forty seven percent over fifty three hundred acres burned.
But there are some other local ones as well. They've
called the Rosa Fire in Riverside County that started earlier
(13:46):
this week. It's burned more than sixteen hundred acres, but
they've got that eighty percent surrounded at this point, and
the Goldfire in San Bernardino County, it's burned more than
one thousand acres at this point, but that is forty
seven percent contained as well. So a lot of good
progress on the fires in southern California. Let's hope that
that progress continues and nothing new gets going. Let's talk
(14:08):
about some internal family affairs here at KFI. We know
that you've probably if you're a regular listener, you've heard
by now that one of our technical directors, Stefan Cabasis,
often heard during the Tim Conway Junior Show and later
with Mo Kelly Show, because he is the technical director
of both of those programs. We were all here a
(14:29):
few days ago wondering where the heck he was. I
was getting ready to come on with Tim Conway and
I always send any sound clips that I want to
play during my segments with Tim, I send them to
Stefan the Foosh, and I couldn't find him to let
him know that I had this, and I started to ask, Hey,
is is he not in today? Who don't need to
send my stuff to? Who's filling in? Everyone was looking
(14:51):
for him, and it was You know, if you've ever
been in a workplace where somebody doesn't show up and
you can't get a hold of them, it's not uncommon.
You know, things happen, but your mind does drift to
terrible things, and in this case, that terrible thing was
exactly the thing that happened. Stefan Cabasis was in a
very serious car crash on the one o five Freeway
(15:15):
and when we heard that, it was terrifying, but we
were glad to hear that he was alive, even though
he was seriously injured. But then we saw a video
that a passerby took of the scene and his car
had been burned. Ash KTLA came down to our station
and did a story about the foushe here's a clip
(15:36):
from that.
Speaker 8 (15:38):
He didn't show up for work yesterday at KFI Radio.
He's a technical director here, but he didn't call or message.
Speaker 9 (15:44):
Oh we did three hours yesterday in panicking and trying
to figure out where this guy was.
Speaker 8 (15:49):
I've like never seen anything like that. This is where
Fousch was in that burning car up on the one
oh five connector to the one ten Freeway.
Speaker 9 (15:58):
I think what happened was he was chained lane, somebody
cut him off and he hit the guard rail. The
car flipped over and caught fire.
Speaker 8 (16:04):
Stephan's mom tells me that his arm was trapped outside
the window as that car was rolling over. But these
three still unidentified good samaritans pulled the Foush from the
car before he burned to death, and an unknown woman
applied a tourniquet to his mangled arm.
Speaker 5 (16:20):
What was the thing we talked about with Harvey Cornyan.
Speaker 8 (16:23):
Police say that Foush wouldn't have made it without the
help of those strangers. But to make matters worse, Steph's
id burned in the crash. He was here at Harbor
UCLA Medical Center for eight hours before family and friends
even knew.
Speaker 5 (16:37):
He was hurt.
Speaker 2 (16:39):
So nobody knew where he was and finally we did.
He was in the hospital after this horrific crash. You
can go to Tim Conway Junior or KFI social media
and see some of the clips that have been shared,
as well as a GoFundMe, but you can see the
video of his car. It's unbelievable. Thank goodness for those
(17:01):
good Samaritans who happened to pull him out of the
fiery crash and apparently saved his life. So KFI put
out a call to you the listeners and said, look,
this guy is going to be missing work for a while.
I was going to have a long road to recovery.
He's a full time employee. So you know, he's got
insurance and all of that, so we're happy for that,
(17:23):
but he's going to need some financial support probably, and
my goodness, KFI listeners, y'all came through big. I mean,
within moments this thing had gotten over twenty thousand dollars.
But now as of this second eighty thousand, four hundred
(17:44):
and fifty dollars raised for Stefan Abasas the foushe Stefan
cabethos as I call him every day, eighty thousand plus.
So he's not just beloved here in this room. You
all feel the love and have shared that love as well.
We're grateful. If you are interested in contributing to his
recovery effort, you can go to GoFundMe dot com and
(18:06):
just search for foosh. That's foo sh. That's how I
search for it. To pull it up here just a
minute ago is the first thing that comes up. Foo
s H. Go fund me, foo s H. Throw a
few dollars in the till if you can. I know
when he's able to know about this, he's going to
be so happy. Every day he sees me. He asked me,
(18:26):
where's the ice cream? I make some ice cream with
my spouse at home and we bring it in sometimes
and I haven't done it in a while, and I
can't wait to give him the biggest, biggest gallon of
ice cream that he's ever seen.
Speaker 5 (18:38):
So all our thoughts are with him.
Speaker 2 (18:40):
We're happy to know that he is recovering in the hospital,
but it is going to be a while before we
see him. We've got more ahead here on Michael Monks
Reports coming up next. We thought the immigration enforcement activities
were kind of done for a while and this court
case was going on. Oh no, they're back, and they
are back specific at home depots, even though that is
(19:01):
exactly what the judge said, you cannot be doing well.
The guy who's running the border patrol out here in LA,
he's got a few thoughts about what they've done, and
he's got a few thoughts about LA Mayor Bass, who
in turn has a few thoughts about them. We're going
to dive into that coming up next. We want to
hear from you too. Open up the iHeartRadio app, click
on the talkback button and share your thoughts. Will play
(19:23):
them throughout the rest of this broadcast.
Speaker 1 (19:26):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
KFI AM six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
This is Michael Monks reports on Michael Monks from KFI News.
My goodness. Immigration enforcement returned bigly this week. It was
quite a scene at a home depot in Westlake. They're
on Wheelshire. It looked a lot like the operations that
(19:51):
we saw earlier in the summer, except for the sneaky
nature of it and the fact that it happened in
the wake of this court order that was issued by
a judge at the federal District court level and then
upheld at the Federal Court of Appeals level saying, Hey,
federal agents, you can't be going to places where you
just think illegal immigrants work. You can't be stomping people
(20:14):
because they look Hispanic or because they're speaking Spanish.
Speaker 5 (20:18):
You have to have probable cause.
Speaker 2 (20:20):
So did they an Operation Trojan Horse have probable cause
to hit up that home depot in Westlake. We're going
to hear from the Border chief in the LA area
momentarily from an interview he gave to Fox News. But
first let's explain Operation Trojan Horse. This was quite something.
(20:43):
A rented moving truck with the penske brand name on
the side of it. Pulled into this parking lot and
the driver of this truck said, Hey, I'm looking for workers,
So some suspected illegal immigrants would.
Speaker 5 (20:58):
Be day laborers. Came up to the truck.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
That's what they're waiting on every day down there, and
out the back pops a crew of federal immigration agents
and a Fox News television crew incidentally, and these day
laborers went running. Ultimately, sixteen people were arrested in this case.
(21:21):
But it wasn't just the home depot in Westlake that
was hit this week. Federal agents stopped day laborers outside
a home depot store in Van nys They hit this
one twice on Friday. They hit it at about seven
thirty five in the morning, and then they hit it
just before noon yesterday yesterday at the home depot on
(21:42):
Roscoe Boulevard. And there was also a home depot parking
lot immigration enforcement action taken in San Bernardino. There were
video clips that I saw circulating online more than six
SUVs pulling up with armed federal agents in the back
of the home depot parking lot on twenty first Street
near the two ten Freeway. More than a dozen day
(22:03):
laborers who gathered in that area earlier began to run
when they saw these federal agencies. And witnesses shared some
cell phone clips with the NBC NBC four here in
LA and one person was seen in that video being
detained by what appeared to be federal agents. So they
were hitting home depots all around the area. There was
(22:26):
apparently a report that a home this might be a
little older. My apologies for that one, but yes, home
depots in Westlake, home depots in Van Nuys, home depots
in San Bernardino. Meanwhile, this court order is out there,
so what does it mean. Well, LA Mayor Bass said
when this court order came down and then was upheld
(22:47):
at the appeals level that.
Speaker 5 (22:49):
LA had won.
Speaker 2 (22:53):
But the border Patrol is so Karen Bass, right now
that they put out an advertisement that sounds a little
bit like this.
Speaker 3 (23:06):
I am hoping that the administration will recognize this experiment
that was practiced on the city of Los Angeles failed
and that they should not try any other level of
an experiment like this.
Speaker 1 (23:20):
Allow me to reinduce myself.
Speaker 2 (23:24):
So that's a clip from the mayor saying, hopefully the
federal government has learned its lesson. They have lost, and
the Border Patrol put out a video with the mayor's
comments accompanied by clips from these home depot rates. Allow
me to reintroduce myself. It's going to get hotter this
(23:48):
summer as it relates to immigration.
Speaker 7 (23:50):
Now.
Speaker 2 (23:51):
Greg Bovino, who is the Border chief here in Los Angeles,
appeared on Fox News after this raid took place. It
was just a couple of days ago that he appeared
on Fox News and here he is reacting to what
the mayor had to say about victory for Los Angeles.
Speaker 8 (24:08):
It.
Speaker 10 (24:08):
As far as what the mayor said, I scratched my
head on that sometimes bill because I believe she also
called this an experiment. Well, the Border Patrol is one
hundred and one years old. We've patrolled that border, we've
patrolled the interior for that one hundred and one years,
and definitely not an experiment. We make the security of
mom pow America. That's our personal responsibility, and it's our
(24:31):
personal responsibility to stay here in Los Angeles and get
this job done.
Speaker 2 (24:35):
So they're going to stay in Los Angeles and get
the job done whatever it is. So the question is,
did the Border Patrol agents, the immigration agents follow the
court order when they executed these immigration activities at the
various home depots, in particular Operation Trojan Horse at the
(24:56):
Home Depot store in Westlake.
Speaker 5 (24:58):
He's asked this in his Fox News interview.
Speaker 10 (25:00):
When the Border Patrol CBP and our allied law enforcement partners,
when we conduct operations law enforcement operations, we always abide
by the law, whether it's a temporary restraining order that
you just mentioned, whether it's applicable federal laws, rules and regulations,
and most especially the Constitution of the United States. We
always abide by that legally, ethically and morally and everything
(25:23):
that we do. And we're doing that in Los Angeles
right now today. As a matter of fact, we have
agents out on the streets right now making apprehensions as
you and I are speaking. They're doing that again, legally,
ethically and morally, and.
Speaker 5 (25:36):
So he says, yeah, we're following the law.
Speaker 2 (25:38):
He didn't exactly explain how, and we don't know the
nature of the folks who were arrested. You assume that
they are suspected of being here illegally. Sometimes after these
raids you find out that there are charges in addition
to crossing the border illegally. Some of them are very
egregious serious violent charges. But we don't know a lot
(25:59):
about that Operation Trojan Horse yet. So he's asked a
little bit again about whether Operation Trojan Horse followed the
narrow specifications issued by the Federal Court judge.
Speaker 10 (26:14):
This operation we entitled it Trojan Horse. That operation we
had pre intelligence. We knew what was going on in
that location, as we do in nearly every location that
we come into contact with here in Los Angeles. We
knew there was criminal activity afoot there for a long time.
So we're not going to ignore criminal activity. We're going
after it, and that's exactly what we did. It was
(26:35):
a very creative and innovative concept that our Border Battle
agents came up with.
Speaker 2 (26:40):
So it doesn't fully answer, just says that we know
criminal activity was taking place there, but what was it
and who were the folks that were taken into custody.
I bring this up because, in watching the arguments before
the Court of Appeals, the White House attorneys did not
do a great job in explaining how they were not
(27:02):
targeting people based on race, based on occupation and location,
based on language spoken, And it was clear even watching
it that the Court of Appeals was going to uphold
the lower court's order, and I haven't heard from Greg
Bovino a convincing argument yet. Now, look, there are a
(27:22):
lot of you listening that are supportive of immigration enforcement.
Folks are here illegally, catch them, get them out understood.
But we're talking about a court order that said you
cannot just do it that way. You cannot go up
to somebody who looks Mexican, looks Guatemalan, somebody who's speaking Spanish,
(27:45):
or somebody who's sitting in a parking lot at home
depot looking for work. You have to have probable cause.
So there are a couple of things happening with this case. One,
the Trump administration has appealed again, this time to the
Supreme Court. They went the Supreme Court to block this
temporary restraining order that stops immigration agents from making these
(28:11):
stops without probable calls. But there's also a hearing in
late September back at the district court level that could
make this temporary restraining order a permanent one. But as
we see these immigration actions unfold, is it gonna matter.
(28:33):
We're gonna talk more about this next because Mayer Bass
has responded to Border Chief Greg Bovino's comments on Fox
She was on the issue is with Fox LA's Alex
Michaelson just last night. She'll respond to the ad that
was shown, and she'll explain why she still thinks Los
Angeles has won this event legally. We'll also play some
(28:55):
of your comments. Open up the iHeartRadio app, click on
that talkback button. We'll play them throughout the show here
on Michael Monks Reports.
Speaker 1 (29:03):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (29:07):
KFI AM six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
This is Michael Monks Reports on Michael Monks from KFI
News and our last segment, I mentioned that the federal
immigration officials have put out an advertisement on social media
using LA Mayor Karen Vass's own words, basically to say,
(29:28):
we're back.
Speaker 5 (29:29):
Let me play that for you again real quick.
Speaker 3 (29:31):
I am hoping that the administration will recognize this experiment
that was practiced on the city of Los Angeles failed
and that they should not try any other level of
an experiment like this.
Speaker 2 (29:45):
Allow me to reintroduce myself, nam So what is that?
Responding to a couple of things. One, the mayor is
celebrating that Los Angeles and other local governments in the
American Civil Liberty Union, the Civil Liberties Union, and other
organizationtions that are supportive of illegal immigrants in southern California
have won at the Federal District Court and again at
(30:06):
the Federal Court of Appeals. Basically, the ruling says, no
more stops based on race, based on language spoken, based
on where you find these folks. Can't just be a
random home depot parking lot. You've got to have probable calls.
Since that ruling, immigration raids and arrests have really dropped
(30:30):
in our area, and there is data supporting that. We'll
talk about that in a moment. But then this week,
multiple home depot parking lots were targeted by federal immigration
officials and multiple dozens of folks were taken into custody.
Westlake van Nis, San Bernardino, And this ad included the
(30:52):
mayor's words and clips from those enforcement actions, along with
the song and the lyric allow me to reintroduce myself.
So things are going to heat up again, it looks
like here in La County. Even as that legal battle
continues to move through the courts, the Trump administration wants
the Supreme Court to get rid of that temporary restraining order. Meanwhile,
(31:14):
there's another hearing at the district court level in September
about whether that temporary restraining order should be a permanent one.
Here's what Mary Bass had to say about the ad
to Fox eleven's Alex Michaelson on the issue is last
night is that video?
Speaker 5 (31:31):
Do you think a giant middle finger to you?
Speaker 4 (31:32):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (31:33):
Sure, it's a giant middle finger to me. Whatever. But
the point is is that if they were serious about
addressing a problem, why would they do a performance ad
like that.
Speaker 2 (31:46):
So she's still not happy with the federal government and
stands by her position that LA and other local governments
and the ACLU and the other organizations have won this issue.
Speaker 3 (31:58):
With that temporary restrain We won a decision from two
levels of the court that said that what they are
doing is racially profiling, that said that they could not
they didn't even attempt to provide evidence that there was
a reason or rationale behind what they're doing. Now, I
know that the President has now taken it to the
(32:18):
Supreme Court, but we also have another hearing at the
end of September, and even regardless of what the Supreme
Court decision is, it still might go before the court
in September, and that court might say, well, this temporary
restraining order should become permanent. Then the question will be
is there any opportunity for this White House, for this
(32:40):
administration to follow the rule of law. So if the
court decides that this temporary restraining order needs to be permanent,
will our government follow the law or will they violate
their own law?
Speaker 5 (32:52):
What do you think?
Speaker 2 (32:53):
I'm not sure you heard in the previous segments some
comments from Greg Bovino, the immigration border chief here in
Los Angeles, saying that they're not breaking any laws even
with these new enforcement efforts at the home depots this week.
But you can bet that those enforcement actions will be
used as this court case proceeds as evidence. So a
(33:19):
lot is going on in southern California again on the
immigration front. There had not been as many arrests in
recent weeks until this week. New figures released just this
week by the Department of Homeland Security showed federal agents
had arrested two thousand, seven hundred and ninety two illegal
(33:42):
immigrants in the seven counties around Los Angeles since June sixth,
but that number was updated showing that fewer than fourteen
hundred had been arrested in the region in the last month,
so that court order was having an impact. Does this
(34:05):
new data show us the motivating factor to get these
immigration agents back out? We know that the White House
and one of the senior advisors there at the White House,
Stephen Miller, Santa Monica native, wants three thousand arrest every day.
So if they're not hitting their quotas, they might be
(34:26):
upset about that, and that might be why they're back
out here again in spite of that limiting court order.
So some immigration experts have suggested that the faltering numbers
are because of this federal court order. Now we're not
through with this. Even the US Attorney Bill A. Saley says,
(34:52):
for those who thought immigration enforcement had stopped in southern California,
think again. The enforcement of federal law is not negotiable
and there are no sanctuaries from the reach of the
federal government. Immigrant advocates had a press conference this week
Angry at Home Depot, not just the federal government, Angry
(35:16):
at Home Depot and other corporations that they say either
use illegal immigrant labor or take illegal immigrant money, but
then stay silent in this ongoing fight.
Speaker 5 (35:27):
So they are calling for what.
Speaker 2 (35:28):
Has been dubbed a community stoppage, and this is going
to be Tuesday, August the twelfth, just a few days
from now, twenty four hours. They say they will be
reclaiming our power to stop the Trump terror. For twenty
four hours, we are going to boycott companies, we are
going to rally, and we are going to support local
businesses and street vendors that support our people. That's a
(35:52):
comment from Felipe Casas, a member of the Service Employees
International Union Local seven to one. They're also saying that
folks will not go to work and they want a
boycott of Home Depot, McDonald's, Target, Walmart, and others. They're
going to host rallies all over the region on Tuesday.
(36:13):
Part of the schedules include this midnight fast food workers
strike at six in the morning, a community takeover MacArthur
Park with coffee served by skid Row Coffee at ten
o'clock in the morning, and MacArthur Park rally and car
caravan to the Los Angeles County Board of super Advisors meeting.
And then at three point thirty in the afternoon, they
(36:34):
will have a rally on Olvera Street and march to
the federal detention Center. So a lot to look forward
to next week as well, because you can bet if
we saw the type of immigration enforcement actions that we
saw this week at home depots in spite of this
court order, that they are going to be coming back
(36:56):
with the vengeance with these things. And you are also
going to see those protests return. And it was a
little spicy earlier this summer. It's been quiet since, but
it is right under the surface again. And by the way,
this Los Angeles versus Trump administration thing is not just
(37:19):
over immigration. Ucla got hit hard this week, and the
Olympics also stole some headlines because the President has created
a task force to oversee security and those sorts of
things related to the Olympics, and he did not do
that without some negative comments towards Governor Newsom and Mayor Bass.
(37:44):
We're going to dive into that next because there are
also some prominent columnists in California and here in LA
saying maybe LA shouldn't host the Olympics. We'll talk about
that next in the next hour of Michael Monk's reports
right here on kf I AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (38:02):
Kf I 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. I'm Michael Monks from KFI
News with you live for the next couple of hours
on another hot, steamy day here in southern California. I
gotta tell you I found myself just last night in
a place you'd never want to be, and that is
(00:25):
the CBS at seventh in Spring in downtown Los Angeles
on a Friday night. My goodness, every single stereotype you've
got of downtown Los Angeles, every single image that comes
to your mind when I talk on this air about
downtown Los Angeles, it was out in full force last night.
I have a love hate relationship with my neighborhood. Last
(00:48):
night was a lot of hate. It was drug use, crazies,
the longest line at the CBS you could ever imagine,
full of people shouting and not knowing what they were getting.
But the reason I bring this up to start the
show is because it's been hot. After a pretty cool July,
I was very excited about the cool weather, but it's
(01:09):
been hot recently. However, while I was standing in that
horrible line at the CBS at seventh in Spring in
downtown Los Angeles. I saw something that gave me a
little bit of hope for this weather, and that is
Pumpkin spice flavored frosted flakes are on the shelves, and
(01:33):
so are pumpkin pie flavored frosted miniwheats. Now, while I
have no intention of tasting the frosted flakes, I am
curious about the mini wheats. Did not buy them yet,
still a little early even for me. I will taste those.
But I bring it up because the autumn themed products
are hitting the shelves, which means the hot weather will
(01:57):
be behind us soon enough. There is, unfortunately, another place
people probably don't enjoy being right now, even though it's
a lovely place otherwise. Port A Ranch, Granada Hills without
water since Tuesday, we're on day four of this mess.
The LEDWP is trying to fix a mistake with their infrastructure,
(02:19):
this municipal utility. They were doing some work in that
area deep in the ground when they found a broken valve.
Nine thousand plus customers in that area without water. Since
that moment, it has been a lot of conversation in
the days since and a lot of frustration as well.
(02:41):
We've seen reports of people waiting in long lines to
get some water. We know the city has put out
some portable bathrooms, showers, laundry facilities even even to help
folks out. But think about if you're like me and
you live in an apartment, there are occasions where the
property owner will send you note, Hey, we got to
shut off the water for twelve hours. We're doing some work.
(03:03):
It's not fun, it's not pleasant, but you kind of
accept it. It's but it's so inconvenient four days. So
here's the thing. There was a press conference earlier this
afternoon featuring the stars of the city, including La Mayor Bass,
La City Councilman John Lee, who represents that area, and
Genie Quinoniez, the general manager of LADWP. They say they're
(03:26):
making progress. But even though yesterday Friday was supposed to
be the original target where they were gonna get this
thing fixed and all the water flowing again, that obviously
didn't happen. And now it's looking like Monday morning, and
that is still a moving target. Mayor Bass had this
to say to the residents of Porter Ranch and Granada Hills,
(03:50):
But we.
Speaker 3 (03:51):
Are very concerned that if people continue to use the
water that is coming out of their faucets today, it
is going to delay the ability of the DWP to
get the line back and restored and for your use
of water to be back to normal so that you
don't have to boil water, so that you don't have
(04:11):
to conserve if you could conserve as much as possible
over the next forty eight hours, we hope to have
the system back and restored within the next couple of days.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
So they're starting to get some water flow. People who
live in that area may even see some water coming
to their pipes, meaning if they were to flip on
the sink or try to flush the toilet, they might
see what looks to be normal use. But the utility says,
we're not there yet. So if you are a house
that is getting some water activity, please don't turn it
(04:45):
on because you were hurting the effort to restore the
water system wide. In Granada Hills and Porter Ranch, Councilman Lee,
who lives in Porter Ranch and says he's been impacted
by this, reiterated that point.
Speaker 4 (04:58):
You know, I'm asking everyone Porta Rancho, Grand Hills in
the affected areas to please to just don't use water
as much as possible. We have sites where you can
pick up water. I know that this has been a
tough for us, and I know after two days of
not having water, when we see that water sort of
start trickling in to our faucets, that you know, we
(05:19):
think it all all is okay, But in fact.
Speaker 5 (05:22):
We need to build up that pressure.
Speaker 4 (05:24):
We need to build up that tank so we can
make the necessary repairs so that we can get out
of this mess and go.
Speaker 5 (05:30):
Back to normal.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
Getting back to normal is what everybody would like. Janie
Kinonie is the general manager of laed WP. She made
a lot of headlines when she was hired because her
salary is seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars a year,
and then she's faced a lot of scrutiny for the
utilities criticized role in the defense against the Palisades fireback
in January. Now there's this mess as well. Here she
(05:54):
explains just how much water is being lost in a
sh short span of time.
Speaker 6 (06:01):
To help speed up restoration, we ask residents and business
owners to not use staff water, although you might have
water flow and water pressure. Us seeing water lowers the
level in the tank and overall pressure in the system.
The tank has lost an equivalent of one million gallons
during high demand periods. For a perspective, that is the
(06:24):
equivalent of seven hundreds and seventy six thousand toilet flushes
or ten Olympic pools. Your corporation significantly impacts the speed
of repairs and the impacts to the community.
Speaker 5 (06:37):
It's an absolute mess.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
It's a lot of water being lost, and so everybody
out there who's got a little trickle of water going
on right now, don't take advantage of that moment. Unfortunately,
do not flip on the sink, don't try to flush
the toilet, because apparently it is affecting the effort to
bring the water back to everyone. That is the message
today from city and utility officials as of four fifteen,
four thirty when they had that press conference early this afternoon. Now,
(07:01):
think about this kind of weather in that kind of location.
It's fire season, and this water outage has also impacted
the infrastructure that would be turned to by firefighters in
case a house fire happened or a wildfire moved through.
So that is an area of concern right now. But
(07:25):
Maribas did say that the city is prepared for that
as well.
Speaker 3 (07:30):
Now knowing that this is one of the hottest days
of the year, and knowing that we're having a problem
with water pressure and water flow, the Los Angeles Fire
Department is out here.
Speaker 5 (07:42):
In a preventive measure.
Speaker 3 (07:44):
We are fortunate that even though it is hot, the
winds are not strong. There isn't an immediate fire danger here,
but in an abundance of caution, the fire department.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
Is here, so they've brought in extra supply. They've got
a water on standby, ready for any type of fire
that may break out in that area. And I will
tell you our friends at the local TV stations, I
saw two of them, ABCNNBC both had information that a
water main has broken within the past hour in Granada Hills.
So I don't have any further details on that, but
(08:18):
it can't possibly help this situation. Meanwhile, there are fires
burning across California and across the western United States right now.
We've been paying a lot of attention to what's been
called the Canyon Fire at the Ventura, La County line.
We've also got that one hitting Kerrent and San excuse me,
San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara Counties. We're going to
(08:39):
update that situation next to see how much progress has
been made in recent hours in fighting those fires. And
we're also going to have an update on our good
friend Stefan Cabasis, better known as Staffouche or the Fush.
He was our board operator here just a couple of
weeks ago, but you know him every weekday, Monday through
(09:00):
Friday as the technical director for the Tim Conway Junior
Show and later with Mo Kelly. A terrible, horrifying crash
he was in this week. We are lucky to still
have him on this earth with us, but my goodness,
we put out a call for help to you, the
loyal KFI listeners, and you have turned out in droves.
(09:23):
We'll talk about how much money has been raised to
help him and his long road to recovery ahead. That's
all up next on Michael Monks Reports.
Speaker 1 (09:33):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
Oil Boy, you're gonna hear a lot about the foushe
Stefan Cobasis, because he's a beloved member of our team
here at iHeart and KFI AM six forty and just
a terrible accident that he was in. We're gonna share
more on that in just a few moments. This is
Michael Monks Reports. I'm Michael Monks from KFI News. Will
be together till nine o'clock tonight. If you want to
(09:59):
share your th about the water outage that we talked
about in the first segment in a port of Ranch
and Granada Hills, or as we talk about these wildfires
coming up, or if you want to send some love
to Stefan or anything else we talk about, we'd love
to have you join our conversation. All you have to
do is open up the iHeartRadio app, click on that
talkback button, and we will place some of your comments
throughout the rest of the day. California is on fire
(10:22):
as usual, and not in the metaphorical economic sense. It
is literally on fire again and we have plenty of
those happening right here in southern California. Now, we're not
the only Western state that's been hit by the flames.
Speaker 5 (10:39):
Here's ABC's Alex Stone.
Speaker 7 (10:41):
As extreme heat and low humidity bear down on the West,
it's a race against time for firefighters to control flames
before even hotter weather arrives. At the Canyon Fire in
Castaic in northern Los Angeles County. Firefighters battled in tense
flames to save homes. In San Luis Obispo and Santa
Barbara Counties, the massive Gifford Fire has scorched over one
(11:02):
hundred thousand acres of mostly remote land. Over thirty six
hundred personnel are battling the fire. In San Diego, progress
is being made on the road Runner fire containment numbers
are rising, and in Meeker, Colorado, the Elkin Lee Fires
closing in on the town of.
Speaker 5 (11:19):
Just twenty three hundred residents.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
Poor Meeker.
Speaker 6 (11:21):
They're just everybody's freaking out and is very scary for everyone.
Speaker 7 (11:26):
All of Colorado's firefighting aircraft are deployed to the state's
western slope. In Nebraska, severe storms turning deadly. At least
one person was killed by a falling tree. Power knocked
out to tens of thousands, So a.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
Dangerous situation across the West as these wildfires are raging.
The Gifford Fires, it's been called in San Luis Obispo
and Santa Barbara County is now over one hundred and
thirteen thousand acres burned. They've got that at twenty one
percent containment. Good news though on that Canyon fire, and
that good news has been pouring in I guess for
(12:02):
the past twenty four hours or so. It looks like
conditions have been favorable that way. Let's hear more from
ABC's Alex Stone who visited the scene.
Speaker 7 (12:10):
It's about fifty three hundred acres. No homes that we
know of yet, although that could change that burned in
this fires are going around and trying to do assessments
of the area, and all evacuation orders have already been
lifted this afternoon on this wildfire. So this is very different.
But when the flames were raging and moving into the
community here, there's definitely those flashbacks to what went on
(12:32):
in January, and that causes people to get out and
be very concerned about fire. They're actually making quite a
bit of progress today. I was just talking to a
firefighter where he said he believes that containment numbers are
probably going to go way up when we get them
later on tonight. Right now, they're at about twenty eight
percent containment on this fire. Even though is that it's
still extremely hot out It's about one hundred degrees and
(12:53):
that's the problem here and at other wildfires around the West.
They say that this was a success story, that they
were able to protect so many homes in these canyons
and that they did not burn.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
So you heard Alex Stone say that the containment was
twenty eight percent, and then the firefighters expected that containment
number to go up when the numbers came out. Well,
the update is that the Canyon Fire burning in Ventura
and La Counties is now forty seven percent surrounded, So
a lot of progress there on that fire. Some of
(13:25):
the wildfires burning around California, the biggest one, of course,
the Gifford Fire that we mentioned, more than one hundred
and thirteen thousand acres. They've got the Canyon Fire is
now at forty seven percent over fifty three hundred acres burned.
But there are some other local ones as well. They've
called the Rosa Fire in Riverside County that started earlier
(13:46):
this week. It's burned more than sixteen hundred acres, but
they've got that eighty percent surrounded at this point, and
the Goldfire in San Bernardino County, it's burned more than
one thousand acres at this point, but that is forty
seven percent contained as well. So a lot of good
progress on the fires in southern California. Let's hope that
that progress continues and nothing new gets going. Let's talk
(14:08):
about some internal family affairs here at KFI. We know
that you've probably if you're a regular listener, you've heard
by now that one of our technical directors, Stefan Cabasis,
often heard during the Tim Conway Junior Show and later
with Mo Kelly Show, because he is the technical director
of both of those programs. We were all here a
(14:29):
few days ago wondering where the heck he was. I
was getting ready to come on with Tim Conway and
I always send any sound clips that I want to
play during my segments with Tim, I send them to
Stefan the Foosh, and I couldn't find him to let
him know that I had this, and I started to ask, Hey,
is is he not in today? Who don't need to
send my stuff to? Who's filling in? Everyone was looking
(14:51):
for him, and it was You know, if you've ever
been in a workplace where somebody doesn't show up and
you can't get a hold of them, it's not uncommon.
You know, things happen, but your mind does drift to
terrible things, and in this case, that terrible thing was
exactly the thing that happened. Stefan Cabasis was in a
very serious car crash on the one o five Freeway
(15:15):
and when we heard that, it was terrifying, but we
were glad to hear that he was alive, even though
he was seriously injured. But then we saw a video
that a passerby took of the scene and his car
had been burned. Ash KTLA came down to our station
and did a story about the foushe here's a clip
(15:36):
from that.
Speaker 8 (15:38):
He didn't show up for work yesterday at KFI Radio.
He's a technical director here, but he didn't call or message.
Speaker 9 (15:44):
Oh we did three hours yesterday in panicking and trying
to figure out where this guy was.
Speaker 8 (15:49):
I've like never seen anything like that. This is where
Fousch was in that burning car up on the one
oh five connector to the one ten Freeway.
Speaker 9 (15:58):
I think what happened was he was chained lane, somebody
cut him off and he hit the guard rail. The
car flipped over and caught fire.
Speaker 8 (16:04):
Stephan's mom tells me that his arm was trapped outside
the window as that car was rolling over. But these
three still unidentified good samaritans pulled the Foush from the
car before he burned to death, and an unknown woman
applied a tourniquet to his mangled arm.
Speaker 5 (16:20):
What was the thing we talked about with Harvey Cornyan.
Speaker 8 (16:23):
Police say that Foush wouldn't have made it without the
help of those strangers. But to make matters worse, Steph's
id burned in the crash. He was here at Harbor
UCLA Medical Center for eight hours before family and friends
even knew.
Speaker 5 (16:37):
He was hurt.
Speaker 2 (16:39):
So nobody knew where he was and finally we did.
He was in the hospital after this horrific crash. You
can go to Tim Conway Junior or KFI social media
and see some of the clips that have been shared,
as well as a GoFundMe, but you can see the
video of his car. It's unbelievable. Thank goodness for those
(17:01):
good Samaritans who happened to pull him out of the
fiery crash and apparently saved his life. So KFI put
out a call to you the listeners and said, look,
this guy is going to be missing work for a while.
I was going to have a long road to recovery.
He's a full time employee. So you know, he's got
insurance and all of that, so we're happy for that,
(17:23):
but he's going to need some financial support probably, and
my goodness, KFI listeners, y'all came through big. I mean,
within moments this thing had gotten over twenty thousand dollars.
But now as of this second eighty thousand, four hundred
(17:44):
and fifty dollars raised for Stefan Abasas the foushe Stefan
cabethos as I call him every day, eighty thousand plus.
So he's not just beloved here in this room. You
all feel the love and have shared that love as well.
We're grateful. If you are interested in contributing to his
recovery effort, you can go to GoFundMe dot com and
(18:06):
just search for foosh. That's foo sh. That's how I
search for it. To pull it up here just a
minute ago is the first thing that comes up. Foo
s H. Go fund me, foo s H. Throw a
few dollars in the till if you can. I know
when he's able to know about this, he's going to
be so happy. Every day he sees me. He asked me,
(18:26):
where's the ice cream? I make some ice cream with
my spouse at home and we bring it in sometimes
and I haven't done it in a while, and I
can't wait to give him the biggest, biggest gallon of
ice cream that he's ever seen.
Speaker 5 (18:38):
So all our thoughts are with him.
Speaker 2 (18:40):
We're happy to know that he is recovering in the hospital,
but it is going to be a while before we
see him. We've got more ahead here on Michael Monks
Reports coming up next. We thought the immigration enforcement activities
were kind of done for a while and this court
case was going on. Oh no, they're back, and they
are back specific at home depots, even though that is
(19:01):
exactly what the judge said, you cannot be doing well.
The guy who's running the border patrol out here in LA,
he's got a few thoughts about what they've done, and
he's got a few thoughts about LA Mayor Bass, who
in turn has a few thoughts about them. We're going
to dive into that coming up next. We want to
hear from you too. Open up the iHeartRadio app, click
on the talkback button and share your thoughts. Will play
(19:23):
them throughout the rest of this broadcast.
Speaker 1 (19:26):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
KFI AM six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
This is Michael Monks reports on Michael Monks from KFI News.
My goodness. Immigration enforcement returned bigly this week. It was
quite a scene at a home depot in Westlake. They're
on Wheelshire. It looked a lot like the operations that
(19:51):
we saw earlier in the summer, except for the sneaky
nature of it and the fact that it happened in
the wake of this court order that was issued by
a judge at the federal District court level and then
upheld at the Federal Court of Appeals level saying, Hey,
federal agents, you can't be going to places where you
just think illegal immigrants work. You can't be stomping people
(20:14):
because they look Hispanic or because they're speaking Spanish.
Speaker 5 (20:18):
You have to have probable cause.
Speaker 2 (20:20):
So did they an Operation Trojan Horse have probable cause
to hit up that home depot in Westlake. We're going
to hear from the Border chief in the LA area
momentarily from an interview he gave to Fox News. But
first let's explain Operation Trojan Horse. This was quite something.
(20:43):
A rented moving truck with the penske brand name on
the side of it. Pulled into this parking lot and
the driver of this truck said, Hey, I'm looking for workers,
So some suspected illegal immigrants would.
Speaker 5 (20:58):
Be day laborers. Came up to the truck.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
That's what they're waiting on every day down there, and
out the back pops a crew of federal immigration agents
and a Fox News television crew incidentally, and these day
laborers went running. Ultimately, sixteen people were arrested in this case.
(21:21):
But it wasn't just the home depot in Westlake that
was hit this week. Federal agents stopped day laborers outside
a home depot store in Van nys They hit this
one twice on Friday. They hit it at about seven
thirty five in the morning, and then they hit it
just before noon yesterday yesterday at the home depot on
(21:42):
Roscoe Boulevard. And there was also a home depot parking
lot immigration enforcement action taken in San Bernardino. There were
video clips that I saw circulating online more than six
SUVs pulling up with armed federal agents in the back
of the home depot parking lot on twenty first Street
near the two ten Freeway. More than a dozen day
(22:03):
laborers who gathered in that area earlier began to run
when they saw these federal agencies. And witnesses shared some
cell phone clips with the NBC NBC four here in
LA and one person was seen in that video being
detained by what appeared to be federal agents. So they
were hitting home depots all around the area. There was
(22:26):
apparently a report that a home this might be a
little older. My apologies for that one, but yes, home
depots in Westlake, home depots in Van Nuys, home depots
in San Bernardino. Meanwhile, this court order is out there,
so what does it mean. Well, LA Mayor Bass said
when this court order came down and then was upheld
(22:47):
at the appeals level that.
Speaker 5 (22:49):
LA had won.
Speaker 2 (22:53):
But the border Patrol is so Karen Bass, right now
that they put out an advertisement that sounds a little
bit like this.
Speaker 3 (23:06):
I am hoping that the administration will recognize this experiment
that was practiced on the city of Los Angeles failed
and that they should not try any other level of
an experiment like this.
Speaker 1 (23:20):
Allow me to reinduce myself.
Speaker 2 (23:24):
So that's a clip from the mayor saying, hopefully the
federal government has learned its lesson. They have lost, and
the Border Patrol put out a video with the mayor's
comments accompanied by clips from these home depot rates. Allow
me to reintroduce myself. It's going to get hotter this
(23:48):
summer as it relates to immigration.
Speaker 7 (23:50):
Now.
Speaker 2 (23:51):
Greg Bovino, who is the Border chief here in Los Angeles,
appeared on Fox News after this raid took place. It
was just a couple of days ago that he appeared
on Fox News and here he is reacting to what
the mayor had to say about victory for Los Angeles.
Speaker 8 (24:08):
It.
Speaker 10 (24:08):
As far as what the mayor said, I scratched my
head on that sometimes bill because I believe she also
called this an experiment. Well, the Border Patrol is one
hundred and one years old. We've patrolled that border, we've
patrolled the interior for that one hundred and one years,
and definitely not an experiment. We make the security of
mom pow America. That's our personal responsibility, and it's our
(24:31):
personal responsibility to stay here in Los Angeles and get
this job done.
Speaker 2 (24:35):
So they're going to stay in Los Angeles and get
the job done whatever it is. So the question is,
did the Border Patrol agents, the immigration agents follow the
court order when they executed these immigration activities at the
various home depots, in particular Operation Trojan Horse at the
(24:56):
Home Depot store in Westlake.
Speaker 5 (24:58):
He's asked this in his Fox News interview.
Speaker 10 (25:00):
When the Border Patrol CBP and our allied law enforcement partners,
when we conduct operations law enforcement operations, we always abide
by the law, whether it's a temporary restraining order that
you just mentioned, whether it's applicable federal laws, rules and regulations,
and most especially the Constitution of the United States. We
always abide by that legally, ethically and morally and everything
(25:23):
that we do. And we're doing that in Los Angeles
right now today. As a matter of fact, we have
agents out on the streets right now making apprehensions as
you and I are speaking. They're doing that again, legally,
ethically and morally, and.
Speaker 5 (25:36):
So he says, yeah, we're following the law.
Speaker 2 (25:38):
He didn't exactly explain how, and we don't know the
nature of the folks who were arrested. You assume that
they are suspected of being here illegally. Sometimes after these
raids you find out that there are charges in addition
to crossing the border illegally. Some of them are very
egregious serious violent charges. But we don't know a lot
(25:59):
about that Operation Trojan Horse yet. So he's asked a
little bit again about whether Operation Trojan Horse followed the
narrow specifications issued by the Federal Court judge.
Speaker 10 (26:14):
This operation we entitled it Trojan Horse. That operation we
had pre intelligence. We knew what was going on in
that location, as we do in nearly every location that
we come into contact with here in Los Angeles. We
knew there was criminal activity afoot there for a long time.
So we're not going to ignore criminal activity. We're going
after it, and that's exactly what we did. It was
(26:35):
a very creative and innovative concept that our Border Battle
agents came up with.
Speaker 2 (26:40):
So it doesn't fully answer, just says that we know
criminal activity was taking place there, but what was it
and who were the folks that were taken into custody.
I bring this up because, in watching the arguments before
the Court of Appeals, the White House attorneys did not
do a great job in explaining how they were not
(27:02):
targeting people based on race, based on occupation and location,
based on language spoken, And it was clear even watching
it that the Court of Appeals was going to uphold
the lower court's order, and I haven't heard from Greg
Bovino a convincing argument yet. Now, look, there are a
(27:22):
lot of you listening that are supportive of immigration enforcement.
Folks are here illegally, catch them, get them out understood.
But we're talking about a court order that said you
cannot just do it that way. You cannot go up
to somebody who looks Mexican, looks Guatemalan, somebody who's speaking Spanish,
(27:45):
or somebody who's sitting in a parking lot at home
depot looking for work. You have to have probable cause.
So there are a couple of things happening with this case. One,
the Trump administration has appealed again, this time to the
Supreme Court. They went the Supreme Court to block this
temporary restraining order that stops immigration agents from making these
(28:11):
stops without probable calls. But there's also a hearing in
late September back at the district court level that could
make this temporary restraining order a permanent one. But as
we see these immigration actions unfold, is it gonna matter.
(28:33):
We're gonna talk more about this next because Mayer Bass
has responded to Border Chief Greg Bovino's comments on Fox
She was on the issue is with Fox LA's Alex
Michaelson just last night. She'll respond to the ad that
was shown, and she'll explain why she still thinks Los
Angeles has won this event legally. We'll also play some
(28:55):
of your comments. Open up the iHeartRadio app, click on
that talkback button. We'll play them throughout the show here
on Michael Monks Reports.
Speaker 1 (29:03):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (29:07):
KFI AM six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
This is Michael Monks Reports on Michael Monks from KFI
News and our last segment, I mentioned that the federal
immigration officials have put out an advertisement on social media
using LA Mayor Karen Vass's own words, basically to say,
(29:28):
we're back.
Speaker 5 (29:29):
Let me play that for you again real quick.
Speaker 3 (29:31):
I am hoping that the administration will recognize this experiment
that was practiced on the city of Los Angeles failed
and that they should not try any other level of
an experiment like this.
Speaker 2 (29:45):
Allow me to reintroduce myself, nam So what is that?
Responding to a couple of things. One, the mayor is
celebrating that Los Angeles and other local governments in the
American Civil Liberty Union, the Civil Liberties Union, and other
organizationtions that are supportive of illegal immigrants in southern California
have won at the Federal District Court and again at
(30:06):
the Federal Court of Appeals. Basically, the ruling says, no
more stops based on race, based on language spoken, based
on where you find these folks. Can't just be a
random home depot parking lot. You've got to have probable calls.
Since that ruling, immigration raids and arrests have really dropped
(30:30):
in our area, and there is data supporting that. We'll
talk about that in a moment. But then this week,
multiple home depot parking lots were targeted by federal immigration
officials and multiple dozens of folks were taken into custody.
Westlake van Nis, San Bernardino, And this ad included the
(30:52):
mayor's words and clips from those enforcement actions, along with
the song and the lyric allow me to reintroduce myself.
So things are going to heat up again, it looks
like here in La County. Even as that legal battle
continues to move through the courts, the Trump administration wants
the Supreme Court to get rid of that temporary restraining order. Meanwhile,
(31:14):
there's another hearing at the district court level in September
about whether that temporary restraining order should be a permanent one.
Here's what Mary Bass had to say about the ad
to Fox eleven's Alex Michaelson on the issue is last
night is that video?
Speaker 5 (31:31):
Do you think a giant middle finger to you?
Speaker 4 (31:32):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (31:33):
Sure, it's a giant middle finger to me. Whatever. But
the point is is that if they were serious about
addressing a problem, why would they do a performance ad
like that.
Speaker 2 (31:46):
So she's still not happy with the federal government and
stands by her position that LA and other local governments
and the ACLU and the other organizations have won this issue.
Speaker 3 (31:58):
With that temporary restrain We won a decision from two
levels of the court that said that what they are
doing is racially profiling, that said that they could not
they didn't even attempt to provide evidence that there was
a reason or rationale behind what they're doing. Now, I
know that the President has now taken it to the
(32:18):
Supreme Court, but we also have another hearing at the
end of September, and even regardless of what the Supreme
Court decision is, it still might go before the court
in September, and that court might say, well, this temporary
restraining order should become permanent. Then the question will be
is there any opportunity for this White House, for this
(32:40):
administration to follow the rule of law. So if the
court decides that this temporary restraining order needs to be permanent,
will our government follow the law or will they violate
their own law?
Speaker 5 (32:52):
What do you think?
Speaker 2 (32:53):
I'm not sure you heard in the previous segments some
comments from Greg Bovino, the immigration border chief here in
Los Angeles, saying that they're not breaking any laws even
with these new enforcement efforts at the home depots this week.
But you can bet that those enforcement actions will be
used as this court case proceeds as evidence. So a
(33:19):
lot is going on in southern California again on the
immigration front. There had not been as many arrests in
recent weeks until this week. New figures released just this
week by the Department of Homeland Security showed federal agents
had arrested two thousand, seven hundred and ninety two illegal
(33:42):
immigrants in the seven counties around Los Angeles since June sixth,
but that number was updated showing that fewer than fourteen
hundred had been arrested in the region in the last month,
so that court order was having an impact. Does this
(34:05):
new data show us the motivating factor to get these
immigration agents back out? We know that the White House
and one of the senior advisors there at the White House,
Stephen Miller, Santa Monica native, wants three thousand arrest every day.
So if they're not hitting their quotas, they might be
(34:26):
upset about that, and that might be why they're back
out here again in spite of that limiting court order.
So some immigration experts have suggested that the faltering numbers
are because of this federal court order. Now we're not
through with this. Even the US Attorney Bill A. Saley says,
(34:52):
for those who thought immigration enforcement had stopped in southern California,
think again. The enforcement of federal law is not negotiable
and there are no sanctuaries from the reach of the
federal government. Immigrant advocates had a press conference this week
Angry at Home Depot, not just the federal government, Angry
(35:16):
at Home Depot and other corporations that they say either
use illegal immigrant labor or take illegal immigrant money, but
then stay silent in this ongoing fight.
Speaker 5 (35:27):
So they are calling for what.
Speaker 2 (35:28):
Has been dubbed a community stoppage, and this is going
to be Tuesday, August the twelfth, just a few days
from now, twenty four hours. They say they will be
reclaiming our power to stop the Trump terror. For twenty
four hours, we are going to boycott companies, we are
going to rally, and we are going to support local
businesses and street vendors that support our people. That's a
(35:52):
comment from Felipe Casas, a member of the Service Employees
International Union Local seven to one. They're also saying that
folks will not go to work and they want a
boycott of Home Depot, McDonald's, Target, Walmart, and others. They're
going to host rallies all over the region on Tuesday.
(36:13):
Part of the schedules include this midnight fast food workers
strike at six in the morning, a community takeover MacArthur
Park with coffee served by skid Row Coffee at ten
o'clock in the morning, and MacArthur Park rally and car
caravan to the Los Angeles County Board of super Advisors meeting.
And then at three point thirty in the afternoon, they
(36:34):
will have a rally on Olvera Street and march to
the federal detention Center. So a lot to look forward
to next week as well, because you can bet if
we saw the type of immigration enforcement actions that we
saw this week at home depots in spite of this
court order, that they are going to be coming back
(36:56):
with the vengeance with these things. And you are also
going to see those protests return. And it was a
little spicy earlier this summer. It's been quiet since, but
it is right under the surface again. And by the way,
this Los Angeles versus Trump administration thing is not just
(37:19):
over immigration. Ucla got hit hard this week, and the
Olympics also stole some headlines because the President has created
a task force to oversee security and those sorts of
things related to the Olympics, and he did not do
that without some negative comments towards Governor Newsom and Mayor Bass.
(37:44):
We're going to dive into that next because there are
also some prominent columnists in California and here in LA
saying maybe LA shouldn't host the Olympics. We'll talk about
that next in the next hour of Michael Monk's reports
right here on kf I AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (38:02):
Kf I AM six forty on demand
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