December 18, 2025 • 33 mins
Congressional gridlock is setting the stage for a potential healthcare sticker shock as enhanced Obamacare subsidies face expiration, leaving millions bracing for higher premiums. California regulators then put Tesla on notice, threatening to suspend new-car sales over allegedly misleading “self-driving” claims. The hour also turns deeply personal as the children of filmmaker Rob Reiner speak publicly following the arrest of their brother in their parents’ murders, before closing with renewed hope in the decades-old JonBenét Ramsey case as investigators revisit evidence using modern DNA technology.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand. Hi there, friends,
Chris Merril k IF I AM six forty more stimulating talk.
Tonight's program, incidentally, is brought to you by Tequila Tequila
when the brown water just isn't enough?
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Am I right? Mark? I endorsed that. Yes, that's right.
Co sign love that we're getting ready to go on
the Aaron Marks like, I need tequila. There's no need
to make me sound like a filthy alcoholic. You're not you.
You sip it. You have a nice sip in tequila
from Costco.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
Well not during the news, Yeah, I mean I was
talking about later like a gentleman.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
At the end of the day. News is over, my friend.
Yet fifteen minutes, You're good, You're fine. We're off to
a terrific start. The President spoke tonight, complete transparency. I
listened to Michael Krozer and I ran to go get
Power Bawl tickets, So I missed the speaker, Like, how
long was it like twenty minutes? Yeah he did. That's
(01:03):
a short speech for him, isn't it. Doesn't he usually
go in an hour?
Speaker 4 (01:06):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Yeah for him? Quite sure? Yeah? Yeah, did we declare
war on Venezuela.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
I was pulling into the garage at the very beginning,
so he might have done it while I was parking.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
Fooshue were listen, Did we declare war on Venezuela? Not
that I could hear, but all right, pretty close. I
don't think we missed much then, I don't think. So
we'll talk about what we are doing to Venezuela coming
up at eight o'clock. First, I was getting ready for
the show here and take everything that we had, throw
it all out the window because I heard the Bill
(01:36):
handle what we call a look at it kind of
a tease or you know, something he did on his show,
and he was talking about the end of the Obamacare
subsidies and how this is going to give ammunition to
the Democrats, and boy is it ever, especially in California.
I was looking at the story that NBCLA had and
(01:57):
the price increases pretty astonish.
Speaker 5 (02:00):
Key subsidies that lower the cost of health insurance are
set to expire at the end of the year. Congress
has been debating an extension for months with no decision yet.
Speaker 6 (02:10):
Unfortunately, if we don't see action from Washington, DC, we
do anticipate to see people as many as four hundred
thousand leave Cover California because they can no longer afford
the price.
Speaker 5 (02:22):
Jessica Altman, executive director at Cover California, says they currently
ensure about two million Californians without subsidies. Premiums, she says,
will go up.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
Wait a minute, they cover two million, and we're gonna
lose four hundred thousand. That seems like a pretty sizable chunk.
Speaker 6 (02:40):
On average with people on Cover California with pay if
they stayed enrolled in their same plan, is an increase
of ninety seven.
Speaker 5 (02:48):
Percent Javas's clinics, The concern is what happens next.
Speaker 7 (02:52):
We're gonna have people have increases in cancer, they will
not get preventive health services.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
Wow wow, ninety seven percent hit and it was so
cheap to begin with. Yeah right, wow a ninety percent? Yeah, no,
wonder everybody's dropping off. I mean, if you were relying
on those subsidies, it's not like you had an extra
double what your your premium was in order to cover that. Meanwhile,
there is conversation going on a Capitol hill about trying
(03:21):
to get a vote on extending those subsidies. How'd that go?
Speaker 8 (03:24):
From News Nation a big day for healthcare in America,
as a vote just took place in the House of
Representatives passing the Republican health Care Plan.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
But also, yeah, there you go, we pass the healthcare plan. Done,
problem solved. All right, Well, I guess we don't have
to worry about it. Oh there's more right, I'll let
it run out here. But that sounds like everything's done.
Speaker 8 (03:43):
Big news on the Affordable Care Act and the twenty
four million people who are rolled enrolled rather in Obamacare
as today, four House Republicans came forward and said they
would support an extension, a three year extension.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
And here's what that could mean. Oh wait, that was
not part of the Republican bill. Oh okay, so the
covered California recipients they are going to see their bill.
Double okay.
Speaker 8 (04:09):
A new analysis mean if Obamacare doesn't go forward. A
new analysis from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
breaks down the potential impact by congressional district. It shows
that a forty five year old making thirty two thousand
dollars in these two districts in California could see their
annual premium spike by almost fifteen hundred dollars. You see
(04:31):
it there from about seven hundred dollars to more than
twenty one hundred dollars. And this is a story that
we would see all across the country if Congress doesn't
extend the Obamacare tax credits.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
This just from a purely political sense, does this hurt
the Democratic districts more or the Republican districts more?
Speaker 3 (04:50):
Well, people on both sides are going to suffer. And
you can't lose sight of that Red states. I mean,
I think, what is it the poorest states? All ten
are red states. Those people are going to suffer at
least as much as the blue states.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
And most of those are like Southeastern states, right, Southern states. Okay, wow,
So I wonder what the I wonder what the thought
process is going to be in those states. I wonder
if it's like, well, no, this had to happen. We
got to get people off you know, they're they're leeching
off of it. And then they go, wait, my wait,
my stuff went up. Well I thought this was going
(05:22):
to get the leeches and they go, oh, well yeah,
well you were the one using the subsidy. I wonder
how that's gonna look. Those uh, those House Republicans and
four of them jump sides. They went to the they
sided with the Democrats to try to force a vote
on extending the subsidies. And let me tell you how
I think this is gonna shake out, and it's going
(05:43):
to affect a lot more than the people who are
just on the Affordable Care Act and receiving subsidies. This
is why I think it's gonna it's gonna have far
reaching consequences, far beyond that. And I know there's the
health concern, and I know, as Mark just said, there's
gonna be people who are going to suffer on both
sides of the aisle. I think it's gonna be even
bigger than that, because when they decided to vote to
(06:03):
reopen the government, they only voted to reopen it through
the end of January. And the whole argument the whole
time was the Democrats said, we're shutting down the government
because we're taking a stand and we have to extend
the subsidies or people are gonna they're gonna lose their
health care right, they're not gonna be able to afford it,
and it's gonna cost people, and it's gonna hurt people
and people might die. Okay, that was kind of their point.
The Republican said, you're punishing the whole country for this policy.
(06:27):
You can't do that. Just vote to fund the government.
Just vote on the CR the continuing resolution, and then
we'll sit down and will negotiate, right, And the Democrats said, no,
we're not gonna do that because you're not going to negotiate.
You're not gonna listen to us when we want to
extend those subsidies. And the Republicans said, you can't just
punish the whole country. You can't shut the whole government down.
(06:49):
We'll sit down, we'll talk to you. So eventually the
Democrats said, okay, well we got to reopen the government,
and they voted to to end the government shut down.
So then they sit down and they talk to the
Republicans and they say, okay, what about those Obamacare subsidies
And the Republicans went, yeah, no, we're not going to
do that. And they said, no, but you were going
to talk about trying to find a solution here, whether
(07:11):
that was extending the subsidies but lowering the earnings cap
or whatever, you know, finding a compromise here, and then
went yeah, we're not going to do that. The government's open.
We got control of the House, in the Senate, in
the White House, we're not gonna we're not going to
negotiate with you. And so basically only have four Republicans
that went, wait a minute, wait a minute, we should
at least have a floor vote on this, and Mike Johnson,
the Speaker of the House, said no, we're gonna do
(07:32):
what we want to do. So these four Republicans did
push for it, and so at least there's going to
be a conversation that won't happen until January. And I
don't anticipate that they're gonna that they're going to find
a solution here, because I think that the majority of
the Republicans in the House and the Senate they're going
to take a hard line stance. As we know, even
if it gets through the House, the Senate's already poop
(07:53):
pooed that. So then what happens come the end of January.
Come the end of January, the Democrats are going to
do this same thing that they did in October, and
they're gonna go, we gotta have their subsidies back, and
we are not gonna We're not gonna vote to keep
the government open, which means everything we had with air
(08:13):
traffic controllers and uh national parks piling up with trash
and all this other stuff that's gonna play out again
starting January or excuse me, starting February first. It's all
gonna start again. And the Republicans are gonna say, the
Democrats are trying to do this, they're holding the country hostage.
Why don't you just vote to reopen the government and
then we'll talk about it. And the Democrats are gonna say,
(08:34):
fool me once, shame on, shame on the fool and
then fool me, fool me again, and it's and it's
you can't fool me again. That's what they're gonna say.
That's exactly what they're gonna say. And so then what
happens is all of us have to go through that
entire dance that we did, that cost the the economy
billions of dollars, that cost a number of people a
(08:58):
lot of their jobs, that had air traffic controllers out
running door dash in uber to try to try to
pay the rent that month. And I said this at
the time, and boy, is gonna be wonderful vindication when
I'm able to say, look, I'm right, and god I
hope I'm not. But I said at the time, I said, look,
you're about to get your back pay. Put it all
(09:19):
in the bank. Take every penny you can and put
it in the bank, because this is all gonna happen
again in ninety days, and that it is playing out
exactly as we saw it exactly. There are no surprises here,
So get ready for it. You're about to be asked
to step up for your fellow man, to make those donations,
to bring food to the food bank, to donate water
(09:40):
to the different locations, to try to lend a hand
where you can. You're gonna see the gofundmes pop up.
Everything that we had before, we're gonna have it again.
And this time the Democrats are not gonna cave because
the assurances that they had from the Republicans last time,
they got nothing out of it, So why would they,
Why would they give up any leverage that they have.
They're not going to do it. They will not do it,
(10:03):
all right. You've probably seen Tesla's on the road, of
course we all have. They roll through an intersection, they
glide down the freeway and you think, man, it would
be nice if my car had a self driving autopilot mode.
So now California regulators have thrown down a thirty day
ultimatum over the way that Tesla markets their magic. What
the state says is misleading. What happens if Tesla doesn't
(10:25):
fix it is next. I'm Chris Merrill.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
Remember, if you are on the app, you can hit
that talk back button and let us know what you think. Questions, comments, cripts, quotes, criticism, compliments.
Love to hear whatever it is that you have to say.
And I do take a look at everything like it,
hate it, whatever it is. I see everything. I got
a nice one tonight, Mark, I don't believe it. No,
it's true. I take this as a super high compliment. Okay,
(10:53):
all right, No, it's not that it would be funny
if I dropped this one on you from yesterday. Chris
Merrill's show is absolute huh terrific. No, but that's not
what we got, Tony.
Speaker 3 (11:03):
I'm glad you decided not to do that.
Speaker 7 (11:07):
Predictable predictable, Hey, Chris, happy when to say the other
day I called and said you were known for doing
these skits and using a lot of different voices. Well,
the guy who actually did it.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
His name is.
Speaker 7 (11:23):
Phil Henry h.
Speaker 4 (11:28):
R.
Speaker 2 (11:28):
Hen He's a riot.
Speaker 7 (11:31):
Yeah, somehow I thought that you the voice sound of
wow obviously wrong. Talented.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
Yeah, he said, he's as talent as you. Uh. Look,
nobody is more talented than Phil Henry.
Speaker 7 (11:44):
Oh.
Speaker 3 (11:45):
I got the chance to tell Phil Henry in person
a few months ago when he was visiting that he
personally had made me incontinent.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
He's hilarious. That is quite that is honestly, that is
quite a compliment. Like for real, Oh my gosh, there
is nobody more talented than Phil Henry. Who would you know,
shared this studio, well, the other studio before the remodeling,
for years, and I had early in my career, I
had the honor of putting him on my station twice
(12:14):
because Phil was Phil was syndicated and and of course
he originated here, and so I was. I was the
operations manager at a station in Kansas, and and I
had the honor of putting him on. It became available,
and I said, yeah, we got to get we got
to get this show on. It's so good. And I
would just same thing as you, Mark. I was just
(12:36):
die laughing because the thing is, so many people didn't
get the joke, and that is that he didn't have guests.
It was him doing all the voices, and they were
all outrageous and it would just infuriate people and it
was so funny.
Speaker 3 (12:48):
I don't know how he kept from breaking more often
than he did, because he really drove things into the ground.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
Yeah, you know my understanding, and I think Krozier produced
for him. Yeah. My understanding is he was very clinical
about the whole thing. He says, this is this is
the bit, this is what we're doing. Now which direction
are we going? And he was he was like, how
do we get the most out of this? I mean,
just a brilliant radio mind and an incredible performer and
Phil still all over. I mean, you hear his voice everywhere.
(13:14):
He does so much voiceover work, whether it's just straight
voiceover work or character work and cartoons and things like that,
He's just everywhere. So thank you. I'm going to take
that as a high compliment. I'm nowhere close to the
talent that he had, but I appreciate it, thank you
so much. In the meantime, I got a buddy that
just bought a Tesla, and he said that it the
(13:34):
new Tesla. I think he's got like a thirty day
trial on the autopilot and then you have to pay
for the subscription. Do I have that right? I'm getting this.
This is my buddy telling me what his understanding was
of his new car, and the autopilot always intrigued me.
I had a friend here that got a Tesla when
it first came out with the autopilot, and I said,
(13:55):
that must be amazing because you can just set it
like if you're stuck in traffic. You just said that autopilot,
it just takes care of it for you, and that's fantastic.
And now other cars have kind of caught up and
they've got like stop and go, cruise control, that kind
of thing. Even my car has that, but after it's
been stopped for a few minutes, then I have to
kind of tell it go again, that sort of thing. Anyway,
(14:17):
with the Tesla, I always thought that was really cool. Well,
Stay to California says, yeah, it's cool, but you can't
call it autopilot because it's not from CBSA San Diego.
Speaker 9 (14:27):
Could Tesla be banned from selling cars here in California?
Speaker 10 (14:30):
It's a possibility. Let me give you some background.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
Yeah please.
Speaker 10 (14:33):
A few years.
Speaker 9 (14:34):
Ago, the DMV sued Tesla, saying it's advertising was.
Speaker 10 (14:38):
Deceptive to consumers.
Speaker 9 (14:39):
By telling them their cars were fully self driving even
though they're not autonomous.
Speaker 10 (14:44):
Drivers need to pay attention.
Speaker 2 (14:45):
Yeah, that's true.
Speaker 9 (14:47):
So a judge ruled in the DMV's favor and said
Tesla should have their license to sell and manufacture cars
here in California revoked for thirty days immediately. Well, this week,
the DMV decided to give Tesla a break. They said,
you can continue to manufacture cars as for selling them
if you fix those advertising issues within sixty days. So,
in other words, take the wording off your website or
(15:09):
wherever it exists. If you do that, you can continue
to sell your vehicles here in California.
Speaker 10 (15:15):
But if you don't do.
Speaker 9 (15:16):
That within sixty days, you will be banned from selling
Tesla's in the state of California for an entire month.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
Wow you think Tesla does. I mean, we're their biggest customer.
This state is the biggest customer base in the country.
I can't see Tesla saying, yeah, let's just let's just
not sell cars in California for a while. I gotta
believe they're going to take that, They're going to reward
their stuff. I gotta believe that there are teams of
(15:44):
people plugging in prompts to groc to say, rewrite our advertising,
because obviously they're not going to do it. We've fired
all the creatives. We just let the AI write everything out.
So I gotta believe that there's a huge team that's
going to do that. I don't think Tesla's are going
to be band interesting story too. When Tesla first started
introducing the autopilot and Elon Musk was talking about this,
(16:07):
I think the Model S was the only thing that
was out at the time, and I was having a
conversation with another friend of mine who's a car guy,
and I said, how is this? You know, where does
this go? Does this? How does this playout? They said,
We're going to see more people. And this was before
we had things like I mean, Uber was around, Lift
was around, but they said this, They go, there's going
(16:27):
to be people that are going to buy a car
like a Tesla. They're going to charge it at night,
then they're going to take it to work, and then
they're gonna have Tesla. They're gonna have their car go
earn money for them And I said, how so the
car can drive itself. They said that in the future,
the car will be able to drive itself. They can
just tell their car basically just go be a taxi
(16:47):
for the next eight hours and then pick come pick
me up at the end of work. And I thought, wow,
what an interesting concept. I think my friend was wrong
because and this is where he was shortsighted. What's in
it for Tesla? Because now we do have the autonomous
taxis right, we do have the self driving cabs the
way Mos, and now Tesla's doing this in a number
(17:08):
of markets as well, and so that is happening, but
it's not from the car owners. It's from the manufacturer
or it's from the parent company because they want to
make the money. So while I thought my friend was
pretty close, he was off on one major thing, and
that is that if you own the car, you're not
going to make any money because they're going to make
(17:29):
all the money. Still, it's a pretty good prediction.
Speaker 3 (17:33):
And then you have to factor in all the recalls
from Tesla. Oh my gosh, I mean, how often are
you going to be without a car.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
Everybody is. Everybody is recalling their cars faster, and I
think it's because there's so much technology that's going into
the vehicles now and they're cranking them out as quickly
as they can. They try to advance their cars as
quickly as they cancel. The next model year is better
than their competition, and they're all it's like this technology
arms race, and as a result, it doesn't get the
kind of thorough testing that we used to have before
(18:02):
everything was so technical, before everything was so digitized, and
you know, I mean the basic computer told you how
much gas you had left and if your oxygen sensor
was was on the fritz. Now the computers are wild.
Speaker 3 (18:15):
This makes me feel like such a ludd eye because
just like I don't want a smart TV, i'd like
a dumb car too.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
Well. They're cheaper, not as much fun though. The TVs no,
oh no, the cars, oh I yeah, I don't want that.
You don't want to go when I dumb TV too?
Speaker 3 (18:33):
I troll uh the Internet for cars pretty frequently. Yeah yeah,
And I'm always looking for something that woulds been in
like a senior citizen's garage for decades. I do not
want a new totally computerized car.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
I got some bad news for you on that, and
that is that I'm the guy you want to buy
a car from because I washed my car twice a week.
I vacuum it out. It's two years old. It looks
like it just rolled off the lot. I have very
few miles on it. But it's also loaded with a
bunch of the tech that you would hate. So it's yeah,
that doesn't help it. Yeah, mixed bag can't work with
it all right. Hollywood tragedy turning personal, The children of
Rob Reiner are and his wife, of course, Michelle Singer Rider,
(19:09):
are breaking their stileas about their parents' death and the
arrest of their brother. What they're saying, it may make
you change how you're feeling about this whole case. That's next.
Speaker 1 (19:19):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
Horrific Hollywood Murder. And then we're also coming up on
almost thirty years down another really high profile murder where
they never caught the killer. That is ahead and how
to take oil in one easy step That is coming
up here after eight o'clock as well. I'm Chris Merrill
AM six forty. Listen anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app. Remember,
(19:47):
whenever you're on that app, you can hit that talk
back button and leave a message. And I see all
of them, good, bad and different, whatever it is. I
appreciate everybody that's popped on wish me well. I appreciate
those of you who are listening. Because you hate listen too,
that's fine with me. I don't care along as you're listened,
So thank you for that. Every day we've got more
on the Rob Reiner and Michelle Singer Reiner murder story.
(20:09):
Of course, the well, it wasn't an arraignment today. That
was kind of a weird thing, a little bizarre. I
didn't expect that, but I'm not a lawyer, so I
don't know exactly why they did it. But they waved
their right to a speedy arraignment, which I thought was unique.
ABC seven was talking about that as well.
Speaker 11 (20:24):
I can tell you that it all happened very quickly,
in just a matter of minutes. We did see Nick Reiner.
He was sitting behind glass. The judge did ask us
not to show his face on camera. His defense team,
including his attorney Alan Jackson, was also physically in front
of him, blocking the media from seeing him as much
as possible. We did catch a glimpse of him, though
he appeared calm and quiet, mostly just looking forward at
(20:46):
the glass and only speaking briefly when spoken to by
the judge or Jackson. And as we reported the big
headline to come out of court today, Reiner waved his
right to a speedy arraignment. They delayed that arraignment until
January seventh, his defense attorney giving us just a brief
statement outside, of course, this.
Speaker 4 (21:03):
Is a devastating tragedy that has befallen the Rhiner families.
We all recognize that our hearts go out to the
entire Rhiner family. There are very, very complex and serious
issues that are associated with this case. They just need
to be thoroughly but very carefully dealt with and examined
(21:28):
and looked at and analyzed. We asked that during this
process you allow the system to move forward in the
way that it was designed to move forward, not with
the rush to judgment, not with jumping to conclusions, but
with restraint and with dignity and with the respect that
this system and this process deserves and that the family deserves.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
Boy, he is dramatic. That's the lawyer Alan Jackson. Who
Alan Jackson. I think I mentioned he represented Karen Reid,
really high profile case in New York where she was
just acquitted, right, Yeah, that's right. Yeah. He also represented
Harvey Weinstein and Kevin Spacey. Okay, a little bit of
a spotty record there with the last two. That's like
(22:12):
the first thing they say now every time they mention him. Oh,
the Weinstein, Weinstein. Yeah, well even Kevin Spacey wasn't his stuff,
wasn't He only charged in England, one of the European countries,
and then didn't they overturn that? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (22:26):
I think he got off, so to speak. But his
reputational damage I think had neither matter entirely.
Speaker 2 (22:33):
Right. Yeah, not great, not great at all. Harvey Weinstein
though not the outcome any defense attorney would want.
Speaker 3 (22:39):
He was not great in fact, not that you bring
it up. The last I read about Spacey was that
wasn't he facing homelessness?
Speaker 2 (22:46):
Oh? No, he was. Yeah, he was having some problems.
I know that. Yeah, I mean that's not all on
his attorney, but no, I think it's on him. You
got to yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, but I think he was.
I think somebody just hired him. I think he was
I think he's working again. Really, yeah, I got it.
It seems like it's been six or eight weeks since
(23:07):
I saw that I might need to I might need
to baning that when we're when we're out, yes, being
it thoroughly, I will, I will bang away. So why
would you? Why would you waive a speedy arraignment? So
the arrangment is quite simply when the court says, here's
what you're being charged with, right, and then the defendant
pleads and an arraignment they always plead not guilty, right,
and then the judge will set bail or release conditions
(23:29):
of that kind of stuff. And so you are entitled
to a speedy arraignment, meaning you you can have that,
and it's usually like twenty four forty eight seventy two
hours if there's a weekend or a holiday or something
like that. And the idea behind a speedy arrangment is
so that you don't get picked up and then thrown
in a cage and then left there and then forgotten about.
(23:49):
And I think we can all think of examples where
that may have happened. Oh I've been I've been arrested
but not charged, and now they're holding me and they
can't hold you indefinitely, is the deal. So why would
you wave your right to that? Well, the reason you
wave your right to that is for the defense. They're prepping,
They're doing everything they can to start to start figuring
(24:10):
out where are we going with this, how are we
gonna you know, what is our defense going to look like?
Defense wants to slow the trial calendar down? And what
do they say? Justice delayed is justice denied? Which is
so part of the right to a speedy trial in
the United States is so that every defendant has the
(24:31):
opportunity to not have not be locked up in the
key thrown away. But it's also for the victims, so
that the victims can have closure, so that they get
justice in a in a much more timely manner. However,
when you've got a high profile case like this, they're
going to say, let's slow this down as much as
we can. They're probably going to take and have conversations
with Nick about where were you, what were you doing?
(24:54):
You know, they're they're already tracking like what is the time,
what were his movements from the from that entire weekend
from the party to the time that that he allegedly
killed his parents. So they're gonna go through all this
and they're gonna try to figure out was he on drugs.
If he was on drugs, can they get him some
sort of a treatment plan so that they can say
to the judge, you shouldn't deny him bail. He's getting treatment,
(25:15):
he's got support, he's got YadA, YadA YadA. Judge is
probably not gonna give him an easy bail. I'm gonna
guess that he's not gonna see daylight unless he's acquitted.
But just the same, they're gonna do everything they can.
They're gonna go through all the different steps, and then
they are going to do everything they can to slow
(25:35):
the pace down and control that timeline. That's the idea.
That's why they're waiving the the speedy arrangement. So there's
your latest on that. No, I've got lots more to say, Foosh,
But you yelled at me for being laid on brakes yesterday,
so I'm trying to I'm trying to honor the clock
(25:57):
a little better tonight. Well, thank you.
Speaker 3 (26:00):
We got so much more to say though, now that
Fush is back, he's merciless with everybody.
Speaker 2 (26:04):
He's so bad isn't he? He's just the worst.
Speaker 3 (26:07):
He someone's got to keep you guys in line, comes
right back and starts cracking the whip.
Speaker 2 (26:11):
I know it. Listen, listen to the way he talks
to us. He says, where his employees unbelievable. This guy unbelievable. Right,
It's been thirty years ago since a six year old
was found dead and it haunted the nation. Now we've
got DNA breakthroughs, there's fresh evidence and there's more public pressure,
reigniting hope that her killer may finally be found. What
(26:32):
has changed and why you're gonna be talking about it
tomorrow is next.
Speaker 1 (26:37):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (26:43):
It's Chris Merril. I AM six forty more stimulating talk
on demand anytime in the eye Heart Radio app and
I'm not app. You can hit that talk back button
if you got questions, comments, quips, quotes, criticians or compliments.
Love to hear it. We'll talk about the oil claim
clash that we have going on, and we finally found
him after looking for over twenty years. We found weapons
(27:04):
of mass destruction. That's all coming up here. After eight o'clock,
it was almost thirty years ago and Christmas morning we
woke up and went, oh, Merry Christmas, and then all
of a sudden, the world turned to this bizarre murder
of a six year old girl in Colorado, Jean Benet
Ramsey's murder, still unsolved, found dead in her family's basement.
(27:30):
Horrific story where at one point they thought it was
the sun that did it. This was all around. Remember
where the OJ thing going on, and then this came out.
It was it was like we were in the in
the infancy of true crime spectacles in the early and
mid nineties. I mean, of course La was at the
(27:50):
center of it with Rodney King. It was at ninety two,
and then OJ, and then the OJ trial and the
the Menendez brothers, which, by the way, all of the
with the exception Rodney King, all of these are like
back in the news this year. Right, we had the
anniversary of the chase. We had the Menendez brothers who
(28:13):
for the last year it was a will they won't
they get released kind of thing, And now all of
a sudden, Jean Benet Ramsey is back in the headlines.
In fact, I think Katla is doing a special on
that tonight. I think you're doing it tonight.
Speaker 12 (28:27):
An autopsy revealed the cause of her death was strangulation
along with head trauma. John says, jump that we knew
John Benet had been sexually assaulted with a paintbrush.
Speaker 2 (28:38):
Handle that I didn't know.
Speaker 12 (28:40):
Oh my gosh, DNA was found and his daughter's underwear
and under her fingernails.
Speaker 2 (28:46):
But I think we knew that too. So this is
her father speaking. John.
Speaker 13 (28:50):
A number of items were sent off to be tested items,
and he recovered and told this identified male DNA in
her night clothing underwear.
Speaker 10 (29:04):
He tells us.
Speaker 12 (29:04):
The Boulder Police Department made many mistakes from the start,
including only focusing their investigation on John, his now deceased wife, Patsy,
and their son Burke, who was only nine at the time.
Speaker 2 (29:18):
Yeah, I remember when. For the longest time, it was like,
well the parents did it, and then it was like, oh,
the brother did it, and that's why he put her
in the basement and he was trying to cover it up.
And no, none of that panned out.
Speaker 12 (29:28):
But in two thousand and six, the new district attorney
took advantage of new technology and ordered more DNA testing.
Speaker 2 (29:36):
Okay, that was ten years after the murder. That was
almost twenty years ago. Today. What's going on that.
Speaker 13 (29:43):
Gave her the confidence to to declare that clearly it
was an intruder and she wrote a letter of apologize
and Claire to us as suspects.
Speaker 2 (29:55):
Can you imagine being a suspect in your child's brutal
murder for ten years before somebody finally does the police
work and rules you out. Oh, you're trying to mourn
your daughter. The whole country things you did it and
you're getting away with it. Just horrible.
Speaker 12 (30:12):
Bolder Police Department has changed stopping over the years and
become a police force that John is hopeful may finally
be able to solve his daughter's murder.
Speaker 10 (30:21):
The department has told him.
Speaker 12 (30:23):
They're currently actively working on the case.
Speaker 2 (30:26):
If you're the Bolder Police, though, how much are you
really how much effort are you putting into this? Bolder
Police update an annual update, police reaffirmed that the case
remains a quote top priority and said that they are
following leads with help from the FBI and state agencies.
I'm sorry, I don't believe it. I just don't believe it.
(30:48):
I don't think so. Now, maybe you have a cold
case unit good and maybe that cold case unit is
working on this as well as any other cold cases,
and it is as much a priority as anything else.
But you can't tell me that you're putting as much
effort into a thirty year cold case as you are
into something that freshly happens on campus at University of Colorado,
(31:14):
which is in Bolder. See I pulled a local See
how I did that. I took something that was local
to them, and then I localized it. See as professionalism
and as you are a complete pro thing, go thank
you that the words act after.
Speaker 10 (31:30):
He hopes.
Speaker 12 (31:30):
This includes retesting the mysterious male DNA found at the
scene in the latest format necessary to do investigative genetic genealogy.
Speaker 2 (31:40):
It was Oh, this is how they got the Golden
State killer.
Speaker 13 (31:44):
It was first used by a technology focused police department
of California that identified the Golden Stake killer. I just
said that forty year old cold case.
Speaker 12 (31:56):
This would allow detectives to use public databases to potential
find the suspects relatives, and then possibly lead to the
killer and justice for John Bennet.
Speaker 2 (32:07):
Which is why there are a lot of people that
are going, I don't want my stuff made public. I
don't want it made public. I don't want it out there.
I don't want to get dragged into this stuff. But man,
what if you could what if you could end a
case like that? Mine, by the way, is out there,
and I said, you can go ahead and use it.
I don't care. You find out that my brother is
(32:30):
a serial killer, Great, that's fine. You should lock him up,
he should pay the consequences, and I should get a
book deal. So as far as I'm concerned, use my DNA.
That's fantastic anyway, I think again, I think Katla is
running a specially on that tonight. It's all over. It's
all over the news. A lot of people have updates
on this because they're all thinking the DNA and genealogy
(32:50):
stuff might be what it takes to solve this case.
I don't know why it's taken them so long since
we got resolution on the Golden State killer. Feels like
that's something that if this in fact were a top
priority and they knew of that emerging technology, that would
have jumped on it sooner. But what do I know?
What do I know?
Speaker 3 (33:08):
To me?
Speaker 2 (33:08):
Top priority means it's something that you put a rush on. Evidently,
to the Boulder Police Department Top priority means it's not
going anywhere. Hey. You know international disputes, and we think
of those disputes and we think of tariffs and saber rattling,
tough talk. But this international dispute has the President claiming
(33:32):
in other country's oil and land actually belongs to the
United States and is threatening action until it's return. How
that claim is shaking up global diplomacy and our own
California energy markets is next. Chris merrill I AM six forty.
We're live everywhere in the iHeartRadio
Speaker 1 (33:49):
App, KFI AM six forty on demand
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand. Hi there, friends,
Chris Merril k IF I AM six forty more stimulating talk.
Tonight's program, incidentally, is brought to you by Tequila Tequila
when the brown water just isn't enough?
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Am I right? Mark? I endorsed that. Yes, that's right.
Co sign love that we're getting ready to go on
the Aaron Marks like, I need tequila. There's no need
to make me sound like a filthy alcoholic. You're not you.
You sip it. You have a nice sip in tequila
from Costco.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
Well not during the news, Yeah, I mean I was
talking about later like a gentleman.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
At the end of the day. News is over, my friend.
Yet fifteen minutes, You're good, You're fine. We're off to
a terrific start. The President spoke tonight, complete transparency. I
listened to Michael Krozer and I ran to go get
Power Bawl tickets, So I missed the speaker, Like, how
long was it like twenty minutes? Yeah he did. That's
(01:03):
a short speech for him, isn't it. Doesn't he usually
go in an hour?
Speaker 4 (01:06):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Yeah for him? Quite sure? Yeah? Yeah, did we declare
war on Venezuela.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
I was pulling into the garage at the very beginning,
so he might have done it while I was parking.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
Fooshue were listen, Did we declare war on Venezuela? Not
that I could hear, but all right, pretty close. I
don't think we missed much then, I don't think. So
we'll talk about what we are doing to Venezuela coming
up at eight o'clock. First, I was getting ready for
the show here and take everything that we had, throw
it all out the window because I heard the Bill
(01:36):
handle what we call a look at it kind of
a tease or you know, something he did on his show,
and he was talking about the end of the Obamacare
subsidies and how this is going to give ammunition to
the Democrats, and boy is it ever, especially in California.
I was looking at the story that NBCLA had and
(01:57):
the price increases pretty astonish.
Speaker 5 (02:00):
Key subsidies that lower the cost of health insurance are
set to expire at the end of the year. Congress
has been debating an extension for months with no decision yet.
Speaker 6 (02:10):
Unfortunately, if we don't see action from Washington, DC, we
do anticipate to see people as many as four hundred
thousand leave Cover California because they can no longer afford
the price.
Speaker 5 (02:22):
Jessica Altman, executive director at Cover California, says they currently
ensure about two million Californians without subsidies. Premiums, she says,
will go up.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
Wait a minute, they cover two million, and we're gonna
lose four hundred thousand. That seems like a pretty sizable chunk.
Speaker 6 (02:40):
On average with people on Cover California with pay if
they stayed enrolled in their same plan, is an increase
of ninety seven.
Speaker 5 (02:48):
Percent Javas's clinics, The concern is what happens next.
Speaker 7 (02:52):
We're gonna have people have increases in cancer, they will
not get preventive health services.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
Wow wow, ninety seven percent hit and it was so
cheap to begin with. Yeah right, wow a ninety percent? Yeah, no,
wonder everybody's dropping off. I mean, if you were relying
on those subsidies, it's not like you had an extra
double what your your premium was in order to cover that. Meanwhile,
there is conversation going on a Capitol hill about trying
(03:21):
to get a vote on extending those subsidies. How'd that go?
Speaker 8 (03:24):
From News Nation a big day for healthcare in America,
as a vote just took place in the House of
Representatives passing the Republican health Care Plan.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
But also, yeah, there you go, we pass the healthcare plan. Done,
problem solved. All right, Well, I guess we don't have
to worry about it. Oh there's more right, I'll let
it run out here. But that sounds like everything's done.
Speaker 8 (03:43):
Big news on the Affordable Care Act and the twenty
four million people who are rolled enrolled rather in Obamacare
as today, four House Republicans came forward and said they
would support an extension, a three year extension.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
And here's what that could mean. Oh wait, that was
not part of the Republican bill. Oh okay, so the
covered California recipients they are going to see their bill.
Double okay.
Speaker 8 (04:09):
A new analysis mean if Obamacare doesn't go forward. A
new analysis from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
breaks down the potential impact by congressional district. It shows
that a forty five year old making thirty two thousand
dollars in these two districts in California could see their
annual premium spike by almost fifteen hundred dollars. You see
(04:31):
it there from about seven hundred dollars to more than
twenty one hundred dollars. And this is a story that
we would see all across the country if Congress doesn't
extend the Obamacare tax credits.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
This just from a purely political sense, does this hurt
the Democratic districts more or the Republican districts more?
Speaker 3 (04:50):
Well, people on both sides are going to suffer. And
you can't lose sight of that Red states. I mean,
I think, what is it the poorest states? All ten
are red states. Those people are going to suffer at
least as much as the blue states.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
And most of those are like Southeastern states, right, Southern states. Okay, wow,
So I wonder what the I wonder what the thought
process is going to be in those states. I wonder
if it's like, well, no, this had to happen. We
got to get people off you know, they're they're leeching
off of it. And then they go, wait, my wait,
my stuff went up. Well I thought this was going
(05:22):
to get the leeches and they go, oh, well yeah,
well you were the one using the subsidy. I wonder
how that's gonna look. Those uh, those House Republicans and
four of them jump sides. They went to the they
sided with the Democrats to try to force a vote
on extending the subsidies. And let me tell you how
I think this is gonna shake out, and it's going
(05:43):
to affect a lot more than the people who are
just on the Affordable Care Act and receiving subsidies. This
is why I think it's gonna it's gonna have far
reaching consequences, far beyond that. And I know there's the
health concern, and I know, as Mark just said, there's
gonna be people who are going to suffer on both
sides of the aisle. I think it's gonna be even
bigger than that, because when they decided to vote to
(06:03):
reopen the government, they only voted to reopen it through
the end of January. And the whole argument the whole
time was the Democrats said, we're shutting down the government
because we're taking a stand and we have to extend
the subsidies or people are gonna they're gonna lose their
health care right, they're not gonna be able to afford it,
and it's gonna cost people, and it's gonna hurt people
and people might die. Okay, that was kind of their point.
The Republican said, you're punishing the whole country for this policy.
(06:27):
You can't do that. Just vote to fund the government.
Just vote on the CR the continuing resolution, and then
we'll sit down and will negotiate, right, And the Democrats said, no,
we're not gonna do that because you're not going to negotiate.
You're not gonna listen to us when we want to
extend those subsidies. And the Republicans said, you can't just
punish the whole country. You can't shut the whole government down.
(06:49):
We'll sit down, we'll talk to you. So eventually the
Democrats said, okay, well we got to reopen the government,
and they voted to to end the government shut down.
So then they sit down and they talk to the
Republicans and they say, okay, what about those Obamacare subsidies
And the Republicans went, yeah, no, we're not going to
do that. And they said, no, but you were going
to talk about trying to find a solution here, whether
(07:11):
that was extending the subsidies but lowering the earnings cap
or whatever, you know, finding a compromise here, and then
went yeah, we're not going to do that. The government's open.
We got control of the House, in the Senate, in
the White House, we're not gonna we're not going to
negotiate with you. And so basically only have four Republicans
that went, wait a minute, wait a minute, we should
at least have a floor vote on this, and Mike Johnson,
the Speaker of the House, said no, we're gonna do
(07:32):
what we want to do. So these four Republicans did
push for it, and so at least there's going to
be a conversation that won't happen until January. And I
don't anticipate that they're gonna that they're going to find
a solution here, because I think that the majority of
the Republicans in the House and the Senate they're going
to take a hard line stance. As we know, even
if it gets through the House, the Senate's already poop
(07:53):
pooed that. So then what happens come the end of January.
Come the end of January, the Democrats are going to
do this same thing that they did in October, and
they're gonna go, we gotta have their subsidies back, and
we are not gonna We're not gonna vote to keep
the government open, which means everything we had with air
(08:13):
traffic controllers and uh national parks piling up with trash
and all this other stuff that's gonna play out again
starting January or excuse me, starting February first. It's all
gonna start again. And the Republicans are gonna say, the
Democrats are trying to do this, they're holding the country hostage.
Why don't you just vote to reopen the government and
then we'll talk about it. And the Democrats are gonna say,
(08:34):
fool me once, shame on, shame on the fool and
then fool me, fool me again, and it's and it's
you can't fool me again. That's what they're gonna say.
That's exactly what they're gonna say. And so then what
happens is all of us have to go through that
entire dance that we did, that cost the the economy
billions of dollars, that cost a number of people a
(08:58):
lot of their jobs, that had air traffic controllers out
running door dash in uber to try to try to
pay the rent that month. And I said this at
the time, and boy, is gonna be wonderful vindication when
I'm able to say, look, I'm right, and god I
hope I'm not. But I said at the time, I said, look,
you're about to get your back pay. Put it all
(09:19):
in the bank. Take every penny you can and put
it in the bank, because this is all gonna happen
again in ninety days, and that it is playing out
exactly as we saw it exactly. There are no surprises here,
So get ready for it. You're about to be asked
to step up for your fellow man, to make those donations,
to bring food to the food bank, to donate water
(09:40):
to the different locations, to try to lend a hand
where you can. You're gonna see the gofundmes pop up.
Everything that we had before, we're gonna have it again.
And this time the Democrats are not gonna cave because
the assurances that they had from the Republicans last time,
they got nothing out of it, So why would they,
Why would they give up any leverage that they have.
They're not going to do it. They will not do it,
(10:03):
all right. You've probably seen Tesla's on the road, of
course we all have. They roll through an intersection, they
glide down the freeway and you think, man, it would
be nice if my car had a self driving autopilot mode.
So now California regulators have thrown down a thirty day
ultimatum over the way that Tesla markets their magic. What
the state says is misleading. What happens if Tesla doesn't
(10:25):
fix it is next. I'm Chris Merrill.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
Remember, if you are on the app, you can hit
that talk back button and let us know what you think. Questions, comments, cripts, quotes, criticism, compliments.
Love to hear whatever it is that you have to say.
And I do take a look at everything like it,
hate it, whatever it is. I see everything. I got
a nice one tonight, Mark, I don't believe it. No,
it's true. I take this as a super high compliment. Okay,
(10:53):
all right, No, it's not that it would be funny
if I dropped this one on you from yesterday. Chris
Merrill's show is absolute huh terrific. No, but that's not
what we got, Tony.
Speaker 3 (11:03):
I'm glad you decided not to do that.
Speaker 7 (11:07):
Predictable predictable, Hey, Chris, happy when to say the other
day I called and said you were known for doing
these skits and using a lot of different voices. Well,
the guy who actually did it.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
His name is.
Speaker 7 (11:23):
Phil Henry h.
Speaker 4 (11:28):
R.
Speaker 2 (11:28):
Hen He's a riot.
Speaker 7 (11:31):
Yeah, somehow I thought that you the voice sound of
wow obviously wrong. Talented.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
Yeah, he said, he's as talent as you. Uh. Look,
nobody is more talented than Phil Henry.
Speaker 7 (11:44):
Oh.
Speaker 3 (11:45):
I got the chance to tell Phil Henry in person
a few months ago when he was visiting that he
personally had made me incontinent.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
He's hilarious. That is quite that is honestly, that is
quite a compliment. Like for real, Oh my gosh, there
is nobody more talented than Phil Henry. Who would you know,
shared this studio, well, the other studio before the remodeling,
for years, and I had early in my career, I
had the honor of putting him on my station twice
(12:14):
because Phil was Phil was syndicated and and of course
he originated here, and so I was. I was the
operations manager at a station in Kansas, and and I
had the honor of putting him on. It became available,
and I said, yeah, we got to get we got
to get this show on. It's so good. And I
would just same thing as you, Mark. I was just
(12:36):
die laughing because the thing is, so many people didn't
get the joke, and that is that he didn't have guests.
It was him doing all the voices, and they were
all outrageous and it would just infuriate people and it
was so funny.
Speaker 3 (12:48):
I don't know how he kept from breaking more often
than he did, because he really drove things into the ground.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
Yeah, you know my understanding, and I think Krozier produced
for him. Yeah. My understanding is he was very clinical
about the whole thing. He says, this is this is
the bit, this is what we're doing. Now which direction
are we going? And he was he was like, how
do we get the most out of this? I mean,
just a brilliant radio mind and an incredible performer and
Phil still all over. I mean, you hear his voice everywhere.
(13:14):
He does so much voiceover work, whether it's just straight
voiceover work or character work and cartoons and things like that,
He's just everywhere. So thank you. I'm going to take
that as a high compliment. I'm nowhere close to the
talent that he had, but I appreciate it, thank you
so much. In the meantime, I got a buddy that
just bought a Tesla, and he said that it the
(13:34):
new Tesla. I think he's got like a thirty day
trial on the autopilot and then you have to pay
for the subscription. Do I have that right? I'm getting this.
This is my buddy telling me what his understanding was
of his new car, and the autopilot always intrigued me.
I had a friend here that got a Tesla when
it first came out with the autopilot, and I said,
(13:55):
that must be amazing because you can just set it
like if you're stuck in traffic. You just said that autopilot,
it just takes care of it for you, and that's fantastic.
And now other cars have kind of caught up and
they've got like stop and go, cruise control, that kind
of thing. Even my car has that, but after it's
been stopped for a few minutes, then I have to
kind of tell it go again, that sort of thing. Anyway,
(14:17):
with the Tesla, I always thought that was really cool. Well,
Stay to California says, yeah, it's cool, but you can't
call it autopilot because it's not from CBSA San Diego.
Speaker 9 (14:27):
Could Tesla be banned from selling cars here in California?
Speaker 10 (14:30):
It's a possibility. Let me give you some background.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
Yeah please.
Speaker 10 (14:33):
A few years.
Speaker 9 (14:34):
Ago, the DMV sued Tesla, saying it's advertising was.
Speaker 10 (14:38):
Deceptive to consumers.
Speaker 9 (14:39):
By telling them their cars were fully self driving even
though they're not autonomous.
Speaker 10 (14:44):
Drivers need to pay attention.
Speaker 2 (14:45):
Yeah, that's true.
Speaker 9 (14:47):
So a judge ruled in the DMV's favor and said
Tesla should have their license to sell and manufacture cars
here in California revoked for thirty days immediately. Well, this week,
the DMV decided to give Tesla a break. They said,
you can continue to manufacture cars as for selling them
if you fix those advertising issues within sixty days. So,
in other words, take the wording off your website or
(15:09):
wherever it exists. If you do that, you can continue
to sell your vehicles here in California.
Speaker 10 (15:15):
But if you don't do.
Speaker 9 (15:16):
That within sixty days, you will be banned from selling
Tesla's in the state of California for an entire month.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
Wow you think Tesla does. I mean, we're their biggest customer.
This state is the biggest customer base in the country.
I can't see Tesla saying, yeah, let's just let's just
not sell cars in California for a while. I gotta
believe they're going to take that, They're going to reward
their stuff. I gotta believe that there are teams of
(15:44):
people plugging in prompts to groc to say, rewrite our advertising,
because obviously they're not going to do it. We've fired
all the creatives. We just let the AI write everything out.
So I gotta believe that there's a huge team that's
going to do that. I don't think Tesla's are going
to be band interesting story too. When Tesla first started
introducing the autopilot and Elon Musk was talking about this,
(16:07):
I think the Model S was the only thing that
was out at the time, and I was having a
conversation with another friend of mine who's a car guy,
and I said, how is this? You know, where does
this go? Does this? How does this playout? They said,
We're going to see more people. And this was before
we had things like I mean, Uber was around, Lift
was around, but they said this, They go, there's going
(16:27):
to be people that are going to buy a car
like a Tesla. They're going to charge it at night,
then they're going to take it to work, and then
they're gonna have Tesla. They're gonna have their car go
earn money for them And I said, how so the
car can drive itself. They said that in the future,
the car will be able to drive itself. They can
just tell their car basically just go be a taxi
(16:47):
for the next eight hours and then pick come pick
me up at the end of work. And I thought, wow,
what an interesting concept. I think my friend was wrong
because and this is where he was shortsighted. What's in
it for Tesla? Because now we do have the autonomous
taxis right, we do have the self driving cabs the
way Mos, and now Tesla's doing this in a number
(17:08):
of markets as well, and so that is happening, but
it's not from the car owners. It's from the manufacturer
or it's from the parent company because they want to
make the money. So while I thought my friend was
pretty close, he was off on one major thing, and
that is that if you own the car, you're not
going to make any money because they're going to make
(17:29):
all the money. Still, it's a pretty good prediction.
Speaker 3 (17:33):
And then you have to factor in all the recalls
from Tesla. Oh my gosh, I mean, how often are
you going to be without a car.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
Everybody is. Everybody is recalling their cars faster, and I
think it's because there's so much technology that's going into
the vehicles now and they're cranking them out as quickly
as they can. They try to advance their cars as
quickly as they cancel. The next model year is better
than their competition, and they're all it's like this technology
arms race, and as a result, it doesn't get the
kind of thorough testing that we used to have before
(18:02):
everything was so technical, before everything was so digitized, and
you know, I mean the basic computer told you how
much gas you had left and if your oxygen sensor
was was on the fritz. Now the computers are wild.
Speaker 3 (18:15):
This makes me feel like such a ludd eye because
just like I don't want a smart TV, i'd like
a dumb car too.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
Well. They're cheaper, not as much fun though. The TVs no,
oh no, the cars, oh I yeah, I don't want that.
You don't want to go when I dumb TV too?
Speaker 3 (18:33):
I troll uh the Internet for cars pretty frequently. Yeah yeah,
And I'm always looking for something that woulds been in
like a senior citizen's garage for decades. I do not
want a new totally computerized car.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
I got some bad news for you on that, and
that is that I'm the guy you want to buy
a car from because I washed my car twice a week.
I vacuum it out. It's two years old. It looks
like it just rolled off the lot. I have very
few miles on it. But it's also loaded with a
bunch of the tech that you would hate. So it's yeah,
that doesn't help it. Yeah, mixed bag can't work with
it all right. Hollywood tragedy turning personal, The children of
Rob Reiner are and his wife, of course, Michelle Singer Rider,
(19:09):
are breaking their stileas about their parents' death and the
arrest of their brother. What they're saying, it may make
you change how you're feeling about this whole case. That's next.
Speaker 1 (19:19):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
Horrific Hollywood Murder. And then we're also coming up on
almost thirty years down another really high profile murder where
they never caught the killer. That is ahead and how
to take oil in one easy step That is coming
up here after eight o'clock as well. I'm Chris Merrill
AM six forty. Listen anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app. Remember,
(19:47):
whenever you're on that app, you can hit that talk
back button and leave a message. And I see all
of them, good, bad and different, whatever it is. I
appreciate everybody that's popped on wish me well. I appreciate
those of you who are listening. Because you hate listen too,
that's fine with me. I don't care along as you're listened,
So thank you for that. Every day we've got more
on the Rob Reiner and Michelle Singer Reiner murder story.
(20:09):
Of course, the well, it wasn't an arraignment today. That
was kind of a weird thing, a little bizarre. I
didn't expect that, but I'm not a lawyer, so I
don't know exactly why they did it. But they waved
their right to a speedy arraignment, which I thought was unique.
ABC seven was talking about that as well.
Speaker 11 (20:24):
I can tell you that it all happened very quickly,
in just a matter of minutes. We did see Nick Reiner.
He was sitting behind glass. The judge did ask us
not to show his face on camera. His defense team,
including his attorney Alan Jackson, was also physically in front
of him, blocking the media from seeing him as much
as possible. We did catch a glimpse of him, though
he appeared calm and quiet, mostly just looking forward at
(20:46):
the glass and only speaking briefly when spoken to by
the judge or Jackson. And as we reported the big
headline to come out of court today, Reiner waved his
right to a speedy arraignment. They delayed that arraignment until
January seventh, his defense attorney giving us just a brief
statement outside, of course, this.
Speaker 4 (21:03):
Is a devastating tragedy that has befallen the Rhiner families.
We all recognize that our hearts go out to the
entire Rhiner family. There are very, very complex and serious
issues that are associated with this case. They just need
to be thoroughly but very carefully dealt with and examined
(21:28):
and looked at and analyzed. We asked that during this
process you allow the system to move forward in the
way that it was designed to move forward, not with
the rush to judgment, not with jumping to conclusions, but
with restraint and with dignity and with the respect that
this system and this process deserves and that the family deserves.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
Boy, he is dramatic. That's the lawyer Alan Jackson. Who
Alan Jackson. I think I mentioned he represented Karen Reid,
really high profile case in New York where she was
just acquitted, right, Yeah, that's right. Yeah. He also represented
Harvey Weinstein and Kevin Spacey. Okay, a little bit of
a spotty record there with the last two. That's like
(22:12):
the first thing they say now every time they mention him. Oh,
the Weinstein, Weinstein. Yeah, well even Kevin Spacey wasn't his stuff,
wasn't He only charged in England, one of the European countries,
and then didn't they overturn that? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (22:26):
I think he got off, so to speak. But his
reputational damage I think had neither matter entirely.
Speaker 2 (22:33):
Right. Yeah, not great, not great at all. Harvey Weinstein
though not the outcome any defense attorney would want.
Speaker 3 (22:39):
He was not great in fact, not that you bring
it up. The last I read about Spacey was that
wasn't he facing homelessness?
Speaker 2 (22:46):
Oh? No, he was. Yeah, he was having some problems.
I know that. Yeah, I mean that's not all on
his attorney, but no, I think it's on him. You
got to yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, but I think he was.
I think somebody just hired him. I think he was
I think he's working again. Really, yeah, I got it.
It seems like it's been six or eight weeks since
(23:07):
I saw that I might need to I might need
to baning that when we're when we're out, yes, being
it thoroughly, I will, I will bang away. So why
would you? Why would you waive a speedy arraignment? So
the arrangment is quite simply when the court says, here's
what you're being charged with, right, and then the defendant
pleads and an arraignment they always plead not guilty, right,
and then the judge will set bail or release conditions
(23:29):
of that kind of stuff. And so you are entitled
to a speedy arraignment, meaning you you can have that,
and it's usually like twenty four forty eight seventy two
hours if there's a weekend or a holiday or something
like that. And the idea behind a speedy arrangment is
so that you don't get picked up and then thrown
in a cage and then left there and then forgotten about.
(23:49):
And I think we can all think of examples where
that may have happened. Oh I've been I've been arrested
but not charged, and now they're holding me and they
can't hold you indefinitely, is the deal. So why would
you wave your right to that? Well, the reason you
wave your right to that is for the defense. They're prepping,
They're doing everything they can to start to start figuring
(24:10):
out where are we going with this, how are we
gonna you know, what is our defense going to look like?
Defense wants to slow the trial calendar down? And what
do they say? Justice delayed is justice denied? Which is
so part of the right to a speedy trial in
the United States is so that every defendant has the
(24:31):
opportunity to not have not be locked up in the
key thrown away. But it's also for the victims, so
that the victims can have closure, so that they get
justice in a in a much more timely manner. However,
when you've got a high profile case like this, they're
going to say, let's slow this down as much as
we can. They're probably going to take and have conversations
with Nick about where were you, what were you doing?
(24:54):
You know, they're they're already tracking like what is the time,
what were his movements from the from that entire weekend
from the party to the time that that he allegedly
killed his parents. So they're gonna go through all this
and they're gonna try to figure out was he on drugs.
If he was on drugs, can they get him some
sort of a treatment plan so that they can say
to the judge, you shouldn't deny him bail. He's getting treatment,
(25:15):
he's got support, he's got YadA, YadA YadA. Judge is
probably not gonna give him an easy bail. I'm gonna
guess that he's not gonna see daylight unless he's acquitted.
But just the same, they're gonna do everything they can.
They're gonna go through all the different steps, and then
they are going to do everything they can to slow
(25:35):
the pace down and control that timeline. That's the idea.
That's why they're waiving the the speedy arrangement. So there's
your latest on that. No, I've got lots more to say, Foosh,
But you yelled at me for being laid on brakes yesterday,
so I'm trying to I'm trying to honor the clock
(25:57):
a little better tonight. Well, thank you.
Speaker 3 (26:00):
We got so much more to say though, now that
Fush is back, he's merciless with everybody.
Speaker 2 (26:04):
He's so bad isn't he? He's just the worst.
Speaker 3 (26:07):
He someone's got to keep you guys in line, comes
right back and starts cracking the whip.
Speaker 2 (26:11):
I know it. Listen, listen to the way he talks
to us. He says, where his employees unbelievable. This guy unbelievable. Right,
It's been thirty years ago since a six year old
was found dead and it haunted the nation. Now we've
got DNA breakthroughs, there's fresh evidence and there's more public pressure,
reigniting hope that her killer may finally be found. What
(26:32):
has changed and why you're gonna be talking about it
tomorrow is next.
Speaker 1 (26:37):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (26:43):
It's Chris Merril. I AM six forty more stimulating talk
on demand anytime in the eye Heart Radio app and
I'm not app. You can hit that talk back button
if you got questions, comments, quips, quotes, criticians or compliments.
Love to hear it. We'll talk about the oil claim
clash that we have going on, and we finally found
him after looking for over twenty years. We found weapons
(27:04):
of mass destruction. That's all coming up here. After eight o'clock,
it was almost thirty years ago and Christmas morning we
woke up and went, oh, Merry Christmas, and then all
of a sudden, the world turned to this bizarre murder
of a six year old girl in Colorado, Jean Benet
Ramsey's murder, still unsolved, found dead in her family's basement.
(27:30):
Horrific story where at one point they thought it was
the sun that did it. This was all around. Remember
where the OJ thing going on, and then this came out.
It was it was like we were in the in
the infancy of true crime spectacles in the early and
mid nineties. I mean, of course La was at the
(27:50):
center of it with Rodney King. It was at ninety two,
and then OJ, and then the OJ trial and the
the Menendez brothers, which, by the way, all of the
with the exception Rodney King, all of these are like
back in the news this year. Right, we had the
anniversary of the chase. We had the Menendez brothers who
(28:13):
for the last year it was a will they won't
they get released kind of thing, And now all of
a sudden, Jean Benet Ramsey is back in the headlines.
In fact, I think Katla is doing a special on
that tonight. I think you're doing it tonight.
Speaker 12 (28:27):
An autopsy revealed the cause of her death was strangulation
along with head trauma. John says, jump that we knew
John Benet had been sexually assaulted with a paintbrush.
Speaker 2 (28:38):
Handle that I didn't know.
Speaker 12 (28:40):
Oh my gosh, DNA was found and his daughter's underwear
and under her fingernails.
Speaker 2 (28:46):
But I think we knew that too. So this is
her father speaking. John.
Speaker 13 (28:50):
A number of items were sent off to be tested items,
and he recovered and told this identified male DNA in
her night clothing underwear.
Speaker 10 (29:04):
He tells us.
Speaker 12 (29:04):
The Boulder Police Department made many mistakes from the start,
including only focusing their investigation on John, his now deceased wife, Patsy,
and their son Burke, who was only nine at the time.
Speaker 2 (29:18):
Yeah, I remember when. For the longest time, it was like,
well the parents did it, and then it was like, oh,
the brother did it, and that's why he put her
in the basement and he was trying to cover it up.
And no, none of that panned out.
Speaker 12 (29:28):
But in two thousand and six, the new district attorney
took advantage of new technology and ordered more DNA testing.
Speaker 2 (29:36):
Okay, that was ten years after the murder. That was
almost twenty years ago. Today. What's going on that.
Speaker 13 (29:43):
Gave her the confidence to to declare that clearly it
was an intruder and she wrote a letter of apologize
and Claire to us as suspects.
Speaker 2 (29:55):
Can you imagine being a suspect in your child's brutal
murder for ten years before somebody finally does the police
work and rules you out. Oh, you're trying to mourn
your daughter. The whole country things you did it and
you're getting away with it. Just horrible.
Speaker 12 (30:12):
Bolder Police Department has changed stopping over the years and
become a police force that John is hopeful may finally
be able to solve his daughter's murder.
Speaker 10 (30:21):
The department has told him.
Speaker 12 (30:23):
They're currently actively working on the case.
Speaker 2 (30:26):
If you're the Bolder Police, though, how much are you
really how much effort are you putting into this? Bolder
Police update an annual update, police reaffirmed that the case
remains a quote top priority and said that they are
following leads with help from the FBI and state agencies.
I'm sorry, I don't believe it. I just don't believe it.
(30:48):
I don't think so. Now, maybe you have a cold
case unit good and maybe that cold case unit is
working on this as well as any other cold cases,
and it is as much a priority as anything else.
But you can't tell me that you're putting as much
effort into a thirty year cold case as you are
into something that freshly happens on campus at University of Colorado,
(31:14):
which is in Bolder. See I pulled a local See
how I did that. I took something that was local
to them, and then I localized it. See as professionalism
and as you are a complete pro thing, go thank
you that the words act after.
Speaker 10 (31:30):
He hopes.
Speaker 12 (31:30):
This includes retesting the mysterious male DNA found at the
scene in the latest format necessary to do investigative genetic genealogy.
Speaker 2 (31:40):
It was Oh, this is how they got the Golden
State killer.
Speaker 13 (31:44):
It was first used by a technology focused police department
of California that identified the Golden Stake killer. I just
said that forty year old cold case.
Speaker 12 (31:56):
This would allow detectives to use public databases to potential
find the suspects relatives, and then possibly lead to the
killer and justice for John Bennet.
Speaker 2 (32:07):
Which is why there are a lot of people that
are going, I don't want my stuff made public. I
don't want it made public. I don't want it out there.
I don't want to get dragged into this stuff. But man,
what if you could what if you could end a
case like that? Mine, by the way, is out there,
and I said, you can go ahead and use it.
I don't care. You find out that my brother is
(32:30):
a serial killer, Great, that's fine. You should lock him up,
he should pay the consequences, and I should get a
book deal. So as far as I'm concerned, use my DNA.
That's fantastic anyway, I think again, I think Katla is
running a specially on that tonight. It's all over. It's
all over the news. A lot of people have updates
on this because they're all thinking the DNA and genealogy
(32:50):
stuff might be what it takes to solve this case.
I don't know why it's taken them so long since
we got resolution on the Golden State killer. Feels like
that's something that if this in fact were a top
priority and they knew of that emerging technology, that would
have jumped on it sooner. But what do I know?
What do I know?
Speaker 3 (33:08):
To me?
Speaker 2 (33:08):
Top priority means it's something that you put a rush on. Evidently,
to the Boulder Police Department Top priority means it's not
going anywhere. Hey. You know international disputes, and we think
of those disputes and we think of tariffs and saber rattling,
tough talk. But this international dispute has the President claiming
(33:32):
in other country's oil and land actually belongs to the
United States and is threatening action until it's return. How
that claim is shaking up global diplomacy and our own
California energy markets is next. Chris merrill I AM six forty.
We're live everywhere in the iHeartRadio
Speaker 1 (33:49):
App, KFI AM six forty on demand
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