September 9, 2025 • 29 mins
Welcome Stephanie! Garnet fire burns into grove of giant sequoias; several behemoths are in flames. Fire Aid Independent Report. Senate Republicans investigate Palisades fire response.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is Gary and Shannon and you're listening to KFI
AM six forty, the Gary and Shannon Show on demand
on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
A bunch of stories that are going on. One of
them internationally is dominating the headlines. That is Israel's launch
of a strike that targeted Hamas leadership. While they were
in cottr today, black smoke rose over the skyline in
the capital city of Doha. Authorities there acknowledged the strike.
Israel has claimed responsibility for the strike and said that
they were specifically targeting leaders and planners of Hamas who
(00:34):
may have planned the attack of October seventh back in
twenty twenty three. After a bunch of speculation and teasing
by the President, the Department of Homeland Security says it's
launching Operation Midway Blitz today. This is a new initiative
to target undocumented immigrants. They're in Chicago and throughout Illinois.
They said that the operation is in honor of Katie Abram,
(00:56):
a twenty year old woman from the Northwest suburbs of
chicag I go to hit and killed in a hit
and run in January by a twenty nine year old
Guatemalan national who was in the United States illegally. Well,
there's also a very strange story that I'm sure we'll
get to here in this hour. But this decomposing body
(01:16):
found in the trunk of a tesla registered to a
New York born singer who happens to be on tour
right now. But several days ago that tesla was abandoned
up in the Hollywood Hills. They took it to a
tow yard and somebody finally started smelling the well, smelling
the body in the back gear.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
I think it's great that you have standing guests for Shannon,
like that chef you had on yesterday. Guy was good
and a counselman. No less, how about spending your horizon.
Get a homeless guy to stand in there, you know, homie,
homeless cardboard condo guy. Give him, give us his perspective
on everything. Maybe a serial killer stand in with you.
Other people that associate as animals or identify themselves as animals.
Speaker 4 (01:58):
Okay, you know, just trying to help. Okay, I appreciate that.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
But today instead of Shannon, since she's out, and instead
of a chef or a homeless guy or somebody who
identifies as an animal, at least at this point, I
don't think that's going to be an issue.
Speaker 4 (02:12):
Stephanie Leidecker is back on the show. Thank you for
joining us today.
Speaker 5 (02:16):
Thank you for having me. I'm so happy to be here.
Speaker 4 (02:18):
Listen. We had you on a couple of weeks ago.
We talked true crime stuff.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
We were talking specifically about Brian Coberger and the Idaho murders,
University of Idaho murders, and got such great response that
we wanted to have you back.
Speaker 4 (02:32):
So thanks, thanks for taking time.
Speaker 5 (02:34):
Yeah, thank you for having me.
Speaker 6 (02:36):
I feel like I'm in the beehive finally, and my
heart goes out to Shannon and yeah, you got to
keep me in line. Hopefully, hopefully I can keep up.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
Well, you did mention off the air that you're a
Long Island girl at heart, so we'll keep elmore keep
his finger on the dump button if.
Speaker 6 (02:52):
Anything else exactly.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
One of the hosts of True Crime Tonight, which is
a show that airs several nights a week on iHeart
stations around the country. It also is repackaged as a
podcast that you can check out, and you guys talk
about all kinds of stuff. But before we get to
current day, let's talk about you Long Island.
Speaker 4 (03:13):
That's where you're from.
Speaker 6 (03:14):
That's where I'm from, Long Island, New York born and raised,
went to Stay from high school, and yeah, I was
always a New Yorker and then found my way through
Miami to Los Angeles, which I've recently moved out of.
But I am, you know, always loving California in my heart.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
And you have done all kinds of stuff. Right now,
you're listed as the founder and CEO of KT Studios.
Speaker 4 (03:40):
That's your company, that's correct. What do you guys do.
Speaker 6 (03:43):
We're a production company also based in Los Angeles, and
we make true crime podcasts like The Idaho Massacre, which
is you know, airing right now on iHeart, The piked
In Massacre, and Murder one oh one, basically open investigation cases.
And then we also do documentaries. One is streaming now
(04:05):
on Peacock, The Idaho Student Murders, which is based on
the case we just talked about. And also we are
in film and scripted, so taking some of these cases,
you know, always trying to you know, be victim forward
and you know, tell some of these tales that I
think are really important to share.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
The true crime genre is I guess you could say
it's having a moment, but it's been having moments for
a long time. True crime stories have been popular in
media for decades.
Speaker 5 (04:36):
Why why you know it's so true?
Speaker 6 (04:39):
You know, the recent stat says that eighty seven percent
of all Americans watch and absorb true crime content. We
do mostly open investigation stuff, and it's not because we
want to talk about murder or death in gory things.
Speaker 5 (04:54):
Quite the opposite. It's almost a little hopeful.
Speaker 6 (04:57):
And you know, getting to speak to victims' families and
hear their stories and how they push on and look.
Sometimes it's easier to look at somebody else's world and
see some of the red flags from a distance, so
that you can kind of see those red flags in
your own world. And you know, really in spirit try
(05:18):
to keep us all a little bit safer. But there
does seem to be this air quotes genre. I happen
to just watch a lot of true crime and find
it so interesting, and sometimes it just takes a second
set of eyes to look into a case to see
some obvious things that could be potentially overlooked in the past.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
I've also been fascinated also by the gender difference, and
it's kind of stereotypical yes, women, you know, women, for
whatever psychological reason. They do it to protect themselves, like
you said, to look for those red flags that they
would see in either relationships or in.
Speaker 4 (05:53):
Their community or whatever. I get it.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
I mean, I am also a fan of true crime
more because of the investigative aspect of it exactly. But
my daughter, twenty three years old, she is working on
a PhD in chemistry and will in her downtime finger
quotes listen to raw interrogation footage of detectives investigating crimes.
(06:21):
I mean, hours and hours and hours of raw interrogation footage.
Speaker 4 (06:25):
That's what she does.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
Not classical music, not some sort of poetry or you know,
meditation app It's interrogations.
Speaker 6 (06:35):
Not justin bieberb but rather interrogations. And by the way,
I like your daughter, do similar things. You know, I
find sometimes listening to these kinds of whether it's like
bodycam footage or interrogation events, we start to listen to
those red flags, you know, we're looking for reasons to
know that, Hey, if I'm on the line at CVS
(06:56):
and the guy behind me is slightly creepy, we don't
think that Brian Coberger, the now guilty killer of for
incredible Idaho students.
Speaker 5 (07:06):
Like you mentioned earlier, we.
Speaker 6 (07:07):
Don't think that's the guy, and sometimes we need to
know that the Boogeyman is closer than we think. And
also it's a little comforting, I feel like sometimes to
sort of.
Speaker 5 (07:17):
See justice happen.
Speaker 6 (07:19):
And you know, in some of the cases that we
work on that are open investigation, the goal is to
find justice. And I think that is kind of the
itch we're all scratching, you know. Prior to that, I
used to work in reality TV shows, The Bachelor's that
kind of thing, and I think the love audience and
the true crime audience, which yeah, admittedly is a lot
(07:39):
of us ladies, kind of also scratches the same itch.
Speaker 5 (07:43):
You know, we're kind of watching love and watching grief.
Speaker 6 (07:47):
You know, from a distance, to be able to kind
of maybe manage that in our own worlds a little
bit more, That's what I think. You know, there are
a lot of studies that would suggest we're all just crazy,
and you know, why are we watching murder all day?
But even as I talk to you, there are autopsies
in front of me and case files, and you know,
it's it's a rabbit hole.
Speaker 4 (08:09):
Autopsy files huh okay, yeah, well, I mean.
Speaker 6 (08:12):
It is so true, but again, you know, this is
public information. But again, you know, you listen to somebody
whose entire family has been murdered and they have the
fortitude to still come sit down for an interview and
share the darkest moments of their world, and they can
push on. You know, it puts things really into perspective
very quickly, right, and I find that oddly inspiring.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
Well, glad you made it today. Buckle up, buttercups, get
tough when we come back. A little bit fire information,
not just the Garnet fire, but also the latest on
Palisades fire and the investigation into where the some of
that money went.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
You're listening to Gary and Shannon on Demand from KFI
AM six forty.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
Stephanie Leidecker True Crime Tonight host has joined us a
bunch of stories that are going on a little bit
later in this hour. We're going to talk about the
Palisades fire response and how there is an investigation into
it Center Republicans are looking into it, and along with
that the story about the charitable funds. Everybody remembers the
(09:19):
fire aid concert that was that was held, and lots
and lots of money was raised. The question is where
did that money go? And there's at least one independent
report that came out and said, don't worry, the money's
going to the right place. Okay, So let's start with
this fire that's burning through the Sierra National Forest up
in Fresno County. Fresno is the gateway to the Gateway
(09:42):
to the Sierra and right now, this Garnet fire is
at fifty four nine twenty four acres about fourteen percent contained.
The biggest problem is it's in a it's in a
little what would you call it a grove, I should say,
of giant sequoias that are burning up there. And this
(10:02):
is one of the problems that we see with wildfires
in the state of California is we get really attached
to these really old things, and in the off chance
that they're about to burn, we all kind of lose
our minds without remembering that fire is very and this
fire specifically because it was lightning caused it kind of
what happens in nature.
Speaker 4 (10:23):
It can be. It's sad. I mean, I don't like
the idea of it.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
These one hundred year old, multiple one hundred year old
trees that could potentially go down to fire. But this
is what happens in forests like.
Speaker 5 (10:35):
This, that is true.
Speaker 6 (10:36):
And the lightning piece of it, I think is a
really big distinction. I mean, look, some of these trees
are three thousand years old, you know, so that is
a loss. And although I don't know too too much
about trees and growth, but some say the clearing is
sometimes helpful for regrowth and seeding.
Speaker 5 (10:54):
I don't know.
Speaker 6 (10:54):
It's still very scary and the containment is still pretty low.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
Yeah, it's only fourteen percent right now of the eight
groves of giants equoias that we have. They said that
this one is ranked one of the most vulnerable to
fire because it has not burned. And like we said,
it is just the natural process. It's a very cyclical
thing that happens in nature, and it does cause it
(11:18):
creates a healthier environment down the road when these things
do burn on a regular basis. We don't want all
of them to burn, and we don't want them to
burn completely, but it is something that kind of has
to go through there, that they have to go through.
There is a protection plan in place. They do have
some sprinklers on the ground literally sprinklers on the ground
(11:40):
that they've been piping water into to try to knock
these fires down or prevent it from spreading on the
forest floor.
Speaker 6 (11:46):
I shout out to the firefighters too, I mean, who
have to be deployed into these scenarios. They're being really
put to the test in unbelievable ways and really putting
themselves in so much danger.
Speaker 5 (11:57):
So this is not an easy effort.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
One potential positive the weather has shaped up a little bit.
It's much cooler, especially here in southern California. It's much
cooler than it has been for the last couple of weeks.
Similar up there. The problem is with the chance for
rain that is coming in those areas. You see another
chance for lightning, and then we start this whole thing
over again.
Speaker 5 (12:20):
Wow. Yeah, it's hard to get a win, all right.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
So later in the show, we're going to be talking
about this Netflix documentary that we watched last night called
Unknown Number, And I guess the best general description is
cyber bullying, right, using phones as means of bullying somebody.
And in this case, it's small town in Michigan and
one specific high school in this small town that gets
(12:46):
just torn apart.
Speaker 4 (12:48):
It seems by this bullying and it.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
Brings with it all kinds of all kinds of issues
that we were talking about that we want to get to.
So that's coming up in the twelve o'clock hour. If
you have seen that, you're going to want to listen
to this breakdown. And if you haven't yet seen it,
trust me, it's still worth it.
Speaker 5 (13:07):
Absolutely Yeah.
Speaker 6 (13:08):
It's getting a ton of chatter, a lot of controversy
around it.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
Stephanie Leidecker has joined us. Shannon's out this week. We'll
come back. We'll talk more about this investigation into the
Fire Aid audit, the Fire Aid concert that raised millions
of dollars for victims of the Palisades and the Eton fires,
and where the money went. There's a lot of questions
about that. All Right, Gary and Shannon will continue.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
You're listening to Gary and Shannon on demand from KFI
AM six forty.
Speaker 4 (13:37):
This hour.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
Apple is unveiling its new line of iPhones, iPhone seventeen
is coming out today. One of the big reveals is
probably going to be this thinner iPhone called the iPhone Air.
Speaker 4 (13:50):
They thing, are you excited about that? You see?
Speaker 5 (13:52):
I seem kind of excited about it. I am ready
for a thinner phone. I'm on board.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
I'm afraid though I can't. I I don't know where
you keep your phone. I guess I'm looking at it
right now. I keep my phone in my pocket, and
I'm afraid the curvature of my bums are going to
crack that thin little phone.
Speaker 6 (14:11):
Do you think they would kind of take that into consideration,
some flex in the phone right so that you can
very comfortably wear it in your back pocket.
Speaker 5 (14:18):
I would like there to be some sort of a
screen that.
Speaker 6 (14:21):
You can put on your phone that has your eyeglass
prescription on it.
Speaker 5 (14:25):
Wouldn't that be great?
Speaker 3 (14:26):
All right?
Speaker 5 (14:27):
People like me.
Speaker 6 (14:28):
That are like I'm literally holding a Calige. It's like
the size of a calculator on my phone at this point,
and I still can barely see it.
Speaker 5 (14:35):
So that would be my wish for Apple.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
A quick sports note, by the way, I don't know
if you've seen this video of the Phillies fans that
were fighting over the home run ball.
Speaker 5 (14:44):
Oh my goodness, yes, Karen.
Speaker 4 (14:46):
So so Philly.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
Karen was mad that a dad picks up a ball,
walks across back, across the seats, and hands it to
his little kid, ten year old kid she came over
and gave him a what for and wagged the finger, etc.
She ends up going home with the ball. The kid
gets taken care of. You got like a signed bat
and you know, tickets to the next game and all
(15:08):
that sort of stuff. And she got blown up online,
I mean destroyed.
Speaker 5 (15:13):
She lost her job.
Speaker 4 (15:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
Now the dad again, the dad who originally picked up
the ball and gave it to his son, He is saying, stop, please,
don't do anything to this lady, he said, he told
USA today just the other day, he said, leave it alone.
Somebody knows her and can talk to her. That's different.
But I don't want people breaking in their house and
stuff like that. The internet already messed her up pretty
(15:37):
good completely.
Speaker 6 (15:38):
It seemed like listen, it was a pretty hard thing
to watch, no doubt. You know. They seemed like such
a loving family. And you could see the smile on
the little boy's face and dad, it's like the all
American dream. And yeah, she did, you know, give that finger.
But to lose your job, to have, you know, frankly
the whole country down on you and such a big way,
(16:01):
it's tough.
Speaker 5 (16:02):
I feel for all parties.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
Isn't it.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
I find it interesting that the guests that we had
in yesterday, chef Andrew Gruhle, had pointed this out. It's
almost sport because people all week are dealing with they're
dealing with politics, and they're dealing workplace conflict, and they're
dealing with all the school it's tough, and then you
see something like that and you go, I'm gonna take
it out on this lady and you.
Speaker 6 (16:24):
Don't get my way right now, That's so true. I
feel that way sometimes, to be honest. When I saw that,
it was like, no, no, no, that's enough. There could
be pedophilia running the world right now. People are at
a jobs, there is no money anywhere, we're at the
brink of so many wars.
Speaker 5 (16:41):
But not this, Philly Karen.
Speaker 3 (16:43):
Not this.
Speaker 6 (16:44):
But I think that is displaced, and I feel for her.
It sounds like it worked out just fine, and the
boy got some real TLC and signs autographs and got
to meet his favorite player in person.
Speaker 5 (16:57):
And hopefully Philly Karen can get her job.
Speaker 4 (17:00):
Y'll she'll be fine. She'll work somewhere.
Speaker 5 (17:02):
I think, m m. Maybe she did work at a school.
Speaker 4 (17:06):
Which is where she got the finger wagon from.
Speaker 2 (17:08):
My mom was a teacher and a principal forever.
Speaker 4 (17:11):
And she did that thing like a champ.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
She was an Olympic style finger waggers.
Speaker 5 (17:17):
That's a real sport in and of itself.
Speaker 4 (17:20):
All right.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
A couple of reports have been done about the disaster
relief charity Fire Aid and the distribution of funds. Those
reports have been released to government officials and the public.
One of the five oh one C three's founded by
executives of the La Clippers had been under scrutiny because
the concern was one hundred million dollars that was raised
(17:43):
to benefit the victims of the Palisades fire and the
eaten fires weren't showing up in any realistic in any
significant way to the actual victims. So Fire Aid, the
company itself, that charity itself, commissioned two different reports. One
(18:03):
of them planned six month status update on the specifics
of the fundraising, the grant making, the local impacts, and
then the other an independent review by by an outside
law firm. The law firm conducted the independent review, shared
their firmings, shared their findings, affirming fire A did act
in accordance with mission strong accountability measures, the aid is
(18:27):
reaching the affected communities, The question though, is I mean,
you have you have a group like Pacific Palisades Community
Council who were concerned early on that this was going
to get caught up in a bureaucratic mess, and not
even the government bureaucratic mess, but the bureaucracy that exists
(18:48):
around a charity that is that large, dealing with that
amount of money.
Speaker 5 (18:53):
It's a it's a big question. What's your take on this?
Speaker 2 (18:57):
Well, this is this is one of those things that
it's kind of the ugly nature of what charities are.
And as as great as it is, I think I
think the message has to be clearer upfront to people
who want to give money to Fire Aid. If you're
assuming that you're going to give one hundred million dollars
(19:19):
and then people who live in Palisades or Alta Dina,
they're going to get a nice, rosy one hundred thousand
dollars check as their cut of it, or whatever the
number would work out to be, that's never the way
it happens. That's never the way it would happen, because
then you come up with tax implications for getting charitable donations.
I mean, it would be a mess that way, But
(19:41):
there has to be a very clear message up front
from fire aid from all the organizers. Your money is
going to then community organizations, and those community organizations are
going to distribute the money, and even then there may
be another layer in there before it goes to the
actual victims of the fires.
Speaker 6 (20:00):
I get that from a tax perspective. That's a fair point.
But it doesn't seem as though I've heard of a
single person who has received epic amounts of aid post
the destruction in the Palisades and the eaten fires. I
just haven't heard it. It seems like people are still
really struggling and trying to find their footing.
Speaker 2 (20:18):
And I mean, the size and scope of this probably
lends itself to the slow nature of which the money
has made its way down. But you have these smaller
community organizations who got say one hundred thousand dollars to
reinstitute music programs or something like that. And as important
(20:40):
as that is, there is something so unsatisfying about that.
Just saying that is unsatisfying, as opposed to somebody walked
around with bags of cash and handed it to people
who were crying on the doorsteps of their burned out properties.
Speaker 6 (20:56):
Who were literally sitting in front of a chimney. And again,
you know, this is a little close to my heart.
I was living in the Palisades at the time, and
not to make it about me, but I can tell
you firsthand it was a harrowing traumatic experience for anybody
who was in the vicinity of that fire. And people
have been annihilated, their lives are lost, and in my case,
(21:17):
very lucky to be able to be at an age
where I can still start over. And you know, yeah,
loss is loss, but so many of my friends and
neighbors in the community that is now completely wiped out.
Some of them were living in their home for fifty years,
so there's no room to rebuild. So having somebody show
(21:38):
up with a bag of cash because there was a
huge fund of money, seems appropriate in some way.
Speaker 2 (21:44):
Yeah, well, I mean because then it gives you the
freedom of at least bridging the gap between, yes, the
immediate need of shelter and food, I mean that kind
of stuff. We have people here who didn't lose their
homes necessarily, but their homes were so severely damaged that
they can't live in them now.
Speaker 6 (22:01):
It's an unlivable area, you know, and toxic and all
of the things, and we saw the community come together.
Angelino's are so extraordinary people with you know, giving clothing
and you know, we were all those people that were
wearing hand me downs from the community. Frankly, but it
hasn't stopped yet, and I think sometimes this feels like
(22:21):
it was still many many months ago and that the
world has kind of moved on. But for those who
lost their homes, if you've been to the Palisades, either
recently or certainly at the time of those fires, it's
really an annihilation. And some people are still living in
the same place that they evacuated to with family and
friends because it's hard to find rentals or even temporary
(22:45):
places to live when you.
Speaker 5 (22:46):
Have five kids.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
Well, the Senate, Oh, get me started, the Senate, I
do want to get you started. The Senate is going
to start investigating in this. We'll talk about that when
we come back.
Speaker 1 (22:57):
You're listening to Gary and Shannon on demand from KFI
AM six forty.
Speaker 4 (23:04):
Stephanie Leidecker has joined us.
Speaker 2 (23:06):
She is the CEO the founder of kt Studios, but
also one of the hosts of True Crime Tonight podcast
that you can hear on the iHeart app and on
stations around the country. We were talking about the Palisades fire,
talking about the fire aid and the investigation into the
money that went into fire aid, and a couple of
Senate Republicans have also opened another investigation into the fire.
(23:30):
This one's specifically looking at emergency preparation and whether or
not they were sufficient, whether we knew what was going
to happen before it happened, and all that. And I'll
say this, I mean, as the outside or outsider, not
having lived in the Palisades or in Altadena, it looked
like there were some clues that were obviously either ignored
(23:53):
or not paid close enough attention to.
Speaker 5 (23:57):
It does appear that way.
Speaker 6 (23:58):
I mean, that was my personal experience, and I think
the cry of many and again, this was a very
unusual event, right, So, yes, they were expecting Santa Anna wins.
Speaker 5 (24:09):
We all remember that so well. You were on the
air we were.
Speaker 6 (24:11):
Just speaking about So this was a wild card, quite frankly,
so I don't know where the fingers are to be pointed.
It does feel like people still really do need the aid,
and even though so much of California thankfully has been
able to move on, you know, those who have lost
everything haven't. And I also will say, you know, being
(24:32):
prepped a little bit. I've somehow since then turned into
a bit of a bit of a prepper.
Speaker 5 (24:39):
You know, some of the.
Speaker 6 (24:40):
Basics I think are worth noting having gas in your car.
You know, it took six hours to go two miles.
People were abandoning their cars, including right in front of me.
And if you didn't have gas in your car, that
was a real problem. So keeping your gas tank is
full of am I giving a PSA right now? Yes,
but yes, keep gas in your car.
Speaker 5 (24:58):
And water in your hand.
Speaker 4 (25:00):
Yeah, maybe some crackers just by the.
Speaker 6 (25:02):
Way, crackers would have been helpful. I would have enjoyed
some crackers. Anything at that point would have been helpful.
Speaker 3 (25:08):
Well.
Speaker 2 (25:08):
A couple of things that they're going to be looking at,
obviously is the Santa Anaz Reservoir, which is up in
the farther up in the Palisades, but would have been
valuable had it had water in it. For one thing,
whether or not it was I should say why it
was there, why there were some hydrants that were dry,
why there were some water pressure issues. Also, and I
(25:31):
think this is going to be probably the more important one.
It is the prepositioning of the fire department assets, and
whether or not that was done aggressively enough. I told
you off the air, But we said this on the
air many times. When Shannon and I came to work
that day, it was it was unusual the number of
(25:52):
times we had been told this is an extreme fire
weather event. And we've lived I mean, we've lived in
southern California and California in general long enough to know
when fire weather comes, we do the red flag warnings,
no parking on Mulholland, I mean, all of those kinds
of things. But there was something very different about the
way it was being said then that morning. So when
(26:15):
we did get a call, we got a talk back
from somebody who said they were driving in Santa Monica
looking north and they saw the smoke, and that started
this hell fire and damnation over the course of the
next several days, and even we were saying two boneheads
on the radio were saying, this is you got to
be prepared. If you're in that neighborhood, watch out, this
(26:37):
is coming. It's coming down the hill, it's moving fast,
it's and by the afternoon, I mean when all of
that destruction in the afternoon until later in that evening.
Speaker 4 (26:46):
It was one of those things.
Speaker 2 (26:47):
Like where was the city, where was where were the
resources that we thought should have been placed there ahead
of time, not to.
Speaker 6 (26:56):
Mention just infrastructure wise. It was a tree graphic jam
like no other. You know, you mentioned seeing even to
this day, burnt out cars that still remain there along whether.
Speaker 5 (27:08):
That's on Sunset or wherever.
Speaker 6 (27:09):
It was literally on the street that I was trying
to get out of. And yeah, it's it's scary stuff,
the likes of which, you know, we can't underestimate. And
you know, how do we prevent it from happening again?
I think is a big ticket item. Yeah, and by
the way, that morning it was all about the Santa
Ana Wins. Although I've lived in California for many, many years,
I was new to the Palisades at the time.
Speaker 5 (27:30):
Yeah, I put down the.
Speaker 6 (27:32):
You know, porch furniture and you know, put down your umbrella.
Speaker 5 (27:36):
I followed the rules.
Speaker 6 (27:37):
But in no universe was anyone expecting this to explode
the way it did. And in my case, I was
working at home kind of looking at the street and
just started seeing cars piling up. But because I was
working and on a zoom I think even with iHeart
at the time, we I didn't know what was happening.
I just thought people were collecting on our street, which
seemed a little unusual. And I literally took a zoom
(27:59):
outside with me that I had been on and there
was just the beginnings of what seems like this monstrous cloud.
And by the time you get to sunset, which is
you know, feet away, it was, you know, covered in ash.
Speaker 2 (28:12):
One of the aspects that allows senators from Wisconsin and Florida,
it's Rick Scott of Florida Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, that
allows them to even investigate this because it's not their purview,
is the fact that there is funding that comes in
from the federal government for wildfire management, for wildfire response,
and though their question their investigation is tied to that,
(28:34):
what kind of work went into pre positioning assets using
federal funds if there was any.
Speaker 4 (28:43):
So that's kind of that's what gives them sort.
Speaker 2 (28:45):
Of the the right to do an investigation like this
at a federal level.
Speaker 6 (28:50):
And by the way, how do we look forward, right,
because while this was a heinous event that happened in
you know, one location, we're seeing it popping up in
other places, right, so even real time, like we talked
about earlier, how do we be better prepared for the
next community that faces it?
Speaker 4 (29:06):
Yeah, all right.
Speaker 2 (29:08):
Stephanie Leidecker has joined us. As we continue on through
the show today, we're gonna do swamp Watch when we
come back. One of the big deals out of Washington
is the Epstein Birthday book and this drawing that came
in that was apparently signed by President Trump. We'll talk
about that when we come back. Gary and Shannon will
continue right after this.
Speaker 4 (29:26):
You've been listening to the Gary and Shannon Show.
Speaker 2 (29:29):
You can always hear us live on KFI AM six
forty nine am to one pm every Monday through Friday,
and anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app.
This is Gary and Shannon and you're listening to KFI
AM six forty, the Gary and Shannon Show on demand
on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
A bunch of stories that are going on. One of
them internationally is dominating the headlines. That is Israel's launch
of a strike that targeted Hamas leadership. While they were
in cottr today, black smoke rose over the skyline in
the capital city of Doha. Authorities there acknowledged the strike.
Israel has claimed responsibility for the strike and said that
they were specifically targeting leaders and planners of Hamas who
(00:34):
may have planned the attack of October seventh back in
twenty twenty three. After a bunch of speculation and teasing
by the President, the Department of Homeland Security says it's
launching Operation Midway Blitz today. This is a new initiative
to target undocumented immigrants. They're in Chicago and throughout Illinois.
They said that the operation is in honor of Katie Abram,
(00:56):
a twenty year old woman from the Northwest suburbs of
chicag I go to hit and killed in a hit
and run in January by a twenty nine year old
Guatemalan national who was in the United States illegally. Well,
there's also a very strange story that I'm sure we'll
get to here in this hour. But this decomposing body
(01:16):
found in the trunk of a tesla registered to a
New York born singer who happens to be on tour
right now. But several days ago that tesla was abandoned
up in the Hollywood Hills. They took it to a
tow yard and somebody finally started smelling the well, smelling
the body in the back gear.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
I think it's great that you have standing guests for Shannon,
like that chef you had on yesterday. Guy was good
and a counselman. No less, how about spending your horizon.
Get a homeless guy to stand in there, you know, homie,
homeless cardboard condo guy. Give him, give us his perspective
on everything. Maybe a serial killer stand in with you.
Other people that associate as animals or identify themselves as animals.
Speaker 4 (01:58):
Okay, you know, just trying to help. Okay, I appreciate that.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
But today instead of Shannon, since she's out, and instead
of a chef or a homeless guy or somebody who
identifies as an animal, at least at this point, I
don't think that's going to be an issue.
Speaker 4 (02:12):
Stephanie Leidecker is back on the show. Thank you for
joining us today.
Speaker 5 (02:16):
Thank you for having me. I'm so happy to be here.
Speaker 4 (02:18):
Listen. We had you on a couple of weeks ago.
We talked true crime stuff.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
We were talking specifically about Brian Coberger and the Idaho murders,
University of Idaho murders, and got such great response that
we wanted to have you back.
Speaker 4 (02:32):
So thanks, thanks for taking time.
Speaker 5 (02:34):
Yeah, thank you for having me.
Speaker 6 (02:36):
I feel like I'm in the beehive finally, and my
heart goes out to Shannon and yeah, you got to
keep me in line. Hopefully, hopefully I can keep up.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
Well, you did mention off the air that you're a
Long Island girl at heart, so we'll keep elmore keep
his finger on the dump button if.
Speaker 6 (02:52):
Anything else exactly.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
One of the hosts of True Crime Tonight, which is
a show that airs several nights a week on iHeart
stations around the country. It also is repackaged as a
podcast that you can check out, and you guys talk
about all kinds of stuff. But before we get to
current day, let's talk about you Long Island.
Speaker 4 (03:13):
That's where you're from.
Speaker 6 (03:14):
That's where I'm from, Long Island, New York born and raised,
went to Stay from high school, and yeah, I was
always a New Yorker and then found my way through
Miami to Los Angeles, which I've recently moved out of.
But I am, you know, always loving California in my heart.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
And you have done all kinds of stuff. Right now,
you're listed as the founder and CEO of KT Studios.
Speaker 4 (03:40):
That's your company, that's correct. What do you guys do.
Speaker 6 (03:43):
We're a production company also based in Los Angeles, and
we make true crime podcasts like The Idaho Massacre, which
is you know, airing right now on iHeart, The piked
In Massacre, and Murder one oh one, basically open investigation cases.
And then we also do documentaries. One is streaming now
(04:05):
on Peacock, The Idaho Student Murders, which is based on
the case we just talked about. And also we are
in film and scripted, so taking some of these cases,
you know, always trying to you know, be victim forward
and you know, tell some of these tales that I
think are really important to share.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
The true crime genre is I guess you could say
it's having a moment, but it's been having moments for
a long time. True crime stories have been popular in
media for decades.
Speaker 5 (04:36):
Why why you know it's so true?
Speaker 6 (04:39):
You know, the recent stat says that eighty seven percent
of all Americans watch and absorb true crime content. We
do mostly open investigation stuff, and it's not because we
want to talk about murder or death in gory things.
Speaker 5 (04:54):
Quite the opposite. It's almost a little hopeful.
Speaker 6 (04:57):
And you know, getting to speak to victims' families and
hear their stories and how they push on and look.
Sometimes it's easier to look at somebody else's world and
see some of the red flags from a distance, so
that you can kind of see those red flags in
your own world. And you know, really in spirit try
(05:18):
to keep us all a little bit safer. But there
does seem to be this air quotes genre. I happen
to just watch a lot of true crime and find
it so interesting, and sometimes it just takes a second
set of eyes to look into a case to see
some obvious things that could be potentially overlooked in the past.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
I've also been fascinated also by the gender difference, and
it's kind of stereotypical yes, women, you know, women, for
whatever psychological reason. They do it to protect themselves, like
you said, to look for those red flags that they
would see in either relationships or in.
Speaker 4 (05:53):
Their community or whatever. I get it.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
I mean, I am also a fan of true crime
more because of the investigative aspect of it exactly. But
my daughter, twenty three years old, she is working on
a PhD in chemistry and will in her downtime finger
quotes listen to raw interrogation footage of detectives investigating crimes.
(06:21):
I mean, hours and hours and hours of raw interrogation footage.
Speaker 4 (06:25):
That's what she does.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
Not classical music, not some sort of poetry or you know,
meditation app It's interrogations.
Speaker 6 (06:35):
Not justin bieberb but rather interrogations. And by the way,
I like your daughter, do similar things. You know, I
find sometimes listening to these kinds of whether it's like
bodycam footage or interrogation events, we start to listen to
those red flags, you know, we're looking for reasons to
know that, Hey, if I'm on the line at CVS
(06:56):
and the guy behind me is slightly creepy, we don't
think that Brian Coberger, the now guilty killer of for
incredible Idaho students.
Speaker 5 (07:06):
Like you mentioned earlier, we.
Speaker 6 (07:07):
Don't think that's the guy, and sometimes we need to
know that the Boogeyman is closer than we think. And
also it's a little comforting, I feel like sometimes to
sort of.
Speaker 5 (07:17):
See justice happen.
Speaker 6 (07:19):
And you know, in some of the cases that we
work on that are open investigation, the goal is to
find justice. And I think that is kind of the
itch we're all scratching, you know. Prior to that, I
used to work in reality TV shows, The Bachelor's that
kind of thing, and I think the love audience and
the true crime audience, which yeah, admittedly is a lot
(07:39):
of us ladies, kind of also scratches the same itch.
Speaker 5 (07:43):
You know, we're kind of watching love and watching grief.
Speaker 6 (07:47):
You know, from a distance, to be able to kind
of maybe manage that in our own worlds a little
bit more, That's what I think. You know, there are
a lot of studies that would suggest we're all just crazy,
and you know, why are we watching murder all day?
But even as I talk to you, there are autopsies
in front of me and case files, and you know,
it's it's a rabbit hole.
Speaker 4 (08:09):
Autopsy files huh okay, yeah, well, I mean.
Speaker 6 (08:12):
It is so true, but again, you know, this is
public information. But again, you know, you listen to somebody
whose entire family has been murdered and they have the
fortitude to still come sit down for an interview and
share the darkest moments of their world, and they can
push on. You know, it puts things really into perspective
very quickly, right, and I find that oddly inspiring.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
Well, glad you made it today. Buckle up, buttercups, get
tough when we come back. A little bit fire information,
not just the Garnet fire, but also the latest on
Palisades fire and the investigation into where the some of
that money went.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
You're listening to Gary and Shannon on Demand from KFI
AM six forty.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
Stephanie Leidecker True Crime Tonight host has joined us a
bunch of stories that are going on a little bit
later in this hour. We're going to talk about the
Palisades fire response and how there is an investigation into
it Center Republicans are looking into it, and along with
that the story about the charitable funds. Everybody remembers the
(09:19):
fire aid concert that was that was held, and lots
and lots of money was raised. The question is where
did that money go? And there's at least one independent
report that came out and said, don't worry, the money's
going to the right place. Okay, So let's start with
this fire that's burning through the Sierra National Forest up
in Fresno County. Fresno is the gateway to the Gateway
(09:42):
to the Sierra and right now, this Garnet fire is
at fifty four nine twenty four acres about fourteen percent contained.
The biggest problem is it's in a it's in a
little what would you call it a grove, I should say,
of giant sequoias that are burning up there. And this
(10:02):
is one of the problems that we see with wildfires
in the state of California is we get really attached
to these really old things, and in the off chance
that they're about to burn, we all kind of lose
our minds without remembering that fire is very and this
fire specifically because it was lightning caused it kind of
what happens in nature.
Speaker 4 (10:23):
It can be. It's sad. I mean, I don't like
the idea of it.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
These one hundred year old, multiple one hundred year old
trees that could potentially go down to fire. But this
is what happens in forests like.
Speaker 5 (10:35):
This, that is true.
Speaker 6 (10:36):
And the lightning piece of it, I think is a
really big distinction. I mean, look, some of these trees
are three thousand years old, you know, so that is
a loss. And although I don't know too too much
about trees and growth, but some say the clearing is
sometimes helpful for regrowth and seeding.
Speaker 5 (10:54):
I don't know.
Speaker 6 (10:54):
It's still very scary and the containment is still pretty low.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
Yeah, it's only fourteen percent right now of the eight
groves of giants equoias that we have. They said that
this one is ranked one of the most vulnerable to
fire because it has not burned. And like we said,
it is just the natural process. It's a very cyclical
thing that happens in nature, and it does cause it
(11:18):
creates a healthier environment down the road when these things
do burn on a regular basis. We don't want all
of them to burn, and we don't want them to
burn completely, but it is something that kind of has
to go through there, that they have to go through.
There is a protection plan in place. They do have
some sprinklers on the ground literally sprinklers on the ground
(11:40):
that they've been piping water into to try to knock
these fires down or prevent it from spreading on the
forest floor.
Speaker 6 (11:46):
I shout out to the firefighters too, I mean, who
have to be deployed into these scenarios. They're being really
put to the test in unbelievable ways and really putting
themselves in so much danger.
Speaker 5 (11:57):
So this is not an easy effort.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
One potential positive the weather has shaped up a little bit.
It's much cooler, especially here in southern California. It's much
cooler than it has been for the last couple of weeks.
Similar up there. The problem is with the chance for
rain that is coming in those areas. You see another
chance for lightning, and then we start this whole thing
over again.
Speaker 5 (12:20):
Wow. Yeah, it's hard to get a win, all right.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
So later in the show, we're going to be talking
about this Netflix documentary that we watched last night called
Unknown Number, And I guess the best general description is
cyber bullying, right, using phones as means of bullying somebody.
And in this case, it's small town in Michigan and
one specific high school in this small town that gets
(12:46):
just torn apart.
Speaker 4 (12:48):
It seems by this bullying and it.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
Brings with it all kinds of all kinds of issues
that we were talking about that we want to get to.
So that's coming up in the twelve o'clock hour. If
you have seen that, you're going to want to listen
to this breakdown. And if you haven't yet seen it,
trust me, it's still worth it.
Speaker 5 (13:07):
Absolutely Yeah.
Speaker 6 (13:08):
It's getting a ton of chatter, a lot of controversy
around it.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
Stephanie Leidecker has joined us. Shannon's out this week. We'll
come back. We'll talk more about this investigation into the
Fire Aid audit, the Fire Aid concert that raised millions
of dollars for victims of the Palisades and the Eton fires,
and where the money went. There's a lot of questions
about that. All Right, Gary and Shannon will continue.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
You're listening to Gary and Shannon on demand from KFI
AM six forty.
Speaker 4 (13:37):
This hour.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
Apple is unveiling its new line of iPhones, iPhone seventeen
is coming out today. One of the big reveals is
probably going to be this thinner iPhone called the iPhone Air.
Speaker 4 (13:50):
They thing, are you excited about that? You see?
Speaker 5 (13:52):
I seem kind of excited about it. I am ready
for a thinner phone. I'm on board.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
I'm afraid though I can't. I I don't know where
you keep your phone. I guess I'm looking at it
right now. I keep my phone in my pocket, and
I'm afraid the curvature of my bums are going to
crack that thin little phone.
Speaker 6 (14:11):
Do you think they would kind of take that into consideration,
some flex in the phone right so that you can
very comfortably wear it in your back pocket.
Speaker 5 (14:18):
I would like there to be some sort of a
screen that.
Speaker 6 (14:21):
You can put on your phone that has your eyeglass
prescription on it.
Speaker 5 (14:25):
Wouldn't that be great?
Speaker 3 (14:26):
All right?
Speaker 5 (14:27):
People like me.
Speaker 6 (14:28):
That are like I'm literally holding a Calige. It's like
the size of a calculator on my phone at this point,
and I still can barely see it.
Speaker 5 (14:35):
So that would be my wish for Apple.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
A quick sports note, by the way, I don't know
if you've seen this video of the Phillies fans that
were fighting over the home run ball.
Speaker 5 (14:44):
Oh my goodness, yes, Karen.
Speaker 4 (14:46):
So so Philly.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
Karen was mad that a dad picks up a ball,
walks across back, across the seats, and hands it to
his little kid, ten year old kid she came over
and gave him a what for and wagged the finger, etc.
She ends up going home with the ball. The kid
gets taken care of. You got like a signed bat
and you know, tickets to the next game and all
(15:08):
that sort of stuff. And she got blown up online,
I mean destroyed.
Speaker 5 (15:13):
She lost her job.
Speaker 4 (15:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
Now the dad again, the dad who originally picked up
the ball and gave it to his son, He is saying, stop, please,
don't do anything to this lady, he said, he told
USA today just the other day, he said, leave it alone.
Somebody knows her and can talk to her. That's different.
But I don't want people breaking in their house and
stuff like that. The internet already messed her up pretty
(15:37):
good completely.
Speaker 6 (15:38):
It seemed like listen, it was a pretty hard thing
to watch, no doubt. You know. They seemed like such
a loving family. And you could see the smile on
the little boy's face and dad, it's like the all
American dream. And yeah, she did, you know, give that finger.
But to lose your job, to have, you know, frankly
the whole country down on you and such a big way,
(16:01):
it's tough.
Speaker 5 (16:02):
I feel for all parties.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
Isn't it.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
I find it interesting that the guests that we had
in yesterday, chef Andrew Gruhle, had pointed this out. It's
almost sport because people all week are dealing with they're
dealing with politics, and they're dealing workplace conflict, and they're
dealing with all the school it's tough, and then you
see something like that and you go, I'm gonna take
it out on this lady and you.
Speaker 6 (16:24):
Don't get my way right now, That's so true. I
feel that way sometimes, to be honest. When I saw that,
it was like, no, no, no, that's enough. There could
be pedophilia running the world right now. People are at
a jobs, there is no money anywhere, we're at the
brink of so many wars.
Speaker 5 (16:41):
But not this, Philly Karen.
Speaker 3 (16:43):
Not this.
Speaker 6 (16:44):
But I think that is displaced, and I feel for her.
It sounds like it worked out just fine, and the
boy got some real TLC and signs autographs and got
to meet his favorite player in person.
Speaker 5 (16:57):
And hopefully Philly Karen can get her job.
Speaker 4 (17:00):
Y'll she'll be fine. She'll work somewhere.
Speaker 5 (17:02):
I think, m m. Maybe she did work at a school.
Speaker 4 (17:06):
Which is where she got the finger wagon from.
Speaker 2 (17:08):
My mom was a teacher and a principal forever.
Speaker 4 (17:11):
And she did that thing like a champ.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
She was an Olympic style finger waggers.
Speaker 5 (17:17):
That's a real sport in and of itself.
Speaker 4 (17:20):
All right.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
A couple of reports have been done about the disaster
relief charity Fire Aid and the distribution of funds. Those
reports have been released to government officials and the public.
One of the five oh one C three's founded by
executives of the La Clippers had been under scrutiny because
the concern was one hundred million dollars that was raised
(17:43):
to benefit the victims of the Palisades fire and the
eaten fires weren't showing up in any realistic in any
significant way to the actual victims. So Fire Aid, the
company itself, that charity itself, commissioned two different reports. One
(18:03):
of them planned six month status update on the specifics
of the fundraising, the grant making, the local impacts, and
then the other an independent review by by an outside
law firm. The law firm conducted the independent review, shared
their firmings, shared their findings, affirming fire A did act
in accordance with mission strong accountability measures, the aid is
(18:27):
reaching the affected communities, The question though, is I mean,
you have you have a group like Pacific Palisades Community
Council who were concerned early on that this was going
to get caught up in a bureaucratic mess, and not
even the government bureaucratic mess, but the bureaucracy that exists
(18:48):
around a charity that is that large, dealing with that
amount of money.
Speaker 5 (18:53):
It's a it's a big question. What's your take on this?
Speaker 2 (18:57):
Well, this is this is one of those things that
it's kind of the ugly nature of what charities are.
And as as great as it is, I think I
think the message has to be clearer upfront to people
who want to give money to Fire Aid. If you're
assuming that you're going to give one hundred million dollars
(19:19):
and then people who live in Palisades or Alta Dina,
they're going to get a nice, rosy one hundred thousand
dollars check as their cut of it, or whatever the
number would work out to be, that's never the way
it happens. That's never the way it would happen, because
then you come up with tax implications for getting charitable donations.
I mean, it would be a mess that way, But
(19:41):
there has to be a very clear message up front
from fire aid from all the organizers. Your money is
going to then community organizations, and those community organizations are
going to distribute the money, and even then there may
be another layer in there before it goes to the
actual victims of the fires.
Speaker 6 (20:00):
I get that from a tax perspective. That's a fair point.
But it doesn't seem as though I've heard of a
single person who has received epic amounts of aid post
the destruction in the Palisades and the eaten fires. I
just haven't heard it. It seems like people are still
really struggling and trying to find their footing.
Speaker 2 (20:18):
And I mean, the size and scope of this probably
lends itself to the slow nature of which the money
has made its way down. But you have these smaller
community organizations who got say one hundred thousand dollars to
reinstitute music programs or something like that. And as important
(20:40):
as that is, there is something so unsatisfying about that.
Just saying that is unsatisfying, as opposed to somebody walked
around with bags of cash and handed it to people
who were crying on the doorsteps of their burned out properties.
Speaker 6 (20:56):
Who were literally sitting in front of a chimney. And again,
you know, this is a little close to my heart.
I was living in the Palisades at the time, and
not to make it about me, but I can tell
you firsthand it was a harrowing traumatic experience for anybody
who was in the vicinity of that fire. And people
have been annihilated, their lives are lost, and in my case,
(21:17):
very lucky to be able to be at an age
where I can still start over. And you know, yeah,
loss is loss, but so many of my friends and
neighbors in the community that is now completely wiped out.
Some of them were living in their home for fifty years,
so there's no room to rebuild. So having somebody show
(21:38):
up with a bag of cash because there was a
huge fund of money, seems appropriate in some way.
Speaker 2 (21:44):
Yeah, well, I mean because then it gives you the
freedom of at least bridging the gap between, yes, the
immediate need of shelter and food, I mean that kind
of stuff. We have people here who didn't lose their
homes necessarily, but their homes were so severely damaged that
they can't live in them now.
Speaker 6 (22:01):
It's an unlivable area, you know, and toxic and all
of the things, and we saw the community come together.
Angelino's are so extraordinary people with you know, giving clothing
and you know, we were all those people that were
wearing hand me downs from the community. Frankly, but it
hasn't stopped yet, and I think sometimes this feels like
(22:21):
it was still many many months ago and that the
world has kind of moved on. But for those who
lost their homes, if you've been to the Palisades, either
recently or certainly at the time of those fires, it's
really an annihilation. And some people are still living in
the same place that they evacuated to with family and
friends because it's hard to find rentals or even temporary
(22:45):
places to live when you.
Speaker 5 (22:46):
Have five kids.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
Well, the Senate, Oh, get me started, the Senate, I
do want to get you started. The Senate is going
to start investigating in this. We'll talk about that when
we come back.
Speaker 1 (22:57):
You're listening to Gary and Shannon on demand from KFI
AM six forty.
Speaker 4 (23:04):
Stephanie Leidecker has joined us.
Speaker 2 (23:06):
She is the CEO the founder of kt Studios, but
also one of the hosts of True Crime Tonight podcast
that you can hear on the iHeart app and on
stations around the country. We were talking about the Palisades fire,
talking about the fire aid and the investigation into the
money that went into fire aid, and a couple of
Senate Republicans have also opened another investigation into the fire.
(23:30):
This one's specifically looking at emergency preparation and whether or
not they were sufficient, whether we knew what was going
to happen before it happened, and all that. And I'll
say this, I mean, as the outside or outsider, not
having lived in the Palisades or in Altadena, it looked
like there were some clues that were obviously either ignored
(23:53):
or not paid close enough attention to.
Speaker 5 (23:57):
It does appear that way.
Speaker 6 (23:58):
I mean, that was my personal experience, and I think
the cry of many and again, this was a very
unusual event, right, So, yes, they were expecting Santa Anna wins.
Speaker 5 (24:09):
We all remember that so well. You were on the
air we were.
Speaker 6 (24:11):
Just speaking about So this was a wild card, quite frankly,
so I don't know where the fingers are to be pointed.
It does feel like people still really do need the aid,
and even though so much of California thankfully has been
able to move on, you know, those who have lost
everything haven't. And I also will say, you know, being
(24:32):
prepped a little bit. I've somehow since then turned into
a bit of a bit of a prepper.
Speaker 5 (24:39):
You know, some of the.
Speaker 6 (24:40):
Basics I think are worth noting having gas in your car.
You know, it took six hours to go two miles.
People were abandoning their cars, including right in front of me.
And if you didn't have gas in your car, that
was a real problem. So keeping your gas tank is
full of am I giving a PSA right now? Yes,
but yes, keep gas in your car.
Speaker 5 (24:58):
And water in your hand.
Speaker 4 (25:00):
Yeah, maybe some crackers just by the.
Speaker 6 (25:02):
Way, crackers would have been helpful. I would have enjoyed
some crackers. Anything at that point would have been helpful.
Speaker 3 (25:08):
Well.
Speaker 2 (25:08):
A couple of things that they're going to be looking at,
obviously is the Santa Anaz Reservoir, which is up in
the farther up in the Palisades, but would have been
valuable had it had water in it. For one thing,
whether or not it was I should say why it
was there, why there were some hydrants that were dry,
why there were some water pressure issues. Also, and I
(25:31):
think this is going to be probably the more important one.
It is the prepositioning of the fire department assets, and
whether or not that was done aggressively enough. I told
you off the air, But we said this on the
air many times. When Shannon and I came to work
that day, it was it was unusual the number of
(25:52):
times we had been told this is an extreme fire
weather event. And we've lived I mean, we've lived in
southern California and California in general long enough to know
when fire weather comes, we do the red flag warnings,
no parking on Mulholland, I mean, all of those kinds
of things. But there was something very different about the
way it was being said then that morning. So when
(26:15):
we did get a call, we got a talk back
from somebody who said they were driving in Santa Monica
looking north and they saw the smoke, and that started
this hell fire and damnation over the course of the
next several days, and even we were saying two boneheads
on the radio were saying, this is you got to
be prepared. If you're in that neighborhood, watch out, this
(26:37):
is coming. It's coming down the hill, it's moving fast,
it's and by the afternoon, I mean when all of
that destruction in the afternoon until later in that evening.
Speaker 4 (26:46):
It was one of those things.
Speaker 2 (26:47):
Like where was the city, where was where were the
resources that we thought should have been placed there ahead
of time, not to.
Speaker 6 (26:56):
Mention just infrastructure wise. It was a tree graphic jam
like no other. You know, you mentioned seeing even to
this day, burnt out cars that still remain there along whether.
Speaker 5 (27:08):
That's on Sunset or wherever.
Speaker 6 (27:09):
It was literally on the street that I was trying
to get out of. And yeah, it's it's scary stuff,
the likes of which, you know, we can't underestimate. And
you know, how do we prevent it from happening again?
I think is a big ticket item. Yeah, and by
the way, that morning it was all about the Santa
Ana Wins. Although I've lived in California for many, many years,
I was new to the Palisades at the time.
Speaker 5 (27:30):
Yeah, I put down the.
Speaker 6 (27:32):
You know, porch furniture and you know, put down your umbrella.
Speaker 5 (27:36):
I followed the rules.
Speaker 6 (27:37):
But in no universe was anyone expecting this to explode
the way it did. And in my case, I was
working at home kind of looking at the street and
just started seeing cars piling up. But because I was
working and on a zoom I think even with iHeart
at the time, we I didn't know what was happening.
I just thought people were collecting on our street, which
seemed a little unusual. And I literally took a zoom
(27:59):
outside with me that I had been on and there
was just the beginnings of what seems like this monstrous cloud.
And by the time you get to sunset, which is
you know, feet away, it was, you know, covered in ash.
Speaker 2 (28:12):
One of the aspects that allows senators from Wisconsin and Florida,
it's Rick Scott of Florida Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, that
allows them to even investigate this because it's not their purview,
is the fact that there is funding that comes in
from the federal government for wildfire management, for wildfire response,
and though their question their investigation is tied to that,
(28:34):
what kind of work went into pre positioning assets using
federal funds if there was any.
Speaker 4 (28:43):
So that's kind of that's what gives them sort.
Speaker 2 (28:45):
Of the the right to do an investigation like this
at a federal level.
Speaker 6 (28:50):
And by the way, how do we look forward, right,
because while this was a heinous event that happened in
you know, one location, we're seeing it popping up in
other places, right, so even real time, like we talked
about earlier, how do we be better prepared for the
next community that faces it?
Speaker 4 (29:06):
Yeah, all right.
Speaker 2 (29:08):
Stephanie Leidecker has joined us. As we continue on through
the show today, we're gonna do swamp Watch when we
come back. One of the big deals out of Washington
is the Epstein Birthday book and this drawing that came
in that was apparently signed by President Trump. We'll talk
about that when we come back. Gary and Shannon will
continue right after this.
Speaker 4 (29:26):
You've been listening to the Gary and Shannon Show.
Speaker 2 (29:29):
You can always hear us live on KFI AM six
forty nine am to one pm every Monday through Friday,
and anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app.
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