July 11, 2025 • 30 mins
Power Hour with Michael Monks! Shannon and Michael discuss Downtown L.A. / Immigration / Student Loans / Candy.
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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. Walmart is recalling about eight hundred
and fifty thousand stainless steel water bottles. Listen to this
because the lid can forcefully eject and unexpectedly strike consumers,
(00:23):
resulting in permanent vision loss for at least two people
so far. I mean, drinking water is hard enough, isn't it.
I mean it is a struggle to drink a lot
of water every day, the amount of water we should
be drinking.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
I the first thing I do when I get to
the kitchen and I wake up is I take a
big cup of water and I drink it.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
Yeah, and then.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Here we have a water cooler. So you just need
to make it part of your routine.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
Thanks mom, I know that.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
It's what I'm saying is your premise is incorrect. It's
not difficult to drink enough water.
Speaker 3 (00:59):
It is a choice.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
It is a choice, and I mean I strive for
a gallon and I land somewhere around sixty sixty five ounce.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
What's the biggest hazard though, that you and I are
senior citizens ying We.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
Are old and I pee if I'm going to do
that gallon of water situation, I'm peeing every break on
this show.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
And on top of it with the amount of water
because you and I are drinking a lot of water. Yeah,
I drink a lot of coffee.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
So do I?
Speaker 3 (01:24):
I have to pee right now and I just went coffee?
Speaker 1 (01:26):
Do you drink a day?
Speaker 3 (01:27):
I have one cup before I leave the apartment.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
Coffee or an espresso person.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
Straight black coffee. Give me the straight black coffee. I
like to taste it, okay, I like to feel it.
I like to burn like a Tanya Tucker album.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
How many cups? By yeah?
Speaker 3 (01:42):
Absolutely? And by noon today I will have had three, okay,
and then afternoon I will have one more cup before
I leave here. And then what I take one for the.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
Road, and then Michael, after dark, what happens?
Speaker 3 (01:53):
Then I cry myself to sleep?
Speaker 1 (01:55):
Got it?
Speaker 3 (01:56):
So?
Speaker 1 (01:56):
Five cups of coffee? Yes, I'm an espresso person, so
I have about six shots a day.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
And that and I will have espresso drinks like a
latte or something. I don't usually do straight espresso, although
I probably love it because I love coffee and I
love the taste of it. But is it more powerful?
Do you find that espresso is well, I mix it
with other stuff. I mean, I'll do this for all espresso. No,
I've never done that. I never had an espresso martini.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
You know.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
Look, give me a extra dirty martini. I don't need anything.
I don't need you to mix it with the coffee.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
I agree as far as cocktail goes, I love vodka.
That's that's really my go to. But I just need
a regular traditional martini, not the Are we in trouble already?
Speaker 1 (02:38):
Well, bet, let's get into immigration. Michael Monks has joined US.
Michael Monks covers all of La for US and is
on top of pretty much everything going on, especially as
it relates to city Hall and the people need to
answer at city Hall. And this immigration ray near camer
Rio has set up another yet a pr black eye
(03:01):
for the greater Los Angeles area. The last time we
saw this was when Karen Bass turned up to MacArthur
Park just beside herself, upset that there was a show
of military force despite the fact that someone had opened
fire on a federal agent that morning in Texas. Now
we've got somebody taking a shot at agents in came Rio.
What gets more attention the raids in Camerio or people
(03:22):
opening fire on federal agents.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
It absolutely depends on what you care about in this debate.
You may not be aware of this, Shannon, but this
country tends to be somewhat polarized. So yeah, if you're
a reasonable person who wants to have a mature conversation
about immigration policy and the response to it between a
contrasting the Biden administration and the Trump administration, I hope we
(03:45):
can do that on our airwaves as frequently as possible.
But the fact is, at this point, if you're just
out talking to somebody, their reaction to this issue today
is either get them all out, pro ice or shut
these fascists down kind of thing. And I think the
(04:05):
action in Camerio and the other one in another city
nearby the same company illustrates that really well. Because you
have the immigration enforcement action in an agricultural area.
Speaker 3 (04:17):
This is not downtown Los Angeles, this isn't.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
A place where you could expect a ton of protesters
to show up immediately. We're talking farm country. And even still,
the protest response was fast, and it was immense, and
the narrative, like it always does, evolved and developed over
the course of the day.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
Did Karen Bass ever acknowledge that there was military present
in MacArthur Park And has Newsome I know he has
talked about this ever ever recognize the fact that there's
more military surrounding these raids because people are taking shots
at agents.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
It doesn't fit what they're trying to say. The same
way that when the Trump administration puts out why they
were where they were, regardless of whether and otherwise innocent
fruit vender got picked.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
That's all the other thing. Oh, it's a cannabis farm
being righted, it's a legal cannabis farm.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
It's licensed in the state. It's still not legal federally.
We're still in that weird area. So that does play
to some people's passions about you know, they're reading a
drug farm. And then we find out that some juveniles
who may have been unaccompanied when they crossed the border illegal.
We're working there, but you don't know that at the beginning.
(05:30):
That is at the crux of all this that's going
on is nobody knows what's going on, and that really
does include the White House, and they may have the
directives of what the enforcement operation is supposed to be,
but they're not telling anyone, and that's not unusual for
criminal enforcement operations of any kind. You don't call Michael
and Shannon and say, by the way, there's a drug
(05:52):
house down the street. We're hitting it today, right. But
because of the fears and the anxieties around any immigration
enforcement agent, regardless of the act, you're going to have
the response that you have because somebody's grandma got taken
while selling lettuce on Figueroa Street.
Speaker 4 (06:07):
You're listening to Gary and Shannon on demand from KFI
AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
So, Michael Monks. This executive directive that Karen Bass has signed.
This is in the wake of what she has described
unlawful and chaotic federal immigration raids across the region. What
does it do is does it have teeth? Is it symbolic?
Speaker 2 (06:30):
This will have teeth, but not for people necessarily who
live in Los Angeles. This is a directive aimed at
people who work for the City of Los Angeles. It
requires all city departments to submit what they're calling preparedness plans,
and those reports are due from these city departments within
two weeks. So she does have authority over city departments,
(06:51):
so they will have to provide these reports within two weeks.
And this is what it includes, department specific protocols and
training outlining how city employees, including their contractors should respond
if approached by federal immigration agents on city property while
remaining compliant with both federal law and local ordinances. So
(07:12):
this is a show again from the mayor saying that
Los Angeles is doing all that it can to protect
the immigrant community in Los Angeles, regardless of their legal status.
This isn't a direct challenge on the Trump administration. This
is how will we be prepared as a city government
(07:32):
every level if the Trump administration engages with you.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
What does that mean, Michael? It all I heard was
government speak, government speak, government speak.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
This is not as significant as what was announced earlier
with the legal action okay, that the city and other
cities and the county have taken in conjunction with a
suit already filed by the American Civil Liberties Union the ACLU,
and that appears to be going favorably right now.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
So this just is all about inside baseball at city Hall.
How are the city departments going to learn how to
deal with all the s that's coming from Washington. It
doesn't really affect people on the ground.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
She says that what she wants is for city employees
on city property, by the way, not just out in
the wild, on city property, to know how to behave,
how they can behave, how they should behave if approached
by immigration agents. Now, this was announced in a press
conference and she got to go in front of cameras again.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
This we talked about this earlier.
Speaker 2 (08:38):
This is sort of a winning issue for her in
many corners of Los Angeles. It's her endgame and she's well,
she's running for reelection in twenty twenty six, okay. And
it's similar to what Governor Knewsom, who is.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
She's say, going to be seventy one, doesn't she want to,
you know, go to bally or something.
Speaker 3 (08:53):
Retire.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
People don't retire anymore. In fact, as far as American
politics these days are concerned, she's in her prime youth
for seventy one. Now, I mean Joe Biden turned eighty
in the White House. Trump will turn eighty in the
White House. I mean, you remember the eighties, we were young,
fun kids collecting garbage pail kids stickers.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
But those were always kind of dirty, weren't they.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
I loved them. The President was old. He was sixty
nine when he got electate. I like, now it sounds like, wow,
what a young man, what a young, spry whipper seed.
He's not old enough to be presidentically so at one.
I mean, people are healthier longer than they used to be,
even thirty or forty years ago.
Speaker 3 (09:32):
I suppose. But now people do not retire anymore. Absolutely,
they do not.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
It just sounds I'm ready to retire, aren't you. I've
been ready to write that's That's what I'm saying. I mean,
but she's been in politics her whole life. There's a
lot of identity that comes with what you do, and
if you've done it a long time, it must be
hard for her to let go. But why who would
want this? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (09:53):
And what is your in game in general for Los Angeles?
You know, I know you can stand up in campaign
and say this or that, but there aren't a lot
of results to show. I mean, they have had a
little bit of a decline in the homeless population, that
was the key issue last time. But the fires really
walloped her politically, and now she has this.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
Yeah, and you know what, I didn't think about it,
but I heard John's promo. Since I've got here today
and it was something about she wasn't outraged about the fire,
you know, she wasn't Where was that outrage? Now she's
outraged about the raide she's pulling over. She's going to
MacArthur Park on her way to whatever. Where was that outrage?
You know? And it's like, well, she dropped the ball
(10:35):
with the fires, and she suffered that big political hit,
so now she's trying to fill that in with whatever
goodwill this can fill in.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
I will say a couple of things. There are a
couple of things that are weird about Los Angeles politics.
I often say, you know from watching every single city
meeting and presser and talking to these people that there's
just this strange lack of urgency in most cases until
a very personal or passion project is involved. And immigration
is important to all of these council members. So they're
up and down the uh. I mean, they're all left
(11:04):
of center at the bare minimum. But from that, it
does you know they're not agreeing on everything. This one
they're all in agreement on two things. MacArthur Park. She
showed up in the middle of a military and federal
immigration operation. She doesn't show up for the every day disaster.
(11:25):
That is that park, this otherwise beautiful park in the
middle of an urban area.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
Let's be real, it hasn't been beautiful for a very
long It's.
Speaker 3 (11:34):
Beautiful on paper, right you look at the map of Oh,
it's so nice to have this head shots from space gorgeous.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
It's the same with Pershing Square. I mean, there's not
a lot of green space at Pershing Square, but it.
Speaker 1 (11:43):
Is supposed to be a toilet.
Speaker 3 (11:44):
That's what I mean, A literal toilet, A literal toilet.
Speaker 1 (11:47):
Still like going ice skating there.
Speaker 3 (11:48):
I went last Christmas and it was fine. You know,
it's dark.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
I tell you, downtown is beautiful when you're looking up
exactly now. The other thing is is speaking of Pershing
Square in downtown, the lack of urgency to the every
day issues people who live here face. Do you remember
when the trees were hacked in downtown La a couple
of months ago. I don't even know if it's been
that long. You know, A crazy guy, a homeless guy,
transient bought a chainsaw and then went out and hacked
(12:14):
these trees. That is a bad thing. A downtown needs
its trees. Trees are important to the community. You had
press conferences. You had immediate action from the city council
and the city council representative for that district. You had
nonprofit organizations showing up that we know these trees are expensive.
We're gonna help this cash strapped city pay for them
so we can replace these trees. Within that same time period,
(12:35):
two people were hacked, one to death by another crazy
homeless man with a machete, and there were no press conferences.
There was Coal's is closing. It's been opened since nineteen
oh eight. There's no press conference about we're turning this
downtown ship around, or we're turning this MacArthur Park ship around.
Speaker 3 (13:01):
It's not that Culs. It's not that Culs. Oh, it's
not that cool French Tip place, the French Tip.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
I was like, where's the Coals down?
Speaker 3 (13:11):
Yeah, you listen to our newscasts, right, No, I know.
Speaker 1 (13:13):
I have been to Coals probably in twenty years.
Speaker 3 (13:16):
I live around the corner from it. It's a great station.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
Well that's what I mean, Like, Downtown's environment is not good,
but you don't have that kind of urgency.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
Why would you have a press conference about the coals closing.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
I would have a press conference about the state of
the central city.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
This is it's been I know you're new here, but
it's relatively but it's been not a destination for a
very long time.
Speaker 3 (13:41):
But why is that an acceptable answer?
Speaker 1 (13:43):
It's not. Tell me just the way it is.
Speaker 3 (13:45):
But that's that's my point, That's what I'm saying. Like
I know, and there are occasional.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
Transportation one, how do you get there in a nice fashion?
Speaker 3 (13:53):
Don't get me started on the transportation.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
Trees are a big problem, the lack thereof of any
sort of shade. It is a concrete jungle there. It
is ugly. There are maybe five or six buildings that
remain that will will make you swoon if you're into architecture.
It's just there's nothing there. There's no hub. You know,
you look at what once was the Third Street pro
(14:17):
Promenade in Santa Monica, beautiful. You know, you look at
now some new shopping hubs that have turned up Cultural center,
is not it?
Speaker 2 (14:24):
Third Street Promenade is struggling too for similar reason. Well
out of what COVID a lot of places. And really
this isn't a conversation necessarily about downtown specifically, this is
a conversation about the priorities of the city government right
immediate action from the mayor on this issue. It is
a winning political issue for her in your corners. But
(14:46):
you don't see that kind of They actually press conferences
in MacArthur Park to talk about how we're going to
make sure that the drug users here have clean access
to the tools that they need to do their drugs.
We're going to connect on the services and why isn't
that parks swept.
Speaker 1 (15:01):
Right and just the old broken windows policing method.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
And the key here. And I think I'm going to
mentioned this to you last week. Los Angeles is just
not a sympathetic place to the rest of the country
when you have one bad faith media actor, certainly, but
also anybody with eyes who can look at video of
downtown MacArthur Park and know that if there were a
(15:27):
kid's summer camp taking place at MacArthur Park, it chures
hell shouldn't have been yeah, because it does not have
the environment capabilities.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
Unless your kid's into math, maybe that maybe.
Speaker 3 (15:37):
Your kid likes is not a safe place.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
Right And you know what, I have been beaten down
by Los Angeles not being a play downtown Los Angeles
not being a place that I want to go for years,
and you're right, it's not acceptable. We should ask for better,
we should demand all over the city. You should run
against a bass for mayor. I you know this could
be your platform. You have to to get elected in
Los Angeles City Hall. You have to be embedded in
(16:03):
others like the next to be such a next sold hoard.
Speaker 2 (16:07):
The next city council members that you will see ten
years from now are currently working for the existing city
council members.
Speaker 3 (16:13):
That's just the way it goes.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
Well, now's your time. You got to get in there.
You got to upset the system.
Speaker 3 (16:18):
Can you put a good word in for me?
Speaker 1 (16:19):
With who?
Speaker 4 (16:21):
You're listening to Gary and Shannon on demand from KFI
AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (16:27):
Don't forget to let us know what you learn this
week on the Gary and Shannon Show. We'll get those
together and play them for you. Coming up in the
twelve o'clock our Michael Monks is with us and Michael,
where'd you go to college? Michael Monks?
Speaker 2 (16:41):
I earned my bachelor's degree at Northern Kentucky University, you
may know it better as the Harvard of Campbell County.
And I earned my master's degree at Southern New Hampshire.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
Ah, okay, So student loans topic you brought to the
show is near and dear to your heart. You pay
off one currently and it seems to be a target
of the administration when it comes to getting rid of
a lot of the goodwill that the Biden administration put
towards these people.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
This was something I wanted to talk about because it's
coming up and people should need to know this because
it's happening really fast. If you have a student loan
currently and your interest payments have been paused, basically everybody
just about is in forbearance. You don't even have to
make payments right now, which is okay because there's no
interest accumulating. So if you don't have the money right
(17:35):
now you need to take a month or two months off,
your balance is not going to grow at all and
you're not going to be penalized for missing your pains.
Speaker 1 (17:42):
And that was something the Biden administration put in.
Speaker 2 (17:44):
It's related to the Biden Remember, Joe Biden wanted to
forgive a lot of student debt. Was able to push
through a plan that forgave about ten thousand dollars, but
then that got struck down, So there was no overall
forgiveness outright for jill regular borrowers. There's some very specific colleges,
scam colleges, and some specific circumstances where people saw forgiveness.
(18:08):
What he did implement was something called the Save Plan.
I forget what it stands for, but it's an income
driven repayment plan that was very generous, probably the most
generous repayment plan ever. So your balance isn't growing too much.
There's interest, but it's not growing so much while you're
making your payments. That plan, which has about eight million
(18:29):
borrowers on it right now, will start paying interest again
starting August the first, So this is like immediately almost.
So if you've benefited from the forbearance.
Speaker 1 (18:38):
Is that is it going to charge you retroactive insurance. No,
it's not this, I mean interest.
Speaker 2 (18:43):
This plan has been held up in court because the
Trump administration doesn't like this. Republicans didn't like this plan,
so it was challenged in court and it's been held up.
So in the meantime, the message from the government in
the Department of Education has been your in forbearance, there's
no interest accumulating, don't have to make your payments right now.
If you can't until this court case is settled. Now,
(19:05):
it is true that you are still technically in forbearans.
You do not have to make your payments, but the
interest accumulation is starting. I did not borrow for undergrad
I was fortunate. I went to a directional public college,
you know, and my parents paid for it, which was great.
Speaker 3 (19:21):
Not everybody has that.
Speaker 1 (19:22):
Pam and the officer, officer Jones, Officer Jones.
Speaker 2 (19:25):
Yes, and Pam is here in Los Angeles right now.
She's out here visiting. Yeah, so seeing the fruits of
her labors here. Ah, you know, she's a little loud.
I love loud. She's here with my aunt Brenda. They're
hanging out. So we're gonna hang out this weekend.
Speaker 1 (19:40):
Pam and Brenda. But she's always getting together.
Speaker 3 (19:42):
They sent me to college, Pam and Brenda. Old Brenda didn't.
Speaker 2 (19:45):
But so when you when I went to graduate school,
I decided to do that later foolishly while starting a business.
Speaker 3 (19:54):
Also, so I'm doing a business. I'm doing graduate school,
but I borrowed money.
Speaker 1 (19:57):
What was the business you started?
Speaker 2 (19:58):
I started a newspaper in Kentucky and I was able
to sell it, you know, ten years later and move here,
and what was it called.
Speaker 3 (20:05):
It was called the River City News.
Speaker 1 (20:07):
I love that go on.
Speaker 2 (20:08):
Yeah, and it did well. And because it's now called Lincoln,
k Y.
Speaker 1 (20:11):
It was acquired and I have a lot.
Speaker 3 (20:14):
Let's not talk about it.
Speaker 2 (20:15):
You want to talk about why I put on a
little weight before I moved out here, we can have
that conversation off, Mike. I borrowed some money to pay
for the Master's program. I don't regret that. I've never
missed a payment. And during the pandemic, when everything was
really frozen, you have to make any payments on anything.
Speaker 3 (20:34):
I did double payments because I was very fortunate then too.
Speaker 2 (20:36):
Yeah, with my business and hosting and radio show in Cincinnati,
and so I just I don't owe a lot right now.
But if you are somebody who owes a lot, this
interest could hit you hard. And I want to just
chat about it, because I think this is a polarizing
issue also in this country, because you've got one side
saying forgive it all and the other side saying, no,
that's not fair at all.
Speaker 3 (20:56):
You borrow the money, forget about it.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
I have a hard time with it because I picked
a school based on the fact that it didn't cost
a lot of money, and thankfully, I'm fortunate my parents
paid for my education at Chico State. But there's a
reason why I didn't go to Boston College or some
places that I had interest in going, because I didn't
want to be saddled with loans upon graduating. That was
(21:18):
a conscious decision. It was one of the major factors
that I thought about. I did not want to be
saddled with that, and there was no idea in my
head that it would be forgiven. Why would it be forgiven?
It's a loan. You should be taught that loans are
not forgiven.
Speaker 2 (21:33):
That is correct, and that's the way that I feel
about it too, is you cannot do blanket forgiveness because
it is not fair. It just isn't isn't fair to
people who've already paid it, although there are many who've
paid their loans off.
Speaker 1 (21:45):
I mean, if I went to Boston College, I could
be working at Lincoln KHY and not here, you know
what I mean. I set it for here over Lincoln
k Why because I didn't want the loan.
Speaker 2 (21:54):
There are accesses that can be had if you make
it to certain colleges. There are there's certain percidach associated
with it again. I went to Northern Kentucky. You went
to Chico State. These are state schools.
Speaker 4 (22:05):
It really is.
Speaker 1 (22:06):
It's a different track for life sometimes.
Speaker 3 (22:08):
But look at us. We're sitting on the air at KFI.
We're you know, we're doing well.
Speaker 1 (22:12):
He's trying to be facetious of we're okay. But it
does put you on a different track.
Speaker 3 (22:16):
It certainly does.
Speaker 2 (22:16):
Yeah, And the same is true when you there's I
know we don't have enough time for it, but there's
a you know, we'll just go to the trades and
people should do trades.
Speaker 1 (22:22):
Well, hey, we can have time. We have a whole another.
Speaker 3 (22:25):
SEGM but I have a surprise for you in the
next segment.
Speaker 1 (22:27):
Can we do both?
Speaker 3 (22:27):
Yeah, we'll do both.
Speaker 1 (22:28):
Okay, put a pin in it because I have trade schools.
Mult you have a master's degree and I don't because
I don't have a loan.
Speaker 4 (22:36):
You're listening to Gary and Shannon on demand from KFI
AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (22:45):
You'll be back next week too.
Speaker 2 (22:46):
I will ten o'clock through Friday until until Gary comes home.
Speaker 3 (22:49):
And we are all waiting for Gary to get back.
Speaker 2 (22:53):
Not just the listeners, we are all waiting for Uncle
Gary to get back.
Speaker 3 (22:57):
No, no, no, no, no, no no. You are excellent,
and this isn't me being silly. You really are. And
you have such a great radio voice.
Speaker 1 (23:03):
You're very sweet for a lady.
Speaker 3 (23:05):
Thanks. Yeah, let me just wrap up.
Speaker 2 (23:09):
We were talking about student loans because if you are
in certain repayment plans on the federal program, the Trump
administration is determined that you will start paying interest again,
in spite of the fact that the program itself is
in legal limbo, so they've not required you to make payments.
They have not allowed interest to accumulate. But it is
starting again, and it is starting fast. It is starting
on August first. The point I wanted to make is
(23:30):
there isn't an honest or serious conversation about student loans
in this country. The fact that maybe the interest rates
are too high, the fact that education costs too much.
What is interest rate on studay? They vary, but they
are often typically higher than what you're paying on a mortgage.
So even when mortgage rates were low, you know, five
years ago, the interest rate on the loan that I
(23:52):
took out would fluctuate between six and eight percent.
Speaker 1 (23:55):
Yeah, I was going to say graduate loans seven point
nine to four percent from subsidized loans.
Speaker 3 (24:00):
Right, And you know that's a lot.
Speaker 2 (24:02):
I've been I've been able to make a lot of
great progress on this, So I'm grateful that there hasn't
been any interest. That to me, is an acceptable proposal
from a politician. You got to pay it back, but we,
as the federal government, may be able to do something
either with a much lower interest rate or no interest rate.
Speaker 1 (24:18):
I agree, pay it back, but that is seven percent.
Seven point nine percent is ridiculous.
Speaker 3 (24:23):
That's what people forget.
Speaker 2 (24:25):
The reason that you've got a lot of passionate defenders
of forgiveness is that there are plenty of folks who
have never missed a payment. And let's just say they
owed fifty thousand at the beginning, they've made consistent payments.
It's ten years later and their balance is sixty thousand. Yeah,
those stories exist.
Speaker 1 (24:43):
I know they do. I knew that I was being
going to be in no position to pay off a
loan when I graduated college. I just assumed that I
would not be and I wasn't for many years. And
I mean, it's you're screwing yourself.
Speaker 2 (24:55):
You are especially screwing yourself if you don't finish. I
mean those people too who took out student loans and
did not even finish the program, so don't have the
qualifications to have the potential income associated with that degree program,
and they're just saddled with this debt. So there's got
to be some serious conversation about the cost of education,
the cost of financing education, and what career paths we
(25:19):
are prioritizing, both as individuals and as a culture. But
to lighten up things here, as we finish up the hour,
I know we have to be better people. I brought
in this thing and it has to be better people.
Do you remember the candy we talked about a couple
of weeks ago.
Speaker 1 (25:30):
Oh, yes, the Divinity Can.
Speaker 3 (25:31):
You had never had it?
Speaker 1 (25:32):
I have not, So we made some last night.
Speaker 3 (25:35):
Brought it in for you, and I'd like you to
taste it.
Speaker 1 (25:38):
I would love to so.
Speaker 2 (25:40):
Keana's going to do a social media video if you
want to see Shannon taste Ladivini dud okay, wow, you
can tune into the Instagram. I feel like I need
you to sign a waiver because the amount of sugar
in it shocked me. Oh remember I wasn't at home
when the spouse made it the first time around. But
I participated in this batch because I want you to taste.
Speaker 3 (26:01):
People back in the newsroom have already tasted and they
liked it a lot.
Speaker 2 (26:05):
You can either have a whole piece. I brought a
knife there if you want to cut a little slab off.
Divinity is sort of in the family of fudge and marshmallow.
It's it's it's sugar, it's it's egg, egg white, it's oil,
vanilla and you. It's a very complicated cooking process. So
tell me about it.
Speaker 1 (26:23):
Mm hmmm.
Speaker 3 (26:25):
The sugar, Yeah, your teeth are falling out.
Speaker 1 (26:29):
And don't care. Give me all the root canals.
Speaker 3 (26:31):
Yeah, we will.
Speaker 1 (26:32):
It's delicious. It reminds me of something I would have
had in my grandmother's house.
Speaker 3 (26:36):
Bingo m hm.
Speaker 2 (26:37):
I associate it with older ladies, and that's not a
dig on older ladies. That's my key demo as a broadcaster.
But my nanny, my grandmother we called Nanny, always had
it and loves it. And I was like, you know,
as we explore our future business that we fantasize about
creating a creamery, a confectionery is divinities going to be
(27:00):
a signature dish.
Speaker 1 (27:01):
Oh, I love that.
Speaker 2 (27:02):
And so there are some nuts involved, you know, some
cut up pecans. You can often put a pecan on
top of it.
Speaker 1 (27:07):
But now you say pecana not pecan.
Speaker 3 (27:09):
Well that's because I speak English.
Speaker 1 (27:11):
But that is a point of I know it is.
Speaker 2 (27:14):
I think in the South pecan is absolutely pronunciation. I
think maybe in the upper Midwest the North. Do you
say pecan? No, surely not.
Speaker 1 (27:23):
I don't know if I ever said it in conversation.
Speaker 3 (27:25):
I do.
Speaker 2 (27:26):
I don't hate it. I find it a charming mispronunciation
of a word. Bless your heart, bless y'all's heart. Y'all
want a piece of this pecan pie? Pecan pie? So
you got you got it coming on. I gotta shake
that back off again. Pecan pie is not appetizing to me.
Pecan pie sounds, yeah, sounds very inviting. Absolutely, you like
(27:48):
pecan pie. I don't like pie in general. I don't
like pies. I don't like nuts, and I don't.
Speaker 3 (27:55):
Oh there's nuts in the divinity.
Speaker 1 (27:56):
I liked those nuts.
Speaker 3 (27:58):
Tell me more.
Speaker 1 (28:01):
But I'm not a pie person. I don't like fruit
in my desserts usually. I mean, I could be persuaded.
But I just haven't reached for a pie really ever.
I'll reach for a cake over pie.
Speaker 3 (28:10):
What kind of cake do you like?
Speaker 1 (28:11):
I like them all. I like chocolate cake.
Speaker 3 (28:13):
I like chocolate cake too.
Speaker 1 (28:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (28:16):
Absolutely, So eventually, one day.
Speaker 1 (28:18):
Are you gonna name your confectionate?
Speaker 3 (28:20):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (28:20):
I have a cat named Milo, and I think maybe
Milo's Milo could be involved in somehow cat involved with
the sugar. I don't want to tell you how much
of his hair made his way into this dish. Oh
I tasted it?
Speaker 3 (28:32):
Yeah you did. You got a little bit of Milo
I did.
Speaker 2 (28:34):
Mylo for Jolees Monks is a very important part of
my life and I I.
Speaker 1 (28:38):
And I'm not saying that Milo for Hills Monks is
not an important part of your life. But why does
that have to bleed into your candy shop.
Speaker 2 (28:46):
Because we love him and his life is important to
us and he inspires us.
Speaker 1 (28:51):
Yeah, but there's so many names for a candy shop
that are fun, that are not pet orients.
Speaker 2 (28:56):
I don't Here's the thing. I'm going to be very traditional.
I'm not into our at and the candy that we
will sell eventually will not have like artistry on it,
and that is not a dig at the folks who
are I love walking into a candy shop with beautiful
pieces of candy that you have to pay twelve dollars
for a morsel. I appreciate the work that goes into that.
This is gonna be a traditional shop. I want you
to walk in and feel like it's very comfortable. There's
(29:17):
cat hair and everything that you can trust.
Speaker 3 (29:19):
The cat hair at my lows. Yeah, I might name
a candy cat hair.
Speaker 1 (29:23):
That's one thing, you know, keep it to that. Yeah,
one particular.
Speaker 3 (29:26):
We're gonna have, you know, one day, one day when
I have a mixed building like a commercial space on
the bottom floor, a beautiful, lovely apartment on a main
street in Ventura, California.
Speaker 1 (29:36):
Ventura, that's going to be your home.
Speaker 3 (29:38):
I think that's gonna be the place.
Speaker 1 (29:39):
What I mean, don't say no right away. Maybe we
work in Babes Babes, Babes Delights, so Babes Confections.
Speaker 2 (29:47):
I brought up babe yesterday because Elmer, our board director
technical director here has a friend who apparently just used
the name Fonsie, and I thought that that.
Speaker 1 (29:57):
Well, in his defense, his name's Alfonso.
Speaker 2 (30:00):
I know, but Phonsie is very well taken, famously taken,
And so I said, can I just be Babe? So
maybe Babe's Babes Candy, Ventura, California.
Speaker 1 (30:13):
I think we can do better than Babes Candy. I
think we can have a little bit more fun with
it when worst shop it. No, we're keeping the cat
out of it, and then when the cat dies, it's
gonna be the whole thing. Wait what, Gary and Shannon
will continue Michael Muggs. Thank you for your service, sir.
We will see you at next week and we've got
Swamp Watch on deck with Gavin Newsom making his case
in South Carolina.
Speaker 3 (30:34):
You've been listening to the Gary and Shannon Show.
Speaker 2 (30:36):
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. Walmart is recalling about eight hundred
and fifty thousand stainless steel water bottles. Listen to this
because the lid can forcefully eject and unexpectedly strike consumers,
(00:23):
resulting in permanent vision loss for at least two people
so far. I mean, drinking water is hard enough, isn't it.
I mean it is a struggle to drink a lot
of water every day, the amount of water we should
be drinking.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
I the first thing I do when I get to
the kitchen and I wake up is I take a
big cup of water and I drink it.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
Yeah, and then.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Here we have a water cooler. So you just need
to make it part of your routine.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
Thanks mom, I know that.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
It's what I'm saying is your premise is incorrect. It's
not difficult to drink enough water.
Speaker 3 (00:59):
It is a choice.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
It is a choice, and I mean I strive for
a gallon and I land somewhere around sixty sixty five ounce.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
What's the biggest hazard though, that you and I are
senior citizens ying We.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
Are old and I pee if I'm going to do
that gallon of water situation, I'm peeing every break on
this show.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
And on top of it with the amount of water
because you and I are drinking a lot of water. Yeah,
I drink a lot of coffee.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
So do I?
Speaker 3 (01:24):
I have to pee right now and I just went coffee?
Speaker 1 (01:26):
Do you drink a day?
Speaker 3 (01:27):
I have one cup before I leave the apartment.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
Coffee or an espresso person.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
Straight black coffee. Give me the straight black coffee. I
like to taste it, okay, I like to feel it.
I like to burn like a Tanya Tucker album.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
How many cups? By yeah?
Speaker 3 (01:42):
Absolutely? And by noon today I will have had three, okay,
and then afternoon I will have one more cup before
I leave here. And then what I take one for the.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
Road, and then Michael, after dark, what happens?
Speaker 3 (01:53):
Then I cry myself to sleep?
Speaker 1 (01:55):
Got it?
Speaker 3 (01:56):
So?
Speaker 1 (01:56):
Five cups of coffee? Yes, I'm an espresso person, so
I have about six shots a day.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
And that and I will have espresso drinks like a
latte or something. I don't usually do straight espresso, although
I probably love it because I love coffee and I
love the taste of it. But is it more powerful?
Do you find that espresso is well, I mix it
with other stuff. I mean, I'll do this for all espresso. No,
I've never done that. I never had an espresso martini.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
You know.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
Look, give me a extra dirty martini. I don't need anything.
I don't need you to mix it with the coffee.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
I agree as far as cocktail goes, I love vodka.
That's that's really my go to. But I just need
a regular traditional martini, not the Are we in trouble already?
Speaker 1 (02:38):
Well, bet, let's get into immigration. Michael Monks has joined US.
Michael Monks covers all of La for US and is
on top of pretty much everything going on, especially as
it relates to city Hall and the people need to
answer at city Hall. And this immigration ray near camer
Rio has set up another yet a pr black eye
(03:01):
for the greater Los Angeles area. The last time we
saw this was when Karen Bass turned up to MacArthur
Park just beside herself, upset that there was a show
of military force despite the fact that someone had opened
fire on a federal agent that morning in Texas. Now
we've got somebody taking a shot at agents in came Rio.
What gets more attention the raids in Camerio or people
(03:22):
opening fire on federal agents.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
It absolutely depends on what you care about in this debate.
You may not be aware of this, Shannon, but this
country tends to be somewhat polarized. So yeah, if you're
a reasonable person who wants to have a mature conversation
about immigration policy and the response to it between a
contrasting the Biden administration and the Trump administration, I hope we
(03:45):
can do that on our airwaves as frequently as possible.
But the fact is, at this point, if you're just
out talking to somebody, their reaction to this issue today
is either get them all out, pro ice or shut
these fascists down kind of thing. And I think the
(04:05):
action in Camerio and the other one in another city
nearby the same company illustrates that really well. Because you
have the immigration enforcement action in an agricultural area.
Speaker 3 (04:17):
This is not downtown Los Angeles, this isn't.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
A place where you could expect a ton of protesters
to show up immediately. We're talking farm country. And even still,
the protest response was fast, and it was immense, and
the narrative, like it always does, evolved and developed over
the course of the day.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
Did Karen Bass ever acknowledge that there was military present
in MacArthur Park And has Newsome I know he has
talked about this ever ever recognize the fact that there's
more military surrounding these raids because people are taking shots
at agents.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
It doesn't fit what they're trying to say. The same
way that when the Trump administration puts out why they
were where they were, regardless of whether and otherwise innocent
fruit vender got picked.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
That's all the other thing. Oh, it's a cannabis farm
being righted, it's a legal cannabis farm.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
It's licensed in the state. It's still not legal federally.
We're still in that weird area. So that does play
to some people's passions about you know, they're reading a
drug farm. And then we find out that some juveniles
who may have been unaccompanied when they crossed the border illegal.
We're working there, but you don't know that at the beginning.
(05:30):
That is at the crux of all this that's going
on is nobody knows what's going on, and that really
does include the White House, and they may have the
directives of what the enforcement operation is supposed to be,
but they're not telling anyone, and that's not unusual for
criminal enforcement operations of any kind. You don't call Michael
and Shannon and say, by the way, there's a drug
(05:52):
house down the street. We're hitting it today, right. But
because of the fears and the anxieties around any immigration
enforcement agent, regardless of the act, you're going to have
the response that you have because somebody's grandma got taken
while selling lettuce on Figueroa Street.
Speaker 4 (06:07):
You're listening to Gary and Shannon on demand from KFI
AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
So, Michael Monks. This executive directive that Karen Bass has signed.
This is in the wake of what she has described
unlawful and chaotic federal immigration raids across the region. What
does it do is does it have teeth? Is it symbolic?
Speaker 2 (06:30):
This will have teeth, but not for people necessarily who
live in Los Angeles. This is a directive aimed at
people who work for the City of Los Angeles. It
requires all city departments to submit what they're calling preparedness plans,
and those reports are due from these city departments within
two weeks. So she does have authority over city departments,
(06:51):
so they will have to provide these reports within two weeks.
And this is what it includes, department specific protocols and
training outlining how city employees, including their contractors should respond
if approached by federal immigration agents on city property while
remaining compliant with both federal law and local ordinances. So
(07:12):
this is a show again from the mayor saying that
Los Angeles is doing all that it can to protect
the immigrant community in Los Angeles, regardless of their legal status.
This isn't a direct challenge on the Trump administration. This
is how will we be prepared as a city government
(07:32):
every level if the Trump administration engages with you.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
What does that mean, Michael? It all I heard was
government speak, government speak, government speak.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
This is not as significant as what was announced earlier
with the legal action okay, that the city and other
cities and the county have taken in conjunction with a
suit already filed by the American Civil Liberties Union the ACLU,
and that appears to be going favorably right now.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
So this just is all about inside baseball at city Hall.
How are the city departments going to learn how to
deal with all the s that's coming from Washington. It
doesn't really affect people on the ground.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
She says that what she wants is for city employees
on city property, by the way, not just out in
the wild, on city property, to know how to behave,
how they can behave, how they should behave if approached
by immigration agents. Now, this was announced in a press
conference and she got to go in front of cameras again.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
This we talked about this earlier.
Speaker 2 (08:38):
This is sort of a winning issue for her in
many corners of Los Angeles. It's her endgame and she's well,
she's running for reelection in twenty twenty six, okay. And
it's similar to what Governor Knewsom, who is.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
She's say, going to be seventy one, doesn't she want to,
you know, go to bally or something.
Speaker 3 (08:53):
Retire.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
People don't retire anymore. In fact, as far as American
politics these days are concerned, she's in her prime youth
for seventy one. Now, I mean Joe Biden turned eighty
in the White House. Trump will turn eighty in the
White House. I mean, you remember the eighties, we were young,
fun kids collecting garbage pail kids stickers.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
But those were always kind of dirty, weren't they.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
I loved them. The President was old. He was sixty
nine when he got electate. I like, now it sounds like, wow,
what a young man, what a young, spry whipper seed.
He's not old enough to be presidentically so at one.
I mean, people are healthier longer than they used to be,
even thirty or forty years ago.
Speaker 3 (09:32):
I suppose. But now people do not retire anymore. Absolutely,
they do not.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
It just sounds I'm ready to retire, aren't you. I've
been ready to write that's That's what I'm saying. I mean,
but she's been in politics her whole life. There's a
lot of identity that comes with what you do, and
if you've done it a long time, it must be
hard for her to let go. But why who would
want this? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (09:53):
And what is your in game in general for Los Angeles?
You know, I know you can stand up in campaign
and say this or that, but there aren't a lot
of results to show. I mean, they have had a
little bit of a decline in the homeless population, that
was the key issue last time. But the fires really
walloped her politically, and now she has this.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
Yeah, and you know what, I didn't think about it,
but I heard John's promo. Since I've got here today
and it was something about she wasn't outraged about the fire,
you know, she wasn't Where was that outrage? Now she's
outraged about the raide she's pulling over. She's going to
MacArthur Park on her way to whatever. Where was that outrage?
You know? And it's like, well, she dropped the ball
(10:35):
with the fires, and she suffered that big political hit,
so now she's trying to fill that in with whatever
goodwill this can fill in.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
I will say a couple of things. There are a
couple of things that are weird about Los Angeles politics.
I often say, you know from watching every single city
meeting and presser and talking to these people that there's
just this strange lack of urgency in most cases until
a very personal or passion project is involved. And immigration
is important to all of these council members. So they're
up and down the uh. I mean, they're all left
(11:04):
of center at the bare minimum. But from that, it
does you know they're not agreeing on everything. This one
they're all in agreement on two things. MacArthur Park. She
showed up in the middle of a military and federal
immigration operation. She doesn't show up for the every day disaster.
(11:25):
That is that park, this otherwise beautiful park in the
middle of an urban area.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
Let's be real, it hasn't been beautiful for a very
long It's.
Speaker 3 (11:34):
Beautiful on paper, right you look at the map of Oh,
it's so nice to have this head shots from space gorgeous.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
It's the same with Pershing Square. I mean, there's not
a lot of green space at Pershing Square, but it.
Speaker 1 (11:43):
Is supposed to be a toilet.
Speaker 3 (11:44):
That's what I mean, A literal toilet, A literal toilet.
Speaker 1 (11:47):
Still like going ice skating there.
Speaker 3 (11:48):
I went last Christmas and it was fine. You know,
it's dark.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
I tell you, downtown is beautiful when you're looking up
exactly now. The other thing is is speaking of Pershing
Square in downtown, the lack of urgency to the every
day issues people who live here face. Do you remember
when the trees were hacked in downtown La a couple
of months ago. I don't even know if it's been
that long. You know, A crazy guy, a homeless guy,
transient bought a chainsaw and then went out and hacked
(12:14):
these trees. That is a bad thing. A downtown needs
its trees. Trees are important to the community. You had
press conferences. You had immediate action from the city council
and the city council representative for that district. You had
nonprofit organizations showing up that we know these trees are expensive.
We're gonna help this cash strapped city pay for them
so we can replace these trees. Within that same time period,
(12:35):
two people were hacked, one to death by another crazy
homeless man with a machete, and there were no press conferences.
There was Coal's is closing. It's been opened since nineteen
oh eight. There's no press conference about we're turning this
downtown ship around, or we're turning this MacArthur Park ship around.
Speaker 3 (13:01):
It's not that Culs. It's not that Culs. Oh, it's
not that cool French Tip place, the French Tip.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
I was like, where's the Coals down?
Speaker 3 (13:11):
Yeah, you listen to our newscasts, right, No, I know.
Speaker 1 (13:13):
I have been to Coals probably in twenty years.
Speaker 3 (13:16):
I live around the corner from it. It's a great station.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
Well that's what I mean, Like, Downtown's environment is not good,
but you don't have that kind of urgency.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
Why would you have a press conference about the coals closing.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
I would have a press conference about the state of
the central city.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
This is it's been I know you're new here, but
it's relatively but it's been not a destination for a
very long time.
Speaker 3 (13:41):
But why is that an acceptable answer?
Speaker 1 (13:43):
It's not. Tell me just the way it is.
Speaker 3 (13:45):
But that's that's my point, That's what I'm saying. Like
I know, and there are occasional.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
Transportation one, how do you get there in a nice fashion?
Speaker 3 (13:53):
Don't get me started on the transportation.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
Trees are a big problem, the lack thereof of any
sort of shade. It is a concrete jungle there. It
is ugly. There are maybe five or six buildings that
remain that will will make you swoon if you're into architecture.
It's just there's nothing there. There's no hub. You know,
you look at what once was the Third Street pro
(14:17):
Promenade in Santa Monica, beautiful. You know, you look at
now some new shopping hubs that have turned up Cultural center,
is not it?
Speaker 2 (14:24):
Third Street Promenade is struggling too for similar reason. Well
out of what COVID a lot of places. And really
this isn't a conversation necessarily about downtown specifically, this is
a conversation about the priorities of the city government right
immediate action from the mayor on this issue. It is
a winning political issue for her in your corners. But
(14:46):
you don't see that kind of They actually press conferences
in MacArthur Park to talk about how we're going to
make sure that the drug users here have clean access
to the tools that they need to do their drugs.
We're going to connect on the services and why isn't
that parks swept.
Speaker 1 (15:01):
Right and just the old broken windows policing method.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
And the key here. And I think I'm going to
mentioned this to you last week. Los Angeles is just
not a sympathetic place to the rest of the country
when you have one bad faith media actor, certainly, but
also anybody with eyes who can look at video of
downtown MacArthur Park and know that if there were a
(15:27):
kid's summer camp taking place at MacArthur Park, it chures
hell shouldn't have been yeah, because it does not have
the environment capabilities.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
Unless your kid's into math, maybe that maybe.
Speaker 3 (15:37):
Your kid likes is not a safe place.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
Right And you know what, I have been beaten down
by Los Angeles not being a play downtown Los Angeles
not being a place that I want to go for years,
and you're right, it's not acceptable. We should ask for better,
we should demand all over the city. You should run
against a bass for mayor. I you know this could
be your platform. You have to to get elected in
Los Angeles City Hall. You have to be embedded in
(16:03):
others like the next to be such a next sold hoard.
Speaker 2 (16:07):
The next city council members that you will see ten
years from now are currently working for the existing city
council members.
Speaker 3 (16:13):
That's just the way it goes.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
Well, now's your time. You got to get in there.
You got to upset the system.
Speaker 3 (16:18):
Can you put a good word in for me?
Speaker 1 (16:19):
With who?
Speaker 4 (16:21):
You're listening to Gary and Shannon on demand from KFI
AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (16:27):
Don't forget to let us know what you learn this
week on the Gary and Shannon Show. We'll get those
together and play them for you. Coming up in the
twelve o'clock our Michael Monks is with us and Michael,
where'd you go to college? Michael Monks?
Speaker 2 (16:41):
I earned my bachelor's degree at Northern Kentucky University, you
may know it better as the Harvard of Campbell County.
And I earned my master's degree at Southern New Hampshire.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
Ah, okay, So student loans topic you brought to the
show is near and dear to your heart. You pay
off one currently and it seems to be a target
of the administration when it comes to getting rid of
a lot of the goodwill that the Biden administration put
towards these people.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
This was something I wanted to talk about because it's
coming up and people should need to know this because
it's happening really fast. If you have a student loan
currently and your interest payments have been paused, basically everybody
just about is in forbearance. You don't even have to
make payments right now, which is okay because there's no
interest accumulating. So if you don't have the money right
(17:35):
now you need to take a month or two months off,
your balance is not going to grow at all and
you're not going to be penalized for missing your pains.
Speaker 1 (17:42):
And that was something the Biden administration put in.
Speaker 2 (17:44):
It's related to the Biden Remember, Joe Biden wanted to
forgive a lot of student debt. Was able to push
through a plan that forgave about ten thousand dollars, but
then that got struck down, So there was no overall
forgiveness outright for jill regular borrowers. There's some very specific colleges,
scam colleges, and some specific circumstances where people saw forgiveness.
(18:08):
What he did implement was something called the Save Plan.
I forget what it stands for, but it's an income
driven repayment plan that was very generous, probably the most
generous repayment plan ever. So your balance isn't growing too much.
There's interest, but it's not growing so much while you're
making your payments. That plan, which has about eight million
(18:29):
borrowers on it right now, will start paying interest again
starting August the first, So this is like immediately almost.
So if you've benefited from the forbearance.
Speaker 1 (18:38):
Is that is it going to charge you retroactive insurance. No,
it's not this, I mean interest.
Speaker 2 (18:43):
This plan has been held up in court because the
Trump administration doesn't like this. Republicans didn't like this plan,
so it was challenged in court and it's been held up.
So in the meantime, the message from the government in
the Department of Education has been your in forbearance, there's
no interest accumulating, don't have to make your payments right now.
If you can't until this court case is settled. Now,
(19:05):
it is true that you are still technically in forbearans.
You do not have to make your payments, but the
interest accumulation is starting. I did not borrow for undergrad
I was fortunate. I went to a directional public college,
you know, and my parents paid for it, which was great.
Speaker 3 (19:21):
Not everybody has that.
Speaker 1 (19:22):
Pam and the officer, officer Jones, Officer Jones.
Speaker 2 (19:25):
Yes, and Pam is here in Los Angeles right now.
She's out here visiting. Yeah, so seeing the fruits of
her labors here. Ah, you know, she's a little loud.
I love loud. She's here with my aunt Brenda. They're
hanging out. So we're gonna hang out this weekend.
Speaker 1 (19:40):
Pam and Brenda. But she's always getting together.
Speaker 3 (19:42):
They sent me to college, Pam and Brenda. Old Brenda didn't.
Speaker 2 (19:45):
But so when you when I went to graduate school,
I decided to do that later foolishly while starting a business.
Speaker 3 (19:54):
Also, so I'm doing a business. I'm doing graduate school,
but I borrowed money.
Speaker 1 (19:57):
What was the business you started?
Speaker 2 (19:58):
I started a newspaper in Kentucky and I was able
to sell it, you know, ten years later and move here,
and what was it called.
Speaker 3 (20:05):
It was called the River City News.
Speaker 1 (20:07):
I love that go on.
Speaker 2 (20:08):
Yeah, and it did well. And because it's now called Lincoln,
k Y.
Speaker 1 (20:11):
It was acquired and I have a lot.
Speaker 3 (20:14):
Let's not talk about it.
Speaker 2 (20:15):
You want to talk about why I put on a
little weight before I moved out here, we can have
that conversation off, Mike. I borrowed some money to pay
for the Master's program. I don't regret that. I've never
missed a payment. And during the pandemic, when everything was
really frozen, you have to make any payments on anything.
Speaker 3 (20:34):
I did double payments because I was very fortunate then too.
Speaker 2 (20:36):
Yeah, with my business and hosting and radio show in Cincinnati,
and so I just I don't owe a lot right now.
But if you are somebody who owes a lot, this
interest could hit you hard. And I want to just
chat about it, because I think this is a polarizing
issue also in this country, because you've got one side
saying forgive it all and the other side saying, no,
that's not fair at all.
Speaker 3 (20:56):
You borrow the money, forget about it.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
I have a hard time with it because I picked
a school based on the fact that it didn't cost
a lot of money, and thankfully, I'm fortunate my parents
paid for my education at Chico State. But there's a
reason why I didn't go to Boston College or some
places that I had interest in going, because I didn't
want to be saddled with loans upon graduating. That was
(21:18):
a conscious decision. It was one of the major factors
that I thought about. I did not want to be
saddled with that, and there was no idea in my
head that it would be forgiven. Why would it be forgiven?
It's a loan. You should be taught that loans are
not forgiven.
Speaker 2 (21:33):
That is correct, and that's the way that I feel
about it too, is you cannot do blanket forgiveness because
it is not fair. It just isn't isn't fair to
people who've already paid it, although there are many who've
paid their loans off.
Speaker 1 (21:45):
I mean, if I went to Boston College, I could
be working at Lincoln KHY and not here, you know
what I mean. I set it for here over Lincoln
k Why because I didn't want the loan.
Speaker 2 (21:54):
There are accesses that can be had if you make
it to certain colleges. There are there's certain percidach associated
with it again. I went to Northern Kentucky. You went
to Chico State. These are state schools.
Speaker 4 (22:05):
It really is.
Speaker 1 (22:06):
It's a different track for life sometimes.
Speaker 3 (22:08):
But look at us. We're sitting on the air at KFI.
We're you know, we're doing well.
Speaker 1 (22:12):
He's trying to be facetious of we're okay. But it
does put you on a different track.
Speaker 3 (22:16):
It certainly does.
Speaker 2 (22:16):
Yeah, And the same is true when you there's I
know we don't have enough time for it, but there's
a you know, we'll just go to the trades and
people should do trades.
Speaker 1 (22:22):
Well, hey, we can have time. We have a whole another.
Speaker 3 (22:25):
SEGM but I have a surprise for you in the
next segment.
Speaker 1 (22:27):
Can we do both?
Speaker 3 (22:27):
Yeah, we'll do both.
Speaker 1 (22:28):
Okay, put a pin in it because I have trade schools.
Mult you have a master's degree and I don't because
I don't have a loan.
Speaker 4 (22:36):
You're listening to Gary and Shannon on demand from KFI
AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (22:45):
You'll be back next week too.
Speaker 2 (22:46):
I will ten o'clock through Friday until until Gary comes home.
Speaker 3 (22:49):
And we are all waiting for Gary to get back.
Speaker 2 (22:53):
Not just the listeners, we are all waiting for Uncle
Gary to get back.
Speaker 3 (22:57):
No, no, no, no, no, no no. You are excellent,
and this isn't me being silly. You really are. And
you have such a great radio voice.
Speaker 1 (23:03):
You're very sweet for a lady.
Speaker 3 (23:05):
Thanks. Yeah, let me just wrap up.
Speaker 2 (23:09):
We were talking about student loans because if you are
in certain repayment plans on the federal program, the Trump
administration is determined that you will start paying interest again,
in spite of the fact that the program itself is
in legal limbo, so they've not required you to make payments.
They have not allowed interest to accumulate. But it is
starting again, and it is starting fast. It is starting
on August first. The point I wanted to make is
(23:30):
there isn't an honest or serious conversation about student loans
in this country. The fact that maybe the interest rates
are too high, the fact that education costs too much.
What is interest rate on studay? They vary, but they
are often typically higher than what you're paying on a mortgage.
So even when mortgage rates were low, you know, five
years ago, the interest rate on the loan that I
(23:52):
took out would fluctuate between six and eight percent.
Speaker 1 (23:55):
Yeah, I was going to say graduate loans seven point
nine to four percent from subsidized loans.
Speaker 3 (24:00):
Right, And you know that's a lot.
Speaker 2 (24:02):
I've been I've been able to make a lot of
great progress on this, So I'm grateful that there hasn't
been any interest. That to me, is an acceptable proposal
from a politician. You got to pay it back, but we,
as the federal government, may be able to do something
either with a much lower interest rate or no interest rate.
Speaker 1 (24:18):
I agree, pay it back, but that is seven percent.
Seven point nine percent is ridiculous.
Speaker 3 (24:23):
That's what people forget.
Speaker 2 (24:25):
The reason that you've got a lot of passionate defenders
of forgiveness is that there are plenty of folks who
have never missed a payment. And let's just say they
owed fifty thousand at the beginning, they've made consistent payments.
It's ten years later and their balance is sixty thousand. Yeah,
those stories exist.
Speaker 1 (24:43):
I know they do. I knew that I was being
going to be in no position to pay off a
loan when I graduated college. I just assumed that I
would not be and I wasn't for many years. And
I mean, it's you're screwing yourself.
Speaker 2 (24:55):
You are especially screwing yourself if you don't finish. I
mean those people too who took out student loans and
did not even finish the program, so don't have the
qualifications to have the potential income associated with that degree program,
and they're just saddled with this debt. So there's got
to be some serious conversation about the cost of education,
the cost of financing education, and what career paths we
(25:19):
are prioritizing, both as individuals and as a culture. But
to lighten up things here, as we finish up the hour,
I know we have to be better people. I brought
in this thing and it has to be better people.
Do you remember the candy we talked about a couple
of weeks ago.
Speaker 1 (25:30):
Oh, yes, the Divinity Can.
Speaker 3 (25:31):
You had never had it?
Speaker 1 (25:32):
I have not, So we made some last night.
Speaker 3 (25:35):
Brought it in for you, and I'd like you to
taste it.
Speaker 1 (25:38):
I would love to so.
Speaker 2 (25:40):
Keana's going to do a social media video if you
want to see Shannon taste Ladivini dud okay, wow, you
can tune into the Instagram. I feel like I need
you to sign a waiver because the amount of sugar
in it shocked me. Oh remember I wasn't at home
when the spouse made it the first time around. But
I participated in this batch because I want you to taste.
Speaker 3 (26:01):
People back in the newsroom have already tasted and they
liked it a lot.
Speaker 2 (26:05):
You can either have a whole piece. I brought a
knife there if you want to cut a little slab off.
Divinity is sort of in the family of fudge and marshmallow.
It's it's it's sugar, it's it's egg, egg white, it's oil,
vanilla and you. It's a very complicated cooking process. So
tell me about it.
Speaker 1 (26:23):
Mm hmmm.
Speaker 3 (26:25):
The sugar, Yeah, your teeth are falling out.
Speaker 1 (26:29):
And don't care. Give me all the root canals.
Speaker 3 (26:31):
Yeah, we will.
Speaker 1 (26:32):
It's delicious. It reminds me of something I would have
had in my grandmother's house.
Speaker 3 (26:36):
Bingo m hm.
Speaker 2 (26:37):
I associate it with older ladies, and that's not a
dig on older ladies. That's my key demo as a broadcaster.
But my nanny, my grandmother we called Nanny, always had
it and loves it. And I was like, you know,
as we explore our future business that we fantasize about
creating a creamery, a confectionery is divinities going to be
(27:00):
a signature dish.
Speaker 1 (27:01):
Oh, I love that.
Speaker 2 (27:02):
And so there are some nuts involved, you know, some
cut up pecans. You can often put a pecan on
top of it.
Speaker 1 (27:07):
But now you say pecana not pecan.
Speaker 3 (27:09):
Well that's because I speak English.
Speaker 1 (27:11):
But that is a point of I know it is.
Speaker 2 (27:14):
I think in the South pecan is absolutely pronunciation. I
think maybe in the upper Midwest the North. Do you
say pecan? No, surely not.
Speaker 1 (27:23):
I don't know if I ever said it in conversation.
Speaker 3 (27:25):
I do.
Speaker 2 (27:26):
I don't hate it. I find it a charming mispronunciation
of a word. Bless your heart, bless y'all's heart. Y'all
want a piece of this pecan pie? Pecan pie? So
you got you got it coming on. I gotta shake
that back off again. Pecan pie is not appetizing to me.
Pecan pie sounds, yeah, sounds very inviting. Absolutely, you like
(27:48):
pecan pie. I don't like pie in general. I don't
like pies. I don't like nuts, and I don't.
Speaker 3 (27:55):
Oh there's nuts in the divinity.
Speaker 1 (27:56):
I liked those nuts.
Speaker 3 (27:58):
Tell me more.
Speaker 1 (28:01):
But I'm not a pie person. I don't like fruit
in my desserts usually. I mean, I could be persuaded.
But I just haven't reached for a pie really ever.
I'll reach for a cake over pie.
Speaker 3 (28:10):
What kind of cake do you like?
Speaker 1 (28:11):
I like them all. I like chocolate cake.
Speaker 3 (28:13):
I like chocolate cake too.
Speaker 1 (28:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (28:16):
Absolutely, So eventually, one day.
Speaker 1 (28:18):
Are you gonna name your confectionate?
Speaker 3 (28:20):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (28:20):
I have a cat named Milo, and I think maybe
Milo's Milo could be involved in somehow cat involved with
the sugar. I don't want to tell you how much
of his hair made his way into this dish. Oh
I tasted it?
Speaker 3 (28:32):
Yeah you did. You got a little bit of Milo
I did.
Speaker 2 (28:34):
Mylo for Jolees Monks is a very important part of
my life and I I.
Speaker 1 (28:38):
And I'm not saying that Milo for Hills Monks is
not an important part of your life. But why does
that have to bleed into your candy shop.
Speaker 2 (28:46):
Because we love him and his life is important to
us and he inspires us.
Speaker 1 (28:51):
Yeah, but there's so many names for a candy shop
that are fun, that are not pet orients.
Speaker 2 (28:56):
I don't Here's the thing. I'm going to be very traditional.
I'm not into our at and the candy that we
will sell eventually will not have like artistry on it,
and that is not a dig at the folks who
are I love walking into a candy shop with beautiful
pieces of candy that you have to pay twelve dollars
for a morsel. I appreciate the work that goes into that.
This is gonna be a traditional shop. I want you
to walk in and feel like it's very comfortable. There's
(29:17):
cat hair and everything that you can trust.
Speaker 3 (29:19):
The cat hair at my lows. Yeah, I might name
a candy cat hair.
Speaker 1 (29:23):
That's one thing, you know, keep it to that. Yeah,
one particular.
Speaker 3 (29:26):
We're gonna have, you know, one day, one day when
I have a mixed building like a commercial space on
the bottom floor, a beautiful, lovely apartment on a main
street in Ventura, California.
Speaker 1 (29:36):
Ventura, that's going to be your home.
Speaker 3 (29:38):
I think that's gonna be the place.
Speaker 1 (29:39):
What I mean, don't say no right away. Maybe we
work in Babes Babes, Babes Delights, so Babes Confections.
Speaker 2 (29:47):
I brought up babe yesterday because Elmer, our board director
technical director here has a friend who apparently just used
the name Fonsie, and I thought that that.
Speaker 1 (29:57):
Well, in his defense, his name's Alfonso.
Speaker 2 (30:00):
I know, but Phonsie is very well taken, famously taken,
And so I said, can I just be Babe? So
maybe Babe's Babes Candy, Ventura, California.
Speaker 1 (30:13):
I think we can do better than Babes Candy. I
think we can have a little bit more fun with
it when worst shop it. No, we're keeping the cat
out of it, and then when the cat dies, it's
gonna be the whole thing. Wait what, Gary and Shannon
will continue Michael Muggs. Thank you for your service, sir.
We will see you at next week and we've got
Swamp Watch on deck with Gavin Newsom making his case
in South Carolina.
Speaker 3 (30:34):
You've been listening to the Gary and Shannon Show.
Speaker 2 (30:36):
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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